The International House of Mojo

Remember the turn of the century, when getting the SCUMM games to run properly on Windows was a herculean task? The arrival of ScummVM delivered us to conditional salvation, but many reasonably pondered why LucasArts couldn’t provide an official solution by updating the native interpreters themselves.

Well, they did. Or at least, programmer Aaron Giles did, on the studio’s behalf. The problem is that among these sparkly, XP-compatible exe’s, only a few saw the light of day -- gradually, and without much fanfare.

After quietly throwing two of them onto a Europe-exclusive compilation pack in 2002, LucasArts presumably became too busy cancelling Sam & Max sequels to continue with such re-releases despite being armed with ready-to-go updates that had been handed to them on a silver platter. A few more of Aaron’s updated SCUMM launchers made their way to Steam in 2009, which came across as LucasArts burning off the remnants of a long since suspended initiative presumably codenamed What If We Didn’t Suck.

These days, the SCUMM games are sold on digital storefronts bundled with ScummVM, and the native interpreters, original or updated, don’t get reliably circulated with the data files, which puts a heckuva lot of pressure on your rotting floppies to preserve them. We decided to reach out to Aaron Giles to get his opinions on that dilemma and gain insight on what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the surrealistic insult that is updating a studio’s library only for said studio to indifferently put that work in a drawer.

And let’s be honest: it got the dignity of the drawer only because the dumpster was already filled with Ben Throttle standees.

Our thanks to Aaron Giles for his generosity with his time.

A few years back I penned a dubiously-formatted article that pondered the art style of Maniac Mansion, its sequel and its promotional materials under the fraudulent pretext that I had insight to lend to the exercise of comparing them.

Along the way I made a point of highlighting the cover of Nintendo Power Issue #16, which advertised the game’s NES port in the form of a clay diorama depicting the mansion and some of the characters built very much not to scale. It’s a super-rad piece of work that I was always taken by, and I was bummed that we couldn’t track down the artist for their recollections.

But the web has a way of turning things up, and it appears that last year Comic Art Fans published a little stub about the diorama. It is revealed, unsurprisingly, to have been destroyed after being used for the magazine, but the artist apparently had it in their yard for a while, and some photographs survive which really show off the craft that went into the commission. You can check out the photos at the link. I’ve also thrown them in a gallery because after all, theft is the sincerest form of stealing things.

Source: Comic Art Fans

The long-awaited Monkey Island anthology boxed set from Limited Run Games began shipping this month, and fans who have been receiving the apparently gargantuan package have been sharing their reactions to finally having in their hands the irresponsible purchase they made twelve months ago. Some of those reactions have been enthusiastic, some have been heartbreaking, and almost all of them can be found in this forum thread.

Rather than try to recap that ongoing discussion which reveals many more details, I thought I’d at least front page what’s been learned about the actual game builds included. Limited Run’s original product listing mentioned (and in fact still does) that “archived versions” of the first two games would be included, with specifics to be determined.

Well, now that people have begun exploring the USB stick included with the package, we have a clearer idea of what that actually means. It seems that there are a few versions of Monkey 1 and Monkey 2 offered in the form of disk images and KryoFlux streams (for the uninitiated, see here), which is pretty exciting, as it represents the first time those games have been officially available with their original .exe files since the internet age.

So, what versions of the five Monkey Island games wound up on that flash drive in the end? The breakdown appears to be as follows:

• MI1: Amiga version diskette images and flux streams; IBM EGA version diskette images and flux streams (5.25"), IBM VGA floppy version diskette images and flux streams (3.5"); special edition.
• MI2: Amiga version diskette images and flux streams; IBM version diskette images and flux streams (3.5"); Macintosh version diskette images and flux streams; special edition.
• CMI: The installer seems to be the same as the GOG version, which means the resource files are bundled with ScummVM, and the original .exe is not included.
• EMI: The installer seems to be the same as the GOG version, which as far as I know translates to a faithful, as-is copy of version 1.1.
• TMI: Includes the Earl Boen'd version of Episode 1, which is I believe the only variable that would have applied to this game. We were wrong, its the original non-Boen version.

Beyond obscure/translated versions of the games which probably would have been too much to ask for, the main absences appear to be the CD version of Monkey 1 (though that’s essentially included in the Special Edition as “classic mode”) and CMI’s original interpreter, the latter being a huge, and hugely addressable, bummer from a preservation perspective despite the fact that it’s notoriously helpless on modern Windows. Really pleased about EGA Monkey 1*, though, and if you’re gonna get one version of VGA Monkey 1, surely it’s just that it be the one with the stump joke.

Among the physical extras, the book was the biggest unknown and also sounds like the biggest highlight. At over 200 pages, it’s said to contain a lot of terrific content (including new interviews) especially for the first two games. It’s a shame to think of it as being exclusive to a mega-priced collector’s box that won’t be re-issued and is destined in many cases to sit shrink-wrapped in temperature-controlled cabinets, so here’s hoping Limited Run finds a way to make those pages available on their own some day for the enjoyment of fans who aren’t pulling in Jazz Age incomes.

Special thanks: Jan.

*Don't worry though, we can Glass Is Half Empty that one too: zaarin points out that it's lacking the Roland MT-32 upgrade disk.

Did you enjoy the writing in the Curse of Monkey Island? If so you might enjoy the debut novel by of the people responsible for that writing, Jonathan Ackley. It's called Off By One: Serious Games and is available to buy this very second.

The plot centers around the leak of a video games's source code and a mysterious government project that takes the protagonist into the heart of the post-Soviet underworld. The video game company in the novel is called "Coliseum Arts", which surely must be a wink to LucasArts. Right? (And if not, why not?)

So why not treat yourself? At $4 you can't go wrong supporting Ackley's latest endeavor!

Off By One: Serious Games on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Source: Jonathan Ackley's Facebook

Since only those with a higher education in LucasArts adventure history read this site, you already know “SCUMMlette” as the term of affection for the junior programmers being trained in the SCUMM engine. There were two waves of these cadets between 1989-1990. In the first class you had your basic Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Jenny Sward, and Ron Baldwin, while the second batch consisted of Mike Stemmle, Tony Hsieh, Sean Clark, Tami Borowick, and Wallace Poulter. (Sources: Mike Stemmle)

Some of those names will be more familiar to you than others, but they all played integral roles in games you rank in importance above your own loved ones. In the case of Tami Borowick, those contributions are now far less shrouded thanks to an excellent new interview published by the highly scholarly and inescapably Italian Lucasdelirium.

As you’ll learn, Borowick’s primary LucasArts project was Monkey Island 2, after which she became one of the developers who followed Ron across the desert to Humongous Entertainment where she co-created the Freddi Fish series. The full interview is a real barn burner, with lots of great war stories from a most romanticized period at LucasArts, including how Borowick implemented the pants-falling gag in the Woodtick cemetery, and how Ron accidentally obliterated her laborious dialog tree for Rum Rogers. There’s even a photograph of an office whiteboard she shared with Dave and Tim in 1991. What more could you need?

Source: Lucasdelirium

You’ve gotten your Milk Duds and Diet Mr. PiBB and found your seat again, all just in time to catch the second half of Genesis Temple’s roadshow interview with Larry Ahern. Picking up where we last left off in August, the story continues with the post-CMI act of Ahern’s LucasArts career, a similarly frustrating stint at Microsoft, the noble casualty that was Insecticide, and an only recently ended stretch as a Disney Imagineer that sometimes reunited him with his old cohort Jonathan Ackley.

It’s an altogether great read, but I draw special attention to the fact that Ahern divulges new information about Vanishing Act and Attempt #1 at the Full Throttle sequel (which was never really called Full Throttle: Payback, a moniker which he indirectly chides Mojo for perpetuating), as well as some soon-to-be-stolen concept art for those games that I don’t believe have surfaced before. (Update: After review it turns out we did already have them. I should have known better; fortunes have been lost betting against Mojo.)

I guess it’s up to Dune: Part II to disappoint you, as the back half of the Larry Ahern interview delivers the goods.

Source: Genesis Temple

Or your Limited Run Games pre-order, if you prefer to look at it that way. Check it out:

You can read a few more words about Ron's sorrowful passion here.

Mike Stemmle's Linkedin profile isn't just a resume, but a platform for expressing latent regret. Have a look at the LucasArts section and you'll see what I mean:

There, you see? He apologized. And that's more than you can say for whichever monster is responsible for that assemble-the-turtle-skeleton puzzle in The Dig. These people need to be held accountable.

On Tuesday, the passing of prolific voice actor Jack Angel was reported by multiple outlets. Among his many roles across film, television and video games, Angel contributed voice work to a number of LucasArts titles, including Star Wars: Dark Forces, Full Throttle, Outlaws, and most notably Grim Fandango, where he played the roles of Bruno Martinez, Seaman Naranja, and ol' Chepito, whose substandard sense of direction and undying love for the "Lil' Chipper" were legendary.

Happily, Angel's talent is eternalized via these classics. Now lift those knees, stay close to his light, and try to sing in key:

Source: Legacy

After bringing the world to its knees with his revitalization of the Monkey Island 2 cover, Laserschwert decided to direct his talents toward The Secret of Monkey Island. I forget which installment that is, but Lemon Head liked it all right so I’m guessing it’s one of the good ones.

Using a cross-section of rare sources of Purcell’s iconic art smuggled to him by Jake, who definitely didn’t murder any orphans to obtain them (so put that idea right out of your mind), Laserschwert was able to complete a smashing restoration that’ll have people making out with your wall. The amount of recovered detail isn’t exactly negligible, as the comparison images prove, and even more alternates are said to be on the way. You might as well cancel Christmas now because Santa just got preempted.

Source: Mojo forums

First thing's first: some startlingly high quality set photos of the Indiana Jones 5 Sicily shoot, taken just this week, can be found right here. The curious should be forewarned, however, that the glimpses get into spoiler-y territory.

One highlight is the first peek at the Antonio Banderas character, who is dressed as a rugged sea captain and seems to be an ally to Indy. You might think this an innocent development, but you'd be wrong:

See you on Thera!

Today's Nintendo Switch livestream revealed that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will be released for the Switch on November 11.

Skip to ~44:48 for the announcement.

Clearly this is not the 'Remake' version coming for PlayStation, PC and Xbox, but rather a straight port of the Bioware original from Aspyr games. You can pre-order it from the Switch store if you think digital copies might run out, and/or if you'd prefer Nintendo to be gathering interest on your money, rather than yourself.

Source: NIntendo direct

Good news everybody. The long rumoured KOTOR remake has been confirmed, but (bad-news, everybody) as-yet only for PS5. PlayStation's CEO Jim Ryan revealed the remake at the Playstation Showcase presentation earlier today. The task has gone to Aspyr, responsible for several other recent LucasArts / LucasFilm Games ports.

The original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was a groundbreaking and universally praised RPG from Bioware. Initially it was an Xbox exclusive, but eventually made its way to other platforms.

No gameplay footage, or further details on changes were available at time of going to press, sorry Meatbags.

Update: From a tweet (below) and a blog post "...it’s a console exclusive on PlayStation 5 at launch", it appears this remake is also coming for PC, and the PS5 console exclusivity is timed, so you'll likely be able to get it on Xbox (and possibly Switch) after a bit of a wait.

Source: Gamerant

Mark Ferrari's work is so iconic, it apparently belongs to the world.

We've tattled on them to Lucasfilm, only to be curtly informed by the legal team that they're more interested in shutting down Fate of Atlantis fan games.

It's testing time again for ScummVM!

This time there's a boatload of new games supported: Alice: An Interactive Museum, The Crimson Crown: Further Adventures in Transylvania, Crusader: No Remorse, Grim Fandango, L-ZONE, Little Big Adventure, The Longest Journey, Myst III: Exile, Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy, Oo-Topos, Private Eye, Red Comrades Save the Galaxy, Red Comrades 2: For the Great Justice, Spaceship Warlock, Tri-3D-Trial, and Transylvania.

It also includes dozens of text adventure games created with Glulxe and hundreds of games created with Adventure Game Studio.

So get out your Grim Fandango discs, download Maniac Mansion Deluxe, or try any of the other hundreds of games that need testing during this testing period and report any issues you find on ScummVM's issue tracker.

I’m just not sure there’s a more elaborate way to rephrase that. The two Games Of Mojo Import™ will be joining the ranks of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and the Monkey Island special editions as part of the September additions to the service.

So if you’ve disgraced yourself by not already owning these games eight times over, this may be your chance to check them out.

Remember earlier this year when the sides for The Curse of Monkey Island voice auditions improbably turned up?

Well, another bottle washed ashore courtesy of the saintly “spielbergfan1”, and therein contained the Grim Fandango audition material. Without further ado, here it is in one of two forms:

• A 60-page PDF file
• A 60-image gallery

Enjoy it however you see fit. We don’t judge.

You wait how long for a jp-30 LEGO based news story, then you get two almost at once? ¬_¬ The world works in mysterious ways.

After a couple of years of no-showing, it seems the LEGO Star Wars Skywalker Saga game from TTGames is to be teased on Wednesday on some stream or whatever.

This will be the first viewing of a LucasArts LucasFilm Games logo on screen since... Star Wars Squadrons?

Source: Twitter

(Quoth the Benzo.)

Some of you may remember the cannon shoot-out scene at the beginning of The Curse of Monkey Island on a sliding scale of enthusiasm. Those of you on the :D end of said spectrum may also remember that the farthest turret cannot be destroyed when playing the sequence in ScummVM. Well, fret no more! According to Andy over at GitHub:

And so he fixed it – the magic that one pixel can do.

I have no idea if it actually will be part of a ScummVM release or not, because good god, it’s GitHub, and I can’t spend the precious few moments of my life reading through it. But there it is! Sound off in the comments about everything I surely missed.

Game musician extraordinaire George "The Fat Man" Sanger, whose work can be heard in such titles as Maniac Mansion (NES), Loom, The 7th Guest, Wing Commander, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Outlaws, and a whole mess of Humongous stuff, fielded questions from Arcade Attack in extravagant video form. Reading off pre-written questions, the prolific frontman of Team Fat guides you through his long career all the way from his first Intellivision project.

It's possible that Sanger did a similar Q&A for Mojo almost a year ago as part of an article that for political reasons remains mired in a publication-palsying thicket of legal capework, shifting redactions and moral grandstanding, but hopefully we can speak of that in something other than innuendo before the year's out.