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A fan recreated a promo for Culture Shock from back in 2006, using footage from the remaster. Hats off for dedication.

And combined with the fact that only about 10 lines out of 12000 were changed, it shows how out of proportion the reactions have been.

From Skunkape's lovely write-up: When I read that paragraph, I was wondering why this seemed vaguely familiar. Then it hit me. Back in the summer/fall 2006, when every last pixel of every bit of media Telltale was putting out was being put under a microscope, this huge render of Bosco's Inconvenience was among the assets shared with the press: Notice how the magazine here is "Playbunny," rather than "Hot Bunny" as it is in the published game. As I recall, someone noticed the discrepancy at the time, and I think it was guessed - maybe even explained by Telltale? - that the "Playbunny" gag was a little too close to the target of the parody for legal comfort, so they had to change the texture of the magazine before shipping. If it was an eleventh hour change, it might explain why they simply cut Max's line (in 101, anyway) instead of re-recording it. It's sick that I remember that. Magazine parodies apparently stress out lawyers in a general sense. A similar change had to be made to an inventory item in Escape from Monkey Island. Quoth Mike Stemmle, from The Mojo: And now for me to spend some time outdoors.

I have to say Skunkape did a great job with that Steam patch update. Hopefully being so calm and transparent will diffuse the situation for most people, plus it was interesting to read. And making it clear that people will get the originals as free DLC should also make some happy, too. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1440440/view/2913231583179436796

That trailer re edit is amazing.

It's not my collection, and it's a month old, but I figured this was worth embedding. I've never seen the Maniac Mansion T-shirt at this resolution: https://twitter.com/MikeJMika/status/1333114880249958403

I remember when the Maniac Mansion Mania project appeared something like fifteen years ago. I lost track after the first handful, but I admired the plucky ingenuity of the whole thing. The idea of enthusiasts carving out this homegrown framework for making bite-sized adventure games using recycled Maniac Mansion themed assets was so weird and cool...sort of a fan game precursor to Telltale. That it is apparently still going on is something to behold. I wonder if any of these "graduates" of the MMM "academy" went on to work in the industry?

It is not a serious question. It is what we would call a loaded question, akin to "Have you stopped beating your wife?". The first part of the question implies that I have not made an effort to understand the arguments. The second part of the question implies that I must be some basement dwelling troll from an echo chamber, traversing the internet, looking for places to leave my racist remarks. This is a worn and well-known tactic used to limit replies to those that directly serve the questioner's agenda. I have not written what you stated. I wrote 'privileged' white people. I have said nothing about the people who study or teach these things. They are not necessarily privileged nor white. I think you are confusing the concept of 'understanding' with the concept of 'agreeing'. I understand the arguments perfectly well. I just don't agree with the majority of them. I am not the same as anyone else, and neither are you. This group-identity mentality is really unhealthy. This is completely irrelevant to my opinions, and is usually asked in an attempt to discredit someones views based on their geographical location and/or experience. It will not provide you with any meaningful context in this discussion, as you know nothing else about me. I feel no need to dox myself, but since you insist; I live in a Scandinavian country (as I have already stated) and I am in my late thirties. You will have to excuse me if I do not feel obliged or a need to respond to a tirade from a talk show host/comedian, who makes anti-Semitic and derogatory jokes about women on twitter. I do not view Trevor Noah as a go to source for enlightenment on complex issues. But since you ask, no I do not agree with him or the concept of reparations as it is often applied. I believe in equality of opportunity. not equality of outcome. I posed a question in an earlier post, which you replied to. "Is T.H.E.M. voiced by verified mariachis?" You omitted the question in your answer. You seem to have ignored it? The reason i wrote 'sobered up' is because I, myself, would never have considered posting such a loaded question without having been stark drunk. Telling someone they are resorting to insults (or even calling that an insult) is laughable, considering the question you posted yourself. If someone wanted to get a rise out of you, I fear I am too late to the party. On topic: I have bought the game, In the hopes it will encourage further Telltale remasters. Unfortunately, I am unable to play it until I can replace my melted GPU with an RTX 3080 without paying a scalper on eBay. On a positive note, I am now the proud owner of no less than three copies of the original game.

Your words are kind. We're about the same age, so I know what you mean about feeling like you found the LucasArts web scene just in time to be too late. I wouldn't hold out any hope for Sam & Max: The Lost Cases happening in this reality, but I do think that all the cool Sam & Max material that this particular team was generating, only for it all to be thrown in the trash, deserved to have more sunlight thrown on it than prior retrospectives have been able to. The idea that the Freelance Police team just sort of moved over to Telltale and got their Sam & Max redemption in short order has been somewhat overstated, or has maybe been too liberally inferred. It is true that the game's producer and lead programmer founded Telltale, and there were definitely members of the Save the World team who also worked on Freelance Police, but there was almost no overlap in the design, writing, art and animation teams. It was, creatively, nearly a total turnover. Which doesn't make Telltale's Sam & Max success any less of a comeback story or something to be grateful for. It's still kind of amazing to think that shortly after LEC decided that a Sam & Max adventure game wasn't viable, some of its leads turned around and proved otherwise. There is redemption and unlikely closure in that borderline surreal chain of events, which is kind of unprecedented. Plus, I really do believe the long term health of Sam & Max as a video game property was better served by this outcome. But I thought it would be a worthy pursuit to go back and highlight the awesome work of this particular team, since that work was utterly tossed away by people who did not value it. I didn't emphasize this to bum people out or to renew old outrages, but in the hopes of giving those folks their proper due -- or anyway as proper as one can manage with the limited media we have. This is why it was important to me to name names at the end. Hopefully, we can get that team list even more complete and accurate in the future.

I finally read the whole article, and wow. Just wow. Jason you’ve really outdone yourself. It not only takes me back to a time of great frustration, but it puts it in context clearly and thoroughly. I remember being so upset when LucasArts stopped being LucasArts. I was born in ‘86 and I’m not a native English speaker, so it wasn’t until probably ‘97 that I realised that all the games I loved came from the same company. I never thought it would’ve been on the verge of collapsing even then. I remember buying Grim Fandango as my first ‘legal’ release (I had played other games, mostly Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, CMI, but they came from family or illegal ‘Twilight’ cd’s we had in the Netherlands), and vowing to buy every single adventure game from then on, not knowing EMI would be the last. It’s kinda sad to see my fandom came as the company slowly faded away. Anyway, thanks for this fantastic read. I can’t say I know many games that never got released ever got this much love and care put in their eulogy. My hope is for the Sam and Max SE’s being succesful, so that Skunkape can remaster Hit the Road, and after that, when having snuggled their way into the Disney ‘family’, finally finish this, the LucasArts classic that never was. Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he?

I thought the voice direction in the Special Editions was good. I think the dodgier results stem from the fundamental awkwardness of performing dialog that was written to be read. The exceptionally capable Darragh O'Farrell (The Dig, CMI, EMI and pretty much every voiced LEC game from 1995 onward) is at least credited as Voice Director on those.

Oh. Your post is still here. I thought you would have sobered up and removed it by now. Cute.