Zeusthecat

The Big LucasArts Playthrough

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I always felt like the song in Trixie's Trailer was somewhat out of place, but I just listened to it now. It feels all 50s

 

Sam and Max Hit the Road has maybe one of the less memorable LucasArts soundtracks outside of the intro, but I've always loved the final song that played during the credits. The version that is on the audio side of the CD is especially good.

 

THIS IS SPOILER AUDIO ZEUS DON'T CLICK IT. THE SONG WILL BE SPOILED. Not that the CD version even plays in game or anything.

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For me so far the music in this game hasn't been anything too spectacular but I sat there in Trixie's trailer for at least 10 minutes last night listening to that song. It really resonated with me for some reason.

 

I also managed to get a little further last night after getting the pants and miniature golf ticket from Trixie's trailer. Since the gator golf place had become unlocked I went straight there and got some more information from the redneck guy at the entrance. I also picked up an extendable golf ball grabber which I quickly discovered I could attach the severed hand to (there was something the redneck guy said that hinted at this) along with either the magnet or the cup. I then went onto the gator golf course and witnessed Max freak out on Conroy Bumpus which resulted in him getting golfed into a dunk tank at the other end of the course.

 

I had to find a way to free Max at this point but there didn't seem to be any way to get to him and hitting golf balls into the various objects and alligators around the course didn't seem to have any effect. After being stuck for a little while I remembered something the redneck guy had said about the alligators needing to be fed. I didn't have any luck when I tried to use the bucket of fish on them but then I realized the obvious similarity between the bucket of fish and the bucket of golf balls I had picked up. Sure enough, cartoon logic came into play and the solution was to put the bucket of fish on the ground where the golf balls were and hit the fish towards the gators with the golf club. After seeing how the gators reacted to the fish when I hit them in various locations around the course I figured that I probably needed to get them all lined up with the snake statue to make some kind of a path towards Max (also I assumed this was sort of a reference to Pitfall). After the path was completed I was able to make it to Max and get him out of the tank. That revealed a secret door where I found some sort of vortex snow globe thing. After picking it up a new area opened up on the map around Washington and so I went there and stopped playing around that point. 

 

So now I have a new area to explore which will hopefully go towards clearing up a few other outstanding things. Namely the golf ball grabber with hand and magnet/cup attached and the binocular things that are wired up to the elevator back at the ball of twine. Also, I think I got super lucky getting through the gator golf thing without much issue. That was kind of a poorly designed puzzle in my opinion and had I not been in the right (or wrong) state of mind I think I would have been stuck on that for much longer.

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Ah yeah the Conroy Bumpus song is great. I guess I meant the themes in Sam and Max Hit the Road seem less catchy than Day of the Tentacle or Monkey Island and more forgettable. A lot of the music seems more like individual songs instead of really being related to eachother. There's not that amazing instant mesh like MI2, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango. The Indy games are kind of easy since we all know and love that theme anyway.

 

Man, reading all of this just makes me realize how iffy of an adventure game Sam and Max is in terms of design. I think what originally attached me to the game was just the love of the characters and the swearing. It's kind of weird but my whole internet forum usage and a real life friend is based around Sam and Max. Sometime during 5th grade, after seeing the the collected Sam and Max book on sale in some Adventurer issue, I realized Sam and Max was a comic first and really wanted to experience it, since I liked the stuff in the manual (didn't know it was recycled). I saved up $25 to buy the hardcover version and then got out the yellow pages and called every comic store in all of Houston until I found one store (and only one) that had it. The reason I had to do this is my parents refused to mail order it for me because of worry of credit card theft or something. So convinced my mom to drive me the 10 miles and went home happy. Joined a crappy Sam and Max forum which went through a bunch of iterations before it became a part of Lucasforums which then eventually led me to Idlethumbs.

 

Also I lent this book to a crappy friend in the 7th grade and he never returned it. He kept making excuses about how he lost it, but I couldn't tell if he stole it or truly lost it, since some people were saying he was bragging about tricking me. I guess I didn't want to cause a big stink other than bugging him about it, and I think that year I was at near suspension for my fights in school quota, so I didn't really do anything drastic. Later on, I fittingly went to some run down minigolf place with my mom and sister and he was there with his family. I told my mom that's the kid that stole my book and she went over and told the dad. Suprisingly, the dad was a stand up guy and gave me $25 on the spot for the book. I can't believe that actually worked since that could have been a strange hostile situation with arguing parents.

 

At that point the book was way out of print and calling every comic shop in Houston that time had no results. Oh yeah so someone gave out Steve Purcell's Hotmail address on those forums, and I did the obnoxious thing every kid does and send him pestering questions about his characters every couple of months. He was always super nice about it and replied every time. I told him I couldn't find a new Sam and Max book and he told me about this wonderful site called Amazon that had it for a decent price. But same problem, parents were also scared of credit card theft on the internet, they still are. So I told him that and he agreed to send me one of his copies of the book if I sent him the money. A month or so later, I get a box in the mail with a drawing Max's head in felt tip. Upon opening it, I realize the book inside had a really neat inked and colored drawing of Max on the inside flap personalized to me. I still think this is one of the coolest things ever to this day. A year later I drew a 3 page Sam and Max fan comic, scanned it, and sent it to his e-mail. It was pretty lame from what I remember, but I think he was very gracious about it. I sometimes wonder if he remembers any of this. I still have my old version of the Surfin' the Highway book because of this, even though the one Jake Rodkin arranged is actually complete with everything and a much nicer version overall.

 

Ramble done. The Telltale Sam and Max games are much more well designed.

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To Fate of Atlantis' credit, it invoked Williams extremely rarely. Truly an original and magnificent soundtrack. I guess if Hit the Road pales slighty, it's only because it's being compared against some pretty absurdly great competition.

Of course, the modern Sam & Max soundtracks by Jared Emerson-Johnson are at a whole other level. I would have been interested in hearing what Mark Griskey was coming up with for Sam & Max 2 as well. I got in touch with him once and he believes that he still has some of the work he did lying around somewhere (with the qualifier that there would have been future recording sessions to enhance the tracks with additional live instruments) but he was too busy to look for the files at the time, plus concerned about the legal aspect.

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Thanks for sharing that syntheticgerbil; that was a good read. And Steve Purcell sounds like a totally awesome dude.

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Syntheticgerbil, thanks to your story I hopped onto Amazon to see if I could still get a copy of these comics, but then I saw that the complete Mel Brooks collection on Blu-Ray is on sale right now for $22.00. The Sam and Max books are pretty costly and I'll have to wait on them, but you have enabled me to relive my childhood in a whole different way.

 

PS: There is also a Sam and Max cartoon series that I didn't know about. Is it any good?

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It's slightly tamer and a bit inconsistent in quality, but overall it is a dignified translation to the small screen, and I have no doubt it would have gotten better had it been granted more than one season. Can definitely recommend the Shout! Factory DVD. People have uploaded episodes to Youtube and, not to tacitly approve of that practice but,

one of the better episodes if you're on the fence about purchasing.

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Does Telltale no longer sell physical merch? I can't find any on their website any more. I'm pretty sure they sold the collected S&M comics a while back.

 

I got my copy on Ebay about eight years back. It was second hand and ridiculously expensive, but I loved it.

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Yeah I just looked, I didn't realize the new Surfin' the Highway collection was out of print. I thought Telltale was still selling it in their store for $15-20, but I guess not. Amazon names them as the publisher, so I guess the direct source is cut off. And it looks like you're right Thorn, Telltale has eliminated all of their physical merchandise except for the DVD versions of series. I could have sworn everything was still there a year ago, but I can't find it now. They also sold the Sam and Max TV series from their site too.

 

I actually haven't watched the TV series for over a decade. I remember not liking it as much and finding a lot of the jokes way too corny. The drawings in general didn't seemed off model a lot of the times, and not in a good way. They also jammed in a nerdy female inventor for the network that just didn't work. Sybil in the Telltale series is much more effective. In general the games have all been much truer to the comics. I'll have to get around to rewatching the series at some point, but not right now.

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I got some more time in over the weekend and I think I'm getting close to the end now.

 

I last left off at the Vortex place and after exploring that area I was stumped for quite awhile. I couldn't figure out how to get through any of the doors and since I didn't have the plug for the Vortex snow globe thing I couldn't get anything to happen when I used it in the vortex machine. After spinning my wheels for awhile I got lucky when I realized that I could walk further to the right in the magnet cave to find a third magnet. Up to this point I thought there was only the blue and red magnets because there wasn't any obvious indication that there was anything else in the cave. Once I discovered the third magnet I eventually found the right combination to turn on so I could access the big door against the wall. I then talked to the guy inside the big door who told me about Frog Rock and sent me to the ball of twine to retrieve his mood ring.

 

Back at the ball of twine, I found that I could use the golf ball grabber + hand + magnet to get the mood ring out of the twine. I also decided to try going back up to the restaurant at the top and this time when I messed with the binoculars Sam mentioned something about needing to enlarge the image to see Frog Rock. I still had that magnifying lens from earlier so I tried using it on the binoculars and was able to enlarge the image enough to locate Frog Rock and make it appear on my map. Then I went back to the Vortex, gave the dude his moon ring in exchange for Frog Rock instructions, and then headed over to Frog Rock to use the three bunches of bigfoot hair and magical powder stuff as he instructed. After doing so, a weird alien guy that looked suspiciously like the dudes from the Vortex and love tunnel showed up to take my offering and direct me to Bumpusville.

 

Shortly after arriving at Bumpusville, I was treated to one of video games' finest musical numbers while simultaneously discovering what had happened to Trixie and Bruno. It was quite an awesome segment and definitely up there with the Portal ending music as one of my favorite video game music segments. After Conroy exited the stage I explored the house some more and picked up a robot instruction book (by using my golf ball grabber + hand while standing on the truck), a pillow with some hair growth stuff on it, and one of the pictures off of the wall. After reading the book I was able to rewire the cleaning robot to go into the rest of the house which ended up setting off an alarm and distracting the security guy. With him distracted I used the virtual reality machine and got a key for killing the lame dragon. I then used the key to free Trixie and Bruno and stopped playing around this point.

 

So I think I now have to go to the area Bruno mentioned and I expect that I'm close to finishing after that. There are still a couple things that I haven't been able to do yet such as picking up Conroy's hairpiece at Bumpusville and interacting with the ice cream guy at the gas stations so I'm not sure how or if those will come into play.

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The magnet/door puzzle screwed me over the second time I played S&M. The first time I entered the magnet cave I simply switched all the magnets on, then got lucky because Shuv-oohl (can't believe I not only remembered that name but spelled it correctly first attempt) was behind the white door. I didn't understand the mechanics of the puzzle or the fact that the door colours and locations are randomised, so the second time around I needed to check a hint book to work out what to do.

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I got a little further last night and after unlocking a few more areas I realized I wasn't as close to the end as I thought.

Upon starting, I immediately left Bumpusville and headed over to the place with the mini volcano. After going inside the hotel I found a bigfoot dude with injured feet that wouldn't let me into the back room where the bigfoot party was taking place. I did find, however, that I was finally able to use the stilt walker pants with the dressing room in the lobby. Unfortunately, when I tried it on the bigfoot dude mocked my pitiful attempt at subterfuge so it was pretty clear that I would need to somehow spruce up my outfit. Before leaving, I talked to the lady at the front desk and picked up the brochures which caused a dinosaur place and a celebrity head vegetable place to show up on the map. With nothing else to do at the hotel I then headed off to the vegetable place.

There wasn't much to do when I got to the vegetable place. I was able to pick up a Conroy Bumpus eggplant and talk to the lady there but that was about it. So as soon as I did that I headed over to the dinosaur place.

After arriving at the dinosaur place, I first went over to the dinosaur/woolly mammoth exhibits and listened to their hilarious nerd voices (that was seriously an awesome little touch). Once I finished listening to them I went through the standard set of interactions and when I looked at the woolly mammoth Sam made a comment about how similar that fur looked to the bigfoot fur. So naturally I figured I would need that fur to spruce up my bigfoot costume. I tried a few items and was eventually able to get the fur by getting Max to bite it all off. I then tried using the fur with the stilt walker pants but Sam indicated that I would need some glue to make it stick to the pants. Before heading to the next area, I spent some time trying to interact with the dinosaur and found that I could use the rope if the dinosaur's jaw was angled down first. So I used the exhibit speaker near the dinosaur's feet a few times to make him talk and was eventually able to get him to stop talking at a point where his mouth was open. With the mouth open I was then able to use the rope to pull one of the dinosaur's teeth out.

Next I went over to the tar pits and after talking to the little shithead kid, I went up to the bungee jump area. After putting on my harness I jumped off and found myself bouncing up and down just over the tar pit. I figured the tar would probably suffice as glue for my bigfoot costume so as I was bouncing I tried using a few items and was able to get a cupful of tar by using the golf ball grabber + hand + cup. With the tar, I was indeed able to glue the mammoth hair to my stilt pants and had what I thought was a pretty slick bigfoot costume.

So I went back to the volcano hotel place to try the costume on again but it was still not convincing enough to the bigfoot guy at the entrance. I obviously needed something else for the costume and after thinking about it for a bit I formulated a plan that I thought might work. I was pretty sure that I would need Conroy Bumpus' wig to complete the costume since that was the only outstanding item I hadn't been able to pick up yet. However, since the wig was attached to a mannequin head that tripped the alarm whenever I tried to pick it up, I figured I would need to somehow trick the security system to get the wig since I couldn't shut it off. As I looked through my inventory I had an epiphany when I examined the Conroy Bumpus eggplant. I realized there was probably a 98% chance that I would need to use the eggplant head with the wig to perform some kind of Indiana Jones switcheroo; especially considering the ties between the Indiana Jones franchise and the LucasArts games. Sure enough, it worked... sort of (and I even got a cool little cutscene)! I still tripped the alarm and got kicked out but I at least finally had the wig. It's probably also worth mentioning that this might have been my favorite puzzle in the game because of how it all came together. It was one of those instances where I feel like the game subtly nudged me to the exact conclusion without any obvious hints just based on the style of humor in the game and some of the vague parodies they had done up to that point.

So with my completed bigfoot costume I went back to the hotel again and while I wasn't able to fool the bigfoot guy, I was able to at least impress him with my sweet costume. He still wouldn't let me through but he gave me a not so subtle hint that he would let me through if I did something for him that would make him feel inclined to like me. I remembered his feet were bothering him so I tried a few items and found that the rasp was what he needed to soothe his feet. After helping him out he finally let me into the party.

The bigfoot party kind of blew my mind. When I first walked in the old bigfoot guy was giving his speech and I was taken aback by some of the stuff he was saying. Then he kept going and going and going and by the end I was completely bewildered at what I had just witnessed. The shit he said was totally unexpected and it was some truly amazing dialog. Then I went around the room and talked to all the bigfeet (or is it bigfoots?) and was delighted at their amazing personalities and the great dialog each one had. While in the room I also picked up a wine bottle which I assume I will be able to open at some point and use the cork in the vortex globe so I can capture vortex energy or whatever. Before I quit playing I tried to go in the room near the lady bigfoot and she indicated that I would need to be a yeti or have white fur or something to get in there. So my next course of action will be to try to figure out the use for the wine bottle and try to figure out how to make my fur white or do some other thing so I can get into that room.

I am starting to really like this game a lot. At the beginning I wasn't too blown away by the story or mechanics but at this point I have seen so many awesome characters and heard so much great dialog that I am completely won over. And the puzzles have turned out pretty decent too, for the most part.

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Geez, you're really good at figuring out this game. I remember that rasp giving me all sorts of trouble, first because I didn't understand how to catch Max in the parking lot to keep the thing and second I didn't understand corns on the feet and all until my dad figured that one out for me. You're nearing the end, so glad you've been enjoying it.

 

I also don't remember at all what the elder bigfoot said in his speech, and I haven't played the game since I was maybe 11. I don't remember it being anything except boring. What was he talking about?

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Before I quit playing I tried to go in the room near the lady bigfoot and she indicated that I would need to be a yeti or have white fur or something to get in there.

 

Uhh... You might want to talk to her again. That's not what she said.

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Thanks synth. I think I owe a lot of my progress to the fact that I've been playing these games one after another for a few months now and I've gotten pretty familiar with the design that is common between all the games. My strategy for each area I enter pretty much boils down to identifying all the objects, going through each interaction type with each object, going through my items and using them with each object in the environment where it makes sense, and listening carefully to every bit of dialog that results from my interactions to glean any possible clues. I also make sure to always watch out for any movement or things acting dynamically because that usually means there is some sort of unusual interaction, specific timing of the usage of one of my items, or character that I need to follow. Then there are the environmental three switch style puzzles which are usually pretty straightforward. The vast majority of the puzzles seem to operate within that possibility space but each game still manages to throw something new into the mix like that tunnel of love black light puzzle. So I try to go through my usual motions while keeping an open mind and not getting too cocky.

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Uhh... You might want to talk to her again. That's not what she said.

Huh, you're probably right. By the time I get to writing these posts some of the dialog gets hazy and I tend to misremember. I could have sworn she said something about only certain bigfoot types being allowed back there and for some reason the color white stood out.

Oh yeah, and I can't quite remember exactly what the elder bigfoot said in his speech but I think it was basically some super philosophical shit about the plight of the bigfoots.

 

Edit: Okay, I just talked to her again and she said only yeti elders are allowed back there. I guess I just assumed the yetis (aka abominable snowmen) were the bigfoot creatures with white fur and jumped to the conclusion that I would need to make my fur white to get her to think I am a yeti. I'm stupid.

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I'm stuck now. I played for an hour and a half last night and got nowhere. I went back through every area on the map and tried using a bunch of items all over the place but had no luck. Some unused items that I have right now are a pillow with hair tonic, a framed picture of some old dude, a bottle of wine, the vortex snow globe, and a dinosaur tooth. There's probably some other stuff too but those are the main items of interest in my mind.

 

I've been pondering what I should do since I woke up this morning and some of the possibilities I came up with are:

  1. Switch out the framed picture with another picture or poster or something.
  2. Find some kind of corkscrew or something to open the bottle of wine.
  3. Stab some asshole with the dinosaur tooth.
  4. Find a bald guy who might appreciate some hair tonic.

So my ideas are pretty lame right now.

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Find some kind of corkscrew or something to open the bottle of wine.

 

Well there's an idea.  Are you sure you've visited every room possible at that bigfoot party?

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Well there's an idea.  Are you sure you've visited every room possible at that bigfoot party?

 

I could have sworn I did. I only saw the main party area and the pool area (I think?) that the lady bigfoot won't let me access. If this turns out to be another "third magnet in the magnet room" type situation I'm gonna want that hour and a half of my life back. 

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