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LucasArts To Re-Release Old Games Through Steam

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-fired-up-x-wing-on-dosbox-just-two-days-ago dept.

LucasArts today announced that they will soon be releasing games from their back catalog through Steam. The releases begin this Wednesday with a group of eight games, including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, The Dig, LOOM, and Star Wars: Battlefront II. This is apparently just "the first round of releases," so we can doubtless expect to see more of their old games before long. Joystiq spoke with LucasArts CEO Darrell Rodriguez, who said the company is considering updated versions of the old games, depending on how well next week's launch of Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition goes. He also hinted at the possibility that some games could be ported to mobile gaming devices, such as the PSP Go and the iPhone.

14 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Worthless humans... by Verteiron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'd love an updated version of Day of the Tentacle.

    That is all.

    --
    End of lesson. You may press the button.
  2. Bring back... by maino82 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tie Fighter! Or any of the same ilk. Updated graphics would be nice, but it would totally be worth going out and buying a joystick if they brought the space sims back even in their original form.

    1. Re:Bring back... by Fallingcow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Careful what you wish for--a modern version would probably be released for consoles, too, and would therefor lack the deep controls that made those games what they were. Shield (and perhaps power management in general) would probably be totally gone, for one thing.

    2. Re:Bring back... by jollyreaper · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Tie Fighter is still one of my absolute favorite games of all time. Even as I upgraded my computer for years I'd make sure I could still play it somehow. Its also the only reason I have a joystick.

      So yes, I'd love to see it come back. I love Tie Fighters version of space combat.

      Get X-Wing Alliance. Seriously. It's the last of the Original Trilogy space games, or so LucasArts pledged when the nuTrilogy was coming out. All the yummy Tie Fighter goodness with a much better story! Worth playing.

      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  3. Nostalga by AdamBv1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    while everyone is feeling nostalgic about their old favorite LucasArts games i would like to point out http://www.gog.com/ for everyones old game pleasure. Lots of our old classic favorites at great prices, DRM free and even works on vista/7.

    1. Re:Nostalga by Hadlock · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The only DRM for dosbox games over steam is the encryption used to send your CC# to Valve. You can take your /dosboxgame directory and play it in linux under dosbox there and it works just fine. Also all of Valve's games work just fine in offline mode. (i.e. Valve auth servers destroyed in a nuclear attack or---heaven forbid the internet goes down for a day). Steam has gone down repeatedly recently with all their steamcloud updates (particularly during major TF2 updates) and nobody notices that steam's not working until they stop getting random unlocks for an hour or two.
       
      So yes, Virginia, you can backup your precious $2.99 dosbox steam-bought games.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
  4. Grim Fandango? by obarel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How can they not give this game the credit it deserves? One of the few games I almost cried when I finished it - it was the perfect game, I just didn't want it to end.

  5. Re:Let me be the first to say... by Dr+Caleb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Childhood memories, here I come."

    Dude, no. If you value those memories, don't. I would love to play 'Full Throttle' again.

    But, I got Novalogic's old pack on Steam last week. I though it would be fun to revisit Armoured Fist 3 and Commanche. It's brutal. They didn't change a thing about the games. 640X480 - hardcoded keyboard commands - NO instructions!

    I should have saved my $20 and fond memories.

    --
    "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
  6. Re:The End Of The Abandonware Golden Age? by CarAnalogy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unlikely...

    The titles you see appearing in places like GOG and Steam are almost all well-known big titles by companies that still exist. This is only a very small part of what most abandonware websites offer. There's a huge number of great games that never gained any real following due to various reasons, or are owned by companies which no longer exist now.

    In short, the real meaning of "abandonware" is exactly what its name implies: software which can be considered abandoned, preferably because there is no (clear) copyright holder anymore.

    Then again, I can probably be considered biased, since I am webmaster of an abandonware site myself :)

  7. What I dont get... by Drakin020 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why not create games based on older models? I mean...Megaman 9 showed us that even legacy games are still desired by older generations.

    Rather that put thought into graphics and such, you could focus your minds on what makes the game fun, and such...

    Me personally, I'd LOVE to see another old school RPG game involving sprites and such.

    There is a market out there, and developers should take advantage of it.

    --
    The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
  8. Re:Excited, but... by Fallingcow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Which, at least for the talkies, I don't think is insulting if they did a decent job setting up whatever compatibility mode or VM they're using.

    They'll probably just use DosBox like the other Dos-era Steam games do.

    I'll pick these things up for $2-$5 a pop on a bargain weekend. $10 is absurd--that's what they sold for in the bargain bin a couple years after they were released. This is many more years later, and they don't have to ship physical media. $5 is about right. Jesus, it's not like they're still trying to cover development costs on these old games--I don't think it's too much to ask that they not get greedy while taking their free money.

  9. Re:Let me be the first to say... by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >NO instructions!

    Thats really inexcusable. I find almost all the steam games I have bought dont have any instructions. How hard is it to load a pdf of the manual or deliver a real help file?

    Steam really has become a ghetto dumping ground for old borderline worthless titles.

  10. Re:Let me be the first to say... by Chyeld · · Score: 4, Informative

    Where have you looked?

    Remember, while Valve is doing the publishing, the developers are doing the packaging.

    Not all of the publishers (or Steam Users) realize that there is an option to let you link the manual to the game so that you can load it by right clicking the game entry. But even then, many of them have the manual avaliable on the actual game's store page if you look on the side bars.

  11. Re:Excited, but... by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I hope they *do* use DOSBox. It's practically guaranteed that you'll be able to run those DOS games without any of Steam's DRM sitting on top of it. Just point your own DOSBox at the data files. I run XCOM: UFO Defense this way.

    Whatever one might say about Steam's DRM scheme and how it's supposed to work or not, I appreciate that I can sidestep the issue completely by running it in my own DOSBox install.