A tribute to LucasArts classics

man..
today I've been playing monkey island all day

Ron Gilbert's humor at its best
one of the (very) few non-japanese vg programmer that could be considered original or a genius

only FF7 and Xenogears, recently, succeded to give me the same emotions as those pieces of artwork did 10-15 years ago

I've only played two games on this list, Maniac Mansion and Zack McKracken, yet I love both. But I'll have to go with MM. Greatest storyline ever, tuna head.

I also had no idea there was a Maniac Mansion 2.

genjiglove said:

I also had no idea there was a Maniac Mansion 2.

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MM2: days of the tentacle

well yeah.....not a classic
but I put it anyway along with Full Throttle and Sam&Max
to avoid the usual and annoying:"I cant believe you didnt put it", "why is this not in the list"

Ah, now I have heard of Day of the Tentacle. I didn't know it was a MM sequal though. I might have to track a copy down now.

Day of the Tentacle ALL THE WAY!


Damn, that game was so much fun and so damn funny, we pretty much played it all day at work for weeks when it came out (and got pretty much nothing else done ).

As much as Maniac Mansion, DOTT, Sam and Max, and the first three Monkey Island games were good (why isn't three on this list?), I have to say that The Dig was the best. Out of them all but Loom, it was the most serious. Funny parts? Sure, but it was NOT a comedy. Just a few inside jokes here and there.... The story, music, and voice acting were badass. I love the game even still.

Old Lucas Arts adventure games are what great gaming is all about. Fun times!

Spike

Anyone know where I might get some of these games? I havent' played Zack McKracken since I was about 10 years old.

Sam N' Max was the best, with Day of the Tentacle an insanely close second. Everything just felt so natural with those games. Full Throttle felt, at times, forced.

Maniac Mansion was the first adventure game I ever played, and I still remember my cousin showing me how to fry the hamster. I was like, "What the Hell is this game?!!!"

Where's Grim Fandango? It can rightly be called a classic by now, and that game was incredible.

Spike Spiegel said:

As much as Maniac Mansion, DOTT, Sam and Max, and the first three Monkey Island games were good (why isn't three on this list?), I have to say that The Dig was the best. Out of them all but Loom, it was the most serious. Funny parts? Sure, but it was NOT a comedy. Just a few inside jokes here and there.... The story, music, and voice acting were badass. I love the game even still.

Old Lucas Arts adventure games are what great gaming is all about. Fun times!

Spike

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Yeah man, IMO all four Monkey Island games are great and of course Loom is great. I need go get these out and play them again.

Loom owns. THe game combines some of my greatest passions: music, hoods, and weaving. OK i could give a shit about weaving, but hoods keep my head warm and give me that "young thug about town" look.

And music? well i think my t-shirt sums it up quite nicely:

(ok i borrowed my g/f's camera and i'm going a little crazy with it. go super happy fun picture time!)

genjiglove said:

Anyone know where I might get some of these games? I havent' played Zack McKracken since I was about 10 years old.

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I ordered the games from Lucas Art's directly about a three years ago. I'm sure they're still for sale. Just go to the website. I ordered over the phone and bought four of them new!

Spike

did any one ever see the Maniac Mansion cartoon or show. on the nes cart it sez to see it on the fammily Channel but never had that Channel so i never saw it did any of you see it

redrum666 said:

did any one ever see the Maniac Mansion cartoon or show. on the nes cart it sez to see it on the fammily Channel but never had that Channel so i never saw it did any of you see it

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I remember it. It sucked horribly.

Also, I just checked their website, and Lucas Arts did have a few of those games, but no Zack McKracken.

When I think of games whose imprint on my conscious mind will never fade, Loom is one of only two PC titles.

Spike Spiegel said:

I ordered the games from Lucas Art's directly about a three years ago. I'm sure they're still for sale. Just go to the website. I ordered over the phone and bought four of them new!

Spike

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Were they the original big box versions, or just in a CD case. Looks like it might be time for a purchase.

funny you made this, I was trying hard to remember that game where you could fry the Hamster (of course, I remembered before you posted this poll)

Maniac Mansion all the way!

buttasuperb said:

Were they the original big box versions, or just in a CD case. Looks like it might be time for a purchase.

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Mind you this is a few years ago, but the big badasses boxes. Just getting it in the mail and seeing it was like "ahh".

Still have the Dig box. Man, good times.

Spike

Spike Spiegel said:

Mind you this is a few years ago, but the big badasses boxes. Just getting it in the mail and seeing it was like "ahh".

Still have the Dig box. Man, good times.

Spike

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Cool, I think I'm gonna buy a game or 2.

They don't have the dig for sale anymore it looks like. And actually I never even heard of that game before.

buttasuperb said:

Cool, I think I'm gonna buy a game or 2.

They don't have the dig for sale anymore it looks like. And actually I never even heard of that game before.

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Darn, you're right. Maybe if you called them? Not sure.

I will explain a bit about The Dig. There will be spoilers. As I said before, this is not a comedy adventure like pretty much every Lucas Arts game before this. It's the same sort of interface as Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, and Sam and Max games. Collect items, talk to people, try to do things, and so on. This game, however, is 100% science fiction.

It starts off with an asteroid coming towards earth, and you and a group of scientist go check it out. Well, one thing leads to another and you and two others are transported to god knows where. A very distant planet to be sure. A seemingly haunted planet, and yet.... deserted. There was much technology here at one time, but now what? How to get home?

Just as you start to explore your new world, one of the crew members has a terrible fall and kills himself. Now it's down to just two of you.... but later, you find some crystal and you bring him back to life.... sort of.

At first, the crystals seem like an miracle! Now all three are back and working to get off the planet again... but not all is as it seems. It would seem that the German fellow that was brought back to life isn't himself, and is more being controlled by these life crystals then being his old self. Almost a zombie, but far too smart at the same time. He is alive and yet he's not.

This is not even halfway through the game. There's some very surprising things that will happen during this game, and some great locations and puzzles along the way. A top notch perfomance in acting if you ask me (what's the name of the T1000 guy? He does the voice of the main character in this one). The story was driven by Steven Spielberg in fact! A lot of thought and time went into the making of this incredible game.

So, if you like science fiction and love the good old Lucas Arts games, I urge you to buy this game. If you can.

Spike

"Percent-sign, ampersand, dollar sign."
"And colon, semicolon too!"
"What are you *bleep*ing doing?!"
"Swearing in longhand, asterisk-mouth."

Sam & Max. Greatest adventure ever. Right down to the Elvis-impersonating country star from Liverpool.

It sucks that they cancelled Sam & Max 2. Especially since they hired the same writers.

Spike Spiegel said:

...Monkey Island games were good (why isn't three on this list?)....

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cause It's a damn joke
It wasn't made by Ron Gilbert, and MI "belongs" to him
It has nothing of the first 2 episodes, especially the crazy humour

MI was originally a trilogy but Ron G. left LucasArts, maybe cause He argued with Lucas or something
who knows what the 3rd episode could have beeni f made by him


oh and thanks for your heads up about the Dig

maybe few know its screenplay was made by S. Spielberg for a movie that was never been filmed
so programmers at LucasArts took it and used it for the game

Zeekade Zarathos said:

Where's Grim Fandango? It can rightly be called a classic by now, and that game was incredible.

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you're right
It's an awesome game

I was doubtful if include it or not
at the end I didn't because

1- It's quite recent (1999)
2- Its mechanics are completely different from old-style adventures
I mean..the SCUMM system (remember?) or mouse' point'n'click

Gotta go with IJ: FoA. Great voice acting (except the mad scientist...ONE THOUSAND BEEEEEEEEEADS!), atmosphere, and plot. The scene in the beginning where you harass Biff the doorman is one of my favorite moments in videogaming ("Drop dead, pumpkin head!").

I didn't care much for Full Throttle. Too short and down-in-the-dumps for me, although I can see why some would like it. I haven't finished MM yet, but I did finish DotT and thought it was pretty fun, if easy. Sam and Max, IMO, is really overrated. Many magazines, in the late 90s, came up with "top 100 games of all time" lists and it often ranked the highest for graphic adventures. The humor was good at times, but the interface annoyed me for some reason (I missed the verbal commands of LucasArts' older titles) and the story didn't hold my interest, but to each their own.

I've only played the 1st Monkey Island (have the first 3 on one "collection" cd and the 4th I bought new for $5). The first act (on Melee Island) was as much fun as I've ever had in a game (gotta love the circus in particular). Act two was a giant drop-off, and I quit playing after wandering around in Act three. Maybe I'll get around to it later, I dunno.

DOTT is so much fun .