10th Birthday 26 Sep, 2007, 23:21 / 104 comments
The International House of Mojo turned ten years old this year: what follows is an article chronicling a history of the site, mainly picking up from where Spaff's article left off in 2000. Read! Interviews from previous staff members. View! Exciting images from the past. Gasp! As old secrets are finally uncovered.
See it all, and then some, over here.
Update: Page 3 has been updated with answers from Jake Rodkin.
Update 2 (by Remi): Read all about Gabez's rise to the top, and the long fall down.
Update 3: a birthday chat will take place this Sunday in #monkey-island on Gamesurge (connect to irc.gamesurge.net using mIRC). New people as well as old regulars are welcome: use this as a chance to chat to lots of other Mojoers in real-time 3D! Post on this forum thread if you need any help.
Just wanna say how much this community helped me when I really needed it. You guys may not have known it, but doing the SCUMM Bar and interacting with the community kept me sane!
I also feel compelled to apologise to people I may have offended in the later years before I left the community, I know I was a bit of a dick ;p
Just for the record, currently work at Sony Europe as a QA Team Leader and am getting married in 3 months time to a gorgeous girl called Ruth!
Again, great article and all the best to all!
Awesome article and it brings back many memories. Ha! I vaguely remember drawing a backgroundpiece for the WONKY game with a dumpster in it and Jake kept telling me the dumpster looked like it was melting. So I left the WONKY team 'cause of artistic differences.
I love you Mojo
Also, after having been a part of that diseased Mojo byproduct Idle Thumbs, I admire Mojo greatly for managing to exist.
Thanks! :)
happy anniversary mojo!
In that interview, Simon said many things that weren't true, like the fact that Clint Bajakian would be writing the soundtrack to Sam & Max Freelance Police. I guess after Clint heard that Simon said that, he went over to him at E3 and asked about getting the gig, since he'd never heard any such thing until it came out in the interview. Oh well.
But still, he meant well.
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Here to many many more *Cheers*!!!
Favorite site since the Scumm Bar :P
You Guys Rock :D
Are you coming on IRC this Sunday?
Mojo is like some kind of monster that, just when you think it?s dead, comes back again and again because it?s not a monster, but a robot powered by the tears of a thousand orphans?orphans with diseases and cockney accents.
Looking at those chatlogs brought back memories of watching those chats take place while doing something else, good times.
Seriously though, Mojo and the community were/are great and if it wasn?t for them, then I?d be doing something constructive with my spare time instead of writing stupid articles and reviews with a few other former community members. Here?s to 10 more!
Keep that dream alive.
You know, in retrospect, Spaff was like a bad alcoholic father. He gave birth to the site, would disappear for months at a time, return unexpectedly, criticize everything, and disappear again. Plus I think he may have actually been drunk at the time. This article has helped me come to terms with my abusive past and can now move on! Thanks Mojo!
I still remember very clearly the black and white design of Mixnmojo, that's probably the first time I visited this site.
Congrats Mojo!
Also, #monkey-island reunion this Sunday at 8PM GMT.
The old days will return again!
One of the first sites I visited and it seems like I'm still here. Fuck.
It's funny, whenever I have a moment of boredom on my computer I instinctively boot up a browser and without thinking i type those letters: mixnmojo.com
We love teh mojo!!1
Thanks for providing your trustful service through the ages.
It is the tension between these two poles - a restless idealism on one hand, and a sense of impending doom on the other - that keeps me going.
Or something. Isn't there supposed to be a #monkey-island reunion on Sunday?
That is until my girlfriend starts to have words with me at some point in the near future.
I love Mojo. It, and the SCUMM Bar, have been responsible for so many things in my life. Back in 1996 when I picked up a random game magazine I saw CMI on the cover, and decided right then that as soon as I'd get internets I was going to make a MI fansite instead of a Command & Conquer fansite (oh man, what a mistake that would have been). So I did, and I quickly discovered there were others like me, who really loved MI and all the other LEC games.
Spaff was the first person to ever e-mail me about my website ever, and it's bizarre and awesome that he's one of my best friends to this day. It's amazing that I spent my most of my Saturday nights in high school chatting in #monkey-island and not going out. In hindsight, it's totally awesome and 100% unregrettable that I did, because the enthusiasm and humor of the community wouldn't have inspired me otherwise. And if Jake hadn't invited me to come to E3 in... 2000 or whatever the year was, then I wouldn't have gone to subsequent trade shows and conferences, wouldn't have met all the other wonderful people associated with Mojo and LEC, and we definitely wouldn't have started Idle Thumbs. In hindsight it's incredible that Jake even suggested back then on ICQ that I get on a plane to the other side of the world and meet up and it's still unbelievable that I did, even though my first E3 was a complete disaster with me being sick, deaf and confused, leaving a terrible first impression on Jake and the others. There's so many memories here already that it makes me feel super old. Driving around LA listening to Trapezoid's bizarre voiceover file mixes, meeting Metallus and learning that all he ever does is spill drinks, meeting Dominic and all the fine people who worked at LEC, and... well, too much to mention, and just generally always discussing obscure community in-jokes and shifty-eying it up, it's the greatest stuff ever.
My hat goes off to everyone in the MI and LEC community. It's been the most incredible thing ever and I'm glad it influenced so much of my life. Hope this post wasn't too lame or wishy-washy, but after reading this article, it really had to be said.
But seriously, All my web knowledge has its roots in the Mojo network, and so I guess I probably wouldn't be eating or paying rent checks on time were it not for trying to figure out how to code the Sword Club website in high school.
My life would be very different if ZeroXcape hadn't handed the Grim Fandango Network over to me suddenly, or if Jake & Spaff had done the sensible thing and ignored my pleas to update the news during the first version of Mini-mojo. Little weird moments like these have steered my life in its current direction.
But yes, Maximar is correct. I spilled some drinks at E3.
*Turns face away to sulk*
What I mean is, many people are clearly missing from my reminiscing of the old days. That night under the stars was truly magical.
It is true, this community is superb in all manner of ways. I severely doubt I would have ended up as a full-time designer if I hadn't been continually tempted into working on LEC-related fan sites when I was a youngster, aspiring to be make something as cool as Mojo and its hosted sites.
I'm guessing lots and lots of people have been very much influenced in life-changing ways by Mojo and its community, and for that Mojo is great. Great!
Also your picture of me in the staff face book is highly bizarre. What is that guy anyway?
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y128/MithosYggdrasil/Hypnobear.jpg[/IMG]
Well done on this article.
Somehow I don't remember the Mojo infighting being so extreme, but maybe I just didn't see a lot of it. Thinking back, I was sort of preoccupied with the infighting over at LucasForums at the time.
PS: Speaking of... Remi, where is your epilogue that you promised you'd write, about the two years when Gabez (presumably with a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve), decided he was too cool for Mojo and IRC and gave everyone the cold shoulder?
It all spiralled out of control, inevitably, probably because Remi was very good at winding Gabez up. He responded badly to some 'geek' comments, then Thrik and Benny pushed him over the edge during a game of Quake. The things that happened on MSN after that were also slightly insane.
So yeah Remi, write the full story immediately.
You should answer them though, it could easily be appended.
The old quotes saying things like "I wonder what this place'll be like in three years" are also really sad to read. Mainly because I'm accelerating towards death much faster than I'd like.
It really doesn't feel like so long since I began visiting Mojo. It just feels weird to be perfectly honest. Weird that I was looking at an IRC window almost exactly the same as I'm look at right now back when I was just 11, and yet with everyone in it including myself having totally moved on with life so much.
God. This kind of reminding of how much time has actually passed is totally uncalled for. :(