The International House of Mojo

It only just relaunched, but samandmax.co.uk is doing something no one could have ever predicted from a modern-day Sam & Max fan site: reliable updates and actual content.

The unnatural activity began just a few days ago, when the site published an exclusive new interview with David Nowlin, the voice of Sam since 2006. They even got him to admit that "there has been some talk about some things here and there" with regard to future Sam & Max projects, so time to act like you're still a university student and get excited about that on the internet.

Mere hours ago, the restless fan site also reported on a second wave of Sam & Max action figures from Boss Fight Studio, which will consist of The Rubber Pants Commandos and Scuba Max. As for the first wave, both the Sam and the Max figures are still available for pre-order. Low on funds? Why not enter Sam & Max.co.uk's contest for a chance to win Max?

I don't know if there's any competition between Sam & Max fan sites these days, but I do know who's losing. In their neglectfulness, Jake and Metallus have allowed themselves to be usurped by a bunch of upstart monarchists from across the ocean. Being confirmed mercenaries, we at Mixnmojo are only too happy to forge an alliance with the winning side, so all hail the definitive, and some would say only, Sam & Max fan site of the modern era.

No no, not the game, nor Unofficial… -- though we’re sure it’s right behind -- but Sam & Max.co.uk. They have a new design and content (allegedly), not to mention forums. It's all delicately old school, so check 'em out.

Who knows, maybe we will get out forums back one day? (Zaarin)

Our own Benny thought you should all check this out. Behold the laudable work of "Dude 27th":

Benny would have told you this himself, but the torrid fortune he's raked in from Quick and Easy Software over the years has enlarged his head, and at this point he exclusively communicates with his fellow Mixnmojo staffers in the form of snail mail dispatched through an elaborate network of high-priced attorneys. So it's left up to me, a man of the people, to pass the word along.

Edit: And because we're unstoppable lunatics who just can't help ourselves, here's a link to the mod to you can track its progress and support its creator.

Source: Bennyboy

Look, it's a slow news day: Chris Remo and Jake Rodkin and, hell, Psychonauts co-writer Erik Wolpaw are currently part of a group Ask Me Anything on Reddit. They're talking about Half-Life: Alyx, which adds another notch on Jake Rodkin and Sean Vanaman's popular video game franchise belts. Monkey Island 5? Those two. Half-Life: Not Quite 3 But Maybe? Those two. I can only assume they'll be resurrecting Silent Hill or Grim Fandango next. Which you can ask them about here on our obligatory second link. I'd be stoked as hell for it if I had a halfway chance of using VR soon.

Source: Reddit

Sure, Tales of Monkey Island might be scrubbed from the internet, but does that really matter now that The Fan Game - Back to the Future Part III: Timeline of Monkey Island is done and ready for download (albeit for PC only)? We say "yes," but run and download it anyway.

The Fan Game - Back to the Future Part III: Timeline of Monkey Island they call it, and it looks right about as wacky as it sounds.

From what I understand, you follow Marty back to the times of Monkey Island in an alternate timeline from the original games. I mean, of course it’s alternate; that’s the effect of time travel. Anything else would be crazy.

A demo and all is apparently available: More on Twitter

(Thanks to Benzo for the original heads up on this.)

Look, I’m on a crappy connection here in the middle of the Atlantic, so I have no idea if “Return of the Tentacle”, a DOTT fan made sequel, is any good. But those crazy Germans are doing their thing again, at least, so check it out. It’s even in English, though the translations on the website seem a bit... creative.

It’s Friday, and seeing you’re reading this instead of doing anything worthwhile, what better time to jump on the nostalgia train? A few years back, our very own elTee made this little video, featuring LeChuck’s Revenge in EGA and internal speaker mode.

Largo’s theme is particularly trippy . . .

elTee is in the middle of writing up a larger article on his adventures with the floppy version of Monkey Island 2, so stay tuned!

And we’re talking right on the day, too, October 30th: As part of the Game Music Festival, the Bartosz Pernal Big Band will perform the Grim Fandango soundtrack, with McConnell joining in. Run and grab your tickets.

The only caveat is that this takes place in Poland, but either way, that’s what planes are for. Tickets!

AlfredJ brings word of sad news: Martin "Bucky" Cameron, a name many should recognize from various LucasArts credits, has passed away. For us, he might have been best known as a Secret of Monkey Island artist and animator. Schafer tweets he, among other things, was responsible for the rather epic Voodoo Lady animation. That alone is enough to make "Bucky" an unsung hero in the Mojoverse.

Our condolences to his family and friends.

Source: AlfredJ

Oh, whatever, here you go, for real. Curse of Monkey Island in glorious CD quality . . .

• MP3
• FLAC

And what a good time to mention our Patreon pledges, which now have been reduced to us tethering on going into the red. We have plenty of music and other things coming up, and are humbly asking you to help us finance our server costs. Pledge to your Mojo today!

And god knows why I’m the one posting these, but here we are. Aptly titled "Rumor Hast It", this cue teases upcoming, rumored, higher quality tracks. Allegedly. But what do I know? Shoot the messenger, and go get teased!

Once in a while, not often, but once in a while, Zaarin chooses to open his treasure box, and share some of the morsels he has hidden in it. Like today, when he has decided to rain upon you a classic song: The Curse of Monkey Island theme, in glorious CD quality sound. Feel free to grab an MP3, or YouTube it.

And you're welcome!

In these parts, we consider Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse to be the pinnacle of Telltale’s achievements. You may or may not agree, but if nothing else, I’m sure you, too, consider Jared Emerson-Johnson’s soundtrack the best in the trilogy.

It’s odd, then, that Telltale decided not to release an OST from the game, as it had with the previous two seasons. Fear not, though, as we have taken action into our own hands (eight-ish years later) and compiled the soundtrack for you. We give you:

• The Penal Zone
• The Tomb of Sammun-Mak
• They Stole Max’s Brain
• Beyond the Alley of the Dolls
• The City That Dares Not Sleep

Load them up to the media player of your choice, and dream of what once was.

Back in the day, we received enough fan-content for there to be multiple hosted sites dedicated to it. It was great -- this site wrote itself.

Fast-forward to the present, and things have pretty much entirely dried up. Until now. You know Andrea Boscarino from the comments as AndywinXp -- presumably he still stands behind Microsoft's seminal operating system -- and he has re-recorded The Secret of Monkey Island soundtrack in the style of Curse of Monkey Island. For real! Even better, you can use the tracks in ScummVM to get the real experience. Or just listen to the soundtrack by itself. Downloads:

• FLAC format
• MP3 format
• ScummVM tracks and patch
• Special Edition (classic mode) soundbank

The latter can be dunked into the "Monkey1\audio" folder -- typically located somewhere under "Program Files (x86)". And that's about it. I haven't tried it with the game yet, but I'm sure it's awesome. The music sounds great at least. And let us not forget credits:

The Secret of Monkey Island: Cursed!

• Tracks rearranged and performed by Andrea Boscarino.
• Special thanks to Alberto "Albo Abourt" Abate for his precious arrangement advices for track 8. Check out his YouTube channel.
• Soundbank file by Benzo.
• And, of course, original music composed by Michael Z. Land, with Barney Jones, Andy Newell and Patrick Mundy.

Got any creations you want us to know about? Email webmonkey@mixnmojo.com and you might achieve fame and fortune!

Sometimes one reads one's RSS feeds, and one is surprised at seeing familiar names. This was the case when a certain "Junaid" popped up over at Cartoon Brew. Correctly deducing there is only one "Junaid" in the world, I decided this is the man you knew not just from Mojo, but also World of Monkey Island. Now he has hit the big time with the animated short, "Short But Sweet".

The movie, described as “a young hero has to embark on an epic quest to save a princess from an evil villain, all within an absurd short amount of time” is pretty delightful, so go watch it over at Cartoon Brew.

Mojo probably should demand royalties for singlehandedly having made our readers arteésts.

Source: Cartoon Brew

I mean, to be displayed! #clickbait ;D But a good piece of art none-the-less!

An art show called “Fake Theme Parks” is set to open Friday, January 12th at Gallery 1988 in LA. The concept is to show off artworks based on fake amusement parks inspired by Disney Land and Disneyworld, and “Big Whoop” by Scott Balmer is one of the 50-odd works on display.

Our man in LA would be on site had we had a man or woman in LA.

Source: Gizmodo

Because why the hell not?

As is en vogue these days, Ronzo has for all intents and purposes left Twitter. I might not 100% agree with his take on the social network (mind you his points about the toxicity of the place are spot on), but I’d much rather see him (and pretty much anyone else) put down their thoughts in more than 180 characters, which is why it’s great to see Grumpy Gamer (the website) make a comeback.

Speaking of communication, our email is back up after about a decade or two of downtime. Feel free to email webmonkey@mixnmojo.com to promptly be ignored by us.

I missed this a few months back, but World of Monkey Island just turned 20. By my estimation, that makes it the third oldest active-ish site in the greater Mojo community. (After The SCUMM Bar and us.)

And that’s all I got.

Everybody's favorite SCUMM-game-and-more virtual machine has been updated to a major 2.0 milestone. 23 new games has been added to the roster, including a bunch of Sierra ones. Other improvements are of course also to be found -- read the release notes for more.

Nostalgia keeps Mojo alive, so download and get playing.

The adventure that was featured on our forums (when we had them), The Journey Down, sees the release of its third chapter today. With this release, SkyGoblin's excellent adventure inspired by LucasArts adventures like Grim Fandango and Monkey Island 2 is finally concluded. Find out what happens to Bwana and Kito, as they finally manage to journey down to the Underland on Steam, GOG.com or iTunes.