So, LucasArts is shutting down. That’s kind of a big deal to me; so many of my great video game memories are from their games. I really liked their X-Wing/Tie Fighter games and the Dark Forces series was great (the second one where you first got the lightsaber and force powers and had video of live action light saber fights — not seen officially in years — was unbelievable at the time), but their adventure games were the greatest thing ever. Of course, The Secret of Monkey Island is one of the greatest games of all time (the puzzle where you’re stuck underwater weighted by a statue is my favorite adventure game puzzle of all time — I completely fell for that one and it was so hilarious when I figured it out; I actually reference this puzzle in a novel I’m working on). And Sam & Max Hit the Road was the first CD game with voice my brother and I played when we finally got a new computer as kids, and I still reference jokes from that one. And Full Throttle was epic. And Grim Fandango — well, it’s travesty that never got the attention it deserved.
I first learned about adventure games with Sierra — Police Quest, Space Quest, Kings Quest — but LucasArts did them better. I mean, as a young kid, I could not quickly type out commands. Plus, that you could get stuck late in a Sierra game because you missed picking something up in the beginning is just awful. The point and click, no dying, no getting stuck model that LucasArts primarily used was much better and allowed you just to have fun. But the pick-up-everything-not-nailed-down adventure game eventually fell out of favor, and the last one I can recall LucasArts doing was Monkey Island IV which I played back in college. And it just doesn’t seem LucasArts did much significant since then; the last game I really loved of there’s was Knights of the Old Republic
Still, LucasArts will always be remembered for their contribution to gaming. And if you don’t think they’re awesome, all I have to say to you is: “How appropriate. You fight like a cow.”
I’ve seen commentary elsewhere that says this could be a good thing, in the long run, the idea that LucasArts has been stagnant for the last several years, saved only by Lucas’ apathy. However, Disney’s not one to throw money away, so it probably won’t be long before the major pieces of IP are sold/licensed to active development shops. Battlefront 3, anyone?
Someone once said that being an expert a billiards was “a sign of a misspent youth.”
Ah… Oh. And Atari Tank is still my early favorite.
@can of spam:
Battlefront wasn’t developed by Lucasarts, only published. It was developed by Pandemic.
I understand the crowd that remembers the good old days of Lucasarts’ adventure games (Day of the Tentacle!). It’s like giving up your favorite old T-shirt… it doesn’t matter that it smells gross and has holes in it, you’re still remembering that time you wore it to that party in high school and got to third base with with the cute blonde.
But it does smell gross, and it is holey. Lucasarts, I mean. The best Star Wars games of the last decade were made by other people like BioWare (Knights of the Old Republic), Pandemic (Battlefront), or Traveller’s Tales (Lego Star Wars). Heck, even the newest Monkey Island game was made by Traveller’s Tales and only published by Lucasarts.
Not likely that Lucas games will come back anytime soon–Disney’s dumping stuff. Not sure why, since they seem to make money even on dogs like the Oz krep. Maybe not just ENOUGH money. (Well, there was Prince of Persia, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, John Carter, and the upcoming flop with Tonto.)
Too bad — I liked Monkey Islands I & II (didn’t go past that, but not for lack of desire).
I bought a CD-ROM drive back in the day when you had to buy one and put it in yourself. It came with the LucasArts game “Full Throttle”. Awesome awesome game. Still have the disc. It won’t run on my 64-bit PC. 🙁
I’m Guybrush Treepwood and I’m a mighty pirate!
Agreed on all counts. Old LucasArts was amazing, but KOTOR is really their last good game, and luckily that BioWare magic is still more or less alive over there if you can look past Mass Effect 3’s ending.
All the good LucasArts people left years ago to form TellTale (Walking Dead has all the great old LucasArts elements, and more) and Double Fine (Psychonauts 2, plz). Just play their games, and it’s almost as good as revisiting the Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle days.
I had almost forgotten about maniac mansion. I can’t even guess how many hous I spent trying different combos of characters in that game. There are so many subtle jokes in that game. Guess we’ll never get a remake now
What is video and these games you speak of?
FredKey,
Monkey Island 3 was awesome, and they wisely kept the voice cast from that from all talkee version of Monkey Island afterwards (including the special editions of 1 & 2). The weird thing was they had in it an easy mode where the puzzles were easier; never seen that in any other adventure game.
I’ve never seen that either, Frank. Some kinda weird monkey magic.
Monkey Islands I & II were released for the iPhone, but beyond that only Monkey Island Tales from Telltale.
Sad news. My favorite was Outlaw. Unfortunately, I can’t get this antique game to load onto my laptop.
I was always a fan of Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
If they are shutting down it might be a good idea to go to their site and download any of the updates for the old games which might also be enough to get them to play on new systems.
Maybe GOG will have the old ones in a new format, if not now soon…?
I used to work at Babbages software store in the mall back in the 90’s. I got to take home all the games I wanted. I could check them out and play them and re-shrink wrap them and put it back up on the shelf. I went through nearly all the Lucasarts games that were out at the time. Dark Forces was the first 1st person shooter I got into and it gave me such bad vertigo walking across ledges. And I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve poured into x-wing vs tie fighter.