Back when George Lucas was riding high on the success of the original Star Wars trilogy, he created his own production company called Lucasfilm. This company included a subdivision called the Gaming Group, which would eventually go on to become LucasArts. LucasArts created dozens of Star Wars video games, along with some of the most beloved adventure games of the 1980s and 90s.
LucasArts would later be dismantled in the 2000s, and Lucasfilm-licensed games made since then have been made by other developers. However, gamers can find most of the old catalog online, and some former LucasArts employees are keeping the old franchises alive. Collectors are also trading old copies of some of the rarest LucasArts games at incredible prices.
All prices were taken from PriceCharting.com and were accurate at the time of publication.
6 Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures ($179)
Loose | $44.78 |
|---|---|
Complete in Box | $179.95 |
New | $360.00 |
In the mid-90s, the idea of a home computer with a mainly graphical interface like Windows 95 or the Apple Macintosh was still new and exciting. LucasArts decided to cash in on this interest with a couple of licensed games: Indiana Jones and His Desktop Adventures and Star Wars: Yoda Stories.
Desktop Adventures isn't the most interesting game with the Indiana Jones license. It uses a simple, repetitive quest system, a set number of enemies, and no larger plot to solve, plus it can be hard to emulate on modern computers. Still, the game is a good way to pass some time, and it's a unique and rare entry in a famous franchise.
5 Loom ($187)
Loose | $31.49 |
|---|---|
Complete in Box | $187.50 |
New | $375.00 |
Loom is a fairly experimental adventure game, both for its interface and its plot. Unlike other LucasArts adventure games, in Loom players must interact with the environment by casting magical spells, spells that activate by playing four notes on the distaff that takes up the entire interface. The game also takes place in a unique fantasy world in which single-minded guilds each control their own part of the world.
The lead developer Brian Moriarty imagined Loom as the first part of a trilogy, but poor sales meant that it would never get a sequel. Still, it was loved by critics, and the voice acting on the rare CD-ROM version was unusually good for the early 90s. Many versions came packaged with a 30-minute audio drama, making a complete-in-box version especially valuable to collectors.
4 Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge ($199)
Loose | $90.00 |
|---|---|
Complete in Box | $199.88 |
New | $400.00 |
The single most successful adventure game franchise to come out of LucasArts would have to be the Monkey Island series. The first game was a landmark of the adventure game genre, and even before the lead developer Ron Gilbert knew it was a success he was hard at work at its sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.
LeChuck's Revenge would build upon the setting and humor of The Secret of Monkey Island with an even bigger and more ambitious game that included more locations, puzzles, characters, and plot elements. Monkey Island 2 would eventually be remade in 2010, and the new version features crisper voice acting, smoother graphics, and a streamlined interface, but the original floppy disks are hard to come by.
3 The Secret of Monkey Island ($235)
Loose | $122.50 |
|---|---|
Complete in Box | $235.00 |
New | $470.00 |
According to the lead developer Ron Gilbert, the idea for The Secret of Monkey Island came (at least in part) from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. Disney didn't own Lucasfilm at the time, but that didn't stop Gilbert from creating a pirate-themed adventure game that would eventually spawn five sequels.
The game's sense of humor and relatively straightforward puzzles make it a decent game even by modern standards, which is how it got a special edition rerelease in 2009. The game also came out on a dozen different PC platforms, like Amiga and Atari ST, so collectors may need to spend extra to get every version.
2 Maniac Mansion ($259)
Loose | $20.00 |
|---|---|
Complete in Box | $259.00 |
New | $518.00 |
Maniac Mansion wasn't the first adventure game created by LucasArts, but it was the first one to use the SCUMM engine that the developers would later use for almost every adventure game they created. In fact, SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion. The game's plot is a nod to old sci-fi B-movies, and it's about a group of teens exploring a mansion inhabited by a mad scientist and his wacky relatives.
The game is very rough around the edges, but it set a lot of precedents for the genre. Maniac Mansion features a fully visual interface that lets players choose verbs from the list at the bottom of the screen and use them to interact with objects and locations. Earlier adventure games forced players to type in commands using the keyboard, and often they had to guess which words and commands the game could understand. This new interface also meant LucasArts could create a version compatible with consoles like the NES and Commodore 64.
1 Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders ($367)
Loose | $326.37 |
|---|---|
Complete in Box | $367.36 |
New | $735.00 |
Maniac Mansion would eventually get a sequel called Day of the Tentacle, but Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is another one-off title like Loom. It stars Zak McKracken, a tabloid reporter who needs to collect parts scattered across Earth and Mars to stop aliens from taking over the Earth. The lead developer, David Fox, originally intended to make a serious game, but Ron Gilbert convinced him to add more humor to the story.
Zak McKracken wouldn't get the same attention as the earlier game Maniac Mansion or the later game The Secret of Monkey Island, but it would still develop its own fan base that loved its unusual sense of humor. Its significance as the second SCUMM game and rarity in the United States are two of the biggest reasons why Zak McKracken is the rarest LucasArts game, and also the most expensive.