The International House of Mojo

CNETNews has a feature about ILM getting a 2007 Oscar nomination for John Knoll's, ILM visual effects supervisor, and Hal Hickel's, ILM animation supervisor, effects on the Davy Jones character, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Apart from the feature, is a video interview available where CNETNews talk to John Knoll in his office, the day after the nomination was announced. Even more, there is one image gallery available featuring some ILM work photos and other interesting things, and a second gallery with photos from some interior in the ILM building.

CNETNews has a feature and video interview about the inside of the 10,000-square-foot data center, which is housed on a lower level of the Letterman Digital Arts Center, where Lucasfilm is headquartered. The data center has more than 2,000 servers, and over 300 terabytes of capacity.

the data center "far exceeds" the computing power of any other production house in the world. - Kevin Clark, Lucasfilm's director of IT operations.

The feature also holds a gallery of the data center, which is worth checking out. For more pictures, check out the CNETNews gallery from the opening of the Letterman Digital Arts Center in 2005.

The news the Nintendo fans have been waiting for (well, almost). Telltale are looking to hire a Wii developer with a love of adventure games.

We have an immediate opening for a Wii Systems Programmer. This position will be responsible for implementing our core 3D graphics and audio systems on the Wii. This is a full time position at our San Rafael location.

If your Wii programming skills aren't quite up to scratch, maybe a QA / Playtester would be more your scene...

Source: Telltale Games

I don't lie. Why don't you patient non-Gametappers check out a review or two while waiting for that wide release? Or don't and remain spoiler-free.

And as an added bonus, Telltale has put up some more Sam & Max tracks for your listening pleasure, including one from episode 3. (It's not the track, but it is indeed great.)

This year's Game Developers Conference will feature a session called "Episodic Gaming for Indies" hosted by Telltale's Dave Grossman and Kevin Bruner. So if you've got nothing better to do than be in San Francisco on March 5th with the means to get into the event, you should probably look into attending that.

That's right! Check out another short Q&A with Dave Grossman right here! They even throw in a piece of concept art!

!

The guys behind the forthcoming fangame Zak McKracken Between Time and Space delayed their game's release until early 2007 because the lead developer took a pilgrimage to California to meet original Zak McKraken writer / programmer David Fox and get his blessing.

Kind of like climbing the sacred mountain to commune with the gods before descending with a new dispensation for mankind. Or something like that.

If you can read German, then this account of the pilgrimage will be more meaningful. The rest of us can just look at the lovely photos.

Source: zak2.org

The "Next time, on...Sam & Max" for The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball was put up on Telltale's site yesterday, so check it out! Also check out the machinima short archive.

Up today is the latest Machinima short, "Kitchen Consequential," which you'll be happy to know features at least one Monkey Island 1 reference. Speaking of the shorts, Telltale is supposed to have a downloadable gallery up in the near future. In the meantime, non-Gametappers should keep an eye on Gametap's Sam & Max page, as the shorts have been showing up there in a timely fashion.

And as you can't possibly not know, Episode 3 premieres on Gametap one week from now and will show up on Telltale's site 15 days later. It's like it's episodic or something!

ActionTrip recently chatted with Dave Grossman about the Sam & Max games, including the soon to be released third episode.

ActionTrip: Without revealing too much of the plot, can you tell us what Ep. 3 is about?

Dave Grossman: Sam and Max go in search of a missing mole and have to infiltrate the Toy Mafia to find him. There are gruff guys in pin-stripe suits and an antique meatball sandwich, and Sam has to shoot somebody he likes.

If Sam shooting somebody isn't enough to make you read the rest, there's no help for you.

Update: If you're done with that one and think you can somehow handle more, why not check out this other Dave Grossman interview courtesy of the crazy knuckleknobs at ComputerAndVideoGames?

You say "late" we say "perfect timing."

Granted, the vast majority of you might already have made up your minds about Situation: Comedy or at least have decided if you want to buy it or not. That, however, should not stop you from showing some love to our very own Udvarnoky who has written his first review, and it's a classic in its own right.

Read review and then play the game. Everybody wins.

Telltale's got some screenshots and a gameplay video up for The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball. Want to get a glimpse of how Sam and Max tackle the fiends of the Ted E. Bear Mafia-Free Playland and Casino? Look no further.

I knew Boris Krinkle was in on it!

Focus Home has the honor. Read all about it here! If you speak French. But you don't need to speak French to drool over the two new pieces of background art that also appear on the page.

The fifth machinima, "Egregious Philosophy Platter," was put up on Gametap Thursday. Unless you're not a Gametap subscriber and are waiting for it to be posted online in the coming days, there's no reason for you to not be watching it.

GameTap have revealed the titles of the next three Sam & Max episodes;

1. Culture Shock
2. Situation: Comedy
3. The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball
4. Abe Lincoln Must Die!
5. Reality 2.0
6. (tba)

Hmmm. Intriguing...

Source: Gametap

While nothing as trivial as a Sam & Max game could ever possibly fill the Traxion-shaped void in all our hearts, I must for completion's sake mention that Situation: Comedy is now up on Telltale's site for download. Go buy the game/redeem your pre-order!

No, it's not going to make you feel better, and things will never be the same. But it just might, with a little grace, help make the pain slightly more bearable.

I hate to be the bringer of bad news, so I'll do it quickly: Traxion has been canceled. Luckily this means we don't have to add it to our games database from where it was conspicously missing.

Now let's have a moment of silence.

Source: GameInformer

If you're subscribed to Gametap now would be as good a time as any to check out the latest animated short, "Reality Blights." And if you're not subscribed to Gametap, then a few days from now would be as good a time as any to check it out on Telltale's site.

And what's up with The SCUMM Bar being updated? Somebody should look into that.