LucasArts |
LucasArts Entertainment Company (sometimes shortened to LEC), is a video game developer and video game publisher. The company was famous for its line of point-and-click adventure games and today mainly produces games based on the Star Wars franchise.
= Origins =
The company had its beginnings in May 1982 in the Games Group of Lucasfilm Ltd., the film production company of George Lucas. Lucas had wanted his company to branch out into other areas of entertainment, and so he cooperated with Atari to produce video games. The first results of this collaboration were unique action games like Ballblazer and Rescue on Fractalus . Beta versions of both games were unfortunately leaked to pirate bulletin boards exactly one week after Atari received unprotected copies for a marketing review, and were in wide circulation months before the original release date. In 1984, they were released for the Atari 5200 under the Lucasfilm Games label. Versions for home computers were not released until 1985, by publisher Epyx.
= The Adventure games =
Lucasfilm Games released its first adventure game in 1986: Labyrinth , based on the Lucasfilm movie of the same name.
In 1987, the adventure game Maniac Mansion was released, which effectively spawned the subgenre of point-and-click adventure games. It was followed by more adventures of high quality (see LucasArts adventure games) and in the following years Lucasfilm built a reputation for producing the best games of the genre. Amongst the early LucasArts classics was the much-loved Monkey Island (later followed by three sequels), an adventure game notable for the quality of its comedic script, the absurd solutions to many of its puzzles and the invulnerability of its protagonist, which was quite an innovation in a genre where choosing the wrong thing to say could often result in instant death.
= Simulations =
The company also started producing military simulation games, the first of which were the naval simulations PHM Pegasus and Strike Fleet . In 1988, Battlehawks 1942 was released, later followed by Their Finest Hour and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe . The WW2 Air Combat Trilogy, as it was later called, was created by Lawrence Holland s team, who later founded their own company in Totally Games.
= The early 1990s =
In 1990, in a reorganization of the Lucas companies, the Games Division of Lucasfilm became part of the newly created LucasArts Entertainment Company, together with Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. Later ILM and Skywalker Sound were consolidated in Lucas Digital Ltd. and LucasArts became the official name of the former Games Division. The logo was changed from the well-known Lucasfilm to a human silhouette (the Golden Man) on an L-shape.
Even though LucasArts had created games based on other Lucasfilm properties before ( .
The CD-ROM-only Star Wars game Rebel Assault became one of the biggest successes of the company and was considered a killer app for CD-ROM drives in the early 1990s. Another game that utilised the new technology of the CD-ROM drive was 1993 s Day of the Tentacle , the first LucasArts adventure game to have a full spoken soundtrack available on the game s release rather than relying on text.
= The first person shooter =
After the unprecedented success of can be seen as a spin-off from the series, but was less well received by reviewers, who complained that the franchise was becoming formulaic.
Apart from Starwars-themed 3D shooters, LucasArts also created the western-themed game Outlaws (game) in 1997 which wasn t followed by a sequel and didn t leave a legacy behind.
= The last wave of LucasArts Adventure games 1997-2000 =
LucasArts focus on three dimensional action games was detrimental to their line of adventures. The PC game market, traditionally the home of the adventure game, was being driven by technological change. The market wanted titles that would show off expensive new graphics cards to best effect, a change replicated in the home console market as the 3d capabilities of the Sony PlayStation and its competitors the Sega Saturn and Nintendo s N64 dictated the nature of the majority of games produced for those platforms. The adventure genre, two dimensional, focused on story, script and puzzle solving was seen as no longer popular with gamers.
However, there was a brief resurgence in the genre between 1997 and 2000. The Curse of Monkey Island was the last LucasArts adventure game to retain traditional two dimensional graphics and the tried-and-tested point and click interface. It was followed by Grim Fandango, arguably LucasArts finest adventure game, and the first attempt to convert 2d adventure to the gimmick of 3d games. The game interface suffered most from this conversion, with control of the protagonist becoming unweildy and less intuitive than the traditional mouse interface. However, the highly stylised graphics, superb voice acting and sophisticated writing more than made up for this flaw. Escape from Monkey Island replicated Grim Fandangos graphical engine and control system, and was well reviewed. However, since then LucasArts have continued to prioritise action games over traditional adventure games, a consistent position that led to a sequel to Sam n Max Hit The Road being aborted in 2004 despite rumours that it was 85% complete. This, combined with the 2003 cancellation of a sequel to Full Throttle has led fans of adventure gaming to surmise that the traditional LucasArts adventure game is dead.
= 2000-Present =
As the quantity of Star Wars games increased, many critics felt the quality began to drop; this was especially noted with the titles released since the cinematic release of The Phantom Menace .
In 2002, LucasArts recognized that the over-reliance on Star Wars was reducing the quality of its output, and announced that future releases would be at least 50% non-Star Wars-related. However, many of the original titles were either unsuccessful or even cancelled before release and currently LucasArts has again mainly Star Wars titles in production.
continued in the same vein, uniting top notch voice acting with an absorbing unfolding story.
In 2003 LucasArts and the Star Wars franchise also branched out in a new direction—the world of the MMORPG, with the creation of Star Wars Galaxies . After a successful launch, the first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, was released in 2004. The new expansion featured the addition of real-time space combat. This was continued in Rage of the Wookies , an additional expansion which added an additional planet for users to explore. Also, a Jedi-based upgrade, The Trials of Obi-Wan , should be out soon.
In 2004, Lucasarts released will feature new locales in addition to space combat and playable Jedi.
In May .
Also in 2005, LucasArts released .
=See also=
=External links=
*[http://www.lucasarts.com/ Official LucasArts website] *[http://www.mixnmojo.com/ A fanpage dedicated to this company (with a strong accent on adventure gaming)] *[http://www.langston.com/LFGames/ The Lucasfilm Computer Division Games Project is born] by Peter Langston|
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