Sam & Max for XBLA?

By Kristan Reed Published 27 February, 2007

Telltale "evaluating new platforms".

Telltale has admitted it would "look closely" at releasing a potential Sam & Max project via Live Arcade.

Speculation about such a project was inevitable after Telltale posted a job advert for a 360 programmer on its website.

A Telltale spokesperson responded to the barrage of questions by saying: "We can confirm that we're hiring an Xbox 360 programmer, although we do not have any official Xbox project announcements to share right now.

"Telltale is continually evaluating new platforms - not only for Sam & Max but for other projects we have in the works. We're huge supporters of digitally distributing episodic content, and this has been working very well for our current Sam & Max series on the PC.

"For a potential Sam & Max Xbox project, we'd certainly look closely at a downloadable digital solution like the Live Arcade."

So there you have it. Nothing confirmed, but a clear admission that a Sam & Max project may well end up on the Microsoft platform eventually.

The question is, would Telltale simply port over the current six-part PC series, or try something new on Live Arcade?

Head over to the gamepage for our thoughts on the series so far.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kissthestick #1 5 years ago

    that'd be sweeeeeeeeet

  • QJ #2 5 years ago

    It would be good if these kind of games got wider exposure through XBLA and the VC.

    I'd love to play through Monkey Island and Beneath a Steel Sky again, chilled back in a comfy chair. Not sure how well the visuals would look tho, maybe they could be given a Another World style spit and polish?

  • neilka #3 5 years ago

    The major stumbling block I can think of is that the PC versions are 4:3 only - I don't think Microsoft would be happy with a non-retro 4:3 XBLA game, and redoing it all to 16:9 would be a lot of work.

    I'd be more than happy to see it happen though.

  • Machiavel #4 5 years ago

    A bigger stumbling block would be Microsoft demanding online leaderboards or some added Live crap.

  • RE*AC*TOR #5 5 years ago

    it'll be on wii. certainly.

  • dr_shambles #6 5 years ago

    Cool. Agree with QJ and can't wait to play some of the old Lucasarts classics.

    Wonder if this means the 360 might start offering USB mouse support too? Don't imagine it's too accurate with a standard controller.

    Would love to see some of the old Sierra classics released on it too. Gabriel Knight is due an HD makeover.

  • neilka #7 5 years ago

    I wouldn't hold my breath for any Lucasarts adventures, they seem to have pretty much disowned their adventuring past in favour of Mega Star Wars Game #43. Beneath a Steel Sky/Broken Sword are more likely due to Revolution still actually giving a toss about them.

  • Kiigan #8 5 years ago

    Loving the episodes so far, and I think it'd be a good match for XBLA. In fact, more adventure games on Xbox would definitely be in line with Peter Moore's recent comments about broadening the audience of Xbox 360.

  • The_Inquisitor #9 5 years ago

    I really hope it does happen as I don't play games on my PC. Infact, I'd love to see the previous Sam & Max and maybe other Lucas Arts games, that I've never had the fortune of playing, on XBLA.

  • The_Programmer #10 5 years ago

    "I don't think Microsoft would be happy with a non-retro 4:3 XBLA game"

    Sam & Max is retro. I remember playing it years ago on my PC.

  • barnard666 #11 5 years ago

    I have been avoiding buying the PC versions, just in case this happens. I will probably give in when some sort of PC compendium disc comes out. I just dont really like PC games. that said I did buy supreme commander and I am in a special kind of love with it....but like half life 2 I doubt I will inish it, simply because I dont like playing games on my "work" machine.

  • rock27gr #12 5 years ago

    @The_Programmer
    I think he was talking about the current series, not the original

    @neilka
    Why would it be difficult to make it widescreen? The graphics are there, surely it's just a case of showing more of the area at anyone time and having less scrolling, no?

  • QJ #13 5 years ago

    @Machiavel

    Coming up with some form of Live functionality wouldn't be too hard. After all Condemned had leaderboards for pretty much everything and anything. Always could just have some sort of completion time trial thing just to please the MS bods.

    Achievements could be just for making it through acts of the game (a la King Kong) or just turning the machine on (a la some EA games).

    Failing that, prepare for Sam 'n Max Deathmatch edition.... :-)

  • ArcMonkey #14 5 years ago

    Give us it on Wii Shop!!!

  • Veldaban #15 5 years ago

    With regards to widescreen, Telltale's made a few posts on that on their forums. Because they have such a tightly controlled camera, simply "showing more" can cause some problems, especially in cutscenes. They're looking into support it in future (and other non-4:3 resolutions like 1280x1024) but it's unlikely to happen for the current series...

  • kangarootoo #16 5 years ago

    Yay!!

  • GamesConnoisseur #17 5 years ago

    Rock on!!

    Let us have Day of The Tentacle (Lucasart) which is one of the most funny adventure game as well as all the others mentioned. Agree if they could do it via Live & Wii would be great, but I believe that other publishers would not commit unless Telltale are proven quite successful with Sam & Max.

    Then watch them all starting to queue up!

  • smelly #18 5 years ago

    ah well, i wouldve got it on wii.. but i have them on pc.

  • NegativeZero #19 5 years ago

    Given that Sam & Max seems to have done quite well, maybe it would be worth trying to get some of Lucasfarts other franchises and resurrect them? Monkey Island, for example.

  • some1 #20 5 years ago

    nintendo needs to get its butt in gear and start sending out dev kits to smaller producers, or they are gonna miss the boat again! Adventure games would be a much better fit on the wii.

    And lucasarts needs to get ITS butt in gear and release Day of the tentacle, Full throttle, etc.. on the DS and the Wii, whre thy would rock.

    and THEN nintendo needs to enable downoads of VC games to the DS.

    and THEN.. er..