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Jul 1, 2006

Gamer Rant - Lucas Arts Adventure Games

Remember the golden age of point and click adventure games, when Lucas Arts reined supreme and it wasn’t because of all their millions of Star Wars titles. An era when adventure games didn’t suck and the plots actually made you want to play the game. Ah, the good ol’ days. But if these were the golden days of point and click, then when exactly is Lucas Arts going to get off their butts and start making these kinds of game again?

I grew up in the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System and PC gaming, when every gamer was playing titles like King’s Quest and The Secret of Monkey Island. Out of all of these games, the gems that stood out the most for me were the Lucas Arts titles which were able to stand out from the crowd due to their extremely fun plots and wicked humor. Cartoon graphics, slap-stick comedy and goofy characters with quick wits made these games instant classics.

Even now I find myself wishing that Lucas Arts would re-release some of the old titles so that we could play them on updated systems, but I would probably be better off to download cracked versions of the games, and play them on the computer with the help of SCUMM software, because I don’t see the company re-releasing any of these games any time before Hell freezes over. Worst of all, Lucas won’t release the copyright on these games, so you can’t even find them on Abandon ware sites for download. Fine, hold the copyrights all you want, but do something with the games!

As for new titles, Lucas Arts has been claiming for years now that they were going to make a new Sam and Max title, but still nothing has even been started. They did release a new Monkey Island title back in 2001, but it was 3D and really wasn’t that great. I’m still yet to finish the bugger. I mean does the company not realize that there is still a market for their adventure games, and not just in the old titles, but in new games with the old characters. I would kill to play Day of the Tentacle again or even the first Monkey Island.

George Lucas, if you’re reading this (there’s a slim chance, but what the hell…), then listen up: it’s time to release the old Lucas Arts adventure games for a new generation and for the old fans of the games. I expect to see Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, Grim Fandango, the Indiana Jones Series, the Monkey Island series, and any other Lucas Arts adventure titles you wanna throw in for the hell of it on selves within the next two years. I also want to see some new titles in these series within the next 5 years. We, your undying fans, demand new titles to play, and none of this 3D crap; only side scrolling point and click games will do. If Sid Meiser’s Pirates make a comeback as a remake, then certainly these games can do it too. Don’t let such great games continue to rot in your archives, when there are probably thousands upon thousands of gamers wanting to play these classics.

For a trip down memory lane, visit The LucasArts Museum site.

If anyone else agrees with me, please feel free to comment on this post. I wanna know that I’m not alone in my love for these classic games.

11 comments:

MC said...

I miss Maniac Mansion(the original NES version of the game mind you, not the censored one). I loved how many different ways you could solve problems depending on the characters you used.

Hector said...

I wish I could play again games like DUNE for PC. (I'm a real time strategy PC games fan) All I have now is Tiberian Sun from the command and conquer series. Some of the other games from the series can't be reinstalled because I have a newer dell system that won't allow me to run these games. Besides that I have never been able to play this game online because I have never find anyone hooked up at the westood servers, that sucks. Now I don't even bother to install internet components.

Anonymous said...

actually Sam and Max are not dead, its just that Lucas Arts is no longer the ones publishing the game. The creater of Sam and Max teamed up with a site called Telltale games and is publishing Sam and max as a serial game series: http://www.telltalegames.com/samandmax/

just thought I'd let you know. I to miss the adventure games. :(

Super Edco said...

Amen!

It'd be keen if LucasArts looked beyond their Star Wars muscle to devote a little time, money, and creativity to more original games. Thier latest blockbusters may look flashy, but to me they lack any real gameplay... and fun.

Man those days of Monkey Island sure were great. I remember it specifically for being the first game to make me laugh out loud, and not just a chuckle!

MC said...

Well, I wouldn't mind seeing another Mercenaries game... that is a good property.

Anonymous said...

Hear hear! Revival of the point-and-click adventure and resurrection of the genre's classics! I'm ready to join the battle! (There is a battle right? Or a quest perhaps? A quest would be fine too.)

Moncton Nerd said...

I agree that adventure games are an overlooked genre. There are some companies still making them, but they usually don’t compare to the works produced by Lucas Arts and Sierra. To me those two companies were truly masters of adventure game design.

I remember my first Lucas Arts game back on the Commodore 64. It was Maniac Manson and I enjoyed the game because of its combination of cartoon like graphics and comedy. Later when I purchased my first IBM compatible computer, the Tandy 1000 TL2, I got a chance to explore more of the offerings from Sierra and Lucas Arts. My first IBM game was Sierra’s Space Quest 2 and my first IBM Lucas Arts game was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I never did finish it though as I could never get past the 3 trials at the end. (Kept losing my head no matter what I did)

My two most favorite Lucas Arts adventure games\series were “The Dig” and the Monkey Island series. As for Sierra my two most favorite series were the Leisure Suit Larry series and the Space Quest series. Unfortunately these series have been all but forgotten. Granted they did release a new Leisure Suite Larry game, but I would not call it an adventure game per say as it was more of an annoying mini game ridden piece of crap that was “re-imagined” and made without any input from the original creator (Al Lowe). It featured Larry’s nephew in college instead of Larry himself and everything you did in the game required you to play stupid mini games that detracted your attention from the game itself making you miss some moderately funny scenes. Overall though the series has been abandoned as what they are passing off as Larry is not the Larry I grew up playing and many other great game series are being ignored completely..

Thanks to die hard fans though there is a new Space Quest game in the works which will be offered for free by it’s creators. Also other games like Maniac Mansion and King’s Quest have been remade with newer adventure game engines for use with current hardware while keeping the original feel and gameplay of the originals. I myself am even working on an all new adventure game which hopefully will recapture some of the feel and comedic atmosphere of the days gone by. Granted it is still a long way from being finished as it is still in the planning stage.

I agree with you that if they don’t want to do anything with their older games and they don’t want to sell them anymore they should at least release them for free so those of us that still enjoy them can play them again.
Hummm.. this is becoming a blog entry in itself. I think I will add more to this and post it on my own blog later this week.

Anonymous said...

Good article and well written.

Of course, use ScummVM to play the old Lucas Arts classics and DOSBox to play the rest. :)

I just dug my old Lucas Arts games out of storage and am setting up an old computer to play them. YES.

Anonymous said...

I loved LucasArts and Sierra games...especially the Monkey Island games and the Maniac Mansions (Day of the Testacle being my all-time fav). And mixed up mother goose, despite the fact it's made for 8 year olds haha.

There's a group of gamers who completely redid a few old Sierra games, with updated graphics, and in the case of King's Quest 2, actual new story elements. They used to call themselves 'Tierra', but now they go under the name AGDI. I found it all highly impressive when I found the site this year, since they don't seem like amateur work at all....were this 1990, I'd think the games were made by Ms. Williams herself....here's the link, where you can download the game reproductions for free:

http://www.agdinteractive.com/

Also, I have a pile of old Adventure games stored on my old computer. If you want me to try email you one or two, I'd be happy to do that for you. A lot of the Sierra ones (aka LSL) require a copy of the old instruction manual in order to open certain screens though, so be warned - it's an old school piracy protection thing, as i'm sure you know. If you were to get any, you'd want to make sure you found a .pdf of the manual first, as you'll just get frustrated 25 minutes in otherwise. I have LSL 7 burned as well, if you're into more modern ag's.....I'm not sure how I'd get that to you though.

Anonymous said...

We should really start a petition to get some of these games re-made! Full Throttle, Day of The Tentacle, Sam and Max, Monkey Island. These are classic titles, and still far more playable than most games of today, and they are games where you actually 'think' about what you have to do. I'm so annoyed that they cancelled the new Sam and Max and Full Throttle. It's a disgrace.

BJWanlund said...

I completely agree with you.

I'd certainly like to see George Lucas be a bit less greedy and grasping with his copyrights on earlier LucasArts titles, period.

I have NO idea how that greedy bastard is able to sleep at night knowing how greedy he's been with the copyrights on earlier LA titles.

BJ