Slashdot Mirror


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."

7 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. You can. I have. It rules! by freeweed · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
  2. Re:What about the OTHER new Sam & Max game... by rei_slashdot · · Score: 3, Informative

    infinite machine is bankrupt. no game coming out from them. page is full of tumbleweeds.

  3. Re:MY PILLS, GET ME MY PILLS by Meridun · · Score: 3, Informative
    I actually went and bought the Gone Jackals CD Bone to Pick merely based on how cool the opening sequence for Full Throttle was.


    "Heh. Bunnies"

  4. Mini-reviews DoT, S&M and the Dig by Codeala · · Score: 5, Informative

    Other great LucasArts games from around that 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 ;-). 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!

    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 :-) 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.

    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 ;-). There was quite a debug about that at the time.

    =-=-=

    Oh yeah, as joked about in Curse of the Monkey Island, you can't die in a LucasArts Adventure game!

    =-=-=

    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
    1. Re:Mini-reviews DoT, S&M and the Dig by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'll just add to all the other people saying how you can die in LucasArts games... Maniac Mansion (from before the No-Death policy) - drown in the pool - radiation poisoning if you microwave water from the pool - murdered by Weird Ed if you give him the Exploded Bits of Hamster - murdered by Weird Ed if you give him the publishing offer for Purple Tentacle's manuscript - murdered by Green Tentacle if you give him a publishing offer for anything other than the Sushi Platter demo tape - cause a nuclear meltdown (in several ways) - waste the essential Paint Remover (no-win situation) - launch the Weird Edsel without the Evil Purple Meteor (no-win) - waste the coins when steering the Really Powerful Telescope (again, no-win) Monkey Island 1: let Guybrush stay underwater for over ten minutes. Fate of Atlantis: there are various ways of getting killed by Nazis. Whew...

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  5. For those who don't know by iankerickson · · Score: 3, Informative

    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..."

    ---
    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.
  6. Re:Best of luck by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Mispronounced it as what?"

    Isn't it obvious? The n became an s.