Sam & Max Hit The Road
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Sam & Max Hit the Road is the first game in the Sam & Max series. It was the ninth game to use the SCUMM scripting utility. I love Sam & Max. I grew up reading their comic adventures in the LucasArts Adventurer magazines that used to come with their games. I would buy each adventure game that LucasArts released, and a big part of that purchase was the chance to read a new Sam & Max comic. The humor was just so weird and off-the-wall, and really struck a chord with me. I loved reading the comics, and seeing what LucasArts game Sam & Max had gotten themselves involved with in the latest issue.

So, it was a no-brainer when Sam & Max finally got a game of their own: I purchased it immediately. Sam & Max Hit the Road was the rare game that I bought without actually being able to play it. Our family only had a 4Mhz 286 IBM-PC at the time, and we did not have a CD-ROM. I bought the CD-ROM talkie version of Sam & Max Hit the Road and waited several years until I could actually play the game.

When I finally got an audio CD player my freshman year in high school, I would listen to the bonus audio tracks on my CD player, delighting in the wonderful music, but completely oblivious to how they were used in the game. Until I had played the game, I had actually thought that Conroy Bumpus’ voice in King of the Creatures was actually the voice of Max. smiley.gif

On the subject of the music, the theme music is still my favorite score ever used in a Sam & Max game. It fits the duo perfectly, and I still hear that theme in my head whenever I experience Sam & Max, even when playing Telltale’s games.

When we did finally get a computer fast enough, the game definitely lived up to my high expectations. The humor was gleefully as weird as it was in the comics, and the voices of Sam & Max were both wonderful. Bill Farmer as Sam sounded like he had come out of the classic film noir movies, which was perfect for the straight-man personality of Sam. Nick Jameson gave Max just the right amount of insanity without going over the top.

I loved the theme of the game, which had Sam & Max traveling the USA going to the most bizarre tourist attractions the nation had to offer. It fit in so well with the characters, and led to some funny situations that gave way to some really funny one-liners. The ending is also very absurd yet strangely fulfilling at the same time, a trait which is very true to the characters of Sam & Max. :) This is probably my second most quoted LucasArts adventure game after The Secret of Monkey Island. There are so many fabulous jokes in this game.

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