The "Gold Guy" LucasArts logo, used during LucasArts adventures golden years (1991 - 2007)

Before concentrating almost exclusively on Star Wars titles, LucasArts was known for their point-and-click adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous (often irreverent or slapstick humour), with a few exceptions. Their game design philosophy was that the player should never die or reach a complete dead-end, although there have been exceptions to the former (such as Maniac Mansion, both Indiana Jones games and one in The Secret of Monkey Island that can be considered an easter egg). Image File history File links LucasArts_GoldGuy_logo_purple. ... Image File history File links LucasArts_GoldGuy_logo_purple. ... This article is about the series. ... LucasArts is an American video game developer and publisher. ... This article is about the computer and video game genre. ... Zork I made unwinnable in 6 turns. ... Maniac Mansion is a graphical adventure game originally released in 1987 by Lucasfilm Games (now known as LucasArts). ... This article is about the fictional character. ... The Secret of Monkey Island (SMI) is a well known adventure game that spawned a series of famous and classic comedy adventure games, known as the Monkey Island series as well as making a name for LucasArts (then Lucasfilm Games) as a producer of adventure games, thus the largest competitor... A virtual Easter egg is a hidden message or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, or video game. ...

Common features between the games include in-joke references to both other LucasArts games and Lucasfilm productions, including the number 1138, quotes such as the phrase "I have a bad feeling about this", as well as other running gags (Chuck the Plant and Sam & Max cameo appearances among them) that spanned numerous games. Another feature, used in several of the games, was to allow the player to control more than one character, often being able to switch between them at will. For example, in Maniac Mansion the player has control of a group of three kids with complementary skills and weaknesses, while in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis the player gets to play as both Indiana Jones and his partner, Sophia Hapgood. An in joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous. ... Lucasfilm Ltd. ... 1138 is the natural number following 1137 and preceding 1139. ... Chuck the plant as a cactus in Day of the Tentacle Chuck the Plant is a mascot of sorts in several of LucasArts adventure games. ... Front cover of The collected Sam & Max: Surfin The Highway. ... Maniac Mansion is a graphical adventure game originally released in 1987 by Lucasfilm Games (now known as LucasArts). ... Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1992 and published by LucasArts. ...

For more detailed information about the company's history, see the main LucasArts article. LucasArts is an American video game developer and publisher. ...

Adventure games by LucasArts

This is a complete list of LucasArts adventure games, from 1986 to the 2002. 1986 1986 in games 1985 in video gaming 1987 in video gaming Notable events of 1986 in computer and video games. ...

• Labyrinth (1986)
• Maniac Mansion * (1987)
• Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders * (1988)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure * (1989)
• Loom * ** (1990)
• The Secret of Monkey Island * (1990)
• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991)
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)
• Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (1993)
• Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993)
• Full Throttle (1995)
• The Dig (1995)
• The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)
• Grim Fandango (1998)
• Escape from Monkey Island (2000)

* These games were later re-released with enhanced graphics.

** LOOM was also re-released on CD, once with a full digital score and a second time with voice-overs (but very little music).

The SCUMM programming tools were used to design all the games from Maniac Mansion to The Curse of Monkey Island, while the GrimE engine took over from Grim Fandango onwards. For those people who own the original MS-DOS versions of the SCUMM games and have found that these no longer work on modern computers, it is possible, using the original data files, to play the games on modern platforms using the ScummVM interpreter. Screenshot from the game in the text-mode prologue. ... Maniac Mansion is a graphical adventure game originally released in 1987 by Lucasfilm Games (now known as LucasArts). ... A screenshot of Zak McKracken, Enhanced EGA PC version. ... Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1989, published by Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts). ... Loom is a graphical adventure game originally released in 1990. ... The Secret of Monkey Island (SMI) is a well known adventure game that spawned a series of famous and classic comedy adventure games, known as the Monkey Island series as well as making a name for LucasArts (then Lucasfilm Games) as a producer of adventure games, thus the largest competitor... Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1992 and published by LucasArts. ... Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (DoTT) is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1993, and published by LucasArts. ... Sam & Max Hit the Road is a graphical adventure game, originally developed and released by LucasArts in 1993 for DOS and in 1995 for Macintosh computers. ... Full Throttle is a graphical adventure game, originally developed in-house and released on 30 April 1995 by LucasArts. ... The Dig is a graphical adventure game developed by LucasArts and released in 1995, and a novel based on the game written by Alan Dean Foster. ... The Curse of Monkey Island (CMI) is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the third game in the Monkey Island computer game series. ... Grim Fandango is a graphical adventure computer game released by LucasArts in 1998. ... Escape from Monkey Island (EMI) is a computer adventure game developed and released by LucasArts in 2000. ... CD redirects here. ... SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion and is a scripting language developed at LucasArts (known at the time as Lucasfilm Games) to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion. ... A programming tool is a program or application that software developers use to create, debug, or maintain other programs and applications. ... Grime is a sub-genre of urban music which first emerged in London in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, drum and bass, dancehall and hip hop. ... ScummVM is a multi-platform stack-based virtual machine which was originally made to allow one to play LucasArts adventure games that use the SCUMM system on platforms other than those for which they were originally released. ...

In 2002, The Dig, Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Sam & Max were re-released as windows-playable versions in 640x480 resolution only.

The end of an era

While most adventure games by LucasArts were lauded by critiques and fans alike, often winning awards in the process and developing a cult following, over the years, the sales for these games started diminishing, most notably for Grim Fandango. This would prove fateful for the future of eventual sequels, which were planned or in production at the time.

It is believed that after the cancellation of Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2, the adventure game era of LucasArts had officially ended, as there is no intention of returning to the genre until the next decade. ^[1] This would also coincide with a large layoff at the company, although representatives would insist on it being a "major restructuring". ^[2] Some people who have been working on former LucasArts adventure games have successfully continued on other projects: Tim Schafer became the mind behind Psychonauts, while a number of LucasArts employees formed Telltale Games and with Steve Purcell went on to create Sam & Max Season One. Tim Schafer (born July 26, 1967) is an American computer game designer. ... This article for the video game; for other uses, see Psychonaut (disambiguation). ... Telltale Games is a video game developer based in San Rafael, California and founded in June 2004. ... At the 1992 San Diego Comic Con. ... This page is for Telltales episodic Sam & Max games. ...

To this day, there are video game critics, who view the company's decision of dropping the adventure games in favor of Star Wars and Indiana Jones titles as a decision of quantity over quality. ^{[3] [4][5]} This article is about the series. ... This article is about the fictional character. ...

See also

• List of graphic adventure games

// Kings Quest series (1984-1998) Space Quest series (1986-1995) Quest for Glory series (1993-1998) Police Quest series (1987-) Leisure Suit Larry series (1987-) Gabriel Knight series (1993-1999) Adventure in Serenia (1982) The Adventures of Willy Beamish (1991) Alien Legacy (1993) The Black Cauldron (1986) Castle of...

References

Little Gamers (LG) is a webcomic made by Swedes Christian Fundin (founder, illustrator) and Pontus Madsen (writer). ...

External links

• LucasArts Company Website
• LucasArts Museum
• The International House of Mojo - fan site
• ScummVM