The International House of Mojo

Breaking news, posted today on hardcore gaming website Now Gamer:

Following unsuccessful applications to Atari and Hewlett Packard (the rejection letters from which are posted on the Double Fine blog) Schafer had a disastrous phone interview at LucasFilm Games (now LucasArts) where he was eventually employed in 1989, working on games such as Monkey Island.

Schafer has now posted the ingenious application that got him the job: a humorous semi-graphic adventure-style printout that he created from scratch. "I’ve told this story many times before but I’ve never shown the actual letter," said Schafer. "Here then is the WORLD PREMIER of what will surely become the standardized temlate for all future job-getting letters:"

Is their code breaking their database? Or is it late and sloppy journalism? I don't know, but I suspect that, as happens with all true innovators, it may be due to Mojo's work finally being recognized and imitated by the site's peers; Mojo itself is, after all, so close to death. To quote some dead guy, so it goes.

Source: NowGamer

When I was in elementary school, my friends and I amused each other by creating crude and violent black and white cartoons using an ancient version of Hypercard. When the computer lab got PCs, we transitioned our silly efforts to Microsoft PowerPoint, and even began trying to make games with it when we realized that action buttons could be used to send the user to different slides, thus giving us the ability to design branching paths in our stories. The end result? Incredibly simplistic and linear adventure games.

I got to remembering this crazy hobby from my childhood when it came time for Telltale's 2009 Halloween contest, so over the course of a few days I made a slapdash and highly unambitious Sam & Max PowerPoint game, attempting to recapturing the mindset from those nostalgic days of showing up to school early and squandering my recess, all just to compete with my friends' zany creations. It was fun.

Anyway, since I was already brazenly using the Mojo server to host the file and for some reason was reminded of its existence, here's the .ppt file (7.9MB), which I suspect you may get a kick out of. Have fun! (Assuming it works properly on whatever version of PowerPoint you're on, which it probably doesn't.)

From Destructoid:

As walkthroughs prove to be more and more in-depth, programmers (or at least, ones who care) are pressed to hide secrets in more convoluted ways, or in greater numbers. For instance, look at how ridiculously placed some of Brutal Legend's Bound Serpents were placed.

Source: Destructoid

When I was four I lived in America for a year, before returning to England. My stay in America included a trip to Disney World and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I was so inspired that I wrote a short story about it a few years later (I was about six), only I changed some of the details of the original.

"Why just the pirates of the Caribbean?" I thought. "Much more impressive to make it the Pirates of America."

"And why should the pirates be the heroes? Much better to follow the good guys, the English" (I was quite racist when I was younger).

The result stands before us:



The script appears to be written in Anglo-Saxon. A transcription runs thus:

The Sowders of Einlad.

One day there wher sum solders they wher cold The Solders of Enlad. the names wher Jon Chip Dog Willf and Tim Tom Gabriel and Mark. they wher goto have a whor an gets the pirats of ameraker. the solders had milians and farsns of dums gold and hudruds of siver quawts cups neckdiees brawtes.

chapeh two on the solders of Enlud. bay two they are haveing the wher hoo will win!

wac UP SPLLOS AHHHH.... BANG

we won the wor we won! the wor

On the back is taped the top of a cardboard shoebox, and the following words, written in the same handwriting:

Try a different nickname

(Im) I (neeld) need a short top
you - type a name with:

• 8 characters or less
  letters or numbers
  No spaces or punctuation

The meaning of the last part is lost to me now.

A single off the upcoming Mixnmojo album that Mixnmojo has nothing to do with.

(Special thanks to ATMachine for providing the last image.)

Attractive Anchovy
Beautiful Barracuda
Comely Catfish
Dazzling Dogfish
Enchanting Eel
Fair Flounder
Gorgeous Goldfish
Handsome Halibut
Ideal Ide
Jewel-like Jawfish
Killer Kelp
Lovely Lamprey
Magnificent Marlin
Nice Noodlefish
Ode-worthy Oarfish
Pretty Perch
Quaint Quillback
Radiant Razorfish
Seemly Salmon
Tantalizing Trout
Unblemished Unicornfish
Voluptuous Viperfish
Winsome Whiting
XXX X-Ray Tetra
Youthful Yellowtail
Zit-free Zebrafish

Kanye weighs in.

Source: kanyelicious

For those wondering what Mixnmojo would be like as a human: Now you know.

One small step for Mixnmojo; one large step for world domination.

Mojo's spy network has just found out that Gabez has a secret, second identity as a black, Canadian rapper.

Who'd have thunk it? Yo.

Captain Kidd and his crew were on the high seas when they were attacked by Blackbeard, their arch enemy.

The first shot by Blackbeard's gunners took off Kidd's forward mast. The second shot splintered the center mast, and the third desintegrated the rear mast.

Panic stricken, one of Kidd's men asked what they should do.

"We have no choice but to surrender", replied the pirate. "He's using weapons of mast destruction!"

http://www.google.com/trends?q=lucasarts:



You guys had better step it up with the LucasArts Google searches. No one else can do it for you.

Just watch. I think we all feel the same.

Source: Lava Level

Exclusively on Behind Mojo, we give you the latest trailer for Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings on the Wii.

See it here.

I once accidentally typed this site's URL as http://www.mixmojo.com/, and discovered that the for-sale domain is "your gateway to sites on the Internet for Libido!"

That reminds me: LSD has some positive qualities that you might not be familiar with.

(This little comic strip was originally created to sweeten the reading time for people brave enough to venture into my giant-sized, near philosophical essay Gamer's (illusion) of freedom published at Adventure Classic Gaming about how games limit your actions to the extreme and make you love it. Still, the comic is a minor masterpiece in itself, so big thanks to Mojo for helping me to expose it to a larger audience.)

OMG HEATH RIP 4EVA!!!!!!

Who knew?