Slashdot Mirror
Domain: lucasarts.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to lucasarts.com.
Comments · 194
-
Re:No definitive Star Wars game?
SW strategy game
Do you mean a RTS game like this one? -
Re:That's "Star Wars Nights of the Old Republic"
That's not what LucasArts says.
-
Re:It's just another shoot 'em up
Full Throttle 2 will be released next year. And if you missed Grim Fandango a few years ago, well, get to your local $10 bin posthaste! It's a masterpiece!
But other than the Monkey Island games, LA has been less than productive in the adventure game market they once ruled. IJ and the Infernal Machine wasn't bad, but it was in the Tomb Raider vein.
I need a copy of DoTT, badly! -
Re:It's just another shoot 'em up
LucasArts is still making games like this. Okay, maybe Escape From Monkey Island isn't quite the work of art as some of their other ones from the hight of the adventure game heyday, but its got humor, puzzles, and plenty of rips on Star Wars. It looks like LA hasn't forgotten this market quite yet...
-
Re:It's just another shoot 'em up
LucasArts is still making games like this. Okay, maybe Escape From Monkey Island isn't quite the work of art as some of their other ones from the hight of the adventure game heyday, but its got humor, puzzles, and plenty of rips on Star Wars. It looks like LA hasn't forgotten this market quite yet...
-
Re:Control vs Society
Star Wars Galaxies may turn out to be exactly this. (Official Lucasarts SWG Site)
-
Re:Call off the dogs
-
Insults
And a short story I read had all wars being fought with insults, and teritory was lost or gained based on the superiority of the insults, as determined by aa computer.
Of course, no insult can ever beat "How appropriate. You fight like a cow." (Apologies to the fine folks at LucasArts Games for blatantly ripping off Monkey Island.
-
Re:Doubtful
Heh... they did, you know.
It's called Escape From Monkey Island.
And a 2D one before that. No AI NPC's though. -
20 Years
20 Years of Lucasarts!!!
Also, Linux is ghey. Thanks! -
Fix the link for JO
The link to Jedi Outcast is misleading to a wrong page.
It should be http://www.lucasarts.com/products/outcast/html/ -
Games aren't addictive!
Don't worry, games aren't addictive
Of course games aren't addictive. Games were addictive! Today I was playing Day Of The Tentacle for something like 18 hours, thanks to the brave guys from ScummVM! Special greetings to Ludvig, great work! I'll send you bills from my oculist!
-
Re:The answer to our prayers?Star Wars Galaxies is going to allow vehicles that you can ride around in and rig with weapons. You can have pets too, and some of the pets can be ridden.
Check out the FAQ on this. it sounds fantastic and looks fantastic too. I don't know about swimming and climbing, but there is going to be an expansion released that allows personal starships and fighter craft for transport and combat. I really can't wait for this. EQ looked like crap to me, and while AC was better visually, it just seemed so repetitive. This looks like something I could spend some time with though.
-
Oh Yeah!I have been anxiously waiting for this since I saw the trailer for it last year. I was so upset when I heard about the problems they were having getting it to market. Many of my LAN buddies here at the apartment complex are waiting as well. This will be fun.
I am also really looking forward to Star Wars Galaxies. This one sounds like it will have wonderful depth as well as being visually superior to any other MMORPG I have ever seen.
Another one I am eagerly awaiting is Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast. It's built on the Quake 3 engine and looks like it will be lots of fun. It's supposed to be in the stores on March 29th. Check out the trailer, it looks bad-assed.
-
Oh Yeah!I have been anxiously waiting for this since I saw the trailer for it last year. I was so upset when I heard about the problems they were having getting it to market. Many of my LAN buddies here at the apartment complex are waiting as well. This will be fun.
I am also really looking forward to Star Wars Galaxies. This one sounds like it will have wonderful depth as well as being visually superior to any other MMORPG I have ever seen.
Another one I am eagerly awaiting is Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast. It's built on the Quake 3 engine and looks like it will be lots of fun. It's supposed to be in the stores on March 29th. Check out the trailer, it looks bad-assed.
-
Not only is he in the trailer...
-
Not only is he in the trailer...
-
Funniest bit for me...
...Is that Lucasarts keep trying to move away from ep 4-6 merchandise now that ep1 is out and ep2 looms on the horizon. And yet the demand for 4-6 vintage continues, as these guitars clearly demonstrate. Where's the Jar Jar axe?
Oh, and they've definitely said there will be no more ep 4-6 games. Several times, if I remember correctly, the first after X Wing: Alliance. Uh, right. I love how Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds headline art is episode 1, but most of the content is ep 4-6 vintage. Characters, art, storylines, it even opens with that explosive and unforgettable John Williams Ep 4 theme, and Ep 4 art on the menu.
Despite all Lucas's attempts to convince us to the contrary, eps 4-6 are still more evocative and enduring. Hum the famous theme from ep 4 (DAAA-da, da-da da-daaah daah). Now the Imperial March (dum dum dum, dumdy dum, dumdy dum). Now - even though the music was still by John Williams - try to recall any tune from Ep 1. Anything at all. Any luck? Anything?
Picture a rebel trooper from the start of Episode 4. Easy, right? Now picture a Naboo Imperial Guardsman. I've got a vague impression of a coppery helmet or something. Maybe. Did they have cloaks, or were they long coats? Any ideas?
I'm sure I'm wide open to accusations of cognitive dissonance, that I watched Eps 4-6 as a child, and that Ep 1 is equally as memorable to the children that watched it. Mmm, OK, if you like. Let's wait another 20 years and see which characters are still selling them.
-
About 90% of the web sites out there
seem to disagree with your POV. I'm admittedly biased, (see my site, but I'm not the only one. In fact, I'd much prefer to have the web designer set the background color, as very often you run across sites that assume you have your default background color set to white, so there main logo is black text with a drop shadow on a white rectangle--which looks like crap if your background color is grey (default UNIX Netscape) or light blue or tan.
Admittedly people need to be careful and judicious when designing pages. Putting red text on a fractal background image or lime green text on an off blue background are evil. If you want to try overriding somebodie's site with images=off background=grey text=black, good luck, but you may find the site to be an ugly mess. -
What platforms will it run on?What platforms will Star Wars Galaxies run on? The answer may seem obvious, but LucasArts may want to address many different gaming platforms, as well as few desktop ones. To make the development optimal, they should use some abstraction layers. I know people who could help with that.
The screenshots look impressive. It would be cool if I could play that on my platform. And however I realize, that I belong to the minority of gamers (which is good, like Mark Twain has already said, "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."), I still think that when they would wisely program this game for many different gaming platforms and few desktop ones, it'd be a piece of cake to release other version. But I'm affraid that they would prefer us to use other options, unfortunately...
Oh, well, I gues I'll just have to wait for Mason, or Warewolf, or Sands of Syllus, or Archipelago, or Catacombs, or Belchfire, or Acid Tempest, or Phoenix...
-
What platforms will it run on?What platforms will Star Wars Galaxies run on? The answer may seem obvious, but LucasArts may want to address many different gaming platforms, as well as few desktop ones. To make the development optimal, they should use some abstraction layers. I know people who could help with that.
The screenshots look impressive. It would be cool if I could play that on my platform. And however I realize, that I belong to the minority of gamers (which is good, like Mark Twain has already said, "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."), I still think that when they would wisely program this game for many different gaming platforms and few desktop ones, it'd be a piece of cake to release other version. But I'm affraid that they would prefer us to use other options, unfortunately...
Oh, well, I gues I'll just have to wait for Mason, or Warewolf, or Sands of Syllus, or Archipelago, or Catacombs, or Belchfire, or Acid Tempest, or Phoenix...
-
Star Wars: Galaxies Official Sites
-
Re:My suggestion:
Ummm... you mean that kid RIver Phoenix that OD'ed 8 1/2 years ago?
LucasArts may be quite talented, but re-animating the dead I don't think is in their power. -
Re:Star Wars: Galaxies?
If it plays on the zone then take a guess. If you're so anxious to know check out LucasArts .
-
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
I see one possibility that has been overlooked so far, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader. Possibly one of the best SW games out there. Too bad it is only available for the GameCube. Maybe we will lick out and it will be ported to PC. Defiantly in my top ten favorite games. I had to rent a GameCube to play it but it rocks. Check out the videos on their site. The audio is amazing too, direct out takes from the movies. Everyone will recognize the Death Star run by the way it seams to be modeled on the old CGA game. Be sure to check out the Screen Shots and Videos in the Gallery.
http://www.lucasarts.com/products/rogueleader/defa ult.htm -
PC: Star Wars Galactic BattlegroundsBased on the Age of Empires II Engine, but in the Star Wars universe...
-
Re:Hooray!
just so you (and, well, everyone else) know(s) this link is dead. I believe that MI is still available for purchase from lucasarts directly, so most abandonware sites wont touch it. But lucasarts is not unkind - if you buy Curse of Monkey Island (the third MI) you also receive the first two (Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2). All this for 15 bucks! Call now, operators are standing by!
-
Re:Star Wars X-wingGet the re-released "Win95 version". I think it's included in the XWing Collectors Edition or something like that.
I believe that it also includes the additional mission packs from the floppy version. This is still one of my favorite games. In fact, the trench run is just awesome. Too bad the XWing: Alliance game didn't have that as well as a training mission or something...
Todd
-
Re:what does an ion engine do?
Someone else has already mentioned how they work. The weakness of an ion engine is that it's incapable of accelerating very quickly. On the other hand, it's extremely efficient, and capable of eventually producing extremely high speeds. You can read more information on NASA's ion propultion FAQ
Oh - and anyone who's ever played TIE Fighter knows that an Imperial fighter has a hell of a lot more get-up-and-go than Deep Space 1. So ion engines with that kind of punch are still a long way off. -
Along those same lines...
Grim Fandango is also an excellent problem-solving game. And it has an amusing and engrossing story line.
-
Re:How is that different?Rogue Leader looks like it will fix every problem with Rogue Squadron: AI, graphics and controls. The screenshots for this (screenshots) look terrific.
This should get the taste of Battle for Naboo out of my mouth. And, Nintendo will finally manage to sell me something. -
Re:A sad fairwell...The genre is not dead, it's still limping along.
You might want to check out Escape from Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight 3, and their predecessors.
-
Re:Push for a port nowGood luck. LucasArts doesn't care about what people want; they even have a strict policy to throw out any sort of communications that contain ideas for their games. See subsection 4 of their terms of use.
They've been petitioned countless times, to no avail...and their attempts to show that they listen to their customers turned out to be nothing but back-patting sessions for themselves.
And if I sound bitter, it's because I am. +)
-
Re:This really is looking great!
Additional screenshots at LucasArts.
Art At Home -
Re:Retro games are more popular than you'd think
My first reaction is to wonder why someone would be so happy about the porting of such old games to linux, when they've been played so much on other platforms. But retro games are more popular than you'd think.
Hmm... I'd have to say that, given the current state of gaming on Linux, the old Sierra games are better than 99% of the "modern" games already. With the current absense of good adventures on ANY platform or OS (The Longest Journey notwithstanding, and maybe Escape From Monkey Island) this is actually very interesting, to me anyway. -
Re:Dammit!
...and don't forget about the Star Wars RPG that's being developed. No news on a Linux port as I can tell, but if Bioware is making a habbit of doing Linux ports, it's possible. Official press release on the Star Wars RPG here.
-
Lua
I picked up Lua after reading this article about it in Dr. Dobb's Journal for use in Grim Fandango. (It has since advanced and yet simplified in tremendous ways... The article is about version 2.5, and it's now at version 4.0.) In addition to being a beautifully simple yet expressive language, Lua also has one of the cleanest codebases I've had the fortune to hack around in. The compiler/interpreter are all easily navigable... Comments are sparse, but well-placed and thoughtful; there need not be more because most of the code clearly explains itself. It's all written in straight ANSI C, and is instantly portable to just about everywhere without even any configuration macros. It's extensible in clean, logical ways... and oh yeah, it's BLAZINGLY FAST.
-
Re:Abandonware Legitimacy
I noticed a few days ago (through The Underdogs site no less) that LucasArts is still selling many of their classic games here. Stuff like Maniac Mansion, Monkey's Island, Battle Hawks 1942. Most of them are in collections. Of course a lot of them are only offered on 3.5" floppys, so if you really want an 'archive' you still have burn it to CD.
-
Where are the games?
Right now, I don't see any PSX2 titles I would want to buy. In November, Star Wars: Star Fighter will be released and I'd have to wait til 2001 Q1 for the game I truly desire...Gran Turismo 3.
My current favorite games are Counter Strike (based on the Half-Life engine) and StarCraft. PSX2 has nothing close to this. I don't even think I want any DVDs til the Pavement live DVD is released. My parents have a DVD player and watching the Matrix and Private Ryan are getting boring. I don't have a problem waiting for the market to catch up with the HYPE!BTW:
I have a friend who got two PSX2 and he plans to sell one for $1000+ on eBay. He waited in line for eight hours so if you break it down, he got paid $80/hour to wait for PSX2. That's not bad at all.
-
Yea but where's my Star WARS MMORPG!
Ok I Star Trek as much as the next "geek", who happened to be harassed in high school by double digit IQ jocks who thought slamming into each other at full speed was a better idea than revelling in the latest technology, and who now makes more than triple the entire income of the family of the harasser, no no bitterness here muahahaha, but what I want to know is when will the
Regards -
Starfighter for Playstation 2
Of course, you'd need to get your hands on actual Playstation 2 to play it, but I really like the looks of Starfighter from Lucas Arts.
For the Quicktime deficient, there are some mpg videos at gamespot .
-
Re:The old fashion PC style RPG
Btw, Monkey Island 4 - Escape from Monkey Island will be based on an upgraded Grim Fandango engine...
After seeing the first screenshots from MI 4 I was really doubtful, but after looking at some of the more recent screenshots out there I really believe in this game!
I just can't wait 'til they release this baby!! *droool* =)
I really don't think adventure games are dead... or even dying... not yet at least..
-- -
RPGs and BiowareThere has been a lot of threads on various boards concerning what the RPG might be like and whether it will be follow certain aspects found in Bioware's AD&D games. There has also been quite a bit of discussion as whether the D20 system is really appropriate to a Star Wars RPG as opposed to a D6 system which was used in WEG before WotC stepped into the picture. This is basically commentary to address such subject matter.
Bioware, The History
First off, let's take a look at Bioware: Bioware was the brain child of two Alberta doctors who decided for a variety of reasons to go after a dream founding the game development company we now know. Originally, Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka intended on designing a fairly detailed encompassing RPG which had absolutely no relation to AD&D but still held a fantasy like aura. Later, when Black Isle and Interplay became associated with Bioware, the developers suddenly had access to Interplay's aging AD&D licences which had not been used to develop a title of wide success. From this was born the new Infinity Engine and their second title: Baldur's Gate. However, by this time Bioware had already aquired a sizable and strong development team which had experience as a cohesive unit from the development of Shattered Steel. Furthermore they had already established an annimation division which gave Bioware a specialized resource: talented exclusive annimators and modellers. Baldur's Gate was released as their first major title earning them much acclaim and respect as developers. This in term earned them the rights to MDK producing the Omen engine and the suceeding title, MDK 2.
What can be drawn from this is that Bioware is not a single title and single technology company. They are versatile and quite capable of producing a wide variety of games in many differing styles and genres. Baldur's Gate started as a non-AD&D RPG not using a D20 system. While it is indeed a AD&D game and was widely influced by the developer's experiences with pen and paper AD&D 2nd ed. the product should not be taken as the direct result of the AD&D franchise. Furthermore, they proved their ability to produce specific game engines for a widely differing genres with the creation of Shattered Steel, Infinity and Omen. These engines share very little in common but are all well done solid packages. If anything, Bioware's experience with franchises demonstrates an ability to comprehend their subject matter and produce original material which follows in not only the tradition of the franchise, but also with the concept and principles: they know what the point of their subject matter is. In this, one can trust that Bioware will produce a title fitting of Star Wars. Their Star Wars title will be a Star Wars game to the core.
Bioware, Preferences of Design
Bioware also has shown a definite preference for design spaces without too many constraints. In Baldur's Gate they choose the least defined area they could find in TSR's Forgotten Realms which allowed them to create as much original material as possible. With MDK 2, the plot only holds basic restrictions in terms of design without any specific problems such as well defined areas (this place must look like this, etc). This holds true with the new SW RPG -- set in the distant past Bioware has a lot of room to move around in. In a way this also helps alleviate any presure to have a title that falls to stigmas... not all Dwarves hate Elves, Elves don't have to be wizards or rangers, not everyone in the Battletech universe is a Mechwarrior and in Star Wars not everyone uses the Force. It is a fair assumption that the title will not be the Jedi versus the non-Jedi Force wielding bad guys -- but such is enivitable to some extent.
Bioware also tends to develop highly personalized titles. By this I mean that their titles have always been from a close perspective in terms of game narration -- Baldur's Gate was a small party of 6 or less, MDK 2 was played as one of the three protagonists and Shattered Steel was first person in all respects. I doubt they were choosen to develop an MMPOG or any similar system. Even Neverwinter Nights is a party based experience even though it has a target of approximately 64 players per server. At the core all of their games are personal stories of greate proportions. This is what their SW title will almost definitely be like... it's also a reason why their is limited competition between Verant's SW RPG and Bioware's: they are targetted at different audiences.
The Engine
It was announced that this product will be using a new engine. When Bioware announced Neverwinter Nights it was said to be using the Omen engine which was very heavily modified from MDK 2. Subsequently this will not be an Omen derivative as some have conjectured. With the experience of Omen under the belt as well as an RPG adaptation of the engine, it is fairly certain that the engine will be 3D with a more freeform nature than in Neverwinter Nights (you cannot look up or follow from odd perspectives, etc).
Addressing the cross-platform release of the game (console, PC, Mac), I do not believe there should be any doubt that they will deliver. With the simulataneous parallel development of Neverwinter Nights and the previous development of MDK 2, it should be fairly obvious that they are more than capable of developing on all the mentioned platform proficiently.
D20 and RPGs
Just to have it clear at the beginning: it is not certain whether or not Bioware will be using WotC D20 system as seen in their version of the Star Wars RPG or a new statistics system.
Many state that D20 isn't really suited for RPGs and fast paced RPGs because it is tends to involve quite a great more dice rolls and general statistics than a D6 system. However, this does not hold true for computer games at all -- computing a D20 combat sequence is arbitrary. Furthermore, the user can be completely abstracted from the entire statistics systems. AD&D was designed as a highly versatile statistical system which was easily understood primarily based upon 5 percent segments. In AD&D 3rd edition which is very similar to D20, the system has been further generalized providing specifics on handling non-RP situations which was not associated with the fantasy genre. Basically the D20 system provides a set of combat, action and skill rules which can be applied to anything which can be reasonably segmented into 5 percent slice with results having the acompanying degree of error.
It seems ridiculous to consider a +5 light sabre or a 48D8 Sith lord, but it is similarly odd to consider the same situation in terms of statistics. All things being considered, it is just a finite segmented manner of representing statistics rather than developing an overly complex smoothly progressing system in terms of the base units.
Many of the restrictions which are associated with AD&D and the D20 system do not really exist in the computer world. In pen and paper a lot of situations and environments where non-RP elements came into play were very difficult to represent for an unassisted DM. It was not that the rule set did not allow certain actions or environments to look like a certain fashion, it was more that the DM was either not imaginative or capable of generating, tracking and handling the required information.
Consider the timeframe, effort and resources availible to a D20 computer game versus a pen and paper version. A developer spends 2 to 5 years developing a single title which encompasses what is relatively a short timeframe in terms of play time. This same developer has a whole host of designers, artists, developers and SQA working on the project as well as the direct creative assistance of the developers of the original system. A DM, on the other hand has himself and the rule books. It's no particular surprize that many DMs fell into the simple way out in creating almost out of box situations. Without the lengthy combat roles and statistics checks as arbitrary and the time and man hours to create a vibrant environment, I find that the D20 completely acceptable.
Game Play
Currently the game is being developed as a single player RPG, but it is fairly certain that a multiplayer element will enter in upon the game. given the shorter development cycle than Neverwinter Nights and the stipulation of a new engine, it is doubted that the RPG will be of the versatile scale of Neverwinter Nights. It is not particularly hard to add in a party like element such as in Baldur's Gate or even cooperative DOOM.
Just as an offhand note, the game play doesn't neccesarily have to be at a slow pace or have an abstracted method of control as in AD&D and many other RPGs. It could just as well involve much more action whether using a high level approach with general commands or a low level approach with more fine control in terms of actions. Even if they decided to use D20 this could be implemented...
As for everything else, who knows? Here's a bit of reference material where you can get more information:
Bioware Corp
Press Release (Bioware) (Lucasarts)
The Making of a Monster: Creating Baldur's Gate (CGDC 2000 Presentation)
Shadow's of Amen Message Board
Icewind Dale Message Board
Neverwinter Nights Message Board
Slashdot on D20
Open Gaming Foundation
Ryan Dancey Interview
WotC Interview with Ryan Dancey
WotC Star Wars RPG
Eric Noah's Unofficial AD&D 3rd Edition News
Basic Clarifications
This product is being developed by Bioware: not Lucasarts or Black Isle or Interplay
It will feature a new engine not based on Omen
The game is currently being developed as single player
It is unconfirmed whether or not the game will use D20 or not, D20 is currently being used in the yet to be released Star Wars RPG from WotC
-
Re:Verant shut out != big loss
This RPG is entirlely sepearte from the MMORPG in development with Verant, you can see the LucasArts press release here (since they don't seem to link to it themselves anymore), you can find more info about it on my webpage about SW On-line.
Meanwhile the Star Wars Combine is creating a totally free Star Wars on-line RPG, it's well worth a look.
