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That’s a wrap on the Poker Night at the Dispatch trivia contest — thanks to everyone who entered, and congratulations to the winners! Btw, if you haven't played Dispatch or Poker Night at the Inventory yet, you still have a few more days to grab both games on sale. bsky.app/profile/skun...

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Perhaps as a nod to that late-night collaboration, the second Easter egg in Dispatch’s coffee-making sequence is Jake Rodkin’s Very Good Whiskey.

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BANANG! in glorious remastered HD

Banang was a banana-flavored drink that first appeared as an inventory item in Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space. A late-night idea led Nick Herman and Jake Rodkin to create this Easter egg in a later episode. Banang references became a staple of Telltale's games. www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9d8...

youtube.com

YouTube video by PK_DUSTY

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Q: SDN mugs feature prominently in the opening sequence of Dispatch's final episode. This sequence includes TWO Telltale-adjacent Easter eggs. What are they? A: Banang (at 0:01) and Jake Rodkin’s Very Good Whiskey (at 0:31).

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As explained by the Host as he leads you down the stairs at the beginning of the game, the Inventory was founded in 1919 in response to an early draft of the 18th Amendment that threatened to outlaw games and amusements in addition to alcohol. What a tragedy that would have been.

A screengrab from the remaster of Poker Night at the Inventory taken as the player character follows the Host down a staircase. On the wall are a number of framed documents, including a newspaper with the headline "Reach of Prohibition Extended?"

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Q: The Inventory was created in response to which US Amendment? A: The 18th Amendment

A screenshot from Poker Night at the Inventory, showing Max from Sam & Max, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, the Heavy from Team Fortress 2, and Tycho from Penny Arcade sitting around a poker table mid-game. Tycho has his head in his hands.

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Dispatch - All Beef Scenes

Bonus trivia: Beef is named after the real dog of AdHoc’s cofounder Pierre Shorette. Want more Beef? (Don’t we all?!) Check out this compilation of Beef scenes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGQk...

youtube.com

YouTube video by Dan Allen Gaming

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Q: What’s the name of Dispatch protagonist Robert Robertson’s dog? A: Beef! (And he’s naked)

A screengrab from Dispatch showing Beef, an overweight black and white chihuahua.

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the 18th amendment: a poker night documentary

Telltale Texas Hold’em was Telltale’s very first game, released in 2005 as a test of the engine they were developing to create cinematic story-based games. Learn more about Poker Night's fascinating history in The 18th Amendment, a fan-made documentary on YouTube: youtu.be/SpY2xTXdG-Q?...

youtu.be

YouTube video by meikkon

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Q: What early Telltale game inspired Poker Night at the Inventory? A: Telltale Texas Hold’em

A screenshot from Telltale Texas Hold'em (2005), showing four cartoony characters around a poker table.

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In Dispatch, you play as Robert Robertson (AKA Mecha Man), who works at SDN as a superhero dispatcher. In charge of rehabilitating a group of ex-supervillains, you must manage your roster while navigating office relationships and rebuilding your destroyed mech-suit.

A screenshot from Dispatch showing a computer monitor with a city map and a roster of supervillains to be dispatched to various emergencies.

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Q: What does SDN stand for? A: Superhero Dispatch Network

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Nick started at Telltale in 2006 as an intern, working his way up from game trailers to in-game cinematics. Nick was one of four key people who made Poker Night at the Inventory in 2010. In 2018, Nick formed AdHoc Studio with three friends from Telltale. He was one of the directors of Dispatch.

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Q: Which Dispatch team member worked on the 2010 release of Poker Night at the Inventory? A: Nick Herman!

A screenshot of the credits from Skunkape's Poker Night at the Inventory remaster:

Original Release

Developed by Telltale Games

Nick Herman
Tulley Rafferty
Jake Rodkin
Sean Vanaman

Executive Producers
Kevin Boyle
Kevin Bruner

Animation
Jed Heuer
Jeff Sarre
Michael Tjosvold

Environment Artist
[cuts off here]

Screengrab from Dispatch credits:

Directed by
Nick Herman
Dennis Lenart

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Skunkape @skunkapegames.com · 07/06/2026

Our Poker Night at the Dispatch trivia contest with @adhocstudio.com is over, with 1,863 entries and 8,200 correct answers! From this pool, we drew 5 winners: Dioxid3Chlorine, Tyler, Justin_Le1, @blax03.bsky.social & Haliburd7. Congrats! 🎉 How many questions did you get right? Find out below. 🧵👇

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To make it easy for you, here are the store pages for both games on sale: Poker Night ❤️ Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3897800/... ♠️ PlayStation: store.playstation.com/en-us/concep... Dispatch 🦸 Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/2592160/... 🦹 PlayStation: www.playstation.com/en-us/games/...

The poker table from Poker Night at the Inventory with an SDN mug from Dispatch sitting on the table.

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Skunkape @skunkapegames.com · 07/06/2026

Our Poker Night at the Dispatch trivia contest ends TOMORROW! Get your answers in for a chance to win one of five SDN mugs from our pals at @adhocstudio.com. Plus, Poker Night at the Inventory & Dispatch are both on sale on Steam and PlayStation right now. Don't miss out!

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Skunkape @skunkapegames.com · 02/06/2026

Our old friend Graham has got some new merch featuring everyone’s old friend, Nelson Tethers. Put him on your backpack and maybe you’ll meet other puzzle agents out in the world!

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And if you’d rather hang out with superheroes (we’ll try not to take it personally), you can grab Dispatch for 20% off on PlayStation: store.playstation.com/en-us/produc...

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Btw, if you’re in the mood to play Texas hold’em with Max, Strong Bad, Tycho, and The Heavy, the Poker Night remaster is on sale for the first time: ♠️ Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3897800/... ♦️ PlayStation: store.playstation.com/en-us/concep... (Switch players, we’ll get you next time!)

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Answer these trivia questions and you could win one of five real-life SDN mugs from the AdHoc Studio store: forms.gle/q7riKLmnNSjQ... Entries are due by June 7 at 11:59pm PDT. Each correct answer gives you a chance to win!

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This Easter egg is a nod to Dispatch, the superhero game made by our friends at @adhocstudio.com. Our team and some of their team worked together at Telltale back in the day — including on Poker Night at the Inventory. And now we’re teaming up on a contest!

Mr. Whiskey, a character from Dispatch who looks like a person in a theme park cat costume, holding two white mugs with SDN logos in his hands. He's in an office setting.

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🚨🚨HEY KIDS, IT’S CONTEST TIME!!🚨🚨 Eagle-eyed players have spotted a bunch of new Easter eggs in our Poker Night at the Inventory remaster, including this unassuming mug with an SDN logo on it. (Max isn’t holding it in the game — you’ll have to find it yourself!) 🧵👇

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Can’t tell if this is a goof or not. Tycho is not our OC, no copyright intended. That said, Tycho’s 3D model was created from scratch for Poker Night and it was also the first time the character was voiced, so the team had to cast a voice actor and get all of it approved by Penny Arcade.

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This feels like telling someone Guybrush lives on a farm now. He’s happy with the other pirates.

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Fine, Guybrush Threepwood is alive and currently owns The Inventory, a fictional secret gaming club hidden inside a century-old warehouse near the corner of Battery and Green in San Francisco.

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True. But by that measure Guybrush probably isn't around either.

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For the remaster, we used a little bit of the concept art on the newly-expanded "history of the Inventory" wall you see when entering the club at the start of the game. (Along with Kent Games & Amusements kitsch and a bunch of definitely-accurate historic photos from the early days of the Inventory)

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It's famed card and board gaming industrialist Dixon Kent, owner of Kent Games and Amusements!

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(Also some Telltale-era shoutouts to "the neighborhood bars where you could hide upstairs and play board games all night" Hobson's Choice and The Bitter End, and "the bars with carpeted floors and too many funky lights where you could play board games all night" Little Shamrock and Yancy's Saloon.)

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Nobody was seriously considered other than the four who ended up in the game. There was talk of having a bartender "guest character" in the first game, but nothing serious came of it other than the idea.

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As a space, the team wanted The Inventory to feel like a cathedral dedicated to the feeling of hanging out in a bar playing games with your friends. We looked at our favorite San Francisco bars (like House of Shields) and elevated them to cathedral status with a giant library and vaulted ceiling.

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The Inventory was meant to be a space dedicated to gaming, packed full of detail. We didn't really pack it that full in the end, but we had some classics like everyone's favorite objects - crates! d20s! - as well as an homage to the Sims' plumbob, as different light sources around the club.

Concept art of an elaborate chandelier made of glass crates.

Concept art of a pendant light shaped like a green diamond, as well as concept art of a bar stool.

Concept art of a small tealight holder shaped like a glass d20.

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Telltale concept artist Jesse Maccabe painted a series of small moody pieces and these detail studies for what the Inventory could look like. We wanted the space to feel secluded, intimate and comfortably shabby, but also a little unsettling in how imposing and old it was, and Jesse captured that.

Stylized painting of a murky back room of a club, lit with warm incandescent lighting. Paintings and a dart board line the walls, and a window in the back looks out to a closed red velvet curtain. Painting by Jesse Maccabe of Telltale Games, depicting a back room poker table in The Inventory, the setting of Poker Night at the Inventory. This room was not used in the game because the true "back room" nature felt too secluded and small for what the team wanted the main game to feel like.

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