… nauts. Psychonauts 2 to be specific. Or, to be even more specific, Peter McConnell’s “Lady Luctopus” theme from Psychonauts 2, performed during “The Sound of Gaming” concert. November 23rd, 4 pm at MediaCityUK, Salford. Give me a break; it’s been a long day – just read Tim’s Bluesky post about it:
Run over to BBC to get yourself a basically free £6.50 ticket.
Adventure Game Hotspot keeps the A Vampyre Story: A Bat’s Tale coverage coming, following up their earlier interview with a podcast. The featured guests are Šarūnas Ledas and Žilvinas Ledas – the brothers behind Tag of Joy, who are co-developing the game with Autumn Moon. Bill, to be fair, has a lot of drawing to do.
Though the episode runs an hour and a half, the AVS2 substance seems to be concentrated in the first thirty minutes. Listen, we command you.
Source: Adventure Game Hotspot
Rightly fearful of a world where Escape from Monkey Island magazine coverage gets lost to the Mysts o'Tyme, our own Scummbuddy blew the dust bunnies off the scanner and preserved the feature story that graced the Sept. 2000 issue of Computer Games Magazine.
You may already be familiar with the cover of this issue, as it’s been universally acknowledged since the game came out to be objectively superior to the actual box art the geniuses in Marketing saw fit to approve in the end, but the preview itself by Cindy Yans is some proper journalism, and the pre-release quotes from Mike Stemmle and Sean Clark will take you back to those innocent, anticipatory days when we thought we had another classic coming our way. (Footnote: And we were right. Don’t want to hear it.)
Source: Mojo Forums
There’s a lot going on, at far too rapid a clip, when it comes to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for the front page to really keep up, but that’s why you’re such a devout follower of the forum thread. Let’s cover the highlights though, starting with a fifteen minute “gameplay deep dive” video Bethesda put out earlier in the week.
And if you thought the spared-no-expense marketing madness could only have peaked, the game’s latest promotional partner is here to say, “Hold my chemically-sweetened syrup.”
Further info on the IHOP tie-in, inclusive of a collectable drinking glass and a sweepstakes for Exclusive Prizes™, can be found here. I know what you're thinking: Where the heck was the ReMI-inspired breakfast menu?
You’ve probably seen the news pop into your inbox already, but in case you haven’t – GOG has launched a certification program of sorts that promises to, and I quote:
The GOG Preservation Program ensures classic games remain playable on modern systems, even after their developers stopped supporting them. By maintaining these iconic titles, GOG helps you protect and relive the memories that shaped you, DRM-free and with dedicated tech support.
Well, then! I think we can all get behind the sentiment, though exactly what it means on a practical level is a bit foggy to me. I.e., will classic LucasArts titles still rely on the baked-in version of ScummVM?
Either way, included in the first batch of titles are Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis™, The Curse of Monkey Island™, and The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition.
News of EGA versions and – most importantly – Amiga games forthcoming, I’m sure.
You spoke, and Disney listened. Ron Howard’s 1988 opus Willow is heading to 4K Blu-ray December 10th.
You can get the full specs over at The Digital Bits. As for the short-lived but beloved television series, it appears that Disney really did perform the ritual that exiled its spirit into oblivion. These things happen.
Source: The Digital Bits
Another Tech Talk has arrived, this time with multifaceted audio engineer Larry the O, who worked at LucasArts around 1995-2003 on a bunch of Star Wars titles as well as Escape from Monkey Island. When you’re done listening to his stories, you might also check out his web site, Toys in the Attic.
Source: Tech Talk with Daniel Albu
“I do see what causes some people to rate Grim Fandango so highly, and I definitely don’t think any less of them for doing so."
This sporting sentiment from Jimmy Maher gives you a decent idea of what you're in for in his latest entry at The Digital Antiquarian, dedicated to Tim Schafer’s 1998 classic. Fans of hot takes rejoice -- or does he speak for the silent majority? Whether you read it in outrage or validation, you know you’re always getting the good stuff over there.
Our CEO, who just happens to be the webmaster of The Grim Fandango Network, was last observed sharpening knives, but we’re sure it’s perfectly innocent.
Source: The Digital Antiquarian
No, not that Adventurer – this Adventurer. You know the one. The newsletter we unleashed with a roar and then kind of forgot about because of a shiny object that flew by. (The has taken an unhealthy interest in Duke Nukem Forever, for example.) Anyway – it’s back and you should subscribe…
… because we’re totally gonna keep it going this time, maybe. Hell, even if we did drop the ball, the worst thing that would happen is that you’d receive fewer emails. Which is kind of a bonus.
So, don’t be a butt – subscribe!
In the SCUMM catalog, there are three early games that found themselves produced during a transitional era of graphics cards, where VGA (256-color) was most definitely around, but EGA (16-color) still had the dominant install base.
As a result, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, and The Secret of Monkey Island initially shipped as EGA versions, but had their art retroactively redone (often within a year) in elitist fancy VGA form by other artists.
Over the years, the argument from purists that the EGA originals should be privileged has grown louder -- and also more tragic, as those most definitely don’t tend to be the versions offered by Lucasfilm. Regardless of individual preferences, for which there can be no right answer (Footnote: EGA is the right answer), the comparison is always interesting, and a typically Norwegian hero has made this inspection easier than ever.
Though he hasn’t gotten to Monkey 1 yet, you’ll have a lot of fun hovering your mouse over backgrounds from Indy 3 and Loom. Check out how much bigger that Sam & Max totem pole got in Indy’s office (and is that a subtle ode to the Great Monkey Head added to the top shelf there?), or how superior Loom was in its original form in every way. Above all, bow down before the one true Cobb:
Source: SuperRune
We’re a good twenty years past the heyday of Monkey Island fan games, but you can only really contain the disease, never cure it. The latest confirmed case comes out of Italy. Behold The Booze of Monkey Island:
I mean, it sure doesn’t look like something that was slapped together over a lunch break. Go forth and download before the LucasLegal of 2001 somehow catches wind.
Source: Bean Adventure Agency
As promised, the month draws to a close with a whole bunch of new hands-on impressions of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. No really, there’s a lot of them. Too many, frankly. We’re a little insulted.
Here’s what I rounded up before my hand fell off. People seem to be liking it.
The game is out December 9th. Two weeks before you finish reading all of these, in other words.
To go along with this morning’s announcement, Jack Allin of Adventure Game Hotspot (Footnote: And who you may remember from Adventure Gamers) had a chat with Bill Tiller of Autumn Moon and Šarūnas Ledas of Tag of Joy (co-developer) to learn all the details behind the long-in-the-making revival of A Vampyre Story: A Bat’s Tale.
How do you envision the distribution of responsibilities for a shared game? Will you be very hands-on, Bill, or more in an advisory, consultancy role?
Bill: We are sharing the development duties 50/50. Autumn Moon will focus on our core competency, the creative side, with a lot of input and ideas from Tag of Joy. And they are going to focus more on the technical and business side, with some of our input, though we don’t program so I am wisely very hands-off there. We have been working together for a while now and we got our process and working relations working very well. It’s been honestly great, and very smooth.
Šarūnas: Personally, I love this collaboration, because both sides are very hands-on, and it wouldn’t be as fun if Bill wasn’t actually doing what he does best. It’s an equal partnership in many regards – workload distribution, creative control, etc. Of course, it’s still Bill’s concept and story, but both sides share ideas and feedback with each other on all aspects of the game. Naturally, though, there are some areas that each side covers more, as Bill mentioned. Bill and Dave Harris are the lead writers/designers, and Bill is obviously the lead background artist. From our side, we bring the tech and framework, and so we set up the scenes and script the logic too. And then we share other responsibilities: e. g. Bill makes sketches and storyboards, we make 3D models and animations for the characters, and so on.
There’s a heck of a lot more in the full interview, including the somewhat sobering reveal that we may still be years out from release, but nevertheless it's all exciting stuff. Maybe even life-affirming.
The day actually came. Check out the announcement trailer for A Vampyre Story 2: A Bat's Tale (Footnote: Except it looks like they dropped the 2, possibly to avoid alienating people who haven't played a fifteen year old game.), which will be released by Autumn Moon games alongside a new partner, Tag of Joy.
The full press release can be read here, you can check out some new screenshots over on the Steam page, and last but not least there's Autumn Moon's relaunched web site. Let's hope they're able to bring Pedro Macedo Camacho back.
No doubt there's more to come, but for now let's just luxuriate in the fact that Halloween is saved.
As a game designer, Dave Grossman is celebrated, while as a pumpkin villain he remains unarrested. But we benefit from that, as he's carved up his annual entry for The Pumpkin House of Horrors to delight and disturb one and all. Behold "Mutual Assured Destruction":
I spent over an hour hobbling around the pumpkin patch on a sprained ankle, searching for a matched set where one had an overbite and one an underbite. But the shapes aren't at all obvious in the final carve! Also, when I fit them together I bent the upper one to get it over the stem of the other, and then I was afraid to take it back off. So I carved all the teeth and eyes with them already stuck together.
Double Fine published their appropriately loving tribute to their sophomore release last week, so why shouldn’t Mojo get in on the action on this most prestigious anniversary?
For us, the fun was revisiting what it was like to follow the game’s development all those years back, and it was quite the odyssey. In fact, we think it all played out a bit spicier than you may have mellowed it down to in your headcanon, though we should probably speak for ourselves given our well-established signs of mental deterioration. Anyway, join us as we travel back to the Age of Metal and relive the ecstasy and pain of Brütal Legend’s storied forging. Embrace your inner Doviculus, and you may recognize there is no distinction.
As they do (mostly) every October, Skunkape has invited fans to submit Sam & Max fan art for the chance to win Big Prizes, which this year includes plushies and soundtrack keys for The Devil’s Playhouse (which I take as a hopeful sign that the soundtrack will in fact exist). You’ve still got a week to enter, so review the details and do us proud. We’ll only feel entitled to the usual 40% of your winnings.
If you think that’s the extent of Sam & Max Halloween news, then you must be one of those poor dears who didn’t even know that Steve Purcell auctioned off some new Sam & Max art as part of the Hero Initiative. Even if you hold the embarrassing position of not being the winning bidder who plunked down $5,500 to own the physical art, you can still enjoy it in cyberspace:
By the way, if you weren’t around for the piece Purcell contributed to the annual benefit last year, it was no slouch itself:
There’s no reason to ostracize Double Fine from the Halloween fun. Their claim on the occasion would be their trick ‘r treat RPG masterwork, Costume Quest, which is celebrating its fourteenth birthday. I think you know what to do.
All things considered, I’d say the only thing holding back October 2024 from perfection is that there sadly seem to have been no new developments on the A Vampyre Story front. But you’ll certainly want to find the time to play the still-unsequeled 2008 graphic adventure, what with its recent re-introduction to Steam in more stable form.
It’s always come across as a project he is largely flying solo on his own nickel, but perhaps A Little Something more will be required to get it to the finish line, as earlier in the month he ran this little poll:
Hey, he’s just putting feelers out. Still, now’s as good a time as any to look into renegotiating the terms of your mortgage.
Source: Ron's Mastodon
Wake up on the Bright Side of the Moon (Footnote: I think we can all agree that was way better than "something-something 'Bad Day on the Moon-Shoe".) with these fluffy critters adorning your tootsies.
Again, in collaboration with Steve Purcell, the Uncute crew behind such fluffy friends such as "Max" the stuffed animal and more recently "Sam" the stuffed animal, have done the impossible. Two Max's, which we haven't seen the likes of together since Season 2: Ep 4 "Chariots of the Dogs". The pre-order price is $35 dollars and should arrive in time for your family tradition of replaying Season 2: Ep 1 "Ice Station Santa".
Designed in collaboration with Steve Purcell for a limited run, they’ll be ready to ship just in time for the holidays.
You either die a gumshoe detective or it's a slippery slope to become the villain. (Footnote: I'll stop.)
Source: Uncute
It feels like only yesterday that Brütal Legend released—Rocktober 13th, if you remember.
The face-melting solo, guitar-axe-wielding open world action game (with a surprise RTS mode in the middle) featured Eddie Riggs (played by Jack Black), a roadie whose yearning for authenticity in metal music ("Like, the 70s?" "No, earlier. Like, the early 70s") has him gleefully murdering metal music-inspired demons in a metal music-inspired fantasy world when he's transported to it.
As you do.
It was a game Mojo enjoyed, more or less.
Double Fine has a little write-up on the game's legacy fifteen years on. I look back on the game fondly, personally, so this was a fun read.
Source: Double Fine Action News
