ScummVM

ScummVM runs many classic point-and-click adventures and other supported game engines. Leaf’s optional ScummVM content pak adds a dedicated ScummVM system, two emulators that run it, artwork, and scraper metadata. Games start on the libretro core, and you can switch any game or the whole system to the standalone ScummVM. The pak does not add an app to the Apps tab.

Requires content-pak support

The ScummVM pak requires Leaf 0.11, including compatible 0.11 beta builds, or newer. Leaf 0.10 and earlier do not offer it in Pak Rat because they cannot activate its system and core safely. Pak Rat offers each newer version of the pak only to Leaf versions that can run it: the standalone ScummVM arrives in pak 1.4.0, which needs Leaf 0.12 or newer.

Install

On a compatible Leaf release, press Menu, open Actions → Pak Rat, choose ScummVM, and install it over Wi-Fi. The package is large because it contains both emulators. When installation finishes, ScummVM appears with the other systems rather than in Apps.

The pak is open source and independently packaged in the ScummVM-pak repository. It does not include any games.

Add a game

Put each game’s original data files in its own directory below Roms/SCUMMVM/. In that same directory, create a small file whose extension is .scummvm (or .svm) and whose contents are the game’s ScummVM game ID.

For example:

Roms/SCUMMVM/
  Kings Quest 1/
    Kings Quest 1.scummvm     contains: kq1
    ...your original game data files...

The hook contains only the id, such as kq1; it does not contain an absolute path. Keeping it beside the game data lets the same card work whichever MLP1 SD mount point is active after a reboot. Both emulators read the same hook.

Press MENU, then choose Actions → Rescan Library after copying games. Leaf scans subdirectories, so every per-game hook appears as its own title. Put artwork at Images/SCUMMVM/Kings Quest 1.png for the example above, using the hook filename without its extension. You can also download artwork with Leaf’s scraper when the game is recognized.

You can find game IDs in the ScummVM compatibility database or in ScummVM’s own detection output. The ID is not necessarily the same as the game folder name. Use a game ID for a hook beside the data; a configured ScummVM target instead depends on a saved path in scummvm.ini.

Choose the standalone emulator

Games start on ScummVM (Libretro). The pak also includes ScummVM (Standalone), the full ScummVM program with its own options menu, button mapping, and virtual keyboard.

To use it for one game, press X on that game, choose Core, then choose ScummVM (Standalone). To use it for every ScummVM game, do the same on the ScummVM system. To go back, choose ScummVM (Libretro), or use Reset Game Overrides on a game to return it to the system’s choice. See Adding games for the options menu.

Standalone controls

• A clicks or interacts, and B right-clicks.
• Start opens ScummVM’s menu, where you save, load, change options, and quit.
• Select opens the virtual keyboard, for example to name a save.
• X and Y do different things in each game. In Flight of the Amazon Queen, X opens the journal, which also skips the current scene, and Y switches fast mode. To change a game’s buttons, press Start and open Options → Keymaps.
• Menu asks Return to Leaf?. Press Menu again within four seconds to leave the game, or let the prompt disappear to keep playing. Leaving this way doesn’t save, so save from ScummVM’s menu first. If ScummVM doesn’t close, hold Menu for three seconds, and keep holding for two more to force it.
• Return to Launcher in ScummVM’s menu opens ScummVM’s own game list. Choose Quit there, or press Menu, to get back to Leaf.

Saves and limitations

The two emulators keep their saves and settings separate. A save made in one does not appear in the other, so switch back to the emulator that made a save rather than moving files between them.

• ScummVM (Libretro) writes saves under Leaf’s normal Saves/ScummVM/ data area. The packaged core reports no RetroArch savestate support, so use each game’s normal ScummVM save menu instead of the Leaf savestate actions.
• ScummVM (Standalone) writes saves under Saves/ScummVM-Standalone/ on the card the game is on, one folder per game. Its settings live in .userdata/mlp1/scummvm-standalone/scummvm.ini on your main card. Options you change in ScummVM’s menu apply to every game, and each game’s own options and button changes are kept for that game. Leaf’s in-game menu and save states don’t apply to the standalone; save from ScummVM’s menu.

Removing the content pak removes the system and emulators on the next rescan. It does not remove your files under Roms/, Images/, Saves/, States/, or .userdata/.