By Alec Meer on April 11th, 2012 at 7:00 pm.
The trademark infringement is strong with this one. Still, the Lucas Empire has been relatively forgiving of fan projects based upon its galaxy far, far over-monetised, so perhaps this here Han Solo Adventures will avoid a Carboniting so long as it remains a not-for-profit endeavour.
Not only does this star Star Wars’ most criminally (but also mercifully, as he retains mystique for it) under-served character, Mr Han Solo, but it places him in a recreation of the old Lucasarts SCUMM-engine point and click adventures.
The natural and yet mysteriously never-made extension of the Indiana Jones adventures, then. It’s made using AGS rather than anyone else’s code, mind, and explores Solo’s stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking adventures in the run-up to A New Hope rather than during or after the films. Lando’s in there, Tatooine’s in there and the Cantina band are in there though.
Who knows whether this will manage to see the light of delay or if the Dark Lawyers of the Sith will have it thrown down the nearest Sarlaac, but developer Stacy Davidson is resolute that it’ll stay freeware. He no wanna yer wonga, Solo.
Going on these early videos, he seems to have right idea and style, but someone really needs to buy him a copy of FRAPS:
More stuff and things here or on its Twitter account. Having started back in 2009 he reckons he’s now 90% of the way through making the rooms, 75% through the characters, and 23% through the puzzles, so it’s not a million parsecs away from release in theory. We shall see.
Of course, it’s not 2012′s only Han Solo gaming experience…
I know I’m not supposed to, but I bloody love that.
(Thanks, BoZo.)
11/04/2012 at 19:03 Swabbleflange says:
“He no wanna yer wonga”
Oh, bravo sir.
11/04/2012 at 19:11 Flint says:
~I’m so happy that the carbonite is gone~
11/04/2012 at 19:14 Squire says:
I just stared at that Han Solo dancing video for 90 seconds with my mouth open, what IS THIS?
11/04/2012 at 19:24 AndrewC says:
The 2nd best thing to happen to Star Wars in 20 years. Vader’s ‘it’s fun to be in the Empire Today’, to the tune of YMCA, being the 1st.
11/04/2012 at 19:48 imdwalrus says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c42pEVwYM34
You’re welcome.
11/04/2012 at 20:19 ThTa says:
You misspelled “The Emperor rocking it to Ghosts ‘N Stuff”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXp8T097vjc
11/04/2012 at 21:12 mckertis says:
“The 2nd best thing to happen to Star Wars in 20 years.”
I know you’re gonna say that the 1st best thing was Revenge of the Sith, am i right ?
12/04/2012 at 01:52 Phantoon says:
Star Wars Christmas Special.
12/04/2012 at 02:59 swebjh44 says:
Every time someone posts these Star Wars Kinect dancing videos I have to watch them all the way through. http://www.wp3.pl/321sd/Classic Wired Game Controller for Nintendo GameCube NGC and Wii
11/04/2012 at 19:43 Xocrates says:
What’s this? What’s this?
There’s something very wrong
What’s this?
It’s a Han Solo dance along
11/04/2012 at 20:50 Hodge says:
HAMMER TIME!
11/04/2012 at 22:01 yhancik says:
This is all clearly inspired by this gem
11/04/2012 at 22:57 Snuffy the Evil says:
The worst song. The other videos are actually kind of funny.
11/04/2012 at 19:16 Was Neurotic says:
I would pay for this! But sadly, then I wouldn’t have it. Okay then. I won’t pay for this! Ha!
11/04/2012 at 19:16 ScubaMonster says:
What companies should do is instead of bringing the hammer down on fan projects, if it’s good enough then hire the developer or buy it from them and release it themselves. They could polish it up in house to get it up to par maybe. Seems counter productive to take a great idea or product then squash it. Obviously not all fan projects are of good enough quality, but for the really good ones it makes sense.
11/04/2012 at 19:19 BEEFLASER says:
“I know I’m not supposed to, but I bloody love that.”
So do I. People with a sense of humor, unite!
11/04/2012 at 19:48 imdwalrus says:
I know the game sucks, but if I had a Kinect I’d seriously think about getting it just for the dance more.
11/04/2012 at 21:38 Drayk says:
When I first saw the picture i thought… OMG what did they do to Star wars. But now that I have seen the video I think it’s really fun. Star wars needs more “dérision”.
Lego star wars was great in that register too.
11/04/2012 at 22:23 Bluerps says:
I love it too!
Dancing Han Solo! What’s not to like?
11/04/2012 at 19:20 Belsameth says:
That’s just painfull…
11/04/2012 at 19:22 Dominic White says:
It should be noted that the whole ‘If companies don’t crush fan-works, they’ll lose their trademark/copyright, etc’ thing is one of the greatest myths-turned-accepted-truths the big corporate entities have put together.
There’s no such legal imperative. If a fan-work declares itself to be an unofficial, non-profit production, and that all trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective holders, there is nothing illegal going on there.
Why do they do it, then? Because big companies exert power for power’s sake. That, and they have large legal teams with nothing better to do 90% of the time – why not use their most loyal fans as target practice when there’s no real rival companies to drag into court?
11/04/2012 at 19:46 Kuraudo says:
You’re completely correct, but the way you said it is not entirely fair. It’s not the guys running the company that go out of their way to be evil, it’s the legal departments who are always keen to justify their existence by constantly, and I mean *constantly*, pursuing legal Magicks and Alchemies on the peasantry. Corporate leadership just nods politely while the legal department makes up whatever in their explanation of why they need approval for their latest witch hunt.
11/04/2012 at 20:08 GlacialTurtle says:
That’s not true. Simply declaring all trademarks and copyright belong to x absolutely does not mean what you’re doing is legal. Being not for profit and not claiming ownership over anything would at best help your Fair Use/Fair Dealing claims, but that would only apply to copyright, and it’d be a huge stretch to claim a use to this extent counted as fair use.
For Trademark there is an imperative to defend it, but that’s primarily for commercial uses that might cause confusion, which if you state clearly that yours is a fan work would help you out in court, but there’s not necessarily a guarantee you’ll win.
11/04/2012 at 23:22 Jupiah says:
Correct, what he’s doing is not legal regardless of what his disclaimer states, but it also does not damage Lucas Arts whatsoever, and crushing it will likely do more damage to their bottom line by alienating their fans. If the company was smart they’d ignore it or offer him a free license, but most large corporations these days give their legal departments way, way too much control over their business practices and those lawyers are always looking for ways to generate legal fees for their own pocketbooks.
So yeah, if any of the lawyers happen to spot this I’ve no doubt it will be ceased-and-desist’ed in a second.
12/04/2012 at 01:55 Phantoon says:
“…alienating their fans”
What? The prequels didn’t already do that?
Seriously, the love thing in the second prequel was the sort of love story a serial killer would write.
11/04/2012 at 19:27 Eukatheude says:
Why fraps? I don’t get why people use it, Playclaw is better in any possible way and it’s free too.
11/04/2012 at 19:56 ResonanceCascade says:
Because Playclaw apparently has terrible SEO, as I’ve searched far and wide for a FRAPS alternative and only ever found garbage.
11/04/2012 at 21:34 Hodge says:
+1.
Also, the Playclaw homepage says it’s priced at the $30 mark, which is cheaper than FRAPS but not by much.
Evolve has a free video capturing tool but it’s still in beta and in my experience a bit crashy. You also need to have Evolve running to make use of it, which is a pain in the arse if all you need is the video capture.
12/04/2012 at 14:57 Harlander says:
Is CamStudio any good for this? Or Whatever this is?
11/04/2012 at 19:27 ResonanceCascade says:
Sold!
I could play Scumm games all day, every day, forever. Someone made a partially-finished Secret of Atlantis-style Indiana Jones game a while back in Scumm. I should really look into that and see if it was ever completed.
11/04/2012 at 19:28 Sic says:
It’s… beautiful.
11/04/2012 at 22:21 PJMendes says:
Suddenly, nostalgia coming out of my eyes, in liquid form.
11/04/2012 at 19:37 Maldomel says:
Scumm…That name feels weird everytime I read it, or played a game using it.
11/04/2012 at 20:32 dragomort says:
I’m disappointed this didn’t have a title of ‘A Wretched Hive of SCUMM and Villainy’ :(
12/04/2012 at 09:54 Prime says:
Dragomort – thank you for a very badly needed laugh! I totally agree: it’s criminal that ‘wretched hive of SCUMM and villainy” wasn’t used! Ha ha!
11/04/2012 at 19:41 ambience07 says:
“Lovin’ myself makes me want to sing. Oh, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.” @ 2:19
I can’t take this image out of my head. I imagine him hitting some falsetto with a Twi’lek hologram in front of him. Then Chewie walks in and than a ridiculous “American Pie” kind of situation ensues. And yeah, those songs are hilarious stuff, regardless of the Hivehate.
11/04/2012 at 20:34 pilouuuu says:
Haha-Han Solo dancing is hilarious! Just that scene is much better than the two first prequel movies.
It’s a shame Lucasarts never released a proper Star Wars adventure game. The closest we have to that I think is KOTOR.
It’s also a shame that they never made Indy Fate of Atlantis Special Edition. Do those guys still make games anyways? I mean real games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. They used to be the best, but they were seduced by the dark side… of bad Star Wars games!
11/04/2012 at 20:45 Man Raised by Puffins says:
Ah, I thought it looked familiar.
11/04/2012 at 21:05 S Jay says:
Shut up and take my mon…oh, ok, shut up and get it done so I can download it for free!
11/04/2012 at 21:07 Hodge says:
It’s worth mentioning that an early version of this was used as a scene in Star Wars Uncut and for me probably the highlight of the whole thing. The 15-second scene can be seen here.
(DISCLOSURE: I was part of a group who also did some scenes for the film)
11/04/2012 at 22:14 guldalder says:
The dancing reminded me of this gem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4aJPeN5fzc
11/04/2012 at 22:19 Jahkaivah says:
I was just about to link to the Han Solo dance along and you go and post it in the article.
11/04/2012 at 23:24 ColOfNature says:
Why does Han Solo’s sparkling groin keep flashing superlatives at me? Make the bad man stop!
11/04/2012 at 23:54 Sivart13 says:
Every time someone posts these Star Wars Kinect dancing videos I have to watch them all the way through.
I just have to.
I… can’t stop myself.
12/04/2012 at 01:56 Phantoon says:
It’s good to admit you have a problem.
But I’m not here for you, because you might be contagious.
12/04/2012 at 06:57 shopshop1 says:
http://goshoppingo.com so cool for business and earn money
12/04/2012 at 07:31 JBantha says:
I am selling this fine leather jackets.
12/04/2012 at 07:34 robotslave says:
If the internet simply can’t bring itself to stop talking about Star Wars entirely, which would be my first choice, then the next best thing would be to have everyone stop using the phrase “A New Hope” entirely, and replace it instead with “The Original Movie” or “Star Wars: The One Called ‘Star Wars’”.
12/04/2012 at 08:51 harvb says:
Oh god. Once you’ve seen it, you can’t UNsee it!
12/04/2012 at 09:56 Prime says:
Han Solo themed AGS game = Awesome.
Han Solo Kinect Dancing = BAD/WRONG/MAKEITSTOP