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LucasArts classics coming to iPhone?

by Mike Schramm Jul 7th 2009 at 12:00PM


Good news from our friends over at Joystiq -- they had the good fortune to speak with the folks over at LucasArts (who are currently working on reviving some of their old point-and-click library of games: Secret of Monkey Island is coming back to the Xbox Live Arcade, and other games, including the classic Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, are due to make their way to the PC's Steam service), and the subject of the iPhone came up. While we didn't get any really great news (like, say, a release date), we did get a vague answer in the affirmative: "On iPhone, you know Apple's policy that we can't talk about a release until it's ready to release. But it would make sense that we would do something like that if we were to go in that direction ... wink wink, nod, nod."

With a wink and a nod, it seems like a fairly safe bet that we can expect at least one or two iPhone ports of these old LucasArts titles in the future. The whole point-and-click genre (you can play a great little sample done by gaming genius Tim Schafer right over on his company's website) is experiencing a resurgence, and LucasArts is showing a lot of sudden loyalty to fan favorites like Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, and Grim Fandango, so there's never been a better time to send a port or two over towards the App Store.

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Good news from our friends over at Joystiq -- they had the good fortune to speak with the folks over at LucasArts (who are currently...
 

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astrosaurus

I would love this!

July 08 2009 at 2:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adam Schoales

quick question: is there a way to play grim fandango on the mac (outside of running a virtual pc)? i hear its amazing and have never tried it myself but have a copy and would love to take it for a spin...

July 08 2009 at 1:03 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Colin

How about releasing the early Indiana Jones and Star Wars movies instead of these moldy games?

July 07 2009 at 11:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bearer of old tech

7th Guest for the iPhone -> why hasn't this happened yet?

July 07 2009 at 8:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
balls

DOTT PLZ

July 07 2009 at 7:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
KyleW

Back before the App store, I had a jailbroken iPhone 2g and I installed ScummVM and The Curse of Monkey Island. Even on the small screen, I was able to complete the game (for maybe the 20th time). There was only one hiccup with a puzzle where tapping made it impossible, but it was still fun.

July 07 2009 at 1:37 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to KyleW's comment
K

I still run my phone Jailbreaked, simply for QuickReply (bitesms) and ScummVM :)

July 07 2009 at 7:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam

Unless they rewrite the games completely native, they will not be able to release these games on the app store. The developer agreement prevents any interpreted code, which is exactly what this is.

Wether they actually make it in will depend on the menstrual cycle of the app store reviewer, but technically this is not allowed.

July 07 2009 at 1:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Sam's comment
zander106

I don't believe that's the case for stand-alone games that make use of an emulator. The Sega games in the App Store (Sonic, Golden Axe) have been described as basically running via Genesis emulation. So if that's the precedent, then Lucasarts will be fine.

Seems to me that the problem with, say, the C64 emulator from a couple weeks ago was that it was being released specifically as an emulator, with purchase of ROM packs an additional step. I don't believe Lucasarts is releasing their own ScummVM standalone.

Of course, Frotz is still in the app store last I checked, so who knows...

July 07 2009 at 2:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
emil

King's Quest! King's Quest!

July 07 2009 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to emil's comment
Sam

Fail. Wrong universe.

July 07 2009 at 1:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adam Schoales

hell yes! Sierra FTW!

July 08 2009 at 1:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ed

I've been playing the remake of Monkey Island (on Xbox Live) and it's really well done - keeps the charm of the original with much better graphics and better sound. I hope they bring that version to the iPhone as I'm sure it'll be a big hit.

July 07 2009 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sven Gebhardt

My iPhone already does this. Since years. http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/IPhone

July 07 2009 at 12:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Sven Gebhardt's comment
burningspear

Mine too.

If this get's into the appstore while the c64 emulator gets rejected.... talk about weirdness..

July 07 2009 at 12:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jonwil2002

The difference would be that (AFAIK) the C64 emulator allows you to run arbitrary code whereas this can only run the one game as downloaded.

July 08 2009 at 8:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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