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It was both reasons! The highly detailed textures in the original were very heavily based on photographs, basically textures lifted from the CSI games. It added a really satisfying level of busyness to each screen, but when we tried to actually up the resolution and light it, as you guessed, it didn’t work that well. It ended up looking “old” instead of “a cooler version of what you remembered.” So we opted to simplify textures but add more detail to the scenes themselves, and also looked at how hit the road and Steve’s paintings handled “stylized” dirtiness. We also did want the game to be more of a piece with the other two seasons, while still having its own feel. So the overall density of environments and amount of caked on dirt, graffiti, and gunk is still way higher than in the other games. It also has film grain on by default, heavier vignettes in the corners of shots, and is color graded more aggressively into gunky “old film that’s been left out in the sun” tints, especially in the dark areas of shots. And for what it’s worth, the first two seasons were also not direct uplifts of their original styles. With season one we really looked at hit the road and the covers to the comics for inspiration, and wanted that season to feel closer to those than it previously had. So it’s pretty bright, has lots of high contrast spotlights, and is a little more flat. For season two we wanted things to feel a little more like a monster movie, so there is more underlighting coming up from below. We also decided season two would have a lot of two-tone lighting so many scenes are lit above with one color and below with another. For season 3 the goal was basically, try and make it feel like season 3 but more polished, while keeping it stylistically in line with the other two seasons, so the trilogy as a whole feels cohesive even if each individual season has its own mood and details. It’s definitely a more noticeable change with season 3 since it had more of an overt style to begin with than the previous two. (Or maybe more accurately, all 3 seasons had a style but season 3’s managed to actually punch through and be noticed to a greater degree than the other two.)

I long to update that soundtrack waiting thread. Maybe it’s why I got involved in the remasters to begin with. Who can say.

It's interesting to see that a big change in the remaster is replacing some of the busier textures with much simpler ones. Like the brick wall, for instance. At the time, I remember the move to these kinds of textures being one of the elements that made the third season much better looking than the previous, but I can see how now, with higher definition assets, cleaner textures would actually work better. (I wonder if another part of their reasoning was to make all three seasons be closer visually.)

Another week, another beta: https://aarongiles.com/dreamm/beta New in 3.0b16: * Added advanced per-game configuration; you can now tweak CPU speed and remap joystick controls * Added support for The Dig Super Sampler Demo * Added support for 2-level Rebel Assault II Demo * Added support for Rebel Assault II Special Edition (DOS and Windows) * Added support for Rebel Assault II French Demo * Added support for Full Throttle German Demo * Added support for Day of the Tentacle Spanish Demo * Added support for Outlaws CD demo * Added support for Dark Forces PC Gamer demo * Added support for an earlier Shadows of the Empire demo * Added support for the German version of Star Wars: Behind the Magic - Special Vehicles Edition * Added support for Indy Crusade CMS patch, and enabled CMS music for English 1.4 EGA version * Added some limited throttling in hopes of making SWSE not go crazy fast, with limited success so far * Added ability to auto-fix certain known corrupt versions (Spanish SOMI for example) * Fixed early Rebel Assault II demo with launcher that would previously hang * Fixed Star Wars Chess Windows opening scroll * Fixed TIE Fighter Collector's CD demo crashing after ~60 seconds * Fixed detection of nested self-extracting EXE archives (e.g., on CD-ROMs) * Make scanning more aggressive in searching embedded image files to find EXE-packaged demos on CDs * Improvements in 3D rasterization: - coordinates are converted to 16.8 fixed point and rounded as described in the Direct3D spec - improved accuracy of texture/color values at the start of each span - fixed incorrect texture bias for unfiltered textures - use correct renderstate for determining clamping/wrapping on Direct3D 3 and earlier * Reduced calls to SDL_SetWindowMimimumSize which due to an SDL bug causes the window to be raised on Linux * Windows/Cmd key no longer sends keystrokes to the emulator

May I humbly ask that this conversation end now? I am reading the same few people swirl around the same points now for many many posts. Anyone reading from the outside can clearly see where everyone recently involved in this thread stands on the broad points and many of the specific nuances of their points, and none of you are going to change each other’s minds.

Nice try, but you're the one who brought this all up originally, and you're the one who came back to it with your 'culture war' rant. That's the only reason I came back into the conversation.

I read it all, so I guess I'm awesome. This is completely subjective, which was elTee's point. You're just saying, "this was important to me, so therefore I should have the option to disable it". You're trying to argue that there's some objective standard that we all could agree and adhere to, but even if use your Star Wars example, that simply isn't true: Things in Empire and Jedi were changed in order to tie those films better into the prequel trilogy. Dialogue was rewritten. Actors were replaced. Objectively the meanings of several scenes were altered. But the biggest complaint by far, the one that led to fans going berserk, was the one you cited: Han not shooting first in the original film. Which arguably had far less impact on meaning than the other changes but which drew far less ire from fans. It's all inconsistent. And despite what you've said about SFX changes being acceptable to most fans because no "meaning" was changed, there are several high profile Star Wars restoration projects and they're ALL focused on removing every single change that has happened since 1977. Not just the infamous Greedo scene. In fact if there is a project that removes that single scene and keeps the other modern changes, I've not heard of it. But could list the others off the top of my head: 4K77 and Harmy's Despecialised Edition. For the fans who care the most, the ones who are prepared to put thousands of man hours into these projects, it's all or nothing: They want the untouched original. So there is no real consistency: There are just different camps of people who believe certain things are important. And because you belong to one particular camp, you think you represent the majority. Which again brings us back around the original point: This is all subjective. What's important to you is not important to me. And vice versa. And even if you find a subreddit somewhere that is a home to a lot of people who all agree on one point, it does not mean that their opinion is more valid, important or objective. It's just one of the dangers of the internet: It can easily make you feel that your opinion is the only sound-minded one out there by putting you in an echo chamber. And what's worse: You put things out about "censorship" and "wokeness" and other people, who actually don't care as much, will parrot back what they've heard. Like people who only read the headlines of news articles. Objectively speaking, changing Bosco's voice doesn't alter the meaning of anything. Nor does removing references to special needs children. But for you it alters the "authenticity" (the meaning of which could be debated in itself) of the experience. For me it doesn't. It's still all subjective. As for your comment about ignoring "imaginary bad actors", this has been addressed several times already. In short, the dev team did not wish to put their name to something they felt uncomfortable releasing. They were prepared to potentially upset some fans in order for them to be happier with what people played. In other words, they put their principles before money. Anyway this conversation has gone on far too long. I can't believe there's a single point that hasn't been covered by now. And I suspect that if people really do care that someone will release a patch that inserts the original dialogue into the remaster anyway.

It's really gross how you keep saying that Nazis are mythical and imaginary, and how no one in the world cares about racism. It's also incorrect.

What you're suggesting implies a toggle to switch off ALL the changes that the Remasters made (which were a LOT more than just recasting Bosco and rewriting a few minor lines), because why should they just cater to YOU and nobody else who wants another specific change reversed? Which brings us back to the original reply that elTee made to you: And round and round we go...

I don't know how to put this any more clearly--they aren't putting the voice back in because they don't want to. Nothing you say about how easy you perceive it to be is going to change that, because the thing stopping them from doing it isn't that it's hard. It's that they don't want to do it. You wanting them to do it won't change their minds, because again, the thing stopping them isn't that they thought nobody would want it. It's that they don't want to do it. What that means, ultimately, is that they're not going to do it, and you are not going to convince them to do it. Believe me, I'm upset that Titus Welliver couldn't make it back for the Deadwood movie, but no amount of complaining on my part could ultimately alter the fundamental physical reality that he didn't want to stop filming Bosch to go do it. Considering the fact that you yourself just ran through a list of options that you personally have--RIGHT NOW, at THIS VERY MINUTE--to play the game with the voice acting you want, and that Skunkape themselves made the originals available at NO EXTRA CHARGE, all you're coming across as is a spoiled kid who views it as a grave injustice that he can only have 97% of what he wants rather than 100%. You're not getting the thing you want, and that's not going to change. I implore you to learn the lesson the rest of us picked up when mom told us we couldn't have ice cream for breakfast and move on with your life.

Skunkape does exactly this. It offers the original version as free DLC.

By all means guys, feel free to discuss the Skunkape projects however you like. I didn't want to shut the discussion down, but I had started seeing references to things like the holocaust and slavery, and those subjects are not up for debate, that's all. I think we're all mainly on the same page here, anyway!

When I said "I'd also like to add that 'because they might make decisions that anger Nazis' is a shoddy reason to NOT want a dev company to do a remaster", I was referring to you saying "Backlash, less sales, an army of trolls review bombing and warning people who'd want to buy everywhere, people calling each other racists or nazis in the community just because some people happen to prefer the old voice actor etc. I saw that once, it was really stupid, I'd rather not watch the rerun thank you very much." as a reason for not wanting Skunkape to remaster Tales, in the RTMI thread. I won't say anything else, because elTee has already asked us to move on, but I wanted to clarify that.

The Skunkape remasters are fantastic, have exposed new fans to Sam & Max, have instigated collectible physical releases by Limited Run Games, have come with the explicit approval of Steve Purcell, have sold well enough to guarantee that all three seasons will receive the upgrade, and have garnered excellent reviews on balance. Everything about these remasters has served to renew and steward the brand. But you've managed to develop the intriguing impression that the brand was in fact hurt by it, somehow. One can only pray that Tales of Monkey Island gets "hurt" like that some day.

See, this is why people are calling your argument disingenuous. He didn't call you a Nazi--he said recasting the role is a decision that would upset Nazis, which it undeniably is. He said that saying "But people will review bomb the game, which is bad PR, so better to just not do anything!" isn't a good enough argument against doing it, because review bombing a game over something like this is a favorite tactic of the radical right and we shouldn't worry about what they think. As to what could be an "offensive argument," how about saying that, despite your not being in the US, you have a pretty good handle on what the history of American race relations is "pretty much" like and know the best way to handle them? As to bringing back the radical right by calling people Nazis--if somebody says they became a Nazi because somebody insulted them, buddy, they were just waiting for a good excuse. Incidentally, just for context, the timely gentleman you're responding to is one of the developers behind Ben There, Dan That!, Time, Gentlemen! Please, and Lair of the Clockwork God--i.e. games inspired in large part by his own die-hard LucasArts fandom--so again, you *may* want to consider that your finger isn't as on the pulse of "what the fans want" as you think. EDIT: Apologies to elTee, I posted before seeing your reply. This is the last I'll say on the subject.

Pretty much all of my thoughts have been covered over the two threads, but I'd also like to add that "because they might make decisions that anger Nazis" is a shoddy reason to NOT want a dev company to do a remaster.

I registered an account just to finally respond to you on this, because I'm tired of reading this disingenuous "Why can't everybody just be reasonable and admit I'm right while giving me everything I want" argument over and over again. You know why they made the changes. I know why they made the changes. It wasn't as a proof of concept for a "future iteration." It wasn't "extra content." It wasn't that it used to be okay to cast a white guy as a black character and have him do a broad stereotypical accent, and now it isn't; it's that it was never okay, but it used to be acceptable not to care. In recent years a whole lot more people have decided they're not willing to just sit back and accept a bad decision because it was handed to them, and Skunkape made a conscious choice to update the games in line with that. They're not going to render it back down into an optional patch or a toggle switch or downloadable content, because it's not a cosmetic choice--it's an informed decision that they made for clearly stated reasons. They knew there'd be people who wouldn't like it, and they did it anyway. You can choose to live with that and move on, or you can wring your hands and pretend you're just concerned about the non-existent damage being done to the poor, poor Sam & Max IP. You argue that change is fine, but only if it happens *later*, in a hypothetical product that doesn't and may never exist rather than in one that's in front of you forcing you to think and feel things; it's a wishy-washy attempt to insist that everything you're used to should stay just the way it is--i.e., the world where you didn't have to care--while still trying to cast yourself as being on "the right side." You go to great lengths to insist that you understand the original performance was stereotypical and wrongheaded, but if you keep going "It was *my* stereotypical wrongheaded performance, and I want it to stay the same!" then guess what? You're not on the right side! You keep appealing to what "basically every old fan feels like" to argue with people *who have stuck with a LucasArts fansite since the mid-'90s* about decisions in remasters *that were made in part by one of the founding voices of that fansite.* If you don't like it, I can't make you like it. But stop pretending like you represent some silent, long-suffering majority.

Bosco didn't appear in season 3. I'm also curious how you know the remasters' sales numbers.

As reported on the front page, the game got its GOG release. Special thanks to Skunkape for putting up with the usual brigading pre-adolescents so I could buy my offline installer.

Indeed. Disgraceful behaviour from anyone who considers themselves a fan in my opinion. It’s one thing to provide balanced feedback and maybe knock a bit off, but rampant one-star bombing is nothing short of nasty. I mean heck, we all disliked Guybrush’s hair in the special edition so much we created custom patches for it, not to mention the numerous poor art execution — but I wouldn’t dream of trying to destroy its saleability and effectively end interest in developing the franchise.

Well, season 1 has been review-bombed to death on GOG (at a ridiculous 2.9 out of 5), and unlike on Steam, hasn't recovered from it. I wouldn't blame them if they'd avoid GOG's abusive rating system (where you can up- and downvote ratings, I think?) for the time being.