The International House of Mojo

Jake and fellow Telltale vet Marius Fietzek had a wild hair and decided to stream a playthrough of The Secret of Monkey Island on Twitch. After giving the internet a day's notice, it happened, and it proved to be a lot of fun, with over a hundred Monkey Island fans tuning in for the three-and-half-hours it lasted. If you missed it live or want to relive the experience, it is archived here.

While the more community-minded viewers participated in a public chat during the stream, sharing their experience in the spirit of fellowship and brotherhood, the contemptuous and provincial Mixnmojo staff preferred to do their running commentary behind the parapets of the admin Slack, where they wouldn't have to interact with their fellow man.

After a series of subpoenas, a full transcript of their insight-free murmurings is now available for the consumption of the unwashed masses. This Mojo peanut gallery mostly consisted of Remi, Jason, zaarin and elTee, but Bennyboy made appearances as well, so there were no clean hands in the end.

(Note that timestamps are CST. The stream was scheduled for 1PM in that time zone. For the full experience, watch the video and read along with it. You'll feel like you were really there! Before the event began proper, Jake started streaming his initial test. On display was his ScummVM launcher, with the EGA version of the game selected...)

Remi 12:49 PM
OMG ja2ke just went live on Twitch

jason 12:51 PM
Oh man, we drinking straight from the tap here -- EGA.

Remi 12:51 PM
Hardcore.

jason 12:51 PM
Purcell close-ups, Melee Island sunrise. If you're gonna put the jersey on, you might as well play all four quarters
12:52
Jake already admitted to a felony.
12:52
And indicted JP Breton as his piracy cohort.

Remi 12:52 PM
Good god.

jason 12:52 PM
And we're just pre-gaming.

Remi 12:53 PM
He keeps pouring out his guilt.
12:53
Marius is German, so he obviously owns numerous copies.
12:53
That's just part of the constitution.

jason 12:53 PM
So it looks like they're using an argument in SCUMMVM to turn copy-protection back on.
12:54

Which is said to have amused Dave Grossman.

Remi 12:54 PM
The EGA version does allow that in ScummVM.
12:54
Not the CD-ROM version according to Benzo.

jason 12:54 PM
But it doesn't allow the native pause and Save/Load interface. ¬

At this point Jake ended the stream, announcing it would restart momentarily.

Remi 12:55 PM
Exciting dead air right now.

jason 12:55 PM
Well, it already lasted longer than a Mojo attempt would have.

Remi 12:55 PM
And it worked.
12:55
What's it called when you call in the cops on a live streamer?
12:56
That could liven things up.

jason 12:56 PM
The Meteor Police
12:56
Oh wait, you confessed to hating Maniac Mansion.

Remi 12:56 PM
That's a bit of a reach.
12:57
I don't love it is different from hating it.

jason 12:57 PM
So's the fact that we're doing a commentary of Jake's commentary.

Remi 12:57 PM
We're more interesting.
12:57
(We're not.)

At this point, the stream re-commenced.

jason 12:58 PM
And we're back.

Bennyboy 1:00 PM

Time to start spamming Mojo in Twitch Jason, gotta get those readers somehow

jason 1:00 PM
Essentially we're having our own privileged chat because we're too good for the channel's public chat room.
1:00
Hee.

Bennyboy 1:00 PM
Or Mojo "in memorandum" as it is today

jason 1:00 PM
Please, history shows that I'm above such things.

Remi 1:00 PM
And we don't really know how the public chat works.

jason 1:01 PM
They're talking about that Purcell painting that Steve Purcell randomly did for the cover of a French book.

Remi 1:01 PM
Old news.
1:01
We posted about that eons ago.
1:01
I also build confidence by trashing others, clearly.

jason 1:02 PM
It's two minutes past the hour, what gives.

Bennyboy 1:02 PM
on mojo too ;
1:02
There's the advert

jason 1:02 PM
The Normandy landings would have been a boondoggle under the command of these two.

Remi 1:02 PM
Jake is only showing one of the paintings.
1:02
We posted both.
1:02
Also, Star Wars Racer sucks.

jason 1:03 PM
Just wanted to work that in.

Remi 1:03 PM
A special shout out to those who will read this. AlfredJ and Rum_Rogers, take a bow!
1:05
Double Fine logged on.

jason 1:05 PM
Indeed, some celebrities mixed in with their audience of 75.

Remi 1:05 PM
Mojo is currently taking up a significant percentage.

jason 1:06 PM
"Weird life." - Jake, after noting a Mojo account is logged in.

Remi 1:06 PM
That's all we needed.
1:06
We can log off now.

jason 1:07 PM
Cripes, that was 2007 that Marius made the first flash?

Remi 1:07 PM
Marius is wearing a spiffy sweater/shirt combination.
1:07
Jake goes casual in a t-shirt.
1:07
CORONA Chic.
1:08
The SCUMM Bar and Mojo shout-out.

jason 1:08 PM
Sounds like he's crediting The SCUMM Bar with getting into the games industry.

zaarin 1:08 PM
Yeah, I'm watching the stream while logged in as Mojo

jason 1:08 PM
We should exhume SkyFox and see if he's proud about that.

Remi 1:08 PM
Jake making false claims Mixnmojo people were behind Thumbs. Like we were invited.

zaarin 1:08 PM
Thought I'd give the stream some glamour ;

jason 1:08 PM
Okay, so zaarin is our boots on the ground.
1:09
Remi and I refuse to watch this among the plebes.

Remi 1:09 PM
We also don't know how.

jason 1:09 PM
My butler is looking into it.

zaarin 1:09 PM
You can watch without an account ;

Remi 1:09 PM
Scummbuddy is in the chat after we had to explain to him the stream actually started 11 AM.
1:10
Also, Marius did a good job voicing the tourist in Sam & Max.

jason 1:10 PM
Scummbuddy is a victim of globalization. "CEST" is confusing.

jason 1:10 PM
Yeah, that's a bit of trivia I didn't know, or forgot about.

Remi 1:11 PM
I'll admit to never have played MI1 with a codewheel.

jason 1:11 PM
Yeah me either.
1:11
I got MI1 through the Classic Adventures pack.
1:11
Had it for MI2 though.

Remi 1:11 PM
I got MI1 through the standard means for the Amiga.
1:11
But enough of that.

jason 1:12 PM
Ah yes, I forget how faithfully EMI replicated the geography of this island.

Remi 1:12 PM
The MI theme is great even in Ad-Lib.
1:12
There was an earthquake between MI1 and EMI.

jason 1:12 PM
I grew up playing it with Ad-Lib, so they made the correct choice.

Remi 1:12 PM
Amiga MOD for life.

jason 1:13 PM
Jake photocopied his friend's dad's code wheel? How much film did he have?

Remi 1:13 PM
A friend of mine did that with my MI2 codewheel.

jason 1:13 PM
They're already advertising a future MI2 stream.

Remi 1:14 PM
His dad, who actually did that, was pissed, X amount of copies later.

zaarin 1:14 PM
I first played the CD version of MI1 first by borrowing it from a friend
1:14
I've never completed the EGA version
1:14
Nobody had MI1 for Amiga, only MI2

jason 1:15 PM
Fifteen minutes and we haven't entered The SCUMM Bar. Get comfortable.

Remi 1:15 PM
EGA version should make elTee happy.

jason 1:16 PM
I see laserschwert in the chat.

Remi 1:16 PM
Geeze, do all these people have kids these days?
1:16
Don't put them to bed -- expose them to culture.
1:17
The SCUMM Bar theme, famously revealed by Mojo to be a rip-off.
1:17
(Ron got angry when I asked him about it.)

jason 1:17 PM
Probably the Spanish Inquisition-like tone Mojo "broke" the news with was alienating.
1:18
Still though, weird thing to get defensive about.

Remi 1:18 PM
Apparently he didn't know.

zaarin 1:18 PM
ATM and Laser is in the chat, too

Bennyboy 1:19 PM
I find myself reflexively wanting to press full stop to skip through the dialogue

Remi 1:19 PM
Ditto.
1:20
OK, TSB theme gets really annoying after five minutes.

Bennyboy 1:22 PM
My bit of trivia about this room is that the other closeup pirate is called one-eyed frank
1:22
The one who keeps raising the mug
1:22
I have no idea how I know that

Remi 1:22 PM
See, here in the hardcore chat is where the real info comes out.

jason 1:22 PM
I just like the idea of ATM making corrections throughout.

zaarin 1:23 PM
nostalgic Adlib music. ScummVM can emulate MT-32, but the documentation is...lacking ;
1:23
Needs some files in undocumented places

Bennyboy 1:23 PM

zaarin 1:24 PM
First time I noticed the skull above the kitchen door!

Bennyboy 1:24 PM
That must only be in the ega version
1:24
I dont remember seeing that before either

jason 1:24 PM
It's definitely in the VGA version.

Remi 1:24 PM
It's in all the versions.
1:25
Well, maybe not the SE.

jason 1:25 PM
This isn't like the arbitrarily missing fish at the Woodsmith's shop in MI2.
1:25
It's remarkable how much the Special Edition didn't improve on any of the rooms.

Remi 1:26 PM
And rather degraded the quality?

jason 1:26 PM
Yes.

Remi 1:26 PM
Yeah, for sure.
1:26
Oh oh, Mojo is talking the chat.

zaarin 1:26 PM
the ultimate talkie edition was originally a Lucasforums thread, but they moved it to some German site

Remi 1:26 PM
Yeah, that's the Germans for you.

jason 1:27 PM
Jake's point earlier about how the EGA artists stretched the technical limits is on target.
1:27
I think Loom takes the cake on that, though.
1:27
Confirmed: the Double Fine account is Spaff.

zaarin 1:27 PM
Loom was when Mark Ferrari tried using dithering and it fucked up their image compression so Ronzo had to rewrite it
1:27
That's the kind of hardcore info you get in the Slack ;

Remi 1:28 PM
Deep reporting here. ;

jason 1:28 PM
Our first cutscene!

Remi 1:28 PM
Man, the LeChuck theme.
1:28
So good.

jason 1:28 PM
Triggered by an event instead of a timer!
1:29
I feel like Bob is one of the few memorable characters who was spared being dragged into any of the sequels.

Remi 1:29 PM
Because you could kill him.
1:29
"Kill."
1:29
You know.

jason 1:30 PM
They're talking about being scared of the game as kids. I feel like that's a "first adventure game" thing.
1:30
I had that with Maniac Mansion.
1:30
The stakes somehow feel more real.

Remi 1:30 PM
I think I was too old for that with MI1, but I had never seen that kind of immersion in a game before.

zaarin 1:31 PM
The tunnels at the end of Monkey Island 2 where LeChuck could appear at any second was the only stressful part for me
1:31
if it had been a Sierra game, he would have been killed straight away

Bennyboy 1:31 PM
I forgot that random pirates walked past here

Remi 1:31 PM
Those tunnels are even still objectively eerie.

jason 1:31 PM
Yeah, that was a very effective touch.
1:32
I feel like MI2 and CMI didn't have much of that.
1:32
They tried to do it in EMI.

Remi 1:32 PM
MI2 had some of it.

jason 1:32 PM
(The background pirates, that is.)

Remi 1:32 PM
But yeah, not to that level.

jason 1:33 PM
MI2 had a nice "crowd scene" with that Mardi Gras party.

Remi 1:33 PM
The spitting contest, too.

jason 1:33 PM
But did it have people wandering around? I don't remember that.

Remi 1:34 PM
I don't think so.

zaarin 1:34 PM
Not MI2

Remi 1:34 PM
Other than the gambler.

zaarin 1:34 PM
The ones in MI1 are just the pirates you fight later, right?

jason 1:35 PM
The Men of Low Moral Fiber -- they should be brought back for Monkey Island 6.

Remi 1:35 PM
I am really surprised they weren't brought back after MI2.

jason 1:35 PM
"2 pieces of eight" - back when your money was quantifiable.
1:36
Isn't that the only way you can get stuck in MI1 -- by deliberately feeding all you money into the Grog Machine one at a time?

Remi 1:36 PM
Yeah.
1:36
Which, let's face it, is pretty much impossible not to do on purpose.

zaarin 1:36 PM
And drown

Remi 1:36 PM
Drowning brings you back, doesn't it?

jason 1:37 PM
Drowning is a death though. Also kind of a joke.

Remi 1:37 PM
It's not a dead-end, really.

jason 1:38 PM
Is the Voodoo Lady's shop called The International House of Mojo in MI1? Or did that start with MI2?

Remi 1:38 PM
EGA version, houses don't have their lights going off and on it seems like.
1:38
MI2, I think.
1:38
Move your damn mouse, Jake, and we can see.

jason 1:38 PM
Look at that dude with the blonde hair.

Remi 1:39 PM
There.

jason 1:39 PM
He seems distinct from anybody you swordfight later on.

Remi 1:40 PM
Marius REALLY likes this game.

jason 1:40 PM
Because he's a man of taste.

Remi 1:40 PM
I wish I wasn't dead inside and could find that joy in a game.

jason 1:41 PM
The Voodoo Lady always seems a bit more ambiguous in her benevolence in the early games.
1:41
I wonder if wanting to tap into that again led to the twist in Tales.

Remi 1:41 PM
She's an entirely different character in CMI and EMI.
1:42
In TMI it is definitely more of the old character.
1:42
Alexandra Boyd, geeze.

jason 1:44 PM
Jake's right about the retroactive voice acting of MI1 and MI2, and I also still play those games text-only. But I still like that those performances are "on file."

Remi 1:44 PM
Yeah, though MI2 is the peak of voice acting in the series.

jason 1:44 PM
It's really a different relationship with the player, when it's written to be read.
1:45
I actually think EMI might have the best voicework. A judgment totally separated from the script.

Remi 1:45 PM
Hey, each to their own.
1:46
This first interaction with Shinetop is gold.

jason 1:46 PM
Nicely written and "performed."

Remi 1:46 PM
That dialogue drips of Schafer.

jason 1:46 PM
The animation kicked up a notch with Last Crusade.
1:47
Man, look at all this developed real estate on Melee.

Remi 1:47 PM
Getting back to the alley even after having played MI1 was baffling in MI2.
1:47
It was a great "reveal" or whatever.

zaarin 1:48 PM
They changed character design after Zak. I was surprised when Thimbleweed went back to the MM/Zak design

jason 1:48 PM
The idea of a straight store like out of a Zelda game is something that was totally dropped after the fist two games.
1:50
@zaarin Feels like Ron and Gary really wanted to homage Maniac Mansion with Thimbleweed Park in visual design, while employing design principles and better quality art more characteristic of the later games.

zaarin 1:50 PM
Yeah, the backgrounds look more Monkey Island 2

Remi 1:50 PM
God the governor's mansion -- the EMI artists must not have played MI1.

jason 1:51 PM
And yet one of the closer approximations overall.
1:51
They kept that archway, at least.
1:51
But the town itself is a total reimagination.
1:54
Did TMI have overhead maps like this?

Remi 1:54 PM
Yes.

jason 1:54 PM
I don't remember that.

Remi 1:54 PM
On Floatsam at the very least.
1:54
It zooms out in 3D

jason 1:54 PM
Ah, you're right.

Remi 1:54 PM
The effect is quite good.

jason 1:56 PM
And now Jake's describing it.

Remi 1:56 PM
Yes.
1:56
He looked in here. Stole my thunder. Again.

Bennyboy 1:56 PM
And thats why its good that he worked on that game - proper fan stuff there

Remi 1:56 PM
(That probably didn't happen.)
1:57
TMI's finest graphic touch was the MI2-style dive.
1:57
Another Jake touch, I believe.

jason 1:57 PM
Jake's best "an MI fan worked on this" detail was those copper doorway borders in the land of the dead taken from the MI2 tunnels.
1:58
No way you can convince me that wasn't him.

Remi 1:58 PM
The circus music, hah.
1:58
Man, trying to think how long it has been since I played this game.
1:58
Must be close to ten years.
1:58
Yet I feel like I know the dialogue by heart.

jason 1:58 PM
This is still funny.

Remi 1:59 PM
Alfredo Brothers; MI2 of course had the Linguini Brothers.

jason 1:59 PM
That's the real Ron thread that the post-Gilbert sequels fucked up on.

Remi 2:00 PM
What, you wanted the Gnocchi Brothers?

jason 2:00 PM
And how.

Remi 2:00 PM
Because I sure as hell did.

jason 2:01 PM
Surprising that Jake wasn't straight on the origin of the fine leather jackets line.

Remi 2:01 PM
I know. Tut tut.

jason 2:01 PM
ATM is gonna have the poor guy for lunch.

Remi 2:01 PM
That animation.
2:02
Man, so good.

jason 2:02 PM
The music coming back on is a lovely comic touch.

Remi 2:02 PM
Agree.
2:03
Spaghetti Brothers, I never noticed that joke.

jason 2:03 PM
The first MI1 has that fairly tale, Princess Bride vibe that the later ones didn't.
2:03
The dark woods and so forth.

Remi 2:03 PM
Man, I remember loving the woods.
2:04
Just not anything they really did in games back then in such detail.

jason 2:04 PM
Turns out Monkey Island is still a masterpiece, and it's not just nostalgia.

Remi 2:05 PM
For sure.
2:05
Elitist like ourselves would care about nothing less than masterpieces.

elTee 2:05 PM
hee are you guys watching jake and marius?

We sure are, elTee.¬¬ And the watchalong continues on the next page, during which Dom himself joins in (!) and Jake takes a cool fourteen hours to get through the swordfighting section.