As is tradition, Steve drew the grateful world a holiday card starring the indomitable Freelance Police. From the Sam & Max blog:
I especially like the city burning outside. Note that this year is the 25th anniversary of Sam & Max. If you're anything like me and I know I am, you can probably think of some great ways for Purcell/Telltale/LucasArts to commemorate the occasion, but just work up a good belch and you'll feel better.
Source: Sam & Max Blog
The deranged Dave Grossman has massacred some more vegetation to bring you this year's entry into The Pumpkin House of Horrors. Called "Food Chain," the latest in Grossman's macabre litany of pernicious sculptures will no doubt bring amusement to those who derive pleasure from the pain of innocent pumpkins.
And we know that's you, so be sure to view the entries of previous years while you're at it.
Source: Phrenopolis
Replay Games, which earlier this year licenced the rights to the Leisure Suit Larry games and re-released the first one on their website, has announced that they're working on an HD remake of this very game. Larry creator Al Lowe has joined the team and the plan is to continue making original Larry adventures in 2012. If the remake proves successful they may also attempt to remake the rest of the series. The actual development is handled by Adventure-Mob.
When asked about Larry in today's world, Al said: “As a software salesman, I think Larry would feel right at home [in today's Internet age], and would stay current … at least with pornography.”
“Why the hell would Mojo bother with this?”, you may ask yourself. Well, Telltale Games is going to release another game in the King's Quest series, which we'll cover, and Al Lowe did the music for the second King's Quest and worked as a programmer on the third and fourth games.
Source: EGM
A new update has been released for the PC game Magicka. Ordinarily this would not be news, as Magicka is neither made by LucasArts nor widely considered to be an adventure game - but nevertheless, this update seems like a real treat for fans of old-school point and clicks because it introduces a Purple Tentacle skin for your "wizard". It is not yet known if this will make it easier for you to take over the world, but at the very least it will make your character appear smarter, more aggressive.
Source: Kotaku
So how are you celebrating the 30th anniversary of Indiana Jones? 'Cause if you haven't made a poster-sized map pinpointing every artifact he's ever found - that's including the movies, games, novels and comic books - then you're clearly not this guy, who accomplished this feat with funding from the Adirondack ComicFest. This effort was also "authorized through Lucasfilm," if you wanted to know.
Fortunately, all of the artist's 255 prints - the proceeds of which went to American Disabled Veterans - have sold out, sparing you considerable temptation, but apparently there are going to be some on sale at the Adirondack ComicFest, should you be attending.
Source: MattBusch.com
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.
The gifted craftsman known as Fedora Smith - whose replicas of props from the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies had already weltered his Flickr account in fame - was even selling some of his excellence before his stock was depleted earlier today by eager folks who understand the value of a dollar. (That is, they understand that it's irrelevant in the face of OWNING YOUR OWN WORLDSTONE.)
Source: Kotaku
Reader and understandably fervent Maniac Mansion fan BionicBoots has alerted me to a music video he made where he adds lyrics to Dave's theme music from the NES version of the game (the only version where there was music for the kids). I think his effort was commendable and certainly no less misguided than the "Raiders March With Lyrics" Youtube video we pimped some time back, so here it is. Oh, and believing that two is more than one, BionicBoots went ahead and made a "rock remix" version of his own music video; you'll find both achievements below.
Back in February, The Angry Video Game Nerd did an episode where he took on a batch of Star Wars games. You might ask why we didn't report this in February, to which I might respond, "Hey, shut up." Oh, but what might have been.
Anyway, the games he tackles begins with some Atari games from the days before LucasArts could be bothered to do anything with the Star Wars brand but license it out, but the rest are LEC-developed: Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back for the NES, the Super Star Wars trilogy for the Super NES, and Shadows of the Empire for the N64.
Since those latter two selections in this very narrow subset of the three trillion Star Wars games ever made are actually pretty good, this is a fairly toothless episode in the Nerd's caustic arsenal. I was surprised to find Rolfe so charitable toward those NES games - Star Wars in particular is pretty universally reviled. I guess, like the rest of us, he's unfortunate enough to have a good day every now and then.
Source: Cinemassacre
Welcome to the most contentious day in LucasArts+ history. Yes, today is Bicycle Day, the commemoration of the world's first LSD trip release of Psychonauts.
It's true. On this day in 1943 2005, Albert Hofmann ingested the first intentional dose of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, and changed the world forever Tim Schafer released the groundbreaking video game Psychonauts, which certainly isn't a euphamism for any kind of drug activity. Look, Tim said so himself - twice!
As Bill Hicks once said,
If you don't think drugs have done good things for us then do me a favor. Go home tonight and take all of your records,tapes and all your CD's and burn them. Because, you know all those musicians who made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years? Real high on drugs.
Psychonauts is a great game, man.
And I don't want to argue the case for The Beatles, The Doors, Black Sabbath or that Monkey Island song, because Tim Schafer did that already. So, happy April 19th everybody!
(By the way, I'm fired.)
Do you keep up with David Fox on Twitter? It's too late to apologize now - you already missed his reveal that he and his wife Annie (yes, the namesake of the heroine in Zak McKracken), who constitute Electric Eggplant, have submitted their first "story app" in a series for the iPad! I guess it's going around!
This release, currently in the Apple approval process, is called Middle School Confidential Book 1: Be Confident Who You Are, and is an interactive adaptation of the first graphic novel in a series scribed by Annie Fox and illustrated by one Matt Kindt. This appears to be less of a game than a spruced up reader for an existent graphic novel, but I point it out because, well, David Fox!
Source: Electric Eggplant
I'd probably use it as a platform for pointing out that at least one Google search that led someone to Mojo was "can roger Ebert eat".
Kind of regrettable. And just a sample of the kind of action you can get in on by visiting the old IRC channel (that's #monkey-island at irc.gamesurge.net) every now and again.
Source: Zaarin on IRC
It's the wet dream of all Sam & Max fans out there, reading the fabled unfinished story where Max is shot and Sam gets a new partner. (Who happens to be a monkey at that.)
Mister Purcell has of coursed blogged a bunch of awesome stuff over the past few years, and yesterday he showed off some panels from the aforementioned comic.
To editorialize, it looks sweet and I don't know why you're even reading this when you should be reading this instead. Here's hoping this story will be completed.
LEC and Telltale design veteran Chuck Jordan benefited Gamasutra today with a lengthy feature titled "Closing the Loop: Fostering Communication In Single Player Games." Armed with his experience both as a developer and a gamer (not to mention the rather scholarly blogging he's done on the subject over the years), Jordan persuasively puts forth his thoughts on that most popular of topics, the relationship between narrative and gameplay. His take is more compelling than most.
Source: Gamasutra
Everyone's favourite ex-LucasArts CEO and Tea-Bagging Congress Candidate James "Jim" Ward is back, baby. The Phoenix Symphony has named James Ward interim president and CEO of the orchestra.
"We've been very keen to find someone with good business acumen and (who) is interested in variety as key to the future of the orchestra, and the symphony as a place we can do important and engaging things," said Michael Christie, symphony music director.
"My entire career has been in a creative environment, in advertising and at Lucasfilm," [Ward] said. "One thing I learned at Lucasfilm was not to be afraid to dream and to set the bar high enough, and then have the discipline to reach that goal."
Congratulations, Jim, on your new position on behalf of The International House of Mojo.
Source: AZ Central
Source: Spudvision
The madness of Steam's wallet-emptying Holiday Sale is now upon us! Let's check out the games you should be interested in.
50% OFF The LucasArts Catalogue. Tightly doesn't include The Force Unleashed II. You'd think they actually didn't want the game to sell.
73% OFF The Telltale Holiday Pack. Includes Sam & Max Seasons 2 and 3, Puzzle Agent and Poker Night. Not sure what makes them holiday games (barring Ice Station Santa and the fact that there's a lot of snow in Puzzle Agent), but it's a good deal nonetheless!
33% OFF DeathSpank and 25% OFF DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue. These games are already great for the price (they're huge and lots of fun), now they're on sale despite only being out recently (TOV only came out three weeks ago!). THAT is how you get people to buy your new game, LucasArts.
90% OFF The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom. That's 39-49 pence for a great puzzle game. What's this got to do with us? It's a storybook puzzler similar to LucasArts' Lucidity, and reportedly (by us, though I can't find it now) the teams of both games maintained a close relationship throughout development.
50% OFF Time Gentlemen, Please + Ben There, Dan That. Two genuinely funny comedic adventures purposefully done in the style of LucasArts adventures, with a Use Partner gameplay mechanic lovingly ripped off from Sam & Max Hit The Road. Buy. The first game's free if you want to try it first though. The second game has Nazi robot dinosaurs.
50% OFF Mata Hari. An adventure made with assistance from the Fate of Atlantis Dream Team of Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein. Flawed, but good for this price.
50% OFF Jolly Rover. Another great comedy adventure that's obviously strongly influenced by (and with plenty of references to) LucasArts, specifically Monkey Island. If you're pining for the days of quality funny adventures from LucasArts (if not, why are you reading this site?), Jolly Rover and Time Gentlemen Please are essential purchases.
BONUS SALE: While it's not part of the Steam sale, seeing as Autumn Moon or their publisher have an irrational fear of hot water vapour, A Vampyre Story is £7.49/$9.99 at Games For Windows.
Source: Steam
Steve Purcell's newest addition to the official Sam & Max blog is a large version of a cover painting he did for the animated series DVD release. After revealing that it includes "two levels of obscurity," readers in the comments got to work, and soon discovered was a "Spock photon torpedo coffin with our favorite Geek's last name inscribed." Is this the final fate of the much-maligned Geek?
Elsewhere on the internet's Mt. Olympus of LEC adventure legends, Bill Tiller updated the Autumn Moon blog, explaining with no shortage of detail (or references to Night Gallery) exactly why Mona, with her fancy-pants bat transformation powers, couldn't just fly away from Castle Warg and halve A Vampyre Story's playtime. Don't eliminate higher education from your day!
Having already refreshed us from the well of Freelance Police concept art, Steve Purcell now offers us a new scrap from the table of the equally canceled Sam & Max Plunge Through Space. The piece shared is an incredibly cool design of the Desoto converted for space travel. He writes:
Sam & Max's custom space-traveling modified DeSoto from the game/movie concept "Sam & Max Plunge Through Space." One of my favorite aspects of the PC game design for the Desoto controls; every key on the keyboard would have a function, however bizarre. Acrylic 8X10.
PC version? I guess it wasn't going to be Xbox-exclusive after all. Oh, well, no use crying about it now. Not that we'll stop you.
Source: Spudvision
Dave Grossman's annual affront to pumpkin decency continues with this year's entry. He's a sick, sick man, and you can heedlessly join his ranks by checking out all of his past handiwork while you're at it.
Source: Phrenopolis