A new SCUMM engine port brings Day of the Tentacle to the Sega Saturn

Homebrew developer Happy-Ferret has shared new progress updates and emulator footage of his in-development SCUMM engine port for the Sega Saturn. The project was first mentioned earlier this year, but the latest update on Bluesky shows 1993's Day of the Tentacle running smoothly on Saturn emulators.

According to coverage from Sega Saturn Shiro, the engine is currently functioning in Yabause, Mednafen, and Ymir. It has not been tested on original hardware yet. The SCUMM engine (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) is the backbone of the golden age of LucasArts adventure games. Porting it to the Saturn opens the door for classics like Sam & Max Hit the Road and The Secret of Monkey Island to run natively on Sega's 32-bit hardware.

Running Day of the Tentacle

The footage shared by Happy-Ferret shows Day of the Tentacle running on the Saturn. Released in 1993 as a sequel to Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle is widely considered one of the best adventure games ever made. It was co-directed by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman, and it follows a time-travel plot where three friends try to stop a mutated purple tentacle from taking over the world.

The game runs on SCUMM Version 6. This iteration of the engine was a major technological leap for LucasArts, introducing full SVGA cartoon graphics and more complex inventory interactions. Because Version 6 includes backward compatibility with older script structures, getting it running on a target console theoretically unlocks the ability to play earlier LucasArts titles as well.

The Saturn homebrew scene has been remarkably active recently, as previously reported with the localization of Culdcept The First. Happy-Ferret is aiming to release this engine publicly so other developers can bring their own SCUMM ports to the console.

Not exactly plug and play

Getting a 1990s PC adventure game engine to boot on the Saturn's notoriously complex dual-CPU architecture took some trial and error. Happy-Ferret initially used JoEngine to implement the port before abandoning it due to rendering issues he could not resolve. He then pivoted to a PlayStation 1 port of ScummVM 0.6.0, which worked successfully.

When he tried bringing that PS1 codebase back to the Saturn using the newer Saturn Ring Library, he ran into boot issues. He ultimately went back to JoEngine. Switching libraries twice in one project sounds like a special kind of pain.

Mouse support makes the cut

The current build is a work in progress. Happy-Ferret is focusing on implementing an audio backend, fixing color palettes, and adding support for loading and saving games.

He confirmed that the port will not include keyboard support. Instead of typing out save file names, the engine will pull the current time from the Saturn's internal clock to generate them automatically. Mouse support is fully implemented, which is essential for a point-and-click adventure game. The Saturn mouse is one of the better console mice of the era, so this is a welcome inclusion.

A history of ports

Happy-Ferret has a long track record with this engine. He has already built SCUMM ports for the Nintendo 64, Sega CD, PlayStation, and 3DO. He also runs an indie label called Happy Ferret Entertainment, which uses a derivative engine called SCUNK to build brand new point-and-click adventure games for both retro and modern platforms.

The Saturn is uniquely suited for this kind of project. The console famously struggled with 3D polygons compared to the PlayStation. Its massive 2D sprite capabilities and 2MB of main RAM, however, make it an absolute powerhouse for running 2D graphic adventures. Very few official LucasArts games ever saw a native release on the Saturn. This makes the community effort a great addition to the console's library, and I am curious to see how the final audio implementation sounds once it is finished.

Pick up Day of the Tentacle Remastered on Humble Bundle.

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