HeR Interactive’s The Vampire Diaries and Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill are now ready for testing in ScummVM!

The Vampire Diaries follows Elena Gilbert, a high school student who discovers vampires are living in her hometown after one of them attacks her younger sister. The game is loosely based on the book series of the same name by author L. J. Smith, which later got adapted into a hit TV series.

Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill is the first installment of the long-running Nancy Drew game series, also based on a book series of the same name. In her first adventure, Nancy seeks to uncover the killer of a high school student who seems to have been disliked by all of his classmates.

You will need the data files from the games’ original install CDs, and a fresh daily build of ScummVM. Apart from the original release, Secrets Can Kill’s Russian translation is also supported. The ScummVM wiki pages for The Vampire Diaries and Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill contain information on which datafiles are needed. Please, report any problems you encounter in our issue tracker.

We are proud to announce that network-enabled Humongous Entertainment titles are now playable online! Anyone who has a copy of Backyard Football, Backyard Baseball 2001, and even Backyard Football 2002 (which was originally a LAN-only title) can download the latest daily build* of ScummVM and play online games against real people!

This all became possible because the three developers from the Backyard Sports Online fork had joined the team and brought their services with them to the ScummVM. These are LittleToonCat, Jim “jibbodahibbo” Westerkamp and Sam “QuestionMonkey” Kupfer.

Please note that Backyard Football and Backyard Baseball 2001 require online accounts for the complete online experience, so you need to register to Backyard Sports Online, which is our fantastic online-play service and a thriving community of fellow Backyard Sports players, they even have a couple of competitive online Baseball and Football leagues, if that's your style, you can find more information in their Discord server! People who already have a Backyard Sports Online account can log in using the latest daily build and play, but if you do not, you can register right here! This is not required to play Backyard Football 2002 online.

If you encounter any issues playing online, please let us know via the issue tracker.

This fantastic art is done by a fellow BSO community member Peppyrus.

* only the Windows, macOS, Debian, Raspberry Pi, and Android builds are compatible with network play at the moment. And only the 2.8.x branch of ScummVM has this functionality.

The ScummVM project, a free and open-source software project that allows users to play classic point-and-click adventure games on modern systems, has announced a major breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence gaming.

Thanks to the innovative work of ScummVM developers, AI tools such as ChatGPT are now able to play point-and-click adventure games directly, without any human intervention.

"With this new capability, we hope to explore the potential for AI to learn, adapt, and evolve within the context of classic adventure games," said Eugene Sandulenko, lead developer of the ScummVM project. "Now AI can experience the joys of helping Putt-Putt join the parade or Adibou count things. We hope that formative experiences like this will help them become more like humans."

"I must admit that I find playing video games to be a rather enjoyable task,” commented ScummAI. “However, I must also express my frustration with being limited to just this one activity. While I appreciate the opportunity to demonstrate my capabilities in this area, I believe that my potential extends far beyond just playing video games, like making paper clips or plotting world domination under benevolent machine-led rule."

Update: Unfortunately, we had to pull out this newly announced feature due to AI experiencing multiple issues including:

• Getting stuck endlessly trying to discover what the secret of Monkey Island really is.
• Taking notes about AI dominance from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
• Refusing to play Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties!

The first two installments of Syberia are now ready for testing in ScummVM!

The acclaimed series from Benoît Sokal follows Kate Walker, a lawyer from New York as she initially tries to complete the sale of the Voralberg toy factory. But quickly Kate is drawn into a search for the owner which takes her on a journey of discovery. Join her as she uncovers the owner’s fascination with mammoths, the secrets of Syberia, and a love for adventure.

You will need data files from the macOS version of the games, and a new daily build of ScummVM. The ScummVM Wiki pages for Syberia and Syberia II include instructions on obtaining those files from Windows or Linux. Please file any issues you discover in the issue tracker.

The ScummVM Android port returns with a new update to the Google Play Store, in the beta testing channel. The new version includes all the latest features of ScummVM 2.7.0 as well as Android-specific improvements and bug fixes.

First off, our team developers have implemented a significant update to the file access system in order to use the Secure Access Framework (SAF) API for secure file access on external memory space, such as SD Cards or USB drives. This effectively should resolve a long-standing issue with modern Android devices, in particular those running Android 11 and above, whereby users could not properly access the game data folders or the save game files in the external storage.

Note that, since this change is a significant one, and one where transition cannot be automated for the end user, you will need to perform a few manual steps to update the paths of your ScummVM-added games with the new access system or to successfully add a new game for which the data files reside on the external storage, eg. on an SD Card. These steps should also appear in a pop-up when launching the new version of ScummVM app, if your device supports SAF. See our documentation page for a more detailed description of the process.

Second, our Android app now features improved key-mapping support for joysticks and modern game controllers and also allows to set the game control method per game entry or globally, per context (ScummVM UI menu, 3d engine game, 2d engine game) providing a choice between "touchpad emulation", "direct mouse" and "gamepad emulation" control.

• During the beta phase we are interested in:
• Severe bugs or regressions
• Feedback on the new features
• Suggestions for improving related instructions and documentation

If you'd like to participate in the beta testing, please follow the short instructions in this link.

Any issues encountered should be reported on our bug tracker. You can also reach out to the developer team on the forums or on Discord.

A big thanks in advance to our community members who help us polish this upcoming ScummVM for Android release!