The unenthusiastically remembered Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings spawned an unreleased novelization (background here) that is now being unveiled by its author, Rob MacGregor, in audio form. There’s even a trailer with the details.
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The high priests who maintain the Genesis Temple sat down with artist/designer Larry Ahern for six months to discuss his decades-spanning career. Getting the interview down on paper apparently required a scope akin to The Human Condition, because they’ve only published one of two parts.
But that first half takes us from the beginning of Larry’s career all the way through The Curse of Monkey Island. A number of good working-at-LucasArts-in-the-nineties anecdotes are shared from Larry’s experiences on Monkey Island 2, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle, and we even get a few extra details on that scrapped prologue for The Curse of Monkey Island, which among other things would have seen the return of the Voodoo Priest of LeChuck’s Fortress.
The second part promises tales from Larry’s final years at LucasArts, including at least one collapsed version of Full Throttle 2, as well as the misadventures of Insecticide. Look for it whenever the intermission ends.
Source: Genesis Temple
If you were hoping for a way to play Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis that requires a subscription, isn't DRM-free and supports Jeff Bezos, then today is your lucky day.
Joining the ranks of the Monkey Island special editions, Fate of Atlantis is now available via Prime Gaming, a revolutionary new service from Amazon that lets you register yet another app for doing the same thing you can do elsewhere, less conveniently. Go ahead and pinch yourself. This is really happening.
Source: PC Games N
I seem to have somehow overlooked the existence of an entire Amazon platform
As had I, yet exist it does, and we just have to live with that. Prime Gaming, as it is known, is trying to tempt adventure gaming aficionados with The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. To wit:
You can find the very special edition in the “Games with Prime” section, which apparently is part of regular Prime. I’m pretty sure I read that they will charge more for the fun sometime in the feature. I don’t know; figure it out yourself, if you really need another version of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.
You may or may not have heard that Sea of Thieves has doubled down on some Monkey Island content. (I assume with a new content update. But maybe not. I know nothing of the game.) Well, you do not have to play the game to see what it all looks like, thanks to this intrepid Redditor:
(Video was originally embedded here, but because Reddit is quite possibly literally hell, it insisted on autoplaying. So it’s now below the cut.)
I mean, that’s… something.
Update! Junaid points out that the map seen in the video is a tribute to Paco Vink's map from World of Monkey Island (RIP).
Today is the welcome day that you can buy the LucasArts classic Zombies Ate My Neighbors and its sequel Ghoul Patrol on Windows, Switch, PS4 and Xbox Whatever. Head on over to your preferred platform's respective storefronts and relive some of your favorite 16-bit memories. With a few extra features to boot, it's probably the most exciting product that this "Lucasfilm Games" company has been associated with for some time.
And remember, if you find this digital release too reasonably priced, you can head on over to Limited Run Games to peruse their progressively outrageous physical offerings, including cartridge-based versions for the original release platforms, until pre-orders close July 18th.
By signing off on the use of Pirates of the Caribbean in Sea of Thieves, Disney has shown a willingness to license its IP to third party game studios, but how far does that willingness extend?
Acting as Mojo’s vessel, IGN hooked the nearest Mouse representative that swam its way that they might pose that very question, bearing in mind that Disney's property now includes things like Guybrush and Purple Tentacle.
Speaking to IGN, SVP of Walt Disney Games Sean Shoptaw said that Disney was happy to work with "the best" developers, specifically those who came to them with interesting ideas or interpretations that hadn't yet been done. When asked what was meant by "the best" and if it included indie developers as well as big-budget, AAA titles, Shoptaw confirmed that all were welcome... and hinted that there may already be something along those lines in the works.
"Obviously we work with a lot of big AAA partners like Ubisoft, like Bethesda, like EA, and we'll continue to do that," he said. "But we are very open to quality regardless of size, right? So if they're strong indie that has a real passion and a vision for a story of ours, or a character or ours, or anything in our universe, we are all ears. I think that you'll see stuff coming out over time here that really will back that up. So yeah, it's not just about the big guys. The big guys, those are really important partners of ours, as I noted. But we're hoping to work with a broad set of partners across the world."
Luigi Priore, VP of Disney & Pixar Games, said that in some cases, a big AAA game might not be the best avenue to tell certain stories or focus on certain characters.
"An indie storyteller, a creative could work on another property within the Disney and Pixar collection of IP in a different way," Priore said. "Those smaller indie kind of experiences that are more personal... I think those are opportunities too."
What does this mean? Well, not necessarily anything, but it at least alludes to doors being open rather than closed. No need to give up on your dream of having Bobbin Threadbare cameo in your Candy Crush knockoff just yet.
Source: IGN
If you’re a fan of Rifftrax, the Mystery Science Theater-like comedy troupe consisting of that show’s 1997-1999 cast, you know that it carries on its antecedent’s tradition of esoteric references. The general rule is that if you watch enough episodes of MST3K or any of its spiritual successors, you’ll eventually hear a joke about everything, from Shakespeare to 70s television to an incident involving a writer’s ex-girlfriend.
And now, we can add LucasArts adventure games to the mix. Reporting from Reddit, fan “CognitiveNerd1701” says:
I'm watching "The Dark" right now and they just made a joke about a meteor landing in Dr. Fred's yard "and you get to put a hamster in the microwave!" - Mike Nelson
Well, there you have it. If it’s good enough to rate a riff by Mike Nelson, it’s good enough for Disney to greenlight a third installment – that’s just how this works, People In Charge. As for the rest of you, the cited Rifftrax episode can be gotten here.
Source: Reddit
It’s hard to figure out how much Indy 5 stuff to report on now that the movie is in production and the rumor/leak mill is in full operation. Beyond consideration about spoilers, there’s also the question of whether every stray stalker’s uploaded glimpse of the location shoots really merits that precious Mojo front page ink. Besides which, there are more capable institutions out there who are in better positions to sate your cravings for unfiltered coverage.
But, one innocuous-enough leak couldn’t pass without comment.
Some of the photographs to hit the less reputable broadsides out of the first week of filming depict Harrison Ford and Toby Jones (nice!) exchanging some sort of prop outside Bamburgh castle. (Based on the dots on Ford’s face and the WWII-era imagery associated with the shooting thus far, it seems we’re in for a 1940s prologue.) No one could possibly harvest any meaning out of such an obscured view of this unknown object – that is, no one except those with an eagle-eye for Atlantean architecture:
This is of course an absurd extrapolation that’s about as convincing as zaarin’s theory that Indy is chasing the Zodiac killer, but it’s still good fun. Of course, it’s always fun and games until somebody pops orichalcum into the mouth…
Source: Twitter
The film world is acknowledging the passing of photographer Eva Sereny, whose prolific work taking stills for movie productions includes this recognizable photograph of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery during the filming of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
How recognizable? Well, SCUMM fans know that it was chosen to grace the cover of the Last Crusade graphic adventure, in a sense making Eva Sereny the box artist for the classic game.
Source: Frank Marshall
If you stretch your memory back to 2006-2007, you might recall that Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings was supposed to be a big deal. Billed as a next-gen/AAA/Xtreme title, it was promoted as the character’s grand, interactive comeback from LucasArts following a long drought of non-casual Indy games since Emperor’s Tomb (2003).
Well, that drought never actually ended, because Staff of Kings wound up being a victim of that classic LucasArts pitfall: a transition at the upper level. The end result was that the studio felt it had to choose between putting its resources either toward a Star Wars game or a Not Star Wars game – another LucasArts signature – and the right to live predictably went to The Force Unleashed, which reputedly shared some of the same tech that was meant to power Indy.
Staff of Kings – in its original form, anyway – was thus cancelled, leaving some low-end third party adaptations for the Wii and handhelds to be burned off after the fact. There was an additional, unexpected casualty amidst all this: a fully completed novelization of Staff of Kings by go-to Indy author Rob MacGregor. What happened exactly to this unpublished tie-in gets kinda complicated, so let me just steal this excellent overview provided by “throwmethewhip”, who also reveals the happy ending that I’m really trying to report here:In 2008, as merchandising efforts kicked up to coincide with the release of Indy4, one long-teased piece of media, a next gen video game with exciting new physics technology, was conspicuously absent. Behind the scenes of that project, there was production trouble. The next gen versions were canceled and production shifted focus toward the Wii. Ultimately on June 9th, 2009, with very little fanfare, Staff of Kings released for the Wii, PS2, DS and PSP. It was not well-received.
Meanwhile, veteran Indiana Jones author, Rob MacGregor was confused. Rob had written 6 of the prequel novels in the 90s and had been contracted to make his triumphant return to the world of our favorite adventurer with a novelization of Staff of Kings. But his book had not released alongside the game.
Rob has recounted this story at length on an old blog, but in short— the publisher, Bantam, forgot due to the year long delay of the game. Initially, they blamed Rob for not getting the manuscript submitted on time, but he reminded them that he had it in well ahead of the original deadline back in 2008. They did admit their error, but ultimately decided against publishing it; the game after all was not a commercial or critical success. And with that Rob’s novel was lost to the sands of time…
Or was it?
Fast forward several years and Dale Dassel convinced Rob to allow him to format the book. @cg_illus was commissioned to provide artwork. The hope was to persuade Bantam to release the manuscript as an ebook as all the work was done. Ultimately this too failed.
To my knowledge, seven copies of that manuscript were made. This is one of those copies! Fully formatted!
For years now, I have heard people say that the book was leaked and available. It has not been. It has never been sold to anyone and NEVER will be. I know where all seven copies are.
And so now, an announcement:
The book will make its public debut as a month by month, chapter by chapter reading completely free on Rob’s podcast starting in July! Rob has graciously asked me to make this announcement!
So there you have it! I don’t know the actual name of said podcast right this second, but I have until July to figure it out.
Source: Instagram
We did our best to warn you that the upcoming, surprise Switch releases of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and its sequel Ghoul Patrol would be accompanied by physical releases from Limited Run Game. But would any warning have really prepared you for this?
Well, if I'm gonna be impoverished, it might as well be by this.
Look, I don’t care what you say – the Amiga versions of The Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck’s Revenge are the only Monkey Island-s you need. And now you can play them through the streaming service Antstream Arcade. What is Antstream Arcade? I have no clue, but it exists, and it has the Amiga versions of Monkey Island. The service is available for Windows, Mac, Android, Linux, Amazon Fire, and Nvidia Shield.
You can try the Antstream for free; after that, it’s £9.99 a month. I could not find any dollar or euro prices.
(Some might also argue UAE is a better alternative, but I’ll leave that up to the individual.)
As long as we're on the subject of Laserschwert, did you know that he recently gave his frame-ready poster download of the Monkey Island 2 cover art a material upgrade? You better give your eyeballs a head-up on this one.
You see, a 1991 issue of the UK-based magazine "The One" contained a large, fold-out poster of Purcell's artwork, making it a superior scanning source to the box, or for that matter anything else known to exist. A generous fan in possession of that particular issue heard the call of duty and sent the precious reference material to the pre-eminent authority in this field, who then worked his arts:
Read more and collect your upgrade in Laserschwert's stickied poster thread, where the latest version of his offerings can always be found.
Boy, it's almost like reading the forums is a good idea or something.
Source: The Forums
Well, I didn't know about all that. Luckily, Laserschwert was able to https://forums.mixnmojo.com/topic/200381-zombies-ate-my-neighbors-2/?do=findComment&comment=2788753
]steer me to the following tweet when I showcased my ignorance on the forums, thereby putting me In The Know™.[/p]Now that's putting your license with Lucasfilm to good use. We'll just have to contain ourselves until all is divulged in June. In the meantime: woot.
Source: Twitter
And that's awesome.
More, please.
Update: Oh nice, there's a trailer, too, revealing extra features that include a behind-the-scenes gallery.
Source: Nintendo Life
I’ve been told anecdotally that there are a number of public Discord channels where Mixnmojo readership types congregate and make predominately harmless mischief together. Being that I’m in my late eighties, I don’t keep up with such things myself and instead rely upon a few well-placed sources to funnel back the highlights to the nursing home I occupy.
All this is to explain Mojo’s palsied reaction to a rather stunning turn of events: Skunkape’s Randy Tudor, who served as a gameplay programmer both on Sam & Max: Freelance Police as well as the Telltale seasons, offered up without comment [that I know of] the following from his personal archive to the community of a Sam & Max Discord:
That would of course be Freelance Police project lead Mike Stemmle on the receiving end of Max’s ire. All signs point to this being produced during that cancelled game’s development -- perhaps as part of some web-based marketing that didn’t see the light of day, or maybe it’s just some internal nonsense the team made to amuse themselves?
We may never know, but like all untimely Freelance Police flotsam that makes it to the shoreline, it’s getting gracelessly stuffed into our big fat article where all extant media related to that martyred sequel shall collect like barnacles until the end of the internet.
We've learned that LucasArts games tester Judith Lucero has passed away. Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert shared some thoughts on her importance at his blog.
Although she isn't in the opening credits to Monkey Island 2, Gilbert's post proves she did work on it. Her name appears in the opening to The Secret of Monkey Island, and her list of credits speaks for itself.
Mixnmojo gives its condolences to her family and loved ones.
Okay listen, headline aside, I'm gonna dial back on the snark that it has been politely noticed I tend to dish out when Limited Run Games robs a deserving SCUMM title of one of these top notch packaged releases by routing the budget to a Star Wars title instead while their licensing arrangement with Lucasfilm presumably tick, ticks away.
It's inappropriate, it's not the time, and frankly it's not reading the room.
So in the interest of fair play here - and for gosh sakes, what do I stand for if not fair play? - and without further unsolicited commentary from the peanut gallery, here is the announced Star Wars: Republic Commando boxed set, presented in its full glory:
But if I could just say one thing. Limited Run? You listening? I want to run something past you right quick. It'll just take a second.
You get it, Limited Run Games?
See what I'm saying, Limited Run Games?
I love you, Limited Run Games.
Source: Limited Run Games
Those revived forums are paying for themselves! The venerable “monkeyboobs” started a thread upon noticing the following submission on Unseen64:
A good few years ago I was contacted by one of the lead devs of the original Zombies Ate My Neighbours game. He was a fan of the channel and thanked me for making a video on the franchise :)
If that wasn’t cool enough he then went on to explain that a TRUE sequel was pitched but sadly not successful. Here are a couple of pics he showed me from that original pitch. The plan was that I would interview him and show off more, but sadly that never happened :(
We have lost contact over the last couple of years now and I have been sitting on these images for a long time not really knowing what to do with them! So, before I accidentally delete them I feel it is best that I share them with the world :P
Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1993) has had an impressively unsuccessful time of getting continuations off the ground. The only direct sequel was Ghoul Patrol (1994), which began its life as an unrelated game before the Zombies protagonists were slapped on it at the eleventh hour. In terms of gameplay if not genre, Herc’s Adventures (1997) could quite reasonably be thought of as a third installment, while a proposed tribute game called Demons Ate My Neighbors looks to be going for something much more faithful to the original.
The book Rogue Leaders revealed that LucasArts began work on another game that was intended to be kindred to Zombies back in 2000. The game, code named Sawyer, was abandoned when its team was reassigned to Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. Concept art can be seen here. Is Sawyer the same game as this alleged Zombies Ate My Neighbors 2, or something different altogether? We may never know, but dropping a quirky game in favor of an Attack of the Clones tie-in is some classic turn-of-the-century LucasArts.
Source: Unseen64