The International House of Mojo

Two sequels to this game were attempted, neither of which included Tim Schafer (who'd departed the company by then). The first was Full Throttle: Payback, a game cancelled in its pre-productions stages and thus was never announced. It was intended to be an action/urldventure for consoles as well as PC and involved such names as Larry Ahern as the project leader and Bill Tiller as the lead artist. After Payback was shelved, an even more action oriented incarnation called Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels was put into production with Sean Clark at the helm. This game got much further along, even to the point of a trailer and screenshots being released, but it too was cancelled in late 2003 (to a generally relieved response, as fans were not pleased with the direction the game seemed to be taking). More can be read about both of these sequels (which are sometimes considered a single, particularly problematic production) elsewhere on this site.

Tim Schafer was inspired to make this game when hearing the stories told by an acquaintance who spent their summer vacation in Alaska. The excited manner in which he regaled tales about the bikers and communities that he witnessed gave off a folklore vibe and got Schafer interested in the subject matter.

Ben's last name is "Throttle," as indicated in concept art, but ultimately references to this could not be made in the actual game when it was learned that there was a character named "Throttle" in the then current animated series "Biker Mice from Mars," which additionally had a 1994 Super Nintendo video game adaptation, and a potential legal fiasco wished to be avoided. (In the manual, Ben is referred to as "Ben Whatsisname.")

Tim Schafer made this game after re-evaluating his character design philosophy to being "wish fulfillments." The previous games he worked on feature nebbish, clumsy heroes like Guybrush Threepwood and Bernard Bernouli, but Schafer argued that players were just as likely to want to play someone cool as a goofball, and thus invented a lead character whom gamers would find to be "bigger than them and tougher than them, and who could ride this big huge motorcycle and lead this gang of bikers."

Full Throttle was the biggest adventure game hit to have ever come out of LEC at the time, and sold the most units with the exception of The Dig.

In designing the game, Tim Schafer wanted to include a scene where Ben would take peyote, during which the player would enter an interactive dream sequence inside Ben's head where story-related clues would be learned. Although this idea was dropped (likely due to content concerns), Schafer continued to nurture the general idea of walking around in someone's head to insert into a future game. Eventually, he built an entire game around the concept of entering minds, the modern classic Psychonauts.

Roy Conrad, who voices Ben in the game, sadly passed away in 2002 of cancer. In his memory, Tim Schafer put a page up on the Double Fine web site. In the cancelled Hell on Wheels a sound-alike was cast.

Father Torque gives Malcolm Corley's eulogy, and both characters are voiced by Hamilton Camp. Camp has also since passed away, in 2005.

When firing the plane's machine gun try to detach Rip from the plane, he'll mockingly say, "I think you just killed a seagull." Considering that the game takes place in desert environments, the reference to a seagull is likely a nod to Loom.

A video compression engine called "INSANE," originally developed for Rebel Assault, was employed in this game to make several action scenes work. The intended purpose of the engine was essentially to allow for gameplay to mingle with pre-rendered footage. (Generally, it is used whenever Ben is riding, such as in the Old Mine Road segment.) This caused problems for the artists, as the engine was designed to accommodate a game with photorealistic style graphics, whereas the visuals of Full Throttle are highly stylized and cartoony.

Furthermore, the implementation of the action sequences in general was problematic for the programmers due to the limitations of the SCUMM engine. According to Dave Grossman:

Dave Grossman is credited as an "Additional Writer" on the game (his final credit on an LEC outside of "special thanks" listings). While he himself isn't sure what lines of his made it into the final game when last asked, he is at the very least responsible for the lyrics of the song Malcolm Corley sings before his murder.

The inclusion of the song "Increased Chances" by Chitlins, Whiskey and Skirt was reportedly at the insistence of Peter McConnell. The subject of the song is believed to be largely the reason many people believe that Full Throttle takes place in a "post-apocalyptic" world, an intention that Schafer has denied.

The game features an easter egg minigame. At The Kickstand when Ben is wanted for murder, talk to Everett and ask him multiple times to let him try his hand at the knife game. If you ask enough times, Everett will relent and you can play.

The gold angel statuette that decorates the hood of the Corley Motors hover car is in the likeness of Tim Schafer, the game's project leader.

This game pioneered the "double-click out of an environment" feature, an idea claimed by Jonathan Ackley.

This is the first video game to use primarily SGA Guild voice actors, including such names as Roy Conrad, Mark Hamill, and Hamilton Camp. Several LEC "regulars" like Nick Jameson and Denny Delk round out the cast.

The members of the Vulture gang are named after characters in Maniac Mansion, and include Sid, Michael, Razor, and Wendy. (In Maniac Mansion it's actually spelled "Syd," but whatever.)

In The Kickstand, there's an advertisement for "Proto-Cola," which is a reference to the little known Defenders of Dynatron City.

Roy Conrad had a bit part as a bus station clerk in the immortally bad, but eternally beloved, video game cheesefest The Wizard.

The band The Gone Jackals contributed several tracks for this game. Their music for Full Throttle can be heard in their album, "A Bone to pick."

The game features a widely known cheat for the motorcycle fighting action sequences. Whenever Ben is fighting on the road with another biker, the player can press Shift+V to automatically knock the opponent off his bike.

As with all LEC games, Star Wars references are abound. A few examples are Emmett's Imperial logo tattoo, a Rottwheeler's Rebel Alliance forehead tattoo, the design of the Cavefish being very similar to the Tusken Raiders, and Miranda's plea from the dumpster, "Help me, Ben, you're my only hope!"

The climactic scene on a plane on the edge of the cliff was possibly modeled after the ending of The Italian Job.

Bill Farmer and Nick Jameson, the voices of Sam and Max, play minor roles in this game.

Max of Steve Purcell's "Sam & Max" makes a few appearances, and can be seen on the wall in the demolition derby during the scene where "The Masked Avenger" is on fire.

The famous "selling these fine leather jackets" occurs in this game when repeatedly trying to knock on Todd's door.

Suzi's plans for the Demolition Derby escape are filled with references and in-jokes to LEC programmers in the form of scribbles.

Near the end of the game, try feeding a toy bunny through the fan while on Ripburger's van.

Links/Resources

The Kickstand - The defunct Mojo hosted fansite for the game, still filled with tons of information.

Mojo interview with Peter McConnell – An interview we held with the Maestro in 2003 covering Full Throttle, its then in-production sequel, and Psychonauts. Some of the questions that were sensitive to Hell On Wheels were commented out at the time, but with the game long gone we've restored them to the article. Give it a read even if it's familiar to you!

The SCUMM Bar Interview with Dave Grossman – Source for a quote reprinted here. Be sure to check out other interviews on the site with additional members of the Full Throttle team.

A Bone to Pick - The Gone Jackals album from which Full Throttle took its soundtrack. Buy it from Amazon today!

Hell on Wheels trailer - The trailer for the cancelled sequel. You can probably find a higher quality version elsewhere, but this will do.

E3 2003 Hell on Wheels presentation - This audio clip hosted by Lucasfiles was taken from E3 2003, where producer Dale Geist gave Mojo a peek at the ill-fated sequel.

Take a look at the incorrigible Mojo Art Full Throttle Fan-Art, which includes an excellent remix by Slybo, featuring lines from the game's demo. Rock on!

Full Throttle demo shenanigans - After messing around with the FT demo, some interesting things were uncovered and documented in this forum thread. The picture links are broken but you could always download the FT demo yourself (go to the SCUMMVM site) and mess around.

Full Throttle Hint Book – Usually we reprint the narrative walkthrough from the hint book in these articles, but Full Throttle's is just a "regular," albeit in-depth, walkthrough. To make up for it, we have the entire, 100+ Full Throttle hint book fully scanned, courtesy of the gracious Scummbuddy. Check out all the neat stuff in there (such as concept art) before Lucas Legal sues us into oblivion.