The International House of Mojo

August's Flashbacks

Simon Jeffery - President

"When Monkey Island™ 2 came out, I was working at Electronic Arts. One of my colleagues brought me over the box to look at. I was drinking milk at the time, and when I read the bit about 'laugh so hard, milk will come out of your nose' I laughed so hard that milk came out of my nose!

True story... :) "

Mai Nguyen - Lead Artist

"When I left France to work here in 1995 we were trying to finish Mortimer® and the Riddles of the Medallion™. I was setting up renders late at night and had some questions for the Project Leader. I came to find her in her office, and when she saw my little tired face, she opened her arms and said 'Aw, come here!' I walked over and she hugged me. I hesitantly hugged her back with a mixture of horror and sympathy, thinking, 'Oh my God, who died?' because in France we only greet people by shaking hands or kissing on the cheek."

Mary Bihr - Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Marketing

"It was the launch of Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain®. I was managing marketing and manufacturing then, and the raw goods were created at one facility and compiled and shipped from another. I had worked through the night verifying the materials with the team and checking when the gold master would be ready for replication. Three assembly lines were poised for an early morning shift and shortly after dawn I got the call from the producer. Code cleared; we're ready to duplicate.

I picked up the masters, sped down the freeway, only minutes to spare before the plant would open for production. While on the road, I noticed pieces of black rubber flying by my windshield, one narrowly missing the right side of my car. Before I had time to react, the entire right side of my car began to slant, then the sickening sound of rubber thumping against metal confirmed what I already suspected: a tire had blown out. I was in an industrial area, surrounded by abandoned warehouses with shattered windows, cracked cement sidewalks, and no one in sight. I managed to find a phone booth and place a frantic call to my husband, 'Please come pick me up; I've got some hot code that has to ship today, and I don't want to get killed before I get these disks to the plant!' What was normally a 45-minute car ride was collapsed to 20 minutes, and he found me huddled in my car, guarding the code from would-be muggers and curious passers by. I arrived at the plant and was greeted by the senior management team who all stood in a row, eagerly awaiting the masters. 'Oh, but you just received a phone call with a request that you call back right away.' My throat began to tighten as what I most feared might be coming true. I called the office. 'Hey, we found a bug. Don't ship it.'"