Official LucasArts logo

LucasArts Entertainment Company (sometimes shortened to LEC), is a video game developer and publisher. The company was famous for its line of point-and-click adventure games and today mainly produces games based on the Star Wars franchise. Download high resolution version (1313x1500, 104 KB)LucasArts official Logo This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... Download high resolution version (1313x1500, 104 KB)LucasArts official Logo This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video or computer games. ... Video game publishers are companies that publish video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. ... An adventure game is a type of computer game usually dominated by exploration, puzzle-solving, and interaction with game characters, with the focus on enjoying a narrative rather than testing reflexes. ... The DVD cover of the Star Wars trilogy. ...

Origins

The company had its beginnings in May 1982 in the Games Group of Lucasfilm Ltd., the film production company of George Lucas. Lucas had wanted his company to branch out into other areas of entertainment, and so he cooperated with Atari to produce video games. The first results of this collaboration were unique action games like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus. However, they were not released at first because pirated copies were in circulation months before the original release date. In 1984, they were released for the Atari 5200 under the Lucasfilm Games label. Versions for home computers were not released until 1986, when publisher Epyx showed interest in the games. This article is about the month of May. ... 1982 is a number and represents a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar Events January-February January 6 - William Bonin is convicted of being the freeway killer. January 8 - AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions January 11 - Mark Thatcher, son of the British... Lucasfilm Logo Lucasfilm Ltd. ... George Lucas George Walton Lucas, Jr. ... For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Atari 5200 System The Atari 5200 was a video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari. ... The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers (the technical term that was previously used), entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Epyx, Inc. ...

The Adventure games

Lucasfilm Games released its first adventure game in 1986: Labyrinth, based on the Lucasfilm movie of the same name. 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1987, the adventure game Maniac Mansion was released, which effectively spawned the subgenre of point-and-click adventure games. It was followed by more adventures of high quality and in the following years Lucasfilm built a reputation for producing the best games of the genre. Amongst the early LucasArts classics was the much-loved Monkey Island (later followed by three sequels), an adventure game notable for the quality of its comedic script, the absurd solutions to many of its puzzles and the invulnerability of its protagonist, which was quite an innovation in a genre where choosing the wrong thing to say could often result in instant death. 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Screenshot Maniac Mansion (C64) Maniac Mansion is a graphical adventure game originally released in 1987, published by LucasArts. ... The Secret of Monkey Island, CD version. ...

Simulations

The company also started producing military simulation games, the first of which were the naval simulations PHM Pegasus and Strike Fleet. In 1988, Battlehawks 1942 was released, later followed by Their Finest Hour and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. The WW2 Air Combat Trilogy, as it was later called, was created by Lawrence Holland's team, who later founded their own company in Totally Games. A simulation is an imitation of some real device or state of affairs. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The early 1990s

In 1990, in a reorganization of the Lucas companies, the Games Division of Lucasfilm became part of the newly created LucasArts Entertainment Company, together with Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. Later ILM and Skywalker Sound were consolidated in Lucas Digital Ltd. and LucasArts became the official name of the former Games Division. 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Industrial Light + Magic is a motion picture special visual effects company, founded in July 1975 by George Lucas. ... Skywalker Sound is the renowned sound effects, sound editorial, sound design and music recording division of George Lucass Lucas Digital motion picture group. ...

Even though LucasArts had created games based on other Lucasfilm properties before (Labyrinth, Indiana Jones), they didn't use the most promising Lucasfilm license until the early 1990s: Star Wars action games began appearing on the Nintendo consoles, but were developed by other companies for LucasArts. The first in-house development was the space combat simulator X-Wing, developed by Larry Holland's team, which went on to spawn a successful series. Labyrinth Animated Title Labyrinth is a 1986 fantasy film directed by Jim Henson. ... Indiana Jones wax figure at Madame Tussauds Indiana Jones is a bullwhip-toting archaeologist with an overdeveloped fear of snakes, played by Harrison Ford in a series of films by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. ... Events and trends Technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other technology Reduction in size and cost of mobile phones leads to a massive surge in their popularity Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K) Microsoft Windows operating system becomes virtually ubiquitous on IBM... Nintendo Company, Limited (Japanese: 任天堂; Ninten is roughly translated as leave luck to heaven or in heavens hands, do is a common suffix for names of shops or laboratories. ... The X-wing computer game series is a series of computer games set in the Star Wars universe that attempts to realistically simulate the experience of combat in the starfighters of both the Rebel Alliance, and, in later games, the Galactic Empire. ...

The CD-ROM-only Star Wars game Rebel Assault became one of the biggest successes of the company and was considered a killer app for CD-ROM drives in the early 90s. Another game that utilised the new technology of the CD-ROM drive was 1993's Day of the Tentacle, the first LucasArts adventure game to have a full spoken soundtrack available on the game's release rather than relying on text. A killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is a computer program that is so useful that people will buy a particular computer hardware, gaming console, and/or an operating system simply to run that program. ... Events and trends Technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other technology Reduction in size and cost of mobile phones leads to a massive surge in their popularity Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K) Microsoft Windows operating system becomes virtually ubiquitous on IBM... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003) Events Media:January January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. ... Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1993, published by LucasArts. ...

The first person shooter

After the unprecedented success of id Software's Doom the PC gaming market shifted towards production of three dimensional first person shooters. LucasArts contributed to this trend with the 1995 release of Star Wars: Dark Forces, a first person shooter that successfully transplanted the Doom formula to a Star Wars setting. The game was well received and spawned a new franchise: the Jedi Knight games. This began with the sequel to Dark Forces, Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II released in 1997; this game reflected the changing face of PC gaming, being one of the first games to appreciably benefit when used in conjunction with a dedicated 3d graphics card like 3dfx's Voodoo range. The game received an expansion pack, Mysteries of the Sith, in 1998 and a full sequel in 2002 with Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. 2003's Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy can be seen as a spin-off from the series, but was less well received by reviewers, who complained that the franchise was becoming formulaic. The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Doom1 is a 1993 computer game developed by id Software, and one of the most seminal titles in the first-person shooter genre. ... A first-person shooter (FPS) is a computer or video game where the players on-screen view of the game world simulates that of the character, and there is some element of shooting involved. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Star Wars: Dark Forces is a video game produced by the LucasArts Entertainment Company. ... Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (aka JK) is a first person shooter computer game released September 30, 1997, by LucasArts. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Reef. ... A GeForce 4 4200-based graphics card A graphics card or video card is a component of a computer which is designed to convert a logical representation of an image stored in memory to a signal that can be used as input for a display medium, most often a monitor... 3dfx Interactive was a company which specialized in the manufacturing of 3D graphics cards and graphics processing units. ... An expansion pack is an addition to an existing computer game. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Apart from Starwars-themed 3D shooters, LucasArts also created the western-themed game Outlaws in 1997.

In 2004, Lucasarts released Star Wars: Battlefront, based on the same formula as the popular Battlefield 1942 games. It has ended up being the best-selling Star Wars game of all time.

In 2005, Republic Commando was released, dubbed: "The Least Star Warsey Star Wars Game"

The last wave of LucasArts Adventure games 1997-2000

LucasArts' focus on three dimensional action games was detrimental to their line of adventures. The PC game market, traditionally the home of the adventure game, was being driven by technological change. The market wanted titles that would show off expensive new graphics cards to best effect, a change replicated in the home console market as the 3d capabilities of the Sony PlayStation and its competitors the Sega Saturn and Nintendo's N64 dictated the nature of the majority of games produced for those platforms. The adventure genre, two dimensional, focused on story, script and puzzle solving was seen as no longer popular with gamers. A GeForce 4 4200-based graphics card A graphics card or video card is a component of a computer which is designed to convert a logical representation of an image stored in memory to a signal that can be used as input for a display medium, most often a monitor... Sony Corporation (Japanese katakana: ソニー) (NYSE: SNE) is a consumer electronics corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ... The PlayStation (Japanese: プレイステーション) is a video game console of the 32-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the 1990s. ... The Sega Saturn video game console The Sega Saturn (Japanese: セガサターン, Sega Saturn), a video game console of the 32-bit era, was released on November 22, 1994, in Japan and May 1995 in the United States; 170,000 machines were sold the first day of the Japanese launch. ... Nintendo Company, Limited (Japanese: 任天堂; Ninten is roughly translated as leave luck to heaven or in heavens hands, do is a common suffix for names of shops or laboratories. ... An N64 (with Super Smash Bros. ...

However, there was a brief resurgence in the genre between 1997 and 2000. The Curse of Monkey Island was the last LucasArts adventure game to retain traditional two dimensional graphics and the tried-and-tested point and click interface. It was followed by Grim Fandango, arguably LucasArts' finest adventure game, and the first attempt to convert 2d adventure to the gimmick of 3d games. The game interface suffered most from this conversion, with control of the protagonist becoming unweildy and less intuitive than the traditional mouse interface. However, the highly stylised graphics, superb voice acting and sophisticated writing more than made up for this flaw. Escape from Monkey Island replicated Grim Fandango's graphical engine and control system, and was well reviewed. However, since then LucasArts have continued to prioritise action games over traditional adventure games, a consistent position that led to a sequel to Sam'n'Max Hit The Road being aborted in 2004 despite rumours that it was 85% complete. This, combined with the 2003 cancellation of a sequel to Full Throttle has led fans of adventure gaming to surmise that the traditional LucasArts adventure game is dead. 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Grim Fandango is a graphical adventure computer game released by LucasArts in 1998. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Categories: Computer and video game stubs | Adventure games | 1995 computer and video games ...

2000-Present

As the quantity of Star Wars games increased, many critics felt the quality began to drop; this was especially noted with the titles released since the cinematic release of The Phantom Menace. Film poster for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a 1999 film by George Lucas starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and Jake Lloyd. ...

In 2002, LucasArts recognized that the over-reliance on Star Wars was reducing the quality of its output, and announced that future releases would be at least 50% non-Star Wars-related. However, many of the original titles were either unsuccessful or even cancelled before release and currently LucasArts has again mainly Star Wars titles in production. 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

2003 saw the fruitful collaboration of LucasArts and BioWare on the exceptionally well reviewed role-playing game, Knights of the Old Republic. Combining a three dimensional environment with the type of storytelling and writing that made LucasArts' early adventure games so memorable, this game has been seen as breathing new life into the Star Wars franchise. Its 2005 sequel Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords continued in the same vein, uniting top notch voice acting with an absorbing unfolding story. 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... BioWare Corp. ... A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game where players assume the roles of fictional characters via role-playing. ... Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) is an RPG video game originally for the Microsoft Xbox and later for PCs running Microsoft Windows. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (KOTOR II) is an RPG video game for the PC and the Microsoft Xbox. ...

In 2003 LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise also branched out in a new direction—the world of the MMORPG, with the creation of Star Wars Galaxies. After a successful launch, the first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, was released in 2004. The new expansion featured the addition of real time space combat. A massive(ly) multiplayer online role-playing game or MMORPG is a multiplayer computer role-playing game that enables thousands of players to play in an evolving virtual world at the same time over the Internet. ... Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (SWG) is a Star Wars themed MMORPG for Windows PCs, developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts Entertainment. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In May 2005, LucasArts will release Revenge of the Sith, a third person action game based on the upcoming film. More Star Wars games are planned for later this year, including Star Wars: Empire at War, a real-time strategy game developed by Petroglyph Games. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (computer game) Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: The Video Game is a 2005 video game based on the May 19th movie of the same name. ... Dune 2 (1992), an early RTS A real-time strategy (RTS) game is a type of computer strategy game which does not have turns like conventional turn-based strategy video or board games. ... Petroglyph Games is a game studio based in Las Vegas, Nevada. ...

See also

• List of LucasArts Star Wars games
• LucasArts Adventure Games
• SCUMM
• GrimE

This is a list of the LucasArts Star Wars games. ... Before concentrating on Star Wars spin-offs, LucasArts was known primarily for their point-and-click adventure games, nearly all of which received rave reviews at the time of their release. ... 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. ... Grime is musical offshoot of the early 21st century UK Garage scene that developed in Londons East End between 2002-2004. ...

External links

• Official LucasArts website (http://www.lucasarts.com/)
• A fanpage dedicated to this company (with a strong accent on adventure gaming) (http://www.mixnmojo.com/)
• A fanpage dedicated to the Jedi Knight series (http://www.jediknight.net/)
• The Lucasfilm Computer Division Games Project is born (http://www.langston.com/LFGames/) by Peter Langston