What do a 6-foot-tall talking dog, a hyperkinetic rabbit thing, an archaeology professor, a gerbil, a time-traveling portable toilet, and a tough-talking biker all have in common? They're all SCUMM. Yes, I'm talking about classic games such as "Monkey Island" and "Day of the Tentacle."

These titles relied so heavily on DOS's memory management abilities and specific sound-driver compatibility that they became unplayable on newer 32-bit platforms -- until now. On today's "Call for Help" Roger will show you a miracle download that'll let you play all your old favorites on your current OS.

Why SCUMM is cool
Aric Wilmunder and Ron Gilbert wrote the script creation utility for "Maniac Mansion" (SCUMM) for Lucasfilm Games in the 1980s. For almost 20 years their groundbreaking game architecture supported an incredible legacy of characters and stories.

Coupled with Vince Lee's Insane Video Compression system, later SCUMM titles such as "The Dig" and "Full Throttle" pushed the boundaries of the DOS platform's capabilities well into the early crossover years of Windows 95. Unfortunately, the introduction of Windows 95 also signaled the beginning of the end for the mighty SCUMM engine.

Play it. Play it now!
Behold ScummVM. Some brilliant and wonderful people (who I'm sure will make it to heaven) decided to create a SCUMM emulator so everyone can play the classics. The ScummVM team outdid itself with platform support across Win32 (Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP), Linux i386 and PPC, BeOS, Solaris, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, MorphOS, IRIX, PalmOS, and WinCE. They're also working on software support for some of the Revolution adventures as well.

If you haven't had the opportunity to experience a LucasArts or Revolution adventure, now's the time. You can pick 'em up cheap on eBay and Amazon.com. By the way, you can download the excellent classic title "Beneath a Steel Sky" for free at the ScummVM website. Bless its black little heart. Download ScummVM now. It's free. Hurry before you're distracted by something shiny!

Download ScummVM now