"Could not find any engine capable of running the selected game"

[tamachan87]

I'm trying to run the latest standalone version of ScummVM (2.9.0 (Dec 18 2024)) but any game I try gives the error message "Could not find any engine capable of running the selected game".

I can confirm each game has a `.scummvm` file in its root with the appropriate keyword. These same games do run in the RetroArch ScummVM core, but that has its own problems that I doubt will be addressed.

Has anyone had the same issue and how would I go about resolving it?

[digitall]

Adding those .scummvm files is associated with Retroarch and is not required for ScummVM.

Please see the documentation, specifically https://docs.scummvm.org/en/v2.8.0/use_ ... games.html

[Praetorian]

In addition to what Digital wrote, the recent official ScummVM "core" for Retroarch should not need those extra ".scummvm" files either.

And for the standalone ScummVM 2.9.0 on Android, this documentation page details how games stored in external storage (eg. an SD Card) should be added in modern Android devices. There's a special one-time procedure required to setup proper access for ScummVM to your game's (parent) folder:
https://docs.scummvm.org/en/latest/othe ... ding-games

What is not mentioned in our documentation is that, alternatively, you could make use of the ScummVM app's own internal or external storage. Storing games, saved games or other files (eg. soundfonts) there means that they will be wiped (deleted) when uninstalling or downgrading the app, so you'd have to keep your own backups (or use the Cloud synch system customized accordingly). You will also be limited by the available integrated storage of your device, which is likely limited compared to an external physical SD Card. But, as an advantage, you won't have to go through the SAF process, and will get better performance for games with multiple data files, since unfortunately SAF is known to perform badly in those cases.

[tamachan87]

Adding those .scummvm files is associated with Retroarch and is not required for ScummVM.

Please see the documentation, specifically https://docs.scummvm.org/en/v2.8.0/use_ ... games.html

I added those .scummvm files to run them in Retroarch to compare to the standalone. It's neither here nor there, unless those files being present are causing this issue with the standalone?

[tamachan87]

In addition to what Digital wrote, the recent official ScummVM "core" for Retroarch should not need those extra ".scummvm" files either.

And for the standalone ScummVM 2.9.0 on Android, this documentation page details how games stored in external storage (eg. an SD Card) should be added in modern Android devices. There's a special one-time procedure required to setup proper access for ScummVM to your game's (parent) folder:
https://docs.scummvm.org/en/latest/othe ... ding-games

What is not mentioned in our documentation is that, alternatively, you could make use of the ScummVM app's own internal or external storage. Storing games, saved games or other files (eg. soundfonts) there means that they will be wiped (deleted) when uninstalling or downgrading the app, so you'd have to keep your own backups (or use the Cloud synch system customized accordingly). You will also be limited by the available integrated storage of your device, which is likely limited compared to an external physical SD Card. But, as an advantage, you won't have to go through the SAF process, and will get better performance for games with multiple data files, since unfortunately SAF is known to perform badly in those cases.

Okay, I reimported the games into the standalone, but unfortunately I still can't launch them from ES-DE. But I guess that's a question for them. Thanks for the help.

[Praetorian]

I added those .scummvm files to run them in Retroarch to compare to the standalone. It's neither here nor there, unless those files being present are causing this issue with the standalone?

In general, the presence of the ".scummvm" files should not cause side-effects for scummvm standalone.

But as I've written above, in the latest official scummvm core for retroarch, these files are not needed any more.

[Fonzman]

I am curious about this too.

I am running Windows 11. I updated from ScummVM 2.8.0 to 2.9.0 using the Windows installer (https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scumm ... -win32.exe).

On 2.8.0 all my games where playable.
On 2.9.0 only my two Amiga-versions of 'Eye of the Beholder' where playable, while all other games (a lot of Lucas Arts games, as well as others) told me "Could not find any engine capable of running the selected game".
When I reverted to 2.8.0 everything was playable again.

Task manager verified, that my 2.8.0 version is running in 64bit. I presume 2.9.0 was also installing 64bit. It seems 2.9.0 is missing most emulation cores?

EDIT: Problem solved, it was all my fault. My games are on a network share, and the share was not available as it was in sleep mode. Therefore 2.9.0 gave an error. As my backup of 2.8.0 setup.exe was on the same network share (and I installed from there), the network was up and running when I tried the games again! Thanks for any input here!

[Praetorian]

I am curious about this too.

I am running Windows 11. I updated from ScummVM 2.8.0 to 2.9.0 using the Windows installer (https://downloads.scummvm.org/frs/scumm ... -win32.exe).

On 2.8.0 all my games where playable.
On 2.9.0 only my two Amiga-versions of 'Eye of the Beholder' where playable, while all other games (a lot of Lucas Arts games, as well as others) told me "Could not find any engine capable of running the selected game".
When I reverted to 2.8.0 everything was playable again.

Task manager verified, that my 2.8.0 version is running in 64bit. I presume 2.9.0 was also installing 64bit. It seems 2.9.0 is missing most emulation cores?

This seems unrelated to the Android port.

Also, there's no such thing as "emulation cores" for the ScummVM standalone. The version you're referencing is the official 2.9.0 stable release version and, as such, it does include all the stable ScummVM engines which should be a superset of the engines that the 2.8.0 had integrated. This means, if a game was supported in official stable 2.8.0 it should be supported in 2.9.0 stable release too.

It is possible that something changed for the detection of these games (eg. different requirements on which and how their data files should be placed on the folder you're pointing ScummVM at). Or that something got misconfigured wrt the path that was set for these games. Finally, it could be the case that the 2.8.0 was a developer build which would support engines still in development (unstable) that the 2.9.0 stable release would not.

- Which games specifically have this issue? For these games, do they have anything in common (eg. about their location on your hdd) as opposed to the games that don't show this issue?
- If you try to re-add the games (with 2.9.0) that have the problem, does it succeed?

[Fonzman]

Oh, sorry, I was not aware that this is a specific post in the Android-branch of the forum.

Thanks for the explanation. I will do some testing and report back. Should I better create a specific thread in the pc-branch?

[Praetorian]

Oh, sorry, I was not aware that this is a specific post in the Android-branch of the forum.

Thanks for the explanation. I will do some testing and report back. Should I better create a specific thread in the pc-branch?

Yes, please use the general tech and support forum
viewforum.php?f=2

[Fonzman]

Thanks, I'll do it the next time. For now, I found my error and edited my initial post. Thanks for your input!