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Last Screenshots of Sam & Max 2 Online 88

Posted by CowboyNeal from the what-might-have-been dept.
DasJan writes "German website Adventure-Treff.de got hold of the last available screenshots of Sam & Max 2, the recently cancelled adventure game. The last 10 images in this gallery are the screens that LucasArts gave out to print magazines around the world to accompany their previews. Some of them are completely new, others were only available in blurry scans. They are probably the last thing we ever see of our beloved duo." Seems like an awful lot of work to scrap. I wouldn't be surprised if the game is resurrected in another form someday, but for now, these images are all we have.
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Last Screenshots of Sam & Max 2 Online More

Last Screenshots of Sam & Max 2 Online

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  • A mirror for you hippie scum (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mr. Darl McBride ( 704524 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @02:08PM (#8636188)
    Darl gives you a mirror [skittlebrau.org].

    You now owe Darl your allegience, $690, and a straight face when he makes press releases saying silly things about IBM and Groklaw.

    ~Darl

  • Its always a tragedy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pxtl ( 151020 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @02:21PM (#8636301) Homepage
    when an upcoming game gets redlighted. You have to wonder how many games never see the light of day, near completion, just to be completely thrown out and abandoned because the marketing people didn't think it would be viable.

    Which isn't to say they wouldn't be right. Still, I always wonder what would have come of the StarCon game for the playstation (yes, it was made without Toys For Bob, but I was still curious).
    • That is a really good point. A lot of great games have probably fallen through the cracks over the years.

      One particular game that comes to mind when I think of games being scrapped or reworked and released later is Super Mario Brothers 2 for the NES console. If you notice, it doesn't look (graphics) like Super Mario Bros. 1 or 3. I read somewhere that there was a game developer/designer working on a game for Nintendo that was scrapped half way through, and they ended up using it as Super Mario Bros. 2. No

      • Re:Its always a tragedy (Score:5, Informative)

        by Pxtl ( 151020 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @04:23PM (#8637482) Homepage
        Actually, the story on this one is well known - Mario 2 was two different games. The first game was a literal sequel to Mario 1. A hard, nasty, continuation of Super Mario 1 that had the same graphics and most of the same gameplay (except for a handful of very clever ideas).

        Nintendo of America found that unacceptable. They wanted it to be something big, not just an expansion pack. So they had them convert another, in development game into Mario II. IMHO, it was a good idea - the new Mario 2 was an excellent game, and the original mario 2 game was incredibly difficult and really aimed at hardcore mario players.

        The original Mario 2 was released in the west in the Super Mario Allstars set as Super Mario: The Lost Levels for the SNES. If you want an impossibly hard Mario 1 fix, look into it.
        • I will check that out for sure. I have had all consoles since NES besides an SNES and a PS2, and a few other obscure ones like 3D0, Jaguar, etc. But I unfortunately did not get ot play The Lost Levels of Mario 1. I played the original relentlessly, like almost everyone of that time did I am sure, so I will enjoy the lost levels. Thanks a lot for the suggestion and the info about Mario 2. I am sure I could have googled for the info, but I knew that there would be a knowledgable /.'er out there. lol.
        • Basically true, except that the game that became the American SMB2 wasn't in development: it had already been released in Japan for the Famicom Disk System (a floppy drive expansion for the Famicom/NES, for which a number of early games, including the original Japanese SMB2/Lost Levels were released). It was called Doki Doki Panic and it was basically identical: the main characters and a handful of monsters were pixel swapped, and it was transferred to cartridge format for the US, but otherwise you'd be har
        • Info here. [nesplayer.com]

          The fact of the matter is that if you played SMB 2 you didn't miss anything. The game was actually quite popular in its Doki Doki Panic form in Japan, and Nintendo bought the title from a client developer and repurposed it into a Mario game. SMB2 is identical to DDP except for the use of different sorts of main characters (Mario folks as opposed to a family in DDP.)
    • I for one would like to...

      ... know how much Microsoft paid Sierra to kill the Mac port of Half-Life. They'd have moved an easy 100,000 copies - one to me.

  • Oh man! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    look at max, he is so damn cute!
    If I only could kick his annoying ass again or put him in the toaster or something :(

  • Maximum Sam (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MiceHead ( 723398 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @02:28PM (#8636369) Homepage
    Durn it. I often find a DVD director's commentary every bit as interesting as a movie, itself. I wish Lucasarts would release what they had, along with a postmortem [gamasutra.com]/commentary. Aside from being a fan of the original, I'd like to see where the sequel production went "wrong," and try to pick the thing apart.

    Hell, I'm probably in the minority, but I'd be willing to pay for such a thing.

    • Re:Maximum Sam (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Dimensio ( 311070 ) <darkstar@LISPiglou.com minus language> on Monday March 22, 2004 @10:55PM (#8641329)
      I'd like to see where the sequel production went "wrong," and try to pick the thing apart.

      Based upon comments from Steve Purcell (who was overseeing the game development), it seems that production went "wrong" when Lucasarts realised that they could make more money by just shoveling out purile Star Wars crap rather than investing in a quality title.

      There is no evidence that the game was having problems in development.

  • Getting my hopes up (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ElusiveSpoon ( 210516 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @02:31PM (#8636397) Homepage
    Hopefully after the slurry of Star Wars episode III games that come out, LucasArts will realize that there aren't anymore games that they can give a face lift, and slap the Star Wars name on, then out of desperation will give us Sam & Max. In reality, they'll probably just release Mercenaries 2.
    • Guess you didn't read the Sam & Max comic book parodies on Star Wars :)

      Max: Good thing the Rebel PX had futuristic spy capes in husky boy's sizes!
      Sam: Now we can find the unsavory Empire's secret plan room, swipe the death sphere blueprints and draw air vents in so when they build the damn thing all the oxygene will leak out.

  • why? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by xmple ( 704367 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @02:49PM (#8636584)
    Why did they cancel sam & max 2?
    it looked promising, and for me it was the start of lucasart's comeback

    I hope they reconsider, maybe some e-mails to pr@lucasarts.com will help...
    • Some idiot in the marketing department decided that there was no market for Sam & Max 2 (or any adventure game), ignoring the fact that there's always a market for good games.

      But aparently the marketing department feels there's a much better market for shitty Star Wars licenses instead.

      • Re:why? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by superjaded ( 617714 )

        ignoring the fact that there's always a market for

        good games.

        Yeah, just look at Beyond Good & Evil; as great and unique as the game was, it probably set a record for dropping down to bargain bin prices. And I doubt UbiSoft selling bundles of Splinter Cell with Prince of Persia happened because they wanted boost SC's sales.

        Some games don't make it farther than the "niche" market, and I can't think of a recent point and click adventure game (as much as I miss them) that has really gotten the recogni

        • Ubi badly screwed up its release scheduling this past Christmas and that buried the two excellent games you mentioned: Prince of Persia and Beyond Good & Evil. BG&E had lots of style and good gameplay, PoP was highly polished from story to visuals. Both are practically free now, although Gamefly isn't giving them away right now ($17 and $28 respectively).

          The one Star Wars game that I really wish was a lot better was Rebellion. That had a lot of promise as an RTS/4X combination and its space combat
      • It's sad, yet funny, to look at how people view adventure games. One month, editorial sites are posting articles on how the genre is dead. The next, The Longest Journey/Siberia/something-else wins just about every single honor it possibly could have and is touted as the greatest thing ever. A month later, a rehashed account of the death of adventure games is published. And it happens again...and again...

        It's not even a matter of low interest, I think. It's not as if people hear of the games and say, "Oh, s
        • LThe ongest Journey was very well reviewed in all the major magazines, so it got the attention it deserved. It won all the honors because it had no competition. Then after it was no longer a hot topic, coverage died off and there was nothing in the genre to replace it. It's not like there are lots (several) of mediocre adventure games that aren't getting a lot of press, whole quarters go by without a release. That's pretty close to a dead genre in my book.
    • I believe there were plenty of people putting their $0.02 in when the game was cancelled, but sadly it has not resulted in anything yet. I'm waiting for some disgruntled teenager without a life to DoS LucasArts because of this ;)

    • This may be redundant, but there is a [petition online] to save Sam & Max 2. [petitiononline.com]

  • Sigh (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Reapy ( 688651 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @03:03PM (#8636685)
    Would have bought this no questions asked. It also would have been a great game to introduce my gf to pc gaming. Going to have to dig out the old ones instead.
    • Longest Journey might be better if you can get your hands on it. It's got a female as the protagonist. Goes a long way.

      Too far, actually. I couldn't get my girlfriend off my freaking computer for a whole day.

  • Death of a dream? No more adventure games. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bludstone ( 103539 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @03:04PM (#8636699)
    Ive been a long time fan of adventure games, and I was saddened to hear sam and max 2 was cancelled. It was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

    I sent an email to pr@lucasarts.com questioning their motives, explaining my past fandom, and informing them that I will never be buying a lucasarts game again. Ever.

    Ive done it already. Ive experienced the trench run and blown up the death star, Ive saved the Emperor from rebel scum. Ive blasted my way through scores of imperial storm troopers. No more. Its done and boring.

    Sam and Max 2 looked fun, unique, and a revival of my 2nd favorite gaming genre. But no. I got spat on. Forget it lucasarts, Im tired of your games. Youve got enough competition making enough quality games that I simply do not have a need for you any longer. Congradulations, youve killed my starwars fandom through repetative mediocrity and baseless consumerism. (Not to mention shoddy writing)

    Now, if youll excuse me, Im going to go play Monkey Island 2 again, its been a few years. Yay ScummVM.

    Anyone have any good links for NEW adventure games?
    • Great upcoming in on my opinion:
      http://www.syberia2.info

      The original was really good too, although a bit short.

    • More adventure games... everybody post your faves! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by raygundan ( 16760 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @03:47PM (#8637089) Homepage
      I asked this very question in the last article we had about this cancellation, with nearly the same bitch-and-moan you have. Now that I'm all growed up with a job, I can afford to buy adventure games by the dozen. But they just aren't there. My girlfriend bemoans her selling of her Kings' Quest and Hero's Quest collections-- she said "I never thought those would be the last Adventure games made."

      So, for everybody out there, here's a list of what I've found to keep me amused so far:

      1. Everything ScummVM plays. You've probably played a good number of these, but I'm sure it's not all of them. Broken Sword I and II are good, and I haven't made my way around to Beneath a Steel Sky or Flight of the Amazon Queen yet, both released as freeware by their original authors to the ScummVM team. Buy the ones still being sold new, like Broken Sword and Simon the Sorcerer 1 & 2 to encourage "good behavior" from game companies.

      2. Sequels to ScummVM games that ScummVM can't run yet-- things like Broken Sword III, Monkey Island 4, and Grim Fandango.

      3. New things you've never heard of, but are still being sold new-- this is the best bet. Runaways: a Road Adventure (available new), Wyrmkeep's remade Inherit the Earth [wyrmkeep.com] (may be in a future scummvm version, from peeking in CVS), Gilbert Goodmate for the PocketPC, Syberia 1 and 2, etc... Check out justadventure.com [justadventure.com] for news.

      4. Stuff you haven't heard of but isn't still for sale-- this can be tricky, finding things on ebay or abandonware sites. A friend clued me into one he'd played when younger, now available as abandonware: Amazon: Guardians of Eden [the-underdogs.org]. I've heard good things about I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, but don't have a copy yet. I've also turned up websites about a couple of Discworld adventure games [the-underdogs.org] that sound excellent, and the first two also seem to be available as abandonware. There is a third that is still for sale, so if you download the other two BUY THE ONE THAT'S STILL BEING SOLD.

      Remember-- if you don't buy the ones that are for sale, companies will keep right on assuming the market doesn't exist for these games.

      For old DOS games that don't work with ScummVM, NAGI, FreeSCI, or the like, there's always DOSBox, which does an excellent job of making your shiny new PC pretend that it's old and crappy to make the games run.

      Anyway, that's what I know. Anybody got anything else?

    • Don't just send email... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Dimensio ( 311070 ) <darkstar@LISPiglou.com minus language> on Monday March 22, 2004 @10:57PM (#8641343)
      Email is cheap. Send SNAIL MAIL

      Send the mail to
      Mike Nelson, Acting General Manager and VP of Operations
      LucasArts
      P.O. Box 10307
      San Rafael, CA 94912

      I recommend strongly, however, that you word your letter in a somewhat professional fashion. That means using proper grammer, spellchecking, punctuation, full words (never use 'u' for 'you', etc) and an appropriate letter format, either block or indent style. Even if you wish to keep the tone of your letter negative (as I did), avoid profanity.

      You can see one of the later revisions of the letter that I sent at this URL:
      http://forums.adventuregamers.com/showthread .php?t =2399
      (note that the final letter that went out is slightly different, though not available online).

      You can find examples of the proper formatting for business letters at
      http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/BusinessL ette r.html

      Be sure to include your address at the top (as indicated) and your full name at the bottom.

      You can find examples of the proper formatting for envelopes at
      http://jobsearchtech.about.com/library/bl-busi ness -envelope.htm
    • Beneath A Steel Sky 2 [revolution.co.uk] has been announced. Revolution probably don't realise that underlying economic trends will ensure that the game sells 0 copies.

  • Why now??? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by OneFix at Work ( 684397 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @03:13PM (#8636788)
    If the marketing folks really didn't think the game was viable anymore, why not release the game in its current form through their web site???

    I mean, if it is so close to completion, they should be able to do a little last-minute debugging (a couple of weeks at most), put it up for sale through mail and state clearly that the game is unfinished and no future patches are planned.

    It's interesting to note that LucasArts also recently canceled Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels [slashdot.org]...another game that was clearly close to completion [gamespot.com]...

    The real question should be, why is LucasArts canceling projects so close to their completion dates???

    • Re:Why now??? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by inkless1 ( 1269 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @03:25PM (#8636912) Homepage
      Old engineering adage:

      the last 10% of the project can take 90% of the time.

      "Nearly complete" is a poor estimate of "Time to Completion". I assume games are similar.
    • The real question should be, why is LucasArts canceling projects so close to their completion dates???

      Well, from what I recall, the new Full Throttle was basically cancelled because it sucked (unlike Sam and Max, which was cancelled because Lucas Arts, for some reason, just decided they didn't want to sell it).
      • That's only what you read into the press release. The press release for Full Throttle implied a quality problem, but never came out and said it...

        To be honest, it could have been due to a multitude of things...maybe they were threatened with a law suit, maybe they implimented features for a new piece of hardware that never came, maybe they had problems with the rights...or maybe it was even the fact that they didn't see enough of a market for the game...you can bet it probably wasn't qualtity alone that k
        • Hm, that could be... and the fact that they've cancelled Sam and Max as well (and not for quality) does make it look a little suspicious. Still, it wouldn't be the first time an adventure game was cancelled for quality reasons part way through development (Warcraft Adventures [aol.com] comes to mind).
    • They probably can't release the game in any form for accounting reasons. IANAA (I Am Not An Accountant), but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night... If they completely scrap the project, they can write all their expenses for the game, to reduce their taxable income.

      But I'm pretty sure that if they sell the game in any form, their ability to write off their production expenses is greatly reduced (becomes just another business expense).

      The same thing happens with all these arcade games that neve

  • Let's be honest here (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Erik K. Veland ( 574016 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @03:35PM (#8636999) Homepage
    Those concept sketches look a helluva lot more intriguing than those sloppy 3D-renders. Why can't the gaming-industry take a hint from the movie-industry here? Not everything is better with 3D.
    • I couldn't agree more. Don't get me wrong, I am very sad that a new Sam & Max game won't get to see the light of day, but DAMN does that game look ugly. The fun cartoon style we all loved was replaced by... some shoddy 3D job that makes everything look like it's made out of clay? WTF?!

      Maybe that's why it was cancelled. Yeah, I can see it now: at a late point in the development, they noticed it looked like shit, and it was too late to restart from scratch, so they gave up.

      I just hope that whoever decid
      • Mike Nelson was the one who made the call. Much as he deserves a crowbar in his skull, I don't think that he's going anywhere, apart from the hole in which he's driving LucasArts.
    • The movie industry? You mean Disney dumping their 2D animation for 3D crap?
      • I was more specifically referring to the 3d-craze that surfaces now and then (more recently with Spy Kids 3D). It's just a gimmick and most everything requiring people to wear glasses has thoroughly sucked.

        This does not mean that 3D-animation is "crap". Look at anything from Pixar and the Shrek-franchise. The medium does not get in the way for the fun and creativity. Escape from Monkey Island (4) on the other hand was hard to control and the 3d-figures looked utterly out of place on it's backgrounds. They

  • To all the so-called adventure fans (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AvantLegion ( 595806 ) on Monday March 22, 2004 @04:18PM (#8637416) Journal
    I hope those of you bemoaning the death of adventure games have been playing titles like The Longest Journey and Syberia.

    Those that don't are part of the problem. If you don't support the great adventure games from smaller publishers, you'll show big publishers exactly why they shouldn't release an adventure game.

  • I can still find plenty of links to the Star Trek adventure game "Secret of Vulcan Fury" to pine over. If you think Sam & Max 2 looks great google for the ST game and remember that it was supposed to come out years ago.

    It is not even as if the two previous Star Trek adventures did bad. They were moderate commercial successes. Sure nothing amazing in sales but in the game industry doing two games who turn a nice profit is amazing enough. Especially when you consider how much success Interplay has had si

  • Looking at those just made me angry again, like I was when it was first cancelled. That would have been one rocking game.
  • If I were a LucasArts investor, I would be sorely disappointed. Not because of any particular affinity for Sam and Max (or Full Throttle), but because this doesn't make sense financially.

    Think for a moment: I've spent huge amounts on development, pre-marketing, and general hype. The cost from this point to actual production is equal to or less than (most likely less than) what I've already spent. Even if I think no one will buy the product, it makes more sense to release it and hope to recoup some funds
    • I posted this upstream a bit, but...

      IANAA, but I'm pretty sure whether or not the project makes it to market has an effect on their ability to write the expenses off of their taxes. So if they already don't think they will make they're money back, it might be better (financially) to cut their loses (further development and marketing) and take the tax benefit

      -------

  • Dear LucasArts (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    An Open Letter to LucasArts:

    Dear LucasArts,

    Fuck you.

    Sincerely,
    Jon

  • Petition (Score:4, Informative)

    by Flyboy Connor ( 741764 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @04:33AM (#8642919)
    There is an online petition to complete this game [petitiononline.com]. Only just over 8000 signatures yet, but maybe it can be slashdotted.
    • There is an online petition to complete this game. Only just over 8000 signatures yet, but maybe it can be slashdotted.

      This is the problem with petitiononline; everyone starts a petition without checking to see if there's already a petition going.You posted one with 8000 signatures. Early in this story someone posted one with a mere 1200 signatures. Here's a link to the "official" (insofar as it is linked to from the Save Sam & Max website [savesamandmax.com]) petition [petitiononline.com] at petitiononline that has (as of this post) 20,694

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