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Sam and Max Hit the GameTap 56

Posted by Zonk from the i'm-not-a-malefactor-i'm-a-lagomorph dept.
Gamespot reports that the episodic sequels to the original Sam and Max title will be available on GameTap starting next month. Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock will be available starting on October 17th for subscribers to the PC-download service. Non-subscribers will be able to download the game at some future point. From the article: "Just under a year ago, indie studio Telltale Games acquired the rights to make games based on the underground comic Sam & Max: Freelance Police. The news was a godsend to many old-school gamers who loved the first game the comic inspired, 1993's Sam & Max Hit the Road, and lamented the 2004 cancellation of its sequel, Sam & Max: Freelance Police." Update: 09/08 19:24 GMT by Z : Jake Rodkin from TellTale wrote to make sure we pointed out the copious details that didn't make it into the Gamespot piece. For those of us without GameTap, we can look forward to the non-subscription release on November 1st.
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Sam and Max Hit the GameTap More

Sam and Max Hit the GameTap

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  • It's a shelf full of Snuckey's crap! :-)

  • Question for current Game Tap users (Score:3, Interesting)

    by revlayle ( 964221 ) on Friday September 08, 2006 @12:45PM (#16067189)
    I would love to play the new Sam & Max, however, is the GameTap service worth its cost? Is their current library of games decent?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Zinnian ( 958511 )
      Personally I enjoy it. There are a lot of old school games on there that I have played but lost the disk to, never got a chance to try, or didn't realize were so fun. Variety of games is nice too, from strategy, to action, to fighter, to educational games. The downloads seem slow sometimes while it loads the resources for your game but other then that I'm happy with it. They also offer a free trial period of a couple weeks. Last time I payed attention they were over 600 games and counting. New games every w

    • Re:Question for current Game Tap users (Score:5, Informative)

      by Lynoitus ( 1001318 ) on Friday September 08, 2006 @01:28PM (#16067522)
      If you're into old-school games, yes. The nostalgia is shocking when you browse through the selection of titles. Reminiscent of Blockbuster's game section circa 1993. There's certainly an enormous selection, and the price isn't too bad. But I have two warnings for you: 1. Many of the games did not port to PC very well. There will be crashes/bugs. Said bugs prevented me from completing the last level of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. 2. Canceling your account is torture. You have to call the company in order to axe your account, at which point they will bribe you with a free month's subscription and plead with you to be patient as they fix/add games. You've been warned. But overall I applaud GameTap. I'd recommend trying out the free two-week trial to give yourself a full scope of the pros/cons of GameTap.
      • > If you're into old-school games, yes. The nostalgia is shocking when you
        > browse through the selection of titles. Reminiscent of Blockbuster's game
        > section circa 1993.

        Add in the fully stocked video arcade three doors down. Robotron 2084, Midway: 1943, Darkstalkers, just to name a few of my favorites. The video arcade ports seem to run mostly pretty well. It may not be to everyone's taste, but if you dropped a lot of quarters in arcades ten, fifteen years back, you'll love it.

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Pandora Tomorrow was released for PC! That's no porting bug.

        Incidentally, I saw GameTap had Toy Commander, one of my favourite Dreamcast games and probably the only half-decent one that didn't get ported to something else already. Does it actually work? Is it running in a Dreamcast emulator or a port?
      • Of course, thousands and thousands of MAME roms are out there of all the games you played back in the 70's and 80's. Same thing, but free.

  • Cheesy retro ambience (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rob T Firefly ( 844560 ) on Friday September 08, 2006 @12:45PM (#16067193) Homepage Journal
    [Sam hangs up the phone]
    Max: Another confused census taker?
    Sam: Actually, it was the Commissioner with another idiotic and baffling assignment.
    Max: Does it involve wanton destruction?
    Sam: We can only hope.
  • I have been waiting for this for over a decade.
  • Love Sam and Max. Have no intention of subscribing to GameTap to play them...

    Why is the new business model to turn products into services?

    • Re:Non-Subscribers? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by fish waffle ( 179067 ) on Friday September 08, 2006 @12:59PM (#16067287)
      Why is the new business model to turn products into services?

      With a product you pay once. With a service you pay over and over.

      Future business models will involve you paying over and over, and also having to become an employee.

      Future future business models will involve you paying over and over, being an employee, and requiring your children to do the same.

      The future is feudalism.
      • Hello to you, sir! I think you ought to read this:

        Slippery Slope [wikipedia.org]

        • Re:Non-Subscribers? (Score:5, Funny)

          by fish waffle ( 179067 ) on Friday September 08, 2006 @01:25PM (#16067496)
          Hello to you, sir! I think you ought to read this:

          Slippery Slope

          I dunno...if i read your link i'll have to read other people's links, and then the links from those pages; eventually i'll have to read everything on the internet, and i just don't have time.
      • It's called rent seeking [wikipedia.org] and it's yet another example of the ways in which an unregulated free market fails miserably.
        • It's called rent seeking and it's yet another example of the ways in which an unregulated free market fails miserably.

          A lot of rent seeking consists of lobbying the state to regulate the market more, which diminishes the freedom of the market.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by spun ( 1352 )
            A lot is also of the Microsoftian variety, where a corporation leverages their domination of a market to provide a steady and unearned source of income. Without regulation, this kind of rent seeking would predominate, and the free market would collapse due to a lack of any kind of checks and balances against this kind of economic, as opposed to regulatory manipulation. Sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't proposition.

            I suggest creating super smart robots to rule over us with an iron fist, as we a

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tepples ( 727027 )
              A lot is also of the Microsoftian variety, where a corporation leverages their domination of a market to provide a steady and unearned source of income. Without regulation, this kind of rent seeking would predominate

              Without regulation, it would also be lawful to publicly trade commented disassemblies of Microsoft Windows software.

              • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

                by spun ( 1352 )
                Without regulation, it would be lawful to trade copies of any software, period. For that matter, without regulation it would not be illegal for me to take a dump on your front lawn. And it would not be illegal for you to kill me for it. Or for looking at you funny, for that matter. Very few people argue for no laws whatsoever. It then becomes very like the apocryphal story about Mark Twain, who supposedly met a woman and asked if she would sleep with him for $10,000, to which she responded certainly. Then h

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
                That works for MS but not for Big Oil or the telcos.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Chaffar ( 670874 )
        Renting isn't half-bad. Most games are cleared in less than 4 days anyway, and I'm being nice... 90% would actually be completed in less than 30 hours, breaks and sleep included.
        Will it spell the death of 250-hour games (BG 2 we'll never forget you :'( ? Or will it make the people who SELL games make sure that people get their money's worth out of the game since there now is a cheaper alternative?
        I'll vote for "Whatever screws the consumer best".
      • It won't work though. Open source will thrive.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by NekoXP ( 67564 )
      Because you make more money that way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mobiux ( 118006 )
      Because... why sell a game one time for $20, when you can take a person for $5 a month instead.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jea6 ( 117959 )
      Seriously? Because investors LOVE recurring revenues.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Jboost ( 960475 )
      You don't need Gametap.
      From the faq [telltalegames.com]:

      We think GameTap is a great fit for Sam & Max, but we know that not everyone will subscribe. (Plus, right now GameTap isn't available in all parts of the world.) That's why every Sam & Max episode will be available on Telltale's website, as well as on GameTap.

      Episodes mean you get more Sam & Max with less waiting. More fun with shorter dry stretches in between. We all know what it's like to wait three or four (or five) years for a game to come out -- no f

  • Tears! (Score:2, Funny)

    by nappingcracker ( 700750 )
    Sam: I think I've got something in my eye.
    Max: Try digging it out with a fork. That always works for me.

    Why why why! *sob *sniff.
    Oh terrible horror. I /really/ wanted to play this game. Alas. Thwarted again.

  • Nov. 1st (Score:3, Informative)

    by RealErmine ( 621439 ) <commerce@nOspaM.wordhole.net> on Friday September 08, 2006 @01:13PM (#16067400)
    TFA says that the title will be exclusive on GameTap for an unknown length of time. Looking quickly at Telltale's site [telltalegames.com] shows that the game will be downloadable from the developer's site starting November 1st.

  • Sam and Max is an old but good game. Some company has bought the rights to the name "Sam and Max". When you buy something's name, you don't become the thing. LIke I wouldn't suddenly become smarter if I named myself "Albert". So why does anyone care what some untrustworthy looking startup is doing just because they bought the 9 characters "SAM AND MAX"?
    • >Sam and Max is an old but good game. Some company has bought the rights to the name "Sam and
      >Max". When you buy something's name, you don't become the thing.
      Well, they ARE the thing. The company was founded by people who made the original
      Sam & Max game. I don't think there is any becoming needed.

    • Re:Confused (Score:5, Informative)

      by ja2ke ( 633770 ) on Friday September 08, 2006 @01:31PM (#16067552)
      Telltale "bought the rights to the name 'Sam and Max'?"

      Actually, no. Telltale is working on these Sam & Max games with Steve Purcell, the guy who created Sam & Max as comic book characters in the 80s and brought them to LucasArts in the first place. Sam & Max aren't LucasArts' characters, they're Purcell's, and Purcell is working with Telltale on this game. The team at Telltale worked with Purcell at LucasArts on Sam & Max Freelance Police, which was cancelled. The Freelance Police team left LucasArts and started their own studio. Purcell trusted them enough with his characters that came to Telltale and asked to work with them on making the next Sam & Max game.

      Also, as far as "untrustworthy" goes, yeah Telltale's website is a bit crusty right now, but they've released four games in the last two years - a casual game, two independently developed episodic titles, and a full retail game for Ubisoft - which is something that very few, uh, "untrustworhty looking startups" can claim. Telltale also employs Dave Grossman, one of the writers and game designers behind Monkey Island 1 and 2 as well as Day of the Tentacle, as their senior writer and designer.

      Basically, despite all your smarm and textual smirking, you have no idea what you're talking about.
      • despite all your smarm and textual smirking, you have no idea what you're talking about.
        No I didn't. But thanks to your brief history I now know much better and you've answered my question, thank you.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by ja2ke ( 633770 )
          Happy to oblige! I really hate it when people write extremely authoritatively and angrily on Slashdot when stating things which are patently false. It makes me grumbly. I am frequently grumbly when reading Slashdot. :) No personal harm intended though.
    • Uh, because this "untrustworthly looking startup" is founded by several of the people who created the original Sam and Max game at Lucasarts. Oh and because Steve Purcell (You may have heard of him, he created Sam and Max) is working directly with them on the game.

  • availability (Score:2, Informative)

    by fov ( 992665 )
    GameTap won't be the only place to get the new Sam & Max games. Starting Nov. 1, the pilot episode will be available for purchase from Telltale's site as well. So, people who don't want to subscribe or who live in countries other than the US will not be left out.

    Also there's a little error in that Gamespot article - they say GameTap's exclusivity is for an undisclosed period. It's actually 15 days (hence the release on Telltale's site Nov. 1). Also the article says the games will only be available

    • "GameTap won't be the only place to get the new Sam & Max games."

      Starting Nov. 1, the pilot episode will be available for download from your local torrent site. (Perhaps sooner if one of the subscribers feels like uploading it.)

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by fov ( 992665 )
        And people wonder why no one can afford to make quality adventure games anymore.

  • Bone (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I found the two Bone games from Telltale pretty underwhelming, although the second was an improvement over the first. I hope they do a better job with Sam & Max.

  • Windows only :( (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "Look at this Max, it's a new game starring us. Why do you suppose it's Windows only?"

    "I keep telling you Sam, my name isn't an abbreviation for the plural of Macintosh. It's Max with an X. The X makes me more appealing to those miscreants on soda commercials. After all, they're our demographic."

    "You need to watch less TV Max."

  • Confusing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by I Like Pudding ( 323363 ) on Friday September 08, 2006 @05:36PM (#16069224)
    Why in the hell didn't they go with Steam? When smaller releases like Darwinia get so much press, a Sam and Max game should be a slam dunk.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ja2ke ( 633770 )
      GameTap isn't just a distribution partner on the game - they helped fund it, and they really like it. That's why it's debuting on their service.And, regardless of how Darwinia was/is promoted on Steam, GameTap is doing a good job of promoting Sam & Max.
  • Sam and Max was the only adventure game I beat without using a strategy guide. I hope the same holds true for this one. Oh wait, the n'terw3b ftw.

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