Telltale's Sam & Max games getting remastered

[Udvarnoky]

When environment artist Karen Purdy updated her online portfolio, it was the hitherto unseen Freelance Police stuff that got stirred up that made the front page. But she did work on early Telltale titles as well, and what she shares from those are pretty interesting/rare in their own right. Was that teddy bear on the Myra! talk show set even in the final game?

 

https://karenspurdy.artstation.com/projects/XBDR9D

[Jake]

On 11/13/2023 at 6:25 PM, Udvarnoky said:

Was that teddy bear on the Myra! talk show set even in the final game?

yep it keeps hypnotizing her and is why she’s holding the audience hostage I think (I should know this)

 

edit: oh I see there is what looks like an earlier version of the bear in some shots. Is that what you mean? The final game has the blue one seen in some images here. 

[Udvarnoky]

Yes, exactly. Wild stuff!

[TimeGentleman]

Not sure exactly when this happened, but the Devil's Playhouse remaster is up on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2648050/Sam__Max_The_Devils_Playhouse/

 

There's a contest that definitely went up yesterday, and the post also gives us a release date of Spring 2024!

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2648050?emclan=103582791474291963&emgid=3904120607111888360

 

Any exclusive juicy updates and gossip on the remaster, @Jake?

Edited November 30, 2023 by TimeGentleman

[Jake]

3 hours ago, TimeGentleman said:

Any exclusive juicy updates and gossip on the remaster, @Jake?

It’ll be good. 

[TimeGentleman]

JUICY EXCLUSIVE!
I'd better get credit for asking the question on the subsequent Mixnmojo news story this time..!

[Udvarnoky]

Surely you're only pretending to be so innocent. Citations are a straight up cash business at Mojo, per a policy @Remi enacted sometime in the mid-aughts.

[Vainamoinen]

On 11/30/2023 at 2:51 PM, TimeGentleman said:

JUICY EXCLUSIVE!
I'd better get credit for asking the question on the subsequent Mixnmojo news story this time..!

 

Actually, I want that credit for bringing the thread up September 30th after nobody had posted for eight months. Felt like a complete necro to me. 😅

 

The reckoning has begun though ... the topic of proper citation has exploded on youtube with hbomberguy's latest video and there will be ample fallout. ⛈️

[TimeGentleman]

A pre-release MSotD! What an honour!

 

https://bsky.app/profile/mixnmojo.com/post/3kgltzeaxjl2o

 

null

[Remi]

That sweet sweet payola brings its perks. 

[Jake]

4 hours ago, Remi said:

That sweet sweet payola brings its perks. 

Mojo Has Fallen

[Vainamoinen]

Any chance for this to go up on youtube any time soon ... preferably in 2023 ... ?

Oh, I see, it's just "a scene", no video.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Vainamoinen
DUH

[Vainamoinen]

My drawing and painting community forum chose a vampire theme this month. That's not my jam. I don't know any vampires. None whatsoe... oh wait.

 

Still waiting for the Devil's Playhouse Remastered! ❤️

[Jake]

19 hours ago, Vainamoinen said:

Still waiting for the Devil's Playhouse Remastered! ❤️

The game is working its way through console cert as we speak. More info including release date coming soon. 

[Vainamoinen]

Instant + 100 beats per minute pulse.

 

A Summer release would be off the charts awesome (well, you know what 'platform' release I'm waiting for 😬 ).

 

And of course I'll get the soundtrack off bandcamp FTL. Hope you have that Steve Purcell cover ready ... all the new stuff from Jared ... and that speech for the folks in the Telltale forum.

[Jake]

There is very little new music this time around. Season 3 was well covered. But Jared went through and updated the samples on almost every track, and did a new mix and mastering process on all of it, so things sound way better. We also got the usual session saxophonist to come in and add a little bit of live coverage to some key moments that were previously pure synth. 

[Torbjörn Andersson]

2 hours ago, Jake said:

There is very little new music this time around. Season 3 was well covered. But Jared went through and updated the samples on almost every track, and did a new mix and mastering process on all of it, so things sound way better. We also got the usual session saxophonist to come in and add a little bit of live coverage to some key moments that were previously pure synth. 

 

The game most likely won't be released for anything I have, but if the soundtrack is finally released (14 years after the "Season 3 Soundtrack Waiting Thread" started on the Telltale Community forum), that will definitely be worth buying.

 

At that point, I guess the only thing I will still be missing is that nice music at the beginning of "Bright Side of the Moon", where Sam somehow figures the whole thing out. Oh well. 😁

[Jake]

7 hours ago, Torbjörn Andersson said:

At that point, I guess the only thing I will still be missing is that nice music at the beginning of "Bright Side of the Moon", where Sam somehow figures the whole thing out. Oh well. 😁

 

Well that I can do https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/upubfd4dvl30eaog0z2o7/env_office_cs_opening_e1_1.wav?rlkey=uane64i9w2y3kqz18xly59eju&st=q8pq9zry&dl=0

 

This lyric-free arrangement of World of Max was stuck in my brain for so long that I made it the main menu music of the Save The World remaster. Then we didn't include it in the soundtrack oops.

[Laserschwert]

12 hours ago, Jake said:

 

Well that I can do https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/upubfd4dvl30eaog0z2o7/env_office_cs_opening_e1_1.wav?rlkey=uane64i9w2y3kqz18xly59eju&st=q8pq9zry&dl=0

 

This lyric-free arrangement of World of Max was stuck in my brain for so long that I made it the main menu music of the Save The World remaster. Then we didn't include it in the soundtrack oops.

I've always wondered, are digital-only soundtracks that difficult to update after release?

[Jake]

3 hours ago, Laserschwert said:

I've always wondered, are digital-only soundtracks that difficult to update after release?

Not on Steam or Bandcamp, because they are done directly through a simple admin interface… but the ones that propagate to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube Music etc yes they are a horrible pain to update because unless you are a huge record label with direct access to all those different backends, they go through a variety of middleware services, none of which are comprehensive in their tools or feature set. Many of them also have intrinsic hooks to their storefronts which are still hardcoded to assume pricing based on CD-length albums, which is part of why many soundtracks have just given up and release in “volumes,” even though for all intents and purposes it should be one album in the digital era. We tried to avoid that for the Skunkape soundtrack rereleases but eventually just decided to split the albums up on those services. (On Steam and Bandcamp they are single albums without volume distinctions.)

[Torbjörn Andersson]

15 hours ago, Jake said:

 

Well that I can do https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/upubfd4dvl30eaog0z2o7/env_office_cs_opening_e1_1.wav?rlkey=uane64i9w2y3kqz18xly59eju&st=q8pq9zry&dl=0

 

This lyric-free arrangement of World of Max was stuck in my brain for so long that I made it the main menu music of the Save The World remaster. Then we didn't include it in the soundtrack oops.

 

Thanks! I didn't realize that it was used for the main menu, though that makes its omission all the more remarkable of course. Here's to hoping that it can be added some day, in spite of the problems you mentioned with some other services.

[Jake]

4 minutes ago, Torbjörn Andersson said:

 

Thanks! I didn't realize that it was used for the main menu, though that makes its omission all the more remarkable of course. Here's to hoping that it can be added some day, in spite of the problems you mentioned with some other services.

It’s because I did the mix for the menu track, not Jared. Not that he didn’t give it the thumbs up (he said “yeah that’s basically the way I would have edited it, ship it”) but it’s not something that was on either of our minds when considering what the soundtrack should have. And he hasn’t got the source files for it since I bashed out the menu mix in Premiere, so he’d likely have to re-create my edit. 

[Laserschwert]

Here's hoping that physical (re-)releases of the soundtracks are still in the cards. At least that would be a chance to fix any remaining omissions.

[Jake]

Season one remastered is available on vinyl right now and it won’t be reissued with new tracks (?). There’s just not an audience. Hoping to do physical releases of 2 and 3 as well. Maybe I will print on demand a CD release for you, one of the two people who has ever asked for it 😛

[Torbjörn Andersson]

11 hours ago, Jake said:

Season one remastered is available on vinyl right now and it won’t be reissued with new tracks (?). There’s just not an audience. Hoping to do physical releases of 2 and 3 as well. Maybe I will print on demand a CD release for you, one of the two people who has ever asked for it 😛

 

I still buy CDs, but customs have gotten really stingy about adding fees every time (it used to be just if you were unlucky) so it's been a while since I ordered anything from the US. I cannot understand the fascination with vinyl, though. My memory of that is that all my favorite LPs would eventually get scratched. One got warped when I left it on the turntable on sunny day. (One old 78 rpm record shattered when I accidentally dropped it, though I guess that was shellac, not vinyl.)