You can sign up to get a daily email of our articles, see the Mailing List page.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Following on from the Boxtron tool to run Steam games through a native Linux version of DOSBox, the same developer has now put out Roberta to do the same for ScummVM.

What does it do exactly? It means you can run pretty much any game on Steam that uses ScummVM, through your native version of ScummVM, even if those games don't have a Linux build up. Instead of trying to run them through Steam Play's Proton.

To use Roberta, you need a native install of ScummVM and the easiest way to install Roberta is to download the pre-made package available from the releases page on GitHub.

Like other unofficial Steam Play compatibility tools, you need to have a folder set up ready for it like "~/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/".

Simply extract the download into that folder, restart Steam and you will then be able to choose it as your specific tool. To do that, right click on a game in your Steam library, go to Properties and see this at the bottom:

See more about it on the GitHub page.

Really awesome to see more tools like this being made!

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
20 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
28 comments
Page: «2/3»
  Go to:

dreamer_ Aug 24, 2019
Quoting: thelimeydragonWill there be one called Ken for native ResidualVM :P ?
Plan for ResidualVM is to add support in Roberta 0.2.0; there is no overlap between games supported by these two tools, so it seems appropriate.
slaapliedje Aug 24, 2019
Quoting: dreamer_
Quoting: HadBabitsI'm no expert in old point-and-click adventures, but I'm guessing the name's a cute reference :)

:)

Quoting: eldakingI think it is really crazy that the Steam client can now support "compatibility tools" in general. Sure, Proton is the biggest and most important... but we can also have DOSBox and ScummVM, apparently. What next?

Luxtorpeda, for native Linux ports of games :) It's in a pre-release state, but you can already test it.

Quoting: eldakingEmulators for old-ish consoles?

I think RetroArch will take care of that, once it will be released on Steam in few months or so…

Quoting: eldakingSome Android compatibility layer to play mobile games?

I don't know if there are any games on Steam that could use such kind of emulation. If you know any, please list them on https://github.com/dreamer/luxtorpeda/wiki/Game-engines

Quoting: eldakingWSL2 so we can run Linux games on Windows? :P

Compatibility tools are Linux-only thing now. In this way, Linux as a gaming platform is already better than Windows or OSX ;).

Quoting: slaapliedjeI highly recommend one, though I think I like the SC88-pro better. Also works with DosBox, though I haven't tried that many through Boxtron, I will say Doom + MIDI sounds AMAZING!

Boxtron caters to this use-case by automatically detecting hardware configuration (so you don't need to manually edit DOSBox config to update Alsa sequencer port number), pre-configurig known games to use MIDI instead of SoundBlaster emulation (so there's no need to hunt programs like SETSOUND.EXE) and running software MIDI synthesiser if there's no hardware option. Hopefully, HW auto-detection will work for your MIDI setup - but if it won't, then ping me!

Will do, if I can ever get away from work this weekend, I'll do some testing!
elmapul Aug 25, 2019
now we need an robertadb.com and boxtrondb.com ...
just saying
Phlebiac Aug 25, 2019
Quoting: elmapulnow we need an robertadb.com and boxtrondb.com

The curators mostly take care of this:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35667778-Powered-by-ScummVM/
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35328265-Powered-by-DOSBox/
Phlebiac Aug 25, 2019
Quoting: dreamer_Plan for ResidualVM is to add support in Roberta 0.2.0

Thanks for your excellent work on these tools! What would be a killer feature is if there was some way to import a list of appID compatibility settings into the Steam client, so that all supported games would automatically have the compatibility tool selected.
Eike Aug 25, 2019
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Anybody care to write up an article about the "other" (non-Proton) compatibility tools, their state and how to use them?


Last edited by Eike on 25 August 2019 at 7:26 am UTC
slaapliedje Aug 25, 2019
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: Dunc*And I really need to get around to helping him with some sort of backup solution, because he's still running it off my old 2.5" hard drive from 20 years ago. Yes, I know, believe me. It gives me nightmares.

As slaapliedje suggested, SD or micro SD card readers for vintage computers are a godsend. I have a SD card reader for my C64 and it rocks ! The only downside is it doesn't work with custom fastloaders from recent demos but it is a c64 specific issue and i bought a cheaper model.
In theory, compact Flash are a bit better in the long run since they are created more along the lines of legitimate hard drives, but SD/MicroSDs have improved enough over the years to withstand more read/writes.
gradyvuckovic Aug 25, 2019
Ya know what we need next?

Lets get these Steam compatibility tools on steam.

If Valve could make it possible to upload compatibility tools as an app, you could just bring up the store page for 'Roberta' and click 'Install', and it's added. Then when there are updates you'd get them automatically too.
Shmerl Aug 25, 2019
Hm, I've been using native ScummVM with compatible GOG games without issues for years. Setup is trivial. Nice nod to Roberta Williams in the name though :)


Last edited by Shmerl on 25 August 2019 at 8:55 pm UTC
slaapliedje Aug 25, 2019
So far that I tested, it does not automatically pick the Roland UM-ONE interface. Also for some reason my MT-32 was really quiet (still played, but it seems to want to auto-set the volume to around 50-60 for each instrument.) Haven't tested it with the SC 88 Pro yet.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.