The International House of Mojo

This week is going to be sweet, thanks to 1Up!

On Monday we're kicking off our next 1UP Cover Story -- on DeathSpank, the latest game from Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert. For the past 15 years or so, he's been working on children's games, consulting, producing, etc., and this is his return to heading up an enthusiast-focused game. It's one of my most anticipated games at the moment, and I can't wait to show it off.

This cover also serves a dual purpose, since it gives us a nice excuse to post a related feature that I started working on back in 2007, but got backburner'd and never made its way online. That being, a LucasArts Reunion video where I interviewed seven former LucasArts adventure game devs as a group. We filmed the whole thing, and are finally putting it online mid-next week.

I see you shiver with antici...<:MORENEWS:>







...pation.

Source: 1Up

Source.



Fail.

Update: Someone in Argentina has figured it out. According to Ignatius on the Telltale forums, a humor TV show figured out what happened and cut together the original broadcast with clips from Monkey 1. Plus, they found footage of a nutritionist claiming "SCUMM" is an alcohol delivery service. You learn something every day!



Update: What the?

Source: Telltale Games Forum

Here are the fans that go that, uh, extra mile: And they're building the Tour of Destruction tour bus from Brutal Legend. I want to blabber about how cool this is, but...no words, man. No words.

(PS: For those wondering what the hell is going on with that IGN.com thing.)

Source: Twitter

Over at G4, you can watch a five minute video of a LucasArts employee named Matt Shell showing off footage of Lego Indiana Jones II: The Adventure Continues at GamesCom 2009. The game's co-op, a Crystal Skull level, and the much touted level builder are all shown off, so check it out.

Well, this sure is better than the C-3P0 SCUMM game LucasArts is rumoured to have had in development at some point.

Han Solo Adventures is an interactive fan fiction game (I like to think of it as "fan powered!"), in the tradition of the classic graphic adventure games of the 80's and 90's. This is a project I have embarked upon purely for my own enjoyment, and for the love of two things: classic adventure games and Star Wars! Although the stories will be fairly original, loosely based on available background information on Han and his early exploits, you can expect game play similar to classic LucasArts titles

While the 'Goodyear Blimp' dialogue line seems a little out of place, bear in mind the youtube clip is set up for Star Wars Uncut and isn't part of the playable game. The game itself will not feature speech either.

This could be fun to watch.

www.hansoloadventures.com

Source: Han Solo Adventures

Another House of Mojo podcast coming in your ears. Join Jason, Chris and Peter for an adventure into the sonic dimensions.

WARNING: This file is being brought to you in an untested capacity. The International House of Mojo makes no guarantees of content or quality.

Ho ho. What I mean to say is: I'm sure this podcast is excellent, but I haven't listened to it yet. If I did that, you'd all have to wait for another 97 minutes before I could post this news. So consider this a gamble on my part - and why not? It wouldn't be the first time I've accidentally endorsed something bad.

So is this the greatest podcast of all time, or an awful failure? Find out!*

*Seriously I'm sure it's great. But no guarantees!**

**It really probably is.

The Tingler Reminds: This podcast we cover Tales of Monkey Island Episode 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay, so if you haven't played and finished that don't listen for there be spoilers ahead.

We also discuss Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition and our opinions on the new Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island trailer.

Steve Purcell has posted yet another bit of concept art from the canceled animated Monkey Island flick. Hopefully this hungry fellow settles whatever debate that has sprung up about the presence of mythological creatures in the MI universe. Who knew a few mer-folk would get so many people's earlobes uncurled?*

* You can't prove that my sly reference to The Great Cow Race won't cause Bone 3 to exist.

Update: Steve Purcell is a freaking genius. Way too cool.

Well, here's something I never thought would happen: an internet petition just caused a company to change something. Yep: the Official "It doesn't have to be so friggin' compressed" petition at the Telltale forums has yielded results, and now The Siege of Spinner Cay sounds a little better. I myself never encountered these issues, but hey. They've also fixed a few bugs that cropped-up throughout the game.

Thanks to Telltale for doing this (as far as I know, a first in the history of the internet), and the anonymous tipster who emailed me about it. Step forward, anonymous tipster, to claim your Mojo Pirate Cookie points.

Source: Telltale

A Maniac Mansion fan by the absurd moniker of "Charlie" wrote in today, asking if she could share some fan art she did of Razor, the hamster-cooking red-headed rocker from the immortal Maniac Mansion. And as soon as her check cleared, I said, "Sure thing!" Here it is, ya'll:

LucasArts has gotten really good at that forgotten artform - the holdout. Their newest tease: "Got a back-catalog announcement on Monday. It's not X-Wing! I'm heading THAT rumor off at the pass!".

Interesting. Let's see which of the "heritage titles" will soon make their way to a new generation of gamers such as myself, and shine a light on their dark and lonely world.

Update: And it's Super Star Wars (original trilogy) heading to your Wii via Virtual Console! Anyone play these games? Never heard of them before; satisfy my curiosity. There's also this "Check Mii Out" channel, where you get to submit Mii versions of Star Wars characters; and the "Everybody Votes" channel, where you can stick it to the man and prove that you know it, we all know it: Han shot first.

JP Update: Super Star Wars is out TODAY on Wi Virtual Console (North America).

JP Update 2: Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back has now been released on Wii's Virtual Console service in North America. Still no word on when these LucasArts games will hit PAL territories.

Autumn Moon's Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island has had its first trailer made available, which you can see at the ever-dependable Pumpkin Post. The trailer isn't that impressively cut together and you won't really learn anything, but the game's visuals remain awesome-looking.

Go watch!

Here's some cuh-rayzee trivia: someone from Mixnmojo is kind of related to some guy who hates Twitter, and much to the chagrin of Jack Dorsey this guy is also related to the Russian mafia. So a blood bath starts and now we've sort of killed off the Russian mob.

So then elTee that Mixnmojoer vowed revenge, and in honour of this vow he bribed Destructoid into hosting a party. The idea is that you crash Twitter and bury it for good, while pretending that you're just trying to get Brutal Legend onto trending topics. Those lucky among you will also win some of those Brutal Legend statues, and one other guy takes him a slim PS3. It all depends on who does more fail whale killing.

All you gotta do is sign up, spam the service with #brutallegend tags and then hope you've avenged our mysterious Mixnmojoer. Make 'em pay.

Update: It's happening! Brutal Legend is a trending topic on Twitter! Go over there and contribute!

Update 2: OK, I lied about elTee being connected to the Russian mob. He isn't: they were a bit too violently sissy for him. He is now suing Mojo (for damages) and the Russian mob (for being a collection of wusses who will not continue to fund Mixnmojo. You may be happy to know that visiting the site will no longer contribute to drugs trafficking).

Source: Destructoid

The second chapter of the new Monkey Island game is out. Enjoy!

Source: Telltale

So you know what Mojo thinks but what about the purveyor of great taste, The SCUMM Bar? Well, just run and read it and be enlightened. It's what the cool kids do.

Part two of Telltale's exciting Monkey Island series will soon be upon us all: but in the mean-time, you can read all our thoughts on the matter.

Tales of MI.net also have a review, from which I stole a screenshot.

On his blog, Steve Purcell has shared a new piece of concept art from the canceled The Curse of Monkey Island animated movie, in pre-production at some point in 2000. Sorry, by that I mean "speculative piratey piece of potential film entertainment."

The art depicts LeChuck staring with unbridled emotion at Tia Dalma's musical locket some sort of weird seashell.

Update: We caught these previously unseen character designs (for CMI the game - yes, Purcell did some early sketches for that!) from last month too, right?

We're just a little late in reporting them. But they exist, nonetheless.

Update by Zaarin: Telltale has also released some footage from the upcoming episode.

Telltale Games' co-founder Kevin Bruner talks to Bit-Tech about the Telltale workflow and creating games for multiple platforms.

Telltale had to create the illusion of save games that can talk to each other on the console versions of its games. "We knew what might have happened in Episode one and what was guaranteed to be there," says Bruner. Telltale is apparently in talks with both Microsoft and Nintendo about getting around the system, but currently developers still have an advantage with the PC's flexibility when it comes to save games.

Read the whole thing here.

Source: Bit-Tech

People anxious to get their little hands on Brütal Legend will be pleased to discover that a demo will be released on PSN and 360 as early as September 17th. Tim Schafer had this to say:

Villagers have surround our offices with torches demanding the game, so we're releasing a demo and hope that this taste of metal will keep the mob at bay until Brütal Legend comes out.

Make no mistake, if you like legends, September and Rocktober have plenty to keep you satisfied. If you also like brütality, you should be doubly excited. And stay away from me.

Thanks to Destructoid for the heads-up.

Source: Destructoid

As posted on the Telltale Blog, it's now possible, in the US at least, to buy the first Tales of Monkey Island episode on its own for PC. Previously it was only available in the full season bundle.

More info here.

Update: It's also available from Reflexive.

Source: Telltale Games

LucasArts will be revealing their new IP on September 10th on an interview with Darrell Rodriguez by GameTrailers, according to LucasArts' helpful Twitter page.

“Our Prez just Finished an interview w/ @Gametrailers. Discussed new internal LucasArts IP. Tune in Sept 10 to hear whats up!”

This may be Lucidity, which is fine by us as it's looking very interesting already. We'll see - but as it's new, presumably it won't be Star Wars, Indy, Loom or any other existing licence.

Source: Twitter

www.votejimward.com

As a successful business leader, Jim has applied his vision, passion and straightforward approach contributing to the success of companies like Apple, Microsoft, Nike and Luscasfilm.

Luscasfilm, eh?

Also...

Source: votejimward.com

Blink (your ears) and you'll miss it in-game, but Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings actually had a pretty significant amount of original music composed by veteran composer Gordy Haab.

In a cool feat of generosity, Gordy's now got the entire score to listen to on his website here. It's pretty darn cool really... just a shame that there wasn't more of it.

Oh, and the download page is here!

UPDATE: Not wanting to be left out, Ray Harman has a few of his tracks now up too!

If you can't figure it out, you can never come back to mixnmojo.com again.

Click here for the ballot paper.

Source: Gamespot

When he's not showing Dave Grossman how designing Monkey Island games is done or leaving critical comments under news posts, Jake spends his time as a contributing voice on the Idle Thumbs podcast, the latest episode of which is all about Brutal Legend's much ballyhooed but still somewhat mysterious multiplayer mode. Chris Remo and Nick Breckon had a chance to play some of the game's multiplayer and their (rather positive) impressions should be heard by you.

Some guy on Gamespot also got some hand-on time with Brutal Legend's multiplayer and wrote a preview about his discoveries, if you're interested in that as well.

Update by Tingler: IGN also have a preview of the multiplayer, complete with videos. Apparently it's an action-strategy arena where you can play Eddie, Ophelia or (gasp) Tim Curry's Doviculus commanding head-bangers, goths and demons respectively. Neat!

Bonus Update: Nick Breckon has posted written impressions of the multiplayer mode up on Shacknews.

We wanted to get the Grim Fandango Secret History up way earlier than this, but it didn't qualify for a better travel package, and it ended up getting shafted with the Excelsior Line. (Plus, y'know, Monkey Island 5 got announced and all.) However, its journey of the soul is honestly very very nearly complete this time, which is why I'm giving everyone one last chance to send in reader opinions about this masterpiece if you haven't already.

I'll take anything sent to me before Sunday if you want your thoughts in the article! Let's get a move on now, you're not dead yet.

...to Zaarin! He is 1337 years old today.

Too cheap to fork out almost $10 for the Special Edition? Look no further than Direct2Drive which gives all of our lovely readers a 25% discount! Just use this code...

E8BD4BF7AE3B32A4A3ACF032BB86F69C

... before the end of the month, and you're good to go.

Mata Hari, the game Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood had some sort of hand in developing, is now available to download via Adventure Shop, for £29.99. Share what you think of the game if you end-up buying it.

Update by Tingler: Alternatively, Direct2Drive has it for £13.95 ($19.99 for the US) or if you're used to buying things off Steam they have it for £19.99.

Source: Twitter

Autumn Moon's upcoming second adventure game, Ghost Pirates of Monkey Vooju Island, is still a bit on the "subtle" side when it comes to marketing, but there is a new preview of the game by NowGamer with some choice words from Bill Tiller included. On the game's inception:

As much as it may look like a copycat release, however, Ghost Pirates Of Vooju Island is anything but. Written by Bill Tiller, the artist behind The Curse Of Monkey Island, Ghost Pirates is an adventure that actually started off as an idea for a proper Guybrush adventure all the way back in 1999. “Larry Ahern was relating to me how Tim Schafer wanted to do more adventure games but was annoyed how long they took,” explains Tiller. “The idea surfaced that maybe instead of one project leader doing one big adventure game you could have three project leaders doing one small adventure each. One project leader could do an adventure from Le Chuck’s perspective, another from Elaine's and again another one from Guybrush’s. It was a cool idea that never got off the ground, but the idea stuck in my head. After I left LucasArts, I still wanted to do a Monkey Island game but Jim Ward said Lucas would never do one again. So I started formulating my own game idea that didn't involve the Monkey Island licence.”

More, including the game's considered life as an episodic game, can be found in the full article. There's no word on the game's release, which was last slated for the first half of 2010. That puts it ahead of A Vamyre Story 2: A Bat's Tale, which as far as we know is still without a publisher and who knows what kind of development status.

Hooray for cliches! A picture paints a thousand words? Okay then! (See what I mean?)

Can't wait.

Source: ATMachine via Twitter

I don't know what the chances of this actually happening are, but Dave Grossman's interested in continuing the Loom series.

In a recent podcast interview with Total PC Gaming (which doesn't seem to be out yet), they asked Dave what Telltale might be up to next:

“The one I always think about these days is Loom actually, and how ahead of its time it was. I think the problem with it at the time was that it was only two and a half hours long and now I find myself deliberately trying to design games that are only two and a half hours long. So I think… well, why not do that?”

Why not indeed?

Source: Total PC Gaming

Worse. Human-Gamer relations.

Our favorite former Telltale PR Manager Emily Morganti is interviewed (amongst others) by Gamasutra on the challenges of marketing a game post-release.

"Since our games are downloadable and release frequently, the closer we can put the announcement to the instant gratification of getting the game, the better," says Morganti. "We'll be in the news for the five or six months that the series is releasing; to also be in the news for six months before this ramping up to the series would be overkill, and hard to pull off."

Here's the whole shebang.

Source: Gamasutra

Pull up your revealing armoured thong, 'cause DeathSpank, Ron Gilbert's first new game since Maniac Mansion, will be shown off at the Penny Arcade Expo a month from now. That's September 4th-6th for anyone at all excited about this very exciting news.

Ron says: "And when I say "showing", I really mean "showing", like in "actual" "game play".

Better start praying at that Nor Treblig Shrine right now!

Source: Grumpy Gamer

So apart from making your life Most Excellent and providing food for orphans, it turns out Tim Schafer is something of a daredevil and moonlights as a one-man bomb disposal unit. The guy's got the concentration of an examination student and the fingers of a pianist. He now takes on that craziest of all manly challenges: the Rubik's cube. And not only that, he does it with Emily Ridgway reading to him a list of 108 songs. While being filmed. For the internet.

Man oh man I hope you're lifting weights and taking steroids as you read this because you've just been proven girly, sissy pants.

Source: MTV Multiplayer

Look, making a Mix CD is hard. I know - I've tried. Making a decent soundtrack is colossal. Making a soundtrack that's supposed to cover the entirety of metal while neither going stupid nor becoming a rundown of hits is something of a full-time job. But managing to do it, and do it with style is the kind of thing you put on your tombstone: "Here lies Jake, who made unbelievably cool soundtracks that rocked the world to its knees. And the world said it was good."

This is one of those soundtracks. Even counting the hair metal on there, the Brutal Legend soundtrack (at this point still incomplete, needing a couple of more songs plus the guaranteed brilliance of Peter McConnell's music), is going to be the best damn thing that happened to your ears since you discovered Sabbath. I mean, just look at this.

I'd like to thank several people: Tim Schafer, for making this possible, and Music Director Emily Ridgway for being the musical shizzle. All the lawyers and suits involved in making this happen get a shoutout as well.

The (evidently) lackluster sales of Staff of Kings is bad news for LEC but good news for you because all versions of the game have undergone a price cut, selling for $20 each now from Walmart, Amazon, and other online retailers. At $20 bucks the Wii version is a total steal, especially considering Fate of Atlantis is on the disc. The reviews might scare you, but I can personally vouch for the Wii version as being worthy of twenty smackers. Think of it as sort of like this awesome unreleased Indy arcade game from ten years ago that they decided to put on the Wii, and I guarantee you'll enjoy it.

A 'Guybrush Hair Patch' by Irishsmile and Riot23 has been released for the Secret of Monkey Island special edition.

Riot23 has taken my hair art and finished the mod. This includes all the sprites. Close ups are still unchanged though.

You can download it here. Just unpack and copy the "art" folder into the game directory.

And you can read about the patch development on lucasforums.

Source: LucasForums

If you've played Sam and Max Hit the Road (and if you haven't you should) then you know about the various Stuckey's's* you can rob admire. Apparently the suits over at the real Stuckey's (which you can't rob) are awesome, in a Dan Connors way: because how else can you explain Sam and Max being on their newsletter?

*I think I just killed a grammar teacher.

The game's already out, but I assume most of you haven't bought it yet, which is why this gameplay trailer for Mata Hari may be of some use to you. It's quite brief, and the soundtrack is like fake Super Mario 64 desert music, but, hey.

I could write some witty opening paragraph, followed by an indented quote from Grumpy Gamer, and top it off with a one liner wrapped up in a hyperlink. But, really, I can't be assed right now.

Here's the payoff. And if you want your own one, that theme is back baby!

Source: Grumpy Gamer

Yes, it's confirmed, in big letters on Telltale's front page.

The release date of Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay is August 20th.

Now go back to sleep.

Oh, but first check out the brand new and awesome screenshot on Telltale's blog page.

Source: Telltale

In a pleasing turn of events it seems like the legal issues that have plagued the release of Brutal Legend are finally at an end.

Destructoid, via Industry Gamers reports that the legal dispute in which Activision moved to stop EA's release of Double Fine's game has now been settled.

In case you've forgotten, Activision were basically claiming they retained publishing rights from way back when they were the publisher - but then they stopped being the publisher and EA started being it instead and now after EA have done lots of lovely publicity for the game Activision decided that being the publisher seemed like a good idea after al--

Ahem. Sorry about that. Back to the news.

Yes. Anyway, it's all sorted out now, although the details of the settlement remain a deep dark secret, never to be revealed, although probably involving some sort of demonic ritual in which Double Fine had to sacrifice kittens in the name of Lord Activision.

Rocktober CONFIRMED.

Source: Destructoid

If you were to right-click on the minimized frame of one of the new, Windows-compatible versions of the SCUMM re-releases from Steam and click "About," you'd know that these updates were based on the work done by Aaron Giles, a former LEC programmer who was recruited to handle the Windows XP compatible ports of Sam & Max Hit the Road and Full Throttle for the Entertainment Pack in the UK back in 2002. (The updated Sam & Max also made its way, in audio corrupted form, to an Armed and Dangerous pre-order bonus disc in late 2003, no doubt to raise excitement for a then upcoming sequel that proved to be not all that upcoming.)

Being a rabid fan of the SCUMM games apart from his employment, Giles reveals in his latest blog post that at the time he actually went ahead and updated some other SCUMM games while he was at it despite LEC only being interested in Hit the Road and Full Throttle:

But why stop there? Being a bit of a completist, you can imagine that I was compelled to get more than just those two games up and running. But LEC decided to focus on the two original games they requested, and they were eventually released in a limited fashion, which was in the end a pretty big disappointment for me, as I had envisioned something much more mainstream. And maybe even involving some of those other games I had ported — even though nobody had asked me to.

Aaron goes on to hope that a second batch of SCUMM games gets re-released (a prospect all but confirmed by LEC), and suggests that the unreleased work he did all those years ago would represent a head start for the coders at LEC. Apparently, some of the four games you see already on Steam are the fruit of his labors, with some additional bugfixes. Well done, Mr. Giles!

Wow, talk about extreme. What EA is doing with promoting Brutal Legend is the equivalent to...I can't even compare. Think of a Tingler-run Indy Fansite, and multiply that by a hundred.

Because anyone who manages to get bands as awesome as Dethklok and Mastodon to do a 34-date tour for them is a marketing god worth reckoning with. It's a good thing I don't get off on marketing genius because damn, damn and titty fish.

Source: EA

LucasArts president Darrel Rodriguez typed an extra long ellipsis in an email interview with G4TV. Mysterious!

I asked Rodriguez for thoughts on a return of the company's lauded X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim series.

His answer?

"We don’t have any announcements now, but stay tuned," said Rodriguez. "We will soon....."

Oh lordy, please be 'Special Editions' of the X-Wing games. Or better yet an entirely new game for PC and consoles by Totally Games.

And yes, before the "PC only" crowd start hurling concussion missiles, I do think one can get the full X-Wing experience on consoles with clever use of controller buttons/stick waggles.

Source: G4TV

Video Gamer has a lengthy interview with Telltale CEO Dan Connors. It's mostly about Tales of Monkey Island (with some minor plot spoilers on the direction Episode 2 is heading). Also, this:

VideoGamer.com: After Tales of Monkey Island, what's next for Telltale? Is there a known IP you're currently looking at, or might we see something completely original from you guys?

DC: We're looking at a bunch of different IP, and we've got a few original designs floating around the studio we're getting closer and closer to a position to green-light.

Here's the full interview.

Update: More "Dan Connors in long article goodness" here at Now Gamer.

Source: Video Gamer

It's looking very Lego Indyish, thank you!

IGN have a few videos up if you like looking at KOCS (pervert). The Diner Brawl is quite amusing, and there are a couple of new features shown off too, the World Builder (with alien-piloted UFO!) and the new (and rather cool) Split-Screen mode.

No release date yet, or how different the Original Trilogy levels are going to be from the first Lego Indy game. Still, at least that's one good Indy game out this year! (Kidding)

Guy.brush from our forums has published some work he's been playing around with on a theoretical Monkey Island 2 Special Edition.

The thinking behind the project seems to be: "Redrawn backgrounds? Bollocks to that. Why don't we make them 3D and shitz?" -- and that's exactly what he's done. Check out the video, the awesomeness of which speaks for itself.

Screenshots and more information can be found at Guy.brush's web-site.

Rather alarmingly, MTV have interpreted this project as a "quaint indie port" and "a direct (and free) competitor" to LucasArts, made by "crazy Germans."

Hooray for journalism.

JP Update: Those crazy germans known as 'Guy.brush' are back with their second Tech Demo, this time The Voodoo Lady's Hut. Enjoy.

The Sam and Max 2 cancellation was the 9/11 of the LucasArts Fan Community. Afterwards, we experienced difficult times with an alarmingly protective administration. But now there's a new president, and it's time to catch up with what (if anything) has really changed.

As someone who has worked at LucasArts for twenty years, Mary Bihr was well placed to withstand our excessive interrogation. Observe.

Alternative Magazine Online has posted an interview with the voice of Guybrush Threepwood, Dominic Armato.

3D has some mighty fine talents of its own that 2D doesn’t bring to the table. But I don’t know how much longer it’s going to be an either/or proposition. When you see something like that fan-made 2D/3D hybrid scene of Woodtick that went up on YouTube a week ago, it gives you an idea of where these games could go. The technology isn’t something I know a lot about, so I don’t know how feasible something like that would be on a large-scale right now, but it sure is exciting, isn’t it?

Click here for the rest.

Update: Alexandra Boyd (Elaine Marley) speaks too.

As well as the Dominic Armato interview, Alternative Magazine also has an interview with the voice of Elaine Marley, Alexandra Boyd.

Source: Alternative Magazine