Udvarnoky

Abandonware is basically a meaningless term used to justify piracy. Technically speaking the unauthorized distribution of software that is merely unavailable qualifies as piracy, but I'm not personally going to begrudge anybody obtaining Grim Fandango the only way they can while its copyright owner spends fifteen years determining whether or not it would be profitable enough an endeavor to simply make it available by legal means.

On Steam, there's a LucasArts Adventure Pack for $9.99 that includes the four non-Monkey Island games I mentioned above, and the two Monkey Island special editions are $9.99 a piece. Buy them. And when/if Disney re-releases the rest, be sure to buy those. Take the above steps and you can probably pirate the out-of-print LucasArts adventures and still be kind of an honest man. (Frankly, I would advise anyone who wants to play Loom to buy the Steam version and then immediately pirate the original EGA version for appropriate purism. I also don't care for the fact that the Last Crusade on Steam is the VGA version yet somehow only includes PC speaker sound. Then there's the FM-Town versions of Zak and Loom which are arguably the definitive versons of each game yet I would still insist on the older versions. I am very weird when it comes to that.)

Monkey Island 1 and 2 (because of the Special Editions), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and The Dig were made available on Steam before LucasArts fucked off. All the rest of the adventure games must either be purchased second-hand or pirated to be played until Disney finally answers some prayers. Am I overlooking some still in-print international releases, anyone?

Yeah, that's basically it. It's still a very good adventure game and the idea of skipping it altogether is very silly to me.

It'll be useful to know which version of each game you end up obtaining, Zeusthecat. With these older games especially, the difference between versions can be profound graphically and in the case of Loom in content as well. In the case of Maniac Mansion, your choices are essentially the "original" PC version (I'm lumping C64/Apple II into "PC" here), the "enhanced" PC version, and the NES version. I would avoid the original version, since the enhanced version is plenty crude enough from an art standpoint and 100% accurate to the original warts-and-all gameplay. The NES version is a rather unique and well-made port, but since it came out in 1990 and adopted a few of the lessons of the MI interface I'd say play it only after the fact if you have the urge simply in the interest of getting to see the engine's evolution play out as it actually happened. Visual supplements: Original Graphics Enhanced Graphics Nintendo Entertainment System Famicom (Japanese NES) (Doesn't even use SCUMM!)

I'm going to go against the consensus and say play all the pre-Monkey Island 1 titles starting with Maniac Mansion, even if it's just to clear them all in an afternoon-long binge session with walkthroughs in hand.

The worst LucasArts adventures (Zak and The Dig for me) are a damn sight better than mediocre. I like Last Crusade quite a lot. Zak McKracken I appreciate in a mostly academic sense, but I admire its scope and it's definitely got the imagination and humor to be recognizable as a LucasArts title. The puzzles are a nightmare, but everything's relative: while Zak is excessively crude coming off of Monkey Island, Zak is basically Monkey Island compared to its contemporaries. You pretty much have to familiarize yourself with the genre's output at the time to fully appreciate Zak. When I played it I was still fairly new to adventure games, so even though I found it impossible, I had a lot of fun with it before inevitably giving up. And that self-contained bit on the airplane where you repeatedly plague the vexed stewardess with catastrophe is a classic puzzle and vintage LEC.

I personally would happily stalk such threads so that I could vicariously enjoy these games for the first time.

I understand this completely. Sometimes you buy into the game's world so much because it's just that good that the shortcomings shrink in relevance. It's the point I was trying to argue in A Vampyre Sory's favor in that game's thread. I think comparisons to that game and The Dig are very apt. Heck, even Grim Fandango, which on some days of the week is my favorite, is a bit inferior from a design standpoint than some other LEC titles for my money, but the game is so good it makes you feel like an asshole for dwelling on anything else.

The back-tracking complaint is certainly fair enough, but I think the puzzles in Fate of Atlantis (mazes, firing the torpedo, not to mention brutal back-tracking once you reach the lost city that MI2 can hardly compete with) and Sam & Max (golf retriever + magnet + twine ball) are generally more sinister. Day of the Tentacle is just aces.

Understand that by limiting yourself to LucasArts adventures you're basically experiencing the absolute best of a genre where awful games are probably the overwhelming majority, but yeah, the experience of a truly great graphic adventure game is basically incomparable.

I personally agree, but I'm just going from the experience that the games I've listed have a negligible amount of detractors. Hit the Road earns a bit of flak for some truly cruel puzzles and a rough middle section pacing-wise. It's still indispensable.

There's some bullshit puzzles in the first two Monkey Island's, but overall and comparatively? No way.

Yeah, you can't possibly comprehend how much of a blast you're about to have, although MI2, if it's not the best, definitely vies for the throne. While the pre-MI1 games are certainly cruder in design as well as tech, my possibly unpopular suggestion would be to start with Maniac Mansion and play them all (there are fourteen including MI1 and MI2) in the order of release, and simply walkthroughing the ones that aren't doing it for you so that you can at least experience the stories. (Resorting to this with Zak McKracken will elicit especially little ire.) It's worth it. If you're not up for the whole catalog and only want the undisputed classics, you cannot go wrong with Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Monkey Island 3 or Grim Fandango. But seriously, play them all before you die.

Are the Monkey Island games your introduction to LucasArts graphic adventures?

I'm not seeing a whole lot of attention for this, regrettably. Cliff Notes version: with the sequel rights to A Vampyre Story tied up with a publisher that isn't funding it, Bill Tiller (of The Curse of Monkey Island fame) is turning to Kickstarter to try to develop an independent, episodic prequel. The goal is $200,000 for the first (self-contained) episode, due out in the fall. Others could follow if extra money is raised, but even the initial goal is looking tough right now. It's got a charming video and some great rewards, so I hope they're able to pull a rabbit out. Give it your sympathy: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/876324751/a-vampyre-story-year-one

Perhaps, but I think you'd be pretty confused to believe that it didn't still come down to money. The story that I infer is that when AVS1 went over budget, the publisher (who had signed both games, which were to be back-to-back productions) essentially viewed that as money deducted from AVS2's budget. So from the developer's perspective, AVS2 had its funding cut off, and from the publisher's perspective, the budget allocated for the dual productions was exhausted and a game was paid for that wasn't delivered. Since the publisher nonetheless retains AVS2's rights, the two parties have been slowly trying to work out a business arrangement for completing the game that probably involves Autumn Moon putting up some of the dough itself. Those conclusions are guesswork, but I base them on a decent amount of public evidence. Anyway, real reason I bumped this is to point out that even with ten days left and the goal not even being flirted with, Bill http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/876324751/a-vampyre-story-year-one/posts/514906'>made a new update that baffling implies hope that this can can still succeed. And this: I have a mental image of Bill's kids being assigned a day of the week in which they're permitted to eat.

You're on the right track; here's the straight-up spoiler to come back to in case you remain stuck, although I hope you toil a bit more first. Also, just for fun, try to repeatedly "Pick up" Kate. One of the game's less obvious gags.

When the bartender offered you near-grog originally, he stopped himself when he recalled that he'd sold the last of it to Captain Kate Capsize...

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/p857l/please_lucasarts/c3nkqn2'>Potential insight into some of the more "eh" art aspects of the Monkey Island remakes.

I'm quite envious of someone playing through Monkey Island 2 for the first time.

If you can complete the game on your own in any amount of time, you are good.

Ugh. I'm crestfallen by the idea of A Vampyre Story being casually slotted into the same quality category as, well, 90% of adventure games, but perception is reality I suppose. On a related note, this Kickstarter has screeched to a complete stop. You're behind the eight ball from the off when you pitch a prequel to an unfinished story, but cripes, I was rather greedily hoping this would summon something better than 3% of what Dreamfall Chapters did. I pity Bill. Glad to see some Insecticide love. Ahern/Levine actually indicated the possibility of a graphic adventure sequel to the game, rather than the completion of the second "bisode" (which I imagine is good and dead now), but I've heard nothing at all on that IP lately.

I remember you making a similar point when we were all examining the corpse of Psychonauts' expensive yet ultimately useless marketing campaign at the hands of Majesco. You pointed out that despite the "wackiness" of the game (which along with the pre-celebrity marquee "Tim Schafer" seemed to be the entire throughline of the campaign), the game was in fact infused with compelling "inlets" like being able to stomp around a city as a Godzilla-sized giant or setting things on fire with your mind, that might have been more profitably played up when it came time to connect with the broader audience, and were certainly not included in the game by Schafer and co. in the first place accidentally. I think if Double Fine appears less concerned with this nowadays, it might be that they don't need to be. The fact that all of their games have been turning a modest profit is a pretty clarifying statistic, as is the money Massive Chalice appears to have almost effortlessly raised. There's apparently enough people who want to see something weird-looking from this particular team of developers. They might do well to pursue the balance you speak of but on the other hand, what they've seemingly pulled off right now - being able to make the games they want and making enough from them to keep the lights on - is pretty much the whole objective. They did it.

I don't know what's so bad about the design of either game. The dialog being pretty lame and relentless at times, especially in AVS, is basically what it all comes down to. How bad this drags the game down is going to vary from person to person, but certainly there's more to the game than the backgrounds or the dialog. I've loved the characters, setting, soundtrack and general storyline, and the puzzle design is certainly passable at absolute worst. Whether or not some pretty groan-inducing and belabored patter is enough to ultimately make "mediocre" occupy the right side of the equal sign is going to have to be the result of personal calculus. I personally think both crush down to some pretty solid graphic adventure games.