The International House of Mojo

The Telltale Store is now selling The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, which will cost you $9.95. Alternatively, and for a limited time only, you can buy both Secret and Tales of Monkey Island for $19.95. This offer supposedly ends May 7th, but, based on previous Telltale "deadlines", May 7th will simply be when they extend the offer's lifespan by a couple of days.

In other news, the Telltale Forum now includes a section specifically made for their upcoming game, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent. The game, which will arrive in June, is being designed by Mark Darin ("Dangeresque 3", "Rise of the Pirate God") and written by Sean Vanaman ("Muzzled!", "Lair of the Leviathan"). Discuss it here. Or here.

Source: Telltale Store

Unfortunately Secret of Monkey Island: SE can't be embedded directly into MojoX's news (but we may embed it in a feature page at some point).

But you can embed the game in your facebook profile or any HTML websites. See here for more.

Source: Facebook

The Mystery of Scoggins has been revealed, now with the slightly less catchy name of Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent. Destructoid has the reveal, including the first video of main character Agent Tether's encounter with one of The Hidden People.

Telltale also revealed that Puzzle Agent will be the first game in what they are calling their Pilot Program, which seems designed to get quirky games like this out the door at a faster rate. If these 'pilots' are successful, then a full series could be commissioned. Puzzle Agent itself features obviously the work of Graham Annable and is a puzzle/adventure game in the style of the excellent Professor Layton & The Curious Village (if you're an adventure game fan, own a DS and don't have this game, shame on you). The game will be released on PC, Mac, iPhone, and iPad in June.

EDIT: IGN has their own post up too, and they claim the game is also coming to WiiWare too.

Source: Destructoid

Calling this their last week of such teases, LEC is now on LeChuck's Fortress as a location in Monkey Island 2 of which to share some glimpses of the special edition makeover. So far we've got LeChuck's throne room (before, after) and the bone maze entrance (prior, post hoc) to compare. Join in on the snarky ridicule of these blasphemous defamations (I kid, I kid) with fellow down-to-Earth crusaders on our forums or over on the Telltale counterpart.

Update: Guybrush and Wally over a pit of acid - pre, post.

Source: Facebook

Being that he's Steve Purcell and all, none of us gets tired of reading Steve Purcell's responses to the same questions being fielded at him in internet articles. What makes the latest nostalgic gabbing ritual with the iconic LEC artist of yesteryear by the ever-bustling Sam & Max.co.uk a little bit more enticing than the norm, however, is that it's by the fans.

Yup, after collecting interview questions in a Telltale forum thread a month or so ago, Sam & Max.co.uk webmaster "Pinchpenny" zipped the least creepy ones over to the creator of the Freelance Police, and the worthwile results can be found right here to satisfy your daily reading quota.

Source: Sam & Max.co.uk

In an interview with Gamasutra, adventure game veteran Charles Cecil (Beneath the Steel Sky, Broken Sword) discusses his own career and also shares some thoughts about LucasArts, which represented his competition in the olden days of the early nineties, back when Hershey bars cost you ten cents apiece and movies hadn't yet learned to talk. Having been part of well-received remakes of his own games on PC and iPhone, he has some criticisms about how the Special Edition of The Secret of Monkey Island was handled, as well as some general ribbing about the former tendency of the Golden Guy to hunt down and murder sternly dissuade fan tribute projects:

Read the full story here.

Source: Gamasutra

Our friend from the frontline, Bill Cauley, has sent us word:

Interview shy LucasArts boss, Darrell Rodriguez, speaks with MCV about the new directions the company has taken, and about his plans for the future.

You can read the whole thing right here.

Source: MCV

Since our original spotterizing of the Mystery of Scoggins, more details have popped up - but instead of revealing more they only seem to deepen the mystery, Lost-like (urgh).

IGN got a package in the mail yesterday. It originated from 'Scoggins, MN', and contained a lot of Pencil Erasers and an iPod Touch. The Touch seemed to be from the 'FBI Department of Puzzle Research' and contained the note:

The calendar listed a Scoggins Briefing down for next Thursday.

So, an iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone puzzle game perhaps? Or maybe Telltale are just trying to throw us and they really are getting out of adventure games into the Eraser business due to marketplace realities or somesuch.

UPDATE: Kotaku have received their package. They've added a few new details the others left out, such as a video called 'The Hidden People' and that the iPod Touch contains digital versions of prints by Graham Annable. It seems that little red gnome that pops out when you click on the glowing window on the site is actually one of these 'Hidden People'. Interesting. Don't know what it means, but those prints are available to buy here.

Source: IGN

Telltale designer Brendan Ferguson is now conspicuously absent from the web site's Team page, suggesting that he has recently moved on from the company. One of the first (if not the first) employees of Telltale, first seen alongside the company's founders when Telltale first appeared publicly in April 2004, Ferguson was previously an employee of LucasArts, having been one of the designers and writers on the still somewhat fabled Sam & Max: Freelance Police.

Known for penning some humorous blog posts in the company's earliest days, Ferguson's contributions at Telltale over the last six years seem to have been primarily Sam & Max related, with him serving as the co-designer of Save the World with the legendary Dave Grossman, and again on Beyond Time and Space with Chuck Jordan. His work on The Devil's Playhouse will be predominately found in upcoming episodes.

Source: Telltale's team page

Shacknews have posted a screenshot from the upcoming Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, which has some of the developer commentary in action. The commentary, which is being provided by Monkey Island creators Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman (a trio some of the more "hardcore" sections of the Monkey Island fandom insist you learned about in Sunday school), will cover a wide array of topics, including the sharing of some memories and behind-the-scenes thoughts on the game.

Comment on the commentary screenshot in our comments section (hohoho!).

jp update: LucasArts' Craig Derrick comments on facebook: "Couple things about the commentary: It's a toggle, so you can press a button whenever the commentary symbol pops up and hear the guys speak. You can do this over and over if you'd like. Also, the game screen will shrink within a frame when commentary is on so that no gameplay is obstructed (unlike this screenshot). And, lastly, the commentary will work during classic mode. END OF LINE"

Source: Shacknews

Update: The videos have been removed from Youtube by LucasArts -- but they cannot be removed from the brains of those who saw them, and the discussion of what was seen continues. We have also now been given a list of the achivements unlockable in the game (see below). Craig Derrick, LucasArts Producer, tweets "[I am] frustrated over a great many things."

Original Post: LEAKED VIDEO FROM MI2 SE STOP EVERYTHING AMAZING STOP COMEDY NARRATOR STILL THERE ALAS STOP BUT BEST MENU EVER STOP



A full High Definition version of that video is available here. There is also a version without the opening cut-scene skipped (but without the scenes in Woodtick) available here. In both videos the sound drops out of sync with the action, but that is a fault of the video itself, rather than the game.

Both videos have been captured from the Xbox 360 version of the game, which, together with PS3 and PC versions, will be released in internet stores this summer.

Screen captures from the video, and all the up to the minute news and discussion, can be found on our forums (specifically, here and there.)

Update: Thanks to forumer Threepwood4life, we now have a new video listing the achivements unlockable in the game:

Keep Reading

Source: Mojo Forums

Bad Asp (whose blog was moved to Wordpress) has been busy creating "Youtube Poop" videos, a genre that involves remixing clips to create a new form intended to amaze and confuse.

Bad Asp's videos are the first of their kind to use clips from the classic LucasArts adventure Sam & Max: Hit the Road and the TV series cartoon based on the original comics. They can be viewed on his Youtube channel. Only four exist so far, but the Asp has plans to remix the remaining twenty four episodes as well. Find out more on our forums.

In other community news, an Adventure Gaming community has been established, premiering with this most amazing trailer (thanks Christopher Arthur).

For those of you Monkey Island fans who have been freaking out that Dominic Armato, THE voice of Guybrush Threepwood, has not yet been confirmed as reprising his role in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Special Edition, worry no more.

LucasArts' MISE producer Craig Derrick has revealed on his Twitter feed that Dom is indeed on board for MI2:SE, and that his Luke Skywalker impression is top-notch.

(Yes, the tweet is from April 2. Shut up. Mojo is as timely as ever.)

Also of note is the background to Derrick's Twitter page. It would seem to be a MI2:SE character there!

Possibly the image is related to a comment Derrick made in the recent Gamespot interview with him, Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman:

"CD: Be nice guys [i.e., Gilbert, Schafer, and Grossman]. Remember, we did fix Guybrush's hair and put a very flattering caricature of each of you in the game."

Interesting.

And if you get the reference in the title of this post, you are far, far too much of a Star Wars nerd for your own good.

As pledged, the latest screenshot from LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition has been released, it being from Guybrush's underwater retrieval of the Mad Monkey figurehead. Join us in obsessively comparing the shiny new take with the original shot in all the usual places.

Source: Joystiq

After showcasing first one and then a second of the designs he did for the Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge box art on his blog, Steve Purcell has now posted his third and final concept for the MI2 cover.

It's mostly the same as the finished painting, although in the early concept Elaine was also present. Purcell notes that he was unsatisfied with how she looked, and thus dropped her. (A similar thing seems to have happened with his drawing of Elaine on the pencil sketch for the Secret of Monkey Island cover art: he pasted a new cut-out drawing of her on top of the original paper sheet.)

This concept painting was previously showcased in the book Rogue Leaders, but now it's available to see for any of you penurious fellows who haven't shelled out the money for that tome.

That ever-so-respectable paragon of games journalism, GameSpot, has posted a short video preview of the developer commentary in the upcoming Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition. Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, and Dave Grossman are all featured, so if their banter here is any indication, the audio commentary will be a laugh riot.

Accompanying the video is a two-page interview of the trio, who also let current LucasArts SE producer Craig Derrick get in on the question-answering fun. Finally, we get to find out where Ron Gilbert's LEGO pirate ship went!

Here are some tidbits:

• The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is now available on the PSN store for $9.99.

• Sean Vanaman ("Lair of the Leviathan", "Muzzled!") has launched a website.

• Here's a behind-the-looks video at the combat in the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. See it in naughts-style Standard Definition, or in hip High Definition. If you are blind, you can hear the video if you can find the link. To make things a little more Monkey Island 2 level difficult for you, I've now moved the link here. Let's see if you can catch a moving target.

• If you're interested in reading about The Force Unleashed II, buy the June edition of GamePro magazine or wait for illegal scans later if you're too lazy. You should already have the issue if you're a subscriber, should be able to pick it up on May 4th otherwise, or find it on the internet later.

• You have not been called idiots for preferring Lost to Futurama in this entire post (nor should you be). But anyone who says they don't watch television because they prefer reading books about watching television is just asking for it.

Two new screenshots from LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition have been made available this week: the Booty Island spitting contest and antique shop. And this is next.

If you want to discuss these latest glimpses, please do so below. If you want to rip them to shreds, visit the respective threads on Telltale's forum and our own.

Source: Facebook

Deathspank, Ron Gilbert's brainchild, is now on twitter, twittering tweeting twatting with other fictional characters from the game. And with YOU (perhaps). Thanks to tenochtitlan via Deathspank.de.

Evil'Dave, meanwhile, brings us news that Bill Tiller's last game, Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, is now out in Australia for $49.95, though (and here's a good tip) it is in Ebgames for $25. The game came out in the UK in February, and in Germany in November last year.

Lastly, Igor Hardy has pointed us to an interview that comments in a more possitive way on Bad Brain's involvement with Tiller's first game, A Vampyre Story. There are some worthwhile quotations for those interested.

You may have already noticed this if you're a regular of our forums (as you should be) or astutely follow The SCUMM Bar's twitter feed (they have a twitter feed?), but a few days ago a reader named joepinion posted a thread where he shares a flowchart he made for all of the puzzles in The Secret of Monkey Island, encapsulating the entire game in diagram tree form - just like the real game designers do! Lookit.

Source: Mojo Forums

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is now available for Mac computers from GameAgent for US$9.99.

Off you go then.

Source: Game Agent

In a recent survey, Telltale asked fans what they'd most like to see next as an episodic adventure game. According to Telltale boss Dan Connors (speaking to Joystiq), the number one adaptation fans most want to see is TV's Lost.

May I just be the first to say: no. If you voted for Lost over, say, Futurama, you're an idiot. If ever proof were needed that game makers shouldn't listen to their fans, I think this would be Exhibit A.

On the other hand, redeeming my faith in Telltale fans, the second choice was Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, which would be an absolutely perfect choice and desperately needs (another) good adventure game adaptation. Or even Dirk Gently.

Source: Joystiq

The folks at GamePro went visit the Telltale studio in order to put together a multi-part video retrospective about the history of Sam & Max. The first part, now available, covers the characters' creation up until how it came about that they starred in their first video game. Included are interviews with Purcell himself as well as Mike Stemmle. Go watch!

Source: GamePro

Faithful readers of this site with longer attention spans than those who run it probably recall that we recently ran a contest to provide an alternate cover or marketing spiel for On Stranger Tides, the prize for which was a copy of the book, and the deadline for which was March 31st.

Well, what with the launch of MojoX as well as any number of lame excuses I'd be happy to make up, we neglected to post the results of the contest. That omission ends today. The lucky winner was Krasimir Savov, who came up with this cover for his entry. Congratulations, Krasimir, and we hope you enjoy the book! (Given the international shipping I opted for, please allow 6-18 months for delivery.)

Honorable mentions include (in no order): this cover by Fealiks, this cover by JezzaTheLagomorph, this cover by Valkian, these "system requirements" by Euan Mumford, and this marketing write-up by Icebox.

Thanks to everyone who entered! We were amused.

Team Fortress 2, which you may know as developer Valve's excellent team-based multiplayer FPS, has has had a weapons/item upgrade. What makes it weird - and I can't believe I'm writing this - is that it has been updated with weapons and a (let's say) "lagomorph cap" from Sam and Max (oh my lord that's out today). The items will be available to anyone who buys the game in the next week, and to anyone who already owns the game. though it is unclear whether it's for Steam-only customers or for anyone who's bought The Devil's Playhouse for PC/Mac for Steam customers, and ones who own/will own Team Fortress 2, only. Update: As in anyone. Telltale have confirmed that anyone who owns Team Fortress 2 and The Devil's Playhouse from either the Telltale Store or Steam gets the items.

There's also a Mysterious Teaser about "Scoggins Erasers" worth checking out.

Source: Valve

Having put the first up for sale on eBay, Steve Purcell has done Monkey Island fans the favor of posting "the second of three" unused and unbelievable cover designs he did for LeChuck's Revenge up on his blog. This design, which depicts zombie LeChuck in his familiar, voodoo-torturing pose against the background of his storm-shrouded fortress, turned up in the Rogue Leaders art book and most recently yesterday's Purcell interview, but this is certainly the highest resolution we've ever had the pleasure of seeing the rare piece of painted piratey excellence in.

Speaking of LeChuck's Revenge, our post covering the ongoing Special Edition screenshot releases is getting unwieldy, so let me just say that Adventure Gamers has everything that's been posted so far in a convenient gallery.

Source: Spudvision

The marketing drive has begun for DeathSpank, Ron Gilbert's most important game since Monkey Island 2: the official site is giving away promotional toys like sweets, including these new shirts.

News thanks to tenochtitlan via this impressive German Death Spank fan-site.

In preparation for the Summer launch of Monkey Island 1 Special Edition on the PS3, you can now deck out you PS3 home with a plethora of Monkey Island related characters, backgrounds, and sounds (some seen here). Each item costs four English pennies.

Thanks to Christopher Arthur for the tip.

According to the Monkey Island Adventures Facebook page, there's trezzer to be found in daily updates on Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, starting with some hopefully lovely images of the Scabb Island environments, any time now. They had this to say:

Which is what I just said. Duh. If you like your hype up-to-the-minute, I suggest you head here. All aboard the Monkey Island 2: Special Edition excitement train, woo woo!

Edit:And the first one just arrived. Marvellous.

04/09 Update: We may currently lack galleries, but Adventure Gamers is up-to-speed with all of LEC's Facebook deposits. See them all! Then mock and/or partake in the absolutely ridiculous nitpicking. The LucasArts Workshop informs that next week will bring us glimpses of Phatt Island.

04/13 Update: Outside Dread's cruising ship. Next up? Inside.

Update by Kroms: It's here and lovely. As an added bonus, LucasArts is hinting that actor Phil LaMarr is set to play Captain Dread. You may know LaMarr from a wide range of work, including Pulp Fiction, the Metal Gear Solid games or Futurama, where he voiced Hermes Conrad. For my money's worth, it's an excellent bit of casting.

04/15 Update: Phatt Island wanted poster. Also, Governor Phatt enjoys sustenance.

Source: Facebook

Have a look here.

Then correctly assume that it, at the very least, looks Graham Annable-licious.

Then start questioning what it could all mean.

Or, to put it another way, Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Episode I: The Penal Zone is available now on PC and Mac!

What are you waiting for? Enter the Zone! You know you want to.

Here's where we compile all the reviews we can find for the premiere of Sam & Max's third season. The real onslaught will begin in a few days and right now it's still mostly iPad reviews, but there's enough write-ups out there to get started. Rest assured, we'll update this as we feel like it:

• The Adrenaline Vault - 4/5

• Mac|Life - 3.5/5

• Macworld - 4/5

• Pocket Gamer - 6/10

• IGN - 7.2/10

• 4 color rebellion - 5/5

• Gaming with Children

• Mixnmojo (us)

• Gamers Daily News - 8/10

• VG Reloaded - 8/10

• Brutal Gamer - 8/10

• Games, Gold, and Glory

-Negative Gamer - -1/-10

Feel free to let us know in the comments as you come across a new review yourself, and we'll add it here.

As Mojo's feature section is still under development, we're posting the review of 'The Penal Zone' right here, in the news. Hey, it's technically news! More after the cut.

Keep Reading

The same guy who conducted those successive, episode-specific interviews with Dominic Armato as Tales of Monkey Island was released is back with a new interview with Steve Purcell at Alternative Magazine Online. Although he's been asked them all before, the questions are good and cover Purcell's whole career. A little taste:

For more, the most constructive course of action would be to read the rest of the interview.

Source: Alternative Magazine Online

For those who can't wait the one day that remains without an additional sneak at The Penal Zone, you should check out this new gameplay video over at GameTrailers which depicts Sam and Max irritating Grandpa Stinky. Check it out, you weak-willed sap.

Source: GameTrailers

Two of the winners of our podcast jingle competition have been busy working on new LucasArts related things: Billjoe86 (who created this) recently put together a complete sound design of a scene from Monkey Island 2. The result is a 2 minute video, with new music, voices, and sound effects. Observe:

Secondly, g0blin (who also has an excellent hosted site) created a Facebook game with a few friends. In the game, called "Stairs," you take it in turns with other people to push a dummy down the stairs, the aim being to inflict as much damage as possible. Play it here, and look out for the purple tentacle which emerges if you can push your dummy into the lift.

There's a wonderful feature up on Destructoid now (which I did a massive detailed post about yesterday but unfortunately the new Mojo news page decided to wipe it) focusing on the art and game world of that wholly remarkable game, Brütal Legend.

They've got an interview with Lee Petty, the game's Art Director, plenty of insight into the game's creation, and a load of pretty art that any metal album cover would be proud to display.

Lee also had this to say about the future of Double Fine:

Source: Destructoid

Known best as Harry Moleman from the Sam & Max seasons (though you probably also know his distinctive voice from TMI and A Vampyre Story as well), Tim Talbot is the latest, though certainly not the last, Bay Area voice actor to get the samandmax.co.uk treatment. Read the interview for an inside look at the storied voice actor's life, along with all the insightful insights that come with it.

Unconscionably, they failed to ask him the code phrase, though.

Source: http://samandmax.co.uk

Alternate news title: Star Wars Battlefront 3 cancelled AGAIN. This time in development at Slant Six, developers of SOCOM Confrontation, this announcement was accompanied by a round of "temporary" layoffs.

In a clear case of déjà vu, LucasArts have put the Star Wars project "on ice". Although that has indeed happened to every version of Battlefront 3 so far, that's not even the hang-on-hasn't-this-happened-before part. As the reason behind this is that they wanted the game out this year and the team couldn't deliver. Now where have we heard that before?

Interestingly though, the reason LucasArts couldn't release it in 2011 is that their Star Wars schedule is "stacked" that year. Methinks there's more than just Lego Star Wars III and TFU2 incoming from the House of George.

Source: Kotaku

On their spiffy new website (there's a lot of that going round) Gamesâ„¢ magazine have as one of their launch features a wonderful article called 'The Empire Strikes Out - LucasArts And the Death of Adventure Games'.

It mostly chronicles LucasArts of the turbulent 2003-2004 period, with some nice new insight to the making of Sam & Max: Freelance Police and Full Throttle: Hell On Wheels, although saying the latter received "an enthusiastic response" from fans is a bit of an exaggeration.

Sam & Max in particular has some nice info clarifying just how close the cancelled game got to what Telltale would later do. However, I'm not sure whether this was published early 2009 in the mag itself as mentions Fate of Atlantis being included with Indiana Jones & The Staff of Kings but makes no mention of Tales of Monkey Island.

Anyway, have a read for yourself.

Source: Gamesâ„¢

If you visit our forums you will see that they have been given a slight lift to bring them into a similar style as the rest of the site. Thanks to Thrik for copying the changes over and making sure that it all worked properly.

We may as well mention our Youtube Channel as well. It's only a small, dear thing, but it has a few nuggets not found anywhere else (including this jem by Huz), and it will have to do until our media section is launched. Some of the videos there are courtesy of JBRAA from Mojo Art.

Kotaku has posted an article on the 1996 LucasArts strategy game 'Afterlife'.

Source: Kotaku

As you probably know, Ron Gilbert joined the Canadian based developer Hothead Games as the company's Creative Director around two years ago. Although the veteran designer publicly began his role serving as a "consultant" on the Penny Arcade episodes, it seemed that his primary reason for joining the company's ranks was to see his latest brainchild, DeathSpank, come to fruition after the studio signed on as its publisher. This is more or less confirmed by today's Grumpy Gamer blog post, where Ron reveals that he has ended his term at Hothead as production on the game is wrapping:

Roll on DeathSpank, and best of luck to Ron in his future endeavors, which hopefully includes making video games at a slightly less relaxed pace.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

There have already been a few write-ups on the iPad version of Sam & Max from the device's early adopters, but this review by IGN is the first for the game's anticipated and technically superior PC version. Giving the episode a 7.2, they found The Penal Zone good with some reservations:

We'll keep you apprised on all the latest reviews of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse as they materialize, along with our own take in the hopefully near future. And of course, you've only to wait until April 15th before you can judge the game for yourself.

Source: IGN

The 1996 shooter Star Wars: Dark Forces will soon be available on the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable consoles -- no official announcement has been made, but the game has been rated on both consoles by the ESRB.

It is assumed that Dark Forces will be available for digital download, as it already is for PC users on Steam. The estimated price is one piece of eight, or two pieces of four. Either way, it'll be cheap.

(Thanks to clone 2727 for the tip).

Source: Destructoid

Well, now that we're back and capable of at least updating the news again, I suppose we'd better put our Easter candy aside and get back to work.

The main news story that occurred during our downtime was the surprise announcement that the first episode of Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, The Penal Zone, is now available for the Apple iPad! No lie! Apparently, Telltale suddenly found themselves with the opportunity to be among the device's initial apps and couldn't pass it up. Good on 'em for expanding to yet another platform, a platform which by all accounts is a good fit for what Telltale does. The episode is available for $9.99 from the Apple store, in case you haven't figured that out. The PC/Mac and PS3 premiere remains April 15th.

In related Telltale news, a new interview with Dan Connors about his studio's unexpected iPad launch has stirred up a bit of forum chatter, mainly on the basis of the following quote:



Sounds like a good way for Telltale to try out some crazier game ideas; at least if they fail, players will have known about the possibility upfront rather than getting another Bone scenario. Your thoughts?

Update: Dan Connors vs. Randy Breen!

Source: Telltale Games

Aha! Is this thing on? Hello? Can you hear me?

Excellent. As you can see, we’re back! Mojo 9 fell apart, and died a rather spectacular death... but the spirit of the site continued on, and reformed itself into something new. It’s a little more basic for now, but we hope you’ll agree that we have the potential to be bigger and better than ever before.

The re-forging of the site is thanks to many people who offered assistance in our forums and our IRC channel, but it is mainly due to two people: Queztone and Zaarin.

Queztone gave us the design. We had a few simple requirements for this task: it should be modern yet retro, sexy yet celibate, light but dark, and big, like a planet, but at the same time as small as an atom. And maybe it should be a bit purple as well.

Initially we embarked on a long and treacherous journey into the past to round up the best designers and artists in history. We got Pablo Picasso to create a new logo and Christopher Wren to do the layout. Unfortunately, the design was rubbish, and couldn’t be used.

Luckily, once we returned to the present, we met Queztone, and tricked him into helping us out. The result lies before you. We hope you like it as much as we do, and we thank Queztone very much for all his hard work.

Zaarin has supplied us with the code. For this we also had a simple requirement: it should be so strongly built that it could withstand a nuclear attack. Not only has Zaarin done this, giving us a new, hugely stable coded site, but he has also added many clever extra features, and opened up new possibilities for the future. He has, furthermore, worked tirelessly on the project, even when other people had given up on it.

I should also say at this point that the code of the previous site was also excellently constructed (by the legendary DJG, and others), and Mojo X would not exist without everything that had come before it.

We will, of course, add the features and games database back as soon as we can – and a new section, media. There will be a period of regrowth whilst these sections are formed again, but in the mean time there is news, and the forums, and the excellent community that is what makes this site what it is.

Speaking of which, if you signed up on our previous site, you are signed up with this site as well: you will be able to just log in. If you have not had an account before, register now, and receive a free gift in the form of an avatar.

You can read more about the development of this version of the site on our forums.