GameTap Announces Exclusive Premiere of 'Sam & Max' - October 17

GameTap Announces Exclusive Premiere of 'Sam & Max' - October 17

The long-awaited first installment, titled "Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock," to debut on October 17th, 2006; Machinima shorts to debut in November

ATLANTA, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Sam & Max are finally back! GameTap, the first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network from Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), and interactive entertainment pioneer Telltale Games today announced that GameTap subscribers will get exclusive 15-day access to all "Sam & Max" episodes, beginning with the debut of the first episode on October 17th, 2006.

All told, Sam & Max: Season 1 will boast six brand-new episodes with the pilot launching on GameTap's first birthday, October 17th, and new episodes launching one-a-month starting in December and running through April. Each episode will be available to GameTap subscribers as part of the monthly subscription rate of $9.95. Fifteen days after each month's debut on GameTap, the episodes will also be available for purchase for customers worldwide from the Telltale Games website, www.telltalegames.com. Pricing for purchases from Telltale will be announced in the coming weeks.

The October 17th season premiere episode of Sam & Max: Season 1 will be called "Culture Shock," and begins as Sam and Max discover that a group of former child stars have become involved in nefarious deeds. Only the six foot dog and his cunning rabbit companion can unravel the mystery! Fans can learn more about the insidious details at Telltale's Sam & Max games website.

"Gamers get to play the new episodes of Sam & Max first on GameTap, where the whole Sam & Max experience is enriched with additional amazing content," said Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap Vice President of Content. "Telltale and GameTap are also co-producing new animated machinima "shorts," which will premiere in November as a prelude to the second game episode, with more shorts airing between monthly episodes to give Sam & Max fans a regularly scheduled fix. With the new machinima shorts and a behind-the-scenes documentary that brings them inside 'The Making of' the new Sam & Max game, this exclusive Sam & Max experience adds that much more value to the monthly subscription."

"GameTap has the vision, commitment and talent to build a network that fosters unique and innovative original content," said Dan Connors, CEO of Telltale, Inc. "We're proud that we can contribute the first original interactive series to kick off the programming next month."

"We are pleased with our first foray into what we believe will be a new way of debuting and distributing original games," said Stuart Snyder, GameTap's Senior Vice President and General Manager. "Original and episodic content has been the cornerstone of many Turner properties and a natural fit for the gaming audience."

Over the years, the hilarious detective dog and "rabbity-thing" have adventured through comics, PC games and an animated television series, attracting countless fans and great critical acclaim along the way. Sam & Max: Season 1 marks the crime-fighting duo's first foray into digital distribution, as well as GameTap's first outing as a producer and co- publisher.

Sam & Max: Season 1 joins GameTap's existing vault of more than 600 video games, from arcade classics to current-generation hits, along with original GameTap TV programming, Cartoon Network favorites and celebrity interviews and insights. The episodes will be also available for purchase on Telltale's website, www.telltalegames.com, after the exclusive period on GameTap.

About Telltale

Telltale delivers Tales for Your Imagination - high caliber interactive entertainment which features engaging stories, strong characters, and rich environments. A new era of interactive entertainment is emerging, with customers expecting more from their investment in play time. Telltale is developing and deploying cinematic quality animation and storytelling technologies, to create entertaining and exciting interactive adventures which meet these new expectations. Staffed with long time industry veterans, Telltale creates tales based on Jeff Smith's Bone series, Steve Purcell's Sam & Max characters and television's popular CSI program in partnership with Ubisoft. Telltale offers content development and custom publishing services for license-holders interested in adapting their properties for interactive delivery. Telltale has created innovative tools, designed specifically for rapid development of high quality, space-efficient titles for digital distribution. Telltale titles can be downloaded from its website, as well as online partners such as Yahoo! Games, Direct-to-Drive, Trymedia Systems, Boonty, and CNET. To learn more about Telltale, please visit www.telltalegames.com.

About GameTap

GameTap is the leader in digital game distribution and broadband entertainment. Launched by Turner Broadcasting in 2005, it now delivers more than 600 authentic versions of the greatest console, computer and arcade games on demand, including original and exclusive episodic properties. In addition to games for every age and interest, GameTap offers more than 400 original entertainment programs, popular video streams and thriving virtual communities to broadband-connected PCs. Continually updated with new games, programs and features, GameTap is a downloadable application that supports navigation and game play using keyboard and mouse, as well as most USB peripherals. Go to www.gametap.com and expand your playground.

About Turner

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), a Time Warner company, is a major producer of news and entertainment products around the world and the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry.

About Sam & Max

Steve Purcell published "Monkeys Violating the Heavenly Temple" as his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Sam & Max solved assorted crimes and mysteries as "Freelance Police" in their sturdy 1960 Black and White De Soto Adventurer from their home base in New York City. After a series of follow-up comic books, Purcell worked with a team at LucasArts to create the critically acclaimed "Sam & Max Hit the Road" adventure game in 1993. The dog and bunny duo moved to television, in an award-winning animated series in 1997 and are now appearing in an all-new webcomic series at http://www.samandmaxcomics.com/.

Source: GameTap

CONTACT: Caroline Capers of Access Communications, +1-415-844-6246, or
ccapers@accesspr.com, for GameTap; or Misty Skedgell of TBS, Inc.,
+1-404-885-4396, or misty.skedgell@turner.com; or Emily Morganti of Telltale,
Inc., +1-415-258-1638, ext. 501, or pr@telltalegames.com

Web site: http://www.gametap.com/
http://www.turner.com/
http://www.telltalegames.com/
http://www.samandmaxcomics.com/

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