Way back before 2012 I used to have a fan website on the PC point and click adventure game The Dig. It was called the The Dig Site and it’s focus was unearthing content from earlier versions of the game. You can see some content on our YouTube channel on The Dig however I used to have more. It was one of those free website hosting deals by GeoCities… Ahhh sorry I was just remembering the good old days of the internet. Anyway at that time I was keeping up to date with the SCUMM adventure game community and word was getting around that new fan-made game was in development called Han Solo Adventures. It was in typical SCUMM point and click the commands style, such as in games like Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion. There was a small webpage at that time promoting the game with some very tantalizing screenshots for the time and it made all of us adventure game nerds very excited. A demo was even released however I don’t ever remember playing it so it’s possible that I couldn’t get it to work on my machine. Today, unfortunately, the demo is lost media or at least until the author uploads it to the internet again. It actually appears that the author; Stacy Davidson, tweeted from his account in May 2023 that work may actually continue on this project. I also wish that he would also upload the demo to a web hosting service of some sort so people can see how well it plays. Well at least there is a 10 minute video playthrough on YouTube that we can watch.
"On May 4 of this year, a tweet was made from the project's official Twitter account, leaving open the option that the game would be finished at some point in the future after years without updates."
- Ry0G4
r/StarWars (Reddit.com)
We get a good idea of what the game is like by watching the video of the demo on YouTube. We can see the typical nine interaction command words in a 3×3 grid in the bottom left with inventory squares on the right. This is nearly identical format to games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Indiana Jones the Last Crusade. It’s a classic and familiar user interface to us LucasArts adventures fans. The graphics are bang on early 90s SCUMM games, I would say it’s on par with Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. Han Solo actually looks very much like the Indiana Jones sprite in that game which is fitting since in the movies both characters were played by the same actor: Harrison Ford.
You seem to start off on a desert planet like Tatooine after crashing your ship which doesn’t look like the Milennium Falcon. I think the events of this game take place before the events of Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope. I deduced this from the demo when Han Solo makes a comment after he gets out of droid saying he also wondered how it would feel being in a trash compactor and he hopes that’s the closest he ever gets. That is an obvious reference to the scene in Episode IV where Han Solo, Luke and Leia (if memory serves correctly) are in the trash compactor room in the rebel ship. Another thing to note is that he isn’t with Chewbacca so maybe it takes places before he met Chewy. After crashing his ship Han Solo tries to salvage whatever he can for credits so that he can buy a ticket to get off the planet at a space port. The only beings he meets since crashing his ship are Jawas which he meets at a trading post which is conveniently located near the crash site. He manages to convince one of them to follow him to his crash site in an effort to barter something with the little guy. However the Jawa doesn’t see any value in the ship or even the droid as both aren’t functional. What happens next is great and it is a typical example of the kind of funny and wacky situations that you find yourself in when playing point and click adventure games. Han Solo gets inside the droid and hops along to the trading post faking beeps so that the Jawas think it’s functional and take it to their storehouse. That is where Han Solo finds another bot which he attempts to power on so he can take control over and use it to help him. That is where the demo appears to end.
The way the game plays, it’s graphics, user interface, the story and the scenario all look pretty good and typical of a good SCUMM point and click adventure game. All the elements are there to have the potential to make a great point and click game. There’s even a reference to The Secret of Monkey Island when Han Solo is trying to barter and says that he is selling designer jeans when Guybrush Threepwood offers fine leather jackets. The sense of humour is absolutely perfect, you would not be able to tell that this isn’t a professional production of an adventure game made by LucasArts in the early 1990’s. When this game comes out it, as long as the rest of it is consistent with how the demo is, it would essentially be another SCUMM classic to add to the library of point and click adventure games. If the IP wasn’t licensed the game could be packaged and sold as a nice PC big box game release. However I’m sure that Mr. George Lucas would not be too happy if people are making money using one his most treasured IP’s, he would most definitely serve a cease and desist at the minimum. However nothing would stop people from making their own custom cover box. The artwork could be uploaded for it to be printed up and make a nice cover for a DVD case or better yet printing a whole PC big box. However I think we will just be lucky if this game actually get’s released in the future. We can be encouraged that the owner recently posted his intentions on continuing development. I’m sure that with enough support he will follow through on his words and finish making this awesome looking SCUMM point and click adventure game.
Relevant Links
- Reddit post of user Ry0G4 referencing Stacy Davidson post on twitter about resurrecting Han Solo Adventures [https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/15yfcmo/what_do_you_think_about_this_han_solo_adventures/] It’s been a long time since that post, hopefully it has been worked on in that time.
- RyG04’s website’s blog post about this game’s potential progress back in August of 2023 [https://darkryoga.wordpress.com/2023/08/21/homebrew-games-review-parte-v-han-solo-adventures-demo-ags-point-and-click-adventure-game/] You have the option of selecting English when you load this website, just select it in the top right of the browser screen.
- YouTube video link of a playthrough of the demo of this game [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKl_DriXJo8] will we ever see this game get released or even the demo? Or will it remain as lost media, time will tell.
