Sam and Max Hit the Road

[7800Lover]

The graphic adventure genre has had a number of memorable titles and one of my favorite ones was the LucasArts release Sam and Max: Hit the Road.

 

Based on Steve Purcell's comics, the game revolves around a pair of anthropomorphic detectives. Sam is a dog in a suit and hat accompanied by Max, a wisecracking rabbit. The goal was to track down a missing bigfoot. And I'll be honest...this game was so funny. It's one of my all time favorites.

 

The offbeat sense of humor and the character's witty remarks are just so memorable. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

Sam: Oh boy! We've got a message!

Max: Gee, I hope it's something eerily provocative.

Voice on answering machine: Hi, I'm calling about your upcoming auction of confiscated automatic weapons.

Do you sell to convicted felons?

Sam: Hey, who are we to discriminate.

 

Sam: I don't suppose you'd accept this generous bribe?

Firebreather: Not on your life, fuzzy.

Max: What's this country coming to, when US currency can't even bribe a downtrodden circus freak?

Sam: I blame television.

 

Sam: If laid out from end to end, the ball would stretch from here to Jupiter. Also, scientists theorise that by 2053 the sheer weight of the Ball will push the Earth out of his orbit, propelling our planet on a collision course with the sun!

Max: Good thing my life expectancy is only six years.

Sam: Way to take the short view, little buddy.

 

There are many more but I don't have room for them all.

 

Sadly the game is hard to find now. Copies on Ebay can go from anywhere to $40 up to $100+! I haven't heard of any plans of a re-release and what's worse, a planned sequel got canned.

 

Who else loves this game?

[SteveW]

Sadly the game is hard to find now. Copies on Ebay can go from anywhere to $40 up to $100+!

 

Really? I passed one up in a thrift recently. I guess I need to go back and pick it up.

 

I never cared for the game, honestly. I couldn't get into the point-and-click genre at all. I bought the original black and white Sam & Max: Freelance Police comic when it came out, and I loved the hell out of it. I bought several copies at a big comic store sale and gave them out to people. I really wanted to enjoy the game, but I couldn't get into it. What little of it I played was fun, but I got stuck and gave up.

 

I was really hoping to be able to play a game of Fizzball, like in the centerfold of the comic book. In fact, I remember reading about a US senator that had the Fizzball centerfold pinned to his office wall!

[Jess Ragan]

A new Sam and Max game is coming, courtesy of Tell-Tale Games and GameTap! And you people said it wasn't worth a subscription!

 

JR

[Inky]

My personal fav from the Lucasarts adventure series was Zak McKracken. Too bad that one never got a sequel.

[Tempest]

Can the comics be found anywhere anymore? I'd love to get a hold of them, but I can never find them. There was some big book of all the Sam & Max comics, but that has been out of print for years.

 

Tempest

[ESPNZone1600]

I think that there is a site dedicated to Sam and Max and anything related. Try this spot:

 

 

http://www.samandmax.net/

 

Man, I'm still fuming at LucasArts for pulling the plug on Freelance Police.

[SteveW]

I've got a couple little cloisonne pins of Sam and Max that I bought years ago. I think it was around the time that the game came out.

 

I also remember an empty little room in the LucasArts game Dark Forces, that was shaped like Max's head, so you'd have the outline of his head on your automap.

 

It occurs to me that I used to have copies of the Adventurer, LucasArts newsletter, with Sam & Max comics in them. And I have a few of the assorted comics that have come out over the years, someplace in my comics collection collecting dust in storage.

Edited May 9, 2006 by SteveW

[AussieAtari]

I don't suppose you can get the game from one of the Abandonware sites?

[Drewman21]

When i was working at bestbuy a few years back they had a $10 reserve demo for Armed and Dangerous that had a Sam and Max version that would work under XP. I picked up a bunch of them for me and some friends. Kinda cool to play it now and again. I just need to get around to beating it.

 

Drewman21

[cimerians]

I played and finished it a few months back. Its still funny. I miss those types of games.

[Lord Thag]

You know, I used to HATE adventure games, but recently (after picking up Myst IV on the cheap), I have come to love them. I've been playing through the entire Myst series since. I've also been playing a lot of the new 'interactive fiction' (think Zork only more involved) on my PDA. Good stuff.

 

My favorite Lucasarts adventure is The Dig. Fantastic game with a fantastic story. Really gripping. It wold make a killer movie, actually.

[Jess Ragan]

They WANTED to make it a killer movie, but at the time, it would have been too expensive to produce. That's why they went the computer game route.

 

JR

[liveinabin]

All fans of Sam n Max rejoice at this years E3 goodness.

 

Sam n Max episodic adventures! What a wonderful world it suddenly is.

[hex65000]

The comic strip isn't so bad either. Thanks for pointing out the link... Best of all, the pricetag seems to stay in the sub $20 range...

 

The episode trailer was pretty amusing too.

 

Hex.

[ Won-ton wrappers... ]