This reminded me of the fact that excellent remasters of monkey island were released on the iPhone (and a few other paltforms) but were removed from the App Store after a few years. It’s a shame, they had great new artwork and sound/music but you could switch back and forth with the old art and it was cool to see the difference in each scene.
Interesting.<p>My 5 year old sons favourite app on his Android tablet is ScummVM.<p>I bought all the Putt Putt, Freddy Fish, and Spy Fox games on Steam, and after copying the data files over to ScummVM on Android, my son has been enjoying them a lot.<p>I'd much prefer him spending his time with these rather than these toxic mobile games that target young kids with repetitive loops locked behind countdown timers and in app purchases.
"ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical adventure and role-playing games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed! ScummVM is a complete rewrite of these games' executables and is not an emulator.<p>ScummVM supports an extensive library of over 325 adventure games, including classic titles from iconic studios such as LucasArts, Sierra On-Line, Revolution Software, Cyan, Inc. and Westwood Studios. Alongside groundbreaking games like the Monkey Island series, Broken Sword, Myst, Blade Runner and numerous well-known titles, you can experience truly obscure adventures and discover hidden gems."<p>For those (like me) who didn't know what ScummVM was.<p><a href="https://www.scummvm.org/compatibility/" rel="nofollow">https://www.scummvm.org/compatibility/</a>
There is also Dreamm <a href="https://aarongiles.com/dreamm/" rel="nofollow">https://aarongiles.com/dreamm/</a>
ScummVM 2.8.0 is a pretty big release overall, with the App Store release just being the icing on the cake. The full notes are pretty long![0]<p>The list of supported games has grown a lot. ScummVM is capable of running the Adibou series now, as well as the first Might & Magic game and Muppet Treasure Island!<p>A hefty review of the Broken Sword engine has also restored a lot of small missing features.<p>If you have even a <i>passing</i> interest in classic adventure games, you owe it to yourself to check it out.<p>[0]: <a href="https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/2.8.0/ReleaseNotes.html" rel="nofollow">https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scummvm/2.8.0/ReleaseNotes...</a>
Is there a way to load games directly on mobile without using a cloud storage provider?<p>There a bunch of freely downloaded games on the ScummVM page here [0]. I can download a zip file in mobile but I can’t figure out how to get it into the app.<p>0: <a href="https://www.scummvm.org/games/" rel="nofollow">https://www.scummvm.org/games/</a>
hmmm I suspect this is because it is GPLv2 which doesn't require the freedom to RUN the program (which apple doesn't give you)<p>apple seems to ship software with gplv2 (old bash, etc) but no GPLv3 software.<p>...even though they are technically in violation of the GPL by modifying and shipping bash binaries without full source - it is missing rootless.h (not the X11 file)
Some Free Software projects are simply to good to be true. ScummVM is one of them.<p>I remember fondly replaying Monkey Island on my Linux machine thanks to it.
Many people need more clarification about how this passed App Review, and some are bringing up 2.5.2 of the guidelines.<p>This doesn't meet the 2.5.2 prohibition for reasons explained elsewhere[0], and it shows a misunderstanding about which guidelines prevent commonly desired emulators.<p>Emulators are generally barred mainly under the intellectual property guidelines[1] in §5.2 because most emulators require copyrighted bios files to run. Some other emulators were yanked after a DMCA request, and again, others were yanked because they were disguised as other apps.<p>ScummVM doesn't suffer from these issues at face value, but their more significant problem is that they're licensed under GPLv3, and Apple has an unofficial policy of not allowing GPL(v3) on the App Store thanks to a gambit the FSF[2] tried to pull that blew up in their face.<p>They tried to force Apple to change their App Store terms by submitting an app licensed under GPL, then turned around and complained that Apple’s App Store doesn’t comply with the GPL license because it does not distribute the app without DRM and other restrictions.<p>Apple’s response was to remove the app and adopt a silent policy of not allowing GPL apps (and other apps with a license that collides with the App Store ToS and license).<p>0: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38826426">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38826426</a><p>1: <a href="https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#intellectual-property" rel="nofollow">https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#int...</a><p>2: <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store-gpl-enforcement" rel="nofollow">https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/more-about-the-app-store...</a>
For those who don't recognize Scumm (since it's getting pretty old now...), it was an adventure game engine. Widely used for classic Lucasfilm Games/LucasArts titles. <i>(edit fixed! See below comment)</i><p>Here's the list of supported games: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Category:Supported_Games" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Category:Supported_...</a><p>If you're looking for recommendations...<p>- Zork (the OG, and sequels): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Zork" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Zork</a><p>- Beneath a Steel Sky: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Beneath_a_Steel_Sky" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Beneath_a_Steel_Sky</a><p>- Blade Runner: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Blade_Runner" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Blade_Runner</a><p>- The Castle of Dr. Brain (and sequels): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Castle_of_Dr._Brain" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Castle_of_Dr._Brain</a><p>- Maniac Mansion / Day of the Tentacle: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Maniac_Mansion" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Maniac_Mansion</a> <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Day_of_the_Tentacle" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Day_of_the_Tentacle</a><p>- The Dig: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=The_Dig" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=The_Dig</a><p>- Full Throttle: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Full_Throttle" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Full_Throttle</a><p>- Gabriel Knight (and sequels): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Gabriel_Knight" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Gabriel_Knight</a><p>- Grim Fandango: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Grim_Fandango" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Grim_Fandango</a><p>- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Indiana_Jones_and_the_Fate_of_Atlantis" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Indiana_Jones_and_t...</a><p>- Kings Quest (and sequels): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=King%27s_Quest" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=King%27s_Quest</a><p>- Leather Goddesses from Phobos (and sequel): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Leather_Goddesses_of_Phobos" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Leather_Goddesses_o...</a><p>- Leisure Suit Larry (and sequels): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Leisure_Suit_Larry" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Leisure_Suit_Larry</a><p>- The Longest Journey: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=The_Longest_Journey" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=The_Longest_Journey</a><p>- Police Quest (and sequels): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Police_Quest" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Police_Quest</a><p>- Riven: The Sequel to Myst: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Riven:_The_Sequel_to_Myst" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Riven:_The_Sequel_t...</a><p>- Sam and Max Hit the Road: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Sam_%26_Max_Hit_the_Road" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Sam_%26_Max_Hit_the...</a><p>- The Secret of Monkey Island (and sequels): <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=The_Secret_of_Monkey_Island" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=The_Secret_of_Monke...</a><p>- Space Quest: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Space_Quest" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Space_Quest</a><p>- Syberia: <a href="https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Syberia" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Syberia</a>
IIRC, some time ago I purchased The Secret of Monkey Island from GOG, and discovered it actually packages ScummVM.
I wonder if they "give back" to the community somehow.
This is fantastic. I consider iOS far superior in so many ways over Android. Except that it is locked down so much. If iOS becomes more open, there will be nearly no reason to get an Android.
What is the appeal with games that are this old? Is the audience people that played them in their childhood? I struggle to see kids (who are used to super colourful, hyper interactive, animated games) play GBC games let alone something like this. Any ideas?