Gizmodo Australia » lucasarts

Lucasarts Brings Monkey Island To iPhone

Nick Broughall — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:30:30 +0000

Finally! It’s been a long time coming, but Lucasarts has released a version of its all-time classic adventure The Secret Of Monkey Island for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You fight like a dairy farmer!

The app is actually a scaled down version of the new Special Edition version that was released for PC and Xbox Live recently, so it looks fantastic. Early reviews on the app store say that the pointing controls need a bit of work, but who cares! It’s Monkey Island on the iPhone!

My only concern is that it costs $10. Which wouldn’t necessarily be too much to pay, except for the fact that I just forked out for the game on Xbox Live last week. As much as I love Monkey Island, I don’t think I love it enough to buy it twice over the course of a fortnight.

But still – here’s hoping that LucasArts jumps on this big time and starts releasing all the old SCUMM games officially. I’ve got a hankerin’ for some Day of the Tentacle!

[iTunes via Kotaku]

LucasArts Bringing Old School Adventure Games To iPhone?

Nick Broughall — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:42:07 +0000

This is a dream come true. During an interview with Joystiq, LucasArts CEO Darrell Rodriguez “hinted” that they’re looking at bringing their old point and click adventure games to the iPhone. That is, if you classify saying, “wink wink, nod nod” about such a scenario as hinting.

This comes off the back of Lucasarts announcing that some of their classic adventure games, like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and Loom. will be available on Steam. But all that fails to compare with the potential for point and click retro gaming on the iPhone.

His actual quote is laced with goodness:

“On iPhone, you know Apple’s policy that we can’t talk about a release until it’s ready to release. But it would make sense that we would do something like that if we were to go in that direction … wink wink, nod nod.”

I’ve been raving since I first got my iPhone that the old SCUMM games are perfectly suited to the iPhone, so this has seriously made my day. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to play some Zac McCraken and the Alien Mindbenders on their iPhone? Hopefully we’ll see these games land in the iTunes store sooner rather than later.

[Joystiq]

LucasFilm Christmas Cards Are a Gift in Themselves

Mark Wilson — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:44:08 +0000

If you are lucky enough to be on the LucasFilm Christmas card list, you get a lot more then updates on how little Anakin Skywalker is progressing with his potty training. You get a card that is absurdly cool collector’s memorabilia…perfect for framing, eBaying or taping to the skin over your heart. This Stormtrooper pop-up card by Lorraine LeBer was the 2007 greeting of choice. And we’re waiting for them to start kicking, Rockettes style. Hit the jump for a few more of our favourites from the past 30 years. 1982 “Yoda Vanity Plate Edition”

1982 “Frisky Ewok Edition”

1995 “Fruitcake/Coal Edition”

Hit the link for more LucasFilm cards. [/film via neatorama]

Native LucasArts Games Emulation Makes iPhone Absolutely Perfect

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:25:37 +0000

After a long wait, here is the application that makes the iPhone absolutely perfect: ScummVM, the emulation engine that allows you to play LucasArts and Sierra graphic adventures, is now fully working on the iPhone. After trying it I can tell you that if there’s a platform designed to play these kind of games,it’s the iPhone. In fact, these are the only games that truly feel at home on the iPhone, thanks to its great touchscreen support, even better than Apple’s native software:
ScummVM fully supports multi-touch to simulate the behaviour of the mouse using gestures. With a single tap you left click, but for a right click you hold one finger and tap with another. To toggle click and drag, which is necessary in some games like Monkey Island 3, you “hold one finger on screen, swipe another up from bottom to top”. Then you can drag something, lift your finger to drop it and it will automatically switch back to normal. Quite ingenious and easy.

Fully supported games

Day of the Tentacle (a must)

The Dig

Flight of the Amazon Queen

Full Throttle

Gobliiins

Gobliins 2

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (a must too)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (this one too)

King’s Quest 3

Loom

Maniac Mansion

Monkey Island 1: The Secret of Monkey Island (best game ever)

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (ok, maybe this is the best game ever)

Sam & Max Hit the Road (another must-have)

Simon the Sorcerer 1

Simon the Sorcerer 2

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

While the games play great, there are a couple of minor issues. Since the resolution of the iPhone is higher than the native resolution of these games, the graphics don’t use the full screen, keeping its original pixel size. Some of the more modern games, like Monkey Island 3, still have some performance problems. Other than that this is an almost-perfect port.

I wonder if the LucasArts people will see this and decide to partner with Apple to release updated and higher resolution versions of—at least—the Monkey Island, Indy and Sam&Max series. Or maybe Blizzard can release the good old Starcraft or Warcraft, two games that will play perfectly in this platform. Call me a nostalgic, but I would get them all. [ScummVM Wiki]