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LucasArts announces Sam & Max sequel
Altima(BoB) writes "LucasArts announced today a sequel to their 1993 cult classic adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road. This follows a recent announcement of Full Throttle II. The press release explains:
It's due first quarter 2004 for Windows PCs, no other operating systems or platforms mentioned, but it looks promising. Personally, I think that LucasArts' adventure games have been long overdue a comeback, anyone who's played them can attest to their top-notch writing and humor."
Check this out.
Basically, it's something along the lines of an emulator that allows the original LucasArts point and click games to run under modern Windows. I've played Sam n Max and Day of the Tentacle for hours, and compared to the 486 sitting next to me, it's identical. Support for other games is in the works.
The absolute coolest part is, it uses your (presumedly) modern sound card's MIDI - the intro to Sam n Max is AMAZING on my SBLive compared to the old SB16 - and it also offers anti-aliased graphics if you so choose. Sure, the jaggies are nice for a nostalgic feel, but these games look simply amazing with the AA effects turned on.
I really can't recommend this enough for anyone who wants to play the old LucasArts games on anything approaching a modern system.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Dude, the maniac mansion sequel is called Day of The Tentacle
VOGONS (pun intended), Very Old Games On New Systems, is a forum designed to help you get old games (DOS/3.1/some 95/98) running on new systems (usually NT/2K/XP, but occasionally users running WINE*, 95, and 98 have problems as well). Shameless plug, but hey, I'm still waiting for The Dig 2.
.005% more problems than those using a real copy of any of the 9x series.
* WINE users are known to have
[insert witty comment here]
http://download.com.com/3000-2099-857427.html?tag= lst-0-1
**** Dr. Bellows ****
Funk/Soul/Jazz
drbellows.net
for gigs, music & more
Believe me, I'm as surprised by my comment as you are.
infinite machine is bankrupt. no game coming out from them. page is full of tumbleweeds.
Even better, why not go to LucasArts' own store and buy it there? They have most of their classic games still available to buy. I've recently picked up new versions of Day of the Tentacle and Sam n Max, and I'm thinking about picking up Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Never did completely finish that one...
Here's my DeCSS mirror, where's yours?
OR you could get your ass to this page, download the binary for your favorite OS and play it now. With sound.
"Heh. Bunnies"
Other great LucasArts games from around that time:
;-). A not so secret bonus in the game is that you can play the original MM by using one of the computer in the mansion!
:-) and "dress up paper dolls", the latter one is also used for copy protection in the original floppy version! The game contains at least one song that is even funnier when actually sang by the voice actors.
;-). There was quite a debug about that at the time.
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit the Road
The Dig
Full Throttle
Both "Day of the Tentacle" and "Sam & Max Hit the Road" first came out in floppies (yes floppies kids!) with CD-ROM versions with full voices a few years later.
DoT features characters from the original Maniac Mansion game from the 80s (which also spawned a short-lived TV show in the 90s, one of the joke in the game is about the characters not getting royalties from the show
S&M probably got the strangest story line in any game, EVER. It got a talking dog and rabbit, bigfoots and giraffe-neck girl, circuit freaks and country-singer. And it all make senses in the end!
S&M also features some cool mini-games like the "whack-a-mole" (or rabbit
Both "Full Throttle" and "The Dig" came out in CD only version.
The Dig is probably one of the most overlooked game from the company. While not as good as the others (slower pacing, may hard logical-type puzzles that are not very well integrated into the story), it is unique in that it has a serious storyline with a lot less jokes and gigs than the others. The art direction is a lot more realistic than even darker game like Full Throttle.
The game is about a big asteroid that is going to hit Earth and a team of astronauts is going to set off a bomb to "deflect" it. And that was back in 1995 before films like "Armageddon"! It got some amazing (for the time) pre-rendered 3d cut scenes and probably the first LucasArts game to have a "celebrity" voice actor - Robert Patrick from T2 and later X-Files. He did a good job.
Full Throttle features the now familiar "full screen" game mode. No more list of verbs or icons on screen. When you right click on the objects/persons a context sensitive menu (in the form of a coin) popup. This provides a very cinematic feel of a good action movie.
The game also features a rock theme song (music & lyrics), a mix of 3d objects (vehicles, rotating signs, etc) and 2d backgrounds. FT is also the first LucasArts game to have action sequence (that highway game in S&M doesn't count
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Oh yeah, as joked about in Curse of the Monkey Island, you can't die in a LucasArts Adventure game!
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Ahh the memories. Until I start typing this, I didn't even know that I still remember so much about all these games. It is a sure sign that these are classics, are will remain so in my mind forever. Thanks LucasArts, and here is to more good adventures games in the future.
Codeala - Just another mindless drone
a lot of that group works for Ion Storm now. Warren Spector (Ultima Underworlds, System Shock, Deus Ex) is working on a Theif III, and a Deus Ex 2. They pretty much still play their own tune. Ion Storm was essenially 2 groups, one headed by Romaro and the other by Spector. Romaro's group was killed off (thank god for that, we didn't need another Diakatana out there) and Spector's still remains. Though I think they are trying to get a new name (or tried at one point). LGS may be gone, but a lot of that team is still making games, which is a good thing.
What I think is one of the biggest problems facing our computer games originality is the fact that the companies don't want to get an original game, they just want one that will sell a ton of copies. They play it safe in the market instead of taking risks and we wind up with the same crap over and over again. This is the way the system always winds up working. Heads of companies want to be greedy and instead of taking a risk that could net them a crap load of cash, they take the safe road that keeps their head in but nets them a smaller amount of cash. If the companies who pay the studios would take more risks we would have a better market for computer games, but they don't so we get stuck with repeats of the same games. This has been going on in most of the other industries for years, and the computer world is catching up with them. Same trend goes on with movies, music, tv shows, and even in camera lenses.
What we need are companies who are willing to take risks and try to create new and creative products instead of the drek that we are force fed regularly. If we could get that to happen then we might get out of this billion and one Quake clones, or the extremely repetative Dune clones. We need companies who aren't afraid of change and who are willing to take the bull by the horns and get something new and different out there. Companies shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes and screw up a few times, that is what the market is really there for. Unfortunately all these companies care about is money, and that is a shame. If they cared about the customer (not consumer) they could have a much more respected business image.
The music in Full Throttle was done by a group called the Gone Jackals, and they don't have a website that I can find, but you CAN find their cd's on your favorite jungle-themed retailer or your favorite auction-owned subsidiary
I worked at Infinite Machine. The company is gone. And before it was gone, we couldn't interest any publishers in our Sam and Max game. (It's good to see that Lucas finally got their priorities straight :)
The Sam & Max adventure game was based on a comic book entitled "Sam & Max: Freelance Police". They basically roamed the world, pretending to be police officers/P.I.s and solving whatever crimes they stumbled on. Usually with violence.
I was (un)lucky enough to find a color issue of Sam & Max in the bargain bin of a comic book store while looking for back issues of Grendel, The Elementals, and Groo the Wanderer. I think I paid $4. It's the most dangerously funny posession I own. I keep it safely packed away out of sight, because I can't read the damn thing without laughing so hard it brings tears to my eyes.
The comic was drawn pictures first, and then the dialog was made up after the fact. Kind of like Mad-Libs, or the heckling on MST3K. If you like the Simpsons, you might like Sam and Max. Groo the Wanderer is good too, but it's funny the way Mad magazine or Cracked is funny (or isn't) -- mostly corny jokes.
Compare for yourselves:
---
Groo: "I'm hungy. Aha! Groo smells smoke! Where there's smoke, there's fire. Or a village! Or a village on fire!!"
---
Grateful Stewardess: "Thank you for saving our plane! How can we ever repay you?"
Max: "JUST GIMME ALL THE NAKED WOMEN MY POOR EYES CAN STAND!!"
Sam: "Easy, Max. You don't even like girls."
---
Luckless Villager: "Who be you?"
Groo: "I be Groo."
LV: (aside) "We are doomed..."
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Max: (a naked, yet fuzzy Max produces a 9mm pistol from thin air)
Sam: "Where'd you get that gun, little buddy?"
Max: (grinning) "None of your god-damned business, Sam. Tee-hee."
---
So if you liked the game, you might be able to scare up a copy of the comic book and see where it all came from. I don't there were ever many issues released, maybe less than ten. I get the impression they're fairly rare, unless they've gone into reprints since then.
Democracy. Whiskey. Sexy. Pick any two.
"Mispronounced it as what?"
Isn't it obvious? The n became an s.