The International House of Mojo

And not just one sequel... potentially three more Gungan Frontier games!

Fusible has found a few new domain names that Lucasfilm has registered. There's a few interesting ones in here besides Gungan Frontier:

Source: Fusible

Yeah, so this happened.
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Disney Interactive are entering into a multi-year, multi-title exclusive licensing agreement with Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) for the creation of new high quality Star Wars games spanning multiple genres for console, PC, mobile, and tablets.
"Exclusive"!? Holy sith.

Source: Star Wars Official Site

ScummVM release testing season is upon us again, as version 1.6.0 of the program that lets you play classic adventure games on modern platforms nears release. The ScummVM team needs your help testing the new games which will added to ScummVM this release: 3 Skulls of the Toltecs, Eye of the Beholder, Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon, Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths, and The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime.

Additionally, they need your help testing Hopkins FBI, which will be added to ScummVM 1.6.0 only if they get testing results on several platforms for several versions of the game (which includes BeOS, OS/2, Linux and Windows). Also, in what is of the most interest to Mojo readers, they are looking for people to test Full Throttle.

So, if you have any of the games listed, help the team out by testing the game out using a daily build of ScummVM, posting any bugs you might find to their bug tracker, and reporting your findings on their forums, so they can update their 1.6.0 Release Testing page. Remember, stick to their release testing guidelines, and as always, happy adventuring!

About a week or so ago some saintly nobody unleashed his collection of rare, vintage videos of LEC press coverage by a Los Angeles morning news station onto Youtube. Dave Grossman looks about seven. Prepare to freak out.

Update by Mr Manager: Fast forward 36 seconds into the first video to witness a "never" before seen scene from The Secret of Monkey Island. We assume the view is of the cannibal village. When confronted about the scene being cut, Ronzo had this to say: "We cut stuff all the time due to flow reasons. It's not always space. I don't remember the exact reason it went away."

Source: Lucas Legacy Youtube channel

I don't know, felt like a good headline. Here are Chuck Jordan's feelings on the closure of LucasArts from his blog. It's a pointed and honest reflection on LEC's legacy from an ex-employee's perspective that somewhat takes to task the gushing sentiments around the web. What do you think?

There's been lots of reports about LucasArt's demise, but here are a few you may have missed:

• The PA Report on the human side
• Former LucasArts employee Jesse Harlin posts a eulogy on Facebook
• A photo essay by Joel Aron, showing LucasArts staff on one of their final days
• A BBC News article on LucasArts' closure, focusing on The Secret of Monkey Island (thanks to Michael Smith for the tip)

I'm sure there's many more out there -- so if you know of any more good ones please post them in the comments.

Also, we're planning to make a LucasArts Memorial podcast. Please e-mail comments, thoughts, memories etc. to podcast [at] mixnmojo.com either as a sound file or a text message! If it's a sound file we will include it directly in the podcast. Thanks.

A lot of nostalgic sentiments about LucasArts have pervaded the web over the past few days, and perhaps we'll be acknowledging a few more of them, but you've really gotta read this gigantic and loving tribute by Gamasutra, devoted as it is entirely to the graphic adventure games, which I'm sure all of us would agree are the correct subset of the studio's catalog to center a proper eulogy around. Amidst the ongoing swirl of online LEC remembrances, it is the best piece to emerge so far.

The article is largely composed of quotes from folks throughout the industry, who recall the LEC adventures with relatable adoration and assert the influence they continue to have. Peter McConnell is among the voices, and the whole thing concludes with reflections by David Fox.

Absolutely essential Mojo reading, right here.

Source: Gamasutra

LucasArts Fans Starting To Lose Hope Of Ever Seeing 'Loom' Sequel

Source: The Onion

Read the man reminisce.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

It's just that his require more than 140 characters.

Source: The Inspiracy

Well, you know they'll be coming all day. Figure we can collect the good ones as they are tweeted in one news post. Refresh furiously, we'll be adding more:

Keep Reading

Disney has shut down LucasArts and canceled any game in development.

We all saw this coming, but it's a bit sadder than I would like to admit.

Source: Kotaku

Not so long ago, Hardcore Gaming 101 launched a terrific feature dedicated to Zombies Ate My Neighbors and its sequel, Ghoul Patrol. Because the two-part extravaganza is larded with quotes from Mike Ebert and Kalani Streicher (the games' respective project leaders), loads of great behind-the-scenes information is incorporated.

One such tidbit is that at one point LEC alumnus Dean Sharpe tried his darndest to get LEC to bless a GBA port of the original game. This heartfelt petition culminated in the predictable nothing at all, enabling LEC to dodge a dreaded Somebody Might Accidentally Still Like Us bullet.

Speaking of this franchise, do you know what's become of that Zombies Ate My Neighbors movie that was supposedly being written by this guy? No, I'm really asking you.

Source: Hardcore Gaming 101

A former employee wrote this.

Source: Reddit

Joe Martin, who last August wrote an excellent retrospective on Habitat, has posted a new episode of his podcast Unlimited Hyperbole. In this instalment, he interviews Brian Moriarty, creator of Loom and an early version of The Dig.

If you're interested in his games and cancelled LucasArts titles, give it a listen!

The community's glory days bore a horn o'plenty of great LEC fan sites, on that we can all agree, but I think my favorite was The LucasArts Museum. You know, the one that endeavored to collect, index and photograph the boxes, manuals, game media, inserts, and all manner of increasingly frivolous and obscure paraphernalia associated with every release version of the LEC adventure games?

As an obsessive myself, that site was my jam, but whenever I'd visit the forums I felt way out of my league. It was both enjoyable and immensely intimidating to peruse threads and see people distinguish between versions based on LFL file datestamps, argue over which pressing a floppy disk label denoted, discover some hitherto unknown budget release of Full Throttle available only from the back of a magazine, and ask for a ballpark on how much the copy of Zak McKracken they stumbled onto at a garage sale was worth on eBay.

Keep Reading

Source: The LucasArts Museum forums

Sources close to Kotaku, presumably the same ones that recently revealed Star Wars 1313 is on hold, are now claiming that Star Wars: First Assault, that Battlefront-sounding XBLA shooter that was never officially announced, is no longer assured an existence.

The real scoop is that First Assault was in fact intended to be a sort of proof of concept for a Star Wars shooter running on the Unreal Engine, the success of which will directly lead to Battlefront III. The story is that LEC intentionally kept that brand off of this downloadable multiplayer game, which is nearly finished, "so expectations wouldn't be too high," and would have followed up with the long-awaited sequel.

Well, that was once the idea, anyway. Despite intending to release a closed beta of First Assault in September (which ties in nicely with October's minimal leaked reveal of the game), it seems that LucasArts has pretty much halted all their projects in the wake of the Disney acquisition. The reasoning? Apparently, there may be a sense that the Lucasfilm slate needs cleaning, a theory that the recent cancellation of Clone Wars and a second planned Star Wars TV show certainly seems to support. I'll bet the powers-that-be want all the focus to be on the new film trilogy.

Meanwhile, amidst all this uncertainty and decisions pending, hiring has frozen at LEC and employees have apparently been departing the studio in droves, so what will become of First Assault, 1313, and I guess whatever the hell else LEC has allegedly been up before the last menstrual cycle is an unknown. The author and the commenters seem primarily concerned about the effect LEC's potential euthanasia would have on the integrity of the Star Wars game franchise, which I don't mind telling you is exactly the kind of laugh I needed today.

Oh, and Kotaku also has some leaked footage of Star Wars: First Assault if the prospect rings your chimes.

Source: Kotaku

Tired of hearing us say the same old, predictable, boring truth about LEC? Then let IGN tell you for a change.

The article goes on to get other things spot on. Not that it matters, I guess.

Source: IGN

Peter McConnell, who composed for most of the classic LucasArts adventure games as well as for several Double Fine games, have been interviewed by the Super Marcato Bros in the season 2 finale of their video game music podcast. Head over there to listen to his insights and stories as well as some good music!

Source: Super Marcato Bros.

Kotaku has a large write-up on the status of Star Wars 1313, with inside sources claiming the game has been put on hold since the Disney acquisition in November 2012. Official sources are saying production is continuing.

Screw Star Wars 1313, where's my Tattooine Moisture Farmville game!?

Source: Kotaku