LucasArts on Steam

[Henry Buck 48]

http://twitter.com/lucasartsgames

http://www.lucasarts.com/company/vip/catal...atalog_2009.pdf

On July 8th, some classic LucasArts games and Star Wars Starfighter (huh?) are going on sale on Steam, an online game downloading service. These ten titles are "just the beginning." They've been updated for compatibility with Windows XP/Vista, and Battlefront 2 is working great on the PC! Except Battlefront 2 was already released on the PC! But hey, this is good news for the older games. I think I'll pick up Fate of Atlantis. Will X-Wing and TIE Fighter follow? Oh, please, God, yes!

[Romão 907]

How much will each game cost?

[woj 2201]

This is good news. I hope the list is just a sampler, because they certainly have many more games to release. The Fate of Atlantis would be very tempting, to get a version with audio dialogue.

Star Wars Starfighter (huh?)

I can't say I ever played this one, though I heard of it. It's not in the same category as Lawrence Holland's awesome X-Wing franchise, but it's similar. It cashed in on the Episode I craze of Star Wars games by letting you fly three classes of Naboo starfighters during that film's conflict. I think the Episode I movie was a two hour trailer for the Episode I Racer videogame, but that was really a fun game anyways.

[Charlie Brigden 4]

Come on X-Wing vs TIE Fighter!

[Henry Buck 48]

Come on X-Wing vs TIE Fighter!

Meh, where's the story?

[woj 2201]

The Balance of Power add-on added some semblance of a story. It also added the Super Star Destroyer.

[Henry Buck 48]

I'm not a big fan of semblances.

[woj 2201]

I picked up the 2-disc XvT for $10 about 7 years ago but have yet to really play it much.

Here's what they say about the Balance of Power expansion:

An expansion was released in order to fix what much of the fanbase considered missing: apart from new battles and missions, Balance of Power features a Rebel and an Imperial campaign of 15 missions each, along with cutscenes that advance the story. Both campaigns revolve around the same series of events, but with alternate endings.

* "Spreading the Rebellion" — Features the evacuation of a base, an attack against the Empire, and the capture of an Imperial Interdictor Cruiser. The campaign ends with an assault on the Super Star Destroyer Vengeance.

* "Imperial Task Force Vengeance" — The player flies as a member of the elite Avenger squadron under the leadership of Admiral Senn. The missions are similar to those from the Rebel's campaign. The campaign ends with the destruction of a Rebel factory.

The pack also adds B-wings as a pilotable craft, along with other vessels that are lacking from the original game.

[Quintus 4255]

Come on X-Wing vs TIE Fighter!

Meh, where's the story?

Story Schmory. No need to turn this into a prequel trilogy hate fest

[paleo 13]

I picked up the 2-disc XvT for $10 about 7 years ago but have yet to really play it much.

Here's what they say about the Balance of Power expansion:

An expansion was released in order to fix what much of the fanbase considered missing: apart from new battles and missions, Balance of Power features a Rebel and an Imperial campaign of 15 missions each, along with cutscenes that advance the story. Both campaigns revolve around the same series of events, but with alternate endings.

* "Spreading the Rebellion" — Features the evacuation of a base, an attack against the Empire, and the capture of an Imperial Interdictor Cruiser. The campaign ends with an assault on the Super Star Destroyer Vengeance.

* "Imperial Task Force Vengeance" — The player flies as a member of the elite Avenger squadron under the leadership of Admiral Senn. The missions are similar to those from the Rebel's campaign. The campaign ends with the destruction of a Rebel factory.

The pack also adds B-wings as a pilotable craft, along with other vessels that are lacking from the original game.

Star Wars: Starfighter is a nice little action game with better than average graphics at its time, but it's clearly not in the category of any of the X-Wing games. I prefer to have some control over my spacecraft, and all the games engage you much longer than Starfighter. However, XvsT is really the weakest entry (not even considered part of the series proper), and can only be recommended if you are interested in multiplayer (and X-Wing Alliance should be much more satisfying for that matter). The expansion for XvsT was badly needed and provided much nicer graphics and some of the best cutscenes of the series, but ultimately doesn't save it, either... the campaigns are ridiculously difficult if you are on your own, and also rather short. I recommend to track down a copy of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter collector's edition that features the two original games with the graphics of XvsT (as well as some new cutscenes for X-Wing). I may play it tonight...

As for the release of the old games... interesting, always wanted to play Fate of Atlantis with its proper voice acting (the German version never featured audio dialog to my knowledge), and I'm also interested in Loom, the Dig, and the new special edition of Secrets of Monkey Island... Does anyone know how much it costs?

[Marian Schedenig 1977]

They should update those updated X-Wing games (XW & TIE) with the original scores instead of the tracked Williams stuff.

[paleo 13]

They should update those updated X-Wing games (XW & TIE) with the original scores instead of the tracked Williams stuff.

Well, though I miss the imuse system in the updates, I really prefer to "fly" accompanied by an orchestral score... particularly X-Wing's music does sound dated. Too bad that you never know whether the music in the collector's edition matches the action. But what about using an orchestra to record the original scores and apply them using the imuse system ? Das waer's, right?

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 4846]

How about they get back to making good games.

[paleo 13]

How about they get back to making good games.

LucasArts? Hahaha, good joke! Especially not without the help of "experienced" other companies...

[King Mark 1983]

Steam...I'll never install that on my PC again

[Richard Penna 947]

Nor me. All it ever did was try to update every time I started it, which made it generally unresponsive for about 5 minutes.

I can boot my computer faster than it took to load Half-Life on that shitty thing.

[Marian Schedenig 1977]

Well, though I miss the imuse system in the updates, I really prefer to "fly" accompanied by an orchestral score... particularly X-Wing's music does sound dated.

Don't recall XW (never played that in full in its original version), but the TIE score is awesome.

Too bad that you never know whether the music in the collector's edition matches the action. But what about using an orchestra to record the original scores and apply them using the imuse system ? Das waer's, right?

That would be something. Although really, iMuse itself was pretty much the same in the original scores and the Williams edits, it just blended between entire cues. It's just that the Williams edits were much inferior to the original scores (and I didn't approve of simply throwing out those); XWA made *much* better use of the Williams scores.

iMuse's best showcase has to be Monkey Island 2, where it actually blends parts of the music between rooms while leaving other parts the same.

[John Crichton 4]

Great news! I'll happily pay for legal versions of the handful of classic LA adventures I don't have legal copies of (most I do).

The PC version of Secret of Monkey Island SE will be distributed through Steam too, starting July 15th.

[woj 2201]

A Star Wars videogame musical score could be a lot worse. Who here remembers Force Commander?

[Henry Buck 48]

Force Commander had some fun remixes.

[woj 2201]

I'd like to hear the music of Solar Winds get proper orchestral performances.

[Marian Schedenig 1977]

Force Commander had some fun remixes.

True. I liked the music, but I gave up on the game after a few attempts.

[woj 2201]

The version I had stopped working after the first few missions. I preferred Battlegrounds, but mostly because I was still in Age of Empires 2 mode. I have not played Empire at War. I'd actually like to play Rebellion (Supremacy) again.

[paleo 13]

Wow, they charge steep prices for their games at steam, given that you won't have a hard copy. I will carefully ponder the decision... Even though I'm really interested in these classic games.

Btw, playing X-Wing and Tie-Fighter again, so nice and nostalgic...

[woj 2201]

A hard copy trumps a Steam copy any day, unless that Steam copy is somehow enhanced with respect to the old one. Like if they remastered Outlaws to have it work natively in Windows XP, complete with working cutscenes, music, and smooth playability, I'll buy it in a heartbeat. Not concerned about graphics or physics, just playability.

[paleo 13]

The classic Lucas Arts games are now ready for download, and I am so tempted... $4.99 for most, and considering that my PC wouldn't be able to properly play Loom and the Dig (both of which I have never played) even if I managed to find a copy.... Hmmm, and Indy: Fate of Atlantis with spoken dialog... difficult...

[woj 2201]

The prices for these LA games are reasonable. You can't find a game for much less than $4.99 legally in the first place. You'll spend more than $4.99 for the older games to buy a pressed disc from eBay, and if you have to dig an old PC out of the closet, build a legacy box, or run an emulator/virtual machine to play the old pressing, it's more hassle than $4.99 to play a version that's been streamlined for newer machines. And the prices for the newer games are pretty much line with what you'd find them for in a store that still carries them. Though I did find BF II in Wal-Mart last year for $10, half of what Steam wants. No biggie, it wasn't much fun anyways.

[John Crichton 4]

Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis, and Loom are the ones I'm going to pick up from this batch. Maybe Friday.

[paleo 13]

Though I did find BF II in Wal-Mart last year for $10, half of what Steam wants. No biggie, it wasn't much fun anyways.

Yeah, I found Battlefront for 10 buck somewhere, too, and got Starfighter from Amazon Marketplace for 2 or 3 if I recall correctly. But the older ones... yay, nostalgia (it's getting worse and worse the closer I get to turning 30 next month )

[woj 2201]

There was a time when Walmart had a lot of classic LucasArts games. I was able to pick up X-Wing Collector's, TIE Fighter Collector's, XvT 2-disc, and even Jedi Academy, Battlefront II, and Republic Commando, all for $10 each. I could've also gotten Jedi Knight and Alliance for the same price, if I didn't already have them.

[paleo 13]

There was a time when Walmart had a lot of classic LucasArts games. I was able to pick up X-Wing Collector's, TIE Fighter Collector's, XvT 2-disc, and even Jedi Academy, Battlefront II, and Republic Commando, all for $10 each. I could've also gotten Jedi Knight and Alliance for the same price, if I didn't already have them.

Seems we have a similar taste concerning games; I own all of these and enjoyed them all...

[woj 2201]

At one point, I owned just about every Star Wars game for the PC. Even the Rebel Assaults, thanks to a LA bundle set. But since the explosion of Episode I tie-in games, that's not true. Last one I bought was Kotor2. Speaking of which...

<checking>

Nope. Team Gizka's update to that one isn't done yet.

[John Crichton 4]

Last one I bought was Kotor2. Speaking of which...

<checking>

Nope. Team Gizka's update to that one isn't done yet.

Well they put up the video that literally said "It is done" in April, so I figure it should only be about another 6 years.

[Marian Schedenig 1977]

So will the SCUMM games still work on SCUMMVM?

[John Crichton 4]

Good question. They've been configured to work properly on modern Windows platforms, I don't know if that would cause a problem in SCUMMVM or not.

[Nick Parker 2341]

I don't know if that would cause a problem in SCUMMVM or not.

I doubt it would. I have tested a lot of SCUMM-based games on my mother's Windows Vista, and they work just fine. However, I have to be honest and say that I am not entirely sure what you are asking, Marian....

[paleo 13]

So, bought Fate of Atlantis and the Dig. It works great, better than in the old days when I played the Indy game with an old 386 pc. I don't really like to be dependent on the website (what if they quit?), but for now I can enjoy these games either better than ever or finally for the first time

[Marian Schedenig 1977]

I don't know if that would cause a problem in SCUMMVM or not.

I doubt it would. I have tested a lot of SCUMM-based games on my mother's Windows Vista, and they work just fine. However, I have to be honest and say that I am not entirely sure what you are asking, Marian....

SCUMMVM is a virtual machine that allows you to play SCUMM games on a variety of systems - various versions of Windows, but also Macs, Linux systems, gaming consoles, legacy systems like the Amiga and so on. It plays all the SCUMM classics fine, what I wonder is if the Steam releases were modified in a way that makes them incompatible with the original SCUMM machine. Which would mean they're worthless to me.

[Luke Skywalker 602]

At one point, I owned just about every Star Wars game for the PC. Even the Rebel Assaults, thanks to a LA bundle set. But since the explosion of Episode I tie-in games, that's not true. Last one I bought was Kotor2. Speaking of which...

<checking>

Nope. Team Gizka's update to that one isn't done yet.

i got all SW PC games

[Nick Parker 2341]

I don't know if that would cause a problem in SCUMMVM or not.

I doubt it would. I have tested a lot of SCUMM-based games on my mother's Windows Vista, and they work just fine. However, I have to be honest and say that I am not entirely sure what you are asking, Marian....

SCUMMVM is a virtual machine that allows you to play SCUMM games on a variety of systems - various versions of Windows, but also Macs, Linux systems, gaming consoles, legacy systems like the Amiga and so on. It plays all the SCUMM classics fine, what I wonder is if the Steam releases were modified in a way that makes them incompatible with the original SCUMM machine. Which would mean they're worthless to me.

Oh, now I see. I do not think that I can answer that until I buy one (I have always wanted to play The Dig), but when I do, I will be sure to let you know.

[Trent B 276]

I wish they would do an update for Full Throttle that could run off Windows XP and Vista, I loved that game.

I am still mad too that they canned Full Throttle 2, I would have liked to have played that one.

[John Crichton 4]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Full Throttle in the next batch.

[Romão 907]

I wish they would do an update for Full Throttle that could run off Windows XP and Vista, I loved that game.

I am still mad too that they canned Full Throttle 2, I would have liked to have played that one.

Doesn't it work well with ScummVM?

[Charlie Brigden 4]

Reports are stating that Lucasarts will be making an announcement related to the X-Wing/TIE Fighter games soon...

[Nick Parker 2341]

Lovely.

[Luke Skywalker 602]

if they have x-wingallianceupdated them it will be great.

unlikely...

[Henry Buck 48]

Zomg!

[John Crichton 4]

Zoiks!

[Henry Buck 48]

I'll have to buy a joystick though. Gosh. Haven't owned one of those in years.

[Trent B 276]

I'll have to buy a joystick though. Gosh. Haven't owned one of those in years.

Neither have I, as far as owning one I mean.