Topic: Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle remastered versions ing cheap on PS4 store

[Mister Six]

Meant to mention this a couple of days ago, but here we are anyway. About four quid for GF, five for DOTT, if I recall correctly.

Full Throttle still going for full whack though.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Got Grim Fandango for about £1.70 on ps store a couple of years ago. Think it was part of a Halloween sale.

[St_Eddie]

Two of the greatest games ever made.  Buy them if you don't already own them!

Full Throttle still going for full whack though.

The remaster of Full Throttle was kinda half-arsed.  The re-painted backgrounds are only half done at points, with sections of them simply having an anti-aliasing filter applied.  I suspect that sales for the lovingly touched up Day of the Tentacle: Remastered fell below projections, resulting in Double Fine cutting corners on the already in production Full Throttle remaster.  Having said that, it's still the definitive edition of the game, especially considering that the player can switch between the original and remastered versions on the fly.

[bgmnts]

Yeah they are on Games Pass for you Xbox needs. They're point and click adventures so a bit crap and dated but Grim Fandango has a bit of charm about it.

[St_Eddie]

They're point and click adventures so a bit crap and dated...

Fuck off.

[madhair60]

I fucking love Full Throttle. Can't get into any of the others. Prefer the Sierra ones, warts and all. Tons of personality. Lucasarts, mmmmeh. Think they're funny. Aren't. I'd like to try that Indy game though, Fate of Atlantis. I bet it's good. I prefer the more serious point and clicks. Broken Sword etc.

[madhair60]

Should add that I do respect them though. Just don't appeal to me. I can see why people like them so much.

[Consignia]

I love Fate of Atlantis[1]. As kid, it probably was my favourite game for years. Absolutely captures the Indy feel without adapting a pre-existing film. The replayability of it is amazing, because of the three different styles, and each time the puzzles are randomised to be slightly different so you can't just use a walkthrough. You can die, which is unusual for Lucasarts, but they never are stupidly unfair like you'd see in the Sierra equivalents as funny as they could be.

1.	Even wrote the entry for it in the Verbwhore 1000

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I bought Grim Fandango in a sale last year. I liked the story and aesthetics (and it was heartening to see some positive representation of my people, for once) but I found a lot of the puzzles confusing. I'll freely accept that could be more to do with me being a fuckwit than the game being illogical though.

With this in mind, would it be worth me checking out Day of the Tentacle?

[Bazooka]

I bought and played both last year on Ps4, I did have to cheat because I wanted the platinums. I think Grim Fandango is the better of the two, but DoTT has some good humour.  GF suffers from not being able to see shit all in some sections(underground area especially)or you have to be standing on one insufferable pixel for interaction to work.  But considering their age and I played with a controller I enjoyed the experience.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

I bought Grim Fandango in a sale last year. I liked the story and aesthetics (and it was heartening to see some positive representation of my people, for once) but I found a lot of the puzzles confusing. I'll freely accept that could be more to do with me being a fuckwit than the game being illogical though.

With this in mind, would it be worth me checking out Day of the Tentacle?

Day of the Tentacle leans into the cartoon logic that the art style suggests. It’s an amazing game if you can get into the right headspace, but if Grim’s puzzles confused you, DotT are probably even more exaggerated.

[St_Eddie]

I bought Grim Fandango in a sale last year. I liked the story and aesthetics (and it was heartening to see some positive representation of my people, for once) but I found a lot of the puzzles confusing. I'll freely accept that could be more to do with me being a fuckwit than the game being illogical though.

It's not you being a fuckwit.  I'm a massive fan of the genre and can confirm that the puzzles in Grim Fandango are frustratingly obtuse at times.  It's still a classic though, simply because the world, characters and story are just that fucking great.

With this in mind, would it be worth me checking out Day of the Tentacle?

Considering that it's the greatest game ever made, I'm gonna have to with.... yes.  The puzzles are all relatively logical compared to Grim Fandango, even though the things you're doing are insane; the game design and cartoon logic of the world doesn't make them feel obtuse.  A basic understanding of American history is recommended though.  Having said that, I was able to complete the game as a kid with no outside help and the game actually ended up teaching me about American history (or at least a warped version of it).

[The Culture Bunker]

Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle have both been on PS+ at some point over the last four or five years, as that's how I got hold of them. I replayed both not long ago to get the Platinum trophies and enjoyed again. Shame they haven't given away Full Throttle yet, but here's hoping.

Indy and the Fate of Atlantis was ace too - replayed that via gog.com a while back and was amazed how much I remembered it from 20-odd years prior. Should go back and get the Last Crusade too, now I think on, as I never got round to finishing that one.

[St_Eddie]

Should go back and get the Last Crusade too, now I think on, as I never got round to finishing that one.

My advice; keep a walkthrough handy and save early, save often, across multiple saves.  It's a fun little game, but it will gladly fuck over the player without a second moment's thought.

[Consignia]

It's not a lot like latter day Lucasart adventures; it's very unforgiving, you can die quite easily even in puzzles, and there'd quite a bit of fighting. Did they ever put a more contempory UI on it? In like a VGA re-release or something? The orginal has tons of pixel hunting in it, and over complicated set of verbs.

[St_Eddie]

It's not a lot like latter day Lucasart adventures; it's very unforgiving, you can die quite easily even in puzzles, and there'd quite a bit of fighting. Did they ever put a more contempory UI on it? In like a VGA re-release or something? The orginal has tons of pixel hunting in it, and over complicated set of verbs.

No, The Secret of Monkey Island was the first game to get the simplified verb interface (as well as introduce the whole no deaths/no dead ends rule of game design).  Having said that, I recommend people play the FM Towns version of Last Crusade, preferably with the MT-32 soundtrack for the best possible experience (both of which can be achieved through the ScummVM emulator).

[bgmnts]

As an aside, if anyone is interested in checking out Double Fine's work, Costume Quest 1 and 2 are fucking great.

[Bazooka]

As an aside, if anyone is interested in checking out Double Fine's work, Costume Quest 1 and 2 are fucking great.

If you want brain rot going through the abysmal turn based fights, and I don't mind turn based combat.

[bgmnts]

The combat is not the best, no.

[Hand Solo]

I was a massive Lucasfilm/arts adventure fan, and played all their stuff to death, but I never played Grim Fandango, why? Because when the demo came out I hated they had scrapped all the beautiful detailed art styles for shitty drab 3d like all the other games were doing at the time, and more importantly because of the turd-tastic tank-like controls which was like a massive step backwards.. weren't the really early Sierra adventure games like that before point-and-click became the much superior standard?

Anyway, did they ever put out a point-and-click version of Grim?

Incidentally the remastered DOTT doesn't look too bad since they've basically just made it hi-res. The earlier Monkey Island 1 & 2 ones looked fuck ugly because they got in much less talented artists than Steve Purcell and the original team to re-do everything and it showed.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Anyway, did they ever put out a point-and-click version of Grim?

Yes, the remaster has point and click controls. There was a fan mod for the original as well and I think they consulted the guy who did it on the remaster. It's fucking excellent.

My favourite LucasArts adventure is Sam & Max. It's probably not the best but it's Sam & Max and it's great. It's weird and messy but it works. Would love to see that get the remaster treatment but as it's not a Tim Schafer game I suppose Double Fine wouldn't do it. The Double Fine remasters shit all over the Monkey Island ones done by LucasArts because they kept the original art styles.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I should add that the work the ScummVM people have put into making so many classic games playable (it goes way beyond just the SCUMM games at this point) is a beautiful public service. I know this thread is about remasters but we're very lucky we don't have to wait for remasters of all sorts of old adventure games because of ScummVM's commitment to getting them running on every device you can name.

[The Culture Bunker]

My favourite LucasArts adventure is Sam & Max. It's probably not the best but it's Sam & Max and it's great. It's weird and messy but it works. Would love to see that get the remaster treatment but as it's not a Tim Schafer game I suppose Double Fine wouldn't do it. The Double Fine remasters shit all over the Monkey Island ones done by LucasArts because they kept the original art styles.

Oh, yeah, that was great too - the sense of humour was right up my street, though I've never played any of the subsequent Sam and Max games. I did buy it again maybe 10 years ago when I saw it for a fiver in Game. Not sure if it was the same version of some kind of remaster.

[Hand Solo]

Yes, the remaster has point and click controls. There was a fan mod for the original as well and I think they consulted the guy who did it on the remaster. It's fucking excellent.

Smashing, will prob get on that once I've played Thimbleweed Park, which is coming up in my backlog of shit to play over lockdown.

My favourite LucasArts adventure is Sam & Max. It's probably not the best but it's Sam & Max and it's great. It's weird and messy but it works. Would love to see that get the remaster treatment but as it's not a Tim Schafer game I suppose Double Fine wouldn't do it. The Double Fine remasters shit all over the Monkey Island ones done by LucasArts because they kept the original art styles.

Sam & Max is a classic with a very odd obsession for American ephemera, kitsch, and the 1950s (I remember there was a cartoon at the time whether it was based off the success of the comic or the game?), though they never finished the sequel to it and Full Throttle and just continued S&M in the episodic DLC variety? I think overall as wacky and intuitive DOTT may be the best because it took that confusing mish-mash of the character swapping dynamic from Maniac Mansion and made sense of it by putting three people in the same location across three time periods making the puzzles much more inventive. Of course, they're all good. I'd also talk up oft-unmentioned The Dig and Loom for pure atmosphere too, I've re-played Loom a fair few times over the years and yes the music notation based system is annoying but it gave you a bit of imagination in that you could put the notes backwards to have the opposite effect on a spell to achieve a goal etc, also just has that dark fairytale atmosphere that marks it out as different to anything else they ever put out (apart from maybe their earliest adventure the adaption of the movie Labyrinth, I never played that).

[Bazooka]

The combat is not the best, no.

Maybe saying abysmal is a bit strong, but it felt like a chore having to 'work for it' in every random encounter. The world itself though is fun.

[Mister Six]

Smashing, will prob get on that once I've played Thimbleweed Park, which is coming up in my backlog of shit to play over lockdown.

The remaster also has standard directional controls relative to the camera position (push left to go left, rather than rotate), although they stupidly didn't have a grace period after a camera change, so occasionally if you hold the same direction immediately after the camera shift, you can end up running back onto the previous screen.

I've re-played Loom a fair few times over the years and yes the music notation based system is annoying but it gave you a bit of imagination in that you could put the notes backwards to have the opposite effect on a spell to achieve a goal etc, also just has that dark fairytale atmosphere that marks it out as different to anything else they ever put out (apart from maybe their earliest adventure the adaption of the movie Labyrinth, I never played that).

I love Loom for that exact reason. Such a shock when certain characters die (quite bloodily, too!), especially if (like me) you got it in that LucasArts compilation and had just finished replaying Monkey Island right before.

There were tentative plans for couple of sequels, Forge and The Fold - focusing on Bobbin's ironsmith and shepherd pals, respectively - but they didn't go anywhere in the end, sadly.

[Hand Solo]

The remaster also has standard directional controls relative to the camera position (push left to go left, rather than rotate), although they stupidly didn't have a grace period after a camera change, so occasionally if you hold the same direction immediately after the camera shift, you can end up running back onto the previous screen.

Yuck, keyboard controls should be nowhere near an adventure game.

I love Loom for that exact reason. Such a shock when certain characters die (quite bloodily, too!), especially if (like me) you got it in that LucasArts compilation and had just finished replaying Monkey Island right before. There were tentative plans for couple of sequels, Forge and The Fold - focusing on Bobbin's ironsmith and shepherd pals, respectively - but they didn't go anywhere in the end, sadly.

Yes the one that sticks out is the sleeping shepherd boy and the dragon, I think you meet his ghost later as well? There's a very graphic death of Bishop Mandible by the death cenobite thing later as well I recall. I got Monkey Island when it came out as one of my first games for the Amiga, the only thing I knew about Loom was the pirate with the badge in the SCUMM bar, I never saw it in the shops. Then I borrowed a tray of disks off this bloke down the road and made copies of anything interesting, one of them was a pirate copy of loom. I had no instructions so couldn't work how the UI worked and got stuck very early on.. the screen with the owls I think. The disk lay there for maybe a year until one day I tried again and managed to work out the music system and then managed to complete it eventually.

Yeah I remember watching a presentation by Brian Moriarty about it and the sequels, but then he did The Dig, and I think the original Legend Of Kyrandia had a similar vibe and a nice art style.

[Jerzy Bondov]

I ordered Loom from some offer in ST Format and was waiting ages for it. Eventually got my dad to ring them up and ask where the fucks Loom. They didn't have any Loom left so I got Lure of the Temptress instead, which is alright but it's no Loom. I finally got to play Loom when I found out about ScummVM and now I've played it through probably FIVE TIMES at the very least. It's so good and dark and odd, and definitely lived up to the vibe I got from the screenshots and the box art, and the guy in Monkey Island with the badge.

[Mister Six]

I should go back to The Dig. I always got stuck at the bit where you were supposed to reassemble the creature with a bomb inside it - couldn't get the bones in the right order.

It seemed to me at the tine like the puzzles were too abstract, but maybe now, with a couple more decades (and more than a couple more pounds) under my belt, I'll find it a bit easier.

EDIT: I should probably go back to Lure of the Temptress, too. I always ended up wandering around the town without much idea of what I was supposed to be doing.

[Hand Solo]

I ordered Loom from some offer in ST Format and was waiting ages for it. Eventually got my dad to ring them up and ask where the fucks Loom. They didn't have any Loom left so I got Lure of the Temptress instead, which is alright but it's no Loom. I finally got to play Loom when I found out about ScummVM and now I've played it through probably FIVE TIMES at the very least. It's so good and dark and odd, and definitely lived up to the vibe I got from the screenshots and the box art, and the guy in Monkey Island with the badge.

Oh God, Lure Of The Temptress (I'd always call it Lure Of The Tempest by accident), I've never re-played that and don't remember getting very far in it.. I recall the gimmick for it was all the characters go about their lives and walk hither and thither and go to the pub and that. But what it did was make the puzzles and necessary dialogue trees really hard to solve because you had to be in the right place at the right time and interact with the right person to get further, it was a right arseache. Curse Of Enchantia was alright, but very simplistic, remember there was a few annoying time-related bits in that though, having to dodge things or escape being underwater. Never played Universe the other Core Design adventure game.

I should go back to The Dig. I always got stuck at the bit where you were supposed to reassemble the creature with a bomb inside it - couldn't get the bones in the right order.

It seemed to me at the tine like the puzzles were too abstract, but maybe now, with a couple more decades (and more than a couple more pounds) under my belt, I'll find it a bit easier.

The Dig's worth a go as it's obviously a very movie like story.. as indeed it was originally pitched as. I completed it without any help when it came out and I was about 14 so it's not that hard, I remember the turtle bit was fiddly and annoying though.