LucasArts: The SCUMM Adventures & the Star Wars Empire

LucasArts began in 1982 as Lucasfilm Games, a small team George Lucas set up next to the film business, and for a strange and wonderful decade it was two studios in one body. On one side sat a group of writers building the smartest comedies in the medium, powered by an engine called SCUMM and a rule that would define them: the player should never die and never get stuck. On the other side sat the keys to Star Wars, and the best flight sims and action games the license would ever produce.

This is the guide to both halves. The point-and-click classics that made Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman famous, and the X-Wings, lightsabers and old republics that let the rest of us live in that galaxy.

The SCUMM philosophy: you cannot die

LucasArts' adventures ran on SCUMM, the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, and on a design creed borrowed from Ron Gilbert's frustration with the competition. No sudden deaths. No unwinnable dead ends. No pixel hunts that get you killed. The idea was that a comedy falls apart if the audience is terrified of making a mistake, so the games removed the fear and kept the wit. It was the exact opposite of Sierra's philosophy across the valley, and history mostly sided with LucasArts.