Why are We Still Talking about LucasArts' Old Adventure Games?













(Image credits: MobyGames, Lemon64, The Scumm Bar)




- Mike Mika, development director at Other Ocean Interactive



- Dragon Fantasy creator Adam Rippon, of Muteki Corporation

Steven Spielberg himself laid the groundwork for The Dig.

They were that rare combination of original themes and interesting stories mixed with accessible gameplay. In some ways, they are exactly what is hard to greenlight in many modern studios because of the risk of creating new IP on big-budget projects.

They are still relevant because many of today's working creatives grew up in that golden age, so that trailblazing taught us how to be creative, and the nostalgia continues to inspire.

- Game designer Tyler Sigman (HOARD, Sonic Rivals)

What I love about the classic LucasArts adventures as a game industry person is that it seems like every single person in the game industry has played them. So a) you can use any of the games as shorthand when discussing something ("we need like a Manny character for this") and more importantly b) you can instantly learn a lot about someone by what LucasArts adventures they like most.

"Ok, you're a Monkey Island guy? Got it. Still focused on putting the hamster in the microwave in Maniac Mansion? Cool. You like The Dig?! Right on..."

Because everyone has played them, they're basically a Rorschach test for people in the game industry at this point.

- Chris Charla, Microsoft Studios

Day of the Tentacle's unique premise saw players finding creative ways to make objects travel through time.

For every adolescent who turned into a snarky teenager or a sardonic twenty-something, here were games made by our peers. They were games that made sense for where we were in life, made by people who walked the same road as we did.

The games endure because the stories are sharp and respect the audience's intelligence, the humor is inclusive, and because still today when we see "Lucasfilm" or "LucasArts," it brings us back to those childhood memories when all we wanted was a great adventure and friends to share it with.

- Paul Marzagalli, board of advisors, NAVGTR.

Maniac Mansion was one of the first adventure games I ever played, in the early days of Game Informer. It didn't seem to matter that I wasn't an expert gamer... I felt like I got as much out of it as my more veteran peers.

They were expert storytellers, spinning engaging takes with endearing and memorable characters spouting clever dialog. And with each little victory I felt like I was really becoming a gamer and better understanding why so many smart and talented people were dedicated to the hobby. 

- Video game PR professional Elizabeth Olson, who cut her teeth on adventure games as the founding editor of Game Informer magazine.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is regarded by fans as a worthy successor to the trilogy of feature films.

LucasArts writers and designers like Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer brought to the table a wonderful knack for character and dialog, and I think the reason people still talk about those early titles today is that we all have favorite scenes that we still remember.

They also achieved a kind of unstudied greatness that comes from not taking yourself too seriously. Monkey Island II actually ended gameplay with a long list of things you could go out and do other than play video games. Who does that now?

- Game composer Peter McConnell, who contributed music to LucasArts adventures including (but not limited to) Monkey Island II, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango

First world problems for our intrepid reporter in Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders.

Monkey Island II was a revelation for me. I could make progress! I could mess up, try again, and eventually get through things! Here was this genre of games that I'd always liked the idea of, but never been able to really enjoy due to difficulty, and someone had finally said, "Hey, how about we ONLY have the fun part." I mean, the beautiful art, the genuinely funny dialog, all of that was wonderful, but the thing I really fell in love with was being able to actually get through the game.

- Ian Adams, game designer at Seattle's Z2Live

They were built on a winning combination of low-stress mechanics and propelled by genuinely good writing.

Many of the characters had heart and soul, the imagined worlds they inhabited were crafted with an impressive attention to detail, and in many cases the personalities and some aspect of the of the creators came through.

Each of the mid-'90s LucasArts adventure videogames is memorable on its own, but taken together they represent a studio's glorious golden age that, in a fate similar to Atlantis (sorry), seemed to suddenly and cataclysmically sink beneath the ocean waves in the late '90s.

- Craig "Superbrothers" Adams

Full Throttle, probably the only game to ever start you off in a dumpster outside of a biker bar.

The Curse of Monkey Island is still one of the funniest games I’ve ever played. Then there was Loom, a beautiful game with a completely unique user interface that used music in a way never used before or since, as far as I know. Finally on my truly memorable scale is Grim Fandango, a 3D evolution from the older SCUMM games -- quirky, funny, mysterious and, once again, unique.

Technology in games is ever improving, but game design, when it’s done impeccably, is timeless.

- Game design consultant and author Rusel DeMaria

Manny Calavera feels a little ripped off in 1998's Grim Fandango.

The worlds still feel original and fresh, and the writing was witty and memorable, where every character is distinct and remarkable.

Even in their time, they managed to cross cultural boundaries. Many people in my generation in Spain, where I'm from, know by heart most of the insults to win at sword fighting in Monkey Island. Many adventure games coming from Europe will include nudges to LucasArts games, from direct quotes to similar puzzles (see Ben There, Dan That, or Ceville). They really struck a chord outside of North America.

- Researcher and scholar Clara Fernandez Vara

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin; they had so many titles that stand out. Their adventures games basically defined an era, with Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Escape from Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is probably one of my favorite adventure games of all time. Indiana Jones and the adventure game genre go together... well, like Fedoras and bull whips. And for me Fate of Atlantis delivered not only one my favorite adventure stories but also one of the best Indiana Jones stories ever. Certainly better that the Crystal Skull. Sorry George.

- Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin

You can sucker punch Adolf Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but it's not a good idea.



- Lateef Martin, Miscellaneum Studios



- Chris Campbell, senior producer, studios at Big Fish Games




- Gareth Jenkins, of independent developer 36peas



- Seth Sivak, of independent developer Proletariat



- Grand Davies, Endgame Studios



- C.J. Kershner, scriptwriter, Ubisoft Montreal


- Andrew Goulding, of Melbourne-based Brawsome



- Alistair McNally, BioWare





- Steve Gaynor, of The Fullbright Company



Basically, LucasArts titles infected my brain.

- Kyle Kulyk, Itzy Interactive



- Game designer Jordi Fine


- Dan Silvers, Lantana Games


To wrap this article up, we asked David Fox -- a Lucasfilm Games alum who was there from the very beginning -- to contribute his thoughts on why the studio's graphical adventures are still held in such high esteem. Here's what he had to say.

When I first started working at Lucasfilm in 1982, we had a heavy burden to bear. How could we create games that were as compelling as the Star Wars films but without mining ideas from the Star Wars universe? While other game companies of the 1980s had to rely on the income from their games to survive, we had the unheard-of luxury of taking our time to get our games right, with years to experiment, try new things, push the envelope, and with no pressure from marketing, focus testing, or even George Lucas. We also had time to develop our company culture, starting where the Lucasfilm culture left off.

So we’d spend months thinking about our games... brainstorming with the other brilliant designers, refining, reworking, revamping, tossing out the parts that didn’t work (or the entire concept) and starting again. One of our edicts was “don’t ship shit” and we wanted to make sure we never did.

Maybe working in a creatively supportive environment like that, one that wasn’t just focused on the bottom line, enabled us to think outside the box, take time to add tons of backstory and detail... tune, tune, and tune again. Until WE felt it was time to ship. Unheard of then and I’m sure even more unusual now (other than with indie games done by people in their spare time).

And yes, we had wonderfully creative people to work with. And that wasn’t an accident. For years, whenever a new designer was about to be hired, they had to run the gauntlet... interviewing with all the other designers. Would they fit in? How collaborative were they? How creative? It was a club where all the members had to vote to let the next one in. We weren’t about to change our culture or quality level, so we all took this responsibly very seriously. And our games showed it.

We never thought about our games lasting for more than a year or two on the shelves. Hardware was changing so fast then. We didn’t consider that people would build emulators and SCUMMVM so they could continue playing them on successively more powerful platforms. I wonder if we had known that if we wouldn't have been much more self-conscious about our designs?

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, David Fox's contribution to the graphical adventure genre.

I think one thing that differentiated our graphic adventure games from "the competition" was our goal of creating puzzles that made people laugh with joy when they solved them. We wanted people to have that a-ha! moment when they figured it all out. I think "the competition's" graphic adventures were sometimes mean-spirited, adding barriers to play that sometimes seemed like they were messing with the player.

I know that we learned a lot as we continued to refine the art of creating these games, but you can see elements of the above even with our first ones. We wanted to play with the player, and reward him/her for being outrageously creative in their solutions.

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