The International House of Mojo

Matthew Shell, a long-time LucasArts and then Disney employee credited on over 60 video games, has suddenly passed away.

Described as an “incredible person with a huge heart,” Shell was primarily an ambassador for Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, most recently 2023’s Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.

Ray Almeda, Global PR Lead for the EA SPORTS portfolio, wrote : “We will miss his jokes, love for Sticky Toffee Pudding, BBQ expertise, celebrating Warriors championships the night of, and of course his profound fandom for his SF Giants. Rest in Paradise my friend and May the Force be with you, always.”

Our condolences go out to his loved ones.

If you’re the type who loves Psychonauts 2 and physics with equal passion, then Double Fine has just the article for you: “Behind the Code: Designing Raz' Jump.”

What’s it all about? Math and science, basically. But, fun math and science! Math and science that made the game fun! And, in that sense, you probably should read it. If nothing else, I’m fairly sure you can use it for your dissertation.

I mean, we need to test changes somewhere.

And today, that somewhere is Behind Mojo.

Source: Mojo

We try to keep track of the fantastic work Jimmy Maher does over at The Digital Antiquarian, especially when his comprehensive inquiry into the totality of video game history (because that’s more or less what his efforts amount to) leads him to LucasArts’ sizable contributions to that story.

The Herodotus of interactive amusement, who’s been at this since 2011, has arrived at the mid-to-late-90s in his ongoing chronicle, and in LucasArts terms that has brought us two terrific articles just this month: one examining Jedi Knight and another published only yesterday in evaluation of The Curse of Monkey Island. As usual it’s good stuff and inspires good engagement from commenters who might already be familiar to you.

If you’re unfamiliar with the site itself, you may well want to check out all the LucasArts-related posts over the years, the links for which we collect here for your convenience. Or you can just, you know, stop stagnating at the junior varsity level and read it all from the beginning.

Source: The Digital Antiquarian

If an open world, single player action adventure Star Wars game gets your blood going, then add Star Wars Outlaws to your bounty list.

Developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, Outlaws is targeting PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on August 30, 2024. The game centres on a major heist and is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, a brief halcyon period where not everyone was related to everyone else in a galaxy far, far away.

Source: YouTube

Laura Cress has posted another LEC-adjacent interview to her Cressup channel, this time with Elaine Marley herself, Alexandra Boyd.

It’s a great chat, which also circles the reason for Elaine’s recasting in SeMI. (Spoiler alert: Business will be business, and business will often suck.)

On April 1st, Lucasfilm.com ran a little commemoration of their Monkey Island series. And in keeping with the spirit of April Fools, they used the Special Edition cover art as the header.

We try to be pretty “It’s the thought that counts” when it comes to these valentines that the copyright holder has been willing to throw toward its legacy titles, so let’s remind ourselves that it wasn’t so long ago that even these passing mentions were seemingly verboten as a matter of company policy. And while the write-up may be on the fluffy side, I do see something noteworthy in this paragraph, emphasis mine:

Lucasfilm never was able to get its own story straight when it came to whether they saw Return as a series conclusion or not. Guess they’re back to their original stance. For today.

Source: Lucasfilm.com

That risen phoenix of Monkey Island fan sites, The Legend of Monkey Island, continues to walk the walk by resurrecting the long-offline web comic adaptation of The Secret of Monkey Island by artist Paco Vink. Like a number of masterpieces, it stands unfinished, but that only compounds its mystique.

Legendofmi.com’s coup was accomplished by brokering a deal with Dalixam, the webmaster of the defunct World of MI fan site (the comic’s original custodian), a brutal negotiation that sources say took an army of attorneys eighteen months to hammer out. But in the end, the unwholesome favors were exchanged, the blood debts were paid, and the copyrights transferred. Better still, the comic is being offered in higher resolution than was the case in its first-run presentation, so you really need to check it out with some urgency.

When it comes to the (apparent) arms race of hosting legacy fan content of premium caliber, The SCUMM Bar is hardly going to allow itself to fall behind. That’s why it’s now the licensed home of Marius Winter’s celebrated Monkey Island flash videos. These include the one man band's adaptations of the first two games along with his breakout “I Wonder What Happens in… Tales of Monkey Island” speculation videos, a tightly scheduled bit of inspiration that Telltale itself wisely made part of the series’ official hype machine throughout its episodic release back in 2009-2010.

As they say, healthy competition benefits the consumer. As for unhealthy competition, like the sort we’re witnessing? Well, I think the sky’s the limit.

Source: The Legend of Monkey Island

According to The Hollywood Reporter, comedic actor/writer Joe Flaherty, best known as a cast member of the brilliant Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV, has died at the age of 82.

In Mojo World™, Flaherty has the distinction of starring in the polarizing live action television adaptation of Maniac Mansion, which ran for three seasons on YTV in Canada and The Family Channel (replete with an artificial laugh track) in the U.S. As we once attempted to chronicle, the show began its life as a pitch that was said to be along the lines of The Addams Family or The Munsters, with the Edisons naturally assuming the role of the kooky spoof of a gothic horror household. Though there aren’t really any details to go on, the impression is that it would have been a fairly loose but recognizable adaptation of the game.

However, the project was ultimately offered to SCTV alumnus Eugene Levy who, when he expressed disinterest in the series bible he had been handed, was told he had creative carte blanche to shape the show into whatever vision he liked. What resulted was a self-aware parody of the conventional sitcom (think It’s Garry Shandling’s Show) and something of an SCTV reunion project - with Flaherty’s casting as Dr. Fred being only the most obvious connection - rather than anything that resembled the story, flavor, or really much at all beyond the title, of the computer game. The show nevertheless attracted a cult following and squeaked past the magic 65-episode number that led it to be regularly syndicated in Canada for years after its cancellation. No proper home video or streaming release has materialized to date.

Flaherty is also known for the many appearance he made in movies and other television shows. To people of a certain age group, he might be most immediately recognizable as the Western Union guy at the end of Back to the Future Part II:

Source: The Hollywood Reporter