Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion. An extremely powerful scripting system originally written for the
Commodore 64 version of
Maniac Mansion by
Aric Wilmunder and
Ron Gilbert, and later extended on the
PC and
Amiga.
SCUMM allows
graphic adventure games to be created that require no typing, and can allow for the scripting of elaborate
cutscenes. In effect, it allows adventure games to tell a story in a similar manner to film, yet retaining a high level of interaction.
SCUMM has been extended several times over the years. Every graphic adventure LucasArts released between 1988 and 1997 (including The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle, The Dig, and several others) used some version of SCUMM. It's successor was GRIME (the 3D engine used by Grim Fandango) which implemented scripting with the LUA language. Other notable LucasArts technologies include the INSANE animation system, and the patented iMuse interactive music system.