Does it involve wanton destruction? - Let's Play Sam & Max Hit the Road!

Great opening to a good game.

I don't know if I have the patience to play through this game again, so I'm glad you're doing it for me.

I'm excited for violence times!

I had the hardest time choosing a title for this LP. There are so many great one-liners that could make a great title, but the only one I remember to this day is "My mind is a swirling miasma of turgid thoughts and improbable ideas." I'd have to play through the entire game just to remember them.

Regular updates will not be so picture heavy, or will at least involve more typing on my behalf. I just liked the intro sequence so much. Despite not having many frames of animation back in 1993 this was the closest I had ever seen to a real cartoon on my PC screen.

RE the topic title, I believe Max's line is "Does it involve wanton destruction?", actually.

...Yeah, I've played Sam & Max Hit the Road waaaaaay too many times...

Woo! I had trouble finishing this game. Can't wait to see what I've been doing wrong. Awesome choice, Benji.

Oh no! I even have a screenshot of that very line sitting here for the next update. How did I screw that up?

Sweet. I was waiting for this LP.

It's been years since I played this and I don't think I'll ever get back to it... This refresher course is welcome!

Don't worry benji, I got your back.

Welcome to Let's Play Sam & Max Hit the Road. When we last saw our heroes they were putting the kibosh on a mad scientist's plan to dissolve his would-be girlfriend. One staff roll montage later they're back in their office.



Max: I enjoyed the cheesy retro ambience.

Sam: What the hell are you talking about, Max?



Sam: Oops, oh yeah.

Sam: Max, where should I put this so it doesn't hurt anyone we know or care about?



Sam: I hope there was nobody on that bus.

Max: Nobody we know, at least.

When suddenly, the telephone rings. An impromptu scrum over the chance to take the call (that I failed to screenshot) occurs in which Sam tosses Max out the open window in order to answer the call.





Sam: Yes?

Sam: No!

Sam: Really?

Sam: Well, the same to you, Mac!

Max: Another confused census taker?

Sam: Actually, it was the Commissioner with another idiotic and baffling assignment.



Sam: We can only hope.

Sam: Due to the arbitrarily sensitive nature of the mission, we'll be meeting a bonded city courier out on the street.

Max: Ooh, smells like a fiercely thickening plot.

I love how this game from the very beginning just smashes the 4th wall... They know they're in a videogame and they seem to relish the fact...

Sam & Max have their mission, they just have to find out what it is. They'll go outside shortly to find that courier. Before they get to that though, I'll quickly go over the basics.

Sam & Max Hit the Road is an adventure game published by LucasArts way back in 1993. Lately we've seen a bunch of adventure games LP'ed here on Talking Time from Space Quest and King's Quest from Sierra, to Maniac Mansion from LucasArts, to the grand-daddy of them all: Zork. LucasArts published adventure games, unlike many contemporary brands, tended to not allow the player to die and possibly lose progress (though if you lost much progress by death you clearly weren't playing those other ones properly). Furthermore, items necessary to complete the game weren't locked away by making progress as they were in some other games. There wasn't a way to screw up and be forced to restart completely.

That said, did LucasArts games have baffling puzzles that could be completely illogical? Oh hell yeah they did! We'll see a fair share later on in this thread. Still, in a game like Sam & Max or Day of the Tentacle (the immediate precursor to Sam & Max and a sequel to Maniac Mansion) the entire universe operates one some pretty twisted cartoon logic. Once you get into it even the most ridiculous puzzles make a certain kind of sense.

Once control of the game is given to us we see a dingy cardboard box in the lower left hand corner of the screen.



This is our inventory. Right now Sam only has one item: Max. Yep, Max is an item. We'll be using him quite a lot over the course of the game.



The row of icons in blue serve as our "verbs" for this game. From the left we've got: Look (the eyeball), Take (the fist), Speak (the mouth), Use (the Martian Popping Thing), and the Inventory icon again which stands for exit. We can come in here to pick a new action, but it's much easier to just right-click (or ctrl-click).

There's a lot to do right here in the office. Sam can check the answering machine:







Or he can turn on the television, adjust the antenna, play with the dart board, turn the lights off, shut the door, turn on Max's black light, let Max play with his ant farm, or just shoot the shit with his buddy:





When using the speak command a row of icons appear at the bottom of the screen. The first three are question, exclamation, and non-sequitur. If there's anything more specific to ask about one or more icons will appear on the right half. Oftentimes it's necessary to talk to folks to get information and advance the game, but much of the time it's just an excuse to throw in a few choice one-liners.

Adventure game veterans will already expect this, but Sam can also look at almost everything in the game and say something about it:

Welcome back to Let's Play Sam & Max Hit the Road. Allow me to offer my deepest regrets over the delay in this adventure. I thought the brief vacation I'd taken for myself over the Crimmus holiday would prove an excellent time to really hunker down and get this Let's Play off the ground.

It didn't.

But that's neither here nor there, and I'm tanned, I'm rested, and ready to share with you dear readers the rest of this amazing tale of weird menace. Well, at least one of those things is true.

Previously on Let's Play Sam & Max Hit the Road our heroes defeated an evil genius, "saved" a damsel in distress, and returned to their base of operations. Just then, a call from their unseen dispatch The Commissioner alerted the two to yet another baffling mystery.

Ever secretive, The Commissioner has sent a courier with details of the current mission. We'll just let our fingers do the walking and check it out.



But wait... before doing that why don't I introduce the heroes of this tale.

Let's Meet Sam & Max!

Sam & Max are the creation of one Steve Purcell. They were featured in a handful of issues of a comic book series starting in 1987. I was lucky enough to find the first issue in the discount section of a comic book shop shortly after the release of Hit the Road. I think I paid 50� for it.


Sam is the dog. He wears a suit and a fedora and is the more straight-laced of the two. Max is a "rabbity thing." He's hyperactive, violent, and wears no clothes (but somehow carries a concealed gun). Together they fight crime and other weirdness though they have no official jurisdiction. Hence the moniker "Freelance Police."

Some time after the comic book finished its short run Purcell took a job at LucasArts who was doing great work with point and click adventure games. Sam and Max were used as placeholder sprites for SCUMM engine testing. One of the producers at LucasArts saw these characters traipsing about and suggested they might make a game out of them. And so they did. And it was fantastic.

The entire run of the comic book, plus several strips created for the LucasArts newsletter and other supplemental materials are collected in a single volume called Surfin' the Highway, now available in a classy looking Anniversary Edition.


Sam & Max Hit the Road was so popular that, in addition to the aforementioned comic book collection, they spawned a rather good Saturday morning cartoon series on Fox. Naturally some of the more violent and anarchistic tendencies had to be watered down for children's television but the series did a pretty fine job of capturing the spirit of the pair.


We'll see plenty more of their borderline antisocial behavior as we continue to play the game, so let's tarry no longer. Tune in next time when we finally meet that courier and figure out just what is so sensitive about the nature of this mission. I promise I won't make you wait so long this time.

Welcome back to Let's Play Sam & Max Hit the Road. See, I told you it wouldn't be such a long wait. When last we saw our furry heroes they were (finally) about to leave their office and get their adventure started. So let's go outside.



This is the hallway leading out of the Freelance Police offices. Next door to the office of Sam & Max is the office of Flint Paper, a hard-boiled detective. There's really nothing to do here so let's just take the stairs and...







Whoa! Flint just threw that guy through his window! And his chin caught on the railing!





Well that's life for a rough-and-tumble detective who don't take no guff from nobody. Let's be on our way then and...





Yowza!





The coast is finally clear. Let's get out to the street.



And here we are. The street. But where's the courier The Commissioner sent over? I don't see anything but this cat.





Well, seeing as the courier hasn't shown guess Sam will kill some time with this ugly cat. Let's say "hi" at least.





Oh?

You must be the Freelance Police.

Sam: Yes, but don't go blabbing it to everybody.

Max: I think he's kinda cute, Sam.

Max: Can I make a tennis racket out of him?

Sam: Maybe later, Max.

Sam: Right now, we've got a message from the Commissioner to collect.

Oh yeah, right.



Sorry guys...

I swallowed your orders for safekeeping,

but now I can't seem to hock them back up.

Wait, this horrible little cat is the licensed bonded courier Sam has been waiting for? And he swallowed the orders lest they be stolen by some hooligan? And now he can't get them back? Are we ever going to be able to hit that wide open road and solve some weird mysteries?

Repeated cajoling does nothing to solve the immediate problem. This cat just can't seem to cough up the information we need. Literally.

Surely there must be some way to vacate this courier's stomach...



Remember when I said Max was an item? Well, this is the first of many times in which his particular brand of gratuitous and/or senseless violence will come in handy.



Max: Ooh, that give me an idea!





Success!









The carnival, eh? Let's roll!





Next stop: the carnival! And adventure!



This is the map. As the game progresses more locations will become available. Right now Sam & Max have only their home office, the carnival (the tent in the northeast), a couple of Snuckey's (the hamburgers), and a minigame (the road icon down in Mexico). They'll be visiting those Snuckey's later, and the minigame will be covered in a bonus post somewhere down the line. Next stop: the carnival.

Next time on Let's Play Sam & Max Hit the Road: Freaks of nature! Dangerous carnival rides! And a tunnel of love!

Well, you've now gotten twice as far as I ever did. Previous experiments tell me I like reading adventure games much more than playing them, so godspeed, Benjibot, godspeed.

Snuckey's is based on the real roadhouse chain, Stuckey's, which appeared as themselves in the comics. Apparently, the owners of Stuckey's were tickled pink.

Aww, you didn't screencap the bullet with Max's name on it!

Ooh! Nice catch!

I was about to say "I.. I didn't even know that existed." But looking at this screenshot I honestly do remember seeing that back in one of my earliest playthroughs. And honestly, I have no idea how.

I really tried to get more screenshots of the scene outside Flint's door. You should see how many I took from the Cone of Tragedy (spoiler alert!) just so I could get the right one.

That Stuckey's interview was amazing. I'd like to believe that originally ran in some promotional materials found at Stuckey's. I can't think of where else it would be. I don't remember who he was, but someone I knew was baffled that the Snuckey's from the game was based on a real place.

It ran in their corporate newsletter originally.

Welcome back to Let's Play Sam & Max Hit the Road! When last we saw them, our heroes were en route to the carnival.



The carnival. And someone's coming...





Now...

Now we get in the bus and look for him, you idiot!

I knew that.



Tarnation? Blimey? And just who isn't here?







Sam: You're a demonic little imp, Max.

Well, whoever those guys were, I'm sure it isn't important and we'll never see them again. Let's go ogle some freaks!



Yowza!

Sam: Hey, what's the holdup?

Sorry, boys, we're closed.

I can't let you in.

Insurance reasons, you know.

Okay, fine. What if I just walk over he--



Yowza!

Okay, so Karnov over here won't let Sam & Max anywhere inside the carnival. Guess we'll just have to pump him for information. Starting with those two fellow from earlier.



Which misanthropes?

Max: The short one with the bad hairpiece and the tall one with the dark, flinty eyes.



Some help you are fatty! This guy is getting us nowhere fast. Maybe this fellow would be more amenable if we proved to him that we're on official business. Let's show him the Commissioner's orders.

Sam: Check this out, jack



Max: Now let us in before we replace you with a cheap renewable resource.







But be careful.

Carnivals can be dangerous to your health.

Har har har!

Sam: That was needlessly cryptic.

Max: I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any.

Time to head inside the Hall of Oddities.











Yeah, but––

It's them!



Welcome to our carnival.

What's left of it.

Sam: I'm Sam. He's Max.

Sam: We savagely protect the rights of innocents.

Max: Even cruelly twisted ones such as yourself.

Max: Selves.

Max: Whatever.

Well, you sound like just the guys to solve our little problem.



This isn't obvious from still images, but the brothers Kushman walk on all four of their legs like a sawhorse. I've always been disappointed that there's no witty retort from Sam nor Max at this point.



Sam: How could we miss it?

This used to be our main attraction.

Max: Your main attraction was a block of ice?

Don't be dense.

Our main attraction was a genuine––

authentic

real-life

BIGFOOT!

On ice!

Sam: Let me get this straight…

Sam: You want us to go traipsing all over the country looking for a soggy bigfoot?

Max: I've never been traipsing before. Does it hurt?

But Bruno must be returned to us!

He's a brutish, ignorant beast with no sense of right or wrong!

Sam: Hey, who isn't?

Besides, he's kidnapped our second main attraction.

Max: Is that the block of ice?

No, it's Trixie the Giraffe-Necked Girl from Scranton.

She disappeared at the same time Bruno did.

We can only assume the monster took her when he made his escape.

Sam: I guess Max and I could search for your missing freaks.

Sam: But we'll need free run of the carnival, to look for clues.

Max: Yeah, and free corndogs, so we can yuke all over ourselves.

No problem. Here's an all day free pass.



CARNIVAL PASS GET!

Sam: Leave everything to us, and we'll have those abominations of nature…

Sam: …back in your protective care before you can read the Koran.

Max: Didn't he fight Godzilla?

Finally, Sam and Max have their mission: find a previously frozen bigfoot named Bruno and a very long-necked girl named Trixie. But where to start looking? Hopefully a search of the carnival grounds will yield some clues. But first…







Because when isn't a soggy, mange-ridden clump of sasquatch hair useful?

This LP reminds me how this game has some of the funniest dialogue that I've seen.

is the thread abandoned?