Thank God LucasArts canceled Sam & Max: Freelance Police

edited April 2007 in Sam & Max
Yep, I'm glad they did! For now I can look forward to a lot more Sam & Max adventures on a regular basis in the future, thanks to the wonderful people at TellTale!
For had LucasArts released Sam & Max: Freelance Police, that would probably have been the only game with S&M content for years to come.
True, it would have been fun, but only for a short period of time.

Now, instead, Sam & Max are coming to me on a regular basis, to satiate my need for cartoony mayhem and critical outlook on the world!
No, I wouldn't want to have it any other way!!!
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Comments

  • edited March 2007
    I totally agree with you on this! =)
  • edited March 2007
    But I still wish I could see what they had finished on it :)
  • edited March 2007
    Yes, I was very afraid of how an episodic adventure game would turn out but it probably has turned out better for the series had the sequel from LucasArts came out. Who knows, it might not have turned out very good anyway. They probably would've butchered on mass to appeal to a large(r) audiance. :( Either way, Telltale should be very proud of how well Season 1 is and is doing, and relieved it didn't bomb because that would've sucked a majoruscy for everyone.
  • LGHLGH
    edited March 2007
    Smollie, you're absolutely right! I still think that the LucasArts game might have turned out really, really good, but having played Ep 1-4 by now, I can claim with certitude:

    LEC'S FREELANCE POLICE COULDN'T HAVE BEEN BETTER THAN WHAT WE GOT FROM TELLTALE!

    I have spend so much fantastic moments with Sam and Max during the last monthes, from the games over the Machinima shorts to the web comics... awesomes. And it just goes on and on and on and on...

    And, oh my god, what brilliant music we were offered. Jared's work can definitely keep up with the work of the three former LucasArts music gods, Land, McConnell and Bajakian.

    Congratulations Telltale! Keep them coming...
  • edited March 2007
    I have to disagree... because the game would have been fantastic.

    Stupid business decision made the development stop close to the end, but i had absolutely 0 worries, even less (minus 1 worries) seeing the near-final screenshots in magazines the month before the cancellation.

    That said, the episode 4 is wonderful, and i think TTG has now the quality of these adventure games of the golden age era 93-97
  • edited March 2007
    Definitely, I reckon LucasArts wouldn't have done even near as good a job as Telltale Games, especially after what they did with Escape From Monkey Island.

    Out of interest (I never really followed Freelance Police at the time) would it have been point and click, or would it have had the direct control system of Grim Fandango and EFMI?
    If it had direct control, that would have been another good reason it was canned.

    Still, it would be nice to see what was done.
  • edited March 2007
    Point and click if I remember correctly?
  • edited March 2007
    So, how about Telltale making an offer to Lucasarts - buy Freelance Police and finish it themselves?

    I don't know how these things work, so I know it's all just a dream really, but as it's already fully worked out with regards to story, puzzles etc, they could make an offer to buy it, re-create it on the Telltale engine and release it as their first full game.

    That would be great.

    The only problem I can see is if Lucasarts behave like arse-holes about it all.
  • edited March 2007
    I don't know if it even works that way. Lucasarts no longer holds the rights to Sam and Max. I expect this means that legally, they don't even have the right to sell their work involving these characters to a 3rd party, even if this 3rd party is the rightful owner. Steve Purcell would doubtless be required if such a transaction were to be made.

    But this is then further complicated by the fact that the game was developed in an engine proprietary to LucasArts. Even if Telltale Games had the rights to the game itself, they don't have the rights to the engine used to make it (I don't know if it was made with SCUMM or not), and I wouldn't expect Lucasarts to part with that.

    And trying to remake it in the telltale engine would probably be like starting over from scratch.
  • edited March 2007
    So what do Jake, Emily or other Telltale people think / have to say about it then?
  • edited March 2007
    Since they otherwise wouldn't have made any money off this franchise, I'm sure they're jumping for joy at their good fortune. :D Um... Maybe they could buy F.P. and mesh it with Season 2 or something. :confused:
  • edited March 2007
    Well i for one am not and will never be happy with episodic. Still makes limitations to how complex and how many location and items there can be.

    I also enjoy a big game where i got it all so i can set my own pace. I sure dont hope this is becoming a trend. The old facasion way is better, can only hope that after this season tellgames will make 1 big season 2.
  • edited March 2007
    RMJ1984 wrote: »
    Well i for one am not and will never be happy with episodic. Still makes limitations to how complex and how many location and items there can be.

    I dont see why episodic gaming has to have these limitations you mention. Episodes could simply be in the form of a patch that adds more locations onto a map (HTR style), allowing the gamer to return to previous locations.
  • edited March 2007
    It's funny, I played Full Throttle for the first time last week, it's held up as a fairly short but definite classic adventure.

    What amused me was how often you'd move forward to a new set of locations and be unable to return back to earlier locales - and more often than not often the transitions were accompanied by a major loss of inventory.

    This so-called limitation of Episodic Adventures has been in many, many previous classics (Grim Fandango too, with 4 distinct chapters).

    (Some) people seem to be forgetting that this approach (limited backtracking to earlier locations and periodic loss of now-useless inventory) is actually pretty common among full length adventure games too.
  • edited March 2007
    I would never use the words "thank god" and "lucasarts cancelled Sam & Max: Freelance Police" in the same sentence :o
  • edited March 2007
    I would have loved to see Freelance Police finished. But if Telltale bought it, they would have to remake it. But if they had done that, well, I would've bought it. Why shouldn't it have been just as good as these episodes? Many of the people who worked on the LucasArts-game is the ones who made these episodes. I'm still angry with LucasArts for cancelling it. And probably will continue to be. I don't want another adventure game from LucasArts, since they've spit on the genre with their decition. Well, my opinion anyway. But by seeing old trailers... Man, Max was ugly!

    I love the new Sam & Max-episodes, but can't stop feeling that the episodic approach limits the experience. Or no, it doesn't limit the experience, the experience is great as it is, but it limits the number of different ways of creating an experience. To be honest, I think that the adventure game-title don't really fits the episodic approach. It doesn't feel like an adventure. "Adventure" has a more epic feel to it. In Sam & Max, a trip all around the USA has been reduced to walking around the neighbourhood and visiting some strange location. And there's nothing wrong with that, it just don't feel like an adventure. I love the adventure-feel in games, so I definitely prefer full adventures over self contained episodes.

    Episodes with the scale of part 2 in CMI or year 2 in Grim Fandango would've been great. But you know, even if these parts are self contained in a way, they are just pieces of one large story. And even if that's the case in Season 1 too, the episodes are made to be a story in itself. The focus isn't on the surrounding story, the focus is on the single cases in each episode. And that's a huge difference. Like a friends-episode compared to Lost, where you're much more dependent on the previous episodes to understand anything. That's the curse of episodic adventure-games for my part. You have to make it totally understandable for everyone who hasn't played the previous episodes in the season.

    Ooh, Meché
  • edited March 2007
    I love the new Sam & Max-episodes, but can't stop feeling that the episodic approach limits the experience. Or no, it doesn't limit the experience, the experience is great as it is, but it limits the number of different ways of creating an experience. To be honest, I think that the adventure game-title don't really fits the episodic approach. It doesn't feel like an adventure. "Adventure" has a more epic feel to it. In Sam & Max, a trip all around the USA has been reduced to walking around the neighbourhood and visiting some strange location. And there's nothing wrong with that, it just don't feel like an adventure. I love the adventure-feel in games, so I definitely prefer full adventures over self contained episodes.

    Episodes with the scale of part 2 in CMI or year 2 in Grim Fandango would've been great. But you know, even if these parts are self contained in a way, they are just pieces of one large story. And even if that's the case in Season 1 too, the episodes are made to be a story in itself. The focus isn't on the surrounding story, the focus is on the single cases in each episode. And that's a huge difference. Like a friends-episode compared to Lost, where you're much more dependent on the previous episodes to understand anything. That's the curse of episodic adventure-games for my part. You have to make it totally understandable for everyone who hasn't played the previous episodes in the season.

    Ooh, Meché

    Regarding the idea of short, standalone, more-or-less independent episodes, I don't think that's necessarily a curse of episodic adventure games--it's just that Telltale believed that Sam and Max (with their history of standalone comic books and TV episodes) would fit well into the mold of a more sitcom-like standalone/independent model. The Bone episodes, for example, definitely feel more like a serial TV show like 24 or Lost, and though I haven't played it yet (maybe never), Myst Online: Uru Live, while episodic (they've added 1 new Myst age per month since starting up) also depends on the player having played the previous episodic deliveries before taking a crack at or understanding the story in the new Age (I might be wrong about this). And with the newly announced Dreamfall Chapters, Ragnar Tornquist has hinted that "Funcom will do to the serialized drama what Telltale did to the standalone sitcom in regards to episodic format."
  • edited March 2007
    In Sam & Max, a trip all around the USA has been reduced to walking around the neighbourhood and visiting some strange location. And there's nothing wrong with that, it just don't feel like an adventure.

    Did you play (and like) Day of the Tentacle?
  • edited March 2007
    Hero1 wrote: »
    I would never use the words "thank god" and "lucasarts cancelled Sam & Max: Freelance Police" in the same sentence :o

    OK, how about "Thank Cthulhu LucasArts cancelled Sam & Max: Freelance Police"?

    It's a shame that the company that once gave birth to the classic adventure games of yore seems to be turning its back on the genre so blatantly.
    Especially if you consider that they are probably making more than enough money on the Star Wars games to run the risk of making not so many $$$ with new adventure games.

    I doesn't make me hate the company, for I enjoy their non-adventure games a lot, but I do hope they will come to their senses in the near future and maybe hire TellTale to co-develop more adventures?

    And let us not forget that LucasArts is not the only company to abandon the adventure genre. Sierra pretty much did the same!
    I miss Roger Wilco!
  • edited March 2007
    Smollie wrote: »
    And let us not forget that LucasArts is not the only company to abandon the adventure genre. Sierra pretty much did the same!
    I miss Roger Wilco!

    At least Sierra allows them to be... available, through Gametap and rereleases as collections. Lucasarts seems to be forcing their old games into obscurity.
  • edited March 2007
    In my opinion i think that without the cancellation we would never have had this season of sam and max. Telltales version promises to be ongoing while lucasarts would be probably be a one off and if lucky we might get another game in 10 years.

    However, i would love to see freelance police be released one day.:rolleyes:
  • MelMel
    edited March 2007
    The cancellation seems bittersweet to me. Without it, you wouldn't have had Telltale and all of the games they have made so far but you also have Telltale people who were intimately involved with that game (Brendan Ferguson, Kevin Brunner and Dan Connors) and I would think it would be sad to see your creative effort end before it's completion.
  • edited March 2007
    jp-30 wrote: »
    Did you play (and like) Day of the Tentacle?

    Yup, I did play it, and I loved it. You got a point. But you know, it still kinda had that adventure feel, that the S&M-episodes miss to an extent. It was a huge mansion x 3, and you got the feeling of new worlds by "unlocking" the past and the present, and exploring the different eras. It was an original concept too, and done well.

    Yea, I didn't think about the Bone-episodes when I thought about the adventure part of a story, and seeing new places. Maybe that's more my cup of tea (as long as the world you are exploring is big enough to get a feeling of adventure). But I have no doubt that Sam & Max totally fit the sitcom-ish format too. It has never been that epic to begin with, but more plain fun :)
  • edited March 2007
    jp-30 wrote: »
    It's funny, I played Full Throttle for the first time last week, it's held up as a fairly short but definite classic adventure.

    What amused me was how often you'd move forward to a new set of locations and be unable to return back to earlier locales - and more often than not often the transitions were accompanied by a major loss of inventory.

    This so-called limitation of Episodic Adventures has been in many, many previous classics (Grim Fandango too, with 4 distinct chapters).

    (Some) people seem to be forgetting that this approach (limited backtracking to earlier locations and periodic loss of now-useless inventory) is actually pretty common among full length adventure games too.

    Let's add DOTT, Secret Files of Tunguska, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, Toonstruck and a great deal of other adventure games to the list.
  • edited March 2007
    LuigiHann wrote: »
    At least Sierra allows them to be... available, through Gametap and rereleases as collections. Lucasarts seems to be forcing their old games into obscurity.

    Well, not if we don't let them!
    Ha!
    Maybe we should invade the LucasArts forums! Ah yes, a siege that will make the horrors of Stalingrad and the D-Day landings of 1944 look like a picnic!
    I think we should make use of my army of atomic supermutants!
    MWOOOHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!
  • edited March 2007
    I'd love to hear a synopsys of what would have happened in that game, if their NDA's don't prevent of course
  • edited March 2007
    Wickywoo wrote: »
    I'd love to hear a synopsys of what would have happened in that game, if their NDA's don't prevent of course
    My money is on "Sam and Max's wacky hijinx as they attempt to foil a comical criminal mastermind's bizarre scheme." :p
  • edited March 2007
    there is a funny joke in episode 5 when you keep clicking on the old case file........... mild spoiler:

    1st click
    I dont even want to look at that case again...

    2nd click
    Really, i cant look...

    3rd click
    No really, i just cant look...

    4th click
    No foolin', i just cant bring myself to look...

    5th click
    FOR THE LOVE OF ZOMBIE STEVE MCQUEEN, I WILL NOT LOOK AT THAT!

    6th click and on
    *Sigh*
  • edited March 2007
    LuigiHann wrote: »
    At least Sierra allows them to be... available, through Gametap and rereleases as collections. Lucasarts seems to be forcing their old games into obscurity.


    The Sierra collections are horrid though. I am happy to be able to buy games I never got the chance to play but they don't even give us manuals. Just the Adobe file. In fairness Lucasarts has done that with my copies of Sam and Max, Full Throttle, and The Dig but atleast they allow them to be played straight from the disk.
  • edited March 2007
    As far as I know Lucasarts is not responsible for the re-releases you're talking about.
  • edited March 2007
    Udvarnoky wrote: »
    As far as I know Lucasarts is not responsible for the re-releases you're talking about.

    yes, I think that's the work of Activision. At least it's only re-released by Activision.
  • edited March 2007
    Only they episodes take a long time to come out, and when the do come out gametap gets then two weeks early.
  • edited March 2007
    I wouldn't call 4 weeks a long time. Though the wait for this episode is longer for some people.
  • edited March 2007
    The Sierra collections are horrid though. I am happy to be able to buy games I never got the chance to play but they don't even give us manuals. Just the Adobe file. In fairness Lucasarts has done that with my copies of Sam and Max, Full Throttle, and The Dig but atleast they allow them to be played straight from the disk.

    Do you really need a manual for those games? The interface was pretty standardized. I personally find them great, though I only have the Kings/Space Quest

    I wish they'd do Gabriel Knight, and I'm still wondering why they didn't put KQ8 on the KQ collection
    Only they episodes take a long time to come out, and when the do come out gametap gets then two weeks early.

    They still have to wait 4 weeks though.
  • edited March 2007
    Wickywoo wrote: »
    Do you really need a manual for those games? QUOTE]

    For the artwork, it's nice to have the manuals. But I'm an art nut, so I may be in the minority here :P
  • edited March 2007
    Actually, you do need the manuals for some of the old Sierra games. They used copy protection in the form of puzzles in the manual that you had to solve at some point in the game.
  • edited March 2007
    Good point, I didn't think about that.
  • edited March 2007
    Well, a manual in pdf format has (most of the time) all the same art and information as a paper one. It just isn't quite as tangible.
  • edited March 2007
    owning a manual in paper edition has a certain quality to it that you can never get from a pdf file on a cd, though. I still have my warcraft 2 manual, not because I have any problems with understanding how to play the game, but because I find a certain quality in owning the paper back manual to a game.

    But that's not my biggest issue when I buy a re-release of a game. What's most important is that the game runs fine in XP. From what I hear the Sierra games only has a copy of DOSBox on the cd as their "XP fix", while the Lucas Arts games has are re-written to run fine in XP. I rather want a game that is re-written to work natively on my modern PC(without damaging the original quality of the original game, of course).
  • edited March 2007
    marsan wrote: »
    while the Lucas Arts games has are re-written to run fine in XP.

    Where did you hear that? Lucas has never and will never re-write any of their games for XP compat, it even says on their website that they can't ensure compatibility for their older titles on XP.

    I for one am glad Lucas cancelled Sam & Max: FP, purley cause the shots I viewed from it didn't look all that good, and plus then we wouldnt of got yet more masterpieces from Telltale. :D
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