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LucasArts Opens Up and Celebrates 19 Jul, 2002, 20:08 / 19 comments

By DJG


In the usual LucasArts.com Friday updates, long time fans of the company can sure find a lot to get excited about. It seems that LucasArts is finally getting around to celebrating its 20th anniversary properly. First, in the LucasArts Theatre, you can view QuickTime clips of cutscenes from the original Full Throttle. Not bad, although they do seem to suffer from some interlace problems.

Next, in the History Section, you can read about the early years of the company between 1982 and 1989. The feature is not unlike our own Wilmunder Memoirs, and will continue to be updated to cover the 1990-1994 years.

Don't miss the 20th Anniversary Art Gallery, where you can find some never-before-seen treasures. First, there is this amazing high-res scan of the Monkey Island 2 map, a piece of concept art from Grim Fandango, and another Peter Chan concept scan from Full Throttle!

After that, you can read an interview with Jon Knoles, who served as game designer for many Star Wars games and is currently directing Bounty Hunter. The interviews continue next month with a profile of Fate of Atlantis and RTX Red Rock designer Hal Barwood.

And finally *phew*, check out the Flashback section with a few favorite memories of some LucasArts employees. The stories include finding bugs in such classics as Grim Fandango and Fate of Atlantis. These are really interesting and remind us of the many late nights these guys have to put up with.

So there you have it. It's great to see LucasArts opening up again and taking a look at its previous products and their employees. It reminds me of the old days of The Adventurer, and I hope they keep this up.
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19 Comments

  • Ben_Whatsisname on 21 Jul, 2002, 18:02…
    I know LucasArts doesn't like unsolicited stuff, but what if one of our video gurus who is griping about the problem offer LEC to record them correctly? :)
  • Lord Savage on 21 Jul, 2002, 11:38…
    The page is very nice but, the History of LucasArts is full of errors and inconsistencies. For example, they refer to Indiana Jones and Last Crusade as an action/adventure game when it was actually two games. A Graphic Adventure made for PC, Amiga, Atari ST, Mac and FM Towns. An Action Game made for PC, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, Spectrum and NES. The Action Game was a collaboration between Lucasfilm games and U.S. Gold. Also, half the platforms that Maniac Mansion was ported to are not mentioned. They only mention C64, PC and NES. When in fact the game was also ported to Apple II, Amiga and Atari ST. My sources for this info are my LEC collection, ebay and the 1989 Lucasfilm Games catalog (yeah, I have a few these kicking around my house). These are just a couple errors I quickly found in that article and I'm sure there are more.
  • telarium on 21 Jul, 2002, 12:20…
    I wouldn?t classify those examples errors and inconsistencies. I don?t think the history was intended to be completely comprehensive, since then it would be really long and possibly boring. Oh by the way, Last Crusade can be considered to be an action/adventure in itself due to that fact that it did include arcade-style fighting. In which case, since the history is not comprehensive, they just omitted the pure action game. Plus, since the action game was developed by another company, then that could also be why they didn't feel the need to mention it in LucasArts' history. I don't imagine they'll bother to discuss the Fate of Atlantis action game, either. :)
  • Lord Savage on 21 Jul, 2002, 23:54…
    Well Telarium, it looks like we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. :)

    My examples are inconsistencies with the facts and even with what is listed on LEC's own Product History page under the Press link on their main page. So, while the term error might have been too harsh in this instance (oversight might have been a better term); the article definitely has inconsistencies. For me, an anniversary like LEC's 20th anniversary is the best time for a company to do a comprehensive article on their history. I also don't see how adding ", Apple II, Amiga and Atari ST" to the Maniac Mansion line will make the article boring; it's inclusion on the Product History page certainly doesn't make that page boring. ;)

    I will admit that you got me on the action/adventure issue. I always forget about the arcade sequences in that game because they are optional. You don't have to punch and shoot at the Nazis if you don't want to. Instead, you can talk or trade your way past them.
    :)

    US Gold and LEC collaborated on the TLC Arcade game just like Larry Holland's Totally Games and LEC collaborated on X-Wing and Tie-Fighter. Following your line of logic, neither X-Wing or Tie-Fighter should be mentioned in Part 2. ;) Based on the info in Part 1 of the article; I do agree that the FOA arcade game will not be covered in Part 2. A pity, since it would be nice if LEC embraced all the good and the mediocre that they produced over the years. Hopefully, they will neglect to mention The Phantom Menace. ;)

    Did you know that Pipe Dream was not designed by LEC but, a firm known as the Assembly Line? LEC licensed the design and wrote the code.
  • Jake on 21 Jul, 2002, 00:12…
    Metallus had a very good idea as to why the quality of those Full Throttle videos is so crappy. FT in its native form doesn't really work at all on modern machines (at least not unless you run LEC Quick and Easy). Maybe they ran it and got "Unable to initialize sound" *Lucasarts Logo* "This program has caused an illegal operation and must be shut down" and decided to screw it and go raid the closet for some old recording.
  • Marek on 21 Jul, 2002, 06:17…
    So that's when it occured to them that those games really need to be updated? :D
  • QueZTone on 21 Jul, 2002, 05:19…
    so maybe instead of sending out C+D straight away they should actually take a look at those handy programs first :)
  • Jake on 20 Jul, 2002, 23:37…
    The video quality on that cutscene is bad. I guess they don't have the original pre-INSANE (?) encoded videos on a disk anymore? That looks like its from a VHS copy of the compressed in game version of the original. Oh well, cool to see it online.
  • Manuel Calavera on 20 Jul, 2002, 08:53…
    Unfortunately the quality of the movies really sucks! :( Somehow I DID expect the excellent quality or GOOD quality at least...
  • telarium on 20 Jul, 2002, 09:55…
    Well it's not like there isn't a bunch of other stuff on the site now to be interested in.
  • DasJan on 20 Jul, 2002, 07:15…
    Did you notice that Psychonauts seems to be a remake of "The Eidolon"? It's not exactly the same, but I though of it when reading the article.
  • Marek on 20 Jul, 2002, 08:01…
    Tim sucks. All he does is recycle old ideas. I say we stone him!
  • Jake on 20 Jul, 2002, 23:59…
    It's not even Tim, it sounds nothing like him! It must be an impostor.
  • Marek on 21 Jul, 2002, 10:52…
    ? ?
  • Cursed Tuna on 20 Jul, 2002, 10:21…
    you lier! tim is a god...!
  • twifkak on 20 Jul, 2002, 18:37…
    as are peter chan and the gone jackals
  • QueZTone on 20 Jul, 2002, 04:28…
    omg!!1 just look at that company, look at that 20th anniversary page! All I can say is LucasArts rules! George Lucas thank you for initializing such a company, all of the lec presidents, thanks! And Simon Jeffery, thank you so much for bringing us something special to celebrate with at this wonderful milestone in LEC gaming history! :D Let's play some games! :D
  • Marek on 20 Jul, 2002, 03:32…
    Well, what can I say?
    LUCASARTS RULES!!! This it too cool for words.
  • Jake on 20 Jul, 2002, 23:35…
    Yeah, that's amazingly nice. Especially compared to the original 20th anniversary page which was weak and painful.