The Art of LucasArts
Gamasutra has a piece talking with Michael Rubin about his new book, Droidmaker. From the article: "GS: Why do you think George Lucas saw the importance of games so early, and why was he able to capitalize on it so relatively well? MR: I think he actually didn't see the importance early. He had to be convinced that a games effort wasn't going to be a distraction. Quickly though, he was able to integrate his personal interest with education and using technology to aid in education, with the research going on in the games group. Making video games was only one aspect of that groups' work."
Lucasarts adventure games were and always will be my childhood. You can't beat stuff like Maniac Mansion, Loom, both Indy adventures, the Monkey Island series (excluding 4), Grim Fandango, Zak McKracken, Sam & Max, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, and so forth. The only Star Wars games I care about are the old X-Wing series.