By Alec Meer on July 6th, 2009 at 6:48 pm.
The most breakingest of breaking news, via the official Lucasarts twitter feed – which has been horribly teasing the poor, frustrated internet for the last few days about what, they promised, was a massively exciting announcement. A Day of the Tentacle remake? A new X-Wing/TIE Fighter game? Officially striking the Star Wars prequels from the record? The Loom 2: Loomier? Nah- they’ve only gone and lobbed a crapload of their classic back catalogue onto Steam. Rejiggered for XP and Vista compatibility too, no less.
What’s that strange noise? It’s thousands of 30-year-old men simultaneously having a Special Wee, that’s what.
This little lot is available from the 8th July:
•Armed and Dangerous
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
• LOOM
• Star Wars Battlefront II
• Star Wars Republic Commando
• Star Wars Starfighter
• The Dig
• Thrillville: Off the Rails
On the 15th, that’s followed up by Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition (the remake, not the new Telltale episodes).
Clap your hands and say yeah. And even overlooked latter-day gem Republic motherfuggin’ Commando finally gets its day in the sun!
Of course, there are immediately notable absences, such as the holy quadrilogy of Sam & Max Hit The Road, Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, and the X-Wing/TIE Fighter series, but we’re promised “this is just the beginning. We know how much you guys love our old games.”
They’ve taken their sweet time about this, having steadfastedly ignored our changing times for years, and God only knows why. Judging by the current explosion of joy around the web, though, it’s most certainly not too little too late.
Oh, and they’d bloody better not forget about Yoda Stories…
06/07/2009 at 18:53 Uglycat says:
/me lights a cigarette
06/07/2009 at 18:54 Yougiedeggs says:
I already use ScummVM to play these with my old CD’s.
Nevertheless, I’m still waiting for a Vista Premium compatible Grim Fandango :D
06/07/2009 at 18:54 Anonononomous says:
Should have put them on GoG.
06/07/2009 at 18:57 frymaster says:
i had a bastard of a time getting the xwing / tie fighter games working on vista (remember they were originally DOS games!)
i seem to recall they may have been ported to the xwing vs tie fighter engine, which works for xp but not for vista
hopefully the delay is so they can get them working properly – yes I’m an optimist :(
06/07/2009 at 18:58 orta says:
The Dig was great.
06/07/2009 at 18:59 MrBejeebus says:
As a young person originating from the 90′s, I’ve never EVER expirienced these so called “Adventure” games, I shall look forward to a new-old expirience.
06/07/2009 at 19:01 Meat Circus says:
ScummVM?
06/07/2009 at 19:01 bildo says:
Lucas Arts went from being the company that I hated because of it’s Star Wars and new IP kick, to the company I love and remember in the course of a month. Let’s see if this continues.
06/07/2009 at 19:01 Persus-9 says:
Big of an odd selection, pretty much none of my favourites in there but I’m just really happy they’re finally taking big steps in the right direction.
06/07/2009 at 19:01 Simon Jones says:
Having never, ever played the X-Wing/TIE-Fighter games, but having read about them jealously in various gaming magazines back when I only had an Acorn, I have extremely large fingers crossed that they’re on the way.
Never played the Indy adventures, either – I seem to recall general opinion being pretty high?
06/07/2009 at 19:01 Duoae says:
Is this available worldwide? I’m still suspicious of these announcements having been annoyed by a few “we’re on steam” dealies turn out to be US only.
06/07/2009 at 19:03 Duoae says:
Oh yeah… and if they release X-wing i’m buying it thrice…. DoTT and the Dig are also welcome. :D
06/07/2009 at 19:03 Wooly says:
WHAT. “this is just the beginning. We know how much you guys love our old games.”
WHAAAAAAAAT!?!?
I came buckets.
I do agree that they should have put those on GOG though! Perhaps they soon will…
06/07/2009 at 19:05 AndrewC says:
The first thing you can shoot in Armed & Dangerous is a completely harmless penguin. It flops over with then state-of-the-art ragdoll physics. Hilarious and tragic, it is the best part of the game.
06/07/2009 at 19:05 faelnor says:
Is this the FM-TOWNS version of LOOM with the updated graphics / original dialogue ? Also would like the original iMUSE soundtrack as the digital audio one never really cut it.
06/07/2009 at 19:06 skizelo says:
Good news on Fate of Atlantis. Last I heard about it was that it was bundled, Manic Mansion and Day of the Tentacle style, to the new Indie Wii game, and I honestly considered buying both Wii and (reportedly) lackluster game because I’ve lost my copy.
Simon Jones, The Last Crusade is pretty punishing (eg, to fly a plane midway through the game, you’d have to have checked out a book on pilotry in the library at the beginning) but Fate of Atlantis is a well-written, multi-pathed gem.
06/07/2009 at 19:06 Rob says:
I’ve never been so happy that I will shortly be so much out of pocket
06/07/2009 at 19:07 Heliocentric says:
Prices will be critical. Don’t fuck up lucasarts.
06/07/2009 at 19:09 cyrenic says:
This is awesome. Hopefully we’ll see the X-Wing series get a re-release, and see these on GoG.com as well.
06/07/2009 at 19:11 dhex says:
awesome. wonder what the price point will be?
06/07/2009 at 19:15 Kadayi says:
This is good. Personally I’m more interested in the ‘coming soon’ category because the Vista/Windows 7 compatible version of Grim Fandango would make my day. Certainly will be getting The Dig though, as its a game I always wanted to play. Also kind of hoping that these also turn up on GoG as well (because you get the extras), though I suspect the DRM free aspect will discount that from happening.
06/07/2009 at 19:17 dartt says:
Oh wow flashback! Thanks for reminding me about Yoda Stories!
06/07/2009 at 19:17 Carra says:
Yeah, should have put them on gog.com. I’ll see what they ask for them, for €5 a piece I’ll try the Indie games. €10 would be too much. I’m curious about their price setting.
And I was quickly browsing through the list to find Grim Fandango. No luck :(
06/07/2009 at 19:19 Theoban says:
EMBARRASSING REVELATION BELOW:
I have never played The Dig
*stunned silence all round, sharp intakes of breath, a Victorian-age lady faints*
06/07/2009 at 19:21 Monchberter says:
Dark Forces PLEASE!!!!
That game popped my FPS cherry before Doom.
Knowing Lucasarts and their tendency to repackage and rerelease occasionally, expect every Star Wars PC game to be chucked up. I really hope they fix the probs with Vista / XP AND sort and update online support for XWing vs TIE Fighter. I remember the pre GFWL Microsoft gaming servers and they were all a bit shite.
06/07/2009 at 19:24 DarthInsinuate says:
Yay, Republic Commando. It’s like the more actioney brother of SWAT 4.
Also, yay, Starfighter. It’s like the more cerebral brother of Rogue Squadron.
06/07/2009 at 19:25 c-Row says:
So, am I still a nerd if I try to find them in their original boxes?
Also, woohoo!
06/07/2009 at 19:28 Serondal says:
I loved Tie Fighter back in the day, I had the expansion pack that let you fly Tie Defenders ect. I never really liked X-Wing VS Tie Fighter though, the ships seemed smaller and a lot harder to hit and death seemed to have a lot more often regardless what you did. It seemed like every ship had missle launchers which made it a lot harder and with no story line it was just boring even online.
Republic Commando was VERY good though.
06/07/2009 at 19:30 dragon says:
I’m sad that it’s Steam and not GOG.com.
06/07/2009 at 19:31 Lars Westergren says:
First the 2k Huge Pack on Steam and now this… I’ve never played Loom when it came either but have heard so much good about it from friends.
And then we have Alpha Protocol, Dragon Age and more on the way. And I’ve not finished Witcher or Mysteries of Westgate. Argh! How am I going to have time to play all this??
06/07/2009 at 19:33 rkcr says:
Does anyone know if the LOOM from Steam includes the 30 minute audio cassette introduction that came with the original?
06/07/2009 at 19:34 Dolphan says:
Loom and Republic Commando are both essential if you haven’t played them. Ok, so maybe RC isn’t quite essential, but it’s still pretty damn good.
06/07/2009 at 19:35 LaundroMat says:
I hadn’t even heard of The Dig! Then again, I stuck to my Amiga until I couldn’t resist the PC. And Half-Life.
Fingers crossed for a decent price.
06/07/2009 at 19:39 Mr Pink says:
No TIE Fighter :(
Still my favourite game of all time. There were versions of X-Wing and TIE fighter in the XvT engine, but neither had the Imuse system, which played music which linked up to events. Still the best music system ever IMHO, it was just so seemless, despite the tininess of the midi.
06/07/2009 at 19:40 passingtramp says:
Too right about Yoda Stories. I still have it on my hard disk, but it and Vista just won’t get along…
06/07/2009 at 19:42 Persus-9 says:
Thinking about that list I have a theory. Those are the games that are sort of popular. Not the ones that don’t really deserve to be resurected like Rebel Assault and not the absolute classics like Full Throttle. My theory is they’re holding back the classics to see how well the Monkey Island special edition does and if it does well then they’ll give the same treatment to all the classics and if it doesn’t do well they’ll just shove them out as straight ports like these.
06/07/2009 at 19:51 suibhne says:
@Persus-9: Personally, I’d argue that Fate of Atlantis was an absolute classic like Full Throttle, and would probably be even more amenable to a “Special Edition” remake because of the marketability of the Indiana Jones franchise. Oh well.
06/07/2009 at 19:51 A says:
Yay, after teasing all that time, made people imagine sequels to their beloved games, they announced, gloriously… That nothing new.
They are only releasing older games, and worst of all, doing that on Steam. Making a deal with GoG would have been too much ? You had to make crazily old games enter the DRM world ? Pff.
06/07/2009 at 19:53 Erlam says:
“Prices will be critical. Don’t fuck up lucasarts.”
And how. If I see ‘remastered’ in the description, or the price rises about 10-15 dollars, watch your attempt fail.
Also, as a dev I know how I’d feel, but I wonder how it feels to the people who worked on games since these were put out that there’s more excitement for TIE Fighter than any Lucasarts game pretty much since then.
That would make one pout, I’d imagine.
06/07/2009 at 19:54 Mr Popov says:
“There’s nothing of importance here”
06/07/2009 at 19:54 Stense says:
More yays!
I never got the chance to play some of their older games, and have since lost the discs for others, so this is great news. Is this a Lucasarts revival starting? I do hope so.
06/07/2009 at 19:56 jsutcliffe says:
How did you know I’m 30?
I never did play The Dig or LOOM. Those will be snapped up quicksharp by me. Republic Commando always appealed in an arcade-Rainbow-6-in space way, too.
06/07/2009 at 19:58 Pavel says:
I want them on GOG.
Also, I want all Jedi Knights on GOG.
That is all.
06/07/2009 at 19:59 Persus-9 says:
@ suibhne: Yeah I was thinking that as a typed it, Fate of Atlantis is an odd one out on that list. It ain’t a perfect theory that’s for sure but I still feel quite good about it, I think there’s some truth there.
There are also all the modern games that don’t need any touching up on that list but they don’t hurt my theory like Fate of Atlantis does.
06/07/2009 at 20:02 Mr Popov says:
Loom is more of a kids game really.
at least I remember playing it as a kid and the difficulty was just right. It’s very linear and very simplistic and touches on a few children’s tales.
Anyway for a better adventure game experience I recommend Day of the Tentacle (which for some reason isn’t on the list?) and Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis (lots of fun here and good voice acting from what I remember)
06/07/2009 at 20:04 Clovis says:
::grumble: This just removes my justification for pirating the games as abandonware. I’m too busy playing recent games anyway…
06/07/2009 at 20:05 kalidanthepalidan says:
A nice start. Hopefully they will get to the real jems soon.
06/07/2009 at 20:10 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Loom may be easy, but it’s still a lot of fun. But maybe that’s my nostalgia talking.
Not too happy with LucasArts after they’ve neglected the non-StarWars and X-Wing games for so long. It’s going to take a bit more to get my attention (unless I really can’t get my old games to work).
06/07/2009 at 20:13 Jayteh says:
Lucasarts catalog on steam? Fuckin’ A
06/07/2009 at 20:17 Serondal says:
Some of those games aren’t old at all. Lego Indiana Jones is really pretty new Battlefront 2 was horrible compared to the first battlefront IMO
06/07/2009 at 20:18 PaulMorel says:
I’m psyched about this. I will definitely be purchasing a few of those titles … I’ve always enjoyed the Battlefront series, despite the flaws.
Anyone else hoping to see JK2: Jedi Outcast on that list? That’s definitely one of my favorites in the Star Wars pantheon.
06/07/2009 at 20:21 Elton says:
I’m pretty sure the Loom sequel would have to be called Loom 2: Electric Boogaloom.
06/07/2009 at 20:21 Wolfox says:
I was hoping they would announce a partnership with GOG.com. But Steam? I’ll pass.
06/07/2009 at 20:23 runcrash says:
All this is happening because LucasArts recently got a new CEO right?
06/07/2009 at 20:26 Serondal says:
Maybe steam offered them a better deal than GOG or maybe because steam is already a success and GOG is more of a gamble? Who knows, it makes no difference really. (other that I can never get steam offline mode to work when I lose internet connection leaving me with tons of games I can’t play ))
06/07/2009 at 20:32 left foot hero says:
I would’ve been thrilled if this was GOG. I’ll move to consoles before I start using Steam.
06/07/2009 at 20:33 Elman says:
Now give us decent pricing and I’ll even buy and try to play through Grim Fandango if/when they start selling it too (I couldn’t deal with those clunky controls back in the day, ugh…).
06/07/2009 at 20:34 linfosoma says:
Full Throttle, I want it.
That is all.
06/07/2009 at 20:38 Mastersmith says:
With the releases of the Abe games on both steam and GoG, I hope Oddworld Inhabitants has a similar release of Munch’s Odyssey and Stranger’s Wrath, maybe this will push them forward.
Hopefully nothing serious is holding lucasarts up from releasing the other adventure games as well as Outlaws. I’ll wait till they have all the adventure games out in a discounted pack.
06/07/2009 at 20:42 Srejv says:
Awe. Some.
06/07/2009 at 20:43 Mika says:
I hope these are ScummVM compatible.
06/07/2009 at 20:47 Bhazor says:
Hooray! I won’t have to feel guilty about using ScummVM to play them. As someone too young for their original release this is a chance to show the non George Lucas parts of Lucasarts some love.
Maybe if all these rereleases go well they’ll think to reinstate their funny/clever devision? Rather than just whoring out Star Wars to the mouth breathers out there.
06/07/2009 at 20:50 Nerd Rage says:
The Dig is the only one on that list I’m very interested in seeing again. No offense to the Republic Commandos. The stuff that’s still missing is the stuff that most interests me. Not sure why though, since I know I still have my floppies in a box somewhere. Somewhere…
06/07/2009 at 20:50 sfury says:
O_o
Oh.
Yay.
/faints
06/07/2009 at 20:55 Ian says:
This is called a Good Thing. Bit of a pain to try and catch up some of the classics I’ve never had a crack at sometimes so this might help, price permitting.
06/07/2009 at 20:56 Nexxus9 says:
Never played The Dig or Loom, so this is a perfect opportunity to try them out. They better release Full Throttle next, though!
06/07/2009 at 21:00 Cradok says:
Wow, I just watched Last Crusade today, and was thinking how I wanted to play the adventure game again.
06/07/2009 at 21:03 Mad Doc MacRae says:
To quote someone else, I am now permanently erect.
06/07/2009 at 21:04 tapanister says:
@Yougiedeggs
Yeah, big freaking deal, scummvm already has the graphic improvements plus xp and (I suppose) Vista compatibility etc. I’m officially underwhelmed.
Now that I think about it, it’s like Lucasarts are taking “OMG HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT” classes from UFC prez Dana White. Meh.
06/07/2009 at 21:05 flo says:
*wants sth like steam on os x* yes, I could install winxp/vista/win7 on it, but 10 gb disk space or so just for the os is just not worth it on a 80 GB internal hd.
06/07/2009 at 21:10 Pijama says:
Grim Fandango, you wee evil men. YOU KNOW IT’S THE BEST ONE!
06/07/2009 at 21:18 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
Rob says:
I’ve never been so happy that I will shortly be so much out of pocket
- THIS :)
06/07/2009 at 21:22 rocketman71 says:
Yep, we love their old games. Their new games are shit. But of course, the good people left looooong ago, and the current people must have gotten whatever Lucas catched that made him destroy the SW franchise with those 3 POS movies.
06/07/2009 at 21:27 Yougiedeggs says:
Wasn’t there an Indiana Jones game similar to Yoda Stories?
06/07/2009 at 21:27 Legionary says:
When TIE Fighter comes out, I’ll be splashing the cash: easily the best Star Wars game there’s yet been, and easily the best space fighter sim ever.
06/07/2009 at 21:29 c-Row says:
@ Yougiedeggs
Indiana Jones Desktop Adventures me thinks.
06/07/2009 at 21:30 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
@Yougiedeggs:
yep..good memory you have there! :)
06/07/2009 at 21:35 jonfitt says:
Welcome back Lucasarts! I thought you’d forgotten us, mind addled by too many Star Wars cash-ins.
In other excellent news:
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/06/lucasarts-classics-could-wind-up-on-iphone-wink-wink-nod-n/
06/07/2009 at 21:46 Yougiedeggs says:
Yes! You’re right! If you still want to play either of those desktop games, just wiki them, trust me :)
06/07/2009 at 21:55 Bogie says:
When are lucasarts going to update the X-Wing and Tie-Fighter series?
They are sitting on a goldmine and they dont know it.
06/07/2009 at 22:00 Yougiedeggs says:
Crap. The desktop games don’t work on Vista Premium. Anyone who can test on their 32 bit system?
06/07/2009 at 22:02 ilves says:
@ Legionary
It’s not ‘easily’ the best space sim ever. Freespace 2 and Tie Fighter are pretty close for me, but I actually like Freespace better.
06/07/2009 at 22:02 fresca says:
Please please please X-Wing and Tie Fighter. And Star Wars Rebellion… and the classic LA flight sims (Secret Weapons of the Luffwaffe – yummy) too. The thought makes me giddy and my credit cared frightened. Lot of gaming gold in them thar hills.
06/07/2009 at 22:04 OutOfExile says:
I’m almost tempted to rebuy Battlefront 2 since I lost my CD key.
06/07/2009 at 22:12 Y3k-Bug says:
1) Steam is the biggest digital games distributor. If a dev wants his older games to be seen by more eyeballs, Steam is the only real option in those terms.
2) Why do you guys want it on GOG? Is there an added benefit there?
06/07/2009 at 22:20 haliotabott says:
Zac McKracken !
06/07/2009 at 22:20 bitkari says:
So the question is, do I get these now, or wait for the inevitable super-dooper-pack in a month or two?
06/07/2009 at 22:20 Kester says:
Fate of Atlantis <3. Everyone who has ever grumbled about writing in games and hasn't played this should take the opportunity to do so. There are some great lines, a well-structured story, and the classic Indy feel. I occasionally wonder if it wasn't originally a screenplay that couldn't be filmed, so they made the game instead.
Favourite writing bits: knocking out a nazi guard with a bucket and being offered a selection of not one, not two, not three, but FOUR pail-based puns to make; and convincing Sophia to crawl through a small dark tunnel by telling her that "it didn't matter, she probably wouldn't fit anyway". :D More games need to allow you to wind up the love interest. (In fact, I would probably play a game that consisted of nothing but)
06/07/2009 at 22:20 Vinraith says:
@Y3K-Bug
The advantage of having it on GOG is that it’s DRM-free and doesn’t require any sort of client. Having to run Steam in order to run a game is a pain in the ass (and a real problem if your internet connection is out).
06/07/2009 at 22:23 James G says:
Oooh bloody fantastic. I shall be getting Fate of Atlantis as I missed it first time around. The rest I’ve either played, or have no interest in.
And yeah, Grim Fandango is indeed fantastic. Unfortunately I leant my copy to a friend and never got it back. (Not that I ever really bugged him for it) However, if people are saying that it doesn’t work under Vista then that issue’s a bit moot. Not sure if I want to play it again to be honest, it currently occupies spot 1 or 2 in my favourite games of all time list, and I don’t want to sully that memory.
06/07/2009 at 22:45 dragon says:
Vinraith: And it’s priced “right” for Europeans, too.
06/07/2009 at 23:03 Tom says:
Apparently Grim F does work in Vista: http://www.grim-fandango.com/comments.php?type=news&id=19
Haven’t tried it myself but hopefully it does because I will be soon.
Hopefully LA leaving out the Holy Quadrilogy means maybe they have bigger plans for the all time greats..?
Grim F with updated textures/engine maybe…? That would make my day. To see ol’ Manny in glorious HD, fully anti aliased and all that good stuff… that would be glorious.
06/07/2009 at 23:03 Daniel says:
I hope they add Racer to the list sooner than later.
06/07/2009 at 23:04 Dreamhacker says:
LucasArts games on Steam? Really, this is RPS-news-worthy?
06/07/2009 at 23:04 PC Monster says:
Another hand way way up for Dark Forces, please Mr kind lovely handsome Lucasarts. But a wag of the finger for going Steam rather than GoG: don’t you listen to what those silly brainless boys crying ‘messiah’ keep telling you…
06/07/2009 at 23:05 Schaulustiger says:
I’m only going to be excited when the prices are right. And with that, I mean Euro prices.
06/07/2009 at 23:05 Nimic says:
Not exactly a huge surprise that they chose Steam over GoG, considering Steam has about a bazillion more customers.
06/07/2009 at 23:09 Whelp says:
I came.
Seriously though, I still got all those games lying around on CDs and/or Floppys, and thanks to DOSBox and ScummVM, I can still play them anyway.
06/07/2009 at 23:10 Valentin Galea says:
Yoda fucking Stories! ’nuff said!
06/07/2009 at 23:16 Dan says:
Mint. Republic Commando is one of the only games i’ve played through more than once.
06/07/2009 at 23:16 Dan says:
Was Yoda Stories the one that ran in a window and was played from an overhead view?
06/07/2009 at 23:21 fuggles says:
Why so much love for the Dig? It got mediocre reviews at the time and I found it to be INCREDIBLY tedious to the extent I was just playing it for the sake of finishing it using gamefaqs.
I do have a lot of love for indy and the fate of atlantis, which is why I still have it! I missed LOOM, so I may give that a bash.
06/07/2009 at 23:22 Serondal says:
Yah Yoda Stories are grid based adventure kind of game played from Overheard view. Was interesting to say the least :P
There is some new game coming out (maybe the command and conquer FPS?) where the main character can change his primary weapon’s config to deal with diffrent situations and I saw a preview saying it had never been done before. All the while I was screaming at the PC screen “REPUBLIC COMMANDO HELLLLO!!! COME ON!!” and my wife took the kids and went to her mother’s house for 4 days . . . but that has nothing to do with anything.
06/07/2009 at 23:23 Vinraith says:
Nice. The old Lucasarts games I DID own I’ve long since lost, and those I didn’t are basically impossible to find for anything resembling a reasonable price. I’d greatly value the ability to go back to old favorites and perhaps find a few new ones, though like others I do wish this was on GOG instead of (or in addition to) Steam.
06/07/2009 at 23:24 Vinraith says:
@dragon
True, I always forget how badly Steam handles alternate currencies. You guys get the fuzzy end of the lollipop on that one.
06/07/2009 at 23:27 Serondal says:
I’ve been playing x-wing alliance recently, I seriously would love it if they remade Tie-Fighter and X-wing with the origonal campaign and voice acting but with updated in-game graphics (even leave the same cut scene and menus which I loved. I even loved the font of the briefing and the moving map)
Tie-Fighter was one of the first games I ever modded. There was a map editor released that allowed you to make your own missions and you had to type it all kinds of stuff to get it to work right.
06/07/2009 at 23:31 Paul B says:
Fate of Atlantis, along with Secret of Monkey Island II, were the only two LucasArts adventure games I completed by myself, with no help from walkthroughs. Looking forward to getting re-acquainted with at least one of them on July 8.
06/07/2009 at 23:43 Angel Dust says:
LOOM!
06/07/2009 at 23:46 Stupoider says:
Fantastic!
It’s been a while since I saw Armed and Dangerous. :O Last time I played it was on the Xbox. I think the only thing I really loved about it though were the cutscenes. My god, some of those were hilarious. “GIMME DA KEEEES!” “Give me the keys?”
I think that was probably the only game that made me love LucasArts, seeing as I missed the adventure game era. :( I’ll probably be trying Grim Fandango though, because of it’s acclaim and because of Tim Schafer’s part in its making.
06/07/2009 at 23:56 Gnarl says:
I find Loom interesting for an alternate history of where adventure games might have gone. And that you can only see the real story if you’re willing to learn the drafts by ear. And that if it never satisfies, at any point, the narrative. And, oh, it’s great.
07/07/2009 at 00:06 ChampionHyena says:
Gentlemen.
07/07/2009 at 00:15 Alex McLarty says:
Garrrrrg.
No Mac stuff.
07/07/2009 at 00:17 Buemba says:
Nice and all, but I already have all of these. Call me a dreamer, but I was hoping for a new Maniac Mansion or something…
And while we’re talking about dreams, hopefully these games will sell well enough to convince Lucasarts to get people like Dave Grossman and Ron Gilbert back to resurrect their adventure games division.
07/07/2009 at 00:30 Grey_Ghost says:
Woohoo! The Dig!
If they added proper widescreen support to Republic Commando I’d buy it again. Still waiting for it’s sequel…*cough*
No Full Throttle? 8(
07/07/2009 at 00:31 malkav11 says:
It’s about time. A lot of these have been steadfastly unavailable for years. (Still lacking a lot of the best, mind you.) I gotta second that they should have picked GoG for the older stuff, though. Or better yet, done both and Impulse besides.
07/07/2009 at 00:41 Serondal says:
There is no sequal Grey_Ghost. The story line plays out in a novel which made me pretty angry. It should be against the law to leave such a huge cliff hanger at the end of a game only to have it fufilled in a related novel O.o
07/07/2009 at 01:01 Psychopomp says:
“What’s that strange noise? It’s thousands of 30-year-old men simultaneously having a Special Wee, that’s what.”
OI!
I’m nineteen!
Looks like it’s time to play Armed & Dangerous, and LOOM again >8]
07/07/2009 at 01:49 Wedge says:
Oh damn I want Yoda Stories.
07/07/2009 at 01:51 Thiefsie says:
I already bought this stuff decades ago… I’m not about to go buying it again. Take that Lucasarts… that’s what you get for cashing in for years and years.
07/07/2009 at 01:54 drygear says:
When I was a kid my parents bought me the pack with Day of the Tentacle, Fate of Atlantis and Sam and Max. I loved those. I didn’t know how to find walkthroughs so I had to figure everything out by myself.
One of my favorite gaming moments is when I was stuck on a puzzle in DotT so I stopped playing it for a while. A few months later I had a dream where I found the solution, and the next day I tried the solution from my dream and it worked in the game!
07/07/2009 at 01:58 Vector says:
Really? So all that fuss was about old titles that everyone already has/can have with SCUMM in Steam? Sigh…
07/07/2009 at 02:07 Poindexter says:
@Vector et al. According to them, they aren’t running in SCUMMVM, but have created native executables. see here
07/07/2009 at 02:33 Kat says:
I still have the original box, discs and hint book of Fate of Atlantis. It was my favorite game for so long. I wanted to be Sophia Hapgood, and choosing the wits, brains or fists path made for so much enjoyable fun. Ahhh the joys of orichalcum. So disappointed they didn’t make this into the new indy movie!
07/07/2009 at 02:53 Scott Kevill says:
LOOM, awwww yeah. Absolutely beautiful adventure game. Been hoping for a sequel for many years, since the ending left a clear opening for one.
07/07/2009 at 03:08 JKjoker says:
uh, what the hell ? ScummVM has been able to run these for years, perfectly (or almost perfectly since they have 90% in the compatibility chart), you can use your old originals (if you still have that 5.25″ drive handy) plus its updated pretty often, multiplatform (you can play them in your damn DS or iPhone, or pocket pc or almost anything with a chip) and the ogg compressed games take a lot less space, wth would i buy them again for a version that will probably stop working with win7 and has no linux support and has been dipped in DRM? and what about Good Old Games ? i thought they were selling xp working drmless versions of these
if you want to make me excited gimme a remake of Tie-Fighter
07/07/2009 at 03:54 DerangedStoat says:
Oh wow, LOOM was the first non-shareware game I ever owned and finished. I loved that game, and spent more time playing tunes in it, than I did on the real piano I was meant to be learning…
Definitely a purchase both for nostalgia, and as encouragement for a remake/sequel…
Armed and Dangerous is an amusing game too, and sadly is the only other game on this list that I’ve played. That will need to be rectified.
07/07/2009 at 04:38 redrain85 says:
Two words. Holy shit.
Okay, a few more words. Would’ve preferred these on GOG instead of Steam, but I can live with it.
And, of course, for all those people who already have the games: this news is no big deal. You can just fire up ScummVM and play.
But this is big news for all the people who have never bought or played these games before. It’s potentially introducing them to a whole new generation of players, that will work on more modern versions of Windows.
This almost makes up for LucasArts’ “you need a $4,000 PC to play Force Unleashed so we’re not making a PC version” bullshit. I hope this a sign that all the people who would make such boneheaded PR gaffes have been fired, and LucasArts is turning over a bit of a new leaf.
07/07/2009 at 04:49 NegativeZero says:
I’ve still got the adventure games listed on Mac CD-ROM somewhere, so not a whole lot of interest in buying them again when they’re easily playable via ScummVM for free.
TIE Fighter, on the other hand, would be an entirely different prospect. I’d happily pay again for XP/Vista-compatible TIE Fighter. TIE 95 works fine in XP but it doesn’t have iMUSE :( It’s not the same without the dynamic MIDI music.
07/07/2009 at 05:51 Carl says:
NSFT The Fate of Atlantis rests in his hands.
07/07/2009 at 07:41 Lars Westergren says:
To the people who say you can already play this through Scumm – yeah, but if enough people buy these, and the remake of Monkey Island, Lucasarts may do graphical remakes of stuff like Day of the Tentacle too….
07/07/2009 at 07:52 Bob says:
They better put Grim Fandango on there!!!
07/07/2009 at 08:03 Sunjammer says:
Republic commando was fucking fantastic. Best modern starwars game in a decade
07/07/2009 at 08:22 Sunjammer says:
Lars, don’t delude yourself. The MI remake will absolutely wreck; modern gamers will be giant question-mark-faced question marks at the outdated humor, smeared out art style and obtuse puzzles.
The problem with remaking these old adventure games is that unless your remake IMPROVES on the game and actually brings it properly up to date, there’s no god damn point. I’d actually be much more interested in seeing a Secret of Monkey Island brawler than a straight up adventure remake, because the gameplay is less timeless than the story and setting.
I make a point out of replaying my Lucasarts favorites annually. Sam&Max, MI1-3, Fate of atlantis, Full Throttle. Full Throttle in particular is a standout. These are wondeful, wonderful games, but they are, currently, extreme niche and a cultural relic not much above text adventures like A Mind Forever Voyaging, which, while absolutely amazing, you probably can’t PAY people to play these days (unless we included it (AMFV) in our school curriculum. Which we should.)
I would rather they be allowed to become classics, like gaming equivalents of The day the earth stood still, Forbidden planet or even Casablanca or Citizen Kane, rather than be remade into modern anachronistic monstrosities. I would rather see them revered and updated for compatibility, made readily available to anyone curious about the most visual story-heavy genre videogames have seen.
Sidenote, anyone try the Sam&Max port for Xbox360? Why they put a mouse cursor in a joypad controlled game is beyond me. If you’re going to bring adventure games to the modern unwashed masses, methinks the interface needs some serious retooling, even if it’s just a cursor that scrolls through hotspots.
07/07/2009 at 08:43 Bobsy says:
The problem with remaking X-Wing or TIE Fighter: no-one, but no-one has a joystick these days.
Expect it on consoles, or not at all.
07/07/2009 at 08:44 Lars Westergren says:
@sunjammer: “Lars, don’t delude yourself. The MI remake will absolutely wreck; modern gamers will be giant question-mark-faced question marks at the outdated humor, smeared out art style and obtuse puzzles.”
Well, thing is, there are quite a lot of 30-something gamers on Steam… We shall see how the sales go.
:-)
UPDATE: At this article, a very mouth watering hint:
“While these ten titles are straight ports – so no Steam Achievements, and no fancy new graphics and sound a la Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition – LucasArts is considering enhanced versions of other titles, though “a lot of it will ultimately depend on the commercial success of Monkey Island Special Edition,” we’re told. “We have the plans in our back pocket and if things go extremely well, we’ll roll out those plans and put them into action. Whether it’s Maniac, Day of the Tentacle, or Grim.”
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/06/breaking-lucasarts-classics-coming-to-steam-this-wednesday/
07/07/2009 at 09:04 Sunjammer says:
Better be Grim then! They should hire double fine just to handle that
07/07/2009 at 09:06 megaman says:
This is really great news. At the time when those games were new I was a kid with no money and piracy was just “normal” then. I’m glad I can use this as a chance to re-play those games while (finally) giving them some well-deserved money. Lucasarts games entertained me for many fine hours. Thanks for that!
07/07/2009 at 09:14 Dave says:
Bah! no Tie Fighter!?
07/07/2009 at 09:44 Demikaze says:
I would love for an iTouch/iPhone version of any of these. I already own the vast majority on PC but portable versions would be divine. I know you can jailbreak the iPods, but such tomfoolery terrifies me…
07/07/2009 at 09:55 Darren Mullen says:
Pirates will be critical.
07/07/2009 at 10:14 Lars Westergren says:
@Demikaze Can’t speak for iPhone, but ScummVM is available free on any Android handset.
07/07/2009 at 13:22 Tworak says:
WAT WAT Wat wat wat twat wat twat wat wat wat tawt awt
Now where’s dem good games at, Lucas?
07/07/2009 at 15:47 animal says:
Yeah about no one still has a joystick, but if they remake X-Wing/Tie Fighter I’ll go buy one for sure.
/signed
07/07/2009 at 16:54 Rongonathon Magnuskavang says:
Well, I am sort of hoping that they throw Knights of the Old Republic on Steam. Not available for digital download that I can find anywhere. It isn’t listed yet, so I hope away.
07/07/2009 at 20:50 maicon says:
Star Wars Republic Commando and KOTOR are the only games based in SW that i enjoied so far.
07/07/2009 at 22:46 Rambo says:
god whats with all these old games where are the newer ones
07/07/2009 at 22:47 Brass Gerbil says:
“Legionary says:
When TIE Fighter comes out, I’ll be splashing the cash: easily the best Star Wars game there’s yet been, and easily the best space fighter sim ever.”
What he said.
No TIE Fighter / X-Wing / XvT (even XWA), no cash. Adventure games bore me right into a coma, and the rest of the list elicits a resounding “meh”.
08/07/2009 at 14:42 Dracko says:
As much as I loathe the looks of the remake, at least there’s an instant option to play the original.
Hopefully Maniac Mansion will follow soon: If they’re putting up Loom, Indy 3 and Monkey Island, they need that one to show just how much they could do with such a new and relatively restrictive genre.
08/07/2009 at 14:50 Xugu Madison says:
Awesome! Now all we need is the old Infocom games for people who were getting nostalgic back when Loom was new :)
08/07/2009 at 15:47 Dracko says:
Yeah, they’re in need of a rerelease.