I think it's interesting how ScummVM originally just supported the old LucasArts games and now it looks like it supports several versions of Sierra's engines, the Zork engines, plus tons of obscure game engines here and there. It's truly a great project that lets you play all those old classic CDs you have laying around without needing Doxbox.
While I know the parent comment is a positive one, it's really underselling the breadth of games ScummVM supports these days.
There are many games (or versions of games) supported by ScummVM that you can't run in DosBox for the simple reason that they're not DOS games (or even x86).
The number of "obscure game engine" games actually outnumbers the LucasArts and Sierra games combined, and include some of the most popular and famous games of the era, like Myst and Riven (as well as the mentioned Zork games).
Finally Scumm officially supports Riven, one of the best puzzle adventure games produced. It's a shame it's never been natively updated or re-released in a modern HD version (like Myst).
There's two versions of Riven, the multi-CD version and the single-DVD version. The DVD version has (slightly) improved visuals and a couple of extra (cosmetic only) locations, and is quite rare.
What are good ways to acquire these game ROMs legally?
A google search brings up a lot of not-completely-legit-looking sites, and I'd hate to give money to some pirate. These games are amazing and I'd love to support the authors if possible.
As others have said,GoG et. al. have republished a lot of them (a lot of them just repackage the game using Dosbox or ScummVM; you'll see the license in the download).
I kinda wish they wouldn't though. A lot of these should just fall into the real of abandonware. A lot of these licenses just get sold off to big companies who try to do some long-tail nostolgia sales.
Some /really/ old titles are actually out of copyright (or the publisher has gone under and the license has been lost), but they're still sold through some services cause that's how public domain works.
> Some /really/ old titles are actually out of copyright (or the publisher has gone under and the license has been lost), but they're still sold through some services cause that's how public domain works.
Nobody has been dead long enough for any computer game to enter public domain by the lawful way of inaction.
There are some games that have been made available by the license holder. Like "Beneath a Steel Sky" which was released as freeware.
I do not know if ROMs is the right word but I copied the files of the floppy disk or CD that the original game came on (yay for keeping floppy disk organizers and CD wallets). If you don't have the disk in hand it would be tough to get legally since they can be hard to find and possibly contain one or more bad disks.
As others have said you can some rereleased on gog/steam.
In case of Freddy Fish and Pyjama Sam ScummVM is actually bundled with the game. I don't think it has any use updating that version because the bundled version has been tested.
I encourage you to get a hold of the game. It's a nice puzzle gem that incorporates the humor of Douglas Adams.
One of the main parts is language, talking to the staff, actually typing, and communicating with them.
> One of the main parts is language, talking to the staff, actually typing, and communicating with them.
How well does this work? I can't think of any other game that has even attempted this since. It would be interesting to see what the state of the art could do with this. I think combining this kind of gameplay with voice to text for input and using either text to voice or voice actors for the character talking back could be super immersive.
Surprised to see Plumbers don't wear ties on the list. For those unaware of this masterpiece, I recommend watching this AVGN video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyaF_gCKWsI
