Day of the Tentacle Special Edition

[Ben X]

Well, you're not the only one - the only reason they clarified that was because someone brought up those pixelly notices on the DF forums! I've seen them pointed out elsewhere as well.

[Ben X]

Just found out from Tucker at DF that there was original artwork which was scanned in and cleaned up:

 

Some quick clarification: we talked with Peter Chan for a bit while doing this project and got some background on how he arrived at the look for the original. The backgrounds were done traditionally before being scanned and cleaned up for the game (not unlike MI2).

 

As it had such a clean look compared to the scans of MI2, I always figured the DOTT backgrounds were created digitally...

[plasticflesh]

This interview from the Adventurer has a little detail about the art process for DOTT. Specifically second column second paragraph.

 

 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oA_PIeyrfwg/ToHUTsvWHmI/AAAAAAAAAcc/X6B3ewAatos/s1600/adventurer_06_pg04.JPG

 

Source,

http://lucasartsadventurer.blogspot.com/2011/09/adventurer-issue-no-6-spring-1993.html

[Ben X]

Oh cool, thanks! Interesting to read that they tried to make it feel like it was made digitally (and that they were still using mice not tablets).

[syntheticgerbil]

Good ol' Adventurer

[Udvarnoky]

I suspect that the scanners were marginally improved compared to Monkey Island 2, and that they did more touching up in general once digitized.  That and the deliberately very different art style compared to MI2 would explain how you wind up with something so different despite a similar production process.

[mikemariano]

FYI, US Gamer released an oral history of Day of the Tentacle today.  I'm one paragraph into the five-page article!

[Kolzig]

Pre-order is live at gog.com

https://www.gog.com/game/day_of_the_tentacle_remastered

BOUGHT!

I'm going to be nuts and buy this also on PS Vita, just like I did with Grim Fandango a year ago.

E: Interesting thing is that they apparently changed the name from Special edition to Grim style Remastered in the end.

[Tanukitsune]

IT'S TIME! 

 

[dium]

I'm probably gonna pick this up at some point, both for the commentary and to atone for ~somehow~ beating it several times without ever actually paying money for it ever *cough*.

 

But, like Monkey Island 2, this isn't a game that I feel benefits from a visual update. The original low resolution art is gorgeous. The new graphics are, to their credit, tasteful uprezes. But unnecessary.

[jennegatron]

Me & my boyfriend played about 2 hours of this last night. It was fun. The cartoony way the mouths move still rubs me the wrong way because they move in dramatically different ways than the ways mouths actually move when you speak.

[kickinthehead]

I played about an hour and a half last night and this morning listening to the commentary. I was basically speed running it since I still remember most of the puzzle solutions. I love the hotkeys for the verbs, I don't know why they give me so much pleasure to use but they just do. I don't remember when I learned that "Y" was pull because of "yank" and S is push because of "shove" but those always stuck out to me.

 

I originally played it on Mac which had a graphical smoothing option which worked pretty well so it's actually not as jarring a difference to see the new graphics, but it looks and sounds great!

[dium]

I don't remember when I learned that "Y" was pull because of "yank" and S is push because of "shove" but those always stuck out to me.

 

This is life-changing information.

[Kolzig]

First thing I did today morning was download the game on my PS Vita and on PC from GOG.

Oh it's so glorious. I showed the Vita version at work to some colleagues.

I for example really like the way they made the menu out of Bernard's room.

And the flexible options are great. Can't wait to check out all the commentaries.

[Tanukitsune]

It has the original Maniac Mansion in it! Now that was a pleasant surprise.... I'm not sure how to save in this version though.

[Bjorn]

It has the original Maniac Mansion in it! Now that was a pleasant surprise.... I'm not sure how to save in this version though.

 

Really!  That's just bonus awesome.  I've been meaning to replay that for years, it'll be nice to just have a legit copy of it.

[mikemariano]

The Double Fine artists retroactively threw a Grim Fandango reference into the game!

 

 

 

I kept trying to pick up those gold flakes so I could give them to Manny so he'd set off the metal detector!

[Ben X]

And that's specifically a reference to the Grim Remastered Edition where they accidentally spelt the new texture GOLO.

 

You may notice that one of the previously indistinct portraits upstairs in the past has been turned into another cameo...

[Kolzig]

The making of DotT remastered documentary is out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=LjF4eMrYfG0

[Tanukitsune]

I went and got "100%" of the achievements and it did show me some jokes I would have missed if I didn't look this up, but I gotta say, Maniac Mansion is barely playable since you can't save in it.

[mikemariano]

You may notice that one of the previously indistinct portraits upstairs in the past has been turned into another cameo...

 

I could barely make it out, but is it old man Corley?

 

 

Maniac Mansion is barely playable since you can't save in it.

 

Wow, really?  I pressed so many function keys, convincing myself I forgot which they were.

[jennegatron]

My #1 problem with point & click adventures is that the game teaches you something does not work and then, without explanation, it suddenly works, but why would you even try that, when the game has taught you the whole time that you can't do that thing.

Examples: In grim fandango, Manny spends the whole game worried about damaging his blade, but

in the vault, the only way to get out is to use your scythe to conduct electricity via the metal

In Day of the Tentacle, the whole game is, apparently 'distract this person so you can take the thing next to them'

the lighter gun, using the monitor upstairs by Edna, the gold quill pen with Thomas Jefferson, etc.

but when you through the effort of

turning in all the battery supplies, Edison doesn't give you the battery, he puts it on a shelf next to him, which the game has taught me is language for 'you have to distract him or solve his problem before you can have this thing' but apparently this is no longer true and you can just fucking pick it up?

This is what I mean when I say I want to like point & click adventures, but these games make it very hard sometimes.

[Ben X]

The cameo:

 

http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/22/11284908/everybody-loves-jar-jar-binks

 

Strangely, they seem to have changed the graphic for that since someone on the DF forums noticed it from pre-release footage

[mikemariano]

The cameo:

 

Boo!

[dium]

I picked this up.

 

I stand by what I said about the old graphics 100% holding up and not "needing" an update. But that said, I like the new graphics more now that I've played with them. I pulled up the game on my TV to play with a controller, and in that environment the new graphics/UI/aspect ratio are definitely preferable. When I play with my face right in front of a monitor (like a REAL GAMER) I find myself wanting to see those pixels again.

 

I also think the new graphics might make the game easier, in that it's generally more obvious (even before using the hotspot-highlighting feature) what bits of the scenery might be interactable. I'm not sure about this, though. I've played this game enough times that everything is pretty much memorized already.