The International House of Mojo

As many of you noticed, LucasForums suffered its worst outtage in quite some time these past couple days. Thanks to DJG (as usual), they are back up and running, narrowly avoiding a third straight day of downtime. So go post already!

An additional note to Mixnmojo (and LFN) hosted webmasters: Your FTP accounts should be working again as well. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Well, not quite yet, but soon. Thanks to the X-Box's rather PC-like architecture, homebrew developers have been able to easily port open-source PC software to the console. However, it is also now thanks to this PC-like architecture that coders have figured out a way to convert X-Box games to play on a PC. According to this article, it won't be long before it's public. However, either some crack code work or an emulator might be necessary, as the games will still call for some functions exclusive to the X-Box's software coding.

Remember, though, the X-box is a hell of a powerhouse, and you'll need a horse of a machine to run anything at the speeds you'd get on dedicated hardware.

We apologize for the errors that have been plauging the site and the forums. They'll be fixed before you know it, since after all, we're the International House of Mojo.

The current (October 2002) issue of PC Gamer U.S. Edition has two short articles with screenshots about both the upcoming Full Throttle II and the new WWII flight/action game from Larry Holland (creator of the XWing series, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and others). Sean Clark, director of FTII says the following about the game's story:

Sean Clark: Ben, the leader of a biker gang, gets himself entangled in a greedy plan to destroy a town and, more importantly to Ben, all the roads. In the process of preserving this dingy corner of the world he meets, greets, and beats up a menagerie of tough and gritty characters, and goes toe-to-toe with a variety of other gangs. Oh yeah, and he gets to blow up a lot of stuff, too.

And in response to the adventure game genre being dead:

Sean Clark: FT2 is an adventure game at its core but we're using action elements as a means to create more immersion. [...] The first game tried to address this desire, but was limited by the technology available at the time. If that leads people to call the newer game a hybrid, or bemoan that it isn't a "pure adventure," so be it. Regardless of how you classify it, FT2 will be fun and unique.

One slight eyebrow raiser (not really an eyebrow raiser according to Remi) in the FTII article was the caption reading "Yeah, it's an adventure game. But what would a Full Throttle game be without some old-fashioned ass-whomping? And with a big grin, too." Did Ben really smile all that much the first time around?

As for the untitled Larry Holland WWII game he says that, like his previous air-combat games at LucasArts, it will focus on action more than true-sim instrumentation and whatnot, and be based around a "compelling story-driven single-player experience." For the full interviews and colorful screenshots, drive to the nearest book store and pick up the current issue of PC Gamer.

An editorial has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled "Stop privatizing the Presidio." As we reported earlier, the Letterman Digital Arts Center in Presidio is a complex being built to house LucasArts, Industrial Light and Magic, THX, Lucas Learning Ltd. and Lucas Online. This new construction has been controversial to those who feel that the complex would ruin the historic and natural park atmosphere of the land. Here's a quote from the editorial:

It is time for the trust to admit that its own data show that it doesn't need real estate development for financial self-sufficiency of the park. The trust should therefore terminate pending agreements with Lucasfilm; abandon plans for 700,000 square-feet of more new buildings; and use trust funds to rehabilitate buildings. That way, the Presidio will be a park, not an office park on public land.

After the Editor's Day event last month, Mixnmojo stopped by to take a few pictures of the current status of the Presidio grounds. Check 'em out if you're at all interested.

Bill Tiller and Larry Ahern, 2 of our most beloved ex-LEC employees, have decided to help Adventure Developers 2.0 start off with a bang, thanks to their new article 21 Rules for Adventure Gaming. Bill Tiller, as you should recall, was the artist behind the lovely backgrounds for The Curse of Monkey Island and Larry Ahern was Co-director of the game. Says Bill:

Over the past nine years Larry Ahern and I have worked with many different adventure game designers and on many adventure games. We both contributed heavily to the game designs for all those projects. Larry even got to co designed The Curse of Monkey Island with Jonathan Ackly. During those projects we have learned a lot about the genre including these basic adventure game design ?rules?, or you could just consider them ?strong suggestions?. The word ?rules? seem a bit strong for such a flexible genre as adventure games. Also many of these ?rules? can be applies successfully to other game genres as well.

It's Sage advice, indeed. One new tip will be posted each week, so check it out.

LucasArts has just issued a press release, announcing that they are working on an adventure game sequel to Sam and Max Hit The Road. The game, which was being developed by Infinite Machines before they allegedly kicked the bucket, will be co-directed by Mike Stemmle and should be released for Windows PC's in the first quarter of 2004. No word on the actual plot of the game, so we must wonder if it the setting still revolves around space. Here is the press release in full, and also... woohoo!

SAM & MAX TO HIT THE ROAD (AND OTHERS) IN LONG AWAITED CLASSIC ADVENTURE SEQUEL FROM LUCASARTS

Popular Madcap Dog and Rabbity Thing to Return for More Hilariously Skewed Adventures First Quarter 2004 on Windows PC

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- August 27, 2002 -- Sam & Max, interactive entertainment's most beloved canine and rabbit combo, hit the road again first quarter 2004 in a long awaited adventure comedy sequel for Windows PC from LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC. The follow up to the critically acclaimed 1993 adventure classic Sam & Max Hit the Road will dispatch the Freelance Police into a wild world of screwy and vaguely quixotic missions. Each one will be jam packed with nerve-jangling action, brain-busting puzzles, and the kind of easygoing banter one might expect from a talking dog and a naked, hyperkinetic bunny.

<:MORENEWS:>

Sam & Max are based upon the "Sam & Max Freelance Police" comic book series created by Steve Purcell. LucasArts' Michael Stemmle, co-director of the award-winning original game, will direct the sequel.

"Sam & Max Hit the Road is a classic and as close to being a signature game as any LucasArts has ever done," says Simon Jeffery, president of LucasArts "The Sam & Max sequel, much like the recently announced Full Throttle II, perfectly complements LucasArts' renowned adventure game legacy and lends further support to the company's commitment to investing in and developing more of our original properties.

About LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide. Based in San Rafael, Calif., as well as on the Internet at www.lucasarts.com, LucasArts is one of five companies in the Lucas group which include Lucasfilm Ltd., Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, Lucas Licensing Ltd., and Lucas Online. Lucasfilm is one of the leading film and entertainment companies in the world. Lucasfilm's businesses include George Lucas' film and television production and distribution activities. Lucas Digital, which consists of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Skywalker Sound, provides visual effects and audio post-production services to the entertainment industry. Lucas Licensing is responsible for the merchandising of all Lucasfilm's film and television properties. Lucas Online is a digital destination for entertainment, education, reference and e-commerce for Lucasfilm's intellectual properties and business units.
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Update:(Spaff)

The game will have no connection to the one being worked on by Infinite Machine. It will be completley re-written.

In an article entitled Young Artists On The Verge in the San Francisco Chronicle, a new LucasArts artist has been profiled. 25 year old Amy Christenson discusses her experiences of moving from Kansas to California, starting out in our favorite game company, and working on the upcoming Bounty Hunter. It's a heartwarming tale of "small town girl makes good"... or something. Go here and scroll down a bit to read the article.

Source: TheForce.net

... and still manages to arrive six days late. Double Fine Action News has been updated with a bazillion new updates dating back in time all the way to the 19th. News includes new press hits on the products page, an update on their rodent infestation, and a note of special appreciation to the one person who actually sent in his XBox Magazine recipt in exchange for a naked lady picture. You might also catch some Psychonauts news if you look hard enough. Might.

Also, I'm sure the entire staff of Double Fine (except maybe the really really bitter papyrophobes) would encourage you to vote for Robox in the current Mojo poll.

Right then. Once again It's time for the lower class, European equivalent of E3. Next week from Thursday to saturday, all the greatest games companies poor suckers who are based in the UK will be showing their wares off at Earls Court.

I shall be heading on over there on the thursday afternoon with our resident writer Lemonhead, and meeting up with AdventureGamers' own Marek Bronstring. If you are going to be about and want to meet up with us for the afternoon email me.

LucasArts.com updated their site on Friday as usual. Now you can find some new screenshots in the Clone Wars product spotlight as well as one new screenshot from Bounty Hunter. I particularly like this one screenshot because it shows the amount of detail in the Jango Fett model. Or maybe I'm just a guy who loves setting stuff on fire.

FilmForce.com has published a great article about Disney's upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean movie. The film, which is based on the Disney theme park ride of the same name, served as the main inspiration for Ron Gilbert's Monkey Island series.

Neither LucasArts nor LucasFilm appear to be involved in the movie, but due to the source material, it seems that the film will encompass many of the elements that we love about Monkey Island. This includes dastardly pirates, ship battles, a governor's mansion, and the living dead.

Be sure to read the full article for information on who is in the movie and a long plot description. Thankfully, it seems the elements of time travel have completely been removed from the movie. Let's hope that it still manages to be much better than Country Bears. Arrrrg!

The Electric Playground has a new preview up of LucasArts' upcoming 3rd person action/adventure RTX Red Rock. Created by Fate of Atlantis and Big Sky Troopers designer Hal Barwood, RTX Red Rock stars "radical tactics expert" and all around nice guy Eugene Zeno Wheeler (aka EZ Wheeler), who is sent out to uncover what caused Earth's Mars colony to suddenly fall silent.

"I have to hand it to LucasArts--RTX Red Rock's futuristic setting is very complete and convincing (according to LucasArts, the game was in part influenced by one of its older scifi adventure titles--The Dig. The graphics are only part of it, the game looks like a coherent scifi world." Cool beans. Now, EZ wheel yourself on over and take a look.

Oh ho! UGO is also running a for their feature: "The Top Eleven Upcoming RPG/Adventure Games." Psychonauts hit the number two spot(!), and the writer had this to say about it:

Tim Schafer knows how to do character-driven adventure games. The veracity of this statement has been well established by his work on classic titles like Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. Unfortunately, that genre is on the verge of extinction. So what's a designer to do? How about applying the principles that made his past games so great to a format that fits perfectly with the current next-gen console craze: The platform adventure? That's pretty much what Psychonauts is: The illegitimate love child of Mario and Manny Calavera.

Disgusting! But definitely more interesting...give it a read!

As seen in this that we're apparently running, UGO has run an article titled "Top Eleven Upcoming Strategy Games." LucasArts' Gladius made the list #7 (along with an uninformed jab at LucasArts for being an all-Star Wars company). Here's a clip:

Metal glints in the sun, shields spark when they clash, and the fire from spell effects (this isn't entirely historically accurate, folks) look particularly nice. There are many different arenas to fight in, each placed in one of four regions. While Gladius is set in a fictional world, regions have their own theme, from Middle Eastern to the more familiar ancient Roman, complete with columns and tunics in the crowd. Multiplayer modes will allow two or more people at once to battle at once, and by simply saving your gladiator team to a memory card, you can challenge your friends.

They say one of the low points in their experience is the potential for (and occasional occurance of) slow gameplay during the combat sequences. Slow gameplay in a turn based RPG game doesn't sound too out of place, but who knows? Anyway, take a peek.

Clones! Get it? Aspyr and LucasArts have announced that they're bringing the Galactic Battlegrounds expansion pack, Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns to the Mac. This coming hot on the heels of the PC's Galactic Battlegrounds Saga combo-pack announcement, one can't help but wonder if a Mac version of that is coming sometime as well? Probably is.

TheForce.net has posted a rumor about the upcoming release date for the PS2 and Gamecube action title, Star Wars Bounty Hunter. According to their spy, Bounty Hunter will be turned over to Sony for approval on October 18th and should be in stores on November 12th, the same day of the Episode II DVD release. This confirms what producer Rachel Hardwick told us at Editor's Day '02, although she mentioned that the Gamecube version may come out two weeks later.

That's right, another new hosted site has hit the scene. This time it's Ryback's site, LucasArts Fiction, or LucasFic for short. It's been around since 1998, and is just now debuting on Mojo.

Lucasfic houses a large amount of fan fiction based around the LEC universe. In addition to this, the site also features fanfic-related news. Make sure to check it out, and give LucasFic and its webmaster a warm welcome.

Haden Blackman, LucasArts producer on Star Wars Galaxies, has posted a message on the official Galaxies posting board. The post, which is a journal entry of sorts, chronicals his experience with the beta version of the game. Here's a small quote:

Another highlight was having one of the testers stand right in front of me and roll his eyes. We have an emote ? right now, it?s ?/roll? ? that allows your character to roll his or her eyes in a slightly exasperated manner. I?m constantly amazed at the little details that permeate this game.

Be sure to read the entire message for quite a few bits of interesting info.

Our own World of Monkey Island has recently posted the 16th page of their Monkey Island 1 Comic. The comic, if you don't know, is drawn by community artist Paco Vink (who incidentally also drew the Robox vs Fat Skeleton Guy poll illustration) and looks very, very sweet... well, in my opinion at least. Click here to view the goodness.

Last week we had a poll asking "In an all-out brawl among the following characters, who would be victorious?" There was no clear winner. Robox, Double Fine's gigantic cardboard robot, tied with the fat skeleton guy from that one cutscene in Curse of Monkey Island.

What to do, you ask? Why, pit them to the death in an ultimate one on one showdown, of course. And the best part is, you decide the winner! Well, you do if you're registered here at Mixnmojo (registration is free, and you will never get spammed, we promise!). To vote, just click on the winner in the poll down to the right there.

The LucasArts 20th Anniversary website has been updated with more good stuff. First, you can check out this awesome piece of concept art from Grim Fandango. After that, stop by the LucasArts Theatre for a higher quality QuickTime trailer for the game Outlaws. The Flashbacks section now has some more crazy memories from LucasArts employees, including a milk incident with Simon Jeffery over Monkey Island 2. There's also an Interactive Timeline, featuring the elusive game Night Shift.

What is probably the most interesting update is this profile and interview with Sean Clark, who has directed such games as Sam and Max Hit The Road, The Dig, and Escape From Monkey Island. In his interview, Sean gives us an update about the upcoming Full Throttle 2. Here's the quote:

At this point, we've got a complete design, a fairly complete game level, and we can run Ben around, pick fights, and engage other characters in discussions about such pressing topics as "I need a beer," and "Where's the bathroom?" The next several months of development will mostly revolve around content creation, feature implementation, and dialog writing.

Interesting note: Sean is credited on Full Throttle 2 as Director and Co-Designer. I wonder who else is designing the game...

TheForce.net has printed a list of The Top 600 Game Sales in North America for consoles. LucasArts has eleven Star Wars games in the list with Rogue Leader selling the most. Unfortunately, Escape From Monkey Island was no where to be found. Check out the Star Wars rankings or the full list.

Double Fine have updated their news, or rather Tim has updated their news. Its a large post containing not a lot, but does break down what each individual is doing over there on Psychonauts. Also I should mention that he mentions our article about Double Fine. And now the universe should end... or something... GO READ IT.

What's that you say? Mojo doesn't host enough religious cults? Well what if we told you that our newest hosted site, The Church of Tim has launched? Yes that's right, the Church of Tim is a fan site establishing a religion elevating Double Fine Productions' own Tim Schafer as a (rat-murdering-machine) deity. So check out the Church of Tim. Also, sacred fresco.

Ben Whatsisname, community veteran and webmaster of The Kickstand, has gotten his new project hosted on Mixnmojo. Mindbent: The Center For Alien Mind Control is a site devoted entirely to the Zany LucasArts classic, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. Please be sure to visit!

It was a bloody battle. But eventually Moop came out victorious with 6% of the vote! You may say that because the "big-boned" skeleton dude from CMI had the most votes he would be the winner, but let's be realistic about this people. We all know that there's no such thing as skeletons. (? ?)

Anyway, onwards to the new poll! The new question asks which game industry leader you want to be? Want to run LucasArts? Want to run Double Fine? Want to run Mojo? Let us know in our new poll, "When (if) I grow up I want to be just like:"

LucasArts.com has updated its screenshot of the week. This time, the screenshot is from Gladius featuring a cameo from Blue Man Group. Oh, the fun! Gladius will be released for the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube this spring.

LucasArts has updated their 20th Anniversary page with another scan of some original background artwork from Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. What's the locale? This time it's the Voodoo Lady's house, AKA The International House of Mojo. Booyah!

Take a look at it here, or click the image at the bottom of this post. This is the second Monkey 2 image LucasArts has put on the site. The first one, Captain Dread's map, is here. Fun times!

Point your cursors towards Adventure Developer(s), the oft-overlooked Mojo network site, as it is BACK. Aye, it has returned, and is featuring lots of features and a brand new design. All of the old features, such as the first Tiller Techniques by Bill Tiller, and the entire Eye on Amateur Adventure series by Yahtzee, have returned at long last. There are several new featured articles as well, including the long-awaited second installment of Tiller Techniques.

Taxicab and Courthold have done a great job bringing together version two-point-oh, so be sure to pay the site repeated visits(!!!). Also there are forums.

LucasArts has just issues a press release announcing a new bundle package for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Can't you feel the excitement in the air? Here's the press release in full:

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- August 14, 2002 - LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC today announced Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga, which gathers the popular real-time strategy Windows PC game Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and its dynamic Star Wars Episode II mission expansion Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns in a single package.

<:MORENEWS:>

The value oriented Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga , expected to release this October, will challenge players with more than 50 battle campaigns representing the classic and prequel Star Wars universe. As an added bonus to Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga, LucasArts has teamed with Wizards of the Coast, the worldwide market leader in the trading card and tabletop roleplaying game categories, to include the Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, booster packs for the highly successful Star Wars trading card game. The booster packs, available in limited quantities in the U.S. version of Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga, have an estimated retail value of $10.00."

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga presents two of this past years' mostpopular real-time strategy games in one low priced package," says Mary Bihr, vice president, worldwide sales and marketing for LucasArts. "Together with the Star Wars trading card game booster packs, Star Wars fans will have countless hours of gaming fun." Powered by the Age of Empires: Age of Kings technology, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga allows players to deploy vast armies, manage resources and create custom single or multiplayer campaigns on Tatooine, Naboo, Endor, Hoth, Geonosis and more.

About LucasArts

LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide. Based in San Rafael, Calif., as well as on the Internet at www.lucasarts.com, LucasArts is one of five companies in the Lucas group which include Lucasfilm Ltd., Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, Lucas Licensing Ltd., and Lucas Online. Lucasfilm is one of the leading film and entertainment companies in the world. Lucasfilm's businesses include George Lucas' film and television production and distribution activities. Lucas Digital, which consists of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Skywalker Sound, provides visual effects and audio post-production services to the entertainment industry. Lucas Licensing is responsible for the merchandising of all Lucasfilm's film and television properties. Lucas Online is a digital destination for entertainment, education, reference and e-commerce for Lucasfilm's intellectual properties and business units.
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In additional to the recent announcement concerning Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, it's possible that other upcoming titles may be delayed as well. HomeLAN is reporting that Indiana Jones and the Emporer's Tomb may have had its release date moved from Fall 2002 back into January 2003. The site also mentions that Galaxies may appear in February 2003, which we recently reported here. LucasArts hasn't commented on this yet, so we'll just have to wait and see. Thanks to Marek for the tip!

A friend pointed me to this article on music4games.net, which talks about a recording session recently held by LucasArts with the Northwest Sinfonia orchestra in Seattle, Washington.

They recorded hours of all-original (with some familiar themes) score for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, scored by ex-LucasArts in-house composer Clint Bajakian and his small team at CB Studios. Here's a snip from the story:

Clint Bajakian from The Sound Department (Outlaws, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, Escape from Monkey Island), who composed the score, explained why they went with a live orchestra:

"LucasArts recognized that it was time to bring the magic that only a live orchestra can produce, into something as important as an Indiana Jones game. We recognized that the Indiana Jones film scores were great, not only due to the brilliant writing of John Williams, but on the dazzling quality of 80 world-class musicians playing their hearts out in an orchestral ensemble."

We're trying to scrape together our own report on this LucasArts first. But right now you should read theirs!

Update: Also, I've put up a smaller version of the picture music4games.net ran with their story (see, our version can actually fit on a screen) at the bottom of this post.

The Brimstone Beach Club has officially started it's Open Week & Treasure hunt. It's a great chance to visit some MI/LEC sites around the community that you might not be familiar with, and of course to have fun and win some nice prizes. So get going!

On the official Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic forums, producer Mike Gallo has posted a message with a new release date for the upcoming Xbox and PC RPG. Prepare yourself for his quote:

[Reviewing the schedules and task lists] has been a pretty lengthy process, but we're confident in our new release schedule of Spring '03 for the Xbox, and Summer '03 for the PC. This is a huge game with an epic story, and we want to be able to bring that entire experience to all of the fans that have been waiting so patiently for it. In the end, taking the extra time to deliver on that promise is what's most important, and both LucasArts and BioWare are committed to that promise.

Nice to see that fan speculations of a rushed schedule imposed by Microsoft and a compromise of quality may be untrue. Be sure to read the full message and the reply written by project director/producer Casey Hudson.

Never thought you'd live to read the phrase "ScummVM - Quick and Easy"? Well, unless you've died and are somehow still reading this...nevermind. The point is that bgbennyboy, the ultra-stylish programmer and mojo forum moderator, has written a frontend to the popular program ScummVM.

This program, as many of you already know, is a virtual machine used to run many classic LEC adventures on newer machines. However, many people found it to be a bit...well, user-unfriendly. ScummVM Q+E works to make the original program easier to use, with a number of options explained in greater detail the readme file.

You can download ScummVM Q+E here!

Source: The SCUMM Bar, yo.

Evan Dickens has written a great new feature for Adventure Gamers having to do with how fans (over)react to upcoming adventure titles. This one hits painfully close to home, folks, but it's all in good fun. Have a read!

In an unrelated (no, really!) bit of news, some of our dedicated fans have been having trouble accessing the mojo forums. That's because the forums.mixnmojo.com subdomain doesn't work at the moment. To get to the forums, click on this whining sound effect: *whine*

TheForce.net points out that the Macintosh port of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast has reached the beta stage. However, unlike the Galactic Battlegrounds port, it seems that this version will support multiplayer between PC's and Macs in its final release. Look for this OS X-friendly game sometime in early October.

Source: Yahoo News

According to this story on IGNCube, the next Indiana Jones game, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, could be headed to the Nintendo Gamecube. The title was originally announced only for XBox, PS2 and PC.

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is an action/adventure which takes place immediately before Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is being developed by LucasArts by game studio The Collective set for a Fall 2002 release. You can read our preview of Emperor's Tomb here.

Are you as desperate for news as we are? Then check out LucasArts.com for some new concept art from the upcoming PS2 and Gamecube title, Bounty Hunter. Granted this isn't the least bit exciting, but the concept art does look pretty good.

Update: Tomas points out that the 20th Anniversary Site has also been updated with some Day of the Tentacle character sketches! Very cool.

Yes, it's that time again. Time for a brand new Mojo poll of fun and excitement! This latest poll asks the obvious question; In an all-out brawl among the listed characters, who would be victorious? Go on and vote. It's your civic duty and it's more fun than voting on something that actually does matter.

John Delaney, artist for such comic books as Justice League and Dexter's Lab, takes the time to draw various characters at the request of his fans. A poll is set up every week to determine what character John will draw next. In this week's poll, Demon Pirate LeChuck makes the list, so click here to vote! Registration is required, though.

Source: chrisc3po

Haden "Shug_Ninx" Blackman, producer on the upcoming Star Wars Galaxies, has written a message on the official forums discussing the game's progress and the tentative release dates. Here's part of what he said:

The past few weeks, we've been evaluating the current design against the current schedule and we're pretty confident that we can launch in a December-February timeframe. The window is a result of the unpredictability of the beta process. The beta process will help us determine both the stability and quality of the game, which will give us a better idea about our actual, concrete ship date. If beta runs smoothly and we encounter minor bumps, then we can ship much earlier. But until we evaluate the data collected during beta, it's impossible for us to guarantee a specific launch date.

Be sure to read the full message.

After a lot of stupid crap which will not be explained here, our latest feature story, Return to Double Fine, is online. Chronicling our latest trip to the offices of Grim Fandango creator Tim Schafer and his gang (currently working on the upcoming Psychonauts for XBox), the story is certain to amaze, amuse, and possibly even disgust.

Some of you may have read the article earlier today when it was miracuously linked from GameSpot hours before running. Good times. If you caught it then, we suggest you read it again!

Also, twifkak, you're on our enemies list.

CaptainDread has informed us that LucasRadio is back, hopefully for good. LucasRadio is a SHOUTcast streaming audio broadcast that plays various kinds of LucasArts related music and remixes. However, there are also the occassional weird Star Wars parody songs as well. In theory, the broadcast should run 24/7, but you never know about these things. Give a listen!

Quick note here: Two forums in the community have been redesigned. You will look at them immediately.

Firstly, radio-drama maker Nightlight Productions has a new layout for its hosted forum. It could really use some love from the community. :)

Secondly, the Full Throttle forum (home to fans of the Kickstand and Polecats Lounge) got a makeover as well, and could also use some new visitors.

Visit!

LucasArts.com has been updated with some new goodies. First, there is a trailer for RTX Red Rock, showing off some of the cinematics and in-game footage. Second, check out this sweet new Indy screen, which shows Dr. Jones just before he smacks the sense into some guy. And finally, if you're really looking for something to do, you can check out this concept art on the 20th Anniversary site for Star Wars Starfighter. It's pretty boring, though.

Update: QueZTone points out that in the company store, you can now find this t-shirt featuring the "Heroes for a Next Generation." Here's your one and only chance to wear a shirt with both Indiana Jones and Ben from Full Throttle on it. Of course, those of you living outside the US may be out of luck on this one.

Chris Purvis, one of the programmers on The Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, has been interviewed by our very own SCUMM Bar. The interview is very interesting, and includes lots o' inside information. Here's an example:

I would really like to have gotten a chance to work more on The Magic Box (working title) which was an original adventure game Larry and Jonathan were doing after they finished CMI. I started working on it right after we finished Grim Fandango. It was Randy and Michele from Monkey 4 plus myself doing all the programming, and I really was having a good time working with them on it. But Jonathan ended up leaving, and the project ended up cancelled.

Be sure to read the full interview, and be sure to keep an eye out for a question at the end of the interview submitted by yours truly, which seemed to freak Chris out a bit.

Tim Schafer updated the Double Fine News for the second time in one day! In this bonus post, Tim informs us that his new game Psychonauts is on the cover of the Official Xbox Magazine (well, sorta), updates us on the rat situation, casually drops his new catch phrase, and more. Give it a look-see.

Double Fine Action News(!!!) was updated today with a massive update about fan mail, emoticons, but especially catch phrases. No new Psychonauts news, but hopefully we'll get some tomorrow. Honest. For now, read!

As Adventure Gamers is reporting and as many sources have been telling us for the past few months, it seems that Infinite Machine is dead. The company, founded by Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight designer Justin Chin, faced many problems with the publication of their Xbox game entitled New Legends. It seems likely that these issues combined with the less-than-wonderful sales of this title caused the company to dissolve.

The real tragedy here is that Infinite Machine was in production of a new Sam and Max action adventure. This will certainly cause fans to wonder if that project is also dead, or whether a company like LucasArts will develop the game on their own. Only time will tell.