SCUMM

Overview

SCUMM, meaning Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, was developed by Ron Gilbert in 1987 for the LucasArts, then Lucasfilm Games, adventure game Maniac Mansion. Since then SCUMM has been used for numerous adventure games aimed at a variety of different audiences.

Design

In most SCUMM games the player controls an inventory that can be filled with various objects found throughout the game. Using a variety of verbs, that usually include and stem out from talk, pick up, open, and look, the player can interact with the ingame world. Eventually in games like The Curse of Monkey Island these actions had been whittled down to various icons such as eye, hand, and mouth. In most games in order to solve puzzles the player must use certain inventory items with other ingame objects.

Versions

Zak McKraken is an early example of the SCUMM engine

Version 0

-Used for Maniac Mansion

Version 1

-Used only for Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders

Version 2

-Only used for updated releases of Zak McKraken and Maniac Mansion

Version 3

-Used for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Graphic Adventure

Version 4

-Used for The Secret of Monkey Island and some releases of Loom

Version 5

-Used for Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

Version 6

-Used for Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road

Version 7

-Used for Full Throttle and The Dig

Version 8

-Used for Curse of Monkey Island

LucasArts finally gave up SCUMM when they created the GrimE engine for Grim Fandango and Escape from Monkey Island.

Platforms

SCUMM was used on the 3DO, Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, CDTV, Commodore 64, Apple Macintosh, NES, Microsoft Windows, Sega CD, and TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine.

Revival

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, a remake of the original for Xbox live Arcade and PC uses the SCUMM engine.