Lucasfan Games

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Lucasfan Games is the name of a developer group founded in 2001 that specializes in free point-and-click adventures . The graphics and content of the computer games developed by her are strongly based on classic adventure titles from the US software company LucasArts ( fangames ).

Publications

The New Adventures of Zak McKracken

The group's first game was an unofficial sequel to the adventure game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders . It was released on March 17, 2002. Most of the graphics used in the game came from a 256-color version by Zak McKracken. This was sold exclusively in Japan and specially commissioned by LucasArts for the FM Towns computer system. At first the game appeared in German only, later versions allowed a choice between eight other languages. Despite its widespread use, opinions on the game were divided. The game's nostalgic factor was praised, but it was criticized that the depth of the game did not come close to the quality of the original. In terms of content, the sequel follows on from the original by LucasArts. The newspaper reporter Zak McKracken, who is again the main character, receives a letter from Bogota at the beginning of the game. It's a ransom note. His friend Annie Larris has been kidnapped and it is up to the player to help the protagonist rescue her.

Maniac Mansion Deluxe

The second release is considered the most famous game by LucasFan Games. It is a 256-color remake of the adventure Maniac Mansion , which also comes from LucasArts, in a resolution of 320 × 200 px . Game development took eight months. The game was created with the Adventure Game Studio program. It is available in 16 languages ​​and was released in May 2004. This remake received a lot of recognition both in the press and from the designers at Maniac Mansion themselves. In terms of content, however, the game has only a few differences to the original from 1987. Here, too, it is a matter of freeing cheerleader Sandy with a freely selectable group of teenagers, who was driven by crazy Dr. Fred Edison has been kidnapped. In addition, however, the controls have been improved and some dead ends that could occur in the original have been removed.

Maniac Mansion Mania

In March 2005, a short adventure game called Maniac Mansion Mania was released. It laid the foundation for a community project of the same name, in which numerous other programmers participate. The English-language fan adventure series Reality on the Norm served as a model . So far, more than 90 other adventure games have emerged from the joint project. They are all based on the events of Maniac Mansion and mostly take place in the fictional city of Ronville.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Towards the end of 2005, the developer group launched a survey. The aim of this survey was to find a topic for a new fan adventure . The choices included a remake of the game Labyrinth and another game in the Zak McKracken universe. The clear winner of the vote was the title Raiders of the Lost Ark . This game was supposed to be a software version of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark and be based on the successful LucasArts titles Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis .

Closure of the website

In October 2005 the developer website was closed and the website was replaced by a farewell text: Recent events have forced us to shut down our web appearance. We would like to thank all our fans and supporters who believed in us and our dreams. Several computer game magazines unanimously reported that further work on the computer game was stopped because the developers were threatened with legal action by means of a warning ( Cease and Desist letter ). However, this has never been confirmed. All titles published by LucasFan Games up to then had always been published without the consent of LucasArts. The developer group has not appeared in public since then. Nevertheless, at the beginning of April 2011, some previously unknown screenshots of the project were published on the Internet. The Internet portal involved in the publication of the pictures stated that work on the computer game was still going on. However, the title has not yet been published.

literature

  • Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Jonas Heide Smith, Susana Pajares Tosca: Understanding video games: the essential introduction , ISBN p. 73 ff. Online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c http://www.reloaded.org/LucasFan-Games/Company7/
  2. ↑ The fan project is finished! Zak McKrakken 2 . In: WCM . April 2002, p. 118 .
  3. ↑ http://www.spieletest.at/computerspiel.php?ID=95
  4. ↑ http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/f2130.html
  5. ↑ http://www.chip.de/downloads/Die-neuen-Ablebnis-des-Zak-McKracken-1.03_13003911.html
  6. ↑ http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=401
  7. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Lucas-Fan-Games-Firma-93880/News/Kultig-Maniac-Mansion-Deluxe-314480/
  8. ↑ a b http://www.pcwelt.de/news/Maniac-Mansion-Deluxe-Abgefahrener-Adventure-Spass-zum-Download-480096.html
  9. ↑ http://www.filmjunk.com/2005/01/03/lucasfan-games-creates-maniac-mansion-deluxe/
  10. ↑ LucasArts - The Early Years - Lecture by LucasArts game designer David Fox, youtube.com, accessed July 11, 2011
  11. ↑ The making of Maniac Mansion: The point-and-click adventure that started it all ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Ron Gilbert at Game Forum Germany 2011, www.nordmedia.de, accessed on July 11, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nordmedia.de
  12. ↑ 80s cult game for free on the Internet . In: 20 minutes . June 2004, p. 15 .
  13. ↑ Maniac Mansion Deluxe (Point & Click Adventure) . In: PC-Pr @ xis . April 2009, ISSN  0933-1476 , p. 176 .
  14. ↑ http://www.chip.de/downloads/Maniac-Mansion-Deluxe_13013383.html
  15. ↑ Maniac Mansion Mania . In: Retro . October 2007, p. 86 .
  16. ↑ http://www.agsarchives.com/gamecard/432/maniac-mansion-mania-episode-1-sibling-love.html
  17. ↑ http://www.gamersglobal.de/news/34759/maniac-mansion-neues-remake-in-arbeit-video
  18. ↑ Zak 6? , zak-site.com, accessed July 11, 2011
  19. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Lucas-Fan-Games-Firma-93880/News/Indy-Jones-Neues-Fan-Adventure-399920/
  20. ↑ lucasfangames.de ( Memento from July 2, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) as of October 2005
  21. ↑ The end for fan games . In: GameStar . December 2005, ISSN  1610-6547 , p. 174 .
  22. ↑ Fan Adventures - Developers are threatening legal action . In: PC PowerPlay . November 2005, p. 15 .
  23. ↑ Lucasfan Games - Lucas Arts stops development of fan adventures . In: PC Games . December 2005, ISSN  0946-6304 , p. 8 .
  24. ↑ http://www.chaoszone.de/blog/index.php?blog=1&s=Adventure&page=1&paged=2
  25. ↑ http://www.mobygames.com/company/lucasfan-games/history
  26. ↑ Like a phoenix from the ashes ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , adventure-treff.de, accessed on July 11, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adventure-treff.de