The ScummVM Team is pleased to announce that the MacVenture engine is ready for public testing, bringing four classics from ICOM Simulations to ScummVM: Deja Vu: A Nightmare Comes True, Deja Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas, Shadowgate and Uninvited.

Wake up in a Chicago bathroom in 1941 with a gun in your pocket and no memory of who you are. Search a haunted mansion for a missing sibling while the undead close in. Descend into the Warlock Lord's castle with a fistful of torches and far too little time. Released between 1985 and 1988, these games defined the point-and-click adventure on the Macintosh: no verb list to memorise, just windows you open, drag and rummage through with the mouse — and a great many inventive ways to die.

Originally developed by ICOM Simulations and published by Mindscape and Kemco, the MacVenture titles were among the first adventures built entirely around the Macintosh interface, with their crisp black-and-white artwork and their trademark overlapping windows. They were later ported to nearly every platform of the era, but the Macintosh originals are where the series began.

For this testing period, ScummVM supports the Macintosh releases, including the 1993 rereleases — the same data that ships with the versions sold today by Zojoi, so those work out of the box once extracted. The MacVenture engine was started during Google Summer of Code 2016 by Borja Lorente, continued in 2021 by hikigaya, and completed during Google Summer of Code 2026. It builds on the research behind Sean Kasun's WebVenture implementation.

As usual, you will need the original game data files to play. To join the test, grab a recent daily development build, add your game directory to ScummVM, and play through the games. Our wiki pages for Deja Vu, Deja Vu II, Shadowgate and Uninvited explain which files are needed and how to extract them. Please report any problems you encounter on our issue tracker, following our bug submission guidelines. Screenshots and saved games demonstrating an issue are always helpful.

Now open the door — something is already waiting on the other side.

A self-centered starship pilot marooned on a planet of women. A kingdom under threat from an evil enchanter. A sinister plot at the opera. And a desperate search for an antidote.

After all these years, the ScummVM Team is pleased to finally announce support for all four MADS games:

• Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - DOS (re-implementation)
• Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - Macintosh (some features missing, but should be completeable).
• Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender - Bonus Disk.
• Return of the Phantom - DOS
• Dragonsphere - DOS
• Once Upon a Forest - DOS

Special thanks go out to the kind historical donation of partial sources to the team that made this release possible. Rex Nebular in particular, whilst previously supported, has been significantly refactored to use the updated engine core and naming conventions of the other games, so it may be considered an entirely new release. We've already confirmed that some long-standing bugs in the previous implementation have now been fixed. Experimental support has also been added for the Macintosh version of Rex Nebular, as well as the amusing bonus disk collection of content. Finally, Roland MT32 support has also been added, though it’s currently a work in progress, and not officially part of this initial testing. But for those of you who have been looking forward to it, you'll have it soon. In the meantime, support for the original PC Speaker sounds has also been added for your listening enjoyment :)

Help us test the games by grabbing a daily build. Read through our testing guidelines. And please take some screenshots along the way.

The games offer a good range of content, from the mild NSFW of Rex Nebular, the mystery of Return of the Phantom, classic fantasy of Dragonsphere, or the child-friendly simplicity of Once Upon a Forest. Which one will you play first?

The ScummVM Team is pleased to announce that Star Wars: Rebel Assault and Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire are ready for public testing!

Strap into the cockpit as Rookie One and fly for the Rebel Alliance in a galaxy far, far away. The first game features many iconic battles of the movies including the famous trench run to destroy the Death Star, while the sequel picks up after the Battle of Endor, sending you into the Dreighton Nebula to uncover what the Empire is still hiding.

Released in 1993, Rebel Assault was LucasArts' first game distributed exclusively on CD-ROM and became one of the defining showcases of the format, packing full-motion video, rendered space battles and a full orchestral score onto a single disc. Rebel Assault II followed in 1995 and included the first new Star Wars live action video filmed since the movies..

Although a rail shooter game, Rebel Assault uses the SCUMM engine more commonly used for point-and-click adventure games and shares a large portion of its code with Full Throttle, another LucasArts game.

For this testing period, ScummVM supports Rebel Assault in its multiple DOS releases, the Macintosh release, the 3DO release, and the Sega CD releases. Rebel Assault II is supported in its DOS/Windows release in its many languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Japanese. The ScummVM reimplementation also features improved controls for both games, eliminating the frustrating struggle to steer the ship and addressing one of the biggest criticisms of the original releases. Finally, the PlayStation version of Rebel Assault II is still under development and is not part of this testing round.

As usual, you will need the original game data files to play. To join the test, grab a recent daily development build, add your game directory to ScummVM, and play through the games. Please report any problems you encounter on our issue tracker.

May the Force be with you, Rookie One. The Alliance is counting on you.

The ScummVM Team is pleased to announce that Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess — originally released in Europe as KULT: The Temple of Flying Saucers — is ready for public testing!

Step into the boots of Raven, a young man gifted with psychic powers, held prisoner deep inside the temple of an alien priestess. His companion, Sci-Fi, has been captured too, and to reach her, Raven must survive the five Ordeals that stand between him and the Chamber. Wits alone will not be enough: you will need to master eight distinct psi-powers, from the humble Solar Eyes to the brutal Extreme Violence, to outsmart the strange creatures of this surreal, post-apocalyptic world.

Originally developed in 1989 by the French label Exxos (ERE Informatique), with an art direction inspired by illustrator Philippe Caza, KULT is a genuine cult classic of European adventure gaming, remembered for its dreamlike atmosphere and its unusual, power-driven puzzles.

For this testing period, ScummVM supports the DOS versions — with CGA, EGA and Hercules renderers, playable in English, French and German — as well as the Amiga releases. The engine was reverse-engineered by bambarbee and brought into ScummVM during Google Summer of Code.

As usual, you will need the original game data files to play. To join the test, grab a recent daily development build, add your game directory to ScummVM, and play through the game. Please report any problems you encounter on our issue tracker, following our bug submission guidelines. Screenshots and saved games demonstrating an issue are always helpful.

Now steel your mind — the Ordeals await.

The trail leads onward! It's time once again to step into Nancy's shoes and follow the clues... We are pleased to announce that ScummVM now supports two more titles from the long-running Nancy Drew adventure game series.

In Nancy Drew: The Secret of Shadow Ranch, the famous teenage detective trades city sleuthing for a vacation out west at a real western-style ranch — but her getaway turns into a mystery when the ghost of the ranch's former owner comes riding in on his ghostly horse. Before long, Nancy finds herself caught in the middle of a dangerous and vengeful plot. Is the phantom rider real, or is someone with very earthly motives behind it all?

In Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor, Nancy is summoned across the Atlantic to a 14th-century castle deep in the spooky British moors, home to the Penvellyn family for centuries. The manor's newest resident, a new bride named Linda Penvellyn, has locked herself away in total fear, refusing to see or speak to anyone. Has the mansion been cursed? Has the spirit of the "old witch" returned? Or is something else entirely going on? It's up to you to find out.

As usual, you will need the original game data files to play these games. The games are available for purchase through HeR Interactive's website or Steam. To play them with ScummVM, you will need a daily development build. If you encounter any issues, please submit a bug report to our issue tracker, following our bug submission guidelines.

Stay curious, and happy sleuthing!