The Dreamcast. ScummVM. Pirates. Monkeys. Awesome.

Ah the Dreamcast…is there anything you can’t do?

As any true retro fan knows as well as being an excellent gaming system, the Dreamcast is an invaluable tool!

For example many different PC games can be ported to the Dreamcast with relative ease, primary examples in my collection include Quake and Doom. I bought these games for my old computer and in the case of Quake I could not play them on my more recent machine. There are fixes to this of course, but it actually seemed far easier for me to simply make them work for the Dreamcast.

Another source of games that can be ported to the Dreamcast (that some of you might or might not be aware of) are the games that can be played via the ScummVM program. I just did an article about B.A.S.S. on the Dreamcast, which is one of the games that can be played on the Dreamcast using that program. However, ScummVM can be used with many other games as well!!! These include classic games like The Secret of Monkey Island!

The DC version of this program actually supports CD swapping so you can get out the classic disk and boot it right up! Here is a list of the classic games supported by the SCUMMVM program (and the percent reflecting stability).

Maniac Mansion 90%
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders 90%
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 90%
Loom 95%
Passport to Adventure 95%
The Secret of Monkey Island 95%
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge 95%
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis 95%
Day of the Tentacle 95%
Sam & Max Hit the Road 95%
Full Throttle 90%
The Dig 90%
The Curse of Monkey Island 90%

Beneath a Steel Sky 98%
Broken Sword 1: The Shadow of the Templars 98%
Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror 98%
Flight of the Amazon Queen 98%
Gobliiins 95%
Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb 87%
Simon the Sorcerer 1 93%
Simon the Sorcerer 2 95%
The Feeble Files 90%
The Legend of Kyrandia 80%

The only games that aren't completable on the Dreamcast are Full Throttle, Curse of Monkey Island (This actually might be fixed with the latest version), The Dig, Broken Sword 1, and Broken Sword 2. They still work on the PC version of ScummVM though.

The rest of these games can be fully played on the Dreamcast. This program supports full saving with the VMU. Please refer to this website for addition info on each game. Some of them do need additional files to work correctly.

So why bring this up now?

Simply put, Spring is coming! And that means only one thing for me…The beginning of the Garage Sale season!

Due to the fact that many people don’t know how to play these classic games on their new computers (or don’t want to bother to learn how) these games get sold for almost nothing! There is a very good chance to find these games at your local salvation army store, pawn shop or consignment shop. Ebay and Craigslist also might be a good place to look for treasures of a retro nature as well (There might even be other sources for the savvy blogger if you know where to look...hint hint...).

In fact I recently found a little treasure at what had to be one of the first garage sales in the northern NY area.

That’s right it’s “The Secret of Monkey Island”!

How much did I pay? (Drumroll please...) $1.00!

This game is quite honestly one of the funniest video games I have ever played. It funtions well with the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse. You know Gagaman left out Monkeys in his list of common themes for the Dreamcast...

To sum it up this game works like a CHARM with ScummVM for the Dreamcast.

This method is dead simple:

Get Scummvm HERE at the awesome Dreamcast Evolution site.

Get Bootdreams.

Get a classic CD version of one of these great games on the list above.

Burn the Scummvm program with bootdreams, put it in your Dreamcast, boot up to the menu screen and swap the CD for the original disk.

The game should play with Dreamcast mouse and Keyboard support (You can also use the regular controller if you want). There is an auto save function that gets a bit annoying but that can be solved by simply unplugging the VMU when you are not saving or loading a game.

It’s just another way to get some more mileage out of your classic games and your Dreamcast.

Pirates and Monkeys...and the Dreamcast...can it possibly get better than that?