The Story of the Star Wars Spin Off Movie Without the Movie
December 22, 2016 9:46 AM Subscribe
It was the 90's and anything was possible, including Lucasfilm's first venture into multi-platform storytelling, large shoulder pads, and a dashing smuggler named....Dash. Why yes, we're talking about Shadows of the Empire. Via Thrillist.com
And Shadows was a step towards Rogue Squadron on N64 as well so that helps it's place in Star Wars game history.
posted by Hicksu at 10:04 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Hicksu at 10:04 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is December 22nd going to become Star Wars day? I'm not against it, just asking.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:06 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by filthy light thief at 10:06 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ah, Dash Rendar, you poochified Han Solo replacement you. Only the 90s could have conceived you and brought you to life.
I enjoyed this tidbit about the new canon:
Turns out, Fett is the one who tells Vader that Skywalker was his son.
It's good to know that no matter how much this world changes, the Star Wars EU will never stop being terrible and jamming Boba Fett into everything
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:09 AM on December 22, 2016 [11 favorites]
I enjoyed this tidbit about the new canon:
Turns out, Fett is the one who tells Vader that Skywalker was his son.
It's good to know that no matter how much this world changes, the Star Wars EU will never stop being terrible and jamming Boba Fett into everything
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:09 AM on December 22, 2016 [11 favorites]
When I was a kid it went over my head, but looking back, Xizor's whole deal is pretty problematic! Scheming reptilian space Asian with a sexed-up murderbot, a very mid-90s bad look.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:23 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jason_steakums at 10:23 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's good to know that no matter how much this world changes, the Star Wars EU will never stop being terrible and jamming Boba Fett into everything
Complained a lot, got killed by a blind man yelling his name from two feet away, still regarded as the biggest non-Force badass in the universe and a critical player in everything that happened. Good visual design overrides a whoooooole lot.
posted by middleclasstool at 10:33 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
Complained a lot, got killed by a blind man yelling his name from two feet away, still regarded as the biggest non-Force badass in the universe and a critical player in everything that happened. Good visual design overrides a whoooooole lot.
posted by middleclasstool at 10:33 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
I think about this sometimes
That whole article is absolutely astounding in terms of raw mismanagement. Here it is in all its glory.
posted by codacorolla at 10:36 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
That whole article is absolutely astounding in terms of raw mismanagement. Here it is in all its glory.
posted by codacorolla at 10:36 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
Complained a lot, got killed by a blind man yelling his name from two feet away, still regarded as the biggest non-Force badass in the universe and a critical player in everything that happened.
I'm virtually certain that there's a story in the EU about how he totally survived that with clever use of thermal detonators and escaped to continue bounty hunting, presumably under a slightly different name and with armor that all black and had spikes but was otherwise the same.
posted by Copronymus at 10:41 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm virtually certain that there's a story in the EU about how he totally survived that with clever use of thermal detonators and escaped to continue bounty hunting, presumably under a slightly different name and with armor that all black and had spikes but was otherwise the same.
posted by Copronymus at 10:41 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also, are you saying that I have Dash Rendar (lol) to blame for the current dyspeptic cultural moment of endless franchised nerd epics revolving around half a dozen media empires? Even if not, I'll take him as a massively shoulder padded scapegoat.
posted by codacorolla at 10:43 AM on December 22, 2016
posted by codacorolla at 10:43 AM on December 22, 2016
Found a copy of the paperback in my basement last week. Tempted to pick it up again, but I remember not being very impressed back then. Can't imagine time has improved it.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:54 AM on December 22, 2016
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:54 AM on December 22, 2016
MetaFilter: jamming Boba Fett into everything
posted by Paladin1138 at 10:57 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Paladin1138 at 10:57 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
the Star Wars EU will never stop being terrible and jamming Boba Fett into everything
And as 7 year-old Atom Eyes could have told them: that's how you ruin toasters.
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:59 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
And as 7 year-old Atom Eyes could have told them: that's how you ruin toasters.
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:59 AM on December 22, 2016 [7 favorites]
Can't imagine time has improved it.
let us know if the Xizor/Leia pheromone seduction scene is still space-sexy in a PG-13 sort of way all these years later
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:10 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
let us know if the Xizor/Leia pheromone seduction scene is still space-sexy in a PG-13 sort of way all these years later
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:10 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
Ah, Dash Rendar, you poochified Han Solo replacement you. Only the 90s could have conceived you and brought you to life.
Dash Rendar, the poor man's Kyle Kartan. He's not even the most 90s thing that Shadows of the Empire had to offer, a title that has to go to this action figure of Chewbacca in disguise.
The novel's very painful to read with a modern eye. It comes across as hacky fanfic, even when held against what standards you should expect from a licensed work of the era before internet had gone mainstream. Xizor's got much too much Mary Sue in him to be taken seriously as a villian. Few books make me want to fling them across the room out of incredulity over the fact that it was published, but this one hit the plaster once before I could finish it.
posted by radwolf76 at 11:21 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
Dash Rendar, the poor man's Kyle Kartan. He's not even the most 90s thing that Shadows of the Empire had to offer, a title that has to go to this action figure of Chewbacca in disguise.
The novel's very painful to read with a modern eye. It comes across as hacky fanfic, even when held against what standards you should expect from a licensed work of the era before internet had gone mainstream. Xizor's got much too much Mary Sue in him to be taken seriously as a villian. Few books make me want to fling them across the room out of incredulity over the fact that it was published, but this one hit the plaster once before I could finish it.
posted by radwolf76 at 11:21 AM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yikes. I don't think I ever was as disappointed with a game than with SotE. Really early 3D action shooter, clunky, unresponsive and slow, and N64s poor texture memory didn't help the case one bit.
I also don't know how successful that idea of creating a cross-media story panned out - I knew some people that had novel, game or comic, but totally ignored (or were even aware) of the others. Maybe that worked better in the US, but in here markets were a bit too segregated for it to work.
But one thing I'm always puzzled is why LucasArts never tried to make a Star Wars point and click adventure game (Yoda Stories is kinda fun on it's own cheapness, but ... yeah). It's not like they were swimming in great gaming IP - in the 90s, they had X-wing/TIE Fighter, Dark Forces, Rogue Squadron and Pod Racer. Only last decade things really picked up for the better: Jedi Knight, KOTOR, Battlefront, Lego and Galactic Battlegrounds. But... yeah. a Star Wars Adventures series with SCUMM would certainly have become a nice earner for them along their other games.
(also, just slightly related, but speaking of cross-media events, GoG just added TRON 2.0, a better sequel than that thing released on cinemas a few years back)
posted by lmfsilva at 11:22 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
I also don't know how successful that idea of creating a cross-media story panned out - I knew some people that had novel, game or comic, but totally ignored (or were even aware) of the others. Maybe that worked better in the US, but in here markets were a bit too segregated for it to work.
But one thing I'm always puzzled is why LucasArts never tried to make a Star Wars point and click adventure game (Yoda Stories is kinda fun on it's own cheapness, but ... yeah). It's not like they were swimming in great gaming IP - in the 90s, they had X-wing/TIE Fighter, Dark Forces, Rogue Squadron and Pod Racer. Only last decade things really picked up for the better: Jedi Knight, KOTOR, Battlefront, Lego and Galactic Battlegrounds. But... yeah. a Star Wars Adventures series with SCUMM would certainly have become a nice earner for them along their other games.
(also, just slightly related, but speaking of cross-media events, GoG just added TRON 2.0, a better sequel than that thing released on cinemas a few years back)
posted by lmfsilva at 11:22 AM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
This was the first video game that I ever owned. I remember because my sister really, really wanted us to get an N64 for Christmas and convinced me that if we asked for it together we would get it (she was right, like always). She got Cruis'n the USA, or however it's spelled, and I got this.
I LOVED it. It was so good to my super young eyes. I beat it several times because we really didn't get a ton of N64 games. The underwater level was creepy and that boss was utterly terrifying. And those speeder levels? I'm just looking at screenshots and those are some great memories.
It wasn't until a few years ago that I found out that people think this game is utter trash. I was never going to replay it, but still, that was a little shocking. I thought it was a classic.
posted by Neronomius at 11:34 AM on December 22, 2016 [6 favorites]
I LOVED it. It was so good to my super young eyes. I beat it several times because we really didn't get a ton of N64 games. The underwater level was creepy and that boss was utterly terrifying. And those speeder levels? I'm just looking at screenshots and those are some great memories.
It wasn't until a few years ago that I found out that people think this game is utter trash. I was never going to replay it, but still, that was a little shocking. I thought it was a classic.
posted by Neronomius at 11:34 AM on December 22, 2016 [6 favorites]
But one thing I'm always puzzled is why LucasArts never tried to make a Star Wars point and click adventure game
I read an interview a long ways back with Hal Barwood and Tim Schafer, and apparently Barwood had pitched a Star Wars adventure game, but it would have involved a lot of 3D-rendered sets and management apparently thought it would be too similar to Grim Fandango. I remember Schafer quipping, "so, Grim Fandango was originally supposed to be a space sim..."
posted by Peevish at 11:45 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
I read an interview a long ways back with Hal Barwood and Tim Schafer, and apparently Barwood had pitched a Star Wars adventure game, but it would have involved a lot of 3D-rendered sets and management apparently thought it would be too similar to Grim Fandango. I remember Schafer quipping, "so, Grim Fandango was originally supposed to be a space sim..."
posted by Peevish at 11:45 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]
If it has mentions to 3D-rendering and Grim Fandango, it's likely closer to the post cat-hair moustache decline of the genre in the late 90s. But from the mid 80s to mid 90s when adventure games were the hottest thing around for PCs? I'm sure LucasArts could have squeezed a game or two between Indiana Jones, Monkey Island, and other one-offs releases like Loom, Full Throttle and the more serious like The Dig. I just don't understand the reason why they didn't.
posted by lmfsilva at 12:14 PM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by lmfsilva at 12:14 PM on December 22, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm sure LucasArts could have squeezed a game or two between Indiana Jones, Monkey Island, and other one-offs releases like Loom, Full Throttle and the more serious like The Dig. I just don't understand the reason why they didn't.
My feeling is: It was the era when everyone was convinced that games using full motion video were going to be a big thing, and so naturally LucasArts took their premier intellectual property that was already heavy on starfighters and blasters in the direction of Rebel Assault, rather than something that played more like Indiana Jones.
posted by AndrewInDC at 2:50 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
My feeling is: It was the era when everyone was convinced that games using full motion video were going to be a big thing, and so naturally LucasArts took their premier intellectual property that was already heavy on starfighters and blasters in the direction of Rebel Assault, rather than something that played more like Indiana Jones.
posted by AndrewInDC at 2:50 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Maybe. There were also FMV adventures, but I'm not sure the production values would be anything up to par.m and I don't feel they'd see a rail shooter as a replacement.
Coming to think of it, look at the genres Star Wars touched: There were countless action games, FPS of varied styles , platformers, rail shooters, space combat games, RPG and MMORPG, RTS and 4X, vs fighting game, side-scrolling brawler and hack and slash, dancing game, racing...
Adventure, the cornerstone of LucasArts? Nah, we're cool.
(also no sports, but I don't think there's anything like sport in the movies. And hopefully we won't see Vader on the bass in Cantina Band by Harmonix).
posted by lmfsilva at 3:18 PM on December 22, 2016
Coming to think of it, look at the genres Star Wars touched: There were countless action games, FPS of varied styles , platformers, rail shooters, space combat games, RPG and MMORPG, RTS and 4X, vs fighting game, side-scrolling brawler and hack and slash, dancing game, racing...
Adventure, the cornerstone of LucasArts? Nah, we're cool.
(also no sports, but I don't think there's anything like sport in the movies. And hopefully we won't see Vader on the bass in Cantina Band by Harmonix).
posted by lmfsilva at 3:18 PM on December 22, 2016
also no sports, but I don't think there's anything like sport in the movies
Ahem.
[Edit: I see you mentioned racing already. Not sure why you didn't classify it as a sport.]
posted by shponglespore at 3:44 PM on December 22, 2016
Ahem.
[Edit: I see you mentioned racing already. Not sure why you didn't classify it as a sport.]
posted by shponglespore at 3:44 PM on December 22, 2016
I don't know if Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas ever met, but I do know if they did meet they would have been unable to acknowledge their mutual ability to create an amazing thing then flail about madly destroying their legacy trying to create something else.
What I'm saying is maybe George Lucas and Markus Persson should hang out.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:45 PM on December 22, 2016
What I'm saying is maybe George Lucas and Markus Persson should hang out.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:45 PM on December 22, 2016
I'm virtually certain that there's a story in the EU about how he totally survived that with clever use of thermal detonators and escaped to continue bounty hunting, presumably under a slightly different name and with armor that all black and had spikes but was otherwise the same.
I'm really not that guy who posts EU links from Wookiepedia, but the story you're thinking of is "The Last One Standing" from Tales of the Bounty Hunters, literally the only Star Wars book I've read (except for, embarrassingly, the novelization of A New Hope).
posted by 256 at 4:48 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm really not that guy who posts EU links from Wookiepedia, but the story you're thinking of is "The Last One Standing" from Tales of the Bounty Hunters, literally the only Star Wars book I've read (except for, embarrassingly, the novelization of A New Hope).
posted by 256 at 4:48 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
The only known photo of Gene Roddenberry meeting George Lucas at the Creation Entertainment/Starlog 10th Anniversary Star Wars Convention.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:01 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by GhostintheMachine at 6:01 PM on December 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
It wasn't until a few years ago that I found out that people think this game is utter trash. I was never going to replay it, but still, that was a little shocking. I thought it was a classic.
Don't feel bad; I'm only just learning it now. (I wouldn't have called it a "classic" but it's still in my collection.)
posted by dances with hamsters at 6:01 PM on December 22, 2016
Don't feel bad; I'm only just learning it now. (I wouldn't have called it a "classic" but it's still in my collection.)
posted by dances with hamsters at 6:01 PM on December 22, 2016
Worth saying that the reason why I was so disappointed with SotE was the first level (hoth tripping ATs) was brilliant. Then the foot missions begin and oh god why.
[Edit: I see you mentioned racing already. Not sure why you didn't classify it as a sport.]
Old habit. I usually had to split games between "racing" (your usual racers, from wipeout, podracer to burnout), "Motorsport" (licensed racing games) and "sports" (team sports, others like tennis and so on).
posted by lmfsilva at 7:53 PM on December 22, 2016
[Edit: I see you mentioned racing already. Not sure why you didn't classify it as a sport.]
Old habit. I usually had to split games between "racing" (your usual racers, from wipeout, podracer to burnout), "Motorsport" (licensed racing games) and "sports" (team sports, others like tennis and so on).
posted by lmfsilva at 7:53 PM on December 22, 2016
Aw man, I remember giving up on SW: Rogue Squadron when I couldn't manage to trip AT-ATs under the time limit (PC version). Never played SotE but I'm pretty sure I read the comic.
posted by Standard Orange at 10:14 PM on December 22, 2016
posted by Standard Orange at 10:14 PM on December 22, 2016
And Shadows was a step towards Rogue Squadron on N64 as well so that helps it's place in Star Wars game history.
That first level was pretty fantastic indeed.
posted by ersatz at 7:35 AM on December 23, 2016
That first level was pretty fantastic indeed.
posted by ersatz at 7:35 AM on December 23, 2016
I still own SotE and it was definitely one of my favorite games as a kid. Unfortunately playing it now is near impossible because of the control scheme, although I'm fairly certain I used a really weird one as a kid.
I also remember the menu sounds being really weird.
posted by gucci mane at 5:05 PM on December 23, 2016
I also remember the menu sounds being really weird.
posted by gucci mane at 5:05 PM on December 23, 2016
Mr.Encyclopedia: "I don't know if Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas ever met, but I do know if they did meet they would have been unable to acknowledge their mutual ability to create an amazing thing then flail about madly destroying their legacy trying to create something else."
I think there's a very strong argument to be made that Lucas fundamentally does not understand what the "good parts" of Star Wars are. While we have him to thank for the initial genesis, ever since, the less he's had to do with it, the better.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:12 PM on December 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think there's a very strong argument to be made that Lucas fundamentally does not understand what the "good parts" of Star Wars are. While we have him to thank for the initial genesis, ever since, the less he's had to do with it, the better.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:12 PM on December 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
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(There was a PC version, but nevermind that)
And then of course Jedi Knight came out the next year and all was forgiven.
posted by selfnoise at 9:54 AM on December 22, 2016 [2 favorites]