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On Crooked Islands and Small Big Whoops

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We keep adding to the living article, where we look at Monkey Island 2 and what could have been. This time with some factoids you may or may not be familiar with, from “The Mysterious Island of Cleptomaniac Parrots” to Big Whoop being not much of a big whoop at all. And some other stuff, too. Have a read:

27 Sep, 2024 in M
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Remi must have missed this interview with Dan Connors and Jonathon Sgro of Skunkape Games last week, and it’s too bad, because it’s quite good. Most of the discussion focuses on what went into the development of the Sam & Max remasters, including throwing Jake under the bus at one point. But if I know you, you probably want to know what they said about The Future™:

Time Extension: With the Sam & Max games done, it would be interesting to hear what's next for the studio — what have the conversations been like internally regarding Skunkape's future? Do you anticipate working on more remasters like this or do you envision yourselves making something else entirely?

Connors: Well, we've developed something that's really powerful, which is the ability to remaster games in the Telltale engine, and there's a lot of stuff there, but they all have tricky situations around them because it's not like four years ago.

Now there's different ownership around a whole bunch of it, so we're trying to develop the right relationships there, because that's super interesting to us, and we're the right people to do it. I think the Sam & Max stuff has shown that. You know, aside from that, that's something we've got to figure out because everybody's too talented to not be working on something cool. So we just gotta figure out what it is.

Time Extension: A big thing that I've seen people say online in terms of Skunkape's future is, 'I hope they do this for Tales of Monkey Island' or 'I hope they do this for another Telltale game'. We definitely think Tales, in particular, is a game that definitely could benefit from this kind of treatment, with new lighting and things like that. It would look amazing. And I guess Disney has kind of shown some interest in doing stuff with Monkey Island again: reuniting with Ron and letting him kind of do his thing with Return to Monkey Island, but then also like doing the Sea of Thieves' crossover as well.

Connors: Yeah like we would love that. That would be amazing.

Time Extension: Yeah, I think it would definitely help introduce those games to a new audience and get the message out, 'Hey, you know these Telltale Monkey Island games are fun to play'. What do you think?

Connors: Yeah, there are things in Tales that I think we might have rushed or concepts that we thought were gonna work, that we got to a certain point, and then kind of failed before we had fully executed them. And even on Sam and Max, there were a couple of those, and when we do this process, we can say, 'Those two or three last things that we wanted to do to make this sing, we can do now.' And I think that's one of the subtle things that makes these remasters so great.

Sgro: Yeah. I love working on these things because back at Telltale — like I worked at every game on Telltale — there were always things that we couldn't have done because of the technology or the budget or time or all of that stuff combined.

You look at the final result and it's like, 'Yeah, it's great, it could be better.' So now it's just been fun taking the Sam & Max games and trying to make them the best that they could possibly be and improve all those things that we didn't have a chance to do originally. So, personally, I'd love to do that to any Telltale product pretty much. But it's limited on what we could do.

Connors: If we had a time machine, we would go back to when we got Sam & Max and try to do more but you know it is what it is.

Well, that all sounds rather definitively…ambiguous. Check out the whole thing, and buy The Devil’s Playhouse eight more times.

Source: Time Extension

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A Trip to the Library

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Did you know that the Monkey Island 2 demo included a bunch of books in the Phatt Library that were censored from the final game? Well, even if you did or you didn't, we have added a list of them to our demo examination article, because that's just how nice we treat ya.

21 Sep, 2024 in M
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Craig Circles in on Indy

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Frankly, I’m posting this just to beat Jason to the Indy punch. If The Great Circle is something you’re looking forward to, then you can do worse than reading this interview with the Craig Derrick.

17 Sep, 2024 in M
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Make Today a Demo Soundtrack Friday

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The ceo has us working hard on some LeChuck’s Revenge content these days, which is as good of excuse as any to post the “hidden” tracks from the game’s demo. Feel free to check out our demo article, too.

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06 Sep, 2024 in M
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Seeing as your life quite properly consists of watching long-form video interviews with occasional interruptions to touch grass in the form of Amiga Monkey Island playthroughs you’ll be only too happy to learn that Steve Purcell was the latest guest on Pencil to Pencil, a web series in which comic artists interview comic artists.

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Purcell can trace a decent line and all, but personally I’m awaiting an interview with the visionary behind MojoComics himself, Gabez. Maybe they don’t want to frontload the obvious guests.

Special thanks to Jake for taking time out of not inviting us to Skunkape events to give us a heads up on this one.
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For PC and Xbox, that is. Despite speculation that this could be a Microsoft exclusive, a Playstation version is promised for Spring 2025. Celebrate the release date announcement with this new trailer:

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Source: Bethesda Softworks

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And The Devil’s Playhouse keeps on rolling, this time with some updates to Benzo’s Quick & Easy software. Specifically, Telltale Explorer, Music Extractor and Speech Extractor.

Putting on his patented Mojo Cynic hat, the post caps off with, “This is a slightly bittersweet update as Devil’s Playhouse will probably be the last game ever released using the old Telltale engine.” I mean, OK, that is probably true, but one can always hope that more is on the horizon.

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McConnell Whoops It Up

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Another day, another Albu chat, this time with Peter McConnell which, let’s be honest, can’t be a bad thing. And at two hours, it’s not a wild investment of time either. Check it out…

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19 Aug, 2024 in M
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… we have the choice to cry into the pillow over getting old or celebrate a stellar game. And, since we finished the former, you can now reap the benefits from the latter: Enjoy yourself with these newly unearthed 2009 SCUMM Bar reviews of Tales of Monkey Island.

OK, so not the grandest of gestures, but we probably will do more, maybe. Because the game truly deserves it. Check out the Mojo review, too.

Fifteen years, seriously…

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Last month saw another welcome entry in the “Lucasfilm Games Rewind” series over in the blog section of Lucasfilm.com, this one being a tribute to Loom.

It’s indeed a nice little writeup on the 1990 classic, but the irony of its devout tone might be a bit too rich for some to digest, considering that Lucasfilm only offers the VGA version of the game - drastically re-written compared to the EGA original, the artwork for which is a high water mark of the 16 color era - through Steam and GOG. It also happens to be a version of the game loathed by creator Brian Moriarty, who is solicitously quoted throughout the piece.

But some things in life just must be accepted, and we should all humble ourselves to the reality that this issue is literally impossible to address.

Source: Lucasfilm.com

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Release day has come and gone, and whether you binged your way through Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse: Remastered or you’re making a point of savoring it (or you’re merely employed), the game is pretty much the only purpose your life serves at the moment. And rightly so.

While Remi’s review is really the only one you need to consider, I guess we should point out that critics everywhere are taking the necessary steps to not make fools of themselves by aggressively loving the game. Meanwhile, Skunkape has published its traditional Steam post that goes deep into exactly what they changed in their fastidious remastering efforts. Some of it May Surprise You. Cover-up image

Additionally, they assure that the usual sack of archival content, along with the soundtrack release you’ve all been awaiting since, oh, let’s say 2010, is forthcoming. Where the former is concerned, followers of Skunkape’s social media presence have already gotten a taste, and quite the nourishing one at that for proper connoisseurs of vintage web announcement ephemera:

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Speaking of social media, I was happy to see that Chuck Jordan, whose last big contribution (his greatest to adventure games, if I might suggest?) at Telltale was The Devil's Playhouse, registered his thoughts for the occasion:

The three-years-in-the-making revamp of Telltale’s masterpiece is what is termed in esoteric Mixnmojo parlance A Big Deal, and we can naturally be expected to keep squeezing juice out of it for weeks years an appropriate and judicious length of time to come. So get ready to relish every second of it.

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Scabb Island Beach by Day

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Ever wondered what the Scabb Island beach would look like during daytime? Wonder no more: The (questionably named) Booty Boutique has you covered with this serene video and original music.

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15 Aug, 2024 in M
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They said it couldn’t be done and they were mostly right. But, this one time, you get a review on time: Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered, right here, right now.

Do we like the game? We do! And so will you, because you presumably don’t suck. Go read, just to whet your appetite.

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A New Screenshot Gallery, Previewed

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Yet another MojoDB preview, only for our privileged readers. This time, An overhauled screenshot database that combines images from throughout the Mojo Network.

08 Aug, 2024 in M
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Got your plans set for the weekend? Cancel them, as your next few days will be spent traversing Mojo’s recently resurfaced podcast archive. Forty-two nuggets of gold from 2008 through 2019.

If you follow MojoCast in your favorite podcast software, you already have the updated feed, including a dozen episodes that were, until now, lost to time. And you can, of course, find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Podcast Index, through RSS, and so on. It’s even on YouTube if that’s your jam.

As for new podcasts? You got 20-odd hours to go through as it is, stop bothering me until you’ve listened to them all. >:

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You’ve read our article on the subject, sure, but as you’ve confessed to many a psychiatrist, you’ll never truly know a night’s sleep until you can hear Aric Wilmunder talk about Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix – that’s the would-be SCUMM Indy game planned after Fate of Atlantis – for four-and-a-half hours.

Well, Daniel Albu's got you covered in his latest upload. Eat well:

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Source: Tech Talk with Daniel Albu

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Our favourite Lucasarts game emulator DREAMM has reached another milestone. Earlier this week Aaron Giles released DREAMM 3 further cementing his place in the Mojo pantheon.

This version adds support for a bunch more games, supports add on packs and adds an excellent CRT filter that adapts and changes to suit the video mode of the game you're playing. There's much more of course and full details can be found in the readme.

Grab it here.

Source: Our forums

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That Double Fine’s PsychOdyssey was a goddamn classic goes without saying—a raw 30+ episode journey through Psychonauts 2’s development, free of charge. And now the latter can be rectified, as LRG has launched a Blu-ray SteelBook set for a cool $75.

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The 2,000-copy limited run includes:

  • Double Fine PsychOdyssey 33-Episode Series in 1080p HD* on 6 Blu-ray Discs
  • SteelBook® Packaging with Transparent Slipcover
  • Digipak with 2 Bonus Blu-ray Discs of Archival and Previously Unreleased Material
  • 80-page Color Perfect Bound Behind-the-Scenes Booklet
  • Individually Numbered Limited Edition Rigid Slipcase
  • All Discs are Region Free and include English Subtitles

Not bad. And what’s this? A new hour-and-a-half-long episode up on the 'tube?

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I haven’t watched it yet, but by all accounts, it’s another great view.

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LucasArts soundtracks: You love them, you listen to them, and Mojo has hosted an unseemly amount of them over the years. Some, like the straight rip of The Secret of Monkey Island CD-ROM, are classics in their own right, but the real gems are the ones painstakingly mixed and/or recorded by sites like Highland Productions and Soundtrack Island (RIP (for now?)). And so, we’re trying to collect both types of soundtracks and make them accessible through our new YouTube list: The LucasArts+ Soundtrack Collection.

We’ve only put up fourteen videos so far, but the number should slowly but surely rise (unless another shiny object is dangled in front of us). And we hope some small details will make these soundtracks stand out just a little bit. For example, we’re trying to gather proper credits for the compositions—who wrote what for Escape from Monkey Island? We got a scoop of the scoop. On the flip side, who created those lovely MT-32 recordings of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge and Sam & Max Hit the Road? Mojo’s very own server admin: Zaarin! (Seriously, those Woodtick synth pads are true chef’s kisses.) To top it off, we’ve tried to up the nostalgia factor for at least some of the albums by adding screenshots and concept art for the various tracks.

It’s all a work in progress. But it’s a start.

Do you have any information pertinent to any of the albums? Credits? Anything? Sound off. We’re agile around these parts.

Now go browse the collection.

“The soundtrack uploads on Youtube are quality work. I really like the diverse mixes, and every thumbnail design” —Marius, giving his stamp of approval.
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