ScummVM is a neat little application that allows you to run classic point-and-click adventure games on a variety of platforms, including Dreamcast. That means, you can run your old favorites such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Leisure Suit Larry, on your Dreamcast! To do so, you need to create a Discjuggler CDI-file (see, guide for burning cdi-files for Dreamcast). In this post I will show you how to do this.
You need the following software:
- ScummVM plain files for Dreamcast ( https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/ )
- The game you want to run (I will use Lucasarts The Dig in this guide).
- BootDreams (for creating the CDI)
- Discjuggler, if you want to burn the CDI (it can also be run from an SD-card, but that requires that you generate a compatible image-file)
Compile the ScummVM CDI
As aforementioned, in this guide I will compile an image-file of LucasArts The Dig. To do so, I need to extract the ScummVM plain files in a directory, and place the files from The Dig ISO in a subdirectory. Two additional steps are important before you use BootDreams to compile the image:
- Remove all “PLG”-files from the ScummVM directory except for the one necessary for your game. For LucasArts-games, you only need the Scumm.PLG file.
- Rename the file “SCUMMVM.bin” in the ScummVM directory to “1st_read.bin”.
Your screen should now look something like this:
Now, it is time to compile the image using BootDreams. BootDreams generates a self-booting CDI-file that you can use in your Dreamcast. Point the application to your ScummVM-directory and go with the settings below. Press process, and wait.
Now, the image-file is ready! Before you burn it to a cd-r, you can test it on en emulator such as demul.
Hey, I’m having trouble with this guide. I’m trying to run ScummVM on my dreamcast using a MODE. Following this guide, the cdi boots, but the games aren’t detecting. ScummVM just says “Please insert game disc.” Could this possibly be because of the version of ScummVM or BootDreams that I’m using? Could you post the versions you use, or go into some more detail on some of this stuff? I’d love to see the whole process in a video if possible. I think this stuff is more relevant than ever before with the proliferation of ODE’s. Thanks.
Hello Matthew. I could create a more in-depth instructional video at some point. Until then, my experience when something goes wrong is that it is either due to a) wrong game files, or b) wrong PLG-files. Try to make a simple compilation with only one game that is well known to run on ScummVM (e.g. an old Sierra or Lucasarts game), and see what happens if you add or remove some PLG-files. If the problem persists, then you can start looking into the burning process (see my guide for using DiscJuggler for example).
Thanks a bunch for your response! I created a forum thread here with some more detail: https://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?p=96594#p96594
From the beginning I’ve been trying with single lucasarts games, but maybe I’ll try with some sierra ones. Do the GOG versions of lucasarts games generally work?
I have not tried the GOG versions with ScummVM. Try using the demos from this site for testing purposes: https://www.scummvm.org/demos/
Hey I figured out the issue was that now you are supposed to have a plugins directory. I wrote this up for RetroRGB with a bunch of other stuff: https://www.retrorgb.com/setup-guide-for-scummvm-on-dreamcast.html