Another off-topic post, but I felt the urge to share my findings with you. This time about the 1993 video game classic dubbed “DOTT” by its fans, which was groundbreaking at its time and still sports some of the trickiest puzzles adventure games ever had. And recently I solved he puzzle how to run the original version for free!

If you don’t know what you’ve missed, see the Wikipedia article on DOTT or this great documentary on YouTube which offers first-hand knowledge from its designers, developers and actors.

Its 30th anniversary made me wonder how I could get the original version to run on my Linux laptop. First, I thought about DOSBox Staging, but then learned that the engine behind the original game(s), “SCUMM”, is also available in the form of ScummVM. ScummVM is superior to emulated environments like DOSBox when it comes to running LucasArts adventure games created on SCUMM, so I went with that. Here’s how you could get it running on your Linux, Mac or Windows machine, too:

Install ScummVM, DOTT and Maniac Mansion

Get ScummVM

Download ScummVM or install from a repository. For my Linux machine I went with the Flatpak version and will show further steps for this installation type.
If you are an Ubuntu (or derivatives) user, you might prefer the Snap version.

Install the Flatpak using Gnome Software Center or from the command line:

flatpak install flathub org.scummvm.ScummVM

### Run it from the command line with:
flatpak run org.scummvm.ScummVM

Get and install the game(s)

If you’re still the happy owner of the original version on floppy disk or CD-ROM, you could use these media.

An easier way is to obtain the ISO image from the Internet Archive.

DISCLAIMER: The Internet Archive is a U.S. organization acting under U.S. law. Different Copyright law might apply in your country of residence. This article assumes you’re either the owner of the original media or acting lawfully when downloading and using the files linked here.

Mount the ISO image; most Linux Distros allow you to do so directly from the file manager. Otherwise use the command line:

sudo mount filename.iso /media/iso -t iso9660 -o loop

• Copy the folder “dott” to your “~/Documents” folder. You could create an arbitrary subfolder in your “~/Documents” folder first; but be advised that Flatpak is sandboxed such that ScummVM can only see your documents and pictures folder.
• Start ScummVM from the command line (see above) or from your desktop menu.
• Click “Add Game”, open the “dott” folder you copied earlier and click “choose”.
• Leave the following game configuration dialog directly by clicking on “OK”.
• Click “Add Game” again, open the “maniac” folder within the “dott” folder and click “choose”.
  This will add the “Maniac Mansion” easter egg, which you can also play separately on ScummVM.
• Leave the following game configuration dialog directly by clicking on “OK”.
• You’re good to go! Try starting DOTT directly from the main dialog.

You might want to choose a global setting to preserve the original, pixelated look-and-feel in a zoomed window:

• In the main dialog, click “Global Options”. This will open the first tab “Graphics”.
• For pixel-wise zooming, I chose
  • Stretch mode: Pixel-perfect scaling
  • Check “Aspect ratio correction”
  • Uncheck “Fullscreen mode” (I had issues with the mouse pointer, ymmv)
  • If you have a graphics card with an OpenGL driver, select
    Game3D renderer: OpenGL with shaders.

That’s it – now go on and save

Further Reading

• DOTT in the ScummVM Wiki
• ScummVM Docs: Understanding the graphics settings
• ScummVM Docs: Latest English Version
• You might need some help; here’s a walkthrough.