UPDATE: My Telltale Games contact tells me that neither Back to the Future nor Jurassic Park will be playable at E3 next week.

My long years of waiting and hoping have paid off at last.  Universal Studios and Telltale Games are teaming up to produce a new episodic series of video games based on Back to the Future for the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and PC/Mac.  They'll be adventure games in the style of the recent Sam & Max and Tales of Monkey Island releases and not the open world action sandbox many (including myself) would have expected, but I think this is a better idea and one that many (again, including myself) would not have considered.  Jurassic Park is also part of the deal, but who cares?  Back to the Future!  This is heavy.

"I think it's a prime time to reintroduce these properties in the digital world," said Dan Connors, CEO at Telltale Games. "Telltale Games has always set out to be a great storytelling company. We've been honing our chops over the past six years, and we're ready to take on these two iconic properties and continue to advance storytelling in games."

Connors said the games, which are in the early stages of development, would tell new stories extending the "Back to the Future" and "Jurassic Park" lore. He teased that the "Back to the Future" games may include a DeLorean ride back to the 1970s while the "Jurassic Park" games would be intense and add new backstories to the series' man-versus-dinosaur mythology.

This is such great news that I don't know what to do with myself.  I haven't been this excited since Ghostbusters: The Video Game was announced.  There's so much potential here just waiting to be tapped.  Now, let's hope that Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox can be convinced to reprise their roles from the film.  While I'm sure there will be new characters and settings to see as we explore Hill Valley past, present, and future, I'd really like to see Doc Brown and Marty McFly at least kickstart the story.   I bet we'll hear Alan Ailvestri's memorable score at times, too.  The way I see it, if they're going to turn Back to the Future into a video game, why not do it with some style?  Telltale will be at E3 next week, and I really hope that a little something from this series will be playable on the show floor.