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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."
will it work with ScummVM?
I hope they do great, the wit and intelligence in Lucas Arts adventure games are unmatched. I know I'll buy a copy.
Well, I didn't know about Full Throttle 2, so reading that post made me slip into what I like to call "A massive coronary".
Full throttle was the best damn Lucararts game ever made, bar none. Maybe even the best adventure game period, and that's if I include Grim Fandago.
That better not be a polecat on the wall.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
That seems fair enough. Who would want it running on Linux anyway?
Sam and Max still has my vote for the best game of that genre ever... Any game where the solution to one of the "problems" is to pick up your partner, dunk him in water and use him to short out an electrical panel works for me. It took me an hour to get through trying all the little gadgets in the inventory before coming up with that one.
Can't wait for the sequel.
Finally Lucasarts is doing something other than milking the rapidly drying "cash-cow" that is Star Wars.
:)
I can't even bring myself to count the number of awful Star Wars Games I had to disdain and refute in order to hook my wife (successfully) on Lucasarts' fine adventure games -- thanks to the great character design on Grim Fandango.
Lucasarts has really good innovators and well done art (Steve Purcell rocks), and it's more than high-time that a decent adventure game came to for.
I for one am sick of the endless parade of "free form" games (i.e. the Sims), the neverending re-release of the "yet-anotherFPS" engine games, and the D&D based games that have more bugs than characters (NWN). <\RANT>
So, back to slashdot thinking... this gonna run on Linux?
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.
If only the same could be said for their movies...
GMD
watch this
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.
Does anyone know if this going to be 3D or 2D? I am guessing the former because the Full Throttle sequel is 3D from what I have seen thus far. If my guess is correct it will be interesting to see how Sam & Max translates to the 3D world because it was very 2D animated game with some weird geometry and architecture in some areas. I remember Max had a secret 3D cameo in Jedi Knight and that looked kind of weird. Fingers crossed they get the same voice actors and composer too, which if you have never heard you can hear in this remix
aus.music.scrapbook
Personally, I'd pay premium for a new MM/Day of The Tentacle or a new Zak McKracken (yes I know about the inofficial one).
Sam'n'Max II and Full Throttle II? Not so much.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Just the other day I was cleaning out a box of old college-era stuff and came across my boxed copy of Sam and Max, floppies and all. We always used to get a kick out of the sceen where people are bungie jumping off the noses of the presidents at Mt. Rushmore, since they looked like big boogers. The 'Second Largest Ball of Twine' or whatever it was was hilarious too.
/nostalgia
Cat, the other, tastier white meat.
It's not an "emulator". Sam and Max, and many other LucasArts adventure titles, were written in a scripting language custom-made for developing adventure game titles. It was (is) called SCUMM, the Storyline Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion. The ScummVM team has managed to reverse-engineer enough info out of the original game engines to run many of these older titles. (I just played all the way through the CD version of Sam and Max Hit the Road last night.) It's more like running a shell script or Perl script than "emulating" anything.
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
I don't want to imagine it in 3D cel shading. Not unless the technology improves markedly in the next year and a half. It's okay in a fast-moving game like Jet Set Radio, but thus far it mostly looks pretty awkward if it's sitting still.
So a sequel to Sam and Max is good news, but I'll be much happier if they can do a sequel to Day Of The Tentacle...
Berrrnaaard... float over here soo I can puunch yoouuu.
Just be careful what wine you buy, 'cos you'll never know how long it'll take to turn to vinegar.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
It takes code written for one set of software and produces a result on an entirely different one. It's all semantics, and to most people (remember, not everyone in the world is a computer expert), this is about as good an explanation as they'll understand. WINE is a perfect example - try to explain to a non-geek just what the acronym stands for, and why. Most people respond to me with 'what's the diff?' :)
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
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]
You are so very, very alone in that mode of thinking. Every other reply in this thread more or less says "I'll do any weird, perverted sexual thing Lucasarts can think of if it means I'm getting the game sooner."
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
Lost In Translation makes it fun!
"LucasArts written of Altima(BoB) that has announced today, of him & follows 1993, that is traditional of the SAM of the game of the adventure of the Anbetung; The maximum repaired the way. This follows a new warning of the publicity of complete control II of the energy. The Pressekommuniqué is aqui ': the trimester 2004 of http://www.lucasarts.com/press/releases/61.html first one is he was adaptou for GCV von Windows, aucuns indicate others to him the softwares or the platforms of the operation, but it looks like promising. Personally that was the games of the adventure of LucasArts delay to much period to him a return, he thinks for the confirmation indifferently, of that, that is played they, with the relative letter of the lateral jump and latta advanced one of humor."
Hey Taco! Looks like you're using the "infinite monkeys and typewriters" scheme to generate Ask Slashdots again...
At least so it can run, with sound, on a modern PC.
It's like if Lucas were to release his next installment of Star Wars in the year 2050, when nobody has the equipment to view the originals anymore.
Ok, just to rant just a little...
Sam and Max was a great game. I'm looking foward to the sequel. Sam and Max, in fact, was a great game, orgininal, funny, and just overall fun to play.
And it wasn't a sequel to anything.
Which makes me wonder; Are there any new games that are orgininal, funny, unique, that are worth playing? To read sites like Slashdot (or others), one would assume not, that the only games of note being realased are either
a: A sequel to a popular game
b: A new game based on a popular graphics engine
c: A new game being released on linux.
Don't get me wrong, it's always nice to hear about a release based on the above three things. But what about a new game that nobody's heard of before that's really, really good?
Do they not exist, or are most popular websites either uninformed of them or decide not to publish them. As it stands, the only ways you can find out of there is a good new game that you've never heard of is to:
a: Be impressed at the software store by the shiney box, plunk down $50 for something that may end up sucking
b: Read the game review websites and magizines, which seem to be staffed by, and cater too 12 year old boys
c: Hopefully hear from a freind through word of mouth about a game.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking slashdot. It's not really in their scope (or in my expectation) that they tell me about the next new, hot thing in gaming. But does anyone out there know of a place to find this out? I mean, a place smart enough to distinguish the next Sam and Max from the crap?
The Internet is generally stupid
I believe you are looking for this.
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
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.
... by Infinite Machine, and is apparently coming out on PC AND X-box? Is Lucasarts Publishing this for Infinite, or is this a completely different project...?
// I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
Is it just me or do talking rabbits creep anybody else out after seeing Donnie Darko?
I can only hope I still feel the same way Harvey and Bugs!
Nice. Just remember, "You don't want to do that to Mo's mailbox."
thanks slashdot, I've been trying to get the original on ebay for the last couple months now. This asures me of not finding a copy for under the original face value for a few more months to come now!
It's one of the most well-designed games of all time. The puzzles are very inventive and the characters are actually engaging.
It's the only video game that I've played that has an any emotional depth in the traditional sense. Granted "wow, I just carjacked a cop, that's so cool" is an emotional response, but Grim Fandango is different.
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?
Sequel to DotT? Don't you mean 'Maniac Mansion III'? :)
deus does not exist but if he does
I would rather see Loom 2. Damn that game was cool, for its time. I remember how blown away I was by the music and graphics.
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
ScummVM also lets linux people run their old Lucasarts games on their boxes as well.
For me, though, the killer app is using ScummVM to run them on my Sharp Zaurus (the resolution is perfect for the old DOS games, too: 320x240 pixels when held sideways.) There are also ports for PocketPC and iPaq's Linux.
There's also a Dreamcast port, but I haven't tried that (yet!)
I have to agree with you on the Lucasarts thing. Maniac Mansion was one of my first computer games and one of the games that got me hooked on computers in the first place. And I loved the early Star Wars games like XWing and Tie Fighter.
:) The story is pretty good as well.
My opinion is they dumbed down their games too much. Instead of simulators like XWing they came out with a bunch of dumb arcade crap. I feel like puking every time I see those Star Wars Mortal Kombat ripoffs.
However one exception is the reciently released Jedi Outcast. It is incredible! The lightsaber control and force powers all make you feel like you are a Jedi in the movies. Nothing like running into a room filled with Stormtroopers, defecting their shots, and cutting them all down.
The problem for Lucasarts is that adventures don't sell nowadays. Even the best ones. Grim Fandango was a financial failure. But I guess with all the money Lucas is making from Episode 3 he can afford a loss here or there.
Brian Ellenberger
Gosh I love those guys.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
Just been to the site, your shameless self-promotion is what should feature more in this LucasArts thread...
I like the site a lot, and it sure as hell beats waiting for LucasArts and sequels, and is harmless fun (i.e. Please don't sue me.) to boot.
Lets just hope it doesn't become too popular, the /. effect alone would be enough to knock off any fake barf off the side of the computer case (if there was one).
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
It's due first quarter 2004
This is the Video Game Industry's way of saying, "We haven't actually started yet."
Kind thoughts do not change the world
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
=-=-=
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
The Secret of Monkey Island, of course.
-----
Score 3? For what? Being wrong, at length? - smirkleton
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
How about linux on my Sharp Zaurus, does that count? I have sound, save games and all the treasure of Melee Island(TM) in the Palm of my hand.
More Info
Ciao!
The Doctor What (KF6VNC)
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.
There are some products that are available for Windows such as Pillars of Garendall, and others like Escape Velocity Nova are being ported by 3rd party companies (in this case Contraband Entertainment).
The unique thing about Ambrosia is that they've managed to survive for so long despite being a Mac-only shareware company. The quality of their games is better the a lot of standard offerings out there, and the openness of their architeture encourages fan-created mods and add-on scenarios. I just wish there were more companies like them out there.
... but does it use the Doom 3 Engine? :)
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Who isn't?
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
I think it's great that LucasArts is creating sequals to these games, but new gamers will have absolutely no idea what they're playing a sequal to. You cannot go back and play these games without building a computer specifically for the task, or using the SCUMM engine, which LucasArts is trying to sue out of existence.
While I look forward to these releases, the sad fact is this is a long time comming. It's just further evidence to me that someone making decisions at LucasArts just 'doesn't get it'. This seems like a move by a company struggling to release a good product. I'm sure they have no shortage of money with all their star wars releases, but they've been really letting their fans down in the last 5 or 6 years with BOATLOADS of crappy games all based on Star Wars, and nothing original at all.
I hope this move begins a new day at LucasArts, where they diversify their game line a bit, perhaps stop being so sue-happy, and maybe even write their own emulator to run their games in windows operating systems, so new gamers can learn why we all liked LucasArts so much in the past. I feel bad for anyone who hasn't had the chance to play The Dig, DOTT, Sam & Max, or Full Throttle, or any of the Monkey Island games.
Loom was definately a great game. An interesting experiment with the single-click interface too.
I still chuckle about the multimedia intro - that come on an audio cassette tape. How far we come... but I guess that makes it more of an effective demonstration that the technology of the game isn't the most important thing.
(BTW... I remember that supposedly if you beat the game on the hardest mode (without notes on the distaff and without the distaff lighting up) you got a special ending or something... tried it but it didn't seem to work for me, was that just a rumor>)
(first, this is old news people. I saw concept drawings of this @ E3)
Tim Schafer was the gamedesigner who was behind most of Lucasarts adventure games, sadly he left Lucasarts after making "Grim Fandango"(best game ever btw, no contest) to create his own company(Which havent created anything yet).
Anyone ever seen Tim and or read/hear him interviewed, know without a doubt that "Tim" is a nutty charecter.
The latest monkey island certainly was good, but it lacked the distinct nuttyness of Tim. Most of the funny-stuff in the last monkey, was actually "recycled" from the older games.
Tim came up with stuff like insult swordfighting, for the first title. In the second title, it was spitting contests and more. Plus he created a shiteload of memorable charecters.
In the newest one(who lacked tim), we have insult armwrestling. And most of the charecters are just taken from the first three titles.
With that said, Monkey 4 was great. "Moooonkey cooooombat" still cracks me up (the look like complete idiots when fighting/dancing with eachother), and certainly they still have alot of creative people @ lucasarts.
But, i played ALL lucasarts Adventures. From Tentacle and up, and Monkey4 defently lacked alot in the wackyness department.
I fear that Sam and Max without Tim is like Monty Phyton with out John Cleese. Which just wouldnt be right.
Where can you get the Familiar (iPaq) port? It sounds like the *perfect* time-waster!
"The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth." -- Bene Gesserit Precept
I bought this game way back when. Just dusted off my copy from the attic and wondered how to go about installing in on WinXP or Linux. I'm guessing the files are compressed and the installer would usually go about unpacking them, so how do I do it without DOS (no, I'm not about to blow away my HD to install DOS6 ;-)
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
for the Mac OS X users out there..
/
http://www.lucasarts.com/companystore/archives1
I see no reason why these games wouldn't play in Classic mode on Mac OS X - however, i'll have to update you later..
actually.. what's really funny is that these are the perfect games for a Blue Box window, instead of a full screen implimentation Classic.. that way, i could play the games in the corner of the screen and still see if i got email.
or.. maybe i'll just buy the PC versions and play them in a VirtPC window.. hmm... now i have no idea what to do. crap.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
More info about the series can be found here. A trade paperback exists, but I don't know where you can find it.
It might have been a great game, if it had ever run properly on my computer.
As it was, the action scenes flat out didn't work, and eventually I got to a spot where I couldn't go any further.
LucasArts' games were not exactly the most reliable, or maybe it was just the state of the OS they were running on.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
"I fear that Sam and Max without Tim is like Monty Phyton with out John Cleese."
Uh, you do know that John Cleese left Monty Python, right? He didn't appear in the 4th series at all.
There's an .ipk on the ScummVM download site. http://scummvm.sourceforge.net/downloads.php
I don't know if it works with Famliar, but as long as you have SDL you're in business.
- Ian
Quest for Glory 3: Finest. Adventure. Ever.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.