SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Fans Shot First: Finally, a Star Wars SCUMM Game

Posted: Aug 30 2009 11:53 pm

read this on a 1up blog:

Quote:

I've never quite managed to get into adventure games. Sure, I've enjoyed them from time to time over the years, but nothing's ever quite grabbed me the way Maniac Mansion did. When I stop and think about it, I strongly believe the blame rests with LucasArts. They made lots of great adventures on Maniac Mansion's SCUMM engine, and they made lots of great Star Wars games. Yet somehow, in all that time, never did the twain meet, despite the fact that a Star Wars SCUMM game would have been, well, a perfect match. And I'm not one to use the word "perfect" lightly.

No, instead, we got horrible Star Wars FMV adventures like Rebel Assault, along with perfectly enjoyable SCUMM games that nevertheless weren't Star Wars. Sure, the franchise was a bit forgotten at the peak of the SCUMM era, and gamers had drifted away from graphical adventures by the time Heir to the Empire reminded us how awesome it was to let our imaginations drift to that galaxy far, far away. But there's still no excuse for it!

Clearly I'm on the same page here as indie developer Stacy Davison, who was so motivated by the glaring lack of Star Wars adventures on SCUMM that he's rolling his own. Entitled Han Solo Adventures, Davison's project is slated to be a series of episodic adventures. Kind of like the new Sam & Max and Monkey Island games. There's something appealing symmetrical about that fact!

Han Solo Adventures will be set before the original film trilogy, although I'm hoping they won't be based on the old Brian Daley Han Solo novels. (I thought those things were lousy even as a kid, so I can't imagine how poorly they'd hold up now.) Really, I only see two drawbacks to Davison's plan. One, it's clearly an indie effort, so the backgrounds are digitized movie stills and, outside of Solo himself, lack the hand-drawn charm of a true LucasArts SCUMM game. And two, there's no way in hell LucasArts legal is gonna let this go uncontested. Like most fan projects based on high-profile properties, I fully expect this to vanish into limbo shortly before the first episode arrives. It's a damn shame.... but even so, you have to admire Davison's pluck. He is One Of Us, and he is doing something wonderful and noble.

My heart is doubly warmed by the fact that the initial shots he's released are set in Mos Eisley spaceport, because now I can make stupid jokes about "a wretched hive of SCUMM and villainy."

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9002635&publicUserId=5379721

here's the page where its at: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/08/scumm_fan_fiction_han_solo_adv.php

Posted: Aug 31 2009 01:11 am

The writer obviously has never heard of Tex Murphy. If he had, he wouldn't be wasting his time on lesser adventure games.

Anyway, what the makers should do is finish it, and release it anonymously to the P2P networks. Say they were hacked or something. You can't stop the signal.