I finally got myself familiarized with ScummGen, the compiler that takes C-style code and compiles it into resources used by the actual SCUMM engine (used by LucasArts for all of their adventure games from Maniac Mansion to The Curse of Monkey Island, and by Humongous Entertainment in most of their games until 2003). I polished up the ScummGen test game, Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder.
The original team (Dominik Haslinger, Jens Doblies and Sebastien Ronsse) did the majority of the work. It was originally intended to be a much longer game, but it was cancelled. I finished up the ice cavern sequence so that it could be released as a completely playable game as I thought it would be a shame if no one got to play it. Their sourcecode was playable up to the point where you complete the mechanism in the cavern.
Here are the changes and fixes that I made to that source code:
- Replaced LucasArts logo with a ScummGen logo.
- Made a few grammar corrections to the original script.
- Created icons for inventory items that lacked them (all instances of the stones and the gas can).
- Programmed an if/then statement regarding the gas can that was referenced but not implemented in the source.
- Fixed the mechanism puzzle to require both objects, as before it was possible to complete it with only one object.
- Added dialog to facilitate the change in the mechanism puzzle.
- Fixed the lighting so that the cavern stays lit when you move to the cavern entrance and back.
- Enabled the usage of the item used to exit the cavern, as referenced but not implemented in the source.
- Changed description of the macguffin as it was originally used as a joke related to the game being unfinished (but kept it humourous to suit the tone of the original).
- Added dialog necessary for the ending sequence.
- Added end screen.
You can download it at my itch.io page if you want to try it out. It includes the sourcecode. It doesn't include an executable though, as it needs ScummVM in order to run (and I figured I'd cut out the middle man and just let people run ScummVM on whatever system they wish to run it on). It's detected in ScummVM as Day of the Tentacle.
ThunderPeel2001
Sorry for being ignorant, but I'm finding this uber confusing. What you're saying is that some fans made an Indy game using SCUMM but it was cancelled, and what they managed to do was left unfinished. You've taken what they did and finished it off? Is that right?
Yeah, pretty much. They had a demo that was pretty far in, but it never actually had an end (originally it had a message that they needed help to make it and then just kept going on after that - the bits to finish the cave sequence were referenced in the source, but no sourcecode was ever developed to actually hook it up). The only way to play this original demo though was to compile the source yourself with ScummGen, since they never released anything for it beyond the sourcecode.
I want to eventually make a game with SCUMM, so I downloaded the ScummVM-test code and saw that it was the unfinished Indiana Jones and the Call of Thunder game, and was pretty impressed with what they already had, and was a bit bummed that it was never released. Since I thought it was a shame that very few people would get to play it due to the added complexity of having to compile ScummGen yourself in order to compile the source, I thought I'd finish it up to a point where most of the most noticeable bugs were taken care of and the bits to finish the cave sequence were coded in.
You can see a video of where the game was at before I released it here. Well, mostly, as they had added a second room where the conversation with the man who lowered Indy down into the cave takes place, where you communicate with him above the hole of the cavern rather than having to communicate with him through the doorway. Everything else appears to be at the level that it was at originally.
It's not anywhere near where they planned it to be as it's only two rooms and a lot more rooms were planned. A lot more of the game's story can be found with the original game's source, so it would be possible to complete it even farther by the original team's vision, using the notes made by the original team, if one were so inclined).
It still feels like a demo at this point, as it's only two rooms like the other completable fan game made with SCUMM, Open Quest (which was made with the other open source toolkit to make SCUMM games, ScummC). But, like that game, it's still fun, and is a nice little curiosity as it's actually running on the SCUMM engine.
ThunderPeel2001
What's ScummGen?