LucasArts will be actively recruiting new employees at SIGGRAPH 2002, in San Antonio, Texas, USA. This event takes place over a 3-day period starting on the 23rd of this month and going until the 25th. LucasArts will have representatives from Human Resources and hiring managers from the LEC Art Department at SIGGRAPH on the 23rd and 24th. Check out the LucasArts job page for details!
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LucasArts will be actively recruiting new employees at SIGGRAPH 2002, in San Antonio, Texas, USA. This event takes place over a 3-day period starting on the 23rd of this month and going until the 25th. LucasArts will have representatives from Human Resources and hiring managers from the LEC Art Department at SIGGRAPH on the 23rd and 24th. Check out the LucasArts job page for details!
According to Mixnmojo reader zebulon, our previous post about a new LucasArts classic game compliation pack wasn't entirely accurate. Here's a quote from zebulon:
After reading your news entitled "New European LEC Classic Collections", I wrote a mail to UbiSoft (which distributes LucasArts games in France) and their Consumers Department says there is nothing planned. There is a compilation called "LucasArts Edition Collector" actually, but it was released in December 2001, and the price was the one you mention, i.e. 60 ?.Indeed, you can view the compilation details here at the UbiSoft website and see what games it includes.
It being Friday night, LucasArts.com has been updated with screenshots from their newest titles. Two games, RTX, and The Clone Wars received new screenshots today. The best of the bunch, in my opinion, is the sole RTX Red Rock screenshot that was released. The Clone Wars screens can be found here.
Also, there's a new poll on the LucasArts site, asking "Have you played a massively multiplayer online game?" So far "I want to some day but haven't yet" leads with 44%.
Kenn Hoekstra, project admin for Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, has announced that LucasArts will release the v1.04 patch tomorrow. Here's an excerpt from Kenn's .plan:
LucasArts will be releasing the 1.04 update for Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast tomorrow (Thursday) evening on their website at [URL]. Feel free to download and mirror it once it is available.Thanks to JediKnightII.net, as usual, for the news.
The update includes all of the fixes from 1.03, so if you don?t have that update yet, this is the only one you?ll need. A list of the changes in 1.03 can be found here: [URL]
The primary focus of 1.04 is multiplayer balance.
Update: You can grab the 1.04 patch here, courtsey of Shacknews.
Just noticed in this thread on the Mojo Forums, which mentions that some new LucasArts classic game compliation packs are headed to France and Germany (and possibly more countries). The new one at Amazon.fr, called (I think) "LucasArts Collector(s) Edition," is 60 ?, while the pack at Amazon.de, called "LucasArts Adventure Pack," is priced at 20 ?. The blatant price difference probably indicates that they're totally different packs with different contents.
According to Das Jan, the Germany-bound 20 ? version is supposed to contain Monkey Island 1, 2, and 3, and Indiana Jones 3, 4, and 5 (which are, to my knowledge, Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis and Infernal Machine). The contents of the French 60 ? version are unkown to me.
If you haven't played this bunch of games, now's your chance to scoop them all up at once (for cheap, too, if you're German).
According to SFGate.com, the plans for George Lucas' huge Letterman Digital Arts Center in the San Francisco Presidio (a former military base) may be scaled back. As you may remember, it was reported quite a while ago that land in the midst of the natural park atmosphere in northern San Francisco was bought by Lucas to create a new facility. The buildings would house LucasArts, Industrial Light and Magic, THX, Lucas Learning Ltd. and Lucas Online. You can view concept art for the new facility here.
Preservationists, park service officials and others complained that the planned 900,000 square foot complex would ruin the historic and natural park atmosphere of the land. In response to the controversy, the plans for the facility have been reduced.
No word whether or not the scaling back of these plans will affect LucasArts in any way, but the plans should be revealed within a month. Read the full article for more information or links to previous Presidio news.
Despite the American holiday this week, LucasArts.com has been updated with some new goodies. First up on the menu this evening are five new screenshots from the upcoming PS2, XBox, and PC title, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb.
For seconds, LucasArts has put up its first 20th Anniversary merchandise at the company store. No, it's not a key ring. It's a coffee mug for $12.95! Of course, since LucasArts doesn't ship internationally, those of you living outside the US and Canada may be out of luck.
And finally, there's a new poll that I'm sure you all will want to take part in. The new poll asks which original classic LEC game is your personal favorite. Who knows, maybe now Zak McKracken will finally get the attention he deserves!
Anyone that plans to be in London over the next few months might want to check out the Game on Exhibition at the Barbican Gallery.
The Exhibition is based on the future and history of video games, with many many consoles and computer games both old and new.
'But is LucasArts represented?' I hear you cry.
Why yes, of course it is. Apart from the few Star Wars games there, a little game we have all come to love called Monkey Island sits between Zelda64 and Myst. Further down the wall you will find 3 pieces of Monkey Island concept art by Steve Purcell.
I didnt have my still camera there, but we did film them, so maybe i'll upload some kind of crazy low res screen capture of them for anyone that cares!
Mojo represented its self by completing part one of MI, and leaving guybrush bobbing and very drowned in the docks.
There's a new poll up at the official LucasArts website related to the the LEC 20th Anniversary theme. This time around, LucasArts.com asks: When did you first play a LucasArts game?
I remember my first LucasArts gaming experience fondly. The year was 1992, and I stumbled upon the work of genius that is none other than Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for Super NES. From then on, I was hooked.
A curious finding. While surfing the internet, one of our readers named Tim (no, not Schafer) discovered that if you go to www.indyjones.com, you will be redirected to the LucasArts 20th Anniversary page. Upon doing a whois, it seems that LucasFilm registered this domain name back in March.
What, if anything, does this have to do with LucasArts' 20th anniversary? It's far too early to make wild speculations, but let's face it. The internet was built on wild speculations! We'll keep our eyes open in the meantime.
LucasArts.com continues in their tradition of Friday updates. This time, they have released five new screenshots for the upcoming PS2 and Gamecube title, Star Wars Bounty Hunter. I must say that these new screenshots are quite impressive. Check 'em out.
Wired News has published an article entitled, "Making Those Games Sound Right." The article discusses the combination of the LucasArts sound department and Skywalker sound to create, you guessed it, sounds for the upcoming Bounty Hunter game. The site features some interesting tidbits and even some pictures from the recording sessions. Here's a quote:
Jeff Kliment leans against the wall of the tiny control room of the audio effects lab, listening to the sound of gravel crunching under the feet of Montross, the villain in LucasArts' upcoming video game, Bounty Hunter.Make sure you read the full article!
"Uh, tell him we can hear his pants," Kliment says to Larry Oppenheim, the man recording the footsteps.
LucasArts has posted a customer questionnaire which asks you a few questions about console preference, hardware choices, and also making an appearance are questions about LEC original games. So if you have about 10 minutes, head over to the LEC survey and fill it out. Sadly, if your favorite LEC game is "Night Shift" you won't be able to choose it so pick another fav. :) The survey will be up until June 30.
James ?Ender? Brown, Project Leader on ScummVM, received a request from LucasArts Legal Affairs earlier today asking that he close his site by July 1st.
ScummVM, in case you don?t know, allows some of the old LucasArts adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Hit the Road to run on a variety of operating systems. For example, you can faithfully play these older products under Windows XP or even different platforms like Sega Dreamcast using ScummVM.
In the e-mail to Ender, LucasArts defended their actions. ?We are grateful when fans take such strong interests in our games,? the letter said. ?In order to protect our intellectual property interests, we must ask you to take down your site as it infringes on LucasArts's intellectual property ownership interests.?<:MORENEWS:>
LucasArts also points out that the SCUMM engine is ?still proprietary to LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC (?LucasArts?) and is not released under general public license as referenced in the FAQ section on your site.?
Ender replied to LucasArts, discussing the very nature of his project. ?ScummVM is NOT the SPU [Script Presentation Utility] engine as used internally by LEC,? Ender said. ?ScummVM is a valid clone of the SPU engine, designed to facilitate the playing of LucasArts adventures on modern machines and operating systems. ScummVM allows the data from LEC adventures to be played on many platforms (Intel, PocketPC, etc) and operating systems (Linux, Windows 2000, etc) which are not supported by your own SPU engine.?
ScummVM, as described by its project leader, is the product of reverse engineering without using any information from LucasArts itself. ?The [reverse engineering] techniques used are generally protected in most states under what is generally known as the 'compatibility' clause,? Ender said.
At this point, Ender has informed LucasArts that he will not be taking down the site. ?We are distributing our own software designed to mimic the functionality of the SPU(tm) engine, which we have licensed under the GPL (General Public License),? he said. ?We are not distributing proprietary LucasArts software itself.?
Most fans would argue that ScummVM has done nothing but support the classic adventure games of LucasArts rather than damage them. However, it is interesting that LucasArts? lawyers took this opportunity to attempt the shutdown of ScummVM, which has existed for almost a year. Speculation has been made that these actions could have ties to the comment LEC President Simon Jeffery recently made to Mixnmojo concerning the update of its older graphic adventures. Mr. Jeffery discussed the ?streaming? delivery of these games over the Internet, which would require that they actually work on Windows 2000 and XP.
We will be sure to keep you posted on these matters, and hopefully a favorable resolution will be reached soon.
LucasArts' official website has been updated today, kicking off the celebration of the company's 20th anniversary. At the 20th anniversary site, you will find a video montage of all the LEC logo uses through the years, an article about how the LEC logo "Gold Guy" was created, and a Shockwave trivia game.
Additionally, the Ask LucasArts section includes the question, "What was the first game developed by LucasArts?" Stop by the site for all of the fun! Weeeee! Thanks to QueZTone for the notice.
Update: You can look at the entire 3D Gallery by heading over here. Sadly no 3d rendered ghost galleons, but plenty of spiffy SW thingies and the dude from RTX :)
This is nice for those who really only wanted to see the LucasArts E3 trailer for its Full Throttle II content: reader Unno has put together a short 2 meg edited video which focuses exclusively on the FTII stuff in the trailer. For best results, right click the link and save.
Note: there is no new footage here that can't be found in the full LucasArts E3 mix trailer. It's just a re-edit that cuts out all the non-FTII stuff.
Source: Ben_Whatsisname
A new interview with Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe has been conducted by Adventure-Treff. As you all know but probably shouldn't, Leisure Suit Larry was a comedy series of sexually raunchy adventure games released by Sierra. Although the Larry series never had any involvement with LucasArts, Al Lowe does discuss his current views with the company during the interview. Here's a quote:
A-T: Let's talk about LucasArts. Do you like their adventures?Read the full interview for another LucasArts-related question.
Al: I used to. The Monkey Island games are some of my all-time favorites. But lately, what they call adventure doesn't sit with what I consider to be adventure.
Source: Adventure Gamers
The winners of the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2002 were announced today, which are voted on by editors from nearly 40 leading outlets that cover games. Star Wars Galaxies walked away with the award for Best Online Multiplayer. Here's a quote:
With all of the depth and trappings of the Lucas legend at their disposal, the developers could easily have thrust a rush job online and the faithful would have come. But based on the demonstration witnessed, it appears that the project is getting plenty of TLC -- evident from the fine tuning allowed in the character customization options to the realism of settings such as Jabba?s Palace. Whether gamers are searching for combat or they want to explore the eight or more planets expected initially, this is a Star Wars episode that has plenty of Force behind it.Congrats to LucasArts and Sony!
Lycos has published an interesting article entitled, "Online Gaming: The Future is When?" This news item discusses the status of online gaming, the successes, the failures, the problems, and the potential. LucasArts' first online adventure, Star Wars Galaxies is mentioned. Here's a quote from the article:
Online gaming is far more difficult than just slapping together a cool world. In the mid-'90s, 150 games were put into production, according to DFC analysts. Of those, only a tiny fraction ever made it to retail, and only one, Ultima Online, made a dent in the commercial marketplace.While Galaxies is only mentioned in passing, it's a very interesting read and reminds us why game publishers are so apprehensive about making something original and risky. There's a lot of money to be lost. Take a look.
About $300 million was essentially thrown out the window in the grand pursuit of the mighty online game at the end of the '90s.
Sometimes things go wrong and the day just owns you. Seems like something like that was up at LucasArts yesterday, as the E3 "game trailer mix" video, along with the rest of Friday's update, came out in the middle of the night. Regardless, the E3 game montage video is up in two different sizes at LucasArts.com.
Of special note are the first bits of direct-feed video from Full Throttle II and RTX Red Rock, though all the footage looks pretty nice! Music... possibly questionable.
The E3 page also contains the good press and awards that each new LEC game got at the show this year.
Also of note in the Friday update is the beginning of LucasArts' 20th Anniversary celebration. The zaniness starts June 20th with "a special video celebrating the LucasArts logo animations through the years."