Showing posts with label Day of the Tentacle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Day of the Tentacle. Show all posts

Friday, April 5, 2013

A Tribute to LucasArts

As you all may have heard by now, something terrible has happened: LucasArts has been closed by parent company Disney due to disappointments with not much happening.
Sad news to be sure. Okay true LucasArts haven't really done anything of note in recent years but for a moment there, these guys were at the top of their game, delivering games that were lot's of fun and have stood strong against the march of time.

The LucasArts I knew were makers of superb adventure games. They were both real written and imaginative in their premises. They boasted puzzles that actually made sense and had a sense of humor that worked even when humor in gaming tends to fall flat on its face all too easily. These games had brilliant graphics complimented with gloriously rendered backgrounds and presented wonderfully realized worlds. And these games were designed by people who truly loved their craft and knew exactly what made a great game. Finally, LucasArts took chances with new IP - most of them paid off in dividends. They fostered talent and proved they were bursting at the seams with genuine creativity.

I spent this summer playing a lot of LucasArts adventures - namely Day of the Tentacle, the Dig, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam and Max Hit the Road and, of course, Monkey Island 1,2 and 3. Some of these I played for the very first time. From the perspective of twenty years, these games still hold up remarkably well and they certainly are impressive - even to someone who spent the early nineties as a one-eyed console devotee. What worked originally still works very well and it's a testament to building games that are well-designed. Indeed, these games were made by people who are genuinely passionate about what they do and it shows.
And whilst the LucasArts adventures may have been a mainstay of PC gaming twenty years ago, even if I wasn't aware of it at the time, it's hard to imagine PC gaming without the Midas Touch LucasArts has provided.

So here's to LucasArts and the adventure games they made. We've never seen anything like them and we probably never will again.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Join the DotTs

Hey: 12/12/12

Anyway, Simon the Sorcerer wasn't the only game I beat last weekend: Another game has been struck down from my Hall of Shame in the form of the adventuring classic Day of the Tentacle.

I mentioned earlier this week in that the graphic adventuring games have always been something that has constantly eluded me: In particular, the LucasArts games that have been held in constantly high regard during the nineties (and still do). So, in the name of tracking things down that may have escaped my notice first time around, I was fortunate enough to pick up several titles for a really cheap price. These titles were The Dig, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island. As these titles are hard to track down nowadays you wouldn't think that I got these games, in 2006 may I add, for a really good price. And you certainly wouldn't think that I got these games at my local Post Office.
Yet it is only now that I've been able to finally get them working. Needless to say, as this is my first time encountering these games (with the exception of The Dig) it would be interesting to see how these games hold up. Plus, it is always reassuring to know that LucasArts made something that didn't have the Star Wars brand attached to it.


So about Day of the Tentacle. I was fortunate to pick this up online based around the understanding that it was one of, if not THE, finest game of it's genre. Looking back I feel compelled to agree: There is certainly a lot going for Day of the Tentacle: The graphics are nice to look at, the animation is great, there's a lot of hilarious jokes and some real inventive solutions to the many puzzles throughout this game. The time travel element is used to great effect and the voice acting, the first of it's kind may I add, is remarkably stellar. Throw in a surprisingly threatening villain and

All in all, there's not a lot I can add about Day of the Tentacle that hasn't already been said before. The game has endured the passage of time remarkably well and still looks great nineteen years on.
Guess it goes to show that, once again, if it's well regarded it's often for good reason.