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25 Years of Mojo: Staff Picks Benny's Picks

Feeling biblical, the controlling intelligence behind Quick & Easy Software gives seven Mojo articles the Benzo Thumbs Up™.

1. LucasArts’ Secret History #6: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (2008)

I could have picked any of the secret history articles really, they are all great. Long before Youtubers and other websites were revisiting the games Mojo was doing deep dives into each of the classic LEC adventures. Authoritative, stuffed full of content and trivia they are the best things Mojo has ever done.

2. SCUMM Archeology (2020)

Yes its one of mine but this is special. Mojo got given a prototype of Monkey Island 2 that was the test for implementing talkie support in SCUMM. I got to analyze it and do a really deep dive on it, explaining the windex debugger, boot params and other SCUMM esoterica. I made a dumper for the speech and realised I was probably the first person to hear some of that audio in 28 years. In short, unreleased prototype, awesome header art, super-geeky SCUMM stuff. That's Proper Mojo™.

3. What the Hell is Wrong with LucasArts? (2004)

Lucasarts’ infamous cancellation of Freelance Police led to this editorial that captured the frustration that staffers and the community felt. This was a big deal at the time and in retrospect it still is. The ramifications of the cancellation are covered in my next choice:

4. The Unabridged History of Sam & Max 2: A Mixnmojo Memoir (2020)

The definitive article on Sam and Max Freelance Police and its consequences. Nothing else written about the game comes close to this in detail. Jason could easily have padded this out and sold it as a book on kickstarter. A must read.

5. Aaron Giles Interview (2022)

The ‘new’ SCUMM interpreters created by Aaron Giles and the baffling way that Lucasarts handled them had been a topic of conversation for years so it was great to hear from the man himself. This interview was where he gave the first hints about his upcoming DREAMM emulator.

6. The Mojo Interview: Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman talk Return to Monkey Island (2022)

Fun, interesting and charming, elTee and Marius did a great job of interviewing Ron and Dave.

7. Monkey Island: From EGA to VGA (2018)

I really really like this article. elTee goes all out in his obsession with the MI1 sunset and its removal from the VGA version.

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