The Unabridged History of Sam & Max 2: A Mixnmojo Memoir

[Udvarnoky]

Holy hopping Huey P. Long in a Houston whorehouse! What were we thinking publishing this insane thing? Were there no grown-ups in the room to put a stop to it?

 

Well, it happened and must be dealt with, so here's a discussion thread for that feature we put together to give some awesome Will Eaken artwork a context. Sam & Max 2: we just won't let it rest in peace.

[kralex]

This is Jason's magnum opus and peak Mojo, everything is downhill after this.

[Lagomorph01]

The poster for this article makes me laugh and cry at the same time!
I like the Telltale games, but somehow they’re never able to compete with the grandeur of the cancelled Hit the Road sequel.

I'm curious about the whole read.

Edited December 16, 2020 by Lagomorph01
Removed unnecessary questions.

[Laserschwert]

As the resident poster guy, I feel it's my civic duty to ask if there's a textless version of Bill Eaken's artwork available?

[s-island]

Possibly down the road. ;

[Udvarnoky]

The header art has just been updated. From Eaken:

 

I discovered that somehow, some of the layers had been switched off and I didn’t catch it (shine on the windshield and a whole rendered layer of the emperor). I think it looks better with them, so I thought I should send it, and hope it doesn’t cause you too much hassle to swap it out.

 

It caused me no hassle, because I simply made Remi do it. Enjoy!

 

Also, @Laserschwert, I am happy to confirm that a "naked" version of the art is forthcoming. I look forward to both being inducted into the venerable poster thread.

[Lagomorph01]

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?

[Udvarnoky]

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.

[Udvarnoky]

We were able to retroactively include Lead Designer Steven Chen’s participation into the article. Here’s our new interview with him. Since he worked on Staff of Kings, we interrogated him a bit on that, too.

[Scummbuddy]

Y'all waiting on Freelance Police while us olbies are waiting on Plunge Through Space...

 

Edit: And now that I've read it, I am so happy we were able to connect with Steven Chen and have him answer some great questions. I wish him and his team luck with the VR work in the future.

Edited May 28, 2022 by Scummbuddy

[Udvarnoky]

The crime scene hadn't been picked quite clean:

 

https://mixnmojo.com/news/Sam-and-Max-2s-grave-disturbed-again-stray-bone-fragments-collected

[danielalbu]

On 11/6/2023 at 9:46 PM, Udvarnoky said:

The crime scene hadn't been picked quite clean:

 

https://mixnmojo.com/news/Sam-and-Max-2s-grave-disturbed-again-stray-bone-fragments-collected

 

Wait till you hear what Mike Stemmle had to say about Sam & Max: Freelance Police...

 

 

[Udvarnoky]

Valuable stuff. Stemmle is candid and the questions are good.

It’s always interesting how Dan Connors seems to be about the only person on the team who doesn’t characterize the cancellation as a total surprise. Mike must be right when he guesses that as the producer he had a little more exposure to the upper management’s perspective than the rest of the team. Your interview with Dan was also the first I’ve heard anyone suggest that Jim Ward may have had a say on the fate of the game before he was formally sworn in as studio president in April 2004.

[danielalbu]

7 hours ago, Udvarnoky said:

Valuable stuff. Stemmle is candid and the questions are good.

It’s always interesting how Dan Connors seems to be about the only person on the team who doesn’t characterize the cancellation as a total surprise. Mike must be right when he guesses that as the producer he had a little more exposure to the upper management’s perspective than the rest of the team. Your interview with Dan was also the first I’ve heard anyone suggest that Jim Ward may have had a say on the fate of the game before he was formally sworn in as studio president in April 2004.

 

Wait till you hear what Steve Purcell had to say about Sam & Max 2!

[danielalbu]

🎉 It's Sam & Max Hit The Road's 30th anniversary this month!

 

🎙️ So join me TODAY for the YouTube premiere of my 4-hour conversation with Sam & Max creator, Steve Purcell!

📝 In this conversation, we discuss Sam & Max, the classic LucasArts covers and more!

 

⏰ Today @ Noon (PT)

 

 

[Udvarnoky]

Alright, Simon Jeffery next.