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Last Screenshots of Sam & Max 2 Online

DasJan writes "German website Adventure-Treff.de got hold of the last available screenshots of Sam & Max 2, the recently cancelled adventure game. The last 10 images in this gallery are the screens that LucasArts gave out to print magazines around the world to accompany their previews. Some of them are completely new, others were only available in blurry scans. They are probably the last thing we ever see of our beloved duo." Seems like an awful lot of work to scrap. I wouldn't be surprised if the game is resurrected in another form someday, but for now, these images are all we have.

21 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. A mirror for you hippie scum by Mr.+Darl+McBride · · Score: 4, Funny
    Darl gives you a mirror.

    You now owe Darl your allegience, $690, and a straight face when he makes press releases saying silly things about IBM and Groklaw.

    ~Darl

  2. Its always a tragedy by Pxtl · · Score: 2, Insightful

    when an upcoming game gets redlighted. You have to wonder how many games never see the light of day, near completion, just to be completely thrown out and abandoned because the marketing people didn't think it would be viable.

    Which isn't to say they wouldn't be right. Still, I always wonder what would have come of the StarCon game for the playstation (yes, it was made without Toys For Bob, but I was still curious).

    1. Re:Its always a tragedy by Pxtl · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, the story on this one is well known - Mario 2 was two different games. The first game was a literal sequel to Mario 1. A hard, nasty, continuation of Super Mario 1 that had the same graphics and most of the same gameplay (except for a handful of very clever ideas).

      Nintendo of America found that unacceptable. They wanted it to be something big, not just an expansion pack. So they had them convert another, in development game into Mario II. IMHO, it was a good idea - the new Mario 2 was an excellent game, and the original mario 2 game was incredibly difficult and really aimed at hardcore mario players.

      The original Mario 2 was released in the west in the Super Mario Allstars set as Super Mario: The Lost Levels for the SNES. If you want an impossibly hard Mario 1 fix, look into it.

  3. Oh man! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    look at max, he is so damn cute!
    If I only could kick his annoying ass again or put him in the toaster or something :(

  4. Maximum Sam by MiceHead · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Durn it. I often find a DVD director's commentary every bit as interesting as a movie, itself. I wish Lucasarts would release what they had, along with a postmortem/commentary. Aside from being a fan of the original, I'd like to see where the sequel production went "wrong," and try to pick the thing apart.

    Hell, I'm probably in the minority, but I'd be willing to pay for such a thing.

    1. Re:Maximum Sam by Dimensio · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'd like to see where the sequel production went "wrong," and try to pick the thing apart.

      Based upon comments from Steve Purcell (who was overseeing the game development), it seems that production went "wrong" when Lucasarts realised that they could make more money by just shoveling out purile Star Wars crap rather than investing in a quality title.

      There is no evidence that the game was having problems in development.

  5. Getting my hopes up by ElusiveSpoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hopefully after the slurry of Star Wars episode III games that come out, LucasArts will realize that there aren't anymore games that they can give a face lift, and slap the Star Wars name on, then out of desperation will give us Sam & Max. In reality, they'll probably just release Mercenaries 2.

  6. why? by xmple · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why did they cancel sam & max 2?
    it looked promising, and for me it was the start of lucasart's comeback

    I hope they reconsider, maybe some e-mails to pr@lucasarts.com will help...

    --
    Time is the only precious thing I've got left; Don't waste it
    1. Re:why? by superjaded · · Score: 2, Insightful
      ignoring the fact that there's always a market for good games.
      Yeah, just look at Beyond Good & Evil; as great and unique as the game was, it probably set a record for dropping down to bargain bin prices. And I doubt UbiSoft selling bundles of Splinter Cell with Prince of Persia happened because they wanted boost SC's sales.

      Some games don't make it farther than the "niche" market, and I can't think of a recent point and click adventure game (as much as I miss them) that has really gotten the recognition comparable to the recognition games like King's Quest or the like probably got back in the day. There is definitely a market for anything, it just matters whether the company believes it's cost effective to cater to that market or not. Sadly, LucasArts felt it wasn't cost-effective, and I probably would have to agree with them.

      Of course, the game was already cancelled by the time I had even heard about it, but I guess that's the only reason I can look at what happened fairly objectively. However, the original Sam & Max was a great game and I would have loved to play the sequal, rather than the three hundredth iteration of Star Wars (all right, I don't actually play any Star Wars games so I guess it doesn't matter much ;/).
  7. Sigh by Reapy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Would have bought this no questions asked. It also would have been a great game to introduce my gf to pc gaming. Going to have to dig out the old ones instead.

  8. Death of a dream? No more adventure games. by bludstone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ive been a long time fan of adventure games, and I was saddened to hear sam and max 2 was cancelled. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

    I sent an email to pr@lucasarts.com questioning their motives, explaining my past fandom, and informing them that I will never be buying a lucasarts game again. Ever.

    Ive done it already. Ive experienced the trench run and blown up the death star, Ive saved the Emperor from rebel scum. Ive blasted my way through scores of imperial storm troopers. No more. Its done and boring.

    Sam and Max 2 looked fun, unique, and a revival of my 2nd favorite gaming genre. But no. I got spat on. Forget it lucasarts, Im tired of your games. Youve got enough competition making enough quality games that I simply do not have a need for you any longer. Congradulations, youve killed my starwars fandom through repetative mediocrity and baseless consumerism. (Not to mention shoddy writing)

    Now, if youll excuse me, Im going to go play Monkey Island 2 again, its been a few years. Yay ScummVM.

    Anyone have any good links for NEW adventure games?

    --

    no .sig
  9. Starwars the adventure game. by bludstone · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Use the force to levitate this chicken-with-a-pulley-in-the-middle."

    Or.

    "There is no three-headed-monkey." *waves hand* "There is no three-headed-monkey."

    --

    no .sig
  10. Why now??? by OneFix+at+Work · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If the marketing folks really didn't think the game was viable anymore, why not release the game in its current form through their web site???

    I mean, if it is so close to completion, they should be able to do a little last-minute debugging (a couple of weeks at most), put it up for sale through mail and state clearly that the game is unfinished and no future patches are planned.

    It's interesting to note that LucasArts also recently canceled Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels...another game that was clearly close to completion...

    The real question should be, why is LucasArts canceling projects so close to their completion dates???

    1. Re:Why now??? by inkless1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Old engineering adage:

      the last 10% of the project can take 90% of the time.

      "Nearly complete" is a poor estimate of "Time to Completion". I assume games are similar.

  11. Let's be honest here by Erik+K.+Veland · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Those concept sketches look a helluva lot more intriguing than those sloppy 3D-renders. Why can't the gaming-industry take a hint from the movie-industry here? Not everything is better with 3D.

    --
    "I tend to think of OS X as Linux with QA and Taste", James Gosling, creator of Java
  12. More adventure games... everybody post your faves! by raygundan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I asked this very question in the last article we had about this cancellation, with nearly the same bitch-and-moan you have. Now that I'm all growed up with a job, I can afford to buy adventure games by the dozen. But they just aren't there. My girlfriend bemoans her selling of her Kings' Quest and Hero's Quest collections-- she said "I never thought those would be the last Adventure games made."

    So, for everybody out there, here's a list of what I've found to keep me amused so far:

    1. Everything ScummVM plays. You've probably played a good number of these, but I'm sure it's not all of them. Broken Sword I and II are good, and I haven't made my way around to Beneath a Steel Sky or Flight of the Amazon Queen yet, both released as freeware by their original authors to the ScummVM team. Buy the ones still being sold new, like Broken Sword and Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2 to encourage "good behavior" from game companies.

    2. Sequels to ScummVM games that ScummVM can't run yet-- things like Broken Sword III, Monkey Island 4, and Grim Fandango.

    3. New things you've never heard of, but are still being sold new-- this is the best bet. Runaways: a Road Adventure (available new), Wyrmkeep's remade Inherit the Earth (may be in a future scummvm version, from peeking in CVS), Gilbert Goodmate for the PocketPC, Syberia 1 and 2, etc... Check out justadventure.com for news.

    4. Stuff you haven't heard of but isn't still for sale-- this can be tricky, finding things on ebay or abandonware sites. A friend clued me into one he'd played when younger, now available as abandonware: Amazon: Guardians of Eden. I've heard good things about I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, but don't have a copy yet. I've also turned up websites about a couple of Discworld adventure games that sound excellent, and the first two also seem to be available as abandonware. There is a third that is still for sale, so if you download the other two BUY THE ONE THAT'S STILL BEING SOLD.

    Remember-- if you don't buy the ones that are for sale, companies will keep right on assuming the market doesn't exist for these games.

    For old DOS games that don't work with ScummVM, NAGI, FreeSCI, or the like, there's always DOSBox, which does an excellent job of making your shiny new PC pretend that it's old and crappy to make the games run.

    Anyway, that's what I know. Anybody got anything else?

  13. To all the so-called adventure fans by AvantLegion · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I hope those of you bemoaning the death of adventure games have been playing titles like The Longest Journey and Syberia.

    Those that don't are part of the problem. If you don't support the great adventure games from smaller publishers, you'll show big publishers exactly why they shouldn't release an adventure game.

  14. Some more "where to buy" links: by raygundan · · Score: 2, Informative

    An addendum to my previous post:

    Buy Simon the Sorcerer 1, 2, and 3D

    Found out that Harlan Ellison's site has I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream the computer game for $32.

    Lucasarts has a few of their classics still for sale, buried deeply on their site: Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, a 3.5-pack with Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Sam & Max hit the Road (the full Maniac Mansion game is included in Day of the Tentacle, hence the .5), Escape From Monkey Island, Curse of Monkey Island, and a Mega Monkey Bundle with Monkey Island 1-4 (look for promo link under Escape from Monkey Island).

    Broken Sword III

    Broken Sword I and II are still for sale here and there-- I couldn't find a good link. I did, however, find that Revolution (who makes these games) has released Lure of the Temptress along with Beneath a Steel Sky.

    Beneath a Steel Sky and Flight of the Amazon Queen for download from ScummVM. Also, re-coded cutscenes for Broken Sword I and II to get the video working in ScumMVM.

  15. Also, a place to get Broken Sword I and II by raygundan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Broken Sword I and II for sale from sold-out.co.uk. Says they ship worldwide.

    There's also an amazingly good port of Broken Sword I for the GBA. If you have a GBA, I highly recommend it-- it's really well done.

  16. Don't just send email... by Dimensio · · Score: 3, Informative

    Email is cheap. Send SNAIL MAIL

    Send the mail to
    Mike Nelson, Acting General Manager and VP of Operations
    LucasArts
    P.O. Box 10307
    San Rafael, CA 94912

    I recommend strongly, however, that you word your letter in a somewhat professional fashion. That means using proper grammer, spellchecking, punctuation, full words (never use 'u' for 'you', etc) and an appropriate letter format, either block or indent style. Even if you wish to keep the tone of your letter negative (as I did), avoid profanity.

    You can see one of the later revisions of the letter that I sent at this URL:
    http://forums.adventuregamers.com/showthread .php?t =2399
    (note that the final letter that went out is slightly different, though not available online).

    You can find examples of the proper formatting for business letters at
    http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/BusinessL ette r.html

    Be sure to include your address at the top (as indicated) and your full name at the bottom.

    You can find examples of the proper formatting for envelopes at
    http://jobsearchtech.about.com/library/bl-busi ness -envelope.htm

  17. Petition by Flyboy+Connor · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is an online petition to complete this game. Only just over 8000 signatures yet, but maybe it can be slashdotted.