The bluetext view is presumably still what was posted to https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/update_dosbox_and_scummvm_games_to_latest_versions in June 2012 (by TET I think, though the mysterious workings of the wishlist are now attributing the comment to ##@@##@@):

How about just sorting the necessary game files (Here is a list) into directories for each game and then adding them to a single instance of an up-to-date ScummVM that you can then update whenever you please? It should detect on its own what the games are and will then show a nice list of all your titles, just click to play.

It's basically what I've done since before there was GOG.

Obviously I know and understand that perfectly fine, but the point of my initial message is not in that.
My primary gripes with this are in these two factors:

A) ScummVM is automatically being bundled and is automatically being installed alongside with the good old games. You have no opt-in/opt-out choice. At all. It'll always install alongside any good old game for as long as you're installing that game, so it'll install each and every time REGARDLESS of you already having a manual ScummVM installation made prior to that or not. It's being treated as a part of the game package by GOG's installing system, but in reality it's not. It almost feels like a forced shovel ware. It's obvious that ScummVM is needed for most of these good old games nowadays so that you could run them effortlessly on modern hardware/OS, but my problem lies in the fact that GOG's installation system is not ScummVM-aware, so it installs it automatically and regardless of you already having it anywhere on your PC, with no option/choice given to you of opting out of such installation. That's just bad form all-around, especially in this modern day and age.

B) If I understood it correctly - there's no mention anywhere in the good old game distribution's description of ScummVM being bundled and forcefully installed alongside the game title, before you purchase the game and before you install it onto your system. And that is exactly what's happening currently. Each and every good old game you buy, out of those which could be run with ScummVM, is being bundled with ScummVM without your prior knowledge, and it's being forcefully installed alongside the game's files without your approval or consent. You can only decide to install the game itself, but ScummVM is installing itself alongside it and there's nothing you can do about that, and ScummVM installs itself each and every time you install a newly bought good old game. Even IF you have a ScummVM installed manually and separately prior to that, each and every new good old game you buy and install will still install a new copy of ScummVM along with the game's own files, without you being able to do anything about it (aside from not installing the game package at all, that is. Which is just...eww) and there's no warning/info provided on any of this.
That is quite nasty, IMHO.

P.S.
All in all, judging by what several people said in this thread, yes - naturally it's better/more comfortable to technically "just buy a game and use it's reserve DRM-free copy with your own manually installed singular copy of ScummVM", but the problem lies in that you will STILL get a forcefully installed copy of ScummVM each and every time you buy a new good old game and you install it.

In lieu of this, I'm making an open suggestion to the GOG's team:
1. Make installation of ScummVM an optional thing during the installation process of any of your good old games. Like, COME ON.
2. Make GOG's installing system ScummVM-aware so that when any user buys a new good old game and is installing it, the GOG's installer automatically determines (by scan, or etc) if there's already a ScummVM copy present in that user's system or not, and if it finds that one was already installed - first and foremost DON'T make GOG's installer install yet another copy AND at the same time bound/merge the newly installing game with the ScummVM that's already present on the user's system. Just one copy is enough.
3. Add all of the information necessary for the GOG's game descriptions so that any and all potential buyers would see immediately that ScummVM is being bundled and installed alongside the game itself when you're installing it for the first time. Make it all more transparent for the end users, or, in other words - improve quality of life for the end user. Do NOT shove/force it onto buyers/users.

In Galaxy, click on Galaxy icon top left, Settings, Features, remove Auto-Update.

Then update ScummVM as you attempted earlier.

They have to bundle some sort of program to run the games in order to uphold their "works out of the box"(for most people) promise, and that is usually either Dosbox or ScummVm. Since ScummVm works easier(to configure) for more people they use that one.

I agree an option to pick whether or not to install ScummVm would be nice, but that would mean changing all their installers which would be a ton of work.

Since I don't expect them to do that right away/possibly at all, I am glad to do it myself if need be.for the time being.

(Also, not to nag on you per se, but I dislike the general trend in life of people not being able or willing to do a bit of hard work to get things to work themselves. Yes, companies should make stuff as "out of the box ready" as possible, but people should be able & willing to do whatever else is needed in case they have to for some reason)

I believe on the game's page it lists that it uses ScummVM for games that come with such....also you seem to be making it out as this vile/hard to reverse act when it installs ScummVM......one can just install in any folder, copy the needed files to their main ScummVM folder/subfolders, and then delete the gog install.

Though again, I AGREE gog should make ScummVm install optional(maybe a checkbox), but if they did it'd take time to convert all installers and I accept that/am willing to do the legwork in the meantime.

That does nothing to your system beyond using a bit of disc space until you delete it. It's not some malware program and it doesn't impact the system much if at all by gog installing it.

Agreed....just don't expect them to do so/right off the bat as that would take time/manpower/etc to do and if they did it it would take awhile.

This is asking too much and unneeded if they did point 1 and added a ScummVm checkbox to games.

They already do(iirc), as I said above.....people need to read game pages more carefully, I think.

This is annoying. Even the install process is annoying since all you usually need are a few files. However as said above, it's a necessary evil because the "casuals" need to just click install and go. That's why I'm saying I think the best avenue is to install them all, copy the needed files and back them up, and then know you never need to go through the process again.

...now imagine for just a second that (for example) a person buys 50+ good old game titles which utilize ScummVM to work properly/easily on modern hardware/OS...and then immediately downloads & installs them all onto the system right away, one after another. And ScummVM will be bundled and installed each and every time alongside with each and every of those games. Sure, your argument/point might work in a case when, say, a person already bought and downloaded the complete entirety of the good old game catalog which GOG offers. But what if a person does that all the very first time over? ALL of those ScummVMs on a single system. ALL of that hassle with moving/deleting/copying things around. And that's while not even mentioning the fact that GOG's ScummVM is currently not up-to-date with the latest official stable release of the said software (so it's just inferior). Yes, in ideal case you need only one ScummVM that was manually updated to the latest version, with all of your good old games bound/merged to it.

But, clearly, current state of GOG's updater/installer/fixer system is made in such a way that it'll mess up/hinder the overall experience of usage as much as possible (even if that wasn't intended by the creators). This would've been somewhat tolerable in mid or late 2000s, but we're almost at the doorstep of the year 2020. Quality of life for the end user is a very big factor nowadays (this is one of the main reasons why Epic Games Store is being bashed so much currently - not only due to Tim Sweeney's personal shenanigans/behavior, but also because EGS itself as a site and a service is extremely lackluster/subpar in comparison to both the Steam and GOG, it misses a ton of functionality/features which became generally accepted norm and a required default these days).

Does Gog even have 50+ games that use ScummVM? Also one would assume people would install them as they bought them(and not all at once), and delete unneeded files afterwards.
(And even a few extra copies of ScummVM use little space even while installed, and are easy to delete)

It's not as much work as you're making it out to be, and a newer version doesn't always equal superior(in general I mean).

You're making this out to be a much worse problem than it is.

Yes, Gog should make the Scumm installs optional, but no it's not as bad as you are framing it(effort to install/delete/organize the files).
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As many of us have said, it'd be nice to have an optional ScummVM install(did you send that idea to gog?), but doing so would take time & for now it's not hard to do it on one's own/that is the best option....even if one had to do it for 5-10 games.

Tbh i'd rather gog spend more time getting the store working properly for all, getting more games(old and new here), and other more important things & focus on it if they have time(as many of us can do the work easily ourselves until they do so).

Listen Amateur_Chen

Try using RESIDUAL-VM

Residualvm-0.3.1

What do you say?

It works with ALL scummvm games AND grim fandango also Myst III EXILE and The longest Journey

Also day of the tentacle works on it!

well?

Why not give them the link to the download page so they can pick the version they need if they choose to partake in such?
:)

I dunno do you think his actually smart enough to use the internet?

C'mon now, you shouldn't be mocking anyone here. The guy has been very civil so far, so I think people should treat him in kind.

I understand how it can be annoying for you, but I don't understand why it is bothering you to the level it appears to be.

Your desired setup is that you have your own updated ScummVM, and you want to run gog games off of that.
Gog games each come with their own bundles ScummVM.

The only issue here (which I agree, is annoying) is that you'll have multiple redundant older copies of ScummVM in each game folder, which will each take up a small amount of space, until you get around to manually deleting each one.
You're not prevented from only using your own upgraded version of ScummVM with these games (unless for some bizarre reason you were attempting to manually upgrade each ScummVM in each game's folder, and then had it overwritten by Galaxy).

The reason Gog cannot go with your suggestion/request:
- Gog needs to make each game playable out of the box
- Gog cannot and will not update each game for each new version of ScummVM/Dosbox that comes out, because that would require prohibitive amounts of testing for something that already works fine.

I agree, it would be nicer if gog could recognise if it's desired dosbox/scummvm version is installed, and if so, just include a shortcut to that in the newly installed game's folder. Be cool if they did this whenever a game had some other update as well, so we wouldn't be flooded with a tonne of updates for this minor thing.

I suppose it could also include an option to check if you have a newer version of those softwares installed separately (i.e. are likely not one of those casual out-of-the-box users), and ask if you want to install gog's version or not, but if you're not one of the casual, out-of-the-box users, why are you using galaxy to install your games?

Only thing I'll add to the replies you already got is this: if you're concerned about keeping the games and having backups, you're going to be downloading them all anyway. The process of installing them to get the Scumm files is annoying, but it is what it is. If you're the type to not worry about backups and just download, play and uninstall, then I'd just use the ScummVM packed with the game. The games GOG sells that use it work perfectly with the included version. Having multiple Scumm "installs" on your machine doesn't hurt anything.

Wait, I just remembered....aren't the installers just self extracting zip/etc files? If so one could DL them and use an extraction tool to open said installers and just pluck out the needed files, correct?
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OP: If the above is true you could use that to bypass the gog install process and not install scummvm multiple times.
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