The International House of Mojo

It's been every iPad owners dream to be able to play classic LucasArts adventure titles on their device, and while several of them do exist for that platform (thanks DoubleFine), ScummVM has steadfastly remained an Android exclusive (unless you were willing to build and install ScummVM yourself).

That is, at least... until now: The ScummVM team have just announced that the iOS port of their monumental VM is in testing!

There's still a question mark around whether Apple will allow software they will likely view as an emulator on the App Store, but when questioned about it, ScummVM team leader, Sev, said, "we are yet to see". Hopeful! (?)

Source: ScummVM Website

News post for a slow week: Writer Simon Parkin's podcast My Perfect Console has guests pick five games for a perfect console, discussing these games as well as their careers. Each episode's about an hour.

One Dominic Armato joined Parkin about a month ago for an interview (episode 31), and one Erik Wolpaw (who co-wrote the first Psychonauts) joined previously (episode 13). Both episodes are good and representative of the show as a whole.

Listen to them on Apple Podcasts, Acast, Spotify, etc. It's been a staple of my low intensity cardio days, although fair warning that the podcast does make you want to go out and play video games afterwards.

Rock Paper Shotgun continues its annual "Top 100 PC Games of All-Time" shenanigans. Last week, Tales from the Borderlands came at #93, Return to Monkey Island made it to a respectable #85, and Knights of the Old Republic was at #79.

Now the second half of that list is out. Interesting choices all-around, with Firewatch at #39 and The Walking Dead: Season One hitting #22. (Honourable mention to Half-Life: Alyx, which some Mojo graduates worked on as part of the subsumed Campo Santo.)

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

Hey, psst, want a book recommendation? We asked pretty much every writer and designer who’s worked on a LucasArts, Telltale, Terrible Toybox, Double Fine, Autumn Moon, etc. game on here for good recent reads, then added a few of our own. (Every writer, that is, except Chris Purvis, Sean Clark, and Brendan Q Ferguson, whom we couldn’t find. We assume they’re mythical creatures now, living off the grid, somewhere in the northern wilderness, swept up in starlight.)

Some people never got back to us (understandably), and some said they would but hadn’t by the time the article went up (also understandably), but we’ll happily (to crib video game dev parlance) patch in any updates to the article should they reach out. (Sincerely, we'd love that. Unlike, say, Jim Ward, the brows being furrowed over here aren't over silly things like deadlines, but books. And I don't joke when I say we reached-out to all the designers/writers.)

Happy reading!

Did “springing forward” this morning leave you feeling bitter, outraged, and dispossessed? Then it may be time to revisit Dave Grossman’s time-honored, Pulitzer-dodging rant against the institutional handsiness your clock is subjected to twice a year by participating countries.

Those who want to take it to the next level might even try placing an order for Dave’s attendant schwag, to see if that old Cafepress store can still phone home. Report back with your results!

Source: Phrenopolis

More news outside the usual Mojo purview, but Telltale stalwart Jared Emerson-Johnson—you may remember him from Sam and Max, The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us—crooned out an album. Jared Emerson-Johnson's One-Man Skeleton Revival's album 1924 released in December and it is pretty sweet, and is available on Bandcamp, YouTube, Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify.

LucasArts and Telltale alumnus Graham Annable (of Nelson Tethers fame) did the cover art, with design furnished by some guy called Jake Rodkin.

I've listened to the album twice since discovering it last night—Mojo was timely for a while, I guess!—and it makes me want to dance. It's a new favourite, and (I suspect) absolutely phenomenal played live. Good stuff, Jared!

This is tangentially related to Mixnmojo's usual purview, but we thought it was worth breaking protocol for: If you love adventure games, you owe it to yourself to buy the Wadjet Eye Humble Bundle, which goes for anything over $10, with money heading to charity (specifically, the JDRF, which does Type-1 Diabetes research).

The games included are the Blackwell series, The Shivah, Primordia, Gemini Rue, Unavowed, Technobabylon, Resonance, Shardlight (which, uh, was quite the experience during the pandemic), and Strangeland, with a 30% coupon for their latest, The Excavation of Hob's Barrow.

You need the Mojo stamp of approval? You got it. While some of the earlier games are a little rough around the edges—specifically, the first Blackwell game and The Shivah—the rest are gold. Wadjet Eye's games constantly reinvent themselves and their mechanics, but have unique identities, are beautifully written, and forego both death and dead ends. While not comedies, their games have authenticity.

And Dave Gilbert, who heads Wadjet Eye, is just a really nice person. Anyway, get clickin'. You won't regret it.

Source: Humble Bundle

Variety is reporting that Earl Boen, who memorably provided the voice of the villainous ghost pirate LeChuck in the Monkey Island series up through Tales of Monkey Island, has passed away at the age of 81.

Though his voice work was particularly prolific, the veteran actor was well known for his appearances as Dr. Peter Silberman in the first three Terminator movies among countless roles across film and television. Though Boen had been retired since even before Tales, it was said that his enthusiasm for performing as LeChuck led him to nevertheless reprise the character for that project and the Monkey Island special editions that were produced around the same time. His contributions as Guybrush's arch-nemesis will endure. R.I.P.

Source: Variety

In November, Hit Point Films released Tales of Melee Island, the charming fan-film directed by Julian Stamboulieh. Mojo got to talk with Julian not long after. Like a pirate shanking a privateer, get some insight into the inner workings (by reading the interview). We cover inspiration and making of, plus gain a glimpse into Montreal's film and TV industry. Get readin', then rewatch the film below. (Also be sure to read our interviews with Monkey Island head honchos Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman, plus artist extraordinaire Rex Crowle.)

While Disney may have sunk its new Pirates of the Caribbean film, Tales of Melee Island, a lovely little Monkey Island fan-film helmed by Montreal-based Julian Stamboulieh, is happy to be flying its flag:

Starring Fred Nguyen, Simon Peacock, Shawn Baichoo—all appearing on video games credit lists (and, in Ngyuen's case, HBO's The Sympathizer, based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer-winning novel)—the short film docks at this port courtesy of Hit Point Films, a just-launched YouTube channel dedicated to fan movies.

Stamboulieh even provides some BTS material. It's fun stuff.

It's a rare day you get new Monkey Island, and a rare year you get a new Monkey Island game, but this is 2022: Japan has beaten Germany, Saudi Arabia has beaten Argentina, and we, improbably, have both Return to Monkey Island and, now, this.

Show them some love.

Source: YouTube

If you don’t keep at least semi-regular track of the LucasArts posters thread, you’re missing out. Just over the last few months, Laserschwert has gifted to the world dazzling new versions of Peter Chan’s Day of the Tentacle Star Wars parody, Zak McKracken’s cover art, and, in a direct valentine to mine own heart, some marriage-threateningly seductive Maniac Mansion alternatives. Freshly endowed with some superior Outlaws source material, he’s promising to bring that one to similar heights in the future as well.

It’s all there for the taking in the internet’s finest forum thread. Sleep on it at your own peril.

You might not consider Hitman 3 fertile ground for a Monkey Island easter egg, but with the launch of the new extra-piratey location, Ambrose Island, that has very much changed.

Eurogamer reports of a gravestone in the level, for one "G Threepwood, Mighty Pirate," and not only that, an associated treasure hunt you can engage in to dig up some treasure from our favourite swashbuckler's grave.

Apparently they do it in this very long video, but I took literally minutes to look through it and couldn't find it, so I'll leave that as a little challenge for YOU, the reader.

Source: Eurogamer

The British quiz show "The Chase" had a Monkey Island question the other night, and someone on Twitter has the proof:

Source: Twitter

Max, the adorable anthropomorphic rabbity thing you may remember being featured in a comic once in 1987 has been stuffed with fluff and is available for you to purchase, specifically if you have been unable to acquire one in the last year or so as they come in and out of stock.

What was new to me this time around with them coming back in stock is perhaps a new comic done by Steve Purcell, whom you might remember being the screenplay writer for Pixar's Brave.

I love that they were able to pick on the scarcity of the Max plushie they've encountered. I hope no one has to ever give in to the high prices being asked for on eBay.

Source: Uncute

Did you enjoy the writing in the Curse of Monkey Island? If so you might enjoy the debut novel by of the people responsible for that writing, Jonathan Ackley. It's called Off By One: Serious Games and is available to buy this very second.

The plot centers around the leak of a video games's source code and a mysterious government project that takes the protagonist into the heart of the post-Soviet underworld. The video game company in the novel is called "Coliseum Arts", which surely must be a wink to LucasArts. Right? (And if not, why not?)

So why not treat yourself? At $4 you can't go wrong supporting Ackley's latest endeavor!

Off By One: Serious Games on Amazon US and Amazon UK

Source: Jonathan Ackley's Facebook

It wouldn't be Halloween in a week if Dave Grossman wasn't carving a pumpkin up into something delightfully grotesque, would it? Take a look at the latest addition to the Pumpkin House of Horrors.

Update: Turns out Mixnmojo's already covered this news item, making this a scenic route towards that obligatory second link.

Source: Phrenopolis

On Tuesday, the passing of prolific voice actor Jack Angel was reported by multiple outlets. Among his many roles across film, television and video games, Angel contributed voice work to a number of LucasArts titles, including Star Wars: Dark Forces, Full Throttle, Outlaws, and most notably Grim Fandango, where he played the roles of Bruno Martinez, Seaman Naranja, and ol' Chepito, whose substandard sense of direction and undying love for the "Lil' Chipper" were legendary.

Happily, Angel's talent is eternalized via these classics. Now lift those knees, stay close to his light, and try to sing in key:

Source: Legacy

Dave Grossman's unflappable tradition of pumpkin desecration enters what I think might be its twenty-fifth year with his latest installment, dubbed "Brain Worm".

Indulge your sick curiosity and enjoy the past entries all over again while you're over there.

Cartoonist extraordinaire Graham Annable, whose Grickle was adapted into the Puzzle Agent universe, will be releasing his “first ever doodle collection” next month. Here’s the product description:

And here’s the pre-order link.

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:

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