Toonstruck 2 will be released if you want it bad enough
 

**Toonstruck 2 WILL BE RELEASED if you want it bad enough.**

That's right.

For all of you who were/are fans of the original, the unparalleled, Toonstruck -- the tremendously underrated DOS point-and-click adventure starring none other than Christopher Lloyd and Ben Stein and featuring the voice talents of Tress MacNeille (The Simpsons, Futurama), Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson), Dom DeLuise (many a Mel Brooks and Don Bluth film), Tim Curry (Rocky Horror) among many others -- today is your lucky day, hopefully to be followed by even luckier days to come. Music director Keith Arem, the rights holder for the Toonstruck and the unreleased material which was to become the second half of the game but was cut before the final release due to software limitations at the time (this was 1996), has expressed interest in dusting the cobwebs off the ill-fated sequel and releasing it for several platforms pending sufficient fan support. The entirety of the correspondence detailing this new and exciting information can be found at this thread inside the Toonstruck 2 Fan Project forum; the only corner of the internet concerned with a Toonstruck sequel until about three hours ago.

To quote Mr. Arem:

"...While the game was internationally critically acclaimed, the game did
not receive the sales we hoped, and the second half was never released.
Now that my career has developed, I would like to re-release an updated
version of Toonstruck to include the 2nd half of the game (iPad, online,
etc), but I would need tremendous fan support to justify its release..."


You heard the man. If you want yourself a sequel:


Join the Facebook group:
http://groups.to/toonstrucktwo/

Follow Twitters:
https://twitter.com/ToonstruckTwo

Check out the ongoing Toonstruck2 fan project forum:
http://toonstruck2.games4um.de/

and SIGN THE PETITION:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/toonstrucktwo/

Man, dare I hope? Usually "if we get tremendous fan support" equals "when the impossible happens" but it sounds like he's actually trying to get this off the ground so I'll happily lend my support. It'd be great to finally get the conclusion after so long.

Great news
Hopefully we can see a Toonstruck 2

Thanks for the info ;)

Please let this happen as it deserves it, sign the petition, post this news on various forums that you know, mention it on Toonstruck related vids on YouTube, Twitter, anyway you can to help reach the 50,000 or close signature goal.

Looks like its gradually increasing as theres now over 200 signatures, still hope more will sign it.

I made a post on Reddit about this. Any redditors present, head over there and upboat this sucker.

EDIT - Digg'd as well.

Mixnmojo have given their support to it by posting on their front page. I've heard Eurogamer may put it as an news article on their site as they did a retrospective on the game a few weeks ago.

BTW heres the real Facebook link as reports have said the one the TC has given just takes you to a spam advert.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=140186316013394

Kotaku needs to report on it. Would help reach the goal instantly.

Signed. (I read about it on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.)

An updated version… Are the original videos kept so that they could be included in higher quality? That'd be great. That, and an update of the engine to run well on modern systems (including Mac would be perfect, but I'll buy it even if it requires Windows).

Who would be best to contact at Kotaku so they could consider adding this to their site as they've got quite a few email addresses and do they have a submit news option?

I know Destructoid use to but no longer accept submissions.

My mind just exploded, signed the petition and following the twitter

Read the article on RPS as well. It would be really cool to have an updated version with video's that run in hi-res without the headache inducing black line interlacing. Not to mention being able to play the second part that was cut.

Do we know how far along the second half of the game was before it was cut? I'd love to finally get to play it but I'd also not want to get an inferior, stitched together product if there was still lots of work to do on it. It'd be disappointing to play through it and find that Christopher Lloyd didn't record half of the dialog or all of the FMV sequences weren't filmed or finished.

Hi there, I'm pretty sure the headache inducing interlacing lines are down to the settings you're using. It's been awhile since I fired up Toonstruck but I remember that once setup properly within dosbox, you'd need to flip the video setting in Toonstruck's options from low to high, but that you'd also need to do this every time you launch it. After that the scan lines are gone.

Now by setup properly, I'm pretty sure you need to use a particular trigger from within dosbox in the command to launch the game, I think it was "-b" but it's been ages since I tried.

It's funny because I remember playing with those scan lines 14 years ago , completely oblivious that there was a way to get rid of them.

Anything and everything I've read prior to this great news, was that the beta was twice as long. I expect there's not much work needed.

The 2nd half of the game was all done and completed before they split it (Voices, animation, cutscenes etc...) It was suppose to have been a 4 CD game but Virgin been idiots thought it would be better to split it in 2 because the length was so long, the 2nd half could be classed as a sequel as sorts.

I really hope Keith Arem will make the game even if the petition isn't hitting its goal of 50,000 - that number seems a bit high. But of course, it takes high numbers to attract publishers :)

Who needs publishers today? Release it independently through one or more of the many available platforms. I'd start with Steam.

Agreed.

If that's true, and the assets haven't been lost, this really is quite amazing. (Doubly so if the movies can be remastered to DVD-quality or higher. But even if that's not an option, it's still good looking, even if it does show its age a little.)

Yes, getting release channels for this game shouldn't be a problem (certainly not for an online-only release), but I guess a publisher might be needed to fund the work required to get it into a releasable state. (On the other hand, maybe that could be financed through pre-orders, maybe through Kickstarter?)

Yes, it's not just a question about distribution. Unless the game is 100% done - and from the quotes it sounds like it isn't - funding is needed to finalize the game, and perhaps for a bit of advertising. It doesn't have to be through publishers, but it seems like the logical step in this case.

EDIT: Since Keith Arem owns/co-owns a production company, it might be possible for them to self-publish...