SCUMM v5 Reference

How the original SCUMM v5 engine and its file formats work, reverse-engineered from real game data — resources and the VM, rooms and graphics, actors and text, and the rules of interaction, flow, and timing.

Resources & the VM

• Index File (MONKEY.000)
• Resource File (MONKEY.001)
• Boot & System Variables
• Opcode Dispatch & Bytecode Conventions
• Per-Opcode Encoding Reference

Rooms & graphics

• Rooms (ROOM)
• Background Bitmaps (SMAP)
• Z-Plane Masks (ZP##)
• Room Lighting
• Room Objects (OBCD + OBIM)
• Walk Boxes (BOXD + BOXM)

Actors, costumes & text

• Costumes (COST)
• Costume Animation
• Bitmap Fonts (CHAR)

Interaction, flow & timing

• Input, Verbs & Sentences
• Cutscenes, Freezing & Override
• Screen Effects
• Timing — Jiffy vs. Frame
• Sound (SOUN) & Sound-Gated Waits