SCUMM Nutcracker Utilities

[EricOakford]

I've just been informed on Mixnmojo of a set of utilities called Nutcracker. It's a set of tools for editing resources in SCUMM games. Its decompiler outputs code that very closely matches that of the original SCUMM syntax. If this were an IDE, it'd be really useful. Right now, v5 and v6 are supported.

Nutcracker

Here's an example script from Secret of Monkey Island:

Code: [Select]

room recipe {

exit { ; EXCD LECF_0001\LFLF_0084\ROOM\EXCD
local variable L.0

set-screen 0 to 144
start-script 17 (2)
for L.0 = 0 to 255 ++ {
palette intensity 255 in-slot L.0 to L.0
}
charset 2
end-object
}

enter { ; ENCD LECF_0001\LFLF_0084\ROOM\ENCD
local variable L.0

start-script 17 (1)
set-screen 0 to 200
for L.0 = 0 to 255 ++ {
palette 0 in-slot 0
}
break-here
charset 1
print-text center color 0
print-text at 160,25 "DIRECTIONS TO MONKEY ISLAND!!!"
print-text at 160,33 " "
print-text at 160,41 "Pre-heat pot to 450 degrees"
print-text at 160,49 "Add the following ingredients:"
print-text left at 74,57 " "
print-text left at 74,65 "     1 Cinnamon stick"
print-text left at 74,73 "     4 Leaves of Mint"
print-text left at 74,81 "     1 Human Skull (pressed)"
print-text left at 74,89 "     1 squirt Squid Ink"
print-text left at 74,97 "     2 pts Monkey Blood"
print-text left at 74,105 "     1 Live Chicken"
print-text left at 74,113 "     3 oz. Brimstone"
print-text left at 74,121 "     1 or more of the following:"
print-text left at 74,129 "       pyridoxine hydrochloride,"
print-text left at 74,137 "       zinc oxide, yellow 8,"
print-text left at 74,145 "       mine mononitrate and BHA."
print-text left at 74,153 " "
print-text at 160,161 "Let bubble over low flame until thickened."
print-text at 160,169 "Serves crew of four."
charset 2
for L.0 = 0 to 255 ++ {
palette intensity 255 in-slot L.0 to L.0
}
end-object
}
}


[doomlazer]

That's cool.

It's easy enough to edit backgrounds, but I couldn't find any of the walk cycles or character animations. Is there documentation on the scumm resources, especially the scripting language?

[EricOakford]

Here's the SCUMM Tutorial. It's dated 1991, around the time of SCUMM v5 (i.e. Monkey Island 2)

And here's the SCUMM Manual. It's dated 1996, around the time of SCUMM v7 (i.e. Full Throttle, The Dig).

[doomlazer]

Thank you, those both look like very useful documents!

I found another tool, ScummEditor, that allows export/import of the costume resources. It claims to be "the only existing tool that allows you change the costumes on scumm games." It's a bit unwieldy modifying cels in gimp, but I was able to edit Guy's walk cycle (from room33) and have it show up in SoMI.

edit: lots of limitations though (Imported .png must be the same size as the original frame, can't add/remove costume frames, etc.). Still interesting regardless.

[EricOakford]

There are now binaries of the newest version available here. It includes Windows, Mac, and Linux versions. Just tested it with the Fate of Atlantis demos. It works great. Looks like I'll be doing over my decompilations for v5 and up. Hopefully, the earlier versions will follow, and this can be made into a user-friendly IDE. Then I could start work on some basic templates.