The International House of Mojo

Can anybody explain to me what Disney Infinity is? I did my due diligence and skimmed the Wikipedia page, but I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm just too old.

But the reason I'd like to know is that there's this Polygon interview with some vaguely-titled muckety–mucks of Lucasfilm and Disney Interactive where they say, well, this:

What the hell, Ada?!

Source: Polygon

I always try to do a news post of Mojo related tidbits after our downtime. This one's going to be a long one. At least, with the new server, it'll likely be the last.

Christian Adam has found a solution to allow the people who have graphics hardware below the requirements of Grim Fandango Remastered to play the game in classic mode.

Double Fine is making games in conjunction with Adult Swim Games, as well as Zoink Games.

On the subject of Double Fine, Massive Chalice went out of early access and received it's full release, and Iron Brigade has had Game for Windows Live replaced with Steamworks, fixing matchmaking. The latter was possible thanks to the fact that Double Fine has regained the rights to Iron Brigade from Microsoft.

At E3, it was revealed that ex-Mojoer and former Telltale developer extraordinaire, Jake Rodkin's company Campo Santo will have the console debut of their first game Firewatch on PS4. It is also going to be released on PC, Mac, and Linux. No release date has been set, but Campo Santo is aiming for release by the end of 2015.

Telltale is making a three episode miniseries that will be DLC for The Walking Dead: Season Two called The Walking Dead: Michonne, set during the period of the comics when Michonne is absent from the group. They also finally showed a little bit of what their Minecraft: Story Mode will look like.

Lucasfilm is working on a fully interactive 3D virtual Star Wars world, via their ILM experience lab.

Humongous Entertainment games are starting to make their way to GOG.com. The Pajama Sam series made its way to the service earlier this month.

The co-creator of Maniac Mansion and Thimbleweed Park, Gary Winnick, had his best selling comic, Bad Dreams, released in trade paperback format on the 17th of June.

While we're on the subject of Thimbleweed Park, be sure to check out the Thimbleweed Park development blog, as lots of good inside information about the development process of that game is being posted regularly.

So, if you hadn't noticed, Star Wars is happening. And part of that happening is a new Star Wars: Battlefront game that might not get cancelled before the release date of 17 November 2015.

From the gameplay footage that looks like pre-rendered cut scenes, Star Wars fans will FINALLY get what they've been asking for since 1983 - the chance to play The Battle of Hoth!

The embedded youtube clip below only works for three people, so for the other four of you, here's a direct link to the trailer.

Source: EA

Nice. After releasing LucasArts games in batches up until now, GOG has abruptly put out a single game today, but it's a good 'un: Afterlife, Mike Stemmle's satirical, overly-complicated but very much underrated take on SimCity that assigns you the task of managing Heaven and Hell for the denizens of a planet called The Planet.

Missed out on the game back in 1996 like some sort of uncultured hick? You need only fork over $5.99 to join the prestigious group of folks who have played Afterlife. Don't forget to type "SAMNMAX" (caps necessary) three times for the lagomorph's obligatory cameo.

Go get it.

Source: GOG.com

Brian Moriarty's postmortem on LOOM that he presented at GDC 2015 is now available to view in the GDC vault.

Our very own curator of all things cut and changed from LucasArts and Sierra games, ATMachine, has captured three of the images from the video and corrected the aspect ratio (as the images in the presentation were cropped, meaning the original rooms must have been even wider). He has presented them to you in the most authentic manner possible.

These images are from lost rooms in Crystalgard. They include an alternate shot of the outside of Crystalgard, the hall of mirrors with the Chromax Conundrum, and the infamous lost room with the three sandglasses.

Source: ATMachine

The still unique and haunting Loom was a welcome addition to yesterday's GOG.com LucasArts drop, but it poses a problem for purists: the version offered - the only version commercially available - is the VGA Talkie version.

This is a fine version of the game and no doubt for some definitive. For others, the original version, with its incredibly inventive EGA graphics by Mark Ferrari, complete script (the voiced version was re-written for disc space restraints) and gorgeous character close-ups is at least as worthy of preservation.

And the game's creator, Brian Moriarty, took to Twitter to count himself among them:

So buy Loom, then play the version of it you want.

Also, this is a good time to mention that the version of Zak McKracken that got released yesterday is the excellent FM-Towns version. No word yet from David Fox on whether he tacitly supports obtaining the older versions after purchase, but my nearest available authority, Remi, feels that "it's probably fine."

Source: Brian Moriarty's Twitter

Now this is more like it. GOG.com has made six more LucasArts games available on its service, and the inductees are:

- Outlaws
- Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
- Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition (RIP vertical scrolling)
- The Dig
- Loom (Talkie version)

I am pleased by this direction. Naturally, some of those are already available on Steam, but that's fine because we want 'em all, and GOG has knocked 20% off those particular titles. (A savings of over a dollar!) The inclusion of Outlaws and Zak McKracken provokes a particularly hearty fist-pump from yours truly.

I'm now at the optimistic point where I think the only adventure games that will be skipped are the ones that have special editions coming. I use the plural form, because it would not surprised me if Double Fine tackled Full Throttle after Day of the Tentacle.

Anyway, exciting times. And if I find no reason to be a cynic, nobody should.

Source: GOG.com

Back when we had a functional games database (a revival effort for which Remi will surely be taking donations), I Was a Teenage Lobot may have existed as a content-free entry stub. It was one of those unproduced games that we knew pretty much one thing about: a title. It was a game Ron, along with David Fox and Noah Falstein, pitched to Lucasfilm Games management between Koronis Rift and Maniac Mansion. It didn't happen, obviously, and the world grew just a little bit darker.

And now the design document is out, courtesy of Aric Wilmunder's mad archival skillz. Now you can find out what the game was, which includes Ron's first known use of the name "Chuck" and a penchant for threatening teenaged brains that would find its way into his next realized project. The rare document even contains some concept art. Damn we're relevant.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

The Humble Star Wars Bundle is going on. Pay what you want for Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi Academy, and Dark Forces. There are also 6 other Star Wars games if you pay $12 or more: Empire at War: Gold Pack, The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition, The Force Unleashed II, Battlefront II, Knights of the Old Republic II, and Republic Commando. The site says that there's more yet to be announced.

If Star Wars isn't your thing, the Humble Weekly Bundle is an adventure bundle this week. Pay whatever you like for Detective Grimoire, Broken Sword 1 & 2, and The Whispered World Special Edition. If you pay more than the average, you'll also get The Detail: Episode 1, A Golden Wake, and Cognition: Game of the Year Edition. If you pay $10 or more, you'll also get Broken Sword 5.

Remember that Day of the Tentacle remake that was being created by LucasArts Singapore and was cancelled when it was estimated to be 80% complete?

A lot of people were wondering if this cancelled remake really existed and if Double Fine might use some of the assets in their Day of the Tentacle Special Edition. Well, we now have the answers to those questions, and they are yes, and maybe.

Double Fine's Vice President of Development, Matt Hansen, had this to say on the Double Fine forums:

I have to be careful with being too open since it isn’t our license, but I will say that I am very happy with the stuff from Singapore so far.

They're understandably cryptic about whether the material will be used, but it's good to finally have confirmation that it existed, and that it was apparently pretty good. Hopefully they do use these assets, as this would be the perfect game to become the last released project that was co-developed by LucasArts. Unless of course anyone is bidding to complete Sam & Max: Freelance Police.

Tim took to Twitter to turn the implicit into the explicit:

So buy Grim Fandango Remastered, in other words. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, and you've already bought the game. But have you bought enough? What if you break the very bytes of the game by playing it too hard? Wouldn't you want a backup copy in such an event?

Did you buy a copy for your Mom? Sibling? The child you're pregnant with? The dog you own? To be clear, I'm not saying not buying your dog Grim Fandango makes you a bad pet owner. I'm saying it makes you a terrible one.

Source: Double Fine's Twitter

Find it on GOG and Steam for the PC, and on other places for other things.

Hey, ah. I gotta split, so um...Viva la Revolución!

Just when you thought you couldn't get any more excited for tomorrow's release of Grim Fandango Remastered, here comes a fat new interview with Tim Schafer about all things Land of the Dead.

There's a lot more, like Tim's correct observation that Double Indemnity and Sweet Smell of Success feature some of cinema's best dialog, as well as some mysterious claim that the game features a new camera pan and hints about future adventure remakes, but you'll just have to read it all, my good man.

Source: Eurogamer.net

ResidualVM, the interpreter for playing Grim Fandango and Myst III on modern platforms, has been updated with a bug fix release. Version 0.2.1 fixes a crash when using subtitles in the Polish version of Myst III. In addition, a new port has been added. In addition to Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Amiga OS 4, ResidualVM is now available on SGI IRIX workstations.

I was reminded that we didn't really do anything to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of the Sam & Max 2 cancellation last year. Not that we should have. It's an increasingly irrelevant exercise and plus, with each passing year, it actually becomes more cringey for me to think back on that time when, shall we say, some slightly mortifying behavior was exhibited? Not that I'm absolving myself, but I was in high school in 2004.

One thing we are known to do sometimes is bust out our big honkin' compendium article, which is really just the database entry from Old Mojo that's been sloppily expanded over time as new facts and media came to light. I'm kinda proud of the unwieldy thing, because as far as I know it's still the ultimate resource on all known information related to the game, though I confess I'm too lazy to see if the Wikipedia article has gotten more accurate since I last saw it.

So as to why I'm making this post. I was re-reading that thing, when I got to this part, which made me sit up straight in my chair:

Ha, oh yeah! I'd forgotten about that. I wonder if anyone from the old team still has that lying about? I guess even if they did, Disney would be on them like sleaze on a Remi, but still, eff that Something Awful guy who got to see it!

Hold onto your hats, folks. "OzzieMonkey" in the comments reports that our sassy friends at Rock, Paper, Shotgun seem to know the next three LucasArts games that GOG will give a digital release. Behold what will arrive on the 27th:

- Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
- Star Wars: Starfighter
- Star Wars: Republic Commando

There was apparently a proper press release announcing GOG's latest LucasArts drops, by the way. This is supposed to continue "throughout 2015," so with any luck they'll accidentally include Outlaws or The Curse of Monkey Island at some point.

Source: Rock, Paper Shotgun

As ever, Kotaku proves to be way behind the Mojo curve by pointing out the (not quite) existence of the cancelled LucasArts game Justice Unlimited. For those who don't know, it was the studio's ill-fated, late-nineties attempt to make a Diablo game, except with superheroes. Jackassery aside, two of the three bits of concept art in Kotaku's article are new to me, although it turns out that's just because they're from that Rogue Leaders book I never bought.

To show that we're grownups, here's our own, better scoop about Justice Limited as part of Mike Stemmle's recollection of the wacky stretch of his career between Afterlife and Escape from Monkey Island.

That comes from an interview Mike granted us for that big honkin' EMI retrospective. Oh dear, did I just flog our own content? How embarrassing.

Source: Kotaku

And they are:

- Star Wars: Empire at War (Gold Pack)
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
- Star Wars: Rebellion (aka Star Wars: Supremacy)

Sorry I'm an asshole, but I'm sure enough of you are genuinely excited by these to balance it out.

Source: GOG.com

GOG has announced a second wave of six LucasArts games to be made available beginning this week. Yawn your way through the following selection!

• Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
  
• Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds Saga
  
• Star Wars: X-Wing Vs. Tie Fighter
  
• Star Wars: Dark Forces
  
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
  
  • Star Wars: Battlefront II

Because if there's one game that Earth's population has struggled to find at a decent price over the last fifteen years, it's KOTOR 2. Thank goodness our prayers have been answered.

Look, I get it. These are well regarded games, and they deserve to be re-released. But generally, you treat the guy who's in cardiac arrest before the guy whose foot fell asleep.

You ain't funny, GOG. Give us a better reason to wait next time, please. These reasons should feel free to be spelled exactly like Day of the Tentacle or Full Throttle.

Source: GOG.com

Now we know for sure this is an actual game. The screenshots and videos featured on the site seem to be things you'd have already been exposed to, but it's pretty much all worth it for the paper mache version of the Double Fine logo. Unless that's old news too.

Bit of trivia: The site's only been up for hours, which means that it's roughly on par with the sum total of Mixnmojo's uptime since 1997. Thank you! Thank you!

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Source: Grim Fandango