You’ve already preordered that game that releases on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so why not grab another couple of adventures this September:
You can never own enough copies of the excellent Sam & Max remasters, so this should be good news for everyone!
The games will run you $20 each, and you can find them here:
Save the World: North America and Europe.
Beyond Time and Space: North America and Europe.
Close your eyes if you’re allergic to spoilers, courtesy of Dave…
For the rest of us? At this point, I’m going to hold my tongue in respect to those who want to go into the game blind-ish. But man, this looks good.
We finally have a release date for Return to Monkey Island: September 19, 2022 (formally known as International Talk Like a Pirate Day).
Further more, pre-orders are now open (or will be soon): And, a special pre-order bonus, you'll get a completely useless and inconsequential piece of Horse Armor added to your inventory. Joy.
So, what are you waiting for? Get pre-ordering. Update: For Switch, too!
Another update: The Steam preorder is for both PC and Mac -- purchase one and you'll get the other. Also, the horse armor is truly real, so... who knows what that's all about?!
GamesCom "Open Night Live" is due to begin livestreaming imminently, with some promised "big news" regarding Return to Monkey Island. Will it be a new trailer? The much-hoped for release date? Or a surprise April fools double bluff: The game was never coming all along!
Watch on tenterhooks here: http://openingnightlive.com
Or just click PLAY below:
DREAMM was originally intended as an emulator for the DOS-based SCUMM games, but Aaron just couldn't abide a missing title, so he walked one last barefooted mile in broken glass, emulating just enough Win32 to support The Curse of Monkey Island.
Without promising anything, it seems he's being plagued with another itch:
Well, today’s #MonkeyIslandMonday did not disappoint: You get an updated version of The SCUMM Bar theme with an iMuse-like effect, and a glimpse of the interface. For the latter, it looks like we get a glimpse of Guybrush’s inner monologue, too.
The gamescom event takes place tomorrow—we’ll see what it has to bring. Release date? One can hope.
As you may recall 4,794 days ago, the year was 2009 and Laserschwert had completed a wonderful interview (news post) and separate review about The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition music. The interview was of Jesse Harlin, the composer for the Special Edition release. Along with our hint at a hopeful "official" digital release of that soundtrack (just checked; not quite ready yet) also came with the tease of a Bonus Track known only as "Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx".
Little did we know how clever the Mojo readers were with word puzzles years before we would let them prove that daily (Mojole) that it would be quickly figured out that the cypher solution could only be referring to a "Maniac Mansion" track. And although the Monkey Island Special Edition Soundtrack would make its way online, the Maniac Mansion Bonus track did not.
Yoda-yoda-yoda, it's now March 2022 and a Monkey Island 1 Special Edition Soundtrack CD mysteriously appears on eBay, containing the Bonus Track. A winning bid is declared and the CD is not heard of again. Until today.
So come take a listen to an official LucasArts take at a Maniac Mansion updated theme by Jesse Harlin and join in discussion with other Maniac Mansion music aficionados; Ed-Heads I believe they are called. This track was made with love and at a time when it very likely had to be made in secret, with the hope of pushing upper-management to consider making Maniac Mansion Deluxe Maniac Mansion Remastered.
Source: YouTube
It’s a funny pun, apparently. “Monkey around.” Thirty years on, it’s still the pun du jour when writing about Monkey Island, with PC Gamer UK jumping on the bandwagon. The print magazine’s October issue will, as it seems, feature Return to Monkey Island prominently:
This month, we’re chatting to Ron Gilbert about the sequel that was never supposed to exist. The old Monkey Island team has a new perspective, from evolving its art style to modernising the point-and-click style of gameplay. What exactly is the plan for our dear Guybrush Threepwood all these years later? Monkey Island fans are in for a treat with the subscriber cover too, featuring gorgeous art of Guybrush’s favourite zombie pirate pal LeChuck.
Oh yeah, that cover…
… may very well be worth the price of admission alone. Chef’s kiss.
Though the geography of the Edison mansion makes about as much sense as the Overlook Hotel when you try to diagram it out, the principles of sound engineering haven’t stopped amusing attempts at visualizing some parody of a floor plan. Take, for example, this loose stab at the impossible from the game’s Nintendo Power preview back in the fall of 1990:
Well, it looks like you’ll be seeing another attempt to map the mansion, along with the overworlds to 35 or so other NES games. It’s all part of the upcoming book Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom: Greatest Hits Edition, which appear to be a curated version of a larger book. Here’s a promotional tweet that shows Maniac Mansion made the cut:
Pre-order the book here.
Source: Retro Game Books
First of all: Do not watch the video if you’re allergic to spoilers. They’re minor, but they’re there. In fact, stop reading if you want to play the game with fresh eyes, as I have some ramblings below the video.
So…
There, just some observations of a fifty-second video that concludes today’s editorializing.
Look, this is beyond a longshot, but Reddit claims to have it, Return to Monkey Island’s release date: September 1st.
Take this with a BIG PINCH OF SALT: in Devolver Digital official website, the code of the page for Return to Monkey Island contains a block of structured data with information on the game.
There are two date "keys":
"date_override" : "Coming 2022" (which is what appears in the page to users)
"date" : "2022-09-01T12:00:00.000Z"
The Redditor goes on to speculate that it’s a placeholder, which... is likely.
Mojo, meanwhile, generally leans toward the more plausible Talk Like a Pirate Day: September 19th.
Update! A quick scan of a couple of Devolver's other upcoming games suggests they default to the first of the (presumed) release month. E.g. Skate Story has April 1st, 2023 set as "date" and "date_override" to "Coming 2023." Reigns: Three Kingdoms' "date" is December 1st, 2022 and "date_override" is "Coming 2022."
Geoff Keighley took to Twitter to announce gamescom will feature a “brand new” look at Return to Monkey Island on August 23rd, 11 am PDT.
What “brand new” means is anyone’s guess, but as Ronzo is involved, it should probably be interesting.
And, for your convenience, Mojo has an easy-to-tap-and-add calendar entry for you. Be reminded with no hassle to you—that’s the Mojo way of life!
Adjusted for inflation, $20 from 1990 would be roughly $45, which is a roundabout way to say that this is a good deal:
$25 for Return to Monkey Island? Granted, it isn’t official yet, but with Mojo’s stellar past with Brazilian hackers, we will just go ahead and trust this one, too.
Thanks to The Legend of Monkey Island for the heads up!
It seems like everyone and their cousin are doing video retrospectives of the Monkey Island games these days (not Mojo, of course—we don’t know how that kind of witchcraft works). Alanah Pearce has taken it to the next level with writing101: 30 Years of Writing Video Games - Tim Schafer | Video Game Writing 101 where (according to Eurogamer) Tim had this to say:
We were writing on Monkey Island, and we were told ’you guys, we can’t go on six floppies. We have to go on five. We have too much text. Ron was like, “we have to cut 25 percent of the dialogue.” I went and would look at a scene I wrote and I was like “no, I nailed that… that’s perfect.”
I admittedly have not watched the video, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.
And, hey, at least we were able to preserve some of the “lost” dialogue.
Source: Eurogamer
In the wake of DREAMM, our resident Luddite Jason has sharpened his pen and thrown a critical look at obtaining uncompromised versions of original LucasArts classics. Some poor saps* might think the Special Editions of the first Monkey Island duology contain the classic versions of the games—these people are sadly incorrect.
So, what’s the deal then? Are the differences that big? Jason investigates in “The Poxy Custodianship of Monkey Island”—the first of many articles planned for this topic.
* Not my words, nor really Jason’s, but he strongly implies it.
Show your love for the Fatherland and enjoy Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, available on Prime Gaming as part of the August batch of titles:
It doesn't make up for cancelling Truth Seekers, but I suppose Amazon accidentally knows what it's doing now and again.
Source: Prime Gaming
Here we go, then: Neo LeChuck:
To editorialize: I like it! Boen-esque yet with an individual spin. Suitable to the character. Very LeChuck. As for the blah-ing: If I were a betting man, I wouldn′t be surprised if, in the final game, the VO would fade into the background as we regain control of the game.
And that LeChuck′s Revenge-style music. Chef′s kisses all around.
Update! Sources have confirmed to Mojo that LeChuck is voiced by the prolific Jess Harnell. (The source being a Tweet from Ronzo.)
You might not consider Hitman 3 fertile ground for a Monkey Island easter egg, but with the launch of the new extra-piratey location, Ambrose Island, that has very much changed.
Eurogamer reports of a gravestone in the level, for one "G Threepwood, Mighty Pirate," and not only that, an associated treasure hunt you can engage in to dig up some treasure from our favourite swashbuckler's grave.
Apparently they do it in this very long video, but I took literally minutes to look through it and couldn't find it, so I'll leave that as a little challenge for YOU, the reader.
Source: Eurogamer
I mean, who knows exactly what’s going on, other than it looks like Mojo’s last Festivus party.
And sorry, no release date, yet.