The International House of Mojo

Several years back - I think it was somewhere around December 10th, 2005 - we spread the good word about a book called Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution, a detailed, acclaimed, behind-the-scenes look at various technology companies of the George Lucas empire. At the time, author Michael Rubin had put up the book's eighteenth chapter, a fascinating examination of the early days of Lucasfilm Games, up on his blog.

Now we receive word that the book has recently gotten a Kindle re-release. If you've ever had any interest in the genesis of companies like LucasArts, Pixar, and Industrial Light and Magic (or if, to put it a simpler way, you read Mojo), Rubin's insider look at the story behind them is by all accounts compelling stuff. Check out the new digital release or stick with the easier-to-cuddle analog version, if you prefer.

And maybe stay tuned for a review of Droidmaker from us sometime in the future. Who knows, crazier things have happened.

Remember that Monkey Island 2: Special Edition E3 trailer that ended with a surprise 3D twist that had us all talking? Here, refresh your memory:

Source: Juan Solís García's blog

So there's this web show called "Matt Chat," a production of Armchair Arcade in which video game people of interest are interviewed via webcam. I've been alerted to two recent Matt Chat interviews of interest to our Objective.

First up is an interview with the legendary David Fox, creator of Zak McKracken:

Source: Armchair Arcade

When assaulted with contemporary games that are aggressively mediocre, it is understandable that Star Wars fans would prefer to reminisce about the halcyon days when, say, the Super Star Wars trilogy for the SNES was proffering some highly decent side-scrolling translations of the classic movies.

The folks at NowGamer were struck by such nostalgia and were inspired to write a feature about these 16-bit gems, and what really makes it awesome is that they thought to pursue the games' producer and lead designer Kalani Streicher for some reflections. As a result the article contains all sorts of great background info, and Streicher even expresses the desire to return to the series some kind of way, if LEC would ever be interested. Take a look.

Source: NowGamer

And there are no small Maniac Mansion retrospectives.

Source: Gameranx

Who knows when Star Wars: Battlefront III will ultimately be made, but today you can check out eight minutes of leaked footage from the version that Free Radical was working on several years back before the plug got pulled. That plug has subsequently been re-inserted and removed in sexually suggestive ways - some concept art from a possibly-not-fraudulent version of the long-awaited sequel by Slant Six has emerged, and the latest rumors hold that Spark Unlimited is making the game now.

In any case, here's the Free Radical footage:

Source: Game Rant

If you ever wanted to dance with Han Solo to Jason Derulo's "Ridin' Solo", then there's good news for you. Kinect Star Wars is in stores now.

The reviews so far say that the dancing mini-game, the rancor destruction mini-game, and the pod racing mini-games are fun, but the game's most anticipated feature, the Jedi fighting mini-games, are unresponsive, making the game overall a let down.

Skip to 00:51.

Reddit's "Ask Tim Schafer Anything" event has come and gone, but the answers to the questions are still there to read.

Double Fine has also posted up 10 videos where Tim responds to the questions, which cover both his LucasArts games and his Double Fine games, as well as those games at Double Fine which were led by others.

Find out what adventure games inspired Tim Schafer's career, what Tim Schafer's favorite puzzles are in his games, how Tim felt about the sales of his LucasArts games, what didn't end up in the games he made, how he felt about Sierra, and much more.

See the answers for yourself in video form right here and even more answers in text form here.

An editorial published on Gamasutra today ruminates on the effectiveness of the absence of voice acting in certain games. The author was apparently inspired to write the piece when she replayed Loom recently. Evidently having grown up with the original EGA version, she was surprised to find that the version found on Steam is in fact the Talkie VGA version, the existence of which she was unfamiliar with. Outrage, and the article, ensued.

Not that LucasArts gives a flying monkey bladder, but for me this reinforces the importance of having both the original and "enhanced" versions of Loom available because they are such different experiences. While the voicework in the Loom update was quality, the game's dialog had to be re-written, and the close-up art had to be struck, in order to accommodate technical limitations of the time. It is unclear if the new script, at least partially (but possibly mostly) rewritten by Orson Scott Card, even involved creator Brian Moriarty at all. Plus there's a legitimate argument to be made that Mark Ferrari's original, brilliant, and ingeniously animated 16-color EGA backgrounds justifies the respect of being perpetually offered as an option, rather than replaced.

Source: Gamasutra

Over at Kotaku, Chris Person has put together a nice little montage of all the words he learned while playing Sam & Max Hit the Road.

If I had thought about using this as a studying tool, I wouldn't have had to spend all that money on an SAT tutor. Instead, I just stuck to using "how pavlovian" as a catchphrase to bewilder my friends (which is obviously the best line in the game). It's also nice to see there's another AdLib soundtrack aficionado out there.

Source: Kotaku

Oh, you thought LucasArts had just been developing the Pit Droids iOS port and Maul-Your-Face app for the last 3 years? WRONG, they're also working on building a large scale online services and infrastructure to support a new way of connected online gaming that is going to revolutionize the industry..
So, Steam then?
Here's the job description.
Also, Kinect Star Wars is finally coming out on April 3. You know you always wanted to do a Galactic Dance Off Electric Boogaloo.

Source: LucasArts

In a surprise move LucasArts is re-releasing its old puzzle game "Pit Droids" on iOS devices this evening for US$1.99. Originally for PC and developed by LucasLearning, the game is a good fun diversion.

LucasLearning (in 1999) said:
In Star Wars® Pit Droids®, both kids who love math and those who don't will enjoy the challenging logic puzzles in this tile-based game. Increasingly complex puzzles engage students in sophisticated thinking as they explore the mathematics of attributes, geometry, sets and networks, while testing out multiple solutions to problems. Students can even build their own puzzles using a sophisticated puzzle design laboratory.

Will more games be dusted off from the archives and given a new lease of life on iPhones & iPads? We can only hope. Will they all tie in with The Phantom Menace? We can only hope not.

Oh, also 'Hai everyone'!

Source: TouchArcade

Reminding everyone once again how effortlessly brilliant Grim Fandango is, Eurogamer has published a retrospective article reminiscing about what I consider to be LucasArts' grandest achievement — and the reason that everyone should kind of fancy Tim Schafer.

And that right there is a very fair point. Where is our Grim Fandango re-release, LucasArts? With modern consoles being better equipped than ever to handle a point-and-click adventure game thanks to the likes of PlayStation Move and Kinect, now is most definitely the time to unleash this classic upon the world for a second time.

'Retrospective: Grim Fandango' on Eurogamer »

I speak of course of Darth Maul Me, a free mobile app that comes just in time for the theatrical re-release of The Phantom Menace in 3D!So is this why the trademark jokes in Monkey Island are so funny? Because they're true? Oh, sorry for invoking a non-Star Wars LEC property; I know it's impolite.

Source: APPSMeNow

The Official Star Wars Blog reports that veteran English actor Ian Abercrombie, who voiced Chancellor Palpatine in the Star Wars: Clone Wars TV series (as well as LucasArts-published games adapted from it) passed away on January 26th. He was 77.

The blog post includes remembrances from some of the crew of The Clone Wars.

A peek at his filmography on IMDB reveals that you hardly have be a Clone Wars viewer to have enjoyed this man's work. Among a multitude of other roles, he played Mister Pitt, Elaine's needy millionaire boss on several episodes of Seinfeld, John Hammond's butler in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and the bearded wise man who sent Bruce Campbell to fetch the necronomicon in Army of Darkness (along with the poorly heeded instructions to speak three magic words).

Source: The Official Star Wars Blog

Remember Sam & Max Hit the Road and Curse of Monkey Island? Kind of? Well, now's your chance to be reminded about the two games's awesomeness. No, not by playing them yourself -- how 2011 is that?! -- but by watching 1UP play them for you.

The site has a "lunch break" feature, apparently, where they play classic games while streaming the experience live. You can also ask them questions about what the hell's going on.

Tune in tomorrow, the 25th, at 1pm for Sam & Max and the 26th for Curse.

It's kind of amazing how many years of mileage the rumor mill has gotten out of Star Wars: Battlefront III, a sequel which is shaping up to have a damn near The Dig level of cyclical false starts.

A third installment in the hugely popular shooter franchise would seem a no-brainer, and indeed it was reported to have been being worked on a number of times by a number of different parties (on various occasions, rumors held that the contract was given to Free Radical, Rebellion, and even original Battlefront developer Pandemic), but the project never seemed able to gain any traction for whatever reason. I guess when a studio goes into transition as hyperactively as LEC does, it's more than the little games that suffer. Or maybe the game was just never turning out good, who knows.

Anyhow, the neverending story has entered a new chapter, or did a few weeks ago when everyone besides us reported on it. The latest developer associated with Battlefront III is Spark Unlimited, who turned in a Call of Duty installment several years back. Here's the evidence, as reported by Game Informer:

It's been not unreasonably speculated that Spark Unlimited could in fact just be working on another Call of Duty, but the rumors persist. And the saga continues.

Source: Game Informer

The clever chaps at ResidualVM (the 3D sister to ScummVM) have finally discovered the reason for the missing dialogue at the end of Grim Fandango. As it turns out it wasn't a design choice, it was a simple bug...

A bug so buried that apparently not even Tim Schafer was aware of its existence:

The bug is now fixed for players using the latest version of ResidualVM to play Grim Fandango.

You can get ResidualVM for free here: http://www.residualvm.org

Source: ResidualVM.org

And that would be because today is the worldwide launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Though LucasArts did not develop the massively expensive online RPG and even relinquished publishing duties to EA/Bioware, Lucasfilm will be skimming 35% off the top after the game breaks even (a cut that Paulie from Goodfellas was quoted as calling "downright avaricious") as part of the licensing deal.

With the revenue they will derive from their rather envious "Do Absolutely Nothing But Manage To Fill The Coffers To Surfeit Anyway" business model, it goes without saying that the executives of the San Francisco based entertainment company will see fit to invest a little bit of that mailbox money in new and exciting interactive properties.

And I for one can't wait!

Source: Gamasutra