The International House of Mojo

The "top-down" shoot-em-up Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a favorite of the 16-bit era and not even the sole classic to come out of LucasArts in 1993. It is also, seemingly, among the most sequelizable games ever made.

Despite this, its potential as a series has been weirdly explored. It did get one official sequel, Ghoul Patrol, but that apparently began as an unrelated game only to be redecorated as a Zombies follow-up at the eleventh hour. A spiritual successor, Herc's Adventures was made by key members of the Zombies team but is technically not part of the brand, even if the branding is all that's missing.

Two obscure successors always seemed to be a rather limp legacy for a game that is still so fondly remembered, and apparently there are some developers that agree. Enter Demons Ate My Neighbors! by Tuned-Out Games and HumaNature Studios. Says Nintendo Enthusiast:

If the title and premise don't convince you that this title is explicitly intended as an unambiguous tribute to Zombies Ate My Neighbors, the screenshot in the full write-up will. Look for Demons Ate My Neighbors! on Nintendo Switch and PC sometime in 2021, preferably with a Player 2 on hand.

Source: Nintendo Enthusiast

News for a slow news day (since nothing's happening in the outside world):

YouTube user NoirReservoir wants to know your opinions on The Curse of Monkey Island, the best game in the series, which you can provide by clicking here. Do you like the music? The puzzles? El Pollo Diablo? Let 'em know.

This came to our attention via the Twitter account LucasArts fans, who said they'd be happy if we noticed them. Hi, losers. Sorry, we jocky, cool kid adventure game types can't share a table with you sweaty ne--How the hell do they have twice the number of Twitter followers that Mixnmojo does?

For shame. After you've done the survey, follow Mixnmojo on Twitter, you mangy curs. (And also those upstart LucasArts Adventure Fans.)

Source: NoirReservoir

Many, many, many years ago we published reviews for all the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, which at the time were part of a trilogy. Now, just a little bit too late, we have completed the pentalogy, and reviewed the two last movies. Do we like them? Hate them? Do you care? All great questions, so go read!

Its been a while since the last Mojo podcast so to tide you over you might enjoy listening to the Super Marcato Bros video game music podcast. They dont have 4 guys arguing about which version of Loom is the best, but as podcasts go its pretty good.

Each week they analyse what makes the music in a particular game so great. To save you the trouble of searching here are some episodes that are of particular interest to Mojo readers:

Monkey Island 3 & 4 Monkey Island 1 Monkey Island 2 Sam and Max Hit the Road Interview with Peter McConnell - his Lucasarts music Interview with Peter McConnell - his post-Lucasarts music

Source: Super Marcato Bros Podcast

When we're not stirring up controversy over resurrected Star Wars games the Mojo staff love nothing more than to relax with some good old handicrafts. Right now Jason is reaching the end of his Ozzie Mandrill knitting pattern and Remi has almost completed the tie-die swordmaster tshirts for his Etsy shop.

Its fortunate, then, that papercraft-maker Ninjatoes has created free papercraft models for EMI era Guybrush and Manny Calavera.

Find them and many more over at his blog.

Source: Ninjatoes' Blog

Continuing our Scummbuddy news cycle, you can now pre-order Boss Fights’s Sam & Max toys. Grab yourself some Sam, and pick up some Max on your way out, and you’ll only be out $37.99 * 2. Boss Fight even posted some photos of the figurines on Instantgram.

Source: Boss Fight Studios

It seems like only last freaking May that Boss Fight Studios announced their license to produce collectible Sam & Max figurines. Seeing as it's the only upcoming Sam & Max thing in existence, you'd think I'd be more grateful for the fact that we can keep dragging the coverage out.

But not for much longer! Earlier this week, the full Sam & Max toyline was finally unveiled, and I have to say it looks pretty rad. Furthermore, "These premium action figures will be offered in attractive window box packaging with new illustrations and a new comic strip by creator Steve Purcell!" New comic? I guess there are more Sam & Max things to look forward to after all.

The bad news: the release date is "TBD" 2019. The good news: Zaarin assures us that he's got just enough window caulk to keep the Mojo servers humming until TBD, give or take a downtime.

Source: http://www.actionfigureinsider

I guess we were too busy justifying the unjustifiable to acknowledge Dave Grossman's annual Halloween tradition in a timely fashion.

But let's acknowledge it now - Dave has give the reliable Pumpkin House of Horrors its 2018 update, which includes two - count 'em, two - pumpkins on the receiving end of inventively unaccountable cruelty. In these capricious times, when seemingly robust studios capsize at a moment's notice, it is comforting that there are still some things you can hang your hat on.

Source: Phrenopolis

While the enduring characters keep an eye out for a new game developer to license themselves to, Sam & Max have been busying themselves with being made into collectible toys. As a loyal reader of Mojo, you already knew this.

Today, Boss Fight Studio (the company manufacturing the collectibles) has offered a first look at the design. They stress that the below rendering is a work-in-progress, but it's surely the kinda progress I can get behind:

Source: Facebook

Leisure Suit Larry is set to return to his adventure game roots for a new outing headed by fledging German studio CrazyBunch. Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry (ugh) is already available for preorder on Steam, and visually it looks impressive, even if Larry looks a lot less short, pudgy, and middle-aged than he used to.

There's no mention of series creator, Al Lowe, being involved which almost certainly means he isn't. Given the spotted past of LSL games, who knows how this one will turn out, or how it will be received by a modern audience.

As Larry says in the press release: “My new adventure takes me from the end of the ’80s directly into the 21st century and wow, how the world has changed! While my view of the world and women from way back in the 1980s collides with modern reality harder than the breasts of a lusciously stacked blonde jogging along a beach, I’m all set to date my way across the modern world!”

You be the judge!

Thanks to reader Rum Rogers for alerting us to this story.

(Give me a break, I'm too tired to write a proper headline.)

Some outfit called Boss Fight Studio has revealed they will be producing collectible Sam & Max toys.

That's all I got. Great if you like toys I suppose.

Source: SameDods

... but I suspect people only say so because they’re both about pirates. Or possibly because its open world like with chances to customize stuff. Or something. Despite looking like a pure action game I deemed it news-worthy, although I’d never even heard about the game before, so give me a break.

For those who know Sea of Thieves, and have given it a go on the PC and/or the Xbox, sound off in the comments which I suspect will be suitably quiet.

Here's a brief video of Steve Purcell being chatted up at the recent expo. Was anything of importance learned? No, but it's still always nice to see Steve.

Source: IdeateTV

Harvey Atkin, who voiced Sam in the Sam & Max animated series, passed away on July 18th. Atkin was the second of three voice actors who have so far taken on the role of Purcell's character, though he is more widely known for his roles on TV shows such as Cagney and Lacey and Law and Order, as well as the Ivan Reitman comedy Meatballs, which he co-starred in opposite Bill Murray.

Thanks to "Threepwood4life" for bringing this to our attention in the comments.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Monkey Island fanatic and Eurogamer personality Johnny Chiodini decided to answer a gauntlet that was never thrown by creating grog using the ingredients listed in The Secret of Monkey Island. And although he punts on third down by subtracting the more lethal ingredients, the end result is still gross enough that we award him and his two confederates eight Monkey Bucks for introducing it into their digestive system.

Here is the write-up, and below is the video proof of the reckless endeavor:

Source: Eurogamer

It looks like the folks at Hashtag Collectables has been spying on my dreams, because the Max plush toy is finally here, just in time for Sam & Max's 30th anniversary.

It's too bad that dream entering technology wasn't available 20 years ago, since I've been dreaming about this since I was a kid, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Now I just have to resist the urge to buy a dozen of them...

We're now a week into 2017, which means it's the perfect time for a new poll. We couldn't just put one up on the first day of the new year. That's just not The Mojo Way™.

There's a lot of goodness coming out this year, from just about every company that this site covers. So go to the poll on the right and let us know which one has you excited the most.

Dave Grossman's annual tradition of gleefully deforming pumpkins continues with his 2016 entry to the Pumpkin House of Horrors.

Enter, if you dare.

Source: Pumpkin House of Horrors

ScummVM, the project that aims to re-create engines for point-and-click adventure and role-playing games, using the original scripts and data files, so that the games run on modern (and some not-so-modern) systems, has received a new release.

This release brings support for six new games: Myst, Myst: Masterpiece Edition, U.F.O.s (also known as Gnap), and Sierra's Hi-Res adventure games #0: Mission Asteroid, #1: Mystery House, and #2: The Wizard and the Princess.

There's also been a lot of bugfixes for Sierra's SCI games, the addition of Hercules rendering and font for the AGI games, an enhanced Sherlock games experience, and the addition of AmiUpdate on the Amiga port.

ScummVM is the project that aims to re-create the engines used in adventure games (and, since this year's Google Summer of Code, role-playing games) so they can be played on systems ranging from Windows, Mac, and Linux to iOS, Android, and even consoles such as Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, and Wii.

Right before a major release they do a public testing phase for new and improved games, which helps them iron out any remaining bugs. This testing cycle includes two new games: Myst (and Myst: Masterpiece Edition) and U.F.O.s (also known as Gnap). There also have been a lot of improvements in the SCI engine as of late, so they are also testing Conquests of the Longbow, Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, King's Quest V, King's Quest VI, Quest for Glory 1 VGA, Quest for Glory 3, Space Quest 1 VGA, and Space Quest 4. Other games that have seen recent improvements and are undergoing testing include Beneath a Steel Sky, the Commodore-64 version of Maniac Mansion, Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo, and Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel.

So, if you have any of those games, play them through in a daily build of ScummVM on your platform of choice, and report any bugs you find at the new and improved ScummVM bug tracker. Then tell the team about your experience, and any bugs you filed (or if you didn't spot any bugs at all) in this thread on the ScummVM forum.