05 Mar 2026Developer post

Sam & Max Save the World 2.1.0 Update

Sam & Max Save the World has been updated to version 2.1.0. It's a little patch with a few little fixes, but we're proud of it all the same. Also if you're looking for more Max in your life, we've spent the last year hard at work on an updated version of Poker Night at the In

Sam & Max Save the World has been updated to version 2.1.0. It's a little patch with a few little fixes, but we're proud of it all the same.

Also if you're looking for more Max in your life, we've spent the last year hard at work on an updated version of Poker Night at the Inventory, and it's just come out this week. Check it out:

View game page

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 2.1.0):

Game-wide:

We updated the basement window casings on Sam & Max's office to be consistent with The Devil's Playhouse. When we were remastering The Devil's Playhouse, we realized that if we wanted to be really nerdy about it, the basement windows should have always been cased window wells. So we did it. Now when you're playing, you can imagine that old abandoned boiler room down there waiting for you the whole time.
Bosco's is no longer subtly floating off the ground. This was only visible from some very weird camera angles, but if you noticed it it probably drove you insane. Now, sanity reigns, or whatever passes for sanity at Bosco's Inconvenience.
Fixed clicking on sliders in the UI snapping to a nearby value instead of grabbing the slider.
Fonts scale better at low resolution. If you ran the game at 720p or lower, you probably noticed that the fonts looked a little crispy. They should now look more smooth on low res displays. If you play the game at 800x600 on a CRT let us know how the fonts look.

Episode 101: Culture Shock

Peepers can no longer cry and talk at the same time in Sybil's office.
A half a dozen or so Sam lines now play that used to be hidden behind a logic bug. Once you show Bosco the helmet diagram, you can click on the dartboard in the office, the camera or microwave in the store, and various objects in the street to hear some long-missing lines, now restored to play in game.

That's all for now! Thanks to all of you who wrote in with bugs big and small. And as usual if you find a bug please point it out in the appropriate forum or the comments below, and we'll do our best to fix it in a future patch!

Original post

04 Feb 2026Developer post

Arts & Crafts Contest: Poker Night Edition

ICYMI, our next game is a remastered version of Poker Night at the Inventory , which features four fan-favorite characters — Max (from Sam & Max), Strong Bad (from Homestar Runner), Tycho (from Penny Arcade), and The Heavy (from Team Fortress 2) — bantering over a game of Tex

ICYMI, our next game is a remastered version of Poker Night at the Inventory, which features four fan-favorite characters — Max (from Sam & Max), Strong Bad (from Homestar Runner), Tycho (from Penny Arcade), and The Heavy (from Team Fortress 2) — bantering over a game of Texas Hold’em. It'll be out on March 5!

Watch on YouTube

To celebrate, we’re expanding the scope of our (more or less) annual arts & crafts contest, which has been Sam & Max themed in the past, to include all four of these guys. (And, if you feel like it, poker!)

What’s in it for me?

The joy of creating art for art’s sake. Just kidding. We’ll send each winner a Poker Night at the Inventory game key for your platform of choice. How many winners, exactly? We won’t know until we see the entries!

But that’s not all. For a few of our favorites, we’ll toss in a set of Poker Night themed chips that have been carefully stashed away in a team member’s closet for the past fifteen years. They might be, um, shedding a little. They just need someone to love them.

And the grand prize? That's where it gets really special. The creator of our #1 favorite entry will get a game key plus a prize bundle that includes one incredible item from each of the four franchises:

A pair of Max slippers from Uncute (currently sold out!)

A talking Strong Bad plush (also sold out!)

A portrait of Tycho painted by Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik (truly one of a kind!)

A Team Fortress 2 poster signed by Valve employees (the envy of all your friends!)

The Fine Print

Your entry must include at least one of the four characters.
Your entry doesn’t have to relate to poker… but we might like it more if it does. 👀
Any creative endeavor is welcome, be it fan art, cosplay, sculpture, video, music, needle arts, food, etc. We love entries that surprise us.
Too many ideas? Can’t decide which is best? No problem! Enter as many times as you want (but you can only win once).
AI-generated assets and images will not be considered. We want to see stuff made entirely by you!
US and international entries are allowed. Be prepared to give us your mailing address if you win one of the physical prizes. We'll cover shipping but can't be responsible for any import taxes or tariffs charged after the package leaves our care.
Email your entry to [email protected] by 11:59pm Pacific time on Friday, February 27. Rather than sending big attachments, please host them somewhere like Google Drive and send a link. Your email should also include anything you want us to know about the entry, and your name / social media handles (for us to post on Bluesky/Twitter if you win).

Once the contest closes, the extended Skunkape family will argue about our favorite entries for a few days and reveal the winners on or around March 4.

So break out those crayons, scissors, and welding torches, and make something that will wow us!

Original post

18 Sep 2025Developer post

Twenty years have gone so fast…

On September 14, 2005, Telltale Games held an evening event in a downtown San Francisco high-rise. The attendees were mainly potential investors, with a few journalists invited to hear a Big Announcement. Telltale’s first episodic adventure game, Bone: Out from Boneville, was hou

On September 14, 2005, Telltale Games held an evening event in a downtown San Francisco high-rise. The attendees were mainly potential investors, with a few journalists invited to hear a Big Announcement. Telltale’s first episodic adventure game, Bone: Out from Boneville, was hours away from release, and they were secretly working on CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder, but the surprise announcement was for something else… and Steve Purcell was sitting in the audience, rocking his trademark fedora.

Just after midnight, Adventure Gamers broke the news that Telltale and Steve had signed a deal to make episodic Sam & Max games—and an entire fandom wept openly.

An Episodic Sociopathic Lagomorph

The Sam & Max announcement made its way to the decision-makers at GameTap, a new video game streaming service owned by Turner Entertainment. The media company had found success airing old shows and films on channels like Turner Classic Movies and the Cartoon Network, and now they were trying to do the same thing with old video games, but GameTap was off to a bumpy start. They needed original content to attract subscribers. A game that came out episodically, like a TV show, would be a perfect fit.

Watch on YouTube

Fast forward to the spring of 2006: GameTap announced at E3 that Telltale’s Sam & Max Season One would debut on their service that fall. GameTap had a huge E3 booth that year, with the Sam & Max trailer playing on a loop on the big screen. Telltale’s CEO Dan Connors even did a live interview with Space Ghost! Unfortunately the video footage has been lost to time, but we had a signed Space Ghost poster hanging in the office for years, so we’re 99.9% sure this really happened.

Speaking of Posters...

GameTap also handed out Sam & Max posters at the booth, featuring new art by Steve Purcell. We later used the art on postcards that we brought to trade shows like Comic-Con and E for All (story for another time), but the poster was only ever available at this show, making it uber-rare.

And… we want YOU to win one!

Recently, a former GameTap employee reached out to us saying he’d found one of these rare posters in his closet and couldn’t bear to throw it away. So we said, “Send it to us, we’ll have a contest!” And he did, and we are.

ENTER THE CONTEST HERE!

The contest has five trivia questions. Each correct answer gives you a chance to win. Entries are open through 11:59pm PDT on Sunday, September 21, and we’ll announce the winner on Monday the 22nd on our Bluesky and Twitter.

(If you like behind-the-scenes stuff, Steve described his process for creating this artwork on Facebook.)

But Wait, There's More!

In honor of ~~how old and decrepit we are~~ this momentous anniversary, all three Sam & Max remasters and soundtracks are on sale this week. If you’ve been waiting to give us your money, the time to act is now. Pick 'em up piecemeal, or splurge on the bundles for an even bigger discount!

View game page

Original post

17 Apr 2025Developer post

Save Big in the Sam & Max Trilogy Sale

Maybe… …you’ve played one or two of the Sam & Max remasters, but haven’t completed the trilogy? …you enjoyed Telltale’s Sam & Max games back in the day, but haven’t tried the spiffy new remasters? …you’ve never been on a case with the Freelance Police, but you’re intrigue

10 Oct 2024Developer post

It’s baaackkk… Sam & Max Halloween contest rises from the grave!

Here’s a scary story: last year we completely forgot to hold our annual Halloween contest. 😱 We rectified that for the holidays, but this year we’re (just barely) better prepared. We hereby kick off 2024’s Halloween contest, with entries due by 11:59pm Pacific time on October 31

Here’s a scary story: last year we completely forgot to hold our annual Halloween contest. 😱

We rectified that for the holidays, but this year we’re (just barely) better prepared. We hereby kick off 2024’s Halloween contest, with entries due by 11:59pm Pacific time on October 31. That gives you three weeks to get all artsy craftsy in the spirit of the spooky season… let's go!

THE RULES

Send pics (or other files as appropriate) of your Sam & Max themed entry to [email protected] by 11:59pm Pacific time on Sunday, October 31. If your file is too big to play nicely with email, sending us a link to a Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. works too. Also tell us how you want to be credited if we share your entry. (Your name or handle, website URL, Twitter, etc.)
Your entry can be fan art, sculpture, cosplay, music, video, words... anything, really! (As long as it won't make our lawyers mad. Keep it legal!) Check out the winners from 2023, 2022, and 2021 to see which entries we’ve gone for in the past.
You can submit multiple entries, but only win once. By submitting, you grant us permission to use your entry (with attribution) for promotion on social media, the Skunkape website, and other places where promotion happens.
To select the winners, the Sam & Max Remastered team will hold a democratic vote overseen by a panel of objective nonpartisan observers. (Pretty sure we’ve got some of those around here somewhere…) In the event of a tie, Steve Purcell gets the tie-breaking vote.

THE PRIZES

10ish runners-up will get your choice of a Sam & Max Save the World, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, or Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse key on your preferred platform
3ish honorable mentions will get a game key AND a Steam key for the brand new Devil’s Playhouse soundtrack (so new we haven’t even released it yet!)
1 grand prize winner will get a game key, a Devil’s Playhouse soundtrack key, AND a set of Sam & Max plushies courtesy of our buddies at Uncute!

Let the creativity commence! We'll announce the winners the week of November 4.

Original post

08 Oct 2024Developer post

Sam & Max Save the World 2.0.0 Update

Sam & Max Save the World has been updated to version 2.0.0, with a handful of bug fixes big and small. Okay, it sounds ominous that this is "version 2.0.0," especially considering the remaster in totality is basically already version 2.0 in spirit, but we recompiled the game

Sam & Max Save the World has been updated to version 2.0.0, with a handful of bug fixes big and small. Okay, it sounds ominous that this is "version 2.0.0," especially considering the remaster in totality is basically already version 2.0 in spirit, but we recompiled the game engine itself for the first time in quite a while as part of this patch, to fix a few of the lower-level game-wide bugs, so it felt right. Also, it's been a couple years since the last patch; you deserve this.

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 2.0.0):

Game-wide:

Fixed instances where setting the game's resolution higher than your screen's physical resolution would cause the cursor to get trapped in a small corner of the screen.
Fixed crashes that occurred in rare edge cases when the engine tried to change the list of loaded dialog files when the list was in use. It feels strange explaining a bug in a decades-old proprietary game engine in the patch notes, but here we are reading it together.
Reduced situations that would cause the engine's audio system to get confused and play a sound or piece of music a second time.

Episode 101:

Fixed typo in Czech driving tutorial text.
Added a beat up old version of the Majestic Theater signage to the Asylum exterior, as a treat for the lore sickos.

Episode 102:

Fixed missing transparency in the localized versions of TV Studio exit signs.

Episode 105:

Fixed logic in VR Office dialog that could prevent getting a coin from Jimmy Two-Teeth, in some rare cases.

Episode 106:

Fixed Red Max's muzzle flash sometimes being visible after sending him on the roller coaster. Honestly bug descriptions are fun sometimes.
Fixed big red button in Laser Room not rendering on Switch.
Fixed Red Max's muzzle flash not rendering on Switch.
Fixed roller coaster button in Moon Retreat not rendering on Switch.
The closing credits frame colors now match the original game instead of being default grey.

That's all for now! And as usual if you find a bug please point it out in the appropriate forum or the comments below, and we'll do our best to fix it in a future patch!

Original post

19 Dec 2023Developer post

Let’s sing the Friendly Demon Song… and raise money for charity!

Tomorrow, the Skunkape team and a special guest or two will take over twitch.tv/GameHistoryOrg for a festive holiday stream. 🎄🎅 🎁 First we’ll reveal the winners of our holiday contest . Then we’ll play Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa and chime in with our memories of working

29 Nov 2023Developer post

Announcing the Sam & Max Holiday Contest

The past two years, we’ve held a Halloween arts and crafts contest for the Sam & Max community. This is a continuation of a tradition that started at Telltale, and we love seeing what you all come up with. Here are last year’s winners. Then this year we were so busy working o

The past two years, we’ve held a Halloween arts and crafts contest for the Sam & Max community. This is a continuation of a tradition that started at Telltale, and we love seeing what you all come up with. Here are last year’s winners.

Then this year we were so busy working on The Devil’s Playhouse… we forgot about the contest!

Good news, Sam & Max fans. The contest has risen from the dead AND we have news about The Devil’s Playhouse!

The Power of Christmas Compels You

We’re calling this one the “Oops, We Missed Halloween So Let’s Do a Holiday Contest Instead” contest. Here’s how it works: the holiday season is upon us. Steve Purcell is a wonderful person who gave us all the gift of Sam & Max. We really should return the favor, don’t you think?

If you could make Steve a Christmas gift, what would it be? Get creative! The only rules are that your entry has to relate to Sam & Max in some way, and it’s gotta be legal. Nothing that would make Baby Jesus cry (on his birthday, no less).

Send a picture (or other files as appropriate) of your entry to [email protected] by December 17 at 11:59pm (PST). (Copy/paste that address into your email -- if you try clicking it, Steam will give you a "blocked link" message.)

We’ll pick our favorites and reveal them during a holiday Twitch stream the week of the 18th. Before sending in your entry, please review the fine print below.

Two grand prize winners will score a bundle of Sam & Max goodies:

Boss Fight Studio’s brand new Sam & Max Wave 2 action figures (Scuba Max & Ratso and the Rubber Pants Commandos)
Limited Run Games’ Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Collector’s Edition for PC
A game key for the platform of your choice when Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered launches in Spring 2024

Since we always have trouble picking our favorite entries, there will most likely be a bunch of runners up, too. Those people will also win a Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered game key.

The Fine Print

If your file is too big to play nicely with email, sending us a link to a Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. works too. Also tell us how you want to be credited if we share your entry. (Your name or handle, website URL, Twitter, etc.)
You can submit multiple entries, but only win once. By submitting, you grant us permission to use your entry (with attribution) for promotion on social media, the Skunkape website, and other places where promotion happens.
To select the winners, the Sam & Max Remastered team will hold a democratic vote overseen by a panel of objective nonpartisan observers (okay, maybe not). In case of a tie, Steve Purcell gets the final say.

Wait, what was that? Did you say The Devil’s Playhouse is launching in Spring 2024?!

Yes! We’d originally expected to release Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered this year, but we’ve been keeping quiet until we could be more certain of the date. Now that 2023 is almost over, we can say for sure that the game won’t be out this year. (Sorry!)

But we’re super close, and within a few months you’ll be playing the final game in the episodic Sam & Max trilogy, in all its remastered glory.

Original post

17 Oct 2022Developer post

The Sam & Max Halloween Contest—2022 Edition

Hey there, Sam & Max community! It's the spooky time of year again—the time when the Skunkape team innocently proposes a Halloween contest and gets bombarded with so much awesome fan art and other creative goodies that we have to stop all work for a week just to sift through

Hey there, Sam & Max community! It's the spooky time of year again—the time when the Skunkape team innocently proposes a Halloween contest and gets bombarded with so much awesome fan art and other creative goodies that we have to stop all work for a week just to sift through it and vote on our favorittes.

In other words, it's time for the 2nd Annual Skunkape Sam & Max Halloween Contest (loosely based on the Telltale "Do What You Will" Halloween contests of the mid-aughts).

Here's how it works:

Send pics (or other files as appropriate) of your arts & craftsy Sam & Max themed entry to [email protected] by 11:59pm Pacific time on Sunday, October 30. If your file is too big to play nicely with email, sending us a link to a Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. works too. Also tell us how you want to be credited if we share your entry. (Your name or handle, website URL, Twitter, etc.)
Your entry can be fan art, sculpture, cosplay, music, video, words, pictures of delicious cookies shaped like Max's head... anything, really! (Well, anything that won't make our lawyers mad. Keep it legal, folks!) Check out last year's Twitter thread to see which entries caught our fancy in 2021.
You can submit multiple entries, but only win once. By submitting, you grant us permission to use your entry (with attribution) for promotion on social media, the Skunkape website, and other places where promotion happens.
To select the winners, the Sam & Max Remastered team will hold a democratic vote overseen by a panel of objective nonpartisan observers (okay, maybe not). How many winners? Who knows! Last year we had twelve.
Each winner can either select a Sam & Max Save the World or Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space game key for their platform of choice (PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, or PlayStation), OR a Sam & Max Save the World or Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space soundtrack key for Steam. But wait, there's more! We'll also be awarding a super secret GRAND PRIZE for our favorite entry—we can't tell you what it is yet, but it's probably not what you're expecting...

So, go! Make some cool art, maybe win a thing! We're counting on you.

Original post

18 Feb 2022Developer post

Sam & Max Save the World 1.1.0 Update

Sam & Max Save the World has been updated to version 1.1.0, an alarming version number that implies we could one day ship a "version 2.0.0" of this thing, which is confusing since this is already basically the 2.0 version. I guess we'll find out 90 patches from now. In the me

Sam & Max Save the World has been updated to version 1.1.0, an alarming version number that implies we could one day ship a "version 2.0.0" of this thing, which is confusing since this is already basically the 2.0 version. I guess we'll find out 90 patches from now. In the meantime, enjoy these little fixes we've made throughout the game. And as usual thank you to everyone who has pointed out these increasingly esoteric bugs and glitches in the game!

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.1.0):

Game-wide:

Fixed Sam teleporting when clicking both mouse buttons at the same time while gun is drawn. (PC only)
Fixed game not pausing correctly while pause menu is open if the player got there by mashing escape & spacebar in wild and rapid succession. (PC only) Respect to the person who spent a bunch of time wildly pressing buttons on pause screens until something happened.
Fixed Sam's hand sometimes clipping into Max's head during "Do you have any..." dialog chores in Bosco's.
Fixed spelling of "Pharaoh" on billboard outside Sam & Max's office.
Fixed pop caused by Sam's walk animation playing briefly when entering an interactive dialog.
Made Sam path to Bosco when using price list in Store to fix pops.
Fixed Sam walk animation pop and camera drifting after turning Office television off.
Fixed power lines not connected to anything on the far edge of the street (visible in episode end cutscene).
Fixed pause menu button text not being perfectly centered. We can all relax now.

Episode 1:

Added collision handling to NPC vehicles so you can't do this anymore.
Fixed ghosting at the edge of transparency in Brady painting textures.
Fixed Jimmy's ear clipping with rat hole during opening cutscene.
Fixed not being able to send Max into the bathroom after talking to Bosco while Whizzer is whizzing.

Episode 2:

Updated tabloid textures to use new models.
Fixed animation and lighting pops in opening cutscene (SM1-1509).
Fixed using price list initiating Bosco "buy" dialog when you're supposed to be chasing the Skinbodies.
Changed subtitle to match Myra VO when talking to her in Game Show.
Fixed camera pop when taking shaving cream in Bosco's.
Fixed Sam & Peepers animation pops during interactive dialog in Embarrassing Idol.
Fixed Max's hand clipping into judge's stand after Sam sings in Embarrassing Idol.

Episode 3:

Updated Whack Da Ratz "1 token" textures to match season two font and resolution.
Fixed Sam's hat flickering during opening cutscene.
Fixed card pops while playing poker in Casino.
Fixed bad camera cut and Max animation that was causing pops when using bug on Leonard in the Office.
Fixed teddy bear legs sticking out of package after placing it on the table in Bosco's.

Episode 4:

Fixed Max pop after using the storage door in the White House exterior.
Fixed phone floating when returning to White House after Superball is no longer on hold. Sorry to Superball's ghost who has been removed from the game.
Fixed Chuckles floating and Lincoln's hand clipping into podium during Lincoln intro.
Fixed Max sliding when examining campaign slogans in inventory.
Fixed camera pop when using television in Office.
Fixed black sky visible in Lincoln chase intro cutscene. The sky shouldn't turn black until Max's third or fourth presidential term.
Fixed secret service agent's foot popping off screen during War Song.
Fixed Bosco talking about funding after he's been funded when you ask him about his missile defense system.
Fixed spelling of "Do svidaniya" in Bosco dialog.

Episode 5:

Fixed a small pop in Sam's animation when using Sludgie machine in Bosco's.
Added military drumroll music and fixed Sam clipping out of the walkable area when using bug on COPS in Lefty's.
Fixed Slime being visible after running away when attacking with boxing glove in VR Bosco's.
Fixed Slime not moving all the way off screen when it flees in VR Bosco's.
Changed text to match Jimmy VO when pushing him into cannon in Bosco's.
Fixed Bosco distracted animation playing when taking binoculars while he's using VR goggles.
Fixed Bosco not staying distracted when saving & loading after distracting him.
Fixed Jimmy VO not playing in Street when examining cannon in inventory.
Fixed dialog UI hand being visible during interactive dialog after combat.
Fixed Sam popping back to combat position after fleeing in Street & Bosco's VR.

Episode 6:

Made note on dartboard in Office double-sided (it's seen from the back during opening cutscene).
Fixed Max's fingers sticking through boxing glove, floating characters and shadow pops in closing credits.
Fixed spelling of "Fascist" in Moon Retreat.
Fixed Sam sometimes obstructing the camera when looking at magazines in Bosco's.
Fixed Sam clipping into camera when talking to COPS in Moon Retreat.
Fixed Hugh animation pop when looking at statues in the Inner Sanctum.
Fixed Green Max pop when feeding him in Bosco's.
Fixed Bob being visible after Max has returned him when helping Lincoln get a date in Moon Retreat.

That's all for now! For a complete history of our patches you can visit the Skunkape support website. And as usual if you find a bug please point it out in the appropriate forum and we'll do our best to fix it in a future patch!

Original post

09 Dec 2021Developer post

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is out today!

Hey, you! Yeah, you—the person who played Sam & Max Save the World and is hungry for more. What would you say if we told you that your wish has come true? That’s right: the remastered version of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is out today. Even better, people who own Sa

Hey, you! Yeah, you—the person who played Sam & Max Save the World and is hungry for more. What would you say if we told you that your wish has come true?

That’s right: the remastered version of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is out today. Even better, people who own Sam & Max Save the World can get it for 25% off through December 21.

Watch on YouTube

Wait, back up. Beyond time and what now?

As you might know, Sam & Max Save the World first came out in 2006–2007 as a monthly episodic series named Sam & Max Season One.

About six months after the episodic run wrapped, Telltale launched Sam & Max Season Two. That game was later renamed Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, and we've spent the past year or so giving it the same treatment as the Sam & Max Save the World remaster.

In Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, the Freelance Police save Christmas from a gun-toting Santa, take a splash in the Fountain of Youth, face off with an emo vampire… and then things really start to get weird.

It’s a five-episode game with its own arc, but many characters and story threads carry over from Sam & Max Save the World, with a grand finale that caps off the whole series so far. Tl;dr: if you liked Sam & Max Save the World, you’re going to love Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space.

Check out this Steam announcement for more details.

So what’s this about a discount?

Yeah, about that! Through December 21, we’re offering a Save the World + Beyond Time and Space bundle for 25% off. If you don’t own either Sam & Max remaster yet, here’s your chance to dive in headfirst with a 25% discount on both of them.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/24043/Save_the_World__Beyond_Time_and_Space_Bundle/

But if you do already own Sam & Max Save the World? That's where things get fancy. This is a “complete the set” bundle, which means that people who already own Sam & Max Save the World on Steam will get just Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space for the discounted price. Your cart will look something like this:

So what do you say… maybe treat yourself to an early Christmas present? We guarantee it'll be better than whatever Santa's bringing you…

Original post

07 Dec 2021Developer post

Sam & Max Save the World 1.0.9 Update

Though we're about to release the remastered edition of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (it comes out Wednesday!), we would never forget about our first love: You, a proud owner of Sam & Max Save the World. We've got a bunch of little fixes and quality of life updates fo

Though we're about to release the remastered edition of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (it comes out Wednesday!), we would never forget about our first love: You, a proud owner of Sam & Max Save the World. We've got a bunch of little fixes and quality of life updates for your copy of the game. They went live earlier today in fact, in version 1.0.9!

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.9):

Game-wide:

Updated the music that plays when Sam and Max drive away in the DeSoto. Yes, now it's played by live musicians! Why not. Also fixed are some instances where the DeSoto music was getting cut off at the end of scenes. It now concludes over the load screen as needed.
Fixed bug preventing the inventory from being disabled when the game is paused. You can no longer browse the pause menu and Sam's inventory at the same time, which we think is for the best.
Disabled saving the game when in the middle of entering a scene. At the lightest this was causing a few doors to stick open, and a the worst was causing the game to get very, very confused when it loaded back up thinking it was half way between two scenes.
Fixed bugs around pausing or mashing the menu button immediately upon entering a scene.
Fixed all in-game mouse cursors being too dark.
Fixed instances of Sam being stuck running if the run key was held when the game window loses focus. Also fixed instances of Sam's move animation going to slow motion when scraping against the edge of a scene with his gun drawn.
Removed trailing spaces before line breaks in UI elements. This is a tiny fix but if you noticed it and couldn't sleep once you saw it, you can now finally relax.
(Xbox only) Fixed HDR being to bright on HDR-compatible Xbox systems.

Episode 1:

Fixed camera pops when listing symptoms of artificial personality disorder in Sybil's and Asylum Exterior. Also fixed the size of the selection box for the symptoms form, and cleaned up the position Sam paths to to read it (so there's less of a pop).
Added long-missing "signed" version of the symptoms form inventory icon, so when it returns to your inventory signed, you can see Sybil's signature on it. This texture was made for the original game but never used! (We had to remake it for the remaster because the original was too low res, but now its spirit lives on in the game for the first time.)
Added new textures for when when Sybil marks & signs the symptoms form, and added close-up shots of form. This is probably the last update the Artificial Personality Disorder symptoms form will ever receive in its 15 year lifespan, but never say never.
Fixed a camera pop and added a fade out when transitioning from Sybil's to the psychoanalysis office in Sam's dream.
Fixed blown out dartboard and associated objects in psychoanalysis office.

Episode 2:

Gamepad UI hotspots (the little yellow circles) no longer also show up on the TV studio monitors.
Adjusted the timing of when the Midtown Cowboys video clip goes into your inventory, so it happens after the Director has handed it to you, instead of before.
Fixed Hugh Bliss' music stopping when you ask him for a photo the first time.
Fixed Hugh Bliss' photo going into your inventory while still in a conversation with him.

Episode 3:

Fixed instances where the DeSoto's idle sounds were sometimes not playing or not stopping correctly when driving up to the casino.
Fixed anti-delivery camera sometimes pointing in the wrong direction when Sam puts the magnet on it.

Episode 5:

Fixed DeSoto VR exit music getting cut off. Unlike the normal DeSoto scene exit music, this version is still performed by a computer.

Episode 6:

Fixed street parking meters not staying bent/straight.
Fixed camera pop when flinging Jimmy off parking meter.
Fixed Sam teleporting and camera pop after selling deed to Sybil.

As always, thanks to everyone who found an issue and reported it! For a complete history of our patches you can visit the Skunkape support website. And as usual if you find a bug please point it out in the appropriate forum and we'll do our best to fix it in a future patch!

Original post

18 Nov 2021Developer post

Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered will be out December 8!

It's the news you've been waiting for! We announced yesterday that the remastered version of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (aka Season Two) will release on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox on December 8. That's just three weeks away! Head over to the Sam & Max: Beyond

18 Oct 2021Developer post

Announcing the Sam & Max Halloween Contest

Back when Telltale’s Sam & Max games first released, we held a little arts and crafts contest every Halloween. Entries could be anything Sam & Max related… fan art, Halloween costumes, Max-shaped cookies… one year someone even carved Max’s head into a pumpkin and set it o

11 Aug 2021Developer post

Sam & Max Save the World 1.0.8 Update

Over the last few months, while we've been working on remastering the next season and bringing Sam & Max Save the World to other platforms (like Xbox, available as of yesterday!), all of you have kept playing on PC and Switch, and you've helpfully been pointing out tiny bugs

Over the last few months, while we've been working on remastering the next season and bringing Sam & Max Save the World to other platforms (like Xbox, available as of yesterday!), all of you have kept playing on PC and Switch, and you've helpfully been pointing out tiny bugs across the game. We fixed a bunch of them! Yesterday those fixes went live in version 1.0.8 across PC, Switch, and Xbox.

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.8):

Game-wide:

The game's window position now remembers its previous location and restores to that position on startup.
Disabled the pause menu while a dialog box is active. Sorry, it's true, you can no longer pause the game in a panic when it's in the middle of warning you about something.
Fixed a bug causing Sam's gun to appear stuck to his hand in some situations when loading from a game saved in shooting mode.
Fixed "Art Director" text running off screen during opening credits in French, Hungarian & Polish.
Fixed small hole in the world visible when driving on sidewalk.
Fixed a dark/unlit patch of lighting outside Bosco's.
Fixed some little jaggies and shadow ghosting in the Sam & Max logo on the menu. Crucial fix!
Switch: Increased music mix volume to match PC. Thanks everyone who reported mysteriously quiet music on Switch!
Switch: Fixed a bug preventing double-tapping the touchscreen from making Sam run.
Switch: Fixed bad model deformation on Specs' mouth corners. (PC fixed in 1.0.6.)

Episode 1:

Fixed symptoms form being upside down when Sybil writes on it at her desk.
Fixed unpleasant shadow under schematic when giving it to Bosco.
Fixed Sam pathing to a strange point when clicking on Sybil.
Fixed Whizzer's hand clipping through his shorts at the end of the Soda Poppers song.

Episode 2:

Fixed instances of the spice shaker floating in air after skipping lines in Cooking Without Looking.
Fixed instances of trivia cards floating in air after skipping lines in Who's Never Going To Be A Millionaire.
Fixed Myra's audience boos that were originally ooohs. Thanks again to folks who pointed this out!
Fixed instances where Myra's microphone & grabber could float in the air after skipping lines.
Fixed Sam's tie clipping into his chest during sitcom.

Episode 3:

Fixed street background art was misaligned in the final cutscene of the Mafia Chase.
Fixed hitch when shooting Sybil's coffee cup.
Fixed instances where Sam's aim would look like its off if players saved and loaded during Wak Da Ratz.
Switch: Improved lighting when Ted E. Bear steps out of shadows during initiation. (PC fixed in 1.0.6.)

Episode 4:

Fixed hole in the world visible when Sam & Max talk about Shaft.
Fixed small animation pop when using the bug on Lincoln.
Fixed small animation pop when talking to the president.
Fixed camera pop when using nutcracker.
Fixed Sam popping back into place after using nutcracker.
Fixed Sam popping back into place after interpreting for the president.
Fixed Sam walking through Superball in Oval Office after winning election. Sorry, Superball.
Fixed Sam popping back into place after talking to Hugh Bliss.
Fixed Max's foot clipping into White House awning pole when entering from Oval Office.

Episode 5:

Fixed typo in Text Adventure (changed "seem" to "seen").
Fixed the episode title being stuck on screen if players skip lines during the opening credits.
Fixed issues where Sam's virtual gun could disappear in the Reality 2.0 Street.

Episode 6:

Fixed hitch in opening credits.
Fixed instances where the screen gets stuck on black if skipping dialog during the game's opening.
Fixed Max pop after riding the elevator down in the Blister of Tranquility
Fixed instances where Sam could warp back to the entrance after riding the elevator or the roller coaster in Blister of Tranqility.

For a complete history of our patches you can visit the Skunkape support website. And as usual if you find a bug please point it out in the appropriate forum and we'll do our best to fix it in a future patch!

Original post

19 May 2021Developer post

Sam & Max Save the World Collector’s Edition from Limited Run Games

Good news for you and your bookshelf: We’ve teamed up with Limited Run Games to create a boxed Collector’s Edition of Sam & Max Save the World, and it’s on sale right now as an open preorder! Through May 30, you can place your order here and Limited Run will ship it to you in

30 Apr 2021Developer post

Sam & Max Save the World 1.0.6 Update

Sam & Max Save the World version 1.0.6 is now live on Steam (and GOG and Nintendo Switch)! This is a small update that fixes a handful of bugs and quality of life issues across the game. And also one tiny piece of news that some of you may enjoy: Sam & Max: now with Remot

Sam & Max Save the World version 1.0.6 is now live on Steam (and GOG and Nintendo Switch)! This is a small update that fixes a handful of bugs and quality of life issues across the game. And also one tiny piece of news that some of you may enjoy:

Sam & Max: now with Remote Play Together!

One of the best ways to play adventure games is with friends around. If you're anything like us, you have memories of hours spent with a friend or two crowded around the PC playing an adventure game, bashing your heads together trying to solve puzzles, losing your minds when you finally solve something that's had you stuck forever, bursting out laughing at an unexpected moment, low-key fighting over who gets to control the mouse and who has to watch. This has been a lot harder to do in the last year, but even if you're stuck at home there is now a way to get some of that experience online!

Steam Remote Play Together lets you invite your friends to not just watch you stream your game, but play it along with you (if you let them!). You and three friends can all share the same screen, talk on voice or text chat, and using Remote Play Together, virtually pass the mouse, keyboard, and gamepad back and forth online to choose who is controlling Sam. It gives you the classic feeling of friends in a room crowded around a computer, but without the crowding or even the room!

To try Remote Play Together, just start up Sam & Max Save The World, then right click any friend in your Steam friends list, and invite them to remote play the game with you. This works for the remaster as well as the original episode DLC.

(Note: This isn't a co-op mode or anything like that! It's still the same single player Sam & Max you're used to, but you can now play it with a friend over the internet including letting them control the game and make choices as you play together! Like we said earlier, it's a tiny piece of news, but a fun one.)

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.6):

Game-wide:

Fixed unintentionally backing out of dialogs and close-up views, when skipping lines with a right click
Fixed Sam sometimes walking to the cursor when using a controller
Fixed Sybil's tattoo chair being selectable when it's off camera
Fixed Sam's walk animation restarting when choosing a new destination while pathing (6184)
Fixed Sam jittering between walk & run animations when mashing left mouse button (6184)
Fixed bad model deformation on Specs' mouth corners
Fixed a few typos in subtitles with Sam, Myra, and using the antenna object (thanks for letting us know!)
Disabled saving during opening credits, because save games created during the credits made the game do bad things (who saves during the credits?!)
DLC launcher now supports high DPI displays

Episode 1:

Fixed the Soda Poppers chase music not stopping when the end cutscene plays, and added a record scratch sound effect when the music stops because it felt right
Fixed street graffiti glowing at night on Switch and some PC graphics modes

Episode 2:

Fixed Myra being selectable with gamepads even when she's behind the talk show door

Episode 3:

Improved lighting when Ted E. Bear steps out of shadows during initiation

Also if you're a GOG user who has been following along, with this update the version numbers on GOG are finally consistent with Steam and Nintendo Switch. So this is version 1.0.6 for you, too.

Original post

02 Feb 2021Developer post

Old-school Sam & Max Season One is now free DLC

Big news: Sam & Max Save the World version 1.0.4 is now live on Steam. See the patch notes below for a list of fixes. Even bigger news: All six of the original Sam & Max Season One episodes are now available as free DLC for Sam & Max Save the World customers! If you’r

Big news: Sam & Max Save the World version 1.0.4 is now live on Steam. See the patch notes below for a list of fixes.

Even bigger news: All six of the original Sam & Max Season One episodes are now available as free DLC for Sam & Max Save the World customers! If you’re curious to see where Telltale’s Sam & Max games got their start or nostalgic for the version you played back in the day, now you can—low resolution, compressed audio, the works.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488600

Watch on YouTube

After you download the DLC, the next time you start Sam & Max Save the World you’ll see a launcher like this. The Bonus Features button will take you to a selection of video extras that accompanied the episodes’ original launch and were included on the special edition DVD that Telltale made available to Sam & Max Season One customers back in 2007. (For now it's just a YouTube page but an entire website is in progress.)

Pick the episode you want and hold on tight little buddy, because you’re going back in time!

Look at me, Sam! I’m episodic!

In 2004, a sequel to the LucasArts adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road was cancelled mid-development. Several people who worked on that game left LucasArts to form Telltale Games with the revolutionary idea of releasing games episodically, like a TV show.

When the Sam & Max game rights reverted to series creator Steve Purcell in 2005, he licensed the characters to Telltale. The young studio put the concept of episodic gaming to the test with Sam & Max Season One, six episodes that released approximately once a month between October 2006 and April 2007.

Back then, digital distribution was in its infancy. Initially the episodes were only available for streaming on GameTap (a “Netflix for games” type service owned by Turner Broadcasting) and for purchase from Telltale’s website. (They later came to Steam in June 2007.) Graphics and audio were highly compressed to keep download sizes low, and the games were designed to work on low-end computers to appeal to a mainstream audience.

What's this? Are we dead?

To avoid cluttering up the Steam store, we do not plan to sell the original Sam & Max Season One separately. Moving forward, this DLC is the way to get the Season One episodes on Steam. GOG also offers a free version of Season One to Sam & Max Save the World customers as a downloadable "Extra."

Due to insurmountable technical hurdles, these versions will not be updated and we can’t provide tech support. (Difficulty fixing bugs in the old game engine is a main reason we remastered Sam & Max Save the World in the first place!) We’re making them available for historical preservation purposes only. That said, if you’re having trouble running the old episodes, check our troubleshooting guide, where we've collected everything we know about some common problems and suggest workarounds.

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.4):

Game-wide:

Fixed Max behavior sometimes running during cutscenes. We thought this was fixed in the previous patch, but it turns out it was two separate bugs. Max is hard to pin down!
Fixed Max sometimes staying attached to Sam after they collide with each other
Fixed the back wall of Sam & Max's office being hidden in some cutscenes
Fixed a bug causing characters to occasionally blink into their walk forward animations when they're just changing position in a cinematic sequence
Fixed Bosco's bathroom terror level lights not changing and sounds not playing in later episodes
Fixed Bluster Blaster duct tape material in later episodes
Disabled save game button during closing credits

Episode 1:

Fixed driving "pull over" sequence sometimes running when no vehicle is being tailed
Fixed French translation of Brady "organ" joke

Episode 2:

Fixed Peepers' cue cards floating in mid air after he sings for the first time
Disabled Specs dialog choices about Whizzer’s birthday after Whizzer is gone

Episode 3:

Fixed Leonard pop when using an item on him after you've beaten him at poker
Fixed Leonard's arms clipping into table when talking to him after you've beaten him at poker

Episode 4:

Restored camera cuts and acting in street newspaper chores
Restored original Max timing in store "watching and judging" chore
Fixed incorrect texture when firing missile at Bosco’s
Fixed DeSoto logo and missing flags on TVs in the War Room

Episode 5:

Fixed Max clipping with the desk when entering the VR Office
Disabled line skipping during COPS song
Fixed Bank VR lock disappearing when it was still there
Fixed Sam awkwardly sliding off screen when trying to talk to Sybil while she's wearing googles

Episode 6:

Fixed Bug voice line in Moon Retreat. Sometimes you fix a Bug bug.
Removed water cooler from office and added water stain, since Mr. Spatula is on the moon now
Fixed shadow lingering on camera once DeSoto is off screen when exiting street
Fixed TV camera light blinking after taping has ended in opening cutscene to match original animation
Fixed satellite disappearing from view when interacting with it
Fixed Sam standing up on wheel or in saw box when using gastrokinesis or spoon bend items on him

Thanks to Laserschwert for use of his Max to the Future image!

Original post

24 Dec 2020Developer post

What exactly has changed in Sam & Max Save the World?

Before Sam & Max Save the World launched, we were coy about some of the changes we’d made because we wanted players to be surprised by all the refinements and new Easter eggs. When you sat down to play the game, we wanted it to have some of the same “new game” magic that play

Before Sam & Max Save the World launched, we were coy about some of the changes we’d made because we wanted players to be surprised by all the refinements and new Easter eggs. When you sat down to play the game, we wanted it to have some of the same “new game” magic that playing the original had back in 2006. So we talked in general about what we’d done, but we didn’t list it all out for fear of spoiling that experience.

What we didn’t consider was that some people wanted to know exactly what had changed in order to decide whether to buy the game in the first place. We can’t turn back time, but in this post we’ll detail all of the significant updates and the reasons behind them, to help you make that decision or just to satisfy your curiosity.

We’ve spent the three weeks since launch working on this list to make it as complete as possible. We’ve also been working on version 1.0.3, which was just added to Steam and has several bug fixes and tweaks based on feedback we’ve received since launch. If you’re only interested in reading about those fixes, head down to the bottom of this post.

What’s changed between the new Sam & Max Save The World and the original 2006/2007 release?

The lists below are by no means 100% complete, but are intended to give a breakdown of the work we put into the new release. If you’re curious about something we haven’t mentioned here, please write to us at [email protected]!

The big stuff:

We re-lit the game from the ground up. This is probably the most apparent change, so it’s at the top of the list. This was partly done out of necessity (the latest version of the game's engine doesn't even support the pre-baked lighting from the original 2006/2007 release), but mostly because we knew the improvement would be huge. Lighting was one of the roughest parts of early Telltale releases, and updating it brings out the beauty and style of the original art while adding new features (like dynamic time-of-day shifts and moving shadows) and new ambiance. (Pay special attention to how the lighting in Sybil's office changes along with her jobs!)

All environments and characters are higher resolution, in some cases with new added details. The original release was built to run on low-end Windows XP computers, and as a result the polygon count and texture detail was low even by 2006 standards. This was something we could finally fix! Some of the original source assets were higher resolution than what shipped originally, so we were able to use those. For other assets, we upped the detail by hand ourselves, in some cases (especially with characters) pushing the style further—sometimes going back and forth with Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell, sometimes referring back to ideas from the original concept art, and sometimes using our experience creating characters across all three seasons.

Music, sound effects, and voice were remastered, and new music was added. We were able to go back to the original master recordings for voice, sound, and music and re-encode them to modern standards. (Unfortunately, we didn't have access to the foreign language dubs’ source files to put them through this process, so we had to leave those out of this release.) Some existing music was updated with new instrument samples, or was split apart to create new variant tracks. Plus, five new pieces of music were added throughout the season, written by long-time series composer Jared Emerson-Johnson and performed and produced by some of the same people as the original score.

We recast the voice of Bosco. We understand that to some who played the original game, the voice performance is Bosco, and this isn’t a decision we made lightly. The bottom line is he was voiced by a white actor doing a stereotypical impression of an African American that made us cringe fourteen years later. We wanted to make this right by casting a black actor in the role. Though old fans may notice some differences in delivery, we’re very happy with the end result and we hope you’ll give him a chance!
Watch on YouTube
Because we were rerecording Bosco’s lines we had the opportunity to tweak a few jokes that also hadn’t aged well. We’ll lay those out in detail below, but altogether it comes out to around a dozen rewritten lines out of 11,967 total (plus a handful of continuity edits so the rewrites would make sense)—roughly 0.1% of the script. So if we say the script is 99.9% unchanged that's not a joke, it’s the actual math.

The still big (but not quite as big) stuff:

The whole season is bundled together as a single game. When we first shipped Sam & Max Season One, downloadable games were just getting started as a concept. The original season was distributed as six separate games—one .exe file for each episode. The new version is assembled more like later Telltale releases, with a season-wide launcher and new, modern UI and menus that unify the episodes and bring in some features from the later Sam & Max seasons.
You can play with just a mouse, a mouse and keyboard, or a controller. The original release only had a mouse-driven point & click interface. On PC you can still play that way, but we’ve also added keyboard and gamepad support. The Nintendo Switch version also supports touch screen controls in handheld mode.
The game runs in 16:9 widescreen, at any resolution your monitor and operating system support. Built at the very end of the CRT monitor era, Sam & Max Season One was originally a 4:3 game that could only run at 800x600 or 1024x768. Fortunately now it should just work, whatever your resolution.
Cinematography was updated across the game. When we first built Sam & Max Season One, many of us were still new to digital shot composition and TV-style scene direction. It’s been a long fourteen years, and we’ve learned a lot! We came back with new eyes and gave our old camera setups a helpful bump to provide more pleasing compositions during navigation, conversations, and cutscenes. We also adjusted some compositions for 16:9 compatibility, where the original framing would have revealed the edges of sets or characters who were meant to be off-screen, and we beefed up some of the sequences that play when Sam and Max leave or enter a location.
We cleaned up the animation and visual effects. Along with increasing the resolution and the detail in models and textures, we’ve recompressed animations at a far higher quality, so they’re smoother now. More crucially, the entire lip sync system was overhauled to be crisper and support far more dynamic and expressive faces while the characters talk. We also took advantage of the new particle system (which Telltale’s engine didn’t support in 2006) to enhance visual effects like the spray paint and Hugh Bliss Bacteria.
Shooting Sam’s gun and driving the DeSoto feels better and looks nicer than ever before. In case anyone doubts that Sam & Max Save the World is a video game, rest assured: it has both shooting and driving in it, and both are looking pretty nice. When Sam aims his gun, he now precisely targets where you’re pointing, instead of vaguely waving his arm toward that side of the screen. And the driving minigames now feature a “rolling horizon” effect, similar to games like Animal Crossing, where the city curves over an arched horizon instead of just disappearing into the center of your screen.
Easter Eggs have been added throughout the game that reference later seasons, other Telltale games, and other Sam & Max media. We won’t spoil them by listing them out, but keep your eyes open!

What’s changed in the individual episodes?

This is a slightly more detailed breakdown of what’s been changed in each episode. If you don’t want to be spoiled, tread lightly!

This doesn’t get down to every single change, or the list would be huge. For example: in the new release Bosco’s ketchup dispenser has a little picture of a tomato on it. The Soda Poppers have striped shorts instead of plain ones. Sam’s cufflinks have a little bump to them and can catch a glint in the light. There are something like twice as many polygons in the round cement ovals that cap the bannisters of the front stairs outside Sam & Max’s office. Life-changing stuff, all of it, but maybe not worth listing out.

That said, if you have a question about a little detail you’ve noticed and are wondering why we did it, let us know and we’ll do our best to answer. (You may have even spotted a bug, in which case we’ll be grateful to hear about it!)

Culture Shock

The Jimmy Two-Teeth interrogation has new lighting, camerawork, and music (called “Good Sam, Bad Max” on the soundtrack), all added to accentuate the mood and to make this early puzzle more rewarding.
The spray paint can has been moved from its original location. Dating back to Culture Shock’s 2006 release, a lot of players had trouble finding the spray paint on the car parked behind the DeSoto, and we wanted to eliminate a frustration point in an early puzzle. Those of you with adventure game muscle memory who remember where it used to be, we apologize for the brief mental hiccup this will cause! (Spoiler: the new location is on the newspaper stand outside Bosco’s Inconvenience.)
When chasing the Soda Poppers in their van, day slowly becomes night. In the original game, it was always night time outside Brady Culture’s Home for Former Child Stars, but when you went back to the street it was daytime again. Now the entire game switches to night for the finale. Also, the street environment features a new, more lonely variant track (“Empty Streets”), based on the original street music.
The office looks a bit different during Sam’s psychoanalysis and the hypnotic dream sequence. Culture Shock was one of Telltale’s first episodes, and we were still figuring out how to reuse assets back then. Today we want to avoid the repetitive feeling of returning to the same location over and over, so we looked for ways to enhance these two scenes without changing the gameplay.
The cinematography inside Brady Culture’s asylum is plussed up. When we went back and looked at the set for Brady’s theater-turned-asylum, we realized it was huge and really beautifully built, but almost none of it was visible from the original camera angles. We reframed much of the sequence to give it a more expansive and epic feel, both to make Brady seem more formidable and interesting and to better show off the great art.
One line of dialog was shortened: Instead of saying his latest BoscoTech innovation will “clear out a room of militant college students in no time, guaranteed,” Bosco now says it will “clear out a room in no time, guaranteed.”

Situation: Comedy

This episode features new music in Bosco’s Inconvenience (“Inconvenienced”). Bosco’s has always felt repetitive when visiting it from episode to episode. We were able to use Sybil’s new jobs as an excuse to redecorate her office, but Bosco’s doesn’t have such a fictional conceit. We decided music would help alleviate that feeling of sameness and make Bosco’s a little more surprising when Sam and Max walk into it for the first time in episode 2, so we invented a B-side for the only cassette Bosco seems to own. This music appears in all of the even numbered episodes.
WARP TV feels a little bigger! Episodes 2 and 3 were originally developed almost simultaneously, and that meant smaller budgets and scopes than other episodes had. One result of this was that their central locations had no exterior shots, which contributed to these episodes feeling more claustrophobic than the rest. We designed and built the outside of WARP TV and added a collection of TV show–style establishing shots that play whenever Sam and Max return.
The TV studio is also home to another new piece of music (“WARP”). In the original release, the TV studio had one big piece of music. It’s mysterious, eerie jazz that sounds like it’s coming out of the dark corners of the empty TV studio, but it was the only background music for most of the episode. We wanted to mix up the mood and decided on something more upbeat and “classic Sam & Max.” The new track takes over each TV studio room after you complete its main puzzle, which we hope makes it feel like Sam & Max are slowly taking over the place.
The WARP sound stages now have live TV monitors in the rafters. We’re always looking for ways to make the environments a little more alive and dynamic, and it made perfect sense that you’d see yourself on TV in a TV studio. If you watch carefully, there are a couple places around the studio where Max can notice he’s on TV and act accordingly.
One line of dialog was changed: Instead of saying the Skinbodies are like “skinheads, but ten times worse,” Bosco now says they’re like “those hairless cats, but ten times worse.”

The Mole, The Mob, and The Meatball

Ted E. Bear’s Mafia-Free Playland and Casino now has an exterior! Similar to WARP TV above, we thought the casino would benefit from an establishing shot, to make it feel more like a real place. It also gave us an opportunity to hint at the Hypnobear factory behind the casino, and to add a nod to the buffet that Max can’t stop bringing up.
There’s a new piece of music when interrogating Leonard, called “Oh, Mama!” We thought an upbeat change in music would make the office feel fresh and complement how Sam and Max were playfully toying with Leonard.
Sam and Max are now fully inducted into the Toy Mafia. (What mafia?)
A change to dialog: Instead of saying you may call him “Jean-Francois Sissypants, the cowardly French anarchist,” Bosco now says you may call him “Jean-Francois Band-A-Parte, the new wave French anarchist,” and refers to himself again by that name in another line. (Originally Sam and Max still referred to Bosco by the old name, which was an editing oversight that has been fixed in version 1.0.3.)

Abe Lincoln Must Die!

The War Song got a lot of lighting polish. It probably won’t come as a surprise to learn that the War Song was one of the first things we thought about when considering a full lighting remaster of the game. In addition to swinging spotlights and lights shaped like stars, we added some industrial shutters that seal off the Oval Office when war is declared, to give the later half of the game a different feeling and to add some theatrical flair to the beginning of the song. We also added a cymbal monkey to the song, because it felt right.
We eliminated unnecessary backtracking to and from the White House. Late in the game, you arrive directly inside the Oval Office (skipping the front lawn), and you can leave straight from the War Room (click the security TV by the War Room door).
There are lots of little art changes and enhancements around the episode. For example: The submarine in the White House pool is now fully modeled. It’s a nice detail we thought you’d want to know about. The leaves on the trees rustle in the breeze now, which we hope players will find relaxing. The rubble created when Abe Lincoln is destroyed by the Washington Monument also looks a lot nicer. Keep an eye out for these when you play.

Reality 2.0

Originally this episode was the visual powerhouse of the season, or at least the surprise combo breaker that came in and shook up Season One’s aesthetic at a point when people thought they knew what the world looked and felt like. We wanted that to be true of the new release, too, and pushed Reality 2.0 into even more of a stylized “cartoon cyberspace.” We took inspiration from Tron, of course, and also the covers of 90s issues of Wired magazine, and movie posters and promotional material from hacking and early-internet techno thrillers of that era. Reality 2.0 felt of its time when it came out in 2007 and now almost feels quaint, and preserving and enhancing that feeling of “the early Internet” was important. (Miss the original lighting? You can catch a quick glimpse of it just before Max yells “there go the graphics!”)
The Banco Lavadero minigame’s visuals are completely overhauled. We didn’t want to touch the puzzle design, but the look of that sequence never really matched the bubbly digital weirdness of the rest of the episode. We also added some animation effects to help communicate where your money is going as it stumbles around the internet.
A change to two lines of dialog with the COPS: When Sam and Max get their Reality 2.0 goggles, Bob now says they have a pair of wide-fit goggles for Max, designed for “playing while bicycling or enjoying full-contact sports” and Curt chimes in “Safety first!” The original joke was that they were designed for “special-needs children so that the little ones can play along.”
A change to two lines of dialog with Bosco: When talking about his half-elf form in Reality 2.0, Bosco used to say everyone on the internet has to pick an avatar like a dwarf or an orc or a “hot young fifteen-year-old girl curious about the adult world and willing to experiment.” Now he says “like a dwarf, or an orc, or a troll... but we’ve got enough trolls.” He also calls Max a “troll” instead of a “foo’” in a follow-up line.

Bright Side of the Moon

In the tradition of creating exotic Sam & Max locations without any research or reference material, we added fog to the Moon. It looks pretty good, and is something the real Moon should consider to liven things up over there.
Riding the Collide-O-Scope now features a kaleidoscopic experience, as promised (or strongly implied) by its name.
One dialog exchange with Bosco was removed: Max asked if Bosco’s disguise as his mom was done surgically or hormonally, and Bosco threatened to beat him for bringing it up. Initially the removal of this exchange from the dialog tree meant that the follow-up joke about Bosco being “all natural” and Max “liking ’em bosomy” was also unavailable, but we have restored this second exchange in today's update.

Some things that seem like changes, but were actually bugs (and are fixed now):

When we pushed Sam & Max Save the World through almost a decade and a half of game engine updates, a few things broke or flew under the radar. These weren’t deliberate changes! We’ve caught and fixed these (and many smaller bugs) in today’s update. If you notice a bug not listed here or in the patch notes at the bottom of this update, let us know by emailing [email protected] and we’ll do our best to track it down.

In Abe Lincoln Must Die!, the War Room monitor was not immediately updating when you fired at some targets. The way the game engine handles texture animations changed for the new release, and we missed updating a few of textures on the War Room monitors. Fixed in version 1.0.3.
Max occasionally spoke with the wrong voice. Back in 2006, a scheduling problem required Max’s original voice actor, Andrew Chaikin, to be replaced by William Kasten after the first episode. When we remastered the audio for the new release, the few lines that are shared across episodes were accidentally replaced with Andrew Chaikin’s line reads, resulting in Max having “two voices” in episodes 2–6. We believe we’ve caught and fixed all of these in version 1.0.3.
One of the background car license plates changed from “DRG DLR” to “RMS DLR.” ~~We hate drug dealers but love arms dealers!~~ Really this was the result of a mistake in the texture upscale process. The game’s generic cars have three possible license plates (“DRG DLR,” “RMS DLR,” and “CON MAN”) and these textures share a Photoshop file with each plate on a different layer. When we upscaled the textures, the “RMS DLR” layer was left on for ⅔ of the plates instead of ⅓ of them. This has been fixed in version 1.0.3 and the DRG DLR is now back on the streets.
The comic timing changed when the Who’s Never Going To Be A Millionaire set blows up. The music used to loop, and that got cut off in the newer version of the engine we’re using. Fixed in version 1.0.3.
A few camera cuts in the War Song happened in slightly different places than they used to. When we added new lighting to this cutscene, a few of the camera keyframes got bumped around. Fixed in version 1.0.3.
Graffiti was missing from Sybil’s shop window after she’s jilted by Abe. Similar to the War Room computer screen not updating, this is a texture swap change that slipped through the cracks. Fixed in version 1.0.3.
The “Max-ified” Director didn’t pull out a gun in the closing credits. She does now! The system that attaches props to characters changed between the original release and now, and Max’s Luger was floating somewhere off camera instead of being attached to the Director’s hand. The gun has returned to her hand in version 1.0.3.

Some things you might think changed in the new release, but didn’t:

The Artificial Personality Disorder test in Culture Shock has always been randomized. If you remember the test being different the first time you played, it probably was! All of the possible symptoms remain exactly as they were in 2006, you just got a different one on this playthrough.
Hot Bunny magazine at Bosco’s never had a look-at line in Culture Shock. If it strikes you as strange that Culture Shock’s Max doesn’t have anything to say about the magazines at Bosco’s, you’re probably remembering later episodes when he does have something to say. Even the original version of Culture Shock had no line hooked up there. (We have no idea why!)
You can skip dialog. Pressing the period key will skip dialog (just like in old SCUMM adventure games), except in a few very specific situations where skipping would break game state, like in the middle of musical numbers. You can also right-click, or press the B button on a gamepad.

And some new features and bug fixes:

New! Improvements to the subtitle colors and contrast. Some people have said the subtitles are hard to read. We’ve tweaked these to be higher contrast and added an option to display a transparent black background for even higher contrast (in Gameplay Settings). You can see how the optional subtitle background looks in the video at the top of this post.
New! An option to disable v-sync. On some adaptive and high framerate monitors, the game was continuing to force waiting for vertical sync. Now you can turn it off. If you were having issues with the framerate jumping up and down aggressively on your high framerate or adaptive sync display, try disabling v-sync (in Graphics Settings).
Tweaked: Bosco’s opening lines. We want the new Bosco performance to be as good as it can be, including making a strong first impression. As we’ve evaluated feedback to the new acting, one recurring comment we’ve seen is that Bosco doesn’t sound at first like the paranoid shopkeeper players remember. We think his first few lines—which happen to be the very first lines the new actor recorded, as he was still finding his way in the role—have to do with that, so we returned to the studio to rerecord a handful of iconic lines from the beginning of Culture Shock. These new line reads are in version 1.0.3. You can get a preview of some of them in the video at the top of this post.
Fixed: Lots of small bugs. See below for the version 1.0.3 patch notes.

What about the original releases?

A main reason we created this new version of Sam & Max Save the World, rather than just updating the original episodes, is that fourteen years of technological evolution made patching those old versions nigh impossible. At this point, the 2006/2007 originals are relics from that specific period of time.

But even though we won't be updating them, we are committed to keeping the originals available for people who want the old-school experience. Here’s what that means for Steam users:

If you already own the originals you can still access them in your Steam Library, even though the episodes have been removed from individual sale.
The original episodes will be available soon as free DLC to Sam & Max Save the World owners. We’d hoped to have this ready at launch but it turned out to be a little trickier than we anticipated. It’s in the works, though, and we’ll post an update when the DLC is ready. (Update: The original episodes are now available as free DLC!)
The original releases are getting Steam Library assets. This is a common request, and is something we started working on before announcing the remaster, but it was temporarily put on the back burner. Expect the old games to look a lot more at home in your Steam Library very soon!

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.3):

Game-wide:

Updated subtitle colors to be more readable, and added option to draw a background behind subtitles (in Gameplay Settings)
Added option to disable v-sync (in Graphics Settings)
Replaced repeated Max voice lines in episodes 2-6 with William Kasten instead of Andrew Chaikin, and updated lip sync animations
Fixed points where scene music was not resuming after cutscenes
Fixed mouseover pop-up text splitting in the middle of a word
Fixed a small seam in Max's belly visible on 4K monitors
Fixed a foreground car clipping through the camera when looking at the One Way sign on the street in episodes 2 and 3
Fixed inconsistencies with lettering on the awning outside Sybil's
Fixed missing license plate textures on background vehicles (“DRG DLR” rejoins “RMS DLR” and “CON MAN”) and updated the license plates to match style of the DeSoto’s license plate
Fixed Czech translation of "Presents"

Episode 1:

Fixed Jimmy Two-Teeth interrogation music sometimes failing to play when switching between Sam and Max
Fixed the theater interior background being misaligned when watching Brady Culture on TV
Fixed cheese floating next to table at Bosco’s
Fixed Czech translation of "separate your bliss"
Fixed Sam appearing inside the DeSoto hood when arriving at the asylum without Max
Fixed blown out lampshade during Soda Poppers TV scenes
Replaced a few Bosco lines with new reads and updated animation and lip sync to match

Episode 2:

Fixed instance where Sybil’s tattoo chair could be selected even when it’s off camera
Fixed Sam sliding and clipping through door when entering Sybil's
Fixed Hypnobear’s head turn animation when hypnotizing Myra
Fixed Who’s Never Going to be a Millionaire music loop
Fixed Russian translation of "Situation: Comedy"

Episode 3:

Fixed Casino music not playing when visiting the casino for the first time
Fixed instances of Sam and Max calling Bosco by the wrong name
Fixed missing ketchup texture on Sybil and intercom

Episode 4:

Fixed instance where the timing of some camera cuts slipped from original in the War Song
Fixed War Room console texture animations
Fixed Sybil's storefront graffiti and increased graffiti texture resolution
Fixed Chuckles briefly popping back in after he drags Whizzer out of the Oval Office
Disabled dialog skipping during War Song

Episode 5:

Fixed Sybil's pencil being visible while she's wearing the VR goggles
Fixed Italian translation of “Uncook” button
Trimmed Russian text that was too long in text adventure dialog choices

Episode 6:

Fixed retreat music still playing during laser room cutscene
Fixed Sam standing up during finale when examining an inventory item
Fixed street not scrolling during end credits
Fixed Max teleporting after using gastrokinesis on Leonard
Fixed Director's gun missing in closing credits
Fixed Sam picking up an invisible Deed
Fixed the Lunar Lander leg turning invisible at an inopportune moment
Disabled skipping dialog during the closing credits
Re-added some of the conversation with Bosco talking about his “mom” disguise (since this is a change to game logic, the new line won't show up in a save game where you've already asked Bosco about his mother; in that case you'll need to start the episode over)

Menu Text:

Fixed Russian translations of “Soda Poppers,” “Myra Stump,” and “Ted E. Bear”
Fixed Czech translation of “Resume”

Original post

02 Dec 2020Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Sam & Max Save The World remastered is out now

The Freelance Police are back on the case once again in a remastered version of Sam & Max Save The World , which you may remember as Sam & Max Season One from back when Telltale Games released it in 2006. Some former Telltalers got back together to shine up their old work

Updates & announcements

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 2.1.0):

Game-wide:

Episode 101: Culture Shock

What’s in it for me?

The Fine Print

An Episodic Sociopathic Lagomorph

Speaking of Posters...

But Wait, There's More!

THE RULES

THE PRIZES

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 2.0.0):

Game-wide:

Episode 101:

Episode 102:

Episode 105:

Episode 106:

What’s in it for you?

The Power of Christmas Compels You

Two grand prize winners will score a bundle of Sam & Max goodies:

The Fine Print

Wait, what was that? Did you say The Devil’s Playhouse is launching in Spring 2024?!

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.1.0):

Game-wide:

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

Episode 5:

Episode 6:

Wait, back up. Beyond time and what now?

So what’s this about a discount?

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.9):

Game-wide:

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 5:

Episode 6:

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.8):

Game-wide:

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

Episode 5:

Episode 6:

Sam & Max: now with Remote Play Together!

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.6):

Game-wide:

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Look at me, Sam! I’m episodic!

What's this? Are we dead?

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.4):

Game-wide:

Episode 1:

Episode 2:

Episode 3:

Episode 4:

Episode 5:

Episode 6:

What’s changed between the new Sam & Max Save The World and the original 2006/2007 release?

The big stuff:

The still big (but not quite as big) stuff:

What’s changed in the individual episodes?

Culture Shock

Situation: Comedy

The Mole, The Mob, and The Meatball

Abe Lincoln Must Die!

Reality 2.0

Bright Side of the Moon

Some things that seem like changes, but were actually bugs (and are fixed now):

Some things you might think changed in the new release, but didn’t:

And some new features and bug fixes:

What about the original releases?

Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max Save The World update (version 1.0.3):

Game-wide:

Episode 1: