Amazon.com ReviewThe LucasArts Archives Volume 1 proves that a game doesn't have to be new to be great. In one box you get three of the most creative adventure games ever produced, as well as a so-so Star Wars screen saver and a stingy three-level demo of Rebel Assault.
The adventure games at the core of this collection are well worth the price of admission. First, there's Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, a classic with good voice acting, terrific style, and a compelling story line that can play out in several ways. This was one of the first games to give players the choice of either fighting or thinking their way through puzzles, and we played it through three times before moving on to the other CD-ROMs in this collection.
The other titles certainly didn't disappoint. Sam and Max Hit the Road lets players guide Sam (a detective dog) and Max (his rabbit sidekick) through a series of twisted adventures. Don't let the talking-animal theme fool you--this is a cartoon for adults with plenty of over-the-top humor and some tricky puzzles.
Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle is another hilarious game, pitting three goofball characters against a mad purple tentacle bent on world domination. A time machine mishap leaves one character in the present, while one is whisked back to the past and the other is sent into the future. All three must work together, solving puzzles that will affect the characters in other time periods and let them progress. You can even access the original version of Maniac Mansion, an entertaining adventure in its own right, by using a computer terminal in this game.
Don't miss out on this incredible gaming bargain. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
Classic adventures all hold up well despite their age
All three games use superb voice acting instead of text messages
Cons:
Extras, like the screen saver and demo CD-ROM, are pure fluff
These older DOS-based games can be tough to configure
REVIEW
Do these old games work on today's PCs ? For fans of LucasArts' classic DOS adventure games, LUCASARTS ARCHIVES VOL. 1 is a must-buy. This six-CD set contains full versions of the 1992 game INDIANA JONES AND THE FATE OF ATLANTIS, and the two 1993 masterpieces DAY OF THE TENTACLE and SAM AND MAX HIT THE ROAD (the latter will have a sequel coming in 2004). If you are unable to buy this set here, you can still order the three games directly from LucasArts as of today -- go to www.lucasarts.com/companystore and order "The LucasArts Archives: Adventure Collection."
Since these games were made for the DOS environment, they run best on a DOS PC with legacy Sound Blaster support. On a Windows XP machine, where DOS mode is nonexistent, one needs a third-party DOS emulators such as the free and open-source DOSBox, VDMSound, and SCUMMVM (which was made specially for many LucasArts games). I managedto run the three games in this set (and also other DOS games) on an XP Home PC with Audigy sound card using these DOS emulators, with SCUMMVM giving me the greatest success. So, in short, these old games CAN be run on your new PC. LucasArts provides no support for its DOS titles, but one can get help from user-support forums such as vogons.zetafleet.com .
Also included in this set is a CD containing Star Wars-themed screen-savers, a CD containing a three-level demo of REBEL ASSAULT, and a CD with playable demos of other LucasArts games -- FULL THROTTLE, DARK FORCES, TIE FIGHTER, REBEL ASSAULT II, and THE DIG. None of these three discs is really essential. The only reason to get this set is to have the three classic adventure games.
All three adventure games run in 320x240 resolution and 8-bit color, with speech, sound effects, and MIDI music. They all use the so-called SCUMM interface that enables point-and-click actions with the mouse. The two older games, INDIANA JONES and DAY OF THE TENTACLE, still rely heavily on text during gameplay -- you see a text description when you point at an object, and you click on large text buttons to perform actions such as"Look", "Give", "Pick up", etc. SAM AND MAX, however, is fully graphical -- all the actions, including conversations, are icon-based.
All three games are memorable because of their humorous stories, nice drawings, and puzzles that are enjoyable but not ridiculously difficult. THE FATE OF AN ATLANTIS is the first game to feature the Indiana Jones character, and it is a fun adventure about treasure hunting. DAY OF THE TENTACLE features a wacky and outrageous story about a mad scientist and his evil creations, the living tentacles, which try to use time travel to conquer the world. SAM AND MAX HIT THE ROAD is about a free-lance police team, a dog and his rabbit sidekick, trying to find a missing pair of circus freaks, a big-foot and a giraffe-necked human.
More Info Lucas Arts Archives # 2 (Lucasarts Archives #2), the LucasArts Star Wars Collection contains: Tie Fighter Collector's CD-ROM, Rebel Assault and Rebel Assault 2. Also includes LucasArts Super Sampler #1 with a playable demo of Dark Forces with 3 levels of play and Making Magic, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition with George Lucas.
Amazon.com Three astronauts are mysteriously transported to an alien world where they uncover artifacts of an ancient, yet advanced, civilization. They must sift through the ruins to assemble the technology to take them home.
REVIEW
excellent adventure game This is an excellent adventure game. The story for the game is awesome, the game boasts of writing credits from Steven Spielberg. You play the commander of space shuttle send on a mission to divert an asteroid on a collision course with the earth. But this is no regular asteroid, play the game to figure out what it really is.
Even though the game is old and the graphics are outdated, the suspension of disbelief in the story more than make up for the graphics. Even though, the animation is great for the games of that era. The puzzles are considerable harder than most other adventure games I have played. If you can go through all the puzzles without even getting a hint once then either you are a genius or have become so frustrated that you have actually tried every possible option.
Overall it is a great game, even in this age! And it does work on XP.
Amazon.com In Outlaws, you are the embodiment of the loner who rides into town seeking vengeance and uncovers the twisted plot of a powerful railroad baron and his outlaw thugs. Outlaws is a hybrid of strategic action-adventure and network play in an intense and graphically rich environment.
REVIEW
WORST GAME EVER!!! This game was so amazingly bad that i almost threw my computer out the window. Horrible graphics and bad multiplayer action if there was any. After about three levels you get stuck and can't go anywhere. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME you will be seriously dispointed in you're self and wish you hadn't wasted 15 bucks on it
Expensive These Days, But Worth It Many, many years ago I bought this collection of games. It contains five of LucasArts best adventure games: Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, and The Secret of Monkey Island. The games come on five 3.5" floppies and a manual that combines the manuals, along with walkthroughs, for all games. This is important for Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken as this version left the copy protection schemes in the games intact (though it was removed for Indiana Jones.)
These are indeed five classic LucasArts adventure games. Anyone who played some of their later games (the later Monkey Islands, Grim Fandango, and Sam and Max, for example) owes it to themselves to find a way to play these games. The games themselves play quite nicely in the latest versions of DOSBOx.
Amazon.com A trip into Mexico's Day of the Dead, where you experience a film noir epic adventure.
REVIEW
VIVA LA REVOLUTION! This is the EPITOME of graphic adventures. No other game has even come close to GRIM FANTANGO when it comes to humor (of all shades and shapes), inventiveness, delicious irony, creative graphics and plain good-ol' FUN!!
This is a 10-year old game mind you - yet, it retains its freshness as any true work of art. THIS IS HOW COMPUTER GAMES SHOULD HAVE BEEN - and not the pathetic cookie-cutter products of mega-corporations working in-tandem with GX-card companies...
Your character (hilarious and lovable Manny Calavera) is already...dead when you start. In fact he has been dead for some time, stuck in limbo, trying topay his way to a better afterlife by selling tickets to other souls on their way to paradise. Guess what: corruption is not limited just to this world. And where there is corruption, there is oppression; and where there is oppression, there is always a revolution brewing...
Realizing he is being duped, Manny reluctantly joins the afterlife underground and takes us in a tour de force of one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL GAME EVER PRODUCED. Immersing noirish atmosphere, detailed art-deco settings, fast Bogartian dialogs - with a subtle ironic frosting.
WARNING: There are known problems with today's faster processors. So, unless you have a really old system running Win98 you will need the WinXP PATCH (otherwise you will not get past the crane scene).
A Classic...With a Few Wrinkles! I remember playing this game so long ago when it first came out 10 years ago. I loved the story, the hard-rock music, the sarcastic LucasArts humor, and the interactivity of the puzzles. Yes, this is a simple point-and-click adventure, but while the process is simple...the way the game unfolds and presents the resulting cutscenes is very impressive. "Full Throttle" is more of an interactive movie than an actual game, but that's actually a compliment, because "interactive movies" don't get much better.
So why not a 5-Star rating? Well, this game is simply too short, and over before WAY before you might want. Games didn't have the 10-hour length of today's titles back then, but there were ones longer than this 5-hour adventure back in the day, too...including LucasArts' own "Star Wars" games! If you don't use a guide, the puzzles can be pretty head-scratching. But like all puzzle games, the second time around just isn't the same, because the solutions don't change. For a low price of 10 bucks or lower, you will have a blast the first time through. The second time around, you'll enjoy the story...but when you can finish it in 3 hours instead of 5, the suspense feels rushed...all because you've passed the test once.
My love for "Full Throttle" isn't only nostalgic --- I had the same criticisms 10 years ago. However, I still have the same praise I had in 1995, too. I highly recommend "Full Throttle" to any gamer, but just be aware of its short length before you buy it.
Amazon.com The LucasArts Archive Series lets you follow hero Guybrush Threepwood through his first three adventures on Monkey Island: The Secret of Monkey Island, LeChuck's Revenge: Monkey Island 2, and Curse of Monkey Island.
In this highly anticipated third installment to LucasArts's popular Monkey Island series of graphic adventures, Guybrush Threepwood once again takes up dull blade and rapier wit against the nefarious demon pirate LeChuck. In Curse, Guybrush must save his one true love, Elaine Marley, from turning into the evil pirate's zombie bride. However, hoping to marry Elaine himself, Guybrush unknowingly slips a cursed ring onto her finger, transforming her into a gold statue. He must then find a way to change Elaine back to her beautiful self and stop LeChuck from carrying out his sinister plans. Aye, 'tis a rollicking adventure that is sure to challenge the mind and shiver a few timbers.
REVIEW
Monkey 4Ever !!! I was just a kid when I played my first adventure game, that game was The Secret of Monkey Island or just Monkey 1. As far as I remember, no other game makes me feel so glad to have a computer ! Since then, I just could not stop to play Monkey Island, so I bought the Monkey 3 and Monkey 4, and finally, after many years, I bought this pearl, the Monkey Island Archives. Monkey is a mix of fun and jokes, and is the only one wich can bring to you the mistery of the Disc 28 and many others ! If you know what I mean, luck you, you are part of the great world of Monkey Island, if you don't, buy it now !
