The ScummVM community has just made possible the wish of many people: to make games accessible on CD-ROM. For five years, many people have been working to make all Macromedia Director games playable on a current system. Well, that day has finally arrived.
Director was a vital component of the first CD games that were made and could not scale as the Windows versions progressed. But you can now play old PC classics using current hardware. For example, games like Spaceship Warlock or Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou.
You can play games from the 90s
Phil Salvador, a historian, and archivist of old video games spoke out about this development. He assures that currently there are different platforms that sell old games that can be played, but they are emulated by a program.
However, Director’s games use features of their Windows 3.1 operating systems or other external add-ons such as QuickTime, so to this day there has been no way to get these games re-released into the commercial market.
This is huge! ScummVM is adding support for Macromedia Director CD-ROMs, starting with Spaceship Warlock from 1992. Incredibly work to make these games widely accessible again https://t.co/3sX8dwx1sA
— Phil Salvador (@itstheshadsy) August 17, 2021
If the ScummVM team continues to develop support for Director games, it is likely that we may once again see different older games being marketed.
One of the problems that old CD-ROM games used to have is that they used songs that were copyrighted. This causes a number of legal obstacles in between that can stand in the way of re-releasing different games.
Still, if you own an old CD with one of these original games on it today, you will be able to play it on a current system. It doesn’t matter if you use Windows or Mac, as it is valid on both.
The project is not just about video games, as Director was used for much more than just making these virtual adventures. For example, it was also used for digital magazines or education programs.
It is expected that the ScummVM team will continue to improve its system to achieve better optimization and better support for more games, whether Director or others. This could also result not only in preserving the games, but also the software.
In fact, work is already underway to make games later than Director work. For example, L-Zone, a Director-3 game, is already compatible without any problems.
Therefore, it is no longer necessary to use a computer with an older Windows operating system to run these games. Having the latest version of ScummVM updated will be enough.
