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One month ago today, Sony dropped what was (for most) the most unexpected news to come out of E3. In partnership with Double Fine, the highly lauded cult classic adventure game Grim Fandango would be getting an "exclusive" re-release on PlayStation 4 and Playstation Vita.
At the same time as the announcement, Tim Schafer (original creator of Grim Fandango and founder of Double Fine) tweeted clarification that this updated version of the game would also be launching on "other platforms" to be announced soon, quelling some of the distraught outrage at the insinuation that Grim would not be returning to its original home on PCs.
Those "other platforms" have turned out to include a Linux alongside Mac and Windows, which will all be getting a simultaneous release alongside the Sony platforms.
For anybody unfamiliar with the game, Grim Fandango is a dark, noir styled comedy, influenced heavily by Día de Muertos, telling the tale of Department of Death travel agent Manuel Calavera, who becomes embroiled in a conspiracy as he attempts to save an innocent traveler from a dangerous journey across the Land of the Dead.
This re-release signals the first signs of older LucasArts IP being given proper attention since Darrell Rodriguez (responsible for the special Editions of the first two Monkey Island games) left in 2010, and offers hope that Disney (who own the now defunct studio's intellectual property) might be willing to negotiate giving some other much loved classics the opportunity to be experienced again.
Grim Fandango is currently playable on Linux via ResidualVM (a cousin of ScummVM), which attempts to natively implement the GrimE engine (and also has a point-and-click mod available), but unfortunately, new copies of Grim Fandango can not currently be purchased.
Below is a retrospective video looking at the game's history, towards the end of which, Tim mentions that they are hoping to work with the communities which have been keeping Grim Fandango alive over the past 16 years to incorporate some of those efforts, continuing Double Fine's trend of increasing community focus, and giving recognition to a decade and a half's worth of passion, hard work and love.
There is currently no release date set for Grim Fandango's re-release, though it does appear that work has already begun. Today's news post on the Double Fine website has this to offer:
¡Viva la Revolución!
(for anybody hunting for a slightly larger version of the tagline image I created for this article, it can be found here) Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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At the same time as the announcement, Tim Schafer (original creator of Grim Fandango and founder of Double Fine) tweeted clarification that this updated version of the game would also be launching on "other platforms" to be announced soon, quelling some of the distraught outrage at the insinuation that Grim would not be returning to its original home on PCs.
Those "other platforms" have turned out to include a Linux alongside Mac and Windows, which will all be getting a simultaneous release alongside the Sony platforms.
For anybody unfamiliar with the game, Grim Fandango is a dark, noir styled comedy, influenced heavily by Día de Muertos, telling the tale of Department of Death travel agent Manuel Calavera, who becomes embroiled in a conspiracy as he attempts to save an innocent traveler from a dangerous journey across the Land of the Dead.
This re-release signals the first signs of older LucasArts IP being given proper attention since Darrell Rodriguez (responsible for the special Editions of the first two Monkey Island games) left in 2010, and offers hope that Disney (who own the now defunct studio's intellectual property) might be willing to negotiate giving some other much loved classics the opportunity to be experienced again.
Grim Fandango is currently playable on Linux via ResidualVM (a cousin of ScummVM), which attempts to natively implement the GrimE engine (and also has a point-and-click mod available), but unfortunately, new copies of Grim Fandango can not currently be purchased.
Below is a retrospective video looking at the game's history, towards the end of which, Tim mentions that they are hoping to work with the communities which have been keeping Grim Fandango alive over the past 16 years to incorporate some of those efforts, continuing Double Fine's trend of increasing community focus, and giving recognition to a decade and a half's worth of passion, hard work and love.
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Direct Link
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There is currently no release date set for Grim Fandango's re-release, though it does appear that work has already begun. Today's news post on the Double Fine website has this to offer:
QuoteBut hopefully, after all those years of patience, you can hold out just a BIT longer.
¡Viva la Revolución!
(for anybody hunting for a slightly larger version of the tagline image I created for this article, it can be found here) Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: CheesenessYup, it should do! It's a little younger than ScummVM, but it's playable. IIRC, my last playthrough of the game was done using ResidualVM.
Thank you very much :D
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Quoting: Segata SanshiroFeel bad for the ResidualVM guys though, this kind of renders their work pretty pointless since this is the only game they've got working. That leaves them Monkey Island 4 (meh) and a few others which don't use a 2d engine like Discworld Noir. Hopefully means they'll focus on those though instead of abandon work on the project.
Beyond Grim Fandango, Monkey Island 4 has made a lot of progress lately and Myst 3 is coming along too. They have a few people working on both of those games as part of Google's Summer of Code. You can track some of this progress on the ScummVM dev blogs: http://planet.scummvm.org/
Personally, I wish someone would continue the work on adding support for The Longest Journey to ResidualVM. There was some work on this at https://github.com/scott-t/tlj-residual , but that hasn't been updated in a long time. It looks like the latest work on this is at https://github.com/Snejp/tlj-residual If only I had enough extra time, I'd love to look at working on this myself.
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Segata Sanshiro Jul 10, 2014
Quoting: CheesenessWell, yes and no. I think there's an insinuation in that last video that DF are going to be trying to collaborate with the ResidualVM developers. If that ends up happening, then that's potentially really positive and hopefully will lead to making sure that ResidualVM supports this new version of the game from day zero, and that's a little exciting.
That is good news then! Just hope they do Discworld Noir :P - haven't been able to play that in years, I think it only works on Windows 2000/ME, or Plystation but I lost the box for that.
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Quoting: CheesenessWell, yes and no. I think there's an insinuation in that last video that DF are going to be trying to collaborate with the ResidualVM developers. If that ends up happening, then that's potentially really positive and hopefully will lead to making sure that ResidualVM supports this new version of the game from day zero, and that's a little exciting.Let's say fair. Double Fine is unique studio, but I seriously doubt that they're going to swap their own proprietary engine to something else. I also doubt they'll going to use formats/features compatible with engine from 1998.
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Segata Sanshiro Jul 10, 2014
Quoting: SXXQuoting: CheesenessWell, yes and no. I think there's an insinuation in that last video that DF are going to be trying to collaborate with the ResidualVM developers. If that ends up happening, then that's potentially really positive and hopefully will lead to making sure that ResidualVM supports this new version of the game from day zero, and that's a little exciting.Let's say fair. Double Fine is unique studio, but I seriously doubt that they're going to swap their own proprietary engine to something else. I also doubt they'll going to use formats/features compatible with engine from 1998.
The problem often with these older games is that the source, art assets etc get lost or destroyed which leaves the devs' hands tied, having to pick apart at the game and do basically what the community does, so it would be logical for DF to reach out to the community and collaborate, otherwise they would end up doing what Square did with FF7 and just release the same game with an updated installer.
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Cheeseness Jul 10, 2014
Quoting: Segata SanshiroThat is good news then! Just hope they do Discworld Noir :P - haven't been able to play that in years, I think it only works on Windows 2000/ME, or Plystation but I lost the box for that.
I would dearly love to play that game again too. I've never had any luck running it in Wine.
Quoting: SXXLet's say fair. Double Fine is unique studio, but I seriously doubt that they're going to swap their own proprietary engine to something else. I also doubt they'll going to use formats/features compatible with engine from 1998.
To be honest, I'd be surprised if they ported Grim to Buddha (I don't know what their intentions with tech are at this point, though I'm happy to be pleasantly surprised).
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thelimeydragon Jul 10, 2014
Quoting: Segata SanshiroFeel bad for the ResidualVM guys though, this kind of renders their work pretty pointless since this is the only game they've got working. That leaves them Monkey Island 4 (meh) and a few others which don't use a 2d engine like Discworld Noir. Hopefully means they'll focus on those though instead of abandon work on the project.
You're forgetting one important thing.. that ResidualVM like ScummVM can and has been ported to devices that Grim Fandango was never intended for. :)
ResidualVM has been ported to the OpenPandora and Mobile Phones for example.
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Quoting: Segata SanshiroThe problem often with these older games is that the source, art assets etc get lost or destroyed which leaves the devs' hands tied, having to pick apart at the game and do basically what the community does, so it would be logical for DF to reach out to the community and collaborate, otherwise they would end up doing what Square did with FF7 and just release the same game with an updated installer.True, but I pretty sure that Tim Schafer it's kind of guy who make sure no important assets will lost. And even if they need to make something from scratch they'll able to because it's Sony pay for that.
Quoting: CheesenessTo be honest, I'd be surprised if they ported Grim to Buddha (I don't know what their intentions with tech are at this point, though I'm happy to be pleasantly surprised).As I see in license files ResidualVM is under GPLv2 (previously was LGPLv2.1) and I seriously doubt you can use any GPLv2 code in console game. E.g it's extremely tricky to integrate it with internal services, proprietary SDK, APIs, proprietary compilers and other libs, etc.
Releasing of source code under GPL will expose a lot of things that console vendors want to keep under NDA. So it's just technically impossible. :-(
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Segata Sanshiro Jul 10, 2014
Quoting: SXX]True, but I pretty sure that Tim Schafer it's kind of guy who make sure no important assets will lost. And even if they need to make something from scratch they'll able to because it's Sony pay for that.
Thing is, it wasn't down to him, the game was owned by LucasArts which he left many years ago - hence him saying about not owning it legally and having to negotiate with Disney to be able to make the game now.
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Cheeseness Jul 11, 2014
Quoting: SXXAs I see in license files ResidualVM is under GPLv2 (previously was LGPLv2.1) and I seriously doubt you can use any GPLv2 code in console game. E.g it's extremely tricky to integrate it with internal services, proprietary SDK, APIs, proprietary compilers and other libs, etc.
Individual contributors are free to allow their own work to be used under an alternative licence. ResidualVM's contributor list is larger than I thought it was, but that doesn't mean there isn't still opportunity for something to be worked out there.
It's difficult to come up with a different interpretation of Tim's comments towards the end of that video. He does say that it's something that they're trying to do, so whether or not that's successful is another matter.
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Currently working on Winter's Wake, a first person text adventure thing and its engine Icicle. Also making a little bee themed base builder called Hive Time :)
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