The International House of Mojo

If you want your fill of Double Fine goodness with a classic gaming feel, but don't feel like waiting until Double Fine Adventure begins production, then this album (released last August) is for you!

The Double Fine Action Arcade Soundtrack is a collection of the music by Bert Chang and Razmig Mavlian from Double Fine's flash games Epic Saga: Extreme Fighting, My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge, Tasha's Game, and Host Master and the Conquest of Humor. But wait, there's more! It also contains several whole bonus tracks, including Bert Chang's rendition of Peter McConnell's Meat Circus theme from Psychonauts in 1990's soundcard style!

It's available from iTunes for the low, low price of USD$0.99 a track or for a mere USD$9.99 for the whole album! It's also available at eMusic for half the price of iTunes for those of you with eMusic subscriptions. Don't wait! Buy now!

Double Fine's Psychonauts was one of the first games in Microsoft's short lived Xbox Originals line for the Xbox 360. But while the other games in the line are still available to purchase through the Xbox Live Marketplace, Psychonauts was removed last August without notice.

Tim Schafer explained that the reason it was removed was due to the rights to Psychonauts transferring from Majesco to Double Fine. Microsoft policy is that games without licensed publishers aren't allowed on the Xbox 360 (outside of the Indie Games), so it was removed.

Double Fine is working on getting the game back up, but as of this month they've still been having problems since Double Fine doesn't technically meet the requirements to be an Xbox 360 publisher (most notably due to a lack of disposable cash). So even though the game was one of Microsoft's flagship products in the Xbox Originals line, it's no longer available (and likely won't be available again any time soon) due to bureaucracy and red tape.

Update: Psychonauts is back on Xbox Live Marketplace, now published by Microsoft (bringing the game full circle). I also checked on my Xbox 360 to be double sure, and it is indeed back.

Update 2: It seems the game is only available on the Xbox Live Marketplace in North America (thanks Pedgey). Double Fine is aware of this and is working on getting Microsoft to re-add the game in other territories as well.

Over at Kotaku, Chris Person has put together a nice little montage of all the words he learned while playing Sam & Max Hit the Road.

If I had thought about using this as a studying tool, I wouldn't have had to spend all that money on an SAT tutor. Instead, I just stuck to using "how pavlovian" as a catchphrase to bewilder my friends (which is obviously the best line in the game). It's also nice to see there's another AdLib soundtrack aficionado out there.

Source: Kotaku

It seems Telltale has been been releasing a lot of things lately without making corresponding blog posts, as Tales of Monkey Island Episode 5: Rise of the Pirate God is now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch from the iTunes App Store, completing the series on iOS.

Also (and this was posted on their blog) episode 1 of Tales of Monkey Island is available free for both iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad for a limited time. The remaining four episodes have had their prices reduced to USD$2.99 each.

Once again, Telltale hasn't yet updated their blog about the new release of Law and Order: Legacies, but the penultimate episode, Episode 6: Side Effects, is now available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

The game can be purchased from within the Law & Order: Legacies universal app, which is available from iTunes here. The game is USD$2.99 if you buy the episode individually, or USD$12.99 for the season package. Owners of the season package can play the episode (as well as episodes 1-5) immediately. Episode 7 isn't out yet, but judging from the quick release schedule of the iOS version, it will be released soon.

There is no time frame set for when episode 6 will be released for PC and Mac.

Double Fine's Kickstarter has kinda sorta stalled just shy of $2.1 million, although "stall" might be a bit of a negative spin when you take the amount into consideration. So how does one entice more backers? By adding more rewards!

This is how Double Fine is planning to reel in the last few doubters:

• $30: Gets you a digital soundtrack of the documentary!
• $60: Gets you a digital download of a book featuring concept art and other cool stuff from the game! Make it $500 and you'll get a hardcover edition.
• $100: And holy crap, you can get a boxed version of the game and the documentary.

You're probably legally in a coma if that doesn't excite you.

Now watch this conversation between Tim and Ron, recorded in January, just to get the excitement level up even further.

The second episode of Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space, Moai Better Blues, has been released for the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad via a universal app.

You can grab it from iTunes here.

A release date for the remaining three episodes has not been set yet, but Telltale seems to have gotten better at iOS releases, so they should be released in the upcoming months.

Thankfully, it seems Telltale's days of releasing one episode for iOS and ignoring the rest of the season are behind us.

Not one to be forgotten during all this Double Fine Adventure excitement, Ronzo "Ron" Gilbert has posted two new pieces of concept art of his upcoming game. "What is it of?!", you cry.

A ticket booth! That's right. An old carnival ticket booth. And a ceiling mounted laser cannon!

Looks pretty dang awesome to me!

Everyone's favorite video game podcast about video games, Idle Thumbs, has got a mind to make an ambitious comeback, and to help make it happen they've launched one of them there Kickstarter projects, which are all the rage these days. For those unfamiliar with Idle Thumbs, the [latest] cast of the cast is Chris Remo (patron saint of your face), Jake Rodkin (formerly of Mojo, currently of Telltale), and Sean Vanaman (formerly of not Mojo, currently of Telltale) and over the course of a somewhat sinusoidal six-year existence 87 episodes of gaming commentary were produced.

We're a bit late with this and the project has already more than doubled its goal, but make a pledge anyway, claim the truly absurd rewards, and lend your support to stuff that is rad.

Source: Idle Thumbs forums

Let's break out into a happy jig because Jennifer has written a review of Double Fine's Kinect title Double Fine Happy Action Theater.

Go read it!

Double Fine Adventure continues to break records. Today the upcoming adventure game sauntered past $2 million mark without breaking a sweat.

It seems the update posted by Double Fine announcing platforms (PC, Mac, Linux - all DRM free) and languages (English Voice Overs, with French, Italian, German, and Spanish subtitles) did a great job reigniting the previously slowing donations.

Many people had begun speculating if it was possible for the $2 million mark within the time limit, but it now seems that it's anyone's guess what the final figure will be. With 22 days to go, who can tell?

What's YOUR guess?

Source: Kickstarter.com

A year after Jake and Spaff made the trip to Double Fine, Telarium and DJG went to check up on their mysterious new game named Psychonauts.

Will they get to play it? Will Tim be successful in his attempts to score some smack? Read the feature to find out!

Telltale hasn't updated their blog yet, but it seems Law & Order: Legacies episode 4: Nobody's Child and episode 5: Ear Witness for PC and Mac got a surprise weekend release. People who purchased the season package from the Telltale store can open Law & Order: Legacies on their computer and select the episodes right now from within the program itself.

This brings the computer releases up to date with the iOS releases. There's still two more episodes left in the series, which will be released in the upcoming months.

Crimson Cow Games, who hold the publishing rights to the first two A Vampyre Story games, have made a post on their Facebook page regarding the sequel, which has infamously been in a state of arrested development for three years. Unfortunately, the post is in German, so the best I can do is the best Bing can do:

"Until today" sounds hopeful to me, and it looks like they're considering making it episodic now. I wonder what the "high pressure" refers to - are their rights about to expire? Anyway, with Crimson Cow finally talking about the game there'll probably be more to report soon.

Source: Crimson Cow Facebook

Nowadays, not a month goes by without a new downloadable game being excreted by the twin babies of Double Fine. However, back in 2001, the company was just starting up and hiding behind a poop coloured door somewhere in San Francisco. It was to this place that former staffers Spaff and Jake decided to make a trip on a warm July day. Their account of this adventure has been rescued from the Mojo archive and can again be perused over here.

Or here.

In our new poll we ask how much you donated to the worthy case of the Double Fine Adventure. Was it a single dollar or did you see triangles in the distance and pledged a 150 grand? Go vote! (it's all anonymous, but feel free to spill the beans in the comments)

Our previous poll shows that most people own several consoles, if not all of them. Many of you also own at least one current generation console as well as no consoles. People with only old consoles do not exist among Mojo's readers:

What consoles do you own?
All of them! (Well, several current gen. consoles)		13
One current generation console (e.g. PS3, Xbox 360, DS, etc)		12
No consoles. Just my trusty PC/Mac		10
Only an older console (eg. PS2, Xbox, Atari 2600, etc.)		0
Total votes		35

It's easy to forget amidst the Double Fine Adventure madness that Tim Schafer and Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson are quietly chitchatting about Psychonauts 2 funding possibilities. On this front, there is a particularly amazing quote to be found in this Kotaku post that chronicles the Twitter-based drama that brought all this into the public eye.

"I was like, 'I don't think you can make [it] for a million dollars.' The original game was, I think, $13 million, I think you have to match the original game."

"As soon as I mentioned the amount of money he said, 'Yeah, I can do that.'"Wow. Psychonauts had an unusually large budget for the type of game it was due to its super-sized and calamity-laden development cycle. A few of us have been speculating about how an episodic sequel might work given the assumption of humbler parameters, but if Notch is prepared to give this game the whole-hog budget, who am I to argue?

Man, what a terrible last two weeks this has been for people who hate themselves. I'm waiting for the Earth to be consumed by lava to even out the happy. Oh wait, that's just children playing Happy Action Theater. There is no sunset for this marathon of mirth, I'm afraid.

Source: Kotaku

As I'm writing this, the Double Fine Kickstarter has raised $1,815,940 and 2 Player Productions, the people behind the documentary about the making of the upcoming adventure game, has posted the first video update:

Source: 2PlayerProductions

You asked; you donated; we delivered, because that's just how great we are. All the "LucasArts' Secret History" articles are now back online:

• Maniac Mansion
• Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Loom
• The Secret of Monkey Island
• Monkey Island: LeChuck's Revenge
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Day of the Tentacle
• Sam & Max Hit the Road
• Full Throttle
• The Dig
• Curse of Monkey Island
• Grim Fandango
• Escape from Monkey Island

For heaven's sake don't read this when you can read that. That's much more interesting!

The date when the zombies rise is crawling nearer and to celebrate this, Telltale has posted the first episode of Playing Dead, a nine part video series going behind the scenes of the making of The Walking Dead. Playing Dead is hosted by AJ LoCascio, who voiced Marty in Telltale's Back to the Future series, and among the people he interviews in the first episode is a familiar face from Mojo's sordid past...

Source: The Walking Dead site

So reveals this interview with Tim that Giant Bomb published yesterday.Do not settle for that snippet! It's an excellent interview.

Source: Giant Bomb

Not much has been said about what exactly the Double Fine Adventure will be, except that it will be a point and click adventure game made by a small team at Double Fine led by Tim Schafer and with input from Ron Gilbert.

But now we know in what dimension the game will be created. And that dimension is two! That's right, not only will it be a point and click adventure game, it will be a 2D point and click adventure game! A game like that by Tim Schafer featuring input from Ron Gilbert hasn't happened since Day of the Tentacle in 1993!

So what are you waiting for! Support the Double Fine Adventure today! If you've already supported it, then choose a higher tier of support!

Update (February 14, 2012): This is another bit of scraps scrounged from twitter about the game, but we'll take it. Especially since it's a great Valentine's day present full of sweet lovin' sweet music for your ears: Tim Schafer wants music by Peter McConnell for the Double Fine Adventure! So, here's hoping Mr. McConnell takes him up on the offer, as it would make the game have so much more of that old school feel we hear so much about.

Few knows how to party like Principal Skeleton...

Hookshot Inc., a newly-launched website from a group of known game reviewers (congratulations to them and good luck!), interviewed Tim Schafer this past Saturday. In the interview he talks about the Kickstarter-funded Double Fine Adventure game, the possible Notch-funded Psychonauts 2, the Mixnmojo-funded Monkey Island 6 (no) and a bunch of other things you should read the interview to know about. Here's a choice quote:

I can't wait.

Source: Hookshot, Inc.

Showering is happening, as we speak! $1.5 million -- million -- has been passed, proving a true marketplace reality. And so, we keep our word: Four LucasArts's Secret History's have been posted and more shall come soon. Meanwhile, Jason is getting ready to read you some poetry.

Older news: We already know we're getting a Double Fine adventure game as the $400,000 goal was met within hours.

But... There is no reason to stop there, as more money means better and more stuff and therefore we at this International House of Mojo want to keep the donation frenzy going by throwing in some wondrous rewards. Like:

If a total of $750,000 is met...

... we will post all LucasArts' Secret History articles pertaining to games headed by Ron Gilbert or Tim Schafer within a week. Maniac Mansion, The Last Crusade, The Secret of Monkey Island, LeChuck's Revenge, Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango! All posted for your nostalgia pleasure! Update! You gave, so you shall receive!

If a total of $1,000,000 is met...

... the rest of the Secret History articles will be posted within two weeks. Update! Well, OK then! Now, how badly do you want a poetry reading from Jason?

If a total of $1,500,000 is met...

... we'll post a Secret History article about the 95%-finished version of Ron's Monkey Island 3 we have a copy of. Jason will perform a dramatic reading of "Dem Bones".

So really, if you thought you were done donating, think again! Run and do some more kickstarting, then get ready to feel the warm embrace of Mojo and to read content you've already read.

Oh, you thought LucasArts had just been developing the Pit Droids iOS port and Maul-Your-Face app for the last 3 years? WRONG, they're also working on building a large scale online services and infrastructure to support a new way of connected online gaming that is going to revolutionize the industry..
So, Steam then?
Here's the job description.
Also, Kinect Star Wars is finally coming out on April 3. You know you always wanted to do a Galactic Dance Off Electric Boogaloo.

Source: LucasArts

Following hot on the footsteps of the iOS version of the first episode of Law & Order: Legacies, Back to the Future: The Game Episode 1: It's About Time is free for a limited time on iPad from the iTunes store

Also, Episode 2: Get Tannen, Episode 3: Citizen Brown, Episode 4: Double Visions, and Episode 5: OUTATIME are now only US$2.99 for iPad.

The Law & Order episodes just keep coming (on iOS at least). Episode 5: Ear Witness is now available to purchase through the Law & Order: Legacies Universal App (which is still offered for free at the time of this writing). The way the app works is that the first game comes with it, and the remaining episodes are available to purchase per episode or in a bundle for US$12.99. Bundle purchasers on iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad will be able to play the first 5 episodes. The remaining two episodes will be released at a later, as-of-yet-unannounced date.

There's no word yet on when episodes 4 and 5 will be released on PC and Mac, but the first three episodes for PC/Mac are available in a bundle for US$19.99 from the Telltale store.

Not content in raising the budget for their new game in 8 hours and 11 minutes, and then breaking the Kickstarter records for most amount raised in a short timeframe, and then breaking the number of backers for one project, Double Fine have hit another milestone: Raising $1 million in less than 24 hours!

We can only speculate what this might mean for the finished game, but if money keeps pouring in, could we reach a budget large enough to create a game approaching the size and scope of one of LucasArts's classics? We can only hope.

Where will it end? With 32 days left to go, it's too early for anyone to tell!

Haven't pledged any money yet? Go take a look at the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter page, and make sure you watch the video!

Source: Kickstarter.com

The fourth episode of Tales of Monkey Island is finally available for iPhone users. You can grab “The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood” over at the App Store along with the previous three episodes.

Source: The Telltale Blog

Retronauts, 1UP's classic gaming blog, has interviewed Ron Gilbert. The topic is Maniac Mansion, which is turning 25 this year! To check out the whole podcast, head over here!

When I first told Max the next thing he would review would be something involving people wearing trench coats, he mistakenly went to a screening of Deep Throat. After guiding him onto the right track, he handed in this review of Telltale's latest episodic offering, Law & Order: Legacies, which you will now read by clicking here.

Or here.

Thought you were done with surreal Double Fine news for the week? Yeah, well, you're suffering from a malady we in the medical profession like to refer to as "confusion," because Double Fine just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new graphic adventure game. From the project site, which includes important information about how this all works:

The goal is $400,000 dollars, which is probably how much it costs to keep the Old Republic servers humming over a weekend. So, were you one of those people bitching when Tim "sold out" to the allure of the ample bossomed action/adventure? Tell your kids that community college is the more logical choice these days anyway and make this happen. The rewards offered for major contributions are rather awesome even if they're out of your reach, but pledge whatever amount you can and enjoy the company of the aggressively sensuous people listed here.

jp edit: $400,000 in half a day. We have a Schafer/Gilbert point & click adventure game! Now, let's up the funds to get iOS versions and the London Philharmonic...

Source: Kickstarter

In a surprise move LucasArts is re-releasing its old puzzle game "Pit Droids" on iOS devices this evening for US$1.99. Originally for PC and developed by LucasLearning, the game is a good fun diversion.

LucasLearning (in 1999) said:
In Star Wars® Pit Droids®, both kids who love math and those who don't will enjoy the challenging logic puzzles in this tile-based game. Increasingly complex puzzles engage students in sophisticated thinking as they explore the mathematics of attributes, geometry, sets and networks, while testing out multiple solutions to problems. Students can even build their own puzzles using a sophisticated puzzle design laboratory.

Will more games be dusted off from the archives and given a new lease of life on iPhones & iPads? We can only hope. Will they all tie in with The Phantom Menace? We can only hope not.

Oh, also 'Hai everyone'!

Source: TouchArcade

In what is quickly becoming known as the most exciting news story in all of history, Notch has Tweeted an apparent interest in making Psychonauts 2 episodic!

Earlier today, he posted: "Let's split it up in episodes! Episodic gaming is the future!"

Whether he was serious or not remains to be seen. He's also cautioned the world to, "please don't get your hopes too high yet. Everything is extremely vague!"

Far too late for that, Mr Persson!

Source: @Notch

Disregard that last news update. Someone has taken the bait.

In honour of it being Charles Dickens's 200th birthday - a man who spent his 58 years on Earth creating as many babies as he created novels - popular indie guy Notch, head of developer Mojang and creator of popular game Minecraft, said the following words to Tim Schafer over Twitter: "Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen."

And then Steven Dracogen, who brought you Stacking and Costume Quest to PC, was like, "I'm in." And I was like, "Woah". And then maybe I screamed like those girls at Ed Sullivan's show when The Beatles came on. Skip to 1:35 in that video. That was so totally me.

This normally wouldn't be news-worthy, except for two reasons: Rock Paper Shotgun's confused question about whether or not to post the story, which makes a Mojo news update actually more timely than someone else's for once (Professionalism ho!); and Notch's reply, where he says he is serious (and calls Psychonauts "Tim's baby").

So! Would you like a Psychonauts sequel? It'd be interesting to see any Psychonauts-related work coming-out - doubly so since people like Erik Wolpaw (who wrote 20-30% of the dialogue) and Scott Campbell (the art director) have since left Double Fine.

Source: Twitter

The chicken that represents internet interviews with Tim Schafer has laid another egg. While not as gigantic as the recent Gamasutra one (in the sense that it isn't five pages long), Digital Spy can still lay claim to a compelling gab session with The Shafe, as no one has ever called him.
Here's the part of the article that has naturally spread like a rash since its publication:Go vote for quality using your eyes!

Source: Digital Spy

Back to the Future: The Game will be coming to retail in European countries, thanks to a deal Telltale reached with publisher Deep Silver. This is Telltale's biggest selling game so far, so it's highly unlikely that it will suffer the same fate as the planned European retail release of Jurassic Park.

As is usual with the retail versions of Telltale's titles, it will include all 5 games. It is set to release for Wii and PlayStation 3, and on PC in some territories in the first quarter of this year.

Source: Adventure Gamers

Reminding everyone once again how effortlessly brilliant Grim Fandango is, Eurogamer has published a retrospective article reminiscing about what I consider to be LucasArts' grandest achievement — and the reason that everyone should kind of fancy Tim Schafer.

And that right there is a very fair point. Where is our Grim Fandango re-release, LucasArts? With modern consoles being better equipped than ever to handle a point-and-click adventure game thanks to the likes of PlayStation Move and Kinect, now is most definitely the time to unleash this classic upon the world for a second time.

'Retrospective: Grim Fandango' on Eurogamer »

The Law & Order: Legacies universal app which includes Episode 1: Revenge is now free for a limited time for iOS users.

The remaining 6 episodes are available in a multi-pack from within the universal app for $12.99 or individually for $2.99. Episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4 are available now. Episode 5 is scheduled to be released on iOS later this month. Episodes 6 and 7 will be released at an as-of-yet unannounced date.

Law & Order: Legacies is also available for the PC and Mac, although there's no sale there. The PC and Mac version is only available in the multi-pack which is available at The Telltale Store for $19.99. Only episodes 1, 2, and 3 are available to computer users. There is no word yet on when episodes 4 and 5 will be released on PC and Mac.

Hot off the heels of the release of Double Fine Happy Action Theater, the first Double Fine project since Brutal Legend on which Tim has served as the lead, Gamaustra has published a feature interview with the man about all things Double Fine. It's huge and great and informative, and what's more, it's a huge. Here, have a free sample from Schafer's thoughts on developing for Kinect: Consume the full five page spread like the smorgasbord of heart-healthy sustenance that it is.

Source: Gamasutra

As part of our fifteen year effort to restore all articles from the pre-MojoX days, I went and re-published my reviews of Mata Hari and The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. Man, I wish I was you right now just so I could look forward to reading these a second time.

Special thanks to Remi and Zaarin for the various header image-making labors it takes to jump these articles to the MojoX plane. Look for articles of old to be resurrected at a brisker rate in the future. (Or at least mine; the other staffers can dust off their own crap.)

I speak of course of Darth Maul Me, a free mobile app that comes just in time for the theatrical re-release of The Phantom Menace in 3D!So is this why the trademark jokes in Monkey Island are so funny? Because they're true? Oh, sorry for invoking a non-Star Wars LEC property; I know it's impolite.

Source: APPSMeNow

The Official Star Wars Blog reports that veteran English actor Ian Abercrombie, who voiced Chancellor Palpatine in the Star Wars: Clone Wars TV series (as well as LucasArts-published games adapted from it) passed away on January 26th. He was 77.

The blog post includes remembrances from some of the crew of The Clone Wars.

A peek at his filmography on IMDB reveals that you hardly have be a Clone Wars viewer to have enjoyed this man's work. Among a multitude of other roles, he played Mister Pitt, Elaine's needy millionaire boss on several episodes of Seinfeld, John Hammond's butler in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and the bearded wise man who sent Bruce Campbell to fetch the necronomicon in Army of Darkness (along with the poorly heeded instructions to speak three magic words).

Source: The Official Star Wars Blog

A few Telltale forumites observed that, unlike previous Telltale seasons, the PC/Mac release of Law & Order: Legacy episodes did not come with information about the traditional end-of-season DVD. Sure enough, customer service rep Michael Parks replied with this:

That's kind of interesting simply because I think it's a first. Is this a new trend, or does Telltale simply figure that Law & Order fans won't miss the perk of a collector's disc as much a fans of more geeky licenses (aka all their others) would?

Source: Telltale forums

It's being reported that Kalypso Media, which was scheduled to publish retail versions of Jurassic Park: The Game for PC and Xbox 360 on February 24th, will be dropping the Xbox version.

This probably means that whatever success that Jurassic Park has enjoyed has primarily been through digital distribution.

Source: CVG

Double Fine Happy Action Theater? Released! Trenched Iron Brigade: Rise of the Martian Bear DLC? Also released! Today! Right now! I mean, my lord, get on your Xbox and download them both!

Update: And if that wasn't enough for you, then PC fans will be pleased to hear that Steam is offering 50% off their "Double Fine Pack" -- Today only! That includes Costume Quest (with the Grubbins on Ice DLC) and the updated version of Psychonauts for your PC. Half price!

Link: 50% Off The Double Fine Pack

The AGS Bake Sale Bundle is a bundle of games made with the popular Adventure Game Studio game creation utility. Like the Humble Indie Bundle and other similar bundles, the AGS Bake Sale bundle is available for whatever price you feel the games are worth, and proceeds go to charity (in this case Child's Play, a charity which helps sick children by giving them video games to enjoy).

All fourteen of the games in the bundle are all new and were designed specifically for the AGS Bake Sale. While all the games use the Adventure Game Studio, not all the games are adventures. There are a few games from other genres in there too, such as the Indiana Jones inspired platformer Indiana Rodent and the Raiders Of The Lost Cheese, starring a mouse in a tiny fedora.

So what are you waiting for? Name your price, help sick children take their mind off their illness, and get fourteen new games right here.