Issue 94 of UK-based magazine Retro Gamer sports a feature on Maniac Mansion, including thoughts from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick. Check out the cover:
The physical issue can be ordered for £ 5.00 here, or you can grab it through iTunes for $4.99.
As part of a strategy to make money without actually doing anything, Lucasfilm has licensed out the Indiana Jones property to Zynga, the developer of Farmville, so that our years of waiting for the archaeologist to join the browser-based social gaming craze can finally draw to a close. According to Zygna, the fun will begin next month:
The company announced Friday that a "very special integration" will be made with its new Adventure World and the character starting in October.
The specialness of this integration cannot be overstated. In the meantime, LucasArts is hiring up a storm for their internal projects, that is until Lucasfilm execs get wind that one of their divisions is producing something.
Reader vastcool has just informed us of his Lucasarts Adventurer blog over here where he's putting up scans of The Adventurer, the magazine which was included with North American releases of LucasArts games in the 1990s. So far he's posted issues 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, and 12.
So you probably knew this, but I'll go ahead and point out that today is the release of the Monkey Island Special Edition retail combo for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. As a reminder, this is a European-only release. North Americans who don't care to wait for LucasArts to decide if Monkey Island is worth releasing in US stores will want to do what I did and import. HMV was my source.
As Zaarin pointed out in the previous post, we've got some reactions to the release stewing over in the forums. Apparently the "full commentary" is an elusive special feature, but there's a bonus track in the soundtrack. Boosh!
Thanks to forumer Threepwood4life we now have images of both the front and back of the cover of Friday's release of Monkey Island: Special Edition on disc in Europe! Mojo is apparently quoted on the back! (Why else do you think we posted them?)
Updated: Large image thanks to Alex IDV! Discuss this on our forums.
Photographed by Threepwood4life.Photographed by Threepwood4life.Back and front cover art by Alex IDV
Having recently found I had too much time on my hands, I've been thinking about the various literary and cinematic inspirations which contributed to the story of LucasArts' science-fiction adventure The Dig. Now, the time has come to share my ruminations with loyal Mojo readers.
In the comments of the previous news post, which now merits a follow-up, Kroms made note of a LucasArts tweet which said, "It should be noted that we're hiring for a number of positions and games, including @clicknothing 's." To clarify for my Mom, @clicknothing is Clint Hocking's Twitter name.
Indeed, a quick glance at the open positions at LucasArts would lead you to believe that in addition to an open-world RPG, they're working on an action/adventure title, a first person shooter title, and an aerial combat title. Could even one of these not be a Star Wars game? The "Secret Weapons" series is certainly due for a new installment, or perhaps the flight sim could be a game based on Red Tails, the first Lucasfilm feature without Star Wars in the name since Radioland Murders (1994).
According to LucasFilm's jobs page, LucasArts is apparently hard at work on an "open-world RPG". This slightly vague term could encompass anything from DeathSpank to Oblivion, but will still be a wildly more ambitious title than anything we really expected from LucasArts. They're damn hard to make, require a lot of development time, and plenty of committed staff. It'll be cancelled, in other words. Nevertheless, the requirement "passion for making and playing innovative games" does inspire hope in me at least.
Oh, and Ron Gilbert should totally call his autobiography "From DeathSpank To Oblivion".
A few weeks back over at Nintendojo, a place of "Nintendo news, analysis and musings," a few paragraphs were devoted to Maniac Manson for the NES. Read them, won't you?
You've heard the commentary on Monkey Island 2 SE, now be prepared to watch it (or at least some of it)! Videos courtesy of gen16.com's Youtube channel.
Thanks to reader Threepwood4life for telling us about these.
Earlier in the month, other parts of the web were told that developer Red Fly Studios laid off 30 employees. Today comes news relevant to this part of the web: those layoffs apparently occurred because Red Fly was working on a Star Wars game that LucasArts canceled. Details are precious; aside from the fact that Red Fly is mainly a Wii developer, the resume that constitutes the source of this story speaks only of the project as a "next-gen Star Wars game."
Statistically speaking, LucasArts' catalog is far less deficient in Star Wars than it is in, for instance, Not Star Wars, so it can be considered a safe assumption that their decision to kill the project had to with not wanting to re-assign resources away from Handsome Halibut, currently slated for release in the Spring of two-thousand never.
This week's pick is a twelve-minute special on LucasArts that G4 Tech TV aired in the 2002-2003 area. Furnishing employment for the zaniest narrator ever, this video features interviews with a pre-assassination Simon Jeffrey, Mary Bihr, Dave Grossman, Sean Clark, and Mike Stemmle. Apparently those last two are respectively working on a Full Throttle and Sam & Max sequel, so that's exciting, though I didn't know Tim Schafer made The Curse of Monkey Island.
Pretty cool news for UK gamers - a bundle package of the two Monkey Island special editions will be released on September 9th for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Naturally, the publisher on this is LEC's European distribution arm Activision - I'm pretty sure the last time LucasArts itself ever shipped a retail product with the Monkey Island name on it was that compilation of the first three games from 2001, and there's no reason for them to blemish their record.
What's cool about this release is that it's going to include some exclusive bonus material. To quote the press release:
Monkey Island Special Edition Collection will also include never-before seen content including environment and character concept art from both the Special Edition versions of both games. Music fans can also tap their toes along to the remastered and re-recorded soundtracks for both games. And most exciting, players will also receive storyboards and concept art from an Industrial Light & Magic exploration of a Monkey Island™ animated movie that was never released.
The accumulation of Steve Purcell and Tony Stacchi concept art from the Monkey Island movie has gotten quite formidable over the years - it would be cool if LEC really had anything never-before-seen to share.
Anywho, hopefully this makes some new fans for the Monkey Island series. Although I wonder what LucasArts' response will be when the newly christened crew of Threepwood devotees wants to buy installments 3 and 4?
Do you count yourself among an imaginary coalition to effect an industry of "violent, fart-joke-infused, aggression-release-valve games?" Well, LucasArts creative director Clink Hocking has a few condescending words for you. Yes, the first published work with Hocking's name on it since he jumped from Ubisoft to the Star Wars house may not be a game per se, but shouldn't lecturing people about the culture of making games take precedence over actually making games?
To be fair, the disclaimer beneath Hocking's rant does assure that he's still attached to that "unannounced project." I'm still pretty sure that's a game.
A Maniac Mansion fan by the name of Joseph Flatt decided to sit down and write four instrumental tracks inspired by the game. That's right - bucking the tradition of producing covers of actual tracks from Maniac Mansion, Flatts has obliterated expectations like a microwaved rodent and composed music that might have been heard in the game.
But rather than mail his mp3s off to Mark Eeter or parlay them into an audition for Green Tentacle's band, he's decided to share them with us, and us with you.
Yesterday, popular website Hardcore Gaming 101 posted an article on Lucidity, a flawed but nevertheless important LucasArts game from 2009. The article, which contains the phrase "somber twilight farm", gives you a brief overview of the game and examines its flaws. It also makes several tracks from the Jesse Harlin-composed soundtrack available for download, and they are a treat.
You may be wondering why I consider Lucidity to be "important". All I can say is this:
Other LucasArts games weren't as frowned upon nor as praised as Lucidity, but that's because they don't exist.
Lucidity never had Clint Hocking or any other internationally acclaimed designer helming it; but unlike other LucasArts games, Lucidity actually exists.
It's true that it's easier to make licensed games if you just want profit; however, unlike original LucasArts games, licensed LucasArts games developed in-house or Democratic ballsiness in a congressional hearing, Lucidity brought in some money because Lucidity actually exists.
Not content to rest on my laurels after finding a long-lost room from Loom, I've delved further into the realm of old French computer gaming magazines. This has yielded interesting results, such as this early version of the Monkey Island 1 title screen: Early version of the MI1 title screen
I also found an early stab at Guybrush's MI1 VGA sprite.
And here's a scan of Kate Capsize's ship from MI2, which was later almost entirely redesigned. The waterfall on Phatt Island, also seen here, was likewise redrawn to look more realistic. An early version of Kate Capsize's ship and the Phatt Island waterfall
Speaking of MI2, here's some long-lost original background art: Original background art for MI2
A joke from Last Crusade, sadly cut out: A joke (probably by Ron Gilbert) that was cut from the Last Crusade adventure game Fate of Atlantis with prototype inventory icons. Pictures of Fate of Atlantis with early inventory iconsPictures of Fate of Atlantis with early inventory icons
I've also got a nice scan from Joystick magazine showing Fate with its initial MI1-style GUI: Pictures of early Fate of Atlantis with a WIP GUI
(That early GUI was also seen in this scan from Génération 4 magazine already shown on Mojo.)
Finally, some scans featuring Brian Moriarty's The Dig from Génération 4 and Joystick, covering CES of summer 1993. The Dig article from Generation 4 magazine, 1993The Dig article from Joystick magazine, 1993 (page 1)The Dig article from Joystick magazine, 1993 (page 2)
Among other things, these articles show off the gory death scene of Toshi Olema (the fourth Dig astronaut later removed by Sean Clark), who tried to cross a lake of acid, with predictable results.
Also check out this translated description of the original Dig script Steven Spielberg intended for the Amazing Stories TV show: "It was about a team of future archaeologists who unearth a statue of Mickey Mouse, then Sleeping Beauty's castle, etc., ultimately discovering that they have located Disneyland."
I think we can all be thankful Disneyland is not in the final game.
