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Ron GilbertDeveloper BIOThere was a time when SCUMM ruled home computer entertainment. Most would wager that this time is today, provided that you cut out that surplus 'm'. Fair point, but we're talking history here. The time is the late 80s; it is the heyday of graphic adventure games. Still clinging to their evolutionary link to text adventures, the parser, they are about to take the next decisive step forward -- a step that will change and determine their look and feel for years to come. This is the story of the man who made that breakthrough with a revolutionary scripting language called SCUMM, and who created some of the best adventure games of all time: Ron Gilbert. Stupid job at LucasfilmIn the early 1980's, when the Commodore 64 home computer was fairly new and very exciting, a young college student named Ron Gilbert discovered the potential of the C 64's BASIC programming language. A potential for creating games similar to those he had seen -and fallen for- in the arcades as a teen. Yet harnessing the C 64's graphical power with the crude BASIC compiler was tedious work; a flexible library of commands did not exist. So Gilbert hacked the nights away to create one. When he finally finished his extension (appropriately named Graphics Basic), it was able to move sprites around the screen and perform other multitasking operations that were new territory on the C 64 at the time. Even better than a job well done is a job well paid. Gilbert promptly sold Graphics Basic to a company named Human Engineered Software and, having meanwhile received his diploma in computer science, started to work there as well. He spent about half a year at HESware, programming arcade games for the C 64. None of them were ever released; the company went out of business. Searching for a new job, Gilbert ended up at Lucasfilm Games. While the name of director George Lucas' company radiated magic and fame in the movie business, the video game department was still small, rather unknown and quite unsuccessful. Gilbert earned his living by doing C 64 ports of Lucasfilm Atari 800 games. Soon tiring of mere rewriting, he was eager to create. He got his chance in 1985. SCUMM with meA dark Victorian mansion populated by a mad scientist, his slightly retarded offspring and strange aliens - an excellent setting for an adventure game. Ron Gilbert and Lucasfilm artist Gary Winnick had come up with this idea during several chats, and they saw the time fit to present it to the management. Not surprisingly, the heads of Lucasfilm Games were reluctant to invest into a man who had never designed a big game before. It took some time and a lot of persuasive talks until Gilbert finally got the thumps up. The work on the graphic adventure game Maniac Mansion for the C 64 began. Ron Gilbert had a lot of plans for his program, and most importantly, he had a very distinct idea of what he wanted it to feel like. The player had to be connected to the game as directly as possible, to be able to concentrate on the challenge that the world posed. Immersion through intuitive controls? That was not possible with the existing technology, especially not with a parser. Gilbert realised so some months into the project. As there was no tool that would have allowed him to implement all his ideas, he decided that one needed to be created. So Gilbert programmed a scripting language that was named after the project it had been written for, the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, better known as SCUMM. What is a script creation utility? In essence, it is the core mechanism of a game that combines all the parts to a whole - the graphics, the sound, the text messages, the interface. This last item is the most obvious as well as the most important one. SCUMM's interface was truly revolutionary. It provided an ease of control that was previously unknown. The key was a set of common verbs displayed at the bottom of the screen. The player could create sentences, and thus commands, by clicking on a verb and then on an object in the game graphics. For example, you would click on "Open", then on a door, and finally confirm to execute the action. Inventory items were used similarly. This system proved to be greatly superior to a parser in terms of comfort. Input, consequently streamlined for the use of a mouse, was quicker and more accurate; interactive objects were highlighted by moving the cursor over them, thus abolishing the need for guesses. Although the verb system lost in versatility, it gained in accessibility - a feature that would be most important in a business that was slowly stepping towards the mass market. Maniac Mansion was released in 1986 and was an incredible success. Although SCUMM proved to be the perfect technical frame for an adventure game, it were the wacky characters and the light, ironical humour that captured the player's hearts. Ron Gilbert had passed his baptism of fire as a designer, and he had passed it with distinction. He did not have to plead for a project again. In the following years, he was free to create what would become milestones of the adventure game genre. Websites
Games CreditedA Vampyre Story (2008), Crimson Cow
Murder in the Abbey (2008), Crimson Cow
Sam & Max Episode 201: Ice Station Santa (2007), GameTap
Ankh (Special Edition) (2006), bhv Software GmbH & Co. KG
Commandos: Strike Force (2006), Eidos Interactive Ltd.
Ankh (2005), bhv Software GmbH & Co. KG
Piglet's Big Game (2003), Disney Interactive, Inc.
Ollo in the Sunny Valley Fair (2002), Plaid Banana Entertainment
Moop and Dreadly in the Treasure on Bing Bong Island (2001), Hulabee Entertainment Inc.
Backyard Baseball 2001 (2000), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Diablo II (2000), Blizzard Entertainment Inc.
Escape from Monkey Island (2000), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
Blue's ABC Time Activities (1999), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms (1999), Cavedog Entertainment
Freddi Fish 3: The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell (1998), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Pajama Sam: Lost and Found (1998), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Spy Fox in Cheese Chase (1998), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Total Annihilation: The Core Contingency (1998), Cavedog Entertainment
The Curse of Monkey Island (1997), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
Pajama Sam's SockWorks (1997), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Putt-Putt Travels Through Time (1997), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Spy Fox in "Dry Cereal" (1997), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Total Annihilation (1997), GT Interactive Software Europe Ltd.
Freddi Fish 2: The Case of the Haunted School House (1996), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries (1996), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Freddi Fish & Luther's Maze Madness (1996), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside (1996), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Putt-Putt and Pep's Balloon-o-Rama (1996), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Putt-Putt and Pep's Dog on a Stick (1996), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
The Dig (1995), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds (1995), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Full Throttle (1995), Brasoft Produtos de Informática Ltda.
Let's Explore The Airport (1995), Humongous Entertainment, Inc., Random House, Inc
Let's Explore The Farm (1995), Humongous Entertainment, Inc., Random House, Inc
Let's Explore the Jungle (1995), Humongous Entertainment, Inc., Random House, Inc
Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear's Activity Pack (1995), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (1995), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise (1993), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Fatty Bear's FunPack (1993), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon (1993), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993), LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992), Softgold Computerspiele GmbH
Putt-Putt Joins the Parade (1992), Humongous Entertainment, Inc.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991), Lucasfilm Games
Loom (1990), Lucasfilm Games
The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), Softgold Computerspiele GmbH
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure (1989), Lucasfilm Games
Pipe Dream (1989), Empire Interactive Entertainment, LucasArts
PHM Pegasus (1988), Electronic Arts, Inc.
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988), Lucasfilm Games
Habitat (1987),
Maniac Mansion (1987), Lucasfilm Games
Koronis Rift (1985), Activision, Inc.
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