So there's this web show called "Matt Chat," a production of Armchair Arcade in which video game people of interest are interviewed via webcam. I've been alerted to two recent Matt Chat interviews of interest to our Objective.

First up is an interview with the legendary David Fox, creator of Zak McKracken:

And here's one with George "Fat Man" Sanger, consummate audio guru from LEC and Humongous' glory days:

Some great stories to be heard there. And both of these interviews are apparently the first of multiple installments, so stay tuned.

When assaulted with contemporary games that are aggressively mediocre, it is understandable that Star Wars fans would prefer to reminisce about the halcyon days when, say, the Super Star Wars trilogy for the SNES was proffering some highly decent side-scrolling translations of the classic movies.

The folks at NowGamer were struck by such nostalgia and were inspired to write a feature about these 16-bit gems, and what really makes it awesome is that they thought to pursue the games' producer and lead designer Kalani Streicher for some reflections. As a result the article contains all sorts of great background info, and Streicher even expresses the desire to return to the series some kind of way, if LEC would ever be interested. Take a look.

And there are no small Maniac Mansion retrospectives.

Microsoft announced the games coming to Xbox Live in the US in the next few weeks, and Jurassic Park: The Game is scheduled to come out on Xbox Live On Demand on April 10.

So far, there's no news about an international release, but since the non-Telltale published European retail Xbox 360 version was cancelled in Europe, the presence of an online version in the US is a still-slim chance that European Xbox 360 owners may receive this game through a Telltale published online release.

So we're about a two months late on this one, a Mixnmojo phenomenon known as "par for the course," but we've really got to report it.

You might recall that Jonathan Ackley, the co-project lead of The Curse of Monkey Island who isn't Larry Ahern, has been a Disney Imagineer for most of his post-LEC years, and in that capacity has worked on all kinds of neat stuff.

His latest project is "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" - an attraction that's sort of a treasure hunt mixed with a role playing card game that was launched at the Magic Kingdom in February. Armed with a map and spell cards, guests partake in a narrative in which classic Disney villians are scattered throughout the park in order to retrieve crystal shards at the behest of Hades. Guests solve quests by tracking down and activating Magic Portals and doing battle with the villains using their spell cards, which are divided into nine different spell classes.

A better explanation of the whole thing, complete with Ackley quotes, can be found here. Sounds like something I could get into. Yes, I'm trying to invite myself to your next Disney trip.

Update: Well whaddya know! Some diligent stalking of Larry Ahern's Linkedin, a daily Mojo rote, has led to the revelation that he in fact worked on "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" with his old cohort. Now we just need those guys to resurrect Vanishing Act.

Who knows when Star Wars: Battlefront III will ultimately be made, but today you can check out eight minutes of leaked footage from the version that Free Radical was working on several years back before the plug got pulled. That plug has subsequently been re-inserted and removed in sexually suggestive ways - some concept art from a possibly-not-fraudulent version of the long-awaited sequel by Slant Six has emerged, and the latest rumors hold that Spark Unlimited is making the game now.

In any case, here's the Free Radical footage:

"No!", says Jason.

Ages ago, some journo over on CHUD posted a feature saying Tim Schafer should make other stuff and Jason replied with this.

After Double Fine's success on Kickstarter, more game developers are eager to get on the bandwagon.

First up is Replay Games with their Kickstarter campaign named Make Leisure Suit Larry come again!. The goal is to raise $500,000 for a remake of the first Larry game, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Their future plans include remaking the other five games in the series as well as making new sequels.

The second one is Jane Jensen and her newly established studio Pinkerton Road with a Kickstarter campaign where the backers can vote on which games they want made, including a sequel to the 2010 adventure game Gray Matter.

If you ever wanted to dance with Han Solo to Jason Derulo's "Ridin' Solo", then there's good news for you. Kinect Star Wars is in stores now.

The reviews so far say that the dancing mini-game, the rancor destruction mini-game, and the pod racing mini-games are fun, but the game's most anticipated feature, the Jedi fighting mini-games, are unresponsive, making the game overall a let down.

In a news story that will likely go down in history, gaming entrepreneur Markus "notch" Persson has announced his successful purchase of Double Fine Productions.

Earlier in the year, the independent game developer, known for his successful game "Minecraft", announced tentative plans to help fund a Psychonauts sequel. Since then all has been quiet, overshadowed by Double Fine's successful Kickstarter project.

Today "notch" broke his silence and announced his successful acquisition of Tim Schafer's company, only to immediately shut down the company.

In his statement made to press, Persson said: "I knew they were worth at least $3.3M from the Kickstarter donations, so I made sure I paid less than that. Now I get to keep the difference!"

Double Fine Productions ceased business at 12am PST this morning. Rumours that they'll resume normal operations on Monday 2nd, April, are so far unfounded.

In a surprise move, Telltale's website actually mentioned their newest Law & Order release. Law & Order: Legacies has now concluded it's 7 episode run on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. Now iOS players can discover the link that ties the season's cases together, as Episode 7: Resolution is now available to purchase (or to play immediately if you own the multi-pack bundle) from within the universal Law & Order: Legacies application.

There is no news on when the last two episodes will be available for PC and Mac.

Update: Telltale hasn't updated their blog with the news, but episodes 6 and 7 are now out on PC and Mac as well. So now all supported platforms have access to the complete Law & Order: Legacies series.

Mass Effect 3, the latest RPG-ish game from popular developer Bioware, got released this March. The game's ending - a cop-out that marred an otherwise brilliant, meticulously crafted saga about space and the aliens humanity would someday alternatively blow up and sleep with - caused a slight implosion on some parts of the internet, prompting several thousand users to campaign to "Retake Mass Effect". These protesters have donated to charity in the name of the cause, but have also asked for the game's ending to be changed.

This is where it gets relevant. PC Gamer decided to ask several game writers and designers what they think of this, and whether Bioware should or should not comply to what these fans want. Of relevance to Mixnmojo are Chuck Jordan (The Curse of Monkey Island, The Devil's Playhouse), Dave Grossman (Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Day of the Tentacle) and Gary Whitta (The Walking Dead), and of slightly more tangential relevance is Steve Gaynor (Idle Thumbs, Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den). All interviewees provide interesting answers, and the article is worth a read.

A site called Dual Pixels is claiming to have a line on the titles that will appear on the eShop service for the Wii U (the upcoming Nintendo console) when the system launches toward the end of the year. Among the titles they list is Telltale's The Walking Dead. Telltale establishing a presence on the console seems plausible enough to me considering that they're everywhere else, but time will tell if this particular rumor proves accurate.

In other Telltale news, the company would totally love to be acquired by Disney. Learn this and other lurid secrets in this interview with Dan Connors that ran on Gamasutra earlier this week.

Grim Fandango Deluxe, the fan project to update the graphics of Grim Fandango, has taken a step forward, releasing an early prototype.

For the first time, fans can actually play with a hi-res version of Manny for themselves, although there are still many bugs to be ironed out (Manny's facial animations are missing).

You can download a file that allows you to see the new model ingame for yourself here:

The Official Grim Fandango Deluxe Blog

Don't watch if you don't like spoilers!

Update: You're too late! It's gone!

Preorders for The Walking Dead are now possible at Telltale's website. As usual with their preorders, you will get 10% off the regular price (US $22.49 vs US $24.99) and get access to an exclusive preorder forum where you can get discuss the game with the development team before release.

But for this preorder period, Telltale is having a contest. Everyone who preorders the game or (for the mandatory 'no purchase necessary' requirement) sends a postcard to Telltale before the 4/23/12, will be entered into a chance to become one of the undead in the game. The winner will appear in episode 4 first as a human, then as a member of the undead. Up to four others will become a member of the undead horde, seen shambling around in the game (or perhaps eating an unfortunate victim).

For your chance to become part of the walking dead, preorder here.

Jump to the nine minute mark. Thoughts?

In our continuing quest to report on two week old news, here is a two-part interview Tim Schafer did with The PA Report a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks to reader Nojan for notifying us of this.

Clicky and more clicky!

Do you remember Marius Fietzek, the German adventure aficionado who won our hearts, not to mention a Telltale internship, along with his cohort Thorsten Fietzek with those "I Wonder What Happens in Tales of Monkey Island" flash videos? He's back to secure another dream job using another unconventional portfolio woven from the fabric of awesome.

Sensing that the success of Double Fine's Kickstarter campaign would translate into a need for new hires, Marius has submitted a resume to Tim Schafer's studio - an interactive one, taking the form of a brief, Monkey Island-cognizant flash adventure game (playable here) in which you're a Double Fine HR goon named Clark who is interviewing Marius, his skill set revealed via dialog tree.

Marius' method is brilliant, and functions either intentionally or unintentionally as homage to the very same technique Tim Schafer himself employed when he sent a resume to Lucasfilm Games in the form of a text adventure game depicting the happy ending to his job search. Hopefully Marius' creativity pays off - he seems to only be after a brief internship, and unlike Schafer he has the advantage of not inadvertently revealing to his prospective employer that he pirated one of their games. I don't know what happens next, but I hope someone will make a speculative flash video shedding light on the subject. I want this to get so meta that it consumes itself helplessly into a black hole.

Telltale partnered up with its real friends at IGN to unveil this teaser trailer for The Walking Dead:


Kinda feels like an interface-less gameplay clip from one of their CSI games. Possibly to compensate for the relative scarcity of media they've dispersed for the project thus far, Telltale is promising to follow up this tease with a more revealing "debut trailer" come Monday, while you're still bristling from whatever's going to happen in Sunday's season finale of the TV show.