LucasArts 1982-2013

When on October 30, 2012, LucasArts was acquired by The Walt Disney Company through the acquisition of its parent company Lucasfilm in a deal for $4.05 billion, many industry insiders predicted that this was the beginning of the end for the innovative game developer.

This happened on April 3, 2013, when Disney confirmed that LucasArts would cease to operate as a video game developer; and that future video games based on its properties will either be developed by Disney Interactive Studios or licensed to third-party developers. As a result, all of its future projects were cancelled, and most of its staff were laid off from the company. Disney indicated that the new business model would minimize the company’s risk while achieving a broad portfolio of quality Star Wars games.”

This end of an era for LucasArts was the reason this article exists. We’ll try to share some LucasArts magic with you, on a journey from the past until now, looking at the many highlights the developer and publisher created in its 31 year carrer.

The early years

Lets take things from the very beginning. In 1982 George Lucas’ LucasFilm foresees that the video gaming market is up and going so the acclaimed film producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur, corporates with Atari and establishes Lucasfilm Games.

The results from this collaboration were titles like Rescue On Fractalus, a game that utilized fractal technology to create the craggy mountains of an alien planet, where the visibility was drastically reduced by the dense atmosphere, and Ballblazer, a simple one-on-one sports-style game bearing similarities to basketball and soccer. Both games first appeared on the Atari 5200 in 1984 and a year later were porte to the PC from Epyx.

Other games followed, (Koronis Rift, The Eidolon) with the most notable being 1987’s Maniac Mansion, conceived in 1985 by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick. The game wrote its own unique history in the adventure game genre. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, it was Lucasfilm’s first foray into video game publishing.

Maniac Mansion followed teenager Dave Miller and 2 fellow students as he ventures into the Edison mansion and attempts to rescue his girlfriend from an evil mad scientist. The game influenced numerous other titles, has been placed in several “hall of fame” lists, and has led fans to create remakes with enhanced visuals. Maniac Mansion eventually spawned a sequel (Day of the Tentacle) and even a T.V. series.

Three years later, 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.

What made LucasArts stand from the rest of the developers ot its era was the company’s decision to focus on developing quality adventure games. From 1986’s Labyrinth and Maniac Mansion (Commodore 64, Apple II, PC, Amiga, Atari ST, NES) until Day of the Tentacle (PC, Mac) released in 1993 Lucas’ company, went through a golden era of successful titles.

These were 1988’s Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (, PC, Amiga, Atari, Commodore 64), which followed Zak McKracken, a tabloid reporter who slowly discovered a plot by an alien race to take over the and is rated as among the best adventure games ever made, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure (1989 PC, Amiga, Amiga ST, Mac), LOOM (1990 PC) where you play as Bobbin Threadbare, a young man from the Guild of Weavers who just turned 17. Although you do not know why, you are outcast from the guild and blamed for the lack of prosperity in recent times. What set Loom apart from other adventure games was its unique interface: you do not carry items around, but rather manipulate existing items through the use of spells.

In 1990 we have the release of one of the best video games of all time, the The Secret of Monkey Island (1990 Atari, Amiga, PC, Mac, SEGA CD) that is created by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert, who designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Critics praised The Secret of Monkey Island for its humor, audiovisuals, and gameplay. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series. Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman also led the development of the sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. LucasArts released a remake of the original in 2009, which was also well received by the gaming press.

LucasArts will frequently update these games with better visuals, sounds, in order to take advantage of the current technology, but in 1997 the company decides to shift focus on other genres as well The last adventure games the company released were Curse of Monkey Island (1997) ή Grim Fandago (1998) and Escape from Monkey Island. the fourth game in the Monkey Island series.

The Star Wars Era

As expected the Star Wars developer coudn’t only stick to creating adventure games. Following the worlwide success of Star Wars in theatres worldwide the decision on which route should LucasArts follow was obvious. Transport the film franchise into gaming. The first Star Wars influenced game came in 1993was X-Wing, a series of space combat simulation video games set in the Star Wars universe that attempts to simulate the fictional experience of starfighter combat, while remaining faithful to the movies. 1993 also saw the release of Star Wars: Rebel Assault is a rail shooter video game which was the first CD-ROM-only game to be published by LucasArts.

The Doom influenced Star Wars: Dark Forces was released in 1995 for DOS and Apple Macintosh, and in 1996 for the PlayStation. The DOS and Apple Macintosh especially were praised for the level design and technological advances. Two sequels to Dark Forces, were released Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II in 1997 and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003).

In July 2000, BioWare announced that they were working with LucasArts to create a Star Wars role-playing video game for the PC and next-generation consoles. The result from their collaboration was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic released for the Xbox on July 15, 2003, for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003, and on September 7, 2004 for Mac OS X. Set in a time period four thousand years prior to the Star Wars films, the game featured an entirely unique storyline that put players in an ancient era that is dominated by an epic struggle between the Jedi and the evil Sith. Knights of the Old Republic was considered as one of the most influential works of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

A sequel was released a year later titled Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords by Obsidian Entertainmen which generally well received by critics but Producer Chris Avellone in an interview after the game’s publication stated that he wished “there had been more time” to work on the game, and that a large amount of content — a droid factory, an entire planet, and other locations — was cut.

Round the same period LucasArts also shows interest on the MMORPG genre by releasing Star Wars Galaxies. The game went through two major upgrades: the “Combat Upgrade” (CU) and later the “New Game Enhancement” (NGE), its final form. In April 2004, Jim Ward, VP of marketing, online and global distributions at Lucasfilm, was appointed president of LucasArts. Ward described the company’s state as “quite a mess.”closed down in-development games and reduced staff from about 450 to 190 employees.

2004 is also the year released Star Wars: Battlefront,which coincided with the release of the Star Wars Trilogy in DVD. Battlefront was what would be considered today an AAA title. It was successful enough that in 2005 the sequel Star Wars: Battlefront II was released along with the third person action Revenge of the Sith. In the same period we have the release of Star Wars: Republic Commando and Mercenaries. The Star Wars video game frenzy continues with the release of RTS Star Wars: Empire at War, LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. During this period LucasArts decides to develop a new IP, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (2005 PS2, Xbox,) a third-person shooter video game developed by Pandemic Studios which sprawled a sequel in 2008 titled , Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

2008 sees Darrell Rodriguez takes control of LucasArts and a month prior to the release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 cuts down costs and more employees get fired. Also in 2008 LucasArts joins forces with Bioware for Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare’s first entry into the MMORPG market and the second Star Wars MMORPG after Star Wars Galaxies, which was shut down in December 2011.

The Old Republic was released for the Microsoft Windows platform on December 20, 2011 in North America and part of Europe. After launch, the game’s subscribers rose to 1.7 million by February 2012. By May 2012, those numbers fell to 1.3 million. By July 2012, the subscriber base fell below 1 million, prompting EA to convert the game to free to play. EA stated that 500,000 subscribers were needed to make the game profitable saying that they were “well above” that number. On November 15, 2012, the free-to-play option went live on all servers.

Even though The Old Republic proved successful things continue to go bad for LucasArts, as the company had spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the years developing, releasing and marketing console games but lately it has been difficult to justify such expenditures given the trend toward online mobile games.Board changes become very regular and the sighns that the company will reach the infinite end become even more clear. The last game published by LucasArts was Kinect Star Wars for the Xbox 360 last year, a game widely slammed by critics.

Disney may have bought for $4 billion the Star Wars company but it already had a games division and unfortunately they didn’t need to try to fix LucasArts’ problems. We wish they could as even though LucasArts had its hits and it had its misses, their legacy extends beyond any one game, brand, or series. Their games not only defined genres but went on to  define the entire industry.

LucasArts by numbers

1984: Ballblazer (Amstrad, Apple II, Atari, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Commodore 64, MSX, NES, Spectrum), Rescue on Fractalus! (Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 5200, Atari, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, ZX Spectrum)
1985: Koronis Rift (Amstrad, Atari, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum), The Eidolon (Amstrad CPC, Apple  II, Atari, Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum)
1986: Labyrinth: The Computer Game (Apple II, Commodore 64, MSX2)
1987: Maniac Mansion (Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PC, NES), Strike Fleet (Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PC)
1988: Battlehawks 1942 (Amiga, Atari, PC), Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PC)
1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game (Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Game Gear, PC, MSX, NES, SEGA Master System, SEGA Mega Drive, ZX Spectrum), Indiana Jones and the Last Cruasade: The Graphic Adventure (Amiga, Atari ST, Mac, PC), Pipe Mania (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy, Mac, NES, PC, ZX Spectrum), Their Finest Hour (Amiga, Atari ST, PC)
1990: Loom (Amiga, Atari ST, Mac, PC, TurboGrafx-16), Masterblazer (Amiga, Atari ST, PC), Night Shift (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PC, ZX Spectrum), The Secret of Monkey Island (Amiga, Atari ST, Mac, PC, SEGA CD)
1991: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (Amiga, Mac, PC), Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (PC), Star Wars (NES)
1992: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (Amiga,  Mac, PC), Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: The Action Game (Amiga, Amstrad, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PC, ZX Spectrum), Super Star Wars (SNES), The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (NES)
1993: Big Sly Trooper (SNES), Day of the Tentacle (PC, Mac), Sam & Max Hit the Road (Amiga, Mac, PC), Star Wars Arcade (Arcade, SEGA 32X), Star Wars Chess (PC, SEGA CD), Star Wars: Revel Assault (3DO, Mac, PC, SEGA CD), Star Wars: X-Wing (PC, Mac), Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (SNES), Zombies Ate My Neighboors (SEGA Mega Drive, SNES)
1994: Air Combat Classics (PC), Ghoul Patrol (SNES), Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures (SNES), Star Wars: TIE Fighter (Mac, PC), Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Game Boy, Game Gear, SNES)
1995: Full Throttle (SNES, PC, Mac), Metal Warriors (SNES), Star Wars: Dark Forces (Mac, PC, PlayStation), Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire (Mac, PC, PlayStation), The Dig (PC, Mac)
1996: Afterlife (Mac, PC), Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures (PC, Mac), Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion (Mac, PC), Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (PC, Nintendo 64)
1997: Herc’s Adventures (PlayStation, SEGA Saturn), Outlaws (PC), Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC), Star Wars: X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter (PC), Star Wars: Yoda Stories (Game Boy Color, PC), The Curse of Monkey Island (PC)
1998: Grim Fandago (PC), PHM Pegasus (Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Commodore 64, PC, ZX Spectrum), Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith (PC), Star Wars: Behind the Magic (PC). Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi (PlayStation), Star Wars: Rebellion (PC), Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Nintendo 64, PC)
1999: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, PC), Star Wars Episode I: Racer (Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, Mac, Nintendo 64, PC), Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (PlayStation, PC), Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (PC)
2000: Escape from Monkey Island (PC, PS2, Mac), Star Wars: Racer Arcade (Arcades), Star Wars Demolition (Dreamcast, PlayStation), Star Wars: Episode 1 Battle for Naboo (Nintendo 64, PC), Star Wars: Episode 1 Jedi Power Battles (Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation), Star Wars: Force Commander (PC)
2001: LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Mac, Nintendo DS,Nintendo 3DS, PS3, PSP, Wii, PC, Xbox 360), Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GameCube), Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (PC, Mac), Star Wars: Obi-Wan (Xbox), Star Wars: Starfighter (PS2, PC, Xbox), Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing (PS2)
2002: Star Wars: Bounty Gunter (GameCube, PS2), Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (GameCube, Mac, PC, Xbox), Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter (PS2, Xbox), Star Wars: Racer Revenge (PS2), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (PS2, Xbox, GameCube)
2003: Armed and Dangerous (PC, Xbox), Gladius (Xbox, PS2, GameCube), Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (PC, PS2, Xbox, Mac), RTX Red Rock (PS2), Secret Wapons Over Normandy (PS2, Xbox, PC), Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Revel Strike (GameCube), Star Wars: Galaxies (PC), Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy (Mac, PC, Xbox), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Mac, PC, Xbox)
2004: Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (PC), Star Wars: Battlefront (Mac, PS2, Xbox, PC), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords (Mac, PC, Xbox), Wrath Unleashed (PS2, Xbox)
2005: LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game (Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Mac, PS2, Windows, Xbox), Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (PS2, Xbox), Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookies (PC), Star Wars: Battlefront II (PS2, PSP, Xbox, PC), Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PS2, Xbox), Star Wars: Republic Commando (Xbox, PC)
2006: LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Mac, Nintendo DS, PS2, PSP, PC, Xbox, Xbox 360), Star Wars: Empire at War (Mac, PC), Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption (PC), Star Wars: Lethal Alliance (Nintendo DS, PSP), Star Wars: The Best of PC (PC)
2007: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Mac, Nintendo DS, PS3, Wii, PC, Xbox 360), Star Wars: Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (PSP)
2008: Fracture (PS3, Xbox 360), LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Nintendo DS, Mac, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, PC, Xbox 360), Star Wars: The Clone Wars Jedi Alliance (Nintendo DS), Star Wars: The Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels (Wii), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (iOS, Mac, N-Gage, Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)
2009: Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (Nintendo DS, PS2, PSP, Wii), LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (Mac, Nintendo DS, PS3, PSP, Wii, PC, Xbox 360), Lucidity (PC, Xbox 360), Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (Nintendo DS, PSP), Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons (κινητά), Star Wars: The Clone Wars Republic Heroes (Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360, Wii, PC), Tales of Monkey Island (iOS, Mac, PS3, PC, Wii)
2010: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (iOS, Nintendo DS, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii)
2011: Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC)
2012: Angry Birds Star Wars (iOS, Android, Arcades), Kinect Star Wars (Xbox 360)