Udvarnoky Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 I want to bring some attention to Jimmy Maher’s superb and ongoing interactive entertainment chronicle at The Digital Antiquarian. Though the articles devoted to LucasArts represent only a selective fraction of his overall exploration of game history, they amount to a superior work of scholarship about our favorite subject, replete with rare photographs and can’t-be-found-anywhere-else anecdotes. I get the sense Maher’s achievement hasn’t been as trumpeted as it should have been, so as a public service here’s the full list of all the LucasArts-relevant pieces he’s published so far: A New Force in Games, Part 1: Fractal Dreamers July 10, 2015 A New Force in Games, Part 2: A Habitat in Cyberspace July 17, 2015 A New Force in Games, Part 3: SCUMM July 24, 2015 The 14 Deadly Sins of Graphic-Adventure Design (or, Why Ron Gilbert Hated Adventure Games) July 31, 2015 Loom (or, how Brian Moriarty Proved That Less is Sometimes More) February 18, 2017 Monkey Island (or, How Ron Gilbert Made an Adventure Game That Didn’t Suck) March 10, 2017 Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (or, Of Movies and Games and Whether the Twain Shall Meet) September 28, 2018 Day of the Tentacle June 7, 2019 Sam and Max Hit the Road June 21, 2019 The Second Coming of Star Wars February 5, 2021 Full Throttle July 2, 2021 The Dig July 23, 2021 Jedi Knight (Plus, Notes on an Expanded Universe) April 5, 2024 The Curse of Monkey Island April 19, 2024 Grim Fandango November 8, 2024 2 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Yes I second this. It's always a pleasure when a new entry goes live, especially when it's a game I remember! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagomorph01 Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 Good reads! I read the Monkey Island one and am now plowing through Fate of Atlantis. Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Udvarnoky Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 The first LucasArts-dedicated article in a few years has turned up, this one about Jedi Knight. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dognut Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 glad this was bumped. stumbled upon his site a year ago and have been consuming it all ever since. great stuff. including the Dark Forces piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niemandswasser Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 And today he covered Curse! I really can't say enough good things about Jimmy Maher. He makes this stuff so compelling, really weaving all these disparate strands into a cohesive narrative about not just how the industry grew and changed in its formative years, but why, and what each development meant. I sometimes disagree with his takes on individual games, but rarely with his reasoning for them. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Udvarnoky Posted April 20 Author Share Posted April 20 Yeah, Jimmy's a good writer and brings the receipts, and he's also capable of a hot take that prevents him from being boring, like his dissenting view of LeChuck's Revenge. He and Frank Cifaldi had a nice conversation about The Dig once, and as I recall Frank slipped in his dislike of Fate of Atlantis. The point being, there's a little bit of this thread inside every human heart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Udvarnoky Posted November 11 Author Share Posted November 11 Oh they're smashing idols today over at The Digital Antiquarian. The latest piece is on Grim Fandango, and it's a spicy one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted November 11 Share Posted November 11 Quote A shocking number of puzzles could have been converted from infuriating to delightful by nothing more than an extra line or two of dialog from Manny or one of the other characters. As it is, too many of the verbal nudges that do exist are too obscure by half and are given only once in passing, as part of conversations that can never be repeated. Hints for Part Four are to be found only in Part One; I defy even an elephant to remember them when the time comes to apply them. I wonder what puzzles he's referring to?! The only puzzles that are really tricky are found in Part Two... (although they're basically impossible in the Remastered thanks to the "golo flakes" stupidity (removing an important clue that the drink contains metal), and the audio bug that stops the race announcer loop when you leave the kitty races). Aside from that, I don't recall there ever being a clue that's only given once in passing (that couldn't be picked up elsewhere at least). Any ideas? Also, there's nothing obscure from Part One that requires an elephantine memory that I can recall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Udvarnoky Posted November 11 Author Share Posted November 11 I guess he's indicting the puzzle in Year Four where you have to set fire to the flammable packing foam to bring it to the intention of the demons as a fuel source. It calls upon information you learned in Year One. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagomorph01 Posted November 12 Share Posted November 12 Oohhh! I'm really excited about this entry. Grim Fandango is my favorite LucasArts game and I love it to death! I'm cautious though, I've read some reviews and comments that are a bit harsh on it's puzzle design and form over matter. He was pretty mild when talking about CMI though, so maybe it'll be allright? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted yesterday at 03:08 AM Share Posted yesterday at 03:08 AM On 11/11/2024 at 11:47 PM, Udvarnoky said: I guess he's indicting the puzzle in Year Four where you have to set fire to the flammable packing foam to bring it to the intention of the demons as a fuel source. It calls upon information you learned in Year One. Yep, but it's no different than the voodoo doll puzzle from MI2, so I don't know why he makes such a fuss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lagomorph01 Posted yesterday at 07:37 AM Share Posted yesterday at 07:37 AM (edited) I think he’s a bit too harsh on the puzzle design. It came out when I was 12, I played it around my thirteenth and finished it in one go, and English isn’t even my first language! (I recall having to resort to a guide once, I think it was for the cat puzzle in Rubacava). Around the same time I couldn’t finish some other point ‘n click games (some of which Jimmy hails in his blog), because I didn’t understand the puzzles. It’s strange, but a lot of his commenters seem to echo his sentiments too. Apparantly some things that seem logical to some people seem illogical to others? Edited yesterday at 07:38 AM by Lagomorph01 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Udvarnoky Posted yesterday at 02:14 PM Author Share Posted yesterday at 02:14 PM I think there's some real sketchy puzzle design in Grim, but the broad assertion that all the good parts of the game are non-interactive is major hyperbole and part of a narrative (one that, as you point out, finds a lot of sympathy in the comments) that makes Jimmy's take more familiar than dissenting. That Grim would have benefited from superior puzzles is a far cry from "Why is it a game at all?" but the former is more the position I take on it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remi Posted yesterday at 03:24 PM Share Posted yesterday at 03:24 PM I'm just gonna keep repeating it... Tim Schafer Should Never Stop Making Video Games. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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