#the tomb of sammun-mak

[awphooeey]

sam

[legocory64]

Here are the unused Toys of Power. So may I ask what kind of power does these toys have?

A toy doll, a wooden soldier, a rocking horse, a monkey plush, a yo-yo, toy darts, a xylophone, a barrel of monkeys, a paddle ball, and a toy toolbox.

[parkercore-69]

my favourite Edwardian anthropomorphic doggy and hyperkinetic rabbity thing lagomorph !!

[gumshoegoat]

jurgen's battle music goes so crazy hard, they put their whole jurgussy in that one fr

[humancork]

okay this sounds insane but bear with me.

also massive spoilers for TDPH!

so in the devils playhouse (and every remastered game) episode select screen it shows some items that have to do with that particular episode right like. valley of the dolls shows the spandex undies, the tomb shows sammun-mak's bust, you get the idea

so these things have already happened right, otherwise how the hell would they have all that stuff ya know

okay so. what if in those VHS tapes are the reports sam made for each case or smth. and the max thats holding these tapes and looking through all the items is past max, trying to piece together his partner's timeline and figure out what he missed.

idk its not so much a theory as a headcanon but. it makes me very emotional in a lot of ways

[popculturebuffet]

Sam and Max The Devil's Playhouse Retrospective: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy lagomorphs and welcome back to my look at Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse! Last time our heroes saved the world again, found psychic powers, got ominus foreshadowing max was gonna die, and I got to bask in the fact the Soda Poppers are fucking dead

But found out Bluster Blaster is now missing from most of this game

Still The Penal Zone left a great impression a truly sterling first chapter in this final bow for now for sam and max.

And i'm happy to say the Tomb of Sammun-Mak continues this hot streak. It's another excellent, deeply hilarious chapter, once again proving to be the best of the previous two chapters; big set pieces that look fantastic mixed with comedy that's still dark but less overtly cruel than Beyond Time and Space. I mean there's still some messed up stuff but it feels less nasty.

The Tomb of Sammun-Mak is a format bender, following our heroes as they use one of the toys to astral project/watch film reels of their ancestors, Sameth and Maximus, the spooky scary skeletons we found last time. TTOSM cleverly uses this to shake up the formula: instead of a three act structure, with the third being some sort of big flashy finale with limited options, you go back and forth between each reel as you find out new info that helps you past another one. It's a fun structure: While more linear than usual, as generally there's only so much you can do before you have to swap reels, the structure makes it easier to play. It's a bit disorenting at first as what's in your inventory at the time depends on the reel, but eventually your brain adjusts and it's fun to, like last time work backwords to get an item you had earlier. I needed a guide once or twice and if you liked the challenge of an adventure game this chapter may be for you, but as someone just here for the story and one liners, I was fine with it and Tomb is now one of my faviorite chapters. So step under the cut to see more reasons why.

Tomb picks up exactly where we left off, something that looking ahead at the wiki for the endings of the next few chapters (Just the endings, I still like a little suprise for what spoilers I don't have), is a trend. It seems Devil's Playhouse takes place over only a few hours, maybe 12 at most. Beyond Time and Space flirted wtih this a bit with the ending of chapter three and the last two taking place over a few hours but otherwise there tended to be an in universe gap of about a month.

This change also fits in with Devil Playhouse's other big change, one i'd heard about but really sinks in here: the story is heavily seralized: while each chapter has it's own distinct rythum and antagonist from the looks of it, it's one big story that happens in rapid succession. It reminds me of say Legend of Vox Machina: it's episodic, instead of just being one big story put into chunks, but ther'es an ongoing arc the whole time and each episode largely leads into the next. The previous two games did have it all tie together, but it was looser; someone was clearly behind the hypnotisim plot in Save the World but our heroes being who they are don't really look into it till the last minute, while in Beyond Time and Space there's hints hell is involved in the first chapter, but you don't really get a sense how this ties together till the big reveal and even then it feels a bit reachier. Here from what I know without over spoiling myself, each chapter builds on the previous ones in some way, both in the overaching plot of the toys and in who the villians are. This chapter in paticular hints at chapter 3's antagonist and introduces chapters 4. I won't say which is which or who in facse you haven't played them.

Our heroes are also caught up in it a lot faster, as each chapter is someone after their toys and sam for his ability to use them. There's a bigger sense of urgency as while our heroes are still themselves, their more directly in the line of fire rather than waiting out some big nebulous plot they have to solve at the end. While the previous two games aren't bad, I like this structure a lot better, as it gets the plot going, allows it to breathe more, whlie still delivering a satsifying episodic experince. I play these monthly (Or if I get behind as in this case two this month) so I get the best of both worlds: the cozy comforts of the remaster with the feel someone would have playing it on it's own and waiting about a month for the next one.

So onto our adventure. Max is aghast at the skeletons as he thinks Sam killed him. Which... given everything max does if Sam did Kill max he was either about to fire all the nukes at once or took the last piece of Meesta Pizza.

Either way Sam quickly points out this is a clue (complete with note) and not them. It's their relatives Sameth and Maximus, from 1901, with the note leading them to a nearbye projector with some reels. The duo fight over this because with the office down they can't fight over the phone as easily. Gotta keep those reflexes up.

This accidently reveals that the Projector is the Astral Projector, one of the toys of power. It allows them to live through their ancestors pasts. Though it comes with a caveat that explains why all the reel swapping: They only have information they've learned as they don't fully gain their ancestors memories. It's inconsitant as they do remmeber what's on the reel but i'll let it slide for being a solid way to do this out of order.

That said we'll be covering these in full chronological order rather than jumping around jumping around get up get up and get down. The reasons are simple: It's easier on me and my brain which is about what you'd expect

And it's easier on yours as it's a bit more coherent to just cover the story as it happens.

So with that in mind

REEL 1: THE CHALLENGE OF THE SPUNX!

First of Spunx. Given the series we're in they probably knew that was a sex thing these days as i'm pretty sure using spunk as a jizz metaphor was a thing back then. Or i'm just a dirty weirdo. Both things can be true.

Our adventure begins with Sam and Max attending a theater exibition from Monsuier Paperwhite. Paperwhite apparently comes back somehow, and is notable for being the only character in these flashbacks to have a completely new model. Every other character is either a mole, who I suspect were made the ancient guardians of the devil's toybox to make more characters easier as they can just copy harry's model and put new clothes on it, or from Beyond Time and Space. Paperwhite is offering two free tickets to sunny egypt to anyone intrested. A pitty he's about 27 years too early for any joestars to stash those away for later use. To get them they have to pass the CHALLENGE OF THE SPHUNX, which looks like a hippo and is a repica of the real thing.

I love the pulp feel of this one, those sort of adventure stories like Scrooge Mc Duck, Indiana Jones and Tintin. The globetrotting adventure, mysterious characters and period trappings are just so fun and it's a perfect fit for sam and max. Especially since the embodiment of Noir used to live next door to them.

Anyways, the other guests are a Mole in a Babuska and Santa himself as Nicholas J Kringle. While santa was a bit of an ass in the finale to ice station santa, here he's a robber baron monster who barely pays his elf workers and has them living in little arctic circle, the local elf ghetto. A sentence that's actually said and is the kind of thing that makes covering these games so damn fun.

Kringle heard there were toys involved, as Paperwhite has one of the toys of power, the Can o Nuts. I'll let a known expert explain this classic prank

But here Maximus can fit himself and whoever inside. Naturally to even the odds since Maximus like Max has THE POWER and can at the very least move the Spunx tounge by standing on it, Santa has one of his elves Yoink the can and run off. While we're here we can pick up some of Santa's Cookies, a sunday funnies page written in hyreoglyps and by distracting santa, an adress.

So it's off to Little Arctic Circle just south fo the theater and in present day the street our heroes live on. We see the Mole Woman has some Beef with the elves as she goes back to her house as our heroes ask and answer an age old question

So we go to talk to the Elves but their petty little assholes. They also don't want to unionize but in fairness i'm pretty sure Santa's unionbusting would be horrifying as it was holly jolly. I mean this was back when horsewhipping an employee for unionzing was probably legal.

They won't give us the can unless we give them a great toy idea since Kringle wanted the can but didn't you know... leave the ehater to fetch it from them. Before we give it to em we talk to the mole woman. SHe's cursing their leader slushy as it turns out mole people have magical curse powers. WHo knew? This is handy knoweldge for later. She came to this country ahead of her family who are stuck back in the old country.. being egypt despite the russian accent. Anyways she translates the glyps for us, which is literally just saying what the glyph looks like, and some comics which wax about how wacky it is to cut cucumber lengthwise. Being sam and max this will be importnat later.

For now we give the Elves our idea... this is about an hour later in game but we give them the idea for a toy biplane, it'll make sense later and with that they refuse to pry it off their friends head and make the mistake of pissing Sameth and Maximus off.. which like their decsendants is only a recipie for broken bones and scapulas. At least Slushie can regenerate.

With that we can complete the riddle! and have a toy of power! hot choclate! Completing it is standing on the creatures tounge, giving it an offering (the cookies), saying the glyph then enterting the gate using the can o beans. With that our heroes win two tickets to sunny egypt!

Reel 2: The Train to Egypt/In the Tomb

The title changes depending on your progress. The first scene is mostly just there to introduce a major supporting character and provide an obstacle to easily clearing this chapter so you get the swap gimmick down.

Our heroes are on the train to Egypt when they end up with a stoaway: Baby Amelia Earhart! She's a little rapscalion who wants to journey with us. Sameth and Maximus aren't like their succesors and have no use for kid sidekicks/surrogate daughters and tell her to go screw but when their tickets blow away they have bigger issues. You sing her a shut up laden version of cry of the valkryies to make her sleep, something picked up from the next reel, and use the can to avoid being ticketed.

Many Wild Adventures Later our heroes have ditched Baby Amelia Eardhart and head into the tomb. They find the chest.. but also find Grandpa Mole, who sets up a security hex. We can't touch the chest so we explore a bit. We find an old familiar face in a diffrent phase of his life: Jurgen! Pre vamparisim. Kinda. He was cursed to be one but you have to be bitten by one for it to stick. He was trapped in the wall and wants our help getting out. Obviously this is a trap but it's something our heroes really can't get out of.

So manuvering around the corridors we find a bust and remove it freeling jurgen.. and trapping us. Jurgen leaves having acomplished nothing and not even getting the box, for now. Which is on brand for him. Thankfully whlle the two guardian figures in the wall we're now trapped in are less than sympathetic they are willing to let us leave for a good joke. Specifically cucumber being cut lengthwise. Which.. honestlyw hile not ha ha funny is something kinda nuts to do.

So our heroes are free and soon head to the west hall where we find the dad, who sounds like harry moleman. He apparently isn't but gotta flip them assets. He has a chamber of death which I genuinely thought might slice you good.. but turns out nope the guiltine won't hit you at all. For now. You find his daughter Nefertiti, who he's scaring all the boys away from with his powerful sexo rejexo curse that repels the opposite sex. Apparently Molemen don't know queer people exist, which tracks.

We need to get past her as her giant Asp

Which also ate the next toy of power (?), Charlie Hotep. He's a ventriloquist dummy that allows you to throw your voice! Fool your freinds! Fun at parties! Thankfully we get in the asp by using the can o nuts, a solution I had to look up. What is with this game and "assuming the player will figure out the animal does things". At least this time it eating the puppet is a clue and not "the pidgeon will do the thing you just have to belivieeeeee"

So now with Charlie we can fool Nefertiti's dad into thinking she has a crush on sam and max.

Though in fariness tormenting a tweenage girl and getting her father to curse us by basically making him think we might be pedophiles is still a long ways away from "sending an innocent child to hell for fun and profit". It's more funny than awful as it more pisses off a moody tweenager for two seconds and gets us cursed to complete a puzzle more than it actually. .HURTS anyone. We'll save actually hurting her feelings for next time.

For our hubris though in addition to the needed sexo rejexo, Max gets turned into.. A COW! which sameth takes with patience and dignity

It's a great gag. You also get a great reaction or two if you use stuff on him before Maximus changes back. So onward to the rest of the puzzle. On the right sid eis grandpa mole and baby amelia earhart, who escaped and is pissed at our heroes for running the fuck away from their unwanted sidekick and plans to loot the tomb .Grandpa Mole wants a grandkid to talk to since his actual grandchild no longer likes him. So we simply need to use sexo rejexo and a nearbye sarcophogas to blast the small child into the weird old man

Thankfully he's not a pedophile, and is a good sport and lets us roam around. Sadly this new friendship has to be ruined as we need his curse to complete the puzzle after looting some rune blocks. So we riffle through his brouchers, possible vacations as everyone says grandpa needs a break, and ask about Stuutgart. Being a xenophobic weirdo , he curses us for that with a bad luck curse. This means the guillotine will actually work now and thanks to a tip from kev I knew to toss the idol from earlier in. It's now a twofer and both halves go into indentionts near the guardian mural, causing them to bend. We go back into the painting, use the new bridge, and fuck up grandpa's curse runes. Also his curse seems to be the only one tha tneeds an elaborate set of runes. Maybe they evolved.

With that we can grab the devil's toybox and end this reel.

REEL 3: THE JOURNEY HOME

After escaping a gun toting santa

We arrive back on the train only to find the trunk we put the Devil's Toybox in is empty! So it's a mystery on a train. Man this serial has everything: a fun act one in a theater with an old timey showcase, an anceint tomb to raid, and a train mystery. I do love a good story set on a train so this reel had me.

It's also a lot of fun. The overworld is a bit of a pain in the ass to get around as you can't run for some reason despite how small it is and train is a straight line so to get anywhere you usually have to backtrack. Which would be fine but without being able to run it makes this segment slower

Thankfully the rest is a lot of fun as everyone so far is in attendence, forwhadowing what's to come. The Mole Dad and Neferiti are on their way back, with Mole Dad a little sore at first you stole his priceless treasure, but admits it was for the best and loosing it means he can join his wife in the new world. His dad is taking that well deserved vacation.. to see the Sphynx. But hey his duty was guarding one small room of it and now he can look over all of it. I mean it's still not very big but hey.

Next door is Jurgen, who won't let you inspect his room filled with vampire stuff and with throw you out. And who also wants to call evens on the whole "betraying you and trying to trap you forever thing" kay. I am really happy to see Jurgen again and while he's not as funny as his previous two apperances, he dosen't have his hilarious 2000's rave kid astetc since it's a century too early for that, it's nice just to see him again.

Also on board are Kringle, whose hiding in his cabin and won't come out, and his elves. Slushie is looking a bit... vampish but insists he's fine. He dosen't even crav eblood that much. He does need a subject to test that toy you pitched. Thankfully Baby Amelia Earhard has both forgven the boys mostly and sold a ton of her plundered loot to get herself her own cabin.

So to get further we need to get that toy test. Thankfully the sexo rejxo curse works wonders. We simply use charlie again, which both lets us check out the moleman's luggage. As it turns out he has the vampire reverse curse inside, the way to cure Jurgen before he turns.

The curse violently throws people around, and thus pushes baby amelia erdhardt into slushie. I.. I really wish there weren't so many puzzles that involve shoving a child into an old man but that's where were at. Thankfully the elves just show her their toy biplane, which of course is a hit with the future ace aviator.

So the next bit's a bit complex, mostly beause of all the back and forth. We grab a glass from Santa for.. reasons that will horrify you in a moment. Then we see Neferitti give a love note to jurgen, having a massive crush on him while he's intrested in is getting the reverse curse off her dad. So we have to piss her off again and her dad, telling him about the crush as responsible adults

So he casts a sexo rejexo curse on Jurgen, and a mad Nefertiti turns Maximus back into a cow. Sameth's chiller this time and er.. mliks his little buddy

I didn't need this, you didn't need this, even shippers didn't need this. It's fun to Ship Sam and Max together. Not so much their relatives both due to the horrifying incesty implicatoins and just the fact that even if this were sam and max, maybe don't.. mlik each other. At least as a cow. Other way's fine. This just feels.. wrong. Why is it saved the world is the only game that didn't give me cow based nightmares.

So we then feed the milk to santa with cookies, and put the can o nuts on the tray to sneak in, and suprise him. We raid his trunk to find .. it empty. He DID try to steal it but someone stole it from him.

So after getting thrown out we deal with Jurgen. Nefertiti is tounge tied, tounge tied, whenever he's around. Whenever he's in town boy. So we make up the words for her making him think the curse is in a sarcophogas we found under some luggage earlier. Then it's as simple as telling Slushie to go see santa , a meeting he dosen't make as he has to stop for a quick bite on the way. With that we've ruined Jurgen's life, but get to loot his room to find nothing.

Turns out it wasn't any of our rogues gallery but BABY AMELIA ERDHARDT!

To the team's credit this twist.. actually works. The prevoius two reels , which are usually finished before this one, set up how much our heroes tossed the kid around and neglected her, so her betraying them to try and take the toybox for herself works perfectly, while still being just out of left field enough, ther'es no foreshadowing besides our heroes being dicks, to be funny. The way our heroes beat her is also funny.. they just.. use the curse a third time and knock a baby off a train, which somehow isn't the worst thing our heroes have done today. Or even in the top 10. It is hilarious though.

So that leads us to our finale

REEL 4: THE BIG REWARD!

So sam's gotta go wag the dog so to speak, and tells Max not to keep watching while he's away. Max... watches it anyway which Sam shoudl've seen coming but ey.

So our heroes recap their adventures for a lovely audience Paperwhite's gathered.. then we get to the inevitble betryal you probably saw coming from this setup. Paperwhite plans to use the box to summon Yog Sogoth! though weirdly while the other toys levittate impressively , stealing our can o nuts... charlie just.. falls to the floor. Hrmmm.

Paperwhite puts sam over a vat of man eating ants that's been there the whole time. That's not a joke it was there in act one, well setup chekov's gun. I just didn't need to mention it till sam's dangled over them. You can just do what paperwhite wants, and summon Yog Soggoth, his lord and master. And... it eats you because it eats the summoner. it's why he bothered getting someone with the poewr and having them die for him. Thankfully this reel is multiple choice so Max distracts our big bad while Sam uses the newspaper to flame a rope to knock charlie near max, who uses him to lure Paperwhite to the circle.. then mime him saying the words. it's a clever finale and one that does away with our villian who will come back which dosen't suprise me: besides the new model there's also the simple fact last time, I assume a man wasn't dead from an axe to the head and turned out to be entirely right. Death does not happen easy in this universe and even then you can just come back as a ghost as Mama Bosco showed us.

We then get a cutscene showing us what happened to Samteth and Maximus, they took the box to the mole family, who agree to guard it... only for their protection spell to go haywire. Since Maximus is afraid of being a cow again he accidedntly bolts into the way, Sameth tries to save him. .and they die. The moles leave their bones behind and the toybox, to be found by the mole cult later. It's honestly way sadder than I expected. Still funny with how quickly the moles move on from it, but it's a tragic sacricie. It's also a bit of a more coherent story than normal setting up WHY the box is wher eit was found and why max has powers: they were passed on.

So Sam comes back to berate Max.. only to find.. his brain missing. And it's creepier than I expected to, the detail on his debrained body is neat and really creepy and it's unsettling how the top of his head just... flops open.

So with that cliffhanger we end this chapter. It was a delight as you can tell, is one of the best and if you haven't played the game yet please, please please go do so. Thanks for reading

NEXT TIME: Sam goes noir! Max is left a brain in a jar! Reality bends in half! Fun for all ages!

[corndog-patrol]

Thank you for getting me into Sam and Max! It’s been a fun experience! What’s your favorite game?

i'm so glad!!! and dang this is a hard question 😂i love the telltale games as a whole. hit the road is also great but i haven't played through the whole thing myself! If i had to do a definitive ranking i would say 'The Tomb of Sammun-Mak' and 'They Stole Max's Brain!' are tied for number 1. Really all of The Devil's Playhouse is my favorite, and the way they flow into each other is so good. I actually made a tier list for the ttg games when I finished playing through them for the first time!

[boypussydilf]

perfectly recreates the tomb of sammun-mak title card font to create a new title card that says Tedious Backtracking: The Episode

[therealteslathedog]

SPOILERS FOR SAM AND MAX: THE DEVIL’S PLAYHOUSE

(Also a rough personal vent based on how much this game resonated with me. Trust me, it’s not for the faint of heart. Warning: contains instances of childhood trauma and the many other mental health conditions it came with)

This game did so much justice for Sam and Max themselves, considering how this game is the first time anyone has seen these two in this multi-layered light since the original was released by Telltale back in 2010. I could go on about how this game has very much given me even more appreciation for Sam, because it has! But I really do want to talk about what was confirmed in this game about Max.

First of all, I love that when we’re in the Museum of Mostly Natural History in the episode They Stole Max’s Brain, we get an exhibit on how “the world will end” which shows a display of a giant monster destroying a city and the scene mechanically rotating into a desolate wasteland where the city used to stand. Mostly because of how well it works as foreshadowing for what was to come, (that foreshadowing also happened in The Penal Zone where Sam and Max first discover the Toybox) which ended up being Max turning into that giant monster that was predicted to bring the end of the world by the end of The Alley of the Dolls.

In the grand finale The City That Dares Not Sleep, when we’re literally inside Max himself, we end up learning his own Super Ego hates him and wants him to die. The Superego isn’t a separate entity, he is very much a part of Max’s own mind. I’m pretty sure every other Sam and Max fan who’s played this game has pointed out Max being as depressed and self-loathing as he is, and hiding it behind his sense of humor and his iconic smile. (He even brings up earlier in The Tomb of Sammun-Mak that he likes to fall asleep to the song “Tears of a Clown” which if you’ve heard of it, it’s 100% because he relates to that song. That’s just more good foreshadowing)

Honestly, I’m just going to say this, this 100% is something I deeply relate to. I’m probably going to vent a lot, but it’s important to understand where I’m coming from. During my childhood, I kept finding myself in these special Ed programs that I hated being in, they never truly felt like they were safe, but I had no choice but to put up with them since as far as my parents knew from the people who misinformed them, kids are completely incapable of truly understanding what is best for them. There were several times where I knew something was wrong with the way my life was, but I couldn’t put my finger on it since I was so young and constantly surrounded by people gaslighting me because I was that young. My autism diagnosis was something I deeply resented because it put me into these programs where I was objectified and told how the way I am and behave is wrong and should behave how THEY instruct me to. A lot of pressure was often put on me to behave with this standard of “perfection”, often leading me to be punished for not perfectly following that standard. I had no choice but to bottle up those imperfections because of the teachers of Special Ed that would constantly watch me like a hawk and sometimes even follow me around when I’m just trying to get on with my school day and get to my latest class in time. It didn’t help that I also kept getting prescriptions for medication that did more harm than good for me. One of the pills caused me to rapidly gain around 20 pounds in the span of a few weeks as a 9 year old, (making Sam pretty damn relatable in his own right too.) and another prescription REALLY messed with my brain. (If you want an example to how I acted on that awful drug, just think about how Lemongrab from Adventure Time was like) All this along with a few other reasons I might bring up someday ended up getting me to first develop suicidal thoughts at age 10. And as soon as that happened, I was taken to a children’s psych ward in a hospital where for some fucking reason, some “responsible adults” thought it would be a good idea to put the kid that thinks they’re a freak of nature that never should have existed in the first place in to a children’s psych ward made up mostly of kids that were surrendered from their parents for then being drug addicts and committing crimes they’re now in prison for. My much pickier childhood self when it came to the foods I ate (which is something a lot of autistic people are known for diagnosis wise) and the people running the ward didn’t give a damn and I spent my time malnourished lying in bed waiting for myself to starve to death and finally end everything I was going through up to that point. It took my mother INSISTING constantly that she bring food that I like so I could finally be more well nourished. But I can assure you it was hell, a hell I was stuck in for 11 days.

A bunch of other messed up stuff happened too, but I think this information has the gist of why I’m like this. It really wasn’t easy for me to type out, let alone have the nerve to publish on a public site. Honestly, I’d say Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse resonated with me in a similar way Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 did. (If any of you have also seen that movie, you’d know EXACTLY what I mean. What I brought up also made Rocket Raccoon’s story resonate with me as much as it did.)

I’d like to thank the people of Skunkape for remastering this game so more people like me can have access and experience this masterpiece of a game. It was just what I needed now, and I couldn’t be more grateful of it happening!

[turtle-trash]

Notes on the penal zone and the tomb of sammun-mak for the puyo sam and max au (under cut due to spoiler reasons. I do recommend you play the sam and max games yourself they’re fun)

[heloflor]

Reblogging this because I added a few more things at the end + did three small corrections, those corrections being :

1. The events of “Tomb of Sammun-Mak” take place in 1901, not 1909. Not sure why I was convinced this took place in 1909 but it's wrong. It does raise some questions on how old Ruth is and how is she still alive in the 90s but honestly I think Ruth is just build different.

2. I mention in the post two theories about Sam and Max’s relationships, one of which seems to be shared by several people, but I actually had two specific posts in mind while writing those parts. So I added the links to those posts in the corresponding parts because just vaguely mentioning them in passing like that felt like not giving them proper credit.

3. I did this post before watching the Machinima shorts and considered Bosco as one of the characters who doesn’t care enough about the duo to figure out their relationship. Then I watched those shorts and the very first one slapped me in the face by hinting that Bosco would know (he refers to Sam and Max arguing as “domestic dispute”)

My headcanons for a Sam and Max timeline after seeing every entry of the franchise :

- Order in which the events take place, from oldest to most recent : Most of the comics, with “The Adventurers” being the oldest events – Hit the Road – This time it’s Virtual – “The Big Sleep” Comic – The Telltale trilogy + Poker Night – “Night of the Gilded Heron-Shark” Comic – “Beast From the Cereal Aisle” Comic – The Cartoon – “The Damned Don’t Dance” Comic (the Christmas one with the duo having a house and inviting both their families)

- From a chronological standpoint :

The comics take place in the spawn of almost a decade (more like 8 years of so)

Hit the Road happens around 1-2 years after the last comic (and takes place in the spawn of one day)

“This time it’s Virtual” takes place a few months after “Hit the Road” (like 7-8 months later) and its events take one day

“The Big Sleep” happens 3 years after the vr game, and the Telltale games one year after “The Big Sleep” (so there’s 4 years between vr and Telltale)

There’s a 3 months gap maximum between the ending the “The Devil’s Playhouse” and the Poker Night games

Both Poker Night games happen around the same time (only a few weeks apart maximum)

The Mack Salmon and Cereal Aisle comics take place very close to the cartoon. You could also imagine the comics taking place during the cartoon, in-between two episodes (the second comic at least). The Christmas comic tho might take place a few years after the cartoon, since the way they celebrate Christmas is different from what we see in the cartoon and feels more logical to happen afterwards since the duo have a house

There’s a time gap of around 9 years between the Poker Night games and the cartoon

Not sure how long it would take for the events of the cartoon to take place. In a way, I kinda see it as a “timeless/happily ever after” sort of thing where it doesn’t really matter how long it lasts, since “there’s nothing afterwards” so to speak (the vibe of the last episode especially doesn’t help with this feeling)

- From a “time period” standpoint (note that this part is very much flawed and yes I know there’s no way Granny Ruth would be alive and kicking in the cartoon with this timeline, especially considering that Sameth, her theorized-to-be dad here, died in 1901, meaning she was born maximum in 1902. But tbh her being in such good shape in canon can also be questioned) :

The comics happen from the mid-to-late 80s to the mid 90s, with Sam and Max going from being in their mid-to-late-20s to their mid-30s

“Hit the Road” and “This time it’s Virtual” take place in the late 90s, with Sam and Max in their mid-to-late-30s

Telltale takes place in the early 2000s, with Sam and Max in their late-30s/early-40s

The Cartoon takes place in the early 2010s, with Sam and Max in their late-40s/early-50s

- Sam and Max’s relationship status : Start off as friends for most of the comics, start dating in the last few – get engaged before “Hit the Road” and are still fiancés in “This time it’s Virtual” – Get married during the gap between the vr game and “The Big Sleep” – are a married couple for Telltale and the Cartoon + the last few comics

Now obviously this is a very flawed timeline overall and not everything perfectly fits together, but then again IIRC Purcell once said he didn’t care about continuity and just puts the duo in situations he finds funny (I think it’s from an interview on the official Sam and Max site ?). So doing a perfect timeline is pretty much impossible anyways.

A few more details under the cut, most notably an explanation of the comics’ order + an explanation of the choice to have the Cartoon as last and the vr game before Telltale (long post ahead).

- The order of the comics (note that I am only including the comics from the “Surfin’ the Highway” compilation, the comic “The big Sleep” and the unfinished “Max gets shot” comic, which I assume to end with Max being brought back somehow) :

The Adventurers are the first events due to Sam and Max not feeling as close as they do in other comics + that one Atlantis comic with Sam saying “I never dated within my gender” (or something along those lines). And while those comics are mostly AUs, you could still imagine that at some point in their career, they went onto crazy adventures that were pretty similar to those. Them being the first adventures could also work with the idea of them being younger, in their “prime”, or at a time when they enjoyed the adventure and the violence that came with it more than the detective work.

A few comics like the unnamed Wester and Pirate ones would also happen around the time of The Adventurers. Same for “Fair Wind to Java”. Basically every comic that involves the duo travelling outside of New-York/a town-like environment.

“Kids Take Over” could be their last adventure before they focus more on detective work in New York itself, since in that comic they were apparently resting after a big event, which feels more related to crazy events from The Adventurers (yes I know every adventure they have is crazy, but you still get my point).

Btw the events of all those comics would take the most time. Like, taking the idea of the comics happening in the span of 8 years, all those events would take a good 5-6 years out of them.

All of the few “oneshot” comics (“Our Bewildering Universe”, “Terror on the Tanbark”, “Pondering of the Ages”, “Skeptical Investigators”, the unnamed animals TV show comics, the unnamed “the duo dies and temporarily goes to heaven” comic, etc) could take place sometime after those previous stories

The unfinished comic with Max getting shot is next on the list and is the moment Sam realizes his feelings for Max, leading the duo to start dating once Max is brought back (yes “Sam realizes how much Max means to him after seeing him get shot” is 100% taken from that one post theorizing that the comics, cartoon and games take place in a different universe/timeline and how each have a different version of their relationship. While not following the theory, I’m shamelessly taking the idea of what this death led Sam to realize about himself)

The remaining early comics (“Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple”, “Night of the Cringing Wildebeest”, “On the Road” trilogy, “Bad Day on the Moon”) all take place afterwards and during the 2-3 remaining years, with Sam and Max being boyfriends. This is due to them being closer in those comics, especially regarding Sam being extra touchy towards Max

While “Bad Day on the Moon” also happens in the cartoon, the fact that it keeps getting referenced in each entry of the franchise leads me to believe that, if only one version of those events happened, it would be the comic version (basically the cartoon version is “non-canon” to this timeline)

As said previously, “The Big Sleep” takes place a year before the Telltale games due to the comic apparently being made in relation to those games (you can kinda see it form the way Max is drawn, looking a lot more like his 3D model)

“Night of the Gilded Heron-Shark”, “Beast From the Cereal Aisle”, “The Damned don’t Dance” and an unnamed Halloween comic all take place around the time of the cartoon.

“Beast From the Cereal Aisle” is due to the shop being from the cartoon on top of Max having some powers with his ability to talk to the dead. Plus you can see Max help a kid at the end of the comic, showing the baby fever he displays in Telltale and the cartoon.

The Christmas and Halloween comics are due to the duo living in a house. Special mention to the Christmas one for having them celebrate the holidays with their families together, giving off one of the biggest “married couple” moments of the franchise.

“Night of the Gilded Heron-Shark” is due to having Mack Salmond and the Rubber Pants Commandos, which we only see again in the cartoon. Although, this comic also has Flint Paper mentioned at the beginning despite him being absent from the cartoon, but I’m choosing to disregard it. Thing is, keeping the theory of the cartoon being last, it’s weird for Mack Salmond to take his first revenge in this comic and then wait years only to do a second and third one barely a few months apart. There’s also the question of the Rubber Pants Commando ageing, but I can see them being different babies in the cartoon. So yeah, overall, I’m choosing to disregard the Flint “cameo” to make Mack Salmond feel more consistent.

- Why the Cartoon is in last : This is a pretty popular theory from what I’ve seen so you won’t learn anything new here. Basically, it’s due to how drastically different things are in the cartoon compared to the rest.

The office feels like a completely new building, from the spinning Max outside to the basement of Solitude to even small things like Max missing his desk. Also the episode “Big Trouble at the Earth’s Core” starts with them inspecting something that’s been at the back of their fridge “since we moved in” which makes it sound like they haven’t been in their office or house for that long (I’d say house since it’s something they found behind a fridge)

Flint Paper, a staple of the franchise, is missing in this entry and isn’t even mentioned once, which really gives off that vibe of “they moved to a different building”

The Geek is a character that never shows up or is even mentioned in other entries. And since she’s young, you can imagine she was either unborn or a younger child during the rest of the franchise, instead of growing up and just never having any contact with the duo if you imagine the cartoon taking place earlier

The Telltale characters being missing could again be due to them moving (obviously the true reason is that they didn’t exist back then, but since Flint did and doesn’t show up here, the excuse works)

Sam and Max feel more mature and “mellowed out”, making them feel older thus making the cartoon look like it takes place later. You especially get Sam who’s really good with kids compared to his Telltale version, and Max being a lot more emotional/open to his emotions as if previous events led him to open up

“That Darn Gator” and “The Glazed McGuffin Affair” show Sam and Max living in a house (the gator episode especially), while every other entry imply that they live in some kind of apartment adjacent to their office (or in the office itself). Them living in a house feels like a “step up”, making it seem like it happened after the rest

Likewise, while the nature of their relationship is often debated, most people tend to agree that Sam and Max are a canon couple in the cartoon, so it’s yet another “step up”

The Statue of Liberty having her head back makes sense given how it’s such an important monument, so of course it would be fixed. It especially works with the idea of the cartoon taking place almost a decade after Telltale

Some moments are better/angstier if you imagine them taking place after Telltale, like Max freaking out about the wooden puppet in “It’s Dangly Deever Time”, and especially Sam losing his shit in “Max’s Big Day” when thinking Max’s brain was tampered with

The “break-up” as they literally call it that we see in the last episode could take place around the time of the comics or even between the comics and “Hit the Road”. Notice how, in this scene, they seemingly live in the office instead of their house, they celebrate Christmas in NY instead of Ruth’s place, and we don’t get to see the giant spinning Max outside. Plus the whole episode is about counting past events

While the cartoon very obviously takes place in the 90s, we know that Sam and Max aren’t the biggest when it comes to technology, so it works for them to live a life in the 2010s without using cellphones, computers or internet despite those existing. Heck the vr game confirms this

- Why have “This time it’s Virtual” before Telltale :

The dynamic between Sam and Max is more akin to how they act in the Comics and “Hit the Road” (basically they have a more platonic vibe, while the Cartoon and Telltale have a much more romantic vibe to them, tho “Hit the Road” definitely feels in-between platonic and romantic especially in regards to a few dialogues related to the tunnel of love)

From what I’ve seen, most references are related to the comics or “Hit the Road”. Then again I didn’t play it myself and the youtube playthroughs don’t have all the dialogues or get stuck in that situation of “making a specific action moves the dialogue along before the previous one was over” (which is an issue the game seems to heavily suffer from). So I might have missed some obvious references

One of the cartoon references is them having Glazed McGuffins in their office, which could be read as “this food has existed for years and they’ve always been fond of it” so it works

Likewise, the use of some Telltale music, most notably the one from Jurgen’s party, could be seen as “this song already existed before the events of S2”. That being said Jurgen is apparently all about trends but then again the “emo gothic” style he went with in S2 could have a preference for older music (you can tell I’m trying to bullshit my way through here)

One Telltale reference is apparently a mention of a giant devil Max attacking the city 11 years ago. I’m going to be an asshole here and go “well we’ve seen Max as a devil a handful of times in Purcell’s art, like in Poker Night 1 with the Poker table, so who’s to say that devil Max = Cthulhu Max ?” Same for the lines about Max being possessed “again” or becoming a giant “again”, Telltale is probably not the first and only time

There’s also a reference with Max saying that the dead versions from the escape room are here due to events related to cloning and time travel. That one is actually something that can’t be rebutted since it directly implies that the events of the Telltale trilogy happened. But I’m still choosing to disregard it because fuck it, I want this game to take place before Telltale and it’s not like I’m trying to make a perfectly flawless timeline anyways since that’s an impossible task ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That being said, if you really want an excuse as to why invalidate this reference, there’s the fact that this reference implies it’s possible for Max to clone himself, which kinda defeats the whole point of the 305 ending and why it’s such a tragic ending

Another reference is Bosco’s, which is a place we see in both “Hit the Road” and Telltale, and the placement of the shop is the same in all three versions. Though, while the version we see here is very much based on the Telltale version, I’m again going to turn a blind eye to it. Heck, given how the street is kinda cheap according to 302, you could always imagine that Bosco moved away at some point in hopes to find a better place but then struggled to make money so he came back. Note that I have this theory due to how at first I thought Bosco’s was a bit further away down the street in Telltale compared to the other two versions, meaning the idea of him leaving and coming back renting a different building worked. Buuut in reality Bosco’s right next to Sam and Max’s place in Telltale so that doesn’t work as well. Still a theory I could go with tho

On that note, Bosco’s is the only building from Telltale that we see (again from what I’ve seen, I could be wrong). As a result, and despite the Telltale inspiration for how its outside looks, it feels more like a “Hit the Road” reference. Although “Hit the Road” does have some beta version of Stinky’s Dinner in the background as well that we don’t get to see here

Obviously the game is said to take place in 2021 but in case you haven’t noticed yet I decided to completely disregard the time period each entry was made in for the sake of my timeline so that’s no concern here X)

I like to headcanon that the office was either partly or completely destroyed after “The Devil’s Playhouse” leading to Sam and Max moving to the office we see in the cartoon. With that in mind, it doesn’t make sense for the vr office to be the same as the Telltale one if “Virtual” takes place after Telltale.

Likewise, Sam and Max are known to collect stuff from each mission and their Telltale office is littered with trinkets. The office in “This time it’s Virtual” is completely devoid of those items, as if taking place before Telltale (regarding the cartoon, them changing offices explains why the stuff isn’t here anymore, plus they have a house now to store things)

Regarding Sam dating around quite a lot in this game, I tend to headcanon both Sam and Max as polyamorous and in an open relationship with hierarchical polyamory (the headcanon comes from noticing how much of a flirt Telltale Max is, and more specifically the fact that he seems to be in love with Sam, Flint Paper and Hugh Bliss all at the same time; also the “Mr.S” dialogue with Flint in 301 fits perfectly with the open relationship headcanon). So with them being engaged in my headcanons, you could imagine that either A. Sam is getting nervous about settling down and Max is fine with him dating around despite the wedding coming or B. They’re currently having a break for one reason or another and Sam is dealing with it by seeing other people (notice how every single dialogue about Sam’s love life is brought up by Max, as if it bothered him).

Tbh I don’t really like either option due to both feeling like a pretty unhealthy way to navigate an open relationship. And that’s coming from someone who do like the idea of them struggling with their polyamory due to some jealousy they can’t quite get rid of (Max looking bothered in this game and Sam being jealous of Max’s crush on Hugh Bliss), but also the fact that a polycule would be best suited for them (taking the headcanon of them both liking Flint, there's no jealousy here) but the people they’re into are either not both their types (especially if you imagine Sam bringing women home) or those people wouldn’t fall in love or wish to fall in love with both. But despite liking this idea, what I’m describing here for “Virtual” feels too shitty of a thing to do, including Max not speaking up about his feelings.

(Regarding the jealousy, note that I don’t view Sam and Max as “too close” or even codependent. Sam was shown to be able to go on without Max, he’s just very unhappy which makes sense given he loves Max. As for Max, he’s hinted to be depressive and Sam may or may not be his only support system, so of course he would shut down without him. That can also explain why alternate!Max in S3 was able to go on, since in Telltale they have a few friends who saw what happened + Sam’s family likely showed up after hearing Sam died, so Max had people to support him. Then again I’m aroace so take what I say about relationships with a grain of salt)

In regards to that last point : Honestly, were it not for the huge “Hit the Road” references, I would have placed the vr game right after the comics in my timeline, before “Hit the Road”. Seriously the only reason why I headcanon them as engaged in “Virtual” is due to their romantic connotation in “Hit the Road” making me view them as an engaged couple in that game. So if “Virtual” takes place afterwards, then they need to be a couple in it

(“Virtual” in general is a bit of a black sheep in my eyes. Like, just the idea of Sam and Max recruiting someone and training them feels very off coming from them, not helped by that one interview Purcell did about the cartoon in which he says he wanted the Geek to have as little presence as possible because the heart of the show was the main duo. Also the fact that the writers are being cowards about Sam and Max being so explicitly queer in past entries annoys me a lot, especially since most people who never knew the franchise before will likely assume Sam is straight instead of bi/pan/omni with how the game only mentions women’s names when talking about his dates. As for Max, while you have the corndog joke hinting at his attraction for men, I’ve seen a bunch of gameplays of the office on youtube and most people miss that line by talking over it or not paying attention…)

- About the longevity chosen for some entries + time in-between :

First of all, note that I’m trying to make a timeline that includes most of the time-periods they had adventures in (late 80s, all of the 90s, early 2000s) hence why some parts might drag for a while, especially in regards to their relationship

“The Adventurers” take so many years due to them traveling all around the world

The fact that the gap between the comics and “Hit the Road”, then between that game and “Virtual” are rather short is due to the duo’s personalities being rather close in those three entries, though they feel a bit “softer” in “Virtual” (tbh they don’t get to do much in that game so it’s a bit hard to get a full reading of them, but it’s worth noticing they use weapons a lot and Max tries to blow us up when we first show up at the office)

It does feel like they take a long time before getting married considering they’ve known each other their whole lives, but between them being a gay couple (same-sex marriage being illegal in the 90s) and not having that much money, the idea of them dating for several years and having a long engagement does kinda works, since they have a lot to figure out

There’s a larger gap between “Virtual” and Telltale due to the personalities changing a bit and the street being different. Plus they’re not all lovey-dovey in Telltale so it works better with the thought of them being married for a few years instead of newlyweds, unlike “Hit the Road” in which the dialogues related to the tunnel of love + the 8-ball one sell the idea of them being fiancés (and them being mushier in the cartoon works with them getting older and settling down)

The gap between “The Big Sleep” and Telltale is due to the feeling that they need some time to settle down back home after this comic, on top of Sam still having brain damage from what happened to him and needing time to recover

The reason why so little time is put between Telltale and Poker night is due to my headcanon that alternate!Max has psychic powers but also has the brain tumor. And after a few months messing around with his powers, Mama Bosco reminds him that his life is on the line, so Max gets operated to remove the tumor, making him lose the ability to use his powers without an external/summoning source (if anybody’s curious you can send me an ask and I’ll explain how I view his psychic powers in better detail). And since Max has his powers in Poker Night, it needs to happen rather soon after the trilogy. Plus, Max in Poker Night 2 is only here because Sam is worried about the “chosen one” situations, the Gift being one of those situations

The almost-decade long gap between Telltale and the cartoon is mostly due to how different the cartoon is compared to this game, both in setting and characters, including Sam and Max being more mature and open emotionally. I feel like the transition works better if you imagine a long time has passed. Plus they feel in their 50s in the cartoon and I need an excuse for them to go from early 40s in Telltale to early 50s here

- A word about their relationship : I’m going with the headcanon/theory that the two got engaged, had an official ceremony but Sam got shot while waiting at the altar. And after the injury was healed, they decided to have a second more private wedding and afterwards decided to keep their relationship on the low in fear of what their enemies would try, hence why they keep insisting in Telltale that they’re just friends.

And regarding the two ceremonies, the first one used the costumes from “Hit the Road” which are pretty formal, while for the second wedding, which we see in the cartoon, they went with something more comfortable and practical, hence Sam’s dress seemingly not having several layers (unlike Max’s dress) and Max not wearing pants.

As for who knows about their relationship (outside of their respective families), Flint Paper would be the only one to be explicitly told since he knew the duo before the failed ceremony (and was likely Sam’s best man in said first ceremony). For other characters, either they would deduce it at some point (Geek, Bosco according to the Machinima shorts, Sybil in S1, Superball given he works with Max, Hugh Bliss after realizing Max had a thing for him which might be why Sam hated him, Skun-ka’pe after having readings of Max’s brain in 303 + Max possibly letting it slip accidentally, Papierwaite after seeing how Sam acted during the week leading up to 305, Mama Bosco eventually) or they wouldn’t realize it/don’t care enough about the duo to figure it out (most other villains, Harry Moleman, pretty much every character from “Hit the Road” etc)

Little fun fact : at first I pictured them getting married in Canada “because it’s legal here”. But after thinking more about trans headcanons, especially the idea of Max being transmasc and how it could work (I absolutely adore the idea of both being trans but for Sam there’s one little thing about dog anatomy that makes me want to make him cis), I ended up going with “Max completely forgot to change his gender on his ID so technically speaking a marriage between them would be considered as straight”. That being said, having Max’s gender be changed afterwards would be a mess, and tbh I kinda like the idea of him eventually making himself a fake ID because the law wasn’t going to allow him to change his gender and remain married.

And if you’re asking about him legally changing his name : since humans can’t tell the gender of most domestic animals right after birth, I like to imagine it’s the same for the animals themselves. As a result, both Sam and Max have a “man” and “woman” names that the adults in their lives would use interchangeably for the first few months of their lives (in my headcanon, Samuel/Samantha for Sam and Maxwell/Madeline for Max. Yeah I’m not the most original person when it comes to names…). And for legal documents, it works the same as someone having a second or even third name. It’s a name written on their ID that they just never use, tho I could see Max requesting for his “man” name to come first when having to renew it at some point (possibly as a teen depending how it works in the US)

Note that some animals could have a more gender-neutral name, either as a “boy/girl” name or their parents wanted the kid to have a third name. Also, a trans and/or NB animal can very well choose to have another name that has nothing to do with their birth names.

EDIT : Turns out I have more shit to say about this timeline

- The order of the entries can explain the slight shift in personality the duo has. In the comics and “Hit the Road”, they’re young so act more recklessly, endangering whoever’s on their way without a care in the world. In Telltale they’re middle aged so they’re starting to calm down, using their words instead to be douchebags. And in the Cartoon they’re older and wiser/calmer.

Don’t get me wrong, in all versions the duo loves random violence and are very much dangerous, but there’s definitely a slight difference in how each version approaches those character traits.

This could also explain Sam starting to get insecure about his weight in “Virtual” and especially in Telltale, as he’s nearing his 40s and is starting to feel old, on top of weight starting to get harder to drop. But by the time of the Cartoon he grew more secure of his looks, hence why he doesn’t hold back on food.

- By the logic of this timeline, Sam and Max were born in the early 60s, most likely between 1961 and 1965. And I think those dates might fit with the Telltale continuity ? (in 301 Sam is said to be “pushing 40 in dog years” and in 204 we learn the 60s was 40 years ago)

- The Machinima shorts take place during the events of Telltale, though not all of them might take place during S1. For example, the one with Max using telekinesis to levitate a cup could take place during the year between S2 and S3 (again, I have some headcanons about Max’s psychic powers in relation to this). Same for all the presidential ones that could happen throughout the first two seasons.

- Given that the adventuring ending of “Devil’s Playhouse” is seemingly the canon ending based on Poker Night 2, here’s a few theories as to what might’ve happened to the time-travelling elevator between Telltale and the Cartoon :

1. They lost it while back at their time-period to rest ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ After all, it only takes someone getting inside it or hitting it a bit too hard for the elevator to leave its current position. And we know Sam and Max aren’t the most cautious people.

2. They fucked up time very badly so they decided to retire using it. Could also explain why they talk about being cautious in “A Glitch in Time”, tho they barely respect what they’re saying in this episode.

3. The Mariachi found them and took the elevator back.

4. They went through many adventures, possibly to the same scope as the ones they lived back in the “Adventurers” comics (it does fit with them being in their 40s, basically having a mid-life crisis and wanting to feel young again), before eventually deciding to settle down in their original time-period and let go of those adventures. Basically that whole “they went on crazy adventures before deciding to stay in town solving crimes” from when I was describing the comics, but happening a second time 20 years later.

5. They don’t actually go that often through time, and in the few years between Telltale and the Cartoon spent most missions in their own time period. As a result, they still have the elevator lying around somewhere in the basement of Solitude. Or they did go through many adventures but somehow hadn’t fucked up to the point of having to give up the elevator so they still have it. I’d be more inclined to go with that theory out of the five due to the Cartoon episode “The Tell Tale Tail” which takes place in the past, so you could imagine they used the elevator to go there.

Another thing that’s worth pointing out, tho I’m not the biggest fan of the idea, is that the Cartoon very much takes place in the 90s. So one could imagine that they traveled back to this time-period and either lost the elevator or decided to settle down here. This could also explain why nobody they know from Telltale is around, including Flint Paper if you imagine the duo trying to make sure not to walk onto their past selves. That last part could also be why they only met the Geek at that point in time.

But again, I’m not a big fan of this idea and would rather go with them having “old” technology because they don’t want to bother adapting to new tech, as we see in “Virtual”.

- Last minute addition : So I can’t help but headcanon Sam and Max as being born in 1963 for some reason and one thing led to another so here’s my timeline with actual precise years :

1981 : Sam and Max become adults, with Sam going to college and both trying to find a detective job (could also be the time when Max was a sex worker) ; end up getting hired by the Commissioner in 1987

1987 – 1992 : the Adventurers comics

End of 1992 – 1995 : the rest of the comics, with Sam and Max starting to date in 1993 ; the breakup flashback we see in the last episode of the cartoon is set during winter 1993

1996 : Hit the Road ; got engaged a few months before this game

1997 : This Time it’s Virtual ; also the year they get married

(basically they get engaged early-96, Hit the Road is mid-96, Virtual is 7-8 months later so early-97, and the marriage is mid-97)

2000 : The Big Sleep comic

2001 – 2002 : Save the World (in 106, the page of their calendar is on February, so the game takes place accross two years)

2003 : Beyond Time and Space (they keep saying it’s been a year and their calendar in 201 is on February again, so this checks out, even though the date of 201 is weird af what with the whole Christmas thing)

2004 : The Devil’s Playhouse (Sybil is 13 months pregnant, so it’s been minimum a year)

2013 : The events of the Cartoon start

Btw something I keep forgetting to do so I’m mostly writing this in case I lose the dates and have to refer to this post for it : Sam and Max get one year older in 204 due to them being stuck in the past and having to re-live S1.

[awphooeey]

& max

[pumphik-art]

your favorite 20th century tomb raiders 

[lacosesa]

Apparently getting in trouble and having psychic powers just runs in the family...

[gumshoegoat]

Question for the ask game 🙂:

🎶 if your hyperfixation has songs/an ost, what is your favorite song from it?

not sure if it has a name, but the battle music during the fight with Jurgen goes crazy hard, it's always stood out to me. also any of the train music during the tomb of sammun-mak, it's so silly and fun

[cloudysarts]

“My dear Maximus, you have been chosen to play the starring role in the greatest spectacle of the age…The summoning of Yog-Soggoth!”

hiii this is a redraw!! only a few months later, but here’s the original!! <3</p>