Putting up games they've already made for sale on a new medium which has zero manufacturing costs. How can you think that's in any way a bad business decision?

I've played the game several times, thanks.

Maybe I can think it if I don't know it has zero manufacturing costs :)
Don't they have to port the SCUMM engine to work on Windows XP, as well as extensively test the games to make sure the port didn't introduce any new bugs?

On Wednesday, people will log onto Steam and see a big ad for Loom staring them in the face...how is that not exciting news? LucasArts have actually found a feasible way of releasing adventure games again, that's the best news this genre has had in years.

Some people are just never happy whatever you do.

Lucasarts for years was under management that was only interested in Star Wars and ignored their back catalogue. Now they have a CEO who is an known adventure game fan and is happy to start doing stuff with their old IP's.

They are remaking MI, gave telltale the MI license to play with, releasing some of their old games for a new market and most probably coming out with Ipod versions at some point (the CEO more or less announced it with a nod, nod wink wink comment).

It's good to see Lucasarts acknowledge their back catalogue and giving it some love.

It's a good start.

*hmph* it's really annoying these days that you can't complain about anything without being regarded as a common internet troll. I'm really glad about Lucasarts giving telltale the license to do a new monkey island (and I can't wait for it to be released already!). I'm also pretty happy regarding the new version of Monkey Island 1 (although it's not as exciting for me, since I already have the old version and I'm pretty much happy with it).

These news regarding Steam... can't see the excitement in that. Nice of Lucasarts to acknowledge their back catalogue, but they're not really giving it too much love since as Tobacco said this has zero manufacturing cost.

Finally a chance to get the Indiana Jones games. And Loom too, though I'll start with Indy...

Excellent! (and better than what I expected)



Now if just Vivendi or whatever it's called nowadays would take note.

I'm definitely happy for the people that now finally have the chance to legally purchase and play these classic games, and yes, it's a good start. Let's hope something good comes out of this.

But I also completely agree with JohnGreenArt. They shouldn't have hyped it as "something new for the old fans," because that's exactly what it isn't. And though this deal with Steam isn't a bad thing per se, it has left some of the old fans, like myself and, I think, JohnGreenArt, somewhat disappointed after the anticipation of something "awesome." This isn't "awesome." It's a good deal, that's all.

Oh, and is there a specific thread to introduce oneself properly? Guess I should do that now, after this post. ;)

Never called you a Troll, besides it wasn't aimed specifically at you, but at the general meh response to the announcement.

Sure we would all love them to announce a brand new adventure game IP, but realistically they are not going to do that.

I wasn't overly excited about the Telltale doing MI announcement as I too would have prefered something new and I didn't think that the standard Telltale game template will work with MI (although I hope to be proven wrong), but i'm happy overall that Lucasarts are actually doing something with the IP's rather than keeping them locked in a cupboard.

Of course you weren't aiming specifically at me, I was speaking on behalf of all of us giving the general meh response :P

I think price might be a factor here. Does anyone know what they will charge for Loom and Indy?

But the CD version is the only one available, so I'll happily play that anyway.

Compared to doing a new game, that's no money. Besides, they had already made a Windows version of the SCUMM engine for Sam and Max a couple of years ago. Or maybe they are reusing what thay've done for Monkey Island?

Maaaaaybe $4.99 but $9.99 is more likely

They are up now, you can find them here.

The old adventure games are only $4.99 each! Which ones are worth buying?

Only 5 bucks??? :crazy:
Then i think it´s worth!

I definitely recommend Indy and the Fate of Atlantis; it hooked me on the genre. Many people will probably recommend the Dig, but I found it very painful to play (the story was decent). I've never played LOOM and will probably pick it up.

The Dig is boring. I recommend also "Fate of Atlantis" which is the best Indy game i have ever played.

I can't believe all the hard words the dig is getting here - it is great. Actually, if you haven't got them already, I'd buy Fate of Atlantis, The Dig and Loom (except for Loom as I said I much prefer the non-talkie version so maybe you could wait until they release that one). The Last Crusade isn't very good.

after seeing the €3.99 pricetag i bought:

-the dig (played three times before)
-loom (never played)
-fate of atlantis (played countless times, note my avatar icon ;-) )

just some info: all the games have full voiceovers and another neat feature is they kinda played around with the graphics to make the edges not QUITE as hard and obvious as they once were. it almost has a sort of watercolor look.

Concerning "the dig" i DO understand some of the criticism that the game got as i can see how some people may find it boring. personally i love the atmosphere, its a very mature themed kind of game that deals with a lot of philosophical/existential questions. theres not much action there and more sort of exploration of an alien world and culture. i like it, but i accept that it may not be for everyone.

My problem withe The Dig is that is has a huge cool opening and when you arrive on the planet, things star to fall apart.

personally i hate the beginning (hate is strong word but to me that one was kinda boring) :D how the tastes can differ

True :)

The Dig is f*****g awesome...


That's all.

Just bought The Dig :) Never played it before, actually it's one of the few Lucas Arts adventures I didn't try so far.

Hopefully these games will do well - Lucas Arts keeps mentioning on the twitter account that they need proof adventure games still sell. Maybe this will convince them to bring back to life other old franchises, after Monkey Island. *fingers crossed*

So many people thought the Dig was boring. I liked it because it was a really good serious adventure game.

I also loved the book.

The Dig was based on a book? Wow gotta hunt that one down...

I've played both fairly recently and I didn't notice anything can you please explain and be specific?

its teh other way around i believe. i also read the book back in the day cause i was such a dig fan :D

Is this optional? Does anyone have any comparison screenshots?

as far as i can tell its not optional. but its really no big deal (sounds like you're not too fond of the idea), it doesn't change it dramatically at all, but it is noticeable.

Do the adventure games, by any chance, have ACHIEVEMENTS?

Because that'd be awesome.

MASTER PUGILIST

Beat Schwarzeneggar or whatever his name is in a fair fight.

Well, I played the CD version a long time ago (something like eight years), so it's hard for me to be very specific. I tried to find a webpage that lists all the differences but couldn't find one. You can find some information on the wikipedia page, as well as here and some examples for the dialog change here. The wikipedia page also says that the CD version lacks alternate solution to puzzles, but they don't give any specific example so I'm not sure what they mean.

To summarize, the three main complaints about the CD version are:

1. It lacks the music in the original game except for music playing on the background of spoken dialog. I think this is actually the worst thing, because the music in the floppy version of Loom is magnificent and really adds to the experience.

2. It lacks many close-ups from the original game. This is also a real shame because the original Loom was a very pretty game, and that is partly due to those close-ups.

3. The dialogs were cut-down. I am not sure how bad this is as I did not compare the dialogs one-to-one so I am not sure what was cut.

Edit: Also, not relevant to most people, but the original Loom version is one of the very few adventure games ever translated to hebrew, and so it was one of the first adventure games that I actually understood (played it when I was 8, until then I was playing mostly Sierra parser adventure games by knowing only 6 basic verbs and randomly combining them with words in the room description when I type "look" :) I was also still sure "talk man" is valid english and that the L is spoken). "גזע חמקמק האורגים האלה!"

Thanks Matan. That really sucks then. I love all of the above, the dialogue, music and Close Ups add to this amazing world and to take that away would be wrong. Someone told me once the CD version was made by another company that might explain it.

I read somewhere that Alan wrote it to be a movie, but it wasn't bought because the script for Armageddon was chosen (Another film where humans go up to an asteroid to prevent it from destroying earth, lol). So then it became a game.

The book and the game are actually quite different.

This is as close to what I read before:

Fortunately, you should be able to find the music in just about any music store which sells classical music. It's from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet.

Yes, of course, but I like it in the context of the game :D

I guess it's nice music on its own as well, but I always picture the relevant scene from Loom when I hear it :P

I don't get it. I mean, it is understandable that they change a game upon re-release, but why degrade it like this? That would only cost extra in the process and you only loose quality. It is not like Loom was extremely "talkative", the dialogues were not endlessly long. I wonder how they could have cut in them without loosing important info.

As for the music...it was there for a reason. Sure, it wasn't necessary for the gameply, but Swan Lake in a game related to swans, and more importantly, a classical music piece in a game that has music as its main interface...to me it feels like there SHOULD be music in it, and Swan Lake fits this game best.

You know, after reading I am fearing a doom scenario, with people playing Loom, thinking it rather impoverished with its little music and cut-down dialogues, saying 'see, adventures are dead after all', LucasArts hearing this, saying 'see, we were right, people don't even like the classics anymore, why bother writing new games' and stopping with writing adventures once and for all...

Technical reasons, probably. Loom had all sounds in one long (almost 55 minutes) audio track on the CD. It could play music and speech together during cutscenes because it was mixed that way on the track, but if it had played background music it would have had to interrupt it every time someone spoke. Perhaps the complete dialog didn't fit on one CD, though there is (at least) one scene where the CD version is longer than the original.

Later LucasArts did things differently, but I guess "talkie" games were still in their infancy.

You know, that sounds really logical :)
Wonder why they were desperate to add talkie to the expense of other aspects, but I guess talkie was a rather big deal back then, especially with the rise of CD-ROM as a medium.

I don't know where my mind was when I wrote that reply, thinking that it was changed for the current re-release. Must...not...stalk...forum...when...sleepy...

Well though I'm to from Israel I still prefered playing it on english, it just sounds really weird in Hebrew, האורגים זה שם מפגר... :shifty:

Lucasart on Steam!
 

Lucasart is now on Steam! In the lineup are some good ol' adventures:

• Loom
• The Dig
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

All titles will change owner for a minor €3.99 each!