When George Lucas opened a games division in 1982, Atari already held the Star Wars video game license, so the new team was legally barred from making games about the universe that surrounded them. This episode follows how that restriction pushed Lucasfilm Games into experimental territory, from the 1986 online world Habitat on the Commodore 64 to Maniac Mansion, the SCUMM engine, Monkey Island, the iMUSE adaptive music system, and Grim Fandango.

Then the license returns in 1992 and everything changes: X-Wing, Rebel Assault as the CD-ROM killer app, Dark Forces and the Jedi Knight series, and the rising cost of 3D development that made Star Wars a financial safety net. We examine the failed 2002 pledge to keep half of releases original, Jim Ward's audit that found quite a mess and cut staff from 450 to 190, the rushed Knights of the Old Rep ...