Like movies and comics, games almost force you to constantly look in the foreground, at the characters and moving parts whizzing past your face. Focus solely on whatâs in front of you, though, and youâll miss some of a gameâs best bits: namely, whatâs in the background.
And few developersâ backgrounds were as memorable as those of Lucasarts, the premier adventure game developer of the 1990s. From Fate of Atlantis to Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max to Monkey Island, every screen of Lucasartsâ adventure games wasnât simply a way to present puzzles, it was a way to capture the playerâs imagination.[jump]
The companyâs switch to 3D graphics in the late 90s, with games like Grim Fandango, marked the end of these âcartoonyâ 2D backgrounds, as textured landscapes took their place.
In the gallery above youâll find a selection of some of my favourite, from the games listed above as well as stuff like The Dig and older Lucasarts titles such as Loom and Maniac Mansion. To see more â weâre talking 604 pieces in total â head here
Oh, and the images are all displayed at their native resolution, which in those days was a lot smaller than 1920Ă1080. Which explains why theyâre so damn small. So you wonât be able to make wallpapers out of them. Sorry!
Total Recall is a look back at the history of video games through their characters, franchises, developers and trends.
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