Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space has been updated to version 2.1.0. It's a little patch with a few little fixes, made fresh just for you. 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 Inven
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space has been updated to version 2.1.0. It's a little patch with a few little fixes, made fresh just for you.
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:
Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space 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.
A non-remastered photo of Sam & Max in front of Brady's theater hanging in the corner of Sam & Max's office has been updated to the remastered version.
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 202: Moai Better Blues
Fixed a logic issue where the game might think you had taken the Banang before you had. As far as we know this has only happened to one person, but was technically possible. No longer!
Episode 205: What's New, Beelzebub?
Fixed Bosco's head occasionally popping suddenly from one direction to another.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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.
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!
Today Steam kicked off their Zombies vs. Vampires Fest, and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is in it with a 50% discount! (The soundtrack too!) And now a rambling history lesson for those who weren’t breathlessly hanging on Telltale’s every move back in 2008… Sam & Max:
Today Steam kicked off their Zombies vs. Vampires Fest, and Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space is in it with a 50% discount! (The soundtrack too!)
And now a rambling history lesson for those who weren’t breathlessly hanging on Telltale’s every move back in 2008…
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space was the second season of Sam & Max episodes, which came out about once a month. One criticism of the first season was that the episodes felt too “samey,” with a lot of time spent in Sam & Max's office and on their street, and the team set out to change this in Season Two.
The result was five episodes set in dramatically different locales. We started at the North Pole, then jumped through the Bermuda Triangle to Easter Island, then stopped off in Stuttgart, Germany, for an episode named Night of the Raving Dead. Hit it!
[embed trailer]
Vampires? Check! Zombies? Check! It’s as if designer Brendan Q. Ferguson inserted a quarter into a Zoltar fortune-telling machine, but instead of saying “I wish I were big,” he said “Tell me about a Steam promotion that will happen seventeen years from now”—and then he spread the word to the rest of the team and they dreamed up this episode accordingly.
The vampire in question is Jurgen, impeccably voiced by William Kasten (the same voice actor as Max). Jurgen is one of the characters whose model we spruced up in the remaster with tweaks that included adding car keys to one of his nipple rings, as originally suggested by Steve Purcell.
Want some more behind-the-scenes tidbits? Check out the Night of the Raving Dead commentary, which was inculded on Telltale's bonus DVD for Season Pass subscribers back in the day.
Now let’s acknowledge the zombified elephant in the room: Sam & Max isn’t the Telltale game most people would expect to find in a Zombies vs. Vampires Fest. Of course, during the season's episodic run back in 2007–2008, Lee and Clementine weren’t even a glimmer in the dev team’s eyes.
But the fun thing about remasters is that we can slip in new references to other games that didn’t exist at the time, and we did exactly that when we added two Walking Dead Easter eggs to Night of the Raving Dead. Happy hunting!
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
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 intrigued?
Well, we have a sale for you! And you! And you!
Welcome to the Sam & Max Trilogy Sale—a weeklong celebration of the episodic adventures that put Telltale Games (of The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us fame) on the map in the early 2000s, and have recently been revived by Skunkape Games, a small crew of the original developers. (Hey, that's us!)
When Telltale shut down in 2018, we acquired the rights and spruced up all three episodic Sam & Max seasons for modern platforms. And now we want you to play them!
We’ve also marked down Jared Emerson-Johnson’s amazing Sam & Max soundtracks, including the long-awaited The Devil’s Playhouse soundtrack, newly available for the very first time.
Want to hear a bit about the remastering process right from the horses’ developers’ mouths? We’ve dug three streams out of the archives so you can do just that. Tune in on the sale page.
And what if you’re the Sam & Max fan who already has it all? Hey, tell your friends! These deals will be on Steam for one week only.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space has been updated to version 2.0.0, which sounds like a big huge patch, but mostly it's a few long-gestating fixes, and a new build of the game engine to fix a few deeply-rooted bugs. We published a similar patch for Sam & Max Save the Worl
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space has been updated to version 2.0.0, which sounds like a big huge patch, but mostly it's a few long-gestating fixes, and a new build of the game engine to fix a few deeply-rooted bugs. We published a similar patch for Sam & Max Save the World earlier this week, which is why this might all sound a bit familiar.
Speaking of sounding familiar... it's that time of year again. That spoOooOoky time. You know the one: The Skunkape Halloween Contest is back! If you're in the mood to make some Sam & Max fan art and be materially rewarded for it, now's your chance! Check out the contest post for a rundown of the rules and prizes. (Spoiler: they include Sam & Max plushies from Uncute, and the still-in-development Devil's Playhouse Original Soundtrack!)
Patch notes for today’s Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space 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.
Fixed buttons and episode thumbnails not animating when transitioning between the episode menu and chapter menu.
Episode 203:
Fixed Sam & Max sometimes staying attached to the DeSoto in Stuttgart, which caused Sam to spin around wildly.
One of the torches in Jurgen's Lair wasn't casting light on the wall, and now it is. Finally Brett our lighting guy can sleep through the night, knowing this is fixed.
Fixed Lincoln's brain not rendering when walking around in the Zombie Factory (Switch only).
Episode 204:
Fixed Max not looking into the camera when he mentions "...no flashback?" in the 1960s.
Episode 205:
Fixed lava cylinder disappearing during epilogue in Hell Pit.
Fixed lite music track looping incorrectly in Street.
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!
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.
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
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 on Telltale’s Sam & Max games and Skunkape’s remasters. And the whole time, we’ll be raising money for an incredible cause: the Video Game History Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games.
So far, the VGHF has raised about $38K toward their $50K goal winter fundraising goal. Let's help them get over the finish line!
What’s in it for you?
Besides the chance to hear about the development of the Sam & Max games from people who made them, we have donation incentives!
Since announcing the charity stream on Twitter last night, we’ve already raised almost $2,500! Many of our initial rewards have already sold out, but we’re digging deeper and will add more rare artifacts before the stream starts.
We’ll give away three Friendly Demon Song mini-CDs and a signed Sam & Max Save the World vinyl soundtrack during the stream, and we have a few exciting stretch goals planned. What are they? You’ll have to tune in to find out!
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
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:
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.
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.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space version 1.0.5 is now live on Steam, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and GOG! This is a tiny update that fixes a few bugs we found when replaying, or bugs pointed out by you, the viewers at home. If anyone was just losing their minds about Hugh Bliss's
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space version 1.0.5 is now live on Steam, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and GOG! This is a tiny update that fixes a few bugs we found when replaying, or bugs pointed out by you, the viewers at home. If anyone was just losing their minds about Hugh Bliss's spike collar not being around his neck in the Cooking Show diorama, you can finally sleep well tonight.
All Episodes
Fixed Rat on Street floating, jump animations not playing correctly.
Updated driving music with the version from Save the World, which has some mix cleanups that didn't make the jump to Beyond Time and Space initially.
Episode 201
Fixed Jimmy and boxing glove shadow staying on screen when Max kicks him into the air.
Added missing longer version of the "look at" line that plays when looking at the plane in Santa's Workshop.
Episode 204
The ambient Cow Bosco and Sam dialog wasn't playing on the UFO. Now it is!
Episode 205
Fixed Hugh Bliss' collar missing in the Cooking Show.
Fixed Soda Poppers floating in Hell Office cutscene when they change outfits.
Fixed Peepers referring to Sam as Max in French subtitles in Office (a common and forgivable mistake in any language.)
Thanks everyone who has been playing and enjoying the game since launch! And as always, a bonus 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!
Punch your time cards and hop into the nearest elevator, because it's time to travel back to 2007 (or maybe 2008) and play some old video games! Here’s our long-overdue post announcing that the original Sam & Max Season Two episodes are now available as free DLC! After you do
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1909350
Punch your time cards and hop into the nearest elevator, because it's time to travel back to 2007 (or maybe 2008) and play some old video games!
Here’s our long-overdue post announcing that the original Sam & Max Season Two episodes are now available as free DLC!
After you download the DLC, the next time you start Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space you’ll see a launcher like this:
From here, you can play the remaster, jump to any of the original episodes, or press the tantalizing Bonus Features button. The bonus features are video extras that accompanied the episodes’ original launch and were included on the Sam & Max Season Two DVD that Telltale offered back in 2008. (For now the button just leads to a YouTube page, but an entire website is being built very slowly.)
And remember, if you already own the originals on Steam you can still access them from your Steam Library, even though the episodes have been removed from individual sale. These have been updated with full Steam Library art assets, so the next time you take a look at your old favorites, they should look a lot more complete.
What about tech support? A main reason we created the new version of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, rather than just updating the original episodes, is that more than a decade of technological evolution made patching those old versions nigh impossible. At this point, the 2007/2008 originals are relics from that specific period of time and we can’t update them or provide technical support. If you need help getting the original episodes to run, check out the troubleshooting guide.
Original Sam & Max Season Two vs. Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered: Can you spot the differences?
If this post were a Highlights magazine, we would show you two pictures and ask you to pick out everything that’s changed.
Instead, we’re going to list it all out for you… well, most of it.
Though the game's been out quite a while at this point, and most of you have probably figured out what's been updated since the original (or got the broad strokes in our very first post about Beyond Time and Space Remastered), we promised you we'd write way too much about it anyway, so here we are! Working on this game was a labor of love for everyone involved, and we're more than happy to just keep talking about it forever; we don't mind!
The following list doesn’t account for every little thing that’s been updated, in some cases because the updates aren’t that exciting and in others because we can’t remember it all. But we’ve tried to collect the biggest and most interesting differences between the two game versions here, and also to pull back the curtain to give a glimpse into why we did what we did. 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!
Also, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space has all the same quality of life improvements as our first remaster, Sam & Max Save the World… stuff like reprogramming the game in a new engine based on the latest version of the Telltale Tool, collecting all five episodes into one game with a unified menu, and adding controller support. We’re not going to rehash all of those global changes here, but you can check out this Sam & Max Save the World post to learn more.
Now, without further ado…
The Big Stuff
Sam & Max Season Two, as Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space was originally named, was made in 2007–2008 to run on 2007–2008 technology. For context: Windows computers were still using Vista, widescreen displays were just coming into fashion, and about 25% of Americans were still using dial-up internet.
Not surprisingly, our primary goal in remastering Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space was to make it look and feel right at home on today's technology, and the biggest updates are in service of that goal:
We re-lit the game from the ground up. The remaster has beautiful dynamic lighting, shadows, and ambiance that pull a fourteen-year-old game into the future.
Every environment and every character are higher resolution, allowing for added detail and smoother animation. The episode breakdowns talk more about this for specific episodes, but Flint Paper is one example. In his case, we followed Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell’s guidance to make him look more like he does in the comics.
The audio quality is improved across the board, and there’s a ton of new music. The original Sam & Max episodes were compressed like crazy to keep download sizes small for dial-up users. That’s no longer necessary, so we went back to the original source files to remaster all of the audio. We rerecorded Bosco with voice actor Ogie Banks for reasons that are explained here, but no lines were rewritten. You’ll also find eight new tracks in Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, as well as embellishments made to existing tracks. The episode breakdowns have more details.
We added new accessibility options. The driving, boxing, and surfing mini-games can now be skipped, thanks to a toggle in the brand new accessibility menu. Flashing lights and other photosensitive effects can also be turned off here.
DeSoto decals are easier to collect. Speaking of driving, another big update is the ability to go back to previous episodes and get the car decals you missed. These will carry forward into future episodes without having to replay. Check out the decal poster next to the DeSoto to see which decals you still need to get.
What’s changed in 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!
Episode 1: Ice Station Santa
The hole in the back wall of Sam & Max’s office is much, much larger. While it would be fun to just claim we wanted everything to be bigger and bolder in the remaster, including the size of holes in walls, there's a reason behind this. (Actually, there are two!)
One, we wanted to better highlight Flint Paper. Flint becomes a major character over the course of the season, but in the original release of Ice Station Santa, there was really only room in the budget to show Flint through a tiny hole in the wall, with no other detail. In the remaster, you can get a look at his whole office (based on its appearance in the comics), along with the goons he’s been pummeling.
And two, now that the hole is huge, we can shoot Sam and Max’s office through it. This gives Beyond Time and Space’s version of the office its own unique look.
The Maimtron attack has new music. In the original release, when the Maimtron attacked, it was scored with an edit of the opening credits theme. We worked with series composer Jared Emerson-Johnson to create a new track just for this scene. Called “Maintron 9000’s Pancake Breakfast” on the Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space soundtrack, it plays whenever the Maimtron is smashing the building. (If you miss the old track, don’t worry! The game transitions to it whenever the Maimtron is pondering one of life’s great questions.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9ERC0kNFcU
The street looks and sounds a bit different. We added more rubble and the tunnel from Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, and the time of day has shifted to kick off the season at sunrise (it was midday in the original). Once the robot's done beating everything up, the Street gets a brand new piece of music, called "City Streets Saunter" on the soundtrack. We figured six episodes of the original Street track was enough, and Season Two could use a tune of its own. This way each season has its own take on the Street theme!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9ERC0kNFcU
(Note: This track is great and guaranteed to put you in a very Sam & Max mood, and we recommend you leave it playing while reading the rest of the update.)
The North Pole is much moodier. Watch out for the barbed wire, the working searchlight from the candy cane watchtower, and the new short opening cutscene that shows Sam and Max’s nighttime drive through the snow to get there. Yes, you heard that right: it’s snowing at the North Pole! In the original 2007 release, the game’s engine had no particle system, so effects like snow were very difficult to do convincingly. Now we have particles, and as a result we have lots and lots of fluffy snow falling from the sky. The passage of time in the episode is marked by the moon rising over Santa’s Workshop in the second act.
We heavily reworked the inside of Santa’s Workshop. The original version of the workshop was built quickly by an outsourcing studio, and never delivered on the intended vibe of “cozy… but a little creepy, actually,” and we’ve gone in and added a lot of new art to try and get it there. The room was also built far huger than it needed to be, and we filled the empty space with a decorative second floor loft filled with abandoned elf workstations, and a huge window to let moonlight in for the final showdown. A new cutscene that plays when Sam & Max enter the workshop for the first time shows off some of the new decor. Keep an eye out for the Bop Buddy, who was a staple of the early Telltale office until someone punched him too hard (RIP), and the plate of waffles, because everything is better with waffles.
Boxing is more stylish (and less annoying). We added a new intro cutscene when Boxing Betty enters the ring and spruced up the rats watching from the stands. More importantly, we updated the UI and controls so the controls are better aligned between keyboard and gamepad, and the UI is more out of the way. This mini-game can now be skipped if you toggle that option on in the accessibility menu.
Stinky’s got a facelift. We added the center tables from Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse, upgraded the jukebox, and reworked the trivia board so it actually shows the trivia questions, even when you’re just walking around the scene. (There’s also a second trivia board, which be seen from the scene’s new camera angle.) Additionally, you can now see the street through the window, including the DeSoto and whatever upgrades and decals you might have found.
Christmas Past has new music. Attentive players will notice a holiday-infused version of the Leonard interrogation music from episode 3 of the Sam & Max Save the World remaster. The new track is called “Jingle Mama” on the soundtrack. Christmas Past has a longer opening cutscene now, too, so keep an eye out for that.
Christmas Future looks more like Hell. When Ice Station Santa was made, we knew Christmas Future would be a scene out of the finale. Hell hadn’t yet been designed or modeled, though, so the Christmas Future we came up with at the time was a lot less detailed than the sequence that eventually played out in What’s New, Beelzebub? We’ve rectified this in the remaster, including swapping future Sam and Max’s positions to be consistent with the later scene.
A bunch of character models have been updated. The elves' heads have been remodeled, and their outfits updated to look more like the Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse elves. The Shambling Corporate Presence now has twice as many arms. The Soda Poppers have subtle changes to their long underwear. And the Maimtron was updated to match its appearance in The Devil’s Playhouse. Not exactly a model update, but along the same lines, the Christmas spirits and the rest of the ghosts and wandering souls across the season are now translucent, and cast light into the world as they move around.
Episode 2: Moai Better Blues
The Bermuda Triangle has new music and effects. Like the Maimtron attack in Ice Station Santa, the opening Bermuda Triangle chase scene was originally scored with a reuse of the opening credits track. Now it’s got music all its own, including a keyboard solo emitting from the Triangle itself. Look for “Bermuda Boogie” on the soundtrack to hear it yourself. The Bermuda Triangle now also emits a bright triangular light, bringing it in line with the real Bermuda Triangle.
The street is gloomy. We’re always looking for ways to change up the locations that appear again and again, and in this episode we did so by making the street gray and overcast. This provides a good contrast to the lush, tropical Easter Island environment.
Easter Island is a little more kitschy. The biggest change is a new piece of music, “Easter Exotica,” that adds a little cheesy flair to the place. (The original music for this scene isn’t gone though—it can still be heard when you converse with characters in the scene, and during the finale.) The Secret Hidden Underground Cave sign has been redone to look more like the sort of tourist trap advertising found in Sam & Max’s other adventures. Other Easter Island updates include grass, sand, water effects, and an exit sign to make leaving the Tiki Bar area easier.
Kid Sam & Max are cuter. Steve Purcell gave feedback on their character models, which we followed to make them look closer to the comics. We also updated one of Kid Sam’s shirts (not the one shown below) to use a drawing by Steve Purcell. By the way, if you’re thinking, “Wait, what do they mean *one* of Kid Sam’s shirts?!” then there’s an Easter egg you haven’t noticed yet! This is not new, but we made it easier to find in the remaster.
The gong in Stinky’s Diner is no longer gold by default. This caused a lot of confusion in one of the game’s late puzzles, where the color of gongs and triangles is important. The puzzle solution itself hasn’t changed, but we did tweak the hints around this puzzle, again because it often confused the heck out of people.
Baby Lindbergh has hair. He had hair built for his original character model, but for some reason we can’t remember, it never shipped. We have returned it to him, to give him something gloat about around the other babies. This is a crucial update we know many fans have been waiting for, and we’re happy to have delivered on it.
The chimps come in more colors now. Before they were all exactly the same. Now they’re each a little bit different. Thank you to the thousands who wrote in and signed petitions over the last decade demanding this change.
Episode 3: Night of the Raving Dead
Jurgen is marginally cooler. His character model has been updated to include the long nails and the nipple ring car keys that Steve Purcell drew in the original concept art back in 2008, and actual smoke comes out of his garlic clove cigarettes. Also, check out his lair for a Devil’s Playhouse Easter egg.
Sam & Max’s street is littered with more zombies than ever before, and has music to match. A new zombified version of “City Streets Saunter,” called “Fright & Harrow,” plays on the street during the zombie attack and ratchets up in intensity when Sam and Max become zombies themselves.
It’s raining in Stuttgart. Actually, that was always the case, but we did update the ground to make it look wet. Also, the trash can outside the Zombie Factory is now easier to identify as a trash can, thanks to a newly added sign. You're welcome.
The Zombie Factory is a totally happening place! The disco ball, smoke machine, and strobe lights add to the ravey-feel (but if you’re sensitive to these types of effects, you can turn them off in the accessibility menu). The upgraded DJ booth can play five unique remixes of the club theme, four of them brand new to this remaster, versus in the original game where only the underlying drum loop changed from mix to mix. These changes seem to have paid off, because while Jurgen’s “army” continues to be pathetic and the club is by no means full, if you look around the edges you’ll see more zombies passed out on the couches or trying to enjoy a drink in peace at one of the outer tables.
The camera angles in the shootout with Jesse James’ hand have been updated. Players have been long-confused by the way Jesse James’ hand moves, which is unfortunate since the movement of his hand is critical to the puzzle. We’ve tweaked the camera angles to make it more clear how his hand changes position during the shootout.
Sybil’s and the TV studio received cosmetic tweaks. Sybil’s window shades are open, she’s received more presents and flowers from her suitors, and the Dating Game cards have been spruced up. The TV studio was updated in line with updates we made to it in Sam & Max Save the World.
Two Walking Dead Easter eggs are hidden in the game. You know, that other zombie game Telltale made? The Skunkape team worked on that too, and we would have been fools to remaster an episode about zombies without giving it a nod.
Episode 4: Chariots of the Dogs
Boscow looks better. The most notable update is the addition of a nose ring, but the way his head connects to the cow torso was updated as well. Moo.
There’s new music to be found… in the past! In the original game, when you traveled to Stinky’s in the 1980s or Sam & Max’s office in the far future you were treated to new music appropriate for that era, but traveling to Bosco’s or the Oval Office in the 1960s gave you warmed-over tracks reused from the first season. Not anymore! Now Sam & Max’s visit to the Kennedy White House features a swingin’ sixties version of the Oval Office theme (“Camelot a Go-Go”), and retro Bosco’s has a low-key Motown tune with just a hint of the classic Bosco’s melody laced in (“Mama B’s”).
The Oval Office has blue sky outside the windows. Less pollution in the sixties, y’know. (This probably isn’t true, but we aren’t scientists.)
When you stop time, it really stops! Sam can stick his fingers into the literal inner workings of time and make everything freeze for a few seconds. In the original release, this played a sound effect and that was it. Now, just because we can, the music will slow down and stop from wherever it was playing, as if Sam slowly pressed down on a record player in the middle of a song (ask your parents). The time-stopping finale also has a brand new piece of music, to add a little more tension and underscore that the clock is ticking. Look for “Secuencia de Autodestruccion” on the soundtrack.
We’ve hidden Easter eggs galore. Bosco’s bunker (both past and present) and the far future office are full of them. Happy hunting.
Episode 5: What’s New, Beelzebub?
Hell, LLC now looks more like the Telltale Games office. Haha, we’re kidding… or are we? Either way, you can now walk around the whole Hell office, so take a productivity break and judge for yourself. (But don’t let Satan catch you. You’re on the clock!)
Visual and continuity tweaks were made to various Hell dioramas. Peepers is no longer referred to as Max. The Toy Mafia is no longer associated with this version of the factory. The addition of toxic smoke to the action figure package makes that puzzle a little more intuitive. The cooking show background, camera, and chairs have been spruced up. And there are no waffles in Santa’s Workshop… because this is Hell.
Satan, Momma Bosco, and the subway station now look like their Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse counterparts. In a sense, these assets were remastered for The Devil’s Playhouse, so we used the refinements already made as a jumping off point for their appearance in Beyond Time and Space. Also, since Momma Bosco and the subway station are prominent in the first episode of The Devil’s Playhouse, their consistency across games will now provide continuity between the two seasons.
You can catch Harry Moleman—sorry, we mean Death—doing some filing. Jimmy Two-Teeth’s file was easily missed, so we added a cutscene to help call attention to it. We also added logos to the files that are lying near Timmy at Pimp Le Car, so his folder is more clearly meant for the afterlife and not an unrelated prop.
When Hell freezes over, it snows! Adding snow to the North Pole in Ice Station Santa gave us the excuse to reuse it here, making the closing scene a lot more exciting.
Jurgen was uninvited to Sybil and Abe’s wedding. A lot of debate went into this one. The fact is, he’s a vampire, and he wouldn’t be out in the sunlight. Sure, everyone loves a wedding, but Jurgen’s not the type of guy who would risk his reanimated booty to dance the Electric Slide.
Peepers’ eyes fall out and float away in a river of hot lava. Oh, actually this has always been in the game, for some reason. Okay then.
That’s it, you made it to the bottom!
Thanks for reading all of this. Now you know way more than anyone has ever wanted to know about what’s changed in a remaster of a fourteen-year-old point & click adventure game about two animal detectives.
If you really, really like reading lists of changes to video games, we refuse to kink shame and will actually go so far as to further enable your weird-ass behavior. Since the game’s initial release in December, we’ve put out a few updates to Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, and they have patch notes! If you want to see the things we’ve fixed since the game first shipped, take a look at the Beyond Time and Space patch notes page.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space version 1.0.4 is now live on Steam! This is a small update that fixes a bunch of little bugs and quality of life issues across the game. Most of the bugfixes in this update are little bits of lighting polish we didn't get done for the original
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space version 1.0.4 is now live on Steam! This is a small update that fixes a bunch of little bugs and quality of life issues across the game. Most of the bugfixes in this update are little bits of lighting polish we didn't get done for the original release. You may not notice any of them specifically, but hopefully these scenes just seem a little nicer when you replay. Enjoy!
All Episodes
Fixed pause menu button text not being perfectly centered.
Episode 202
Improved shadow quality on Sam & Max when talking to Moai and Lincoln on Easter Island.
Fixed Sam's head disappearing for one frame when using the Easter Island fountain the first time.
Fixed Sam visible at bottom of screen in shot of pressure gauge after completing prophecies in Chimp Colony (SM2-1833).
Episode 203
Improved shadow quality in Street (Switch only).
Improved lighting during shootout in Stinky's.
Improved Sam's lighting during Sitcom filming.
Improved Max's lighting when talking to Director in Sitcom.
Improved Max's lighting during rap battle in Zombie Factory.
Fixed Spanish subtitle when using the "Letters" ("Cartas") button in Zombie Factory.
Episode 204
Adjusted Flint's lighting when talking to him in Store.
Added Max lighting influence from tractor beam floor when talking to mariachis in UFO Entrance.
Fixed table bases being too bright in Stinky's Past.
Fixed trim board around jukebox being too dark in Stinky's Past.
Fixed wall shadow not connecting to light fall off in Far Future Office.
Episode 205
Restored interaction with one-armed bandit (now one-armed doll) in Factory. We thought that line was an old re-used line from Save the World and was here by mistake, and removed it along with the casino-relevant art. But now it's back and better than ever. Thanks everyone who pointed it out!
Fixed lighting around right pillar in Train Station so Sam doesn't look like he's floating on darkness. (Only Herr Featherly understands the darkness.)
Fixed flickering shadows near crack in Street.
Fixed DeSoto highlights being light too bright in Street.
Fixed bright edge around Stinky's door sign in Street .
Fixed bright outline on plaque in Office.
Balanced lighting on Sam & Max to better match environment when entering Stinky's.
Fixed rim light issue on Stinky when talking to her.
Toned down red carpet bounce light on characters during White House exterior credits.
Improved lighting & shadow quality during White House credits.
Fixed Spanish translation of "That's what she said!" in Office.
Fixed Italian translation of "GOOOAAALLL!" in Driving Rats.
Fixed demon baby idle animation glitch in Workshop.
Thanks everyone who has been playing and enjoying the game since launch! We also know many of you are waiting for the original versions of the episodes to go live as free DLC. That's in progress, and will be happening very soon! We'll let you know when it's live.
And as always, a bonus 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!
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space version 1.0.3 is now live on Steam (and Xbox and Nintendo Switch)! This is a small update that fixes a bunch of little bugs and quality of life issues across the game. Season-wide: Fixed situations where selecting a character to start an inter
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space version 1.0.3 is now live on Steam (and Xbox and Nintendo Switch)! This is a small update that fixes a bunch of little bugs and quality of life issues across the game.
Season-wide:
Fixed situations where selecting a character to start an interactive dialog would seem to cancel out, with Sam walking away instead of talking to them. (This was related to issues with joysticks not being fully centered, and Sam imperceptibly walking away from the character you selected, rudely choosing to bail out on the dialog.)
Fixed dialog selection UI disappearing in the driving mini-games when time runs out while choices are active.
Up-resed texture for shark, Hawaiian t-shirt and tiki head in Stinky's Diner.
Italian & Spanish translation fixes in subtitles and game textures.
Fixed spelling of "Pharaoh" on Street billboard.
Fixed unreadably low res text in bottom corner of episode title cards (Switch only).
Episode 1:
Fixed snowball sometimes not melting.
Fixed DeSoto slowly backing up out of the driving scene after colliding with cross traffic. This bug is memorialized here if you're curious.
Fixed spelling of "outcropping" when talking to Santa in Christmas Future. Sorry "outcrapping" appreciators.
Slight touch-ups to the gift computer in Santa's Workshop, and changed the light it spills on Sam's face to green to match the art on the computer screen.
Made ghost Sam's gun ghostly instead of solid in Christmas Past/Present/Future.
Removed bright gunshot flashes in Workshop & Santa's Room when flashing FX are disabled.
Fixed music not ducking when talking to Jimmy about the robot.
Fixed camera sometimes clipping into Sam's head when looking at master plan in Bosco's.
Fixed Stinky popping into position after looking at pie.
Fixed lighting pop in Stinky's when losing trivia contest.
Fixed lighting on the airplane prop when using record player in Santa's Workshop.
Fixed Sam's hand clipping into table when using package in Store.
Fixed bright lamp in Office when removing Maimtron key with lights off (Switch only).
Fixed swipe to dodge in Boxing (Switch only).
Episode 2:
Fixed Jimmy Hoffa sometimes not being visible on Easter Island.
Fixed Hoffa sometimes not giving Sam the waitress tray when offering him a drink.
Fixed unprocessed answering machine recording in Office.
Fixed slow Max Kid walk animation when talking to Jimmy in Street.
Fixed Max teleporting when using Bomb B Gone for the first time in Store.
Fixed Mariachi floating when dancing on Moai on Easter Island.
Episode 3:
Fixed interacting with Max in Sam's body during finale in Jurgen's Lair after loading a save.
Changed Max's line from "Ja whol" to "Jawhol" when exiting to Stuttgart from Street.
Removed bright camera flashes in epilogue cutscene when flashing FX are disabled.
Fixed instances where the Jesse James' hand cutscene would not play when winning driving after becoming zombies, but before returning to Street.
Fixed zombie hands sometimes clipping into camera when talking to Superball in Stuttgart.
Fixed castle texture seam in Stuttgart.
Fixed surprise Flint cutscene not always playing when entering bookshelf in Zombie Factory.
Fixed "touch to continue"/"click to continue" text being reversed on You Are Dead screen.
Episode 4:
Fixed Max's ear clipping into stall door when looking at scrawled message in Bunker.
Fixed using tar cake sample on Superball not working in Oval Office.
Fixed Flint clipping through door in opening cutscene.
Fixed music display case transparency glitch in Stinky's.
Fixed music not restarting in Office Near Future after Superball does mind wipe.
Fixed Sam sliding across room if gun is drawn when mariachi finishes singing in Oval Office.
Fixed background music and Mariachi music playing at the same time when you save & load while he's singing.
Fixed a pop in Sam's position after the intro cutscene in the Oval Office.
Hid the password on the x-ray when it's still an inventory item and hasn't been used yet.
Episode 5:
Fixed incorrect music in Street -- on some platforms, a shortened version of the Street theme was playing, due to a build script getting confused. The funky electrified violin solo has returned. (PC & Switch)
Removed bright flashes when Cooking Show is cancelled if flashing FX are disabled.
Fixed dark lighting when entering and exiting Hell Reception.
Fixed hallway being too bright when exiting Hell Office to Hell Wing.
Fixed flickering lighting on sleigh in Hell Pit.
Fixed the Hell TV overlay not covering the edge of screen in Cooking Show.
Fixed unprocessed answering machine recording in Sam & Max's office.
Fixed texture seams on Mr. Spatula's pebbles in Hell Office.
Fixed seam in fire pee texture animation in Hell Office. You're welcome.
Fixed squished aspect ratio on the images displayed on the board room projector in Hell Office.
Fixed instances where Max could be seen on screen behind Sam before he's hopped out of the manhole when entering Street.
Fixed void visible when waking the Maimtron around in the Street.
Fixed Whizzer animation pop when entering Stinky's.
Fixed Mimesweeper music playing in Hell Office during cutscene when Satan sends Sam to Hell.
Fixed Satan & Max animation pops in Hell Office when returning from Office diorama.
Fixed void visible when using remote on the Maimtron.
Fixed small animation glitches when Momma Bosco leaves.
Fixed corrupted text in Sam & Peepers opening (Xbox only).
Thanks everyone who has been playing and enjoying the game since launch! We also know many of you are waiting for the original versions of the episodes to go live as free DLC. That's in progress, and will be happening very soon! We'll let you know when it's live.
And as always, a bonus 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!
The Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space soundtrack is here! It's a 53-track extravaganza featuring over three hours of music from Sam & Max’s second episodic season. The Rapa Nui Choo Choo? Zombie rave classics? Mariachis?! They’re all here, along with many of the season’s s
The Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space soundtrack is here! It's a 53-track extravaganza featuring over three hours of music from Sam & Max’s second episodic season. The Rapa Nui Choo Choo? Zombie rave classics? Mariachis?! They’re all here, along with many of the season’s scored cutscenes and eight all-new tracks written for the Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space remaster by series composer Jared Emerson-Johnson, performed by live musicians.
What if I already own the game, do I get a discount?
Yes! If you already own Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, the best way to get the soundtrack is to complete the game + soundtrack bundle. It'll save you 15%!
If you really want to get into it, there are actually more than eight new tracks, but a few of them are short stingers or details. Fortunately we do want to get into it, so short or long, detail or full track, we'll tell you about them all!
Maimtron 9000's Pancake Breakfast Sam & Max's adventure begins when a pop culture-obsessed battle robot starts tearing down their building. In the original release, this scene shared music with the opening credits, titled "Freelance Panic," (which play immediately after the robot is defeated). We added a new track here both to reduce the redundancy of hearing the same track twice, and to kick the season off with something fresh.
City Streets Saunter Speaking of reducing redundancy, in the original 2008 release of Sam & Max Season Two, there was no new music written for the street, just some new solos performed over the old track. This meant that you'd hear the same street theme for eleven episodes in a row! Now Beyond Time and Space has its own theme for the streets. (Miss the original? You can still hear it in the final episode!)
Where We Goin' Sam? The track that plays every time Sam and Max jump in their DeSoto and drive away. You've heard it a thousand times before, now you can hear it live, performed by the same musicians who play the rest of the soundtrack!
Happy Elves Happy Toys This is a short spooky stinger that plays sometimes when Sam and Max walk into Santa's Workshop at the North Pole. We wanted to increase the feeling that you're being watched by some dark force that's possessed a member of the North Pole crew. That's what spooky stinger are for, and we've got one!
Jingle Mama This is a festive, holiday-flavored version of the new track "Oh Mama!" from Sam & Max Save the World remastered. It plays when Sam and Max go back in time to save a Christmas past that went wrong in their office, one year ago...
Bermuda Boogie Like "Maimtron 9000's Pancake Breakfast," this is a track written to replace yet another repeated instance of the opening credits music right at the start of the episode. The Bermuda Triangle is running amok on Sam and Max's street, and now it's got music to match! Much like "Pancake Breakfast," this is a percussion-heavy track meant to have a unique twist on the same energy "Freelance Panic" brought to the original scene.
Easter Exotica When remastering Moai Better Blues, one goal we had was to take the Easter Island location and make it feel a little more like it could have fallen out of the Sam & Max comics. To that end, we redesigned the "Secret Underground Cave" sign, pumped up the colors, and added a lot more kitsch to the soundtrack. This track started as a simple spruce up of the original Easter Island track, but eventually evolved into its own new composition. (You can still hear the original track when in conversations with characters in this scene!)
Fright & Harrow When Sam & Max's street is beset by zombies, the music now sets the mood with a haunted and creepy take on the new street theme. Then, once Sam and Max become zombies themselves, the music goes a step further and becomes fully 100% haunted. Like "Easter Exotica," this track started off as a simple variant, but eventually evolved into its own new piece.
Mama B's / Camelot a Go-Go One of our favorite parts of Chariots of the Dogs is discovering new and surprising twists on the old locations when you visit them in different times. In the original release, this extended to the music too, but only when visiting a few different times. In the remaster, we've extended the new music to two more time travel locations: Bosco's and the Oval Office. They now have music appropriate for their time period, while still containing little references and licks from their original music from Save the World.
Secuencia de Autodestrucción In the original release, when the UFO's auto-destruct sequence is initiated, players were greeted with... Freelance Panic, the opening credits music. We thought it would benefit from something new, and more specific to the moment. This track still features a driving percussive beat, but is all about time running out as the ship hurdles towards its own death.
Of course in addition to these new tracks there are hours and hours more to listen to, all cleanly mixed and mastered in a way we didn't have time for when the series was initially released. We hope you enjoy it all!
Hey folks! Our second Sam & Max remaster, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, is now out on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and right here on Steam. Maybe you have a few questions before you hit that buy button? Luckily we have a few answers… Dude, where’s my discount? Last year, wh
Hey folks! Our second Sam & Max remaster, Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, is now out on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and right here on Steam. Maybe you have a few questions before you hit that buy button? Luckily we have a few answers…
Dude, where’s my discount?
Last year, when Sam & Max Save the World came out, we were able to offer a special discount to owners of the original Sam & Max Season One. We wanted to do that this time for Season Two owners, but sadly Steam doesn’t support this type of legacy discount anymore. Instead, we’re offering a Save the World + Beyond Time and Space bundle for 25% off.
This is a “complete the set” bundle, which means you only pay for the items you don’t own yet. If Sam & Max Save the World is already in your Steam library, this bundle will get you just Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space for 25% off. And if you don’t own either remaster yet, you can dive in headfirst with a 25% discount on both of them. This deal ends at midnight Eastern time on December 21.
For example, if you own Sam & Max Save the World, you can get Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space for 25% off by completing the set.
UPDATE 12/22: The 25% launch discount has now expired, but this bundle is still available and will have a 15% discount for the foreseeable future. So if you already own Sam & Max Save the World, you can still pick up Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space for a few bucks off as described above.
Hey, wait! What about...
The original episodes DLC? If you buy Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space on Steam, you’ll get access to the original Season Two episodes as free DLC. We’re still getting this set up, but watch for it later in December. (Of course, if you already have these episodes in your Steam library, you can still access them there too.)
A list of all the updates in the remaster? Around the Skunkape office (aka our Slack channel) we affectionately refer to this as the “mega-post,” and every time we think it’s finished we remember something else to add to it. We’re working on it! In the meantime, this regular-sized post lists out the biggest updates. (Spoiler: We did rerecord Bosco in this remaster, but we did not make any edits or deletions to the script before doing so. The details of why and why not are something we'll get into in the aforementioned mega-post!)
The soundtrack? We’ll have this up on Steam and Bandcamp very soon! Until then, tide yourself over with “Maimtron 9000’s Pancake Breakfast,” one of the eight new tracks Jared Emerson-Johnson composed for the remaster.
Entwickler Skunkape Games legen nach Sam & Max: Save the World Remastered ein weiteres Adventure-Remaster mit dem "Freelance Police" Detektiv-Duo auf. Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered, das ursprünglich als "Season Two" im Jahr 2007 erschienen ist, verspricht ab
Entwickler Skunkape Games legen nach Sam & Max: Save the World Remastered ein weiteres Adventure-Remaster mit dem "Freelance Police" Detektiv-Duo auf. Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space Remastered, das ursprünglich als "Season Two" im Jahr 2007 erschienen ist, verspricht abermals ein bizarres Abenteuer zu werden [...]
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, the second season of Telltale Games' anarchic series of episodic point-and-click adventures, is getting the remaster treatment on 8th December for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC. Inspired by Steve Purcell's cult comic series and fi
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space, the second season of Telltale Games' anarchic series of episodic point-and-click adventures, is getting the remaster treatment on 8th December for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.
Inspired by Steve Purcell's cult comic series and first released in 2007, Beyond Time and Space once against follows the largely ludicrous adventures of crime-fighting dog and bunny duo Sam & Max - who both made their video game debut 15 years earlier in LucasArts' point-and-click classic Sam & Max Hit the Road - over the course of five episodes.
"Sam & Max are back on the crime beat in a showdown with Santa Claus, a race to subdue a giant volcano, and a face-off with a Eurotrash vampire," teases remaster developer Skunkape Games. "And then things get even weirder."
It’s been 350 days since Sam & Max Save the World came out, and during this time we’ve been ( mostly ) quiet, but don’t be fooled! The Skunkape team has been cranking away at Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (aka Season Two), and today we’re flinging open the reinforced b
It’s been 350 days since Sam & Max Save the World came out, and during this time we’ve been (mostly) quiet, but don’t be fooled! The Skunkape team has been cranking away at Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space (aka Season Two), and today we’re flinging open the reinforced bulletproof door so you can peek in and see what’s happening in our secret game-remastering bunker. But first...
We just announced that Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space will release on Steam (PC), Nintendo Switch, and Xbox on December 8! We’re not doing preorders on Steam this time, but add the game to your wishlist and mark your calendar, because launch day is only three weeks away.
You might be wondering if we’ll offer a legacy discount to owners of the original Sam & Max Season Two, like we did for Season One owners last year. Unfortunately Steam no longer supports this type of discount. We’re just as bummed about it as you are. :(
Instead, we’ve figured out a way to give a launch discount to people who already bought the Sam & Max Save the World remaster on Steam. We hope this will cover a lot of the people who would have benefitted from a Season Two legacy discount. We’ll announce details on December 8.
At launch we’ll also post a detailed mega-list of what’s new for those who want to see it before they make a purchase decision (or are just curious). For now, we’ll lay out the bigger updates to get you all tingly with anticipation. Starting with...
Updates You Can See
Sam & Max Season Two came out in 2007/2008, and it showed. The remaster has beautiful dynamic lighting, shadows, and ambiance that pull a fourteen-year-old game into the future. All graphical assets have been scaled up, which means more detailed environments and smoother animations.
We once again tweaked all of the character models to bring them closer to Steve Purcell’s aesthetic, in some cases under his guidance. Kid Sam, Kid Max, and Flint Paper look more like they do in the comics, while Jurgen is closer to Steve’s original concept sketch. Putting car keys on Jurgen’s nipple ring was a little too risqué in 2008, but in 2021 we went there.
We’ve also added visual effects that Telltale’s engine couldn’t support in 2007/2008, including falling snow in the North Pole and new ambiance in the Zombie Factory. You can get a glimpse of these in the trailer.
And a couple of cinematic artists with years of experience on Telltale series went through the whole game to improve camera angles, choreograph new sequences, and punch up character acting. There are several examples in this first look playthrough video. (Warning, contains spoilers!)
Believe it or not, a good number of people still had dial-up internet in 2007. Telltale was always looking for ways to keep download sizes small, and massively compressing audio was a favorite trick. Now that we’re living in the future, this isn’t necessary, so we went into the vault and scrounged up the original voice files to remaster and re-encode them at higher quality. Your ears will thank us.
(We only had access to the English voice files, so there is no foreign language voice in the remaster. The game has subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian, same as Sam & Max Season Two.)
As in Sam & Max Save the World, we once again rerecorded Bosco with voice actor Ogie Banks, but no lines were rewritten this time. Longtime fans may notice some small changes due to the natural improvisation that happens during recording, but the script itself is untouched.
The music has also been spruced up, with some existing tracks embellished and eight new ones written by Jared Emerson-Johnson. The new tracks were performed by live musicians from the original Season Two soundtrack and the Sam & Max Save the World remaster.
Where did we find space for eight new tracks in a game that was crammed full of great music already? Well, you might have noticed that episodic games often reuse content. This saves time and money during production, but it can get old. We saw an opportunity to put a new spin on reused content with some themes in Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space that were either identical to a Season One track or would benefit from variations between episodes. For example, you’ll now hear a brand new street theme, City Streets Saunter, rather than the original City Streets that had been carried over from Season One.
The new music will be included on the Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space soundtrack, also coming out on or around December 8.
Updates You Can Play
While the story and puzzles haven’t changed, we did update the DeSoto decal system. Decals were a big deal when Season Two came out (and also a big headache for programmer Randy Tudor), because they were the first example of Telltale content that carried over from one episode to the next, laying the foundation for the game remembering your choices in later series like The Walking Dead.
But the decal system was punishing, because you couldn’t go back to collect the ones you missed in earlier episodes—you essentially had to 100% an episode before moving on to the next. Not anymore! In the remaster, you can go back to previous episodes and get decals you missed, and they’ll carry forward into future episodes without having to replay. We also added a decal poster next to the De Soto so you can see which decals you still need to get.
The same quality of life improvements in Sam & Max Save the World are present here, including a choice between mouse, mouse + keyboard, or gamepad controls; smoother shooting and driving; and optional subtitle backgrounds to make the text easier to read. In addition, we’ve added two new accessibility features: the option to skip driving mini-games, and a toggle to turn off lighting effects that could trigger seizures.
And it wouldn’t be a remaster without new Easter eggs, right? We’ve added those too. Not gonna tell you where they are, but we hope you enjoy finding them as much as we enjoyed hiding them.
Updates?! But what if I don’t want no stinkin’ updates?
We hear you. We walked twelve miles to school through the snow, uphill both ways, too. The original Sam & Max Season Two will live on in your game library (if you already own it), and on Steam it will be bundled with the Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space remaster as free DLC. So if you’re feeling nostalgic for those chunky polygons and crusty audio, or you want to compare the old Bosco voice to the new, or you just prefer to play your games on an 800x600 CRT monitor thank you very much, we’ll have you covered.
Of course, the Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space remaster has a lot more in store than we’ve covered here, and we can’t wait for you to see, hear, and play it! This big Sam & Max Save the World post goes into more detail about the big picture changes, if you missed it the first time around. And if you’re looking for more info about the remasters in general, check out our FAQ.
And two, now that the hole is huge, we can shoot Sam and Max’s office through it. This gives Beyond Time and Space’s version of the office its own unique look.
