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

We rectified that for the holidays,[x.com] 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!

• 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[x.com], 2022[x.com], 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.

• 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[www.uncute.com]!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tomorrow, the Skunkape team and a special guest or two will take over https://www.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[www.gamehistory.org], 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!

Besides the chance to hear about the development of the Sam & Max games from people who made them, we have donation incentives!

We’ve dug through the vault (aka our closets) to find an eclectic mix of swag to appeal to the discerning adventure game fan. Check out the Tiltify campaign and click Rewards to see the full list.[tiltify.com]

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!

We’ll start streaming around 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm GMT on December 20, and go for a couple hours. Follow the Video Game History Foundation’s Twitch channel[www.twitch.tv] to get an alert when we go live.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

• 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's all for now! For a complete history of our patches you can visit the Skunkape support website[skunkape.zendesk.com]. 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check out this Steam announcement for more details.

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

https://steamproxy.com/steamstore/bundle/24043/Save_the_World__Beyond_Time_and_Space_Bundle/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As always, thanks to everyone who found an issue and reported it! For a complete history of our patches you can visit the Skunkape support website[skunkape.zendesk.com]. 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!

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

Head over to the Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space store page to ooh and ahh over the trailer and screenshots, and to read up on some of what's in store in this remaster.

And if you don't mind a few spoilers, IGN posted a juicy gameplay where the Skunkape team plays and talks through the first twenty or so minutes of Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space's first episode, Ice Station Santa.