The International House of Mojo

Afterlife may not be something we (for whatever reason) talk much about here at Mojo, but child-of-Kotaku, Aftermath, has a lot to say about it. One Mike Stemmle, in particular, gets downright confessional:

Go read.

Meanwhile, over at YouTube, Daniel Albu has yet another brief conversation, this time with Steve Purcell.

Longtime fan site The Legend of Monkey Island is still busting out jams. (Footnote: Remi points out that this article got advertised heavily on “the socials,” but I figure civilized people deserve to know about it as well.) To celebrate the 26th anniversary of The Curse of Monkey Island, they’ve published an ambitious new article detailing the differences between the game’s demo and the shipped final product. There are even some fresh quotes from Bill Tiller to give it that extra prestige. Read it and remind yourself that great Monkey Island content isn’t exclusively hosted on or by Mojo. Even though it's basically a rounding error.

Source: legendofmi.com

We’re barreling headlong toward the 20th anniversary of Sam & Max: Freelance Police’s cancellation now, yet there always somehow seems to be a few drops more blood to squeeze out of the stone.

Karen Purdy, who worked as an environment artist on the game, was the source of the last bits of known media, through her online portfolio. Reader Emma T has alerted us to the fact that Purdy has since revamped said portfolio with some additional art from her LucasArts projects, including Sam & Max 2.

We’ve dutifully made both our screenshot gallery and preposterous feature-length Feature current in accordance with this development. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for our attempts to contextualize the latest additions.

Need more Freelance Police autopsying to bring your day to its fullest potential? Daniel Albu’s ongoing series of developer interviews, which you can always keep track of in the dedicated forum thread, has included a recent chat with Dan Connors. This timestamped link will drag the needle to where most of the Freelance Police talk is.

I wish I liked it. But I don’t. I do hope you enjoy “The Lair of LeChuck,” though! And feel free to read my opinions.

I mean, that’s about it.

Not content to only chat with Dom one time, Laura Cress has upped the ante:

I haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but apparently the topic of conversation is Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island — go listen if that’a your jam.

For those eagerly awaiting Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island: Tale 3: The Lair of LeChuck, you can stop holding your breath on September 28.

Skip to 4:49 for some footage of Monkey Island.

Source: Eurogamer

Boss Fight Books is now taking pre-orders for their upcoming release of the Oral History of Day of the Tentacle, available in both paperback and e-book formats.

Don't delay; order yours today!

Source: Boss Fight Books

It’s no secret that, despite Mojo’s bandwagon-spurning affection for the movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ended up being a massive box office face-plant for Disney. Since the studio long ago stopped granting me gross point participation in their feature films, I am happy to report no personal financial impact, but it does raise the question of the fate of whatever MachineGames is working on.

Hypothetically, one should have nothing to do with the other, but having already noticed a certain deafening silence around the Indy game despite its two-and-a-half-years-ago origins, one feels justified in growing a bit jaded.

Today, you can breathe a sigh of relief. In a new interview with Bethesda big shot Todd Howard, the game is given an official status of, erm, “midway.”

Of course, they say such things about Beyond Good and Evil 2 about every fifteen years, but hey, let’s be optimistic.

Source: British GQ

”The Quest for Guybrush” as it is called:

As some of you already know, we made a startling discovery last week: By all accounts, Stan and Elaine had a serious thing going in The Secret of Monkey Island before—or until?—Guybrush showed up.

To further dive into this fundamental plot twist, we sent our software architect department into the depths of the two first games and their discovery... Well, let’s just say that Return now is fully and wholly explained.

Make your own conclusions from rock-solid proof that never was run and edited through multiple pieces of software.

Our trip down the old and dusty interview caverns continues. This time we’ve pulled seven of 'em out of the vault and combined them into one “Curse of Monkey Island Retro Interview Bonanza.” Some pre-launch, some post. They’re the type of texts that probably will be taught in universities for decades to come.

Sincere apologies for the lack of any pictures. In the early aughts, we were more concerned about the page loading on a modem than anything. Now read.

As part of our current merger with The SCUMM Bar—thanks in no small part to expert negotiations by the CEO —we have resurrected a highly informative interview with Bill Tiller. For the CMI fan amongst you, it’s a must read and likely what Kubrick had in mind when he filmed 2001.

We didn’t quite plan this retro week, but more to come tomorrow!

Long-time readers may remember all the excitement surrounding the infamous Monkey Island 2-demo hack. Within the source, cut dialogue was found, different scenes were revealed, and music was extracted.

This was all in 2003, and some may have forgotten all that was uncovered. Thus, we decided to not only revisit it, but also update it with newer findings. And, as a bonus, we converted the MIDI music to MP3s. That’s just the service we provide.

Give Monkey Island 2: The Demo Examination a read, and you may or may not learn a little about what never was.

Update! A couple of more factoids have been added. Also, a few more musical cues were provided by Zaarin, albeit in OGG format: Only the best for my precious MT-32 >:

(I mean, no introduction necessary—you know the drill by now.)

I wish I liked it, but...

Feel free to read my spoiler-free-ish thoughts on Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island: The Journey to Mêlée Island. And feel free to disagree. Or agree. I feel how I feel; that’s just how it is.

On the eve of the Monkey Island-themed Sea of Thieves expansion, Rare has released a spoilerific deep dive into the game:

What is there to say, really? I’m still uncertain about this whole SeMI thing, but there is no doubt that the team is showing downright reverence for Monkey Island. So whatever my personal opinion may be, I can already say I respect their dedication.

Download the game tomorrow and decide for yourself how it all stacks up.

(Oh, and the Voodoo-theme woodwind deserves a chef’s kiss.)

I’m sure some (or many) are on the fence about this whole Sea of Thieves thing, and if getting the game just for another taste of Monkey Island isn’t your “thing,” you always got this.

Almost five minutes of a Mêlée Island walkthrough. Hey, if all you were interested in was seeing the island in full 3D, this at least is something.

For the rest of us, the expansion is two days away.

Update! Hey, there’s an interview, too!

As is often the case, I have not watched this before posting it here. But there is no way this video...

... is not interesting. Land, McConnell, and Bajakian chatting for almost two hours? Just do yourself a favor and watch the thing. (I’m planning on doing myself the same favor as soon as I can.)

Let’s just get to it shall we: First, SeMI keeps expanding its own name: With the first part now having a title, we got Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island: The Journey to Mêlée Island. Two more episodes to go—this first one releases next week.

And as the video above reveals, there’s a lot of Monkey Island swag coming to the game, too. You even get a quick musical snippet from the MCU (Monkey Island Cinematic Universe) so the video is worth a gander even if you don’t care about the crossover.

Speaking of swag: As mentioned by Sopa on the forums, more Sam & Max action figures are being made available from Boss Fight Studios.

The reference material:

Once they hit 750 backers the production begins. Be prepared to shell out $80 for each figure.