The International House of Mojo

I debated mentioning this, but no mortal could resist. You all remember Bad Brain Entertainment, the German-based adventure studio that sprang from nowhere in 2004? It produced zero games but riled up a lot of adventure fans, first by claiming it would finance A Vampyre Story (it couldn't), and then by intimating that it would purchase and finish Sam & Max 2 (it couldn't).

Jason Some said the whole debacle was just a sleazy tactic for an opportunistic start-up to get publicity in the absence of a track record, while others assert the infant studio meant well and simply got carried away by enthusiasm. One thing's for sure, the young brain behind Bad Brain, Wolfgang Kierdorf, became an instant celebrity in the Mojo culture (though to be fair, news was slow at the time), and I think most of us have a special place in our hearts for Bad Brain even today.

But wait! You might recall that Bad Brain's suspiciously large slate of planned games included more than AVS and Sam & Max. Another was The Whispered Word, which ultimately escaped Kierdorf and wound up safely published by another studio in 2009. Then there was The Orgastic 4, an R-rated spin on The A-Team with animals. It was roundly mocked at the time.

Well who's laughing now? Bad Brain and The Orgastic 4 are back, and Adventure Gamers has a preview. Sure, the team is quick to concede that "funding for the game isn't resolved yet," but quit getting hung up on details. Here's to ten more years of Kierdorf, whom in all seriousness we wish nothing but success.

Source: Adventure Gamers

Finished Duke Grabowski and looking for more? Steam is selling Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island at 90% off right now. The deal lasts for another 42 hours. Don't be ridiculous.

Source: Steam

Avast! Two years ago it was but a humble Kickstarter pitch, and today it is a real life computer game. See, not all video game Kickstarters are scams just because ours will be! (There's nothing in the pipeline, but with Remi around it's a foregone conclusion.)

Backers received their Steam keys yesterday, but the rest of you can get it now for a measly $6.99. There is no reason to wait for my review, which is nevertheless coming shortly. Now go forth and help ensure the subsequent episodes get finished.

Source: Steam

We've been a bit laggard in our Thimbleweed Park coverage, so here's a preview of the game by the good and qualified folks at Destructoid. Their time with the game exposed at least one Maniac Mansion reference, so let's go ahead and raise our expectations. January is closing in!

And don't forget to check out the new month old trailer centered around the character of Dolores. Because we certainly didn't forget:

Source: Destructoid

ScummVM is the project that aims to re-create the engines used in adventure games (and, since this year's Google Summer of Code, role-playing games) so they can be played on systems ranging from Windows, Mac, and Linux to iOS, Android, and even consoles such as Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and Wii.

Right before a major release they do a public testing phase for new and improved games, which helps them iron out any remaining bugs. This testing cycle includes two new games: Myst (and Myst: Masterpiece Edition) and U.F.O.s (also known as Gnap). There also have been a lot of improvements in the SCI engine as of late, so they are also testing Conquests of the Longbow, Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, King's Quest V, King's Quest VI, Quest for Glory 1 VGA, Quest for Glory 3, Space Quest 1 VGA, and Space Quest 4. Other games that have seen recent improvements and are undergoing testing include Beneath a Steel Sky, the Commodore-64 version of Maniac Mansion, Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo, and Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel.

So, if you have any of those games, play them through in a daily build of ScummVM on your platform of choice, and report any bugs you find at the new and improved ScummVM bug tracker. Then tell the team about your experience, and any bugs you filed (or if you didn't spot any bugs at all) in this thread on the ScummVM forum.

Read the press release, if that's your thing, but the point is Bill's newest game is finally upon us. I'm also noticing that some new screenshots have popped up in a few places, so do check those out.

I'll have a review of the first episode in as few as seventeen months, guaranteed.

Source: Gamasutra

Josh "Cheeseness" Bush, the man behind the recent port of Double Fine's Day of the Tentacle Remastered to Linux, has posted an excellent retrospective on his experience in porting the game. He has also shared the sourcecode of the Coming Soon app that was live on Steam before the Linux port was released.

Be sure to check it out, if you're a fan of Day of the Tentacle (who here isn't?), as it's quite an informative and interesting read.

Always nice to see this game get some exposure outside of this site, with its global rank of 918,640.

The preview is positive, although I must politely disagree with HardcoreGamer's memory of The Curse of Monkey Island as a "3D game." They also note that we still don't know for sure how many episodes Duke Grabowski will consist of:

We'll see indeed. One unfinished series is enough for this team to have on its resume.

Source: HardcoreGamer

Playing catch-up in the aftermath of the Iron Phoenix madness...Aric Wilmunder made a few other uploads a few days ago. The new design docs are:

- Rebel Assault
- Defenders of Dynatron City (under its original name "Defenders of Dynamo City")

• The Telecommuter (Not a game!)

It looks like he also meant to make Shadows of the Empire available, but that one doesn't appear to be selectable yet. Anyway, find the above and all the rest on Aric's site, as always.

Source: Aric's World

It's a terrific listen courtesy of the Dev Game Club podcast. Day of the Tentacle is the primary subject, but a broader discussion about adventure games emerges.

What makes the interview particularly worthwhile is that the hosts are Brett Douville and Tim Longo, who worked at LucasArts around the turn of the century, when a developer's assignment was pretty much guaranteed to be a Star Wars title. It's interesting to hear the different perspectives from the four alumni who were involved in different eras and concentrations of the studio. More crucially, Jake gets namechecked.

Source: Dev Game Club

Here at Mojo, we’ve always been particularly interested in the near-misses, the might-have-beens, the ones that didn’t make it. After all, we cheekily referred to all the released LucasArts adventure games as “Secret History,” so you can imagine how piqued the cancelled games must get us. And the loss of Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, the would-be follow-up to the seminal Fate of Atlantis, probably registers second only to Sam & Max 2 on the Gnashing-Of-Teeth-O-Meter.

The game isn’t completely unknown, thanks to a comic adaptation, a few stray details and a much-circulated Anson Jew animation of Hitler’s face blowing up. But what this doomed title always lacked in my eyes was a definitive chronicle. And if Mojo wasn't going to do it, who the heck would?

Thus I reached out to all members of the team who were willing to share their memories (oh, and design documents) of the game, from its conception to its collapse. I do believe you’ll find the big honking article I pieced together from the results of minor interest.

Huge thanks go to Aric Wilmunder, who unearthed the materials that made this article possible and offered to time their release with our publication. Remi, as always, bailed me out with the header image. Enjoy!

That and more is revealed as part of the latest update on the game's progress from Bill. Sound like they're wrapping up on the first episode.

I have confused feelings about this, since I was rather hoping Pedro would be invited back to do the new music, in keeping with tradition. But who the hell can complain about Jared doing the soundtrack to anything? Sounds like some of Pedro's music from Ghost Pirates - which Duke Grabowski is technically a spinoff of - will be reprised to complement Jared's original work.

Source: Kickstarter

Day of the Tentacle Remastered is now available on Linux, thanks to the porting efforts of J Bush Productions. It's now live on Steam and the Humble Store.

He's said he'd keep them coming, and he's delivered. Check out Aric's site to find the list of downloadable LucasArts design docs updated with:

- Labyrinth
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (a very preliminary doc)
- Sam & Max Hit the Road
- The Dig (seems to be for the Falstein version)
- The Curse of Monkey Island

So nevermind your previous Fourth of July weekend plans; it's SCUMM history you need to be honoring.

Source: Aric's World

We already knew that Duke Grabowski had landed a publisher, but there's something comforting about getting the actual corporate screed to back it up. Today comes that very press release your heart so coveted:

Note the launch platforms, as well as a release date of November for the first episode. Congrats once again to the team! Now give Pedro a call.

Source: PR Newswire

This seems to happen every once in awhile. Ron will make some overture, like this tweet, about wanting to buy the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion IP from Disney, dozens of sites will seize upon it, fans will work themselves into a tizzy, and then nothing happens.

And nothing happens because nothing will happen. Big companies do not sell their properties pretty much as a matter of policy, and even if they did it's not like Ron would ever be able to meet their quote. It took having the right friends at Sony for Double Fine to get licenses for their recent remakes from Disney, and Ron has made it clear that licensing isn't good enough for him. So what motive is there to beat this drum?

The last time Ron made sure to pump some oxygen into the flame of that mythical creator-sanctioned "Monkey Island 3a" was last fall:

So guys, please, don't bug Ron about making another Monkey Island until Disney sells the IP to him first. Be reasonable here. I mean, gosh, why were you guys even bringing it up in the first place?! Wait...

Maybe I'm just a jerk, and Ron is shrewdly trying to build enough interest to get himself invited to a negotiating table. Maybe that is somehow something that's actually possible in the real world. Show me the light in the comments if you've got any to shine.

Source: Ron's Twitter

It's easy to forget that Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick's retro adventure game and fated masterpiece Thimbleweed Park is less than a year from release. We haven't been particularly good about keeping on top of the coverage, but our laziness isn't the only factor - the game's really been getting around lately.

Still, it's mostly the laziness thing, so to make amends for being lax in our duties, here's a handy compilation of just a few of the previews from the past two months:

-Hands-on Preview + Interview: Thimbleweed Park and Ron Gilbert
-How Thimbleweed Park recreates the glory days of graphic adventure games
-Thimbleweed Park Is the Adventure of 'A Total A**hole'
-PAX East 2015 Preview: 'Thimbleweed Park'
-How Thimbleweed Park updates classic adventure games for a modern audience
-Ron Gilbert on Thimbleweed Park, what made adventure games great, and VR skepticism
-Hands-on: Thimbleweed Park is like a long-lost LucasArts adventure for the modern era
-Thimbleweed Park preview: Welcome Home
-If Ron Gilbert made Twin Peaks, it would be Thimbleweed Park
-‘Thimbleweed Park’ Is A Fantastic-Looking Mashup Of ‘The X-Files’ And ‘Maniac Mansion’

Those oughta hold you for awhile.

You've really got to admire this kind of stubbornness.

A fan-made remake of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis has been incubating for over two years now. I'm not clear on how far along the project is - indeed I've lost track of the Fate of Atlantis fan projects over the years - but the Facebook page has screenshots.

Labors of love like this traditionally just get put out at the risk of cease-and-desist orders, such as 2004's Maniac Mansion Deluxe, which as far as I know faced no legal repudiation, although the risk of getting the kibosh rises steeply when fans start dabbling in the big IPs, specifically Star Wars and Indy.

Whether for that reason or some other, the team has apparently sent a formal request to Disney to obtain a license for this remake. They even included some schwag! I find this admirable and crazy in roughly equal measure, but color me impressed.

I have a hard time imagining these good folks will get a response, much less approval, but I'm also a curmudgeon-y bastard without a sliver of optimism. At any rate, this has gotta be unprecedented, no? Correct me below if I'm wrong or at least join me in being awed by this team's hard work and indomitable spirit that's reminiscent of Indy himself.

Source: Facebook

The fan is Riccardo Faidutti, and his work is embedded below. Impressive stuff.

Source: Youtube

Keep a watchful eye on Aric Wilmunder's site, because he quietly adds to his LEC design document uploads. Unless I'm remembering wrong (entirely possible), I don't think the Forge design document was there originally.

Well, it's not the whole document, but rather the cover only ("at this time"), which nevertheless contains the synopsis for the unproduced game:

You might also be surprised to see that the game's project leaders are Kalani Steicher and Mike Ebert (who would go on to work on the likes of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures) with Brian Moriarty's name nowhere in sight. This is because Moriarty fatefully chose to work on other, ill-fated projects as opposed to a sequel to his game, a decision he's recently indicated he regrets, but how was he to know?

Hopefully the full document gets posted at some point and we can pick over it together, as an exceedingly pathetic team.

Source: Aric's World