The International House of Mojo

We've been asked by a few people if we can extend the deadline a little bit, so that's what we've done: you've got a week more to get your fan-work in and be in with a chance to win those very special prizes that you won't find anywhere else (not even eBay!).

Remember, if you've e-mailed in a submission, and you didn't get a confirmation response from me, that means that I didn't get your e-mail. Please leave a comment and I'll get through to you.

I also want to remind people that, really, quantity is more important than quality! This is all for a bit of fun, and the more you take part, the more of a chance you'll have to win. Don't worry if you can't draw or design or bake or sing - marks will be given for enthusiasm.

Also, feel free to send it stuff that you've already published.

Update: since I'm visiting my aunt next weekend, I thought I'd extend the deadline by two weeks instead. Hope this doesn't annoy anyone.

Reports that Dominic Armato is finding it difficult to leave his old job behind are confirmed when photos appear showing his most recent purchase:

Source: MJ

Part three of Nightlight Production?s radio play Beneath Monkey Island has now been released. In this thrilling instalment, Karl and Guybrush continue on their voyage to Monkey Island, while LeChuck hatches a nefarious plan with his henchman, Number Two.

Listen to the current episode, and past episodes, over at Nightlight.

The International House of Mojo is pleased to welcome an old hosted site back into the network. Presenting... The Essential Guide to Monkey Island!

The site features a comprehensive database with character and item profiles, a full history of the games, and some technical wizardry known as a "flash" intro. It?s lovingly crafted and bursting with juicy fan goodness.

You may also remember that Matt, the creator, also made the adventure game that we mentioned a few days back.

If you?re reading this and are an old Mojo Webmaster (or Webmistress) who?s site didn?t survive the server crash, leave a comment. We?d love to have you back, like some sleezy father who's learnt the error of his ways.

Now Showing at Mixnmojo.com - He was a determined games reviewer, travelling the same path that only one famous archaeologist and billions of tourists have dared to tread! Dare you walk down the same path? If so, you will face the history and the disappointment The Tingler discovered in... Indiana Jones Chris & The Emperor's Tomb!

After a year or so of wild speculation, Big Jim Ward finally made a formal announcement as reported on Gamasutra.

Responding to a question about what it would take for LucasArts to produce a lightsaber game on Wii, Ward said that the concept is "in place." He added: "We're all over that, and internally we have already played a lightsaber game on the Wii. It's a lot of fun, and we'll get there."

But this may not be the Wii lightsaber game you're imagining, as the blurb for the LEGO Star Wars game for the Wii states "Wii: Motion-sensitive inputs give you exciting new ways to control your LEGO Star Wars characters."

Source: Gamasutra

If there's one thing I never get tired of, it's thinking about the links between Monkey Island and Pirates of the Caribbean. An article over at Tom's Hard-ware does a good job of collecting a host of comparisons, and analysing them. Naturally I was interested in reading it, and you might be too.

One point the article makes is that:

"Elizabeth Swann's (Keira Knightley) transition from Governess' daughter to brutal, Chinese-slaying corsair in the space of the somewhat clumsily bridged gap between Dead Man's Chest and At World's End represents something of a departure from the character of Elaine, who Elizabeth had aped to closely so far. The character grows in the change, becoming more than the perpetual damsel in disress [sic] that was Elaine Marley."

I would disagree with this: Elaine Marley a "perpetual damsel in distress?" If anything, she's the anti damsel in distress. She plays that role for the most part of The Secret of Monkey Island, but once we get to the actual rescue, we find that Elaine didn't need rescuing at all - and is in fact more in control of the situation than Guybrush could ever be. Seems like a Pirate King to me!

The article continues:

"The one character who bears no resemblance to anything found in Monkey Island is Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) himself. The uncoordinated character of Jack Sparrow manages to fit into the role of a master pirate to William Turner's apprentice brigand. This of course is a role best left unfilled in a game context, where players are expected to learn for themselves the behavior necessitated by life on the high seas."

Our resident Johny Depp expert, Daniel Wishart, had this to say about the above quote:

"No-one seems to understand the whole Sparrow thing with relation to Monkey Island. Of course he's nothing like anything in MI... but that's Depp's interpretation, you have to look at him on paper."

I suppose following this line of thought, Captain Jack (Sparrow, not Harkness) is like a spirit of pirateness, found in several areas of the game, like at The SCUMM Bar, and during Insult Sword Fighting.

Thanks a lot to Huz for the article link.

Finding the Sam & Max collection Surfin' the Highway has been easier said than done for the past few (or many as it is) years, or at least it has been up until now. Telltale, who seems to be the purveyor of everything involving the duo, have just announced that Surfin' the Highway will be available exclusively in their on-line store sometime later this year.

Included in the collection is "On the Road" which was the inspiration for the LEC game, as well as "extra Sam & Max content developed over the last decade, such as rarely seen comic stories, previously unreleased art, and a new cover."

And hey, you can already sign up for it.

Woah, heh, that was fast! Telltale's much coveted disc version of Sam & Max: Season 1 is manufacturing as we speak, and so can now be ordered by all Season subscribers, with an expected ship date of late-July. Recall that the disc is offered to everyone who bought the full season (who will probably be reminded via email), and will only cost the price of shipping. Go enter your order number and stuff!

Telltale has also taken this opportunity to update their online store with some more goodies. These include the "Sam & Max Season One Case File," which is a carefully collected box assortment of useless junk for those who need things to stick into their DVD case, as well as the "Sam & Max Season One Soundtrack," a two-disc album which boasts every background track from the season in addition to several of the cutscene cues as well! Excellent. No wonder they've only put out a select few tracks online.

Well, get to it. You know darn well you're not leaving without owning all of the above.

And as promised, this week we're presented a continuation of Telltale's "History of Sam & Max" piece. Dubbed "The Golden Era", this second of four parts documents the peak years of the tumultuous, tear-jerking (and drying and re-jerking) story that is Sam & Max, and included is a brand-spanking new interview with Steve Purcell and Mike Stemmle. You guys must have been exceptionally well behaved while I wasn't looking.

Additionally, the Telltale Season 1 disc will be coming out later this week. For a sneak peak of the cover and insert art, check out Jake's most recent blog entry if you haven't already.

What separates other summers from this summer might involve more than just Sam & Max, but nothing really consequential.

Further proving that Mojo really has to make a Crackpot News Logo, GameTrailers have released a new 'backstory' prologue trailer for Insecticide.

Not really laugh-out-loud funny, it does nevertheless look very interesting. Beyond Good & Evil, Psychonauts, and Pixar definitely seem to be influences.

Personally what interested me most was the platform listings at the end... just PC and Nintendo DS?

What happens when Mojo hosted site owners fly the nest after their sites are destroyed in server crashes? Why, they make adventure games, of course!

Matt, who you may remember as the author of that excellent Monkey Island guide we once hosted, created an adventure game called "What makes you tick?" It has an imaginative art style, and plenty of the old LucasArts style humour ? but the best thing is, it?s free! Go grab it here, and tell Matt what you thought of it on our forums.

The game engine was also designed by another old Mojoer, Greg "I designed the End of the Line" MacWilliam, author of another excellent Mojo site.

In other news, there?s only one week left for the competition ? keep sending those fan entries in, for a chance to win!

If you have already sent me something, and didn?t get a confirmation response, it means that I didn?t receive your e-mail. Post a comment and I?ll fix my face.

P.S. This image is, as they say, "the win."

Oh, wait, my mistake. It's still an RPG from Bioware though, which is good right?

Scumm VM got an update yesterday, and now supports more games, including Sierra's Space Quest I & II and King's Quest I-III. There have also been numerous fixes and improvements to what happens behind the scenes; read the details over on the official site.

If you didn?t already know, Scumm VM lets people run old adventure games (primarily the LucasArts titles) with ease and a minimum of fuss, on any machine, whether it be old or new. Sound and graphical improvement are also available.

Do we care about Ankh? I'm really not sure. We haven't mentioned it often, as despite having some connection to LucasArts (Telltale helped BHV Deck13 out a bit with the first game) they more fall into the category of 'general adventure news' that we usually leave to the obsessives.

Then this bit of news caught my eye: Ankh is heading to the Nintendo DS. There have been adventures on the DS before, but this is the first time a humorous LucasArts-imitation-style one has appeared on the console.

Maybe if this is some sort of success, we might hold out some hope for... other possibilities?

UPDATE: Speaking of Adventure Gamers, they coincidentally put an interview with Jan Klose of Deck13 today.

And if their next game isn't "inspired by" Monkey Island then I'm Jojo's uncle.

Source: BHV

The latest issue of PCZone came out/comes out this week (delete as applicable to how often you visit Mojo) and featured a small but nice preview of A Vampyre Story, alongside some new screenshots and (another - man he's getting around a bit) interview with Bill Tiller.

Thankfully, perhaps anticipating Mojo's superior scanning skills, CVG have stuck the preview and all the screenies on their website. Cheers for that, guys!

And this week, we're given three commentaries for the cutscenes of Situation: Comedy with a side order of savory episode 2 concept art and a few other previously available bits'n bobs that are worth discovering or reading again.

So what on earth are you waiting for? Yes, I know you've experienced summer before, but this is like a different kind of summer, a special kind, the kind that involves more Sam & Max than any previous summer was able or willing to bear, specifically.

That's right, LEGO are releasing 4 'classic trilogy' Indiana Jones sets this coming January with another 4 Indy IV sets around the movie's release. Hopefully this bodes well for a videogame from Travelers Tales.

"OMG, can you imagine swinging the whip with a wiimote!??" (etc)

Four playsets based on the classic trilogy are slated to launch in January 2008. Three sets based on iconic scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark include: Temple Escape ($49.99 USD) which brings the legendary rolling boulder scene to life in LEGO form as Indy faces spiders and poisoned darts in his search for the Golden Idol of Fertility. With Race for the Stolen Treasure ($29.99 USD), kids build two desert vehicles and recreate Indy?s truck-hopping fight to save the treasure. Indiana Jones and the Lost Tomb ($19.99 USD) recreates the eye-popping suspense of Indy rescuing Marion from slithering snakes in an Egyptian tomb. And based on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade action, Motorcycle Chase ($9.99 USD) depicts the scene where Indy and his father escape with the map to the hidden temple.

Four more constructible playsets based on the fourth movie will launch in May 2008, with suggested retail prices ranging from $9.99 to $79.99. USD.

Read the full press release here on From Bricks To Bothans. Time to bring back the Mojo LEGO set reviews, I feel...

Source: From Bricks to Bothans

Germany-based videogame soundtrack website synSONIQ has always been a good online shop to buy various gaming CDs, including such treats as Peter McConnell's excellent Grim Fandango soundtrack CD and Michael Land's rare soundtrack for The Dig. They've unfortunately been out of stock of many goodies for a long time...

... that is until now! They've recently opened up an eBay store, and surprise surprise look what they've got: this and this.

I know it's in German, but it's all self explanatory. And yes, "Weltweit" does mean "Worldwide".

Act now, as this may be your last chance to own a piece of rare LucasArts tat. Or admittedly you could just download them here if you're feeling cheap. You dastard.

While what The Tingler wrote a few weeks ago may not have necessarily been incorrect, today is the first day of principal photography for Indiana Jones 4, the date of June 18th having been officially reported some time ago.

Be sure to check out the remarks that IndianaJones.com has on the matter, including a video interview with Shia LeBeouf on the set.

If you haven?t been posting on our forums, what have you been doing? Rowing? Walking? Dancing? I think not.

There are two threads that might be of special interest to you, if you haven?t already seen them. The first is about a proposed Secret of Monkey Island remake, with updated 3D backgrounds. You can view some of said backgrounds at the designer's web-site.

Secondly, it?s worth noting that bgbennyboy is looking for feedback for his Quick and Easy software. He wants to know if people have experienced any technical problems with LucasArts games, especially on Windows Vista, Windows XP 64 or Windows Vista 64. Report your finding and help his work, over on this thread.

Pro-G have published a new interview with Bill Tiller. Here?s a quote:

Pro-G: What do you think of other recent adventure games, like the episodic Sam and Max or Bone? Are you a fan?

BT: Yes and no. I love the fact they are making comedic adventure games and they are doing a great job of promotion. But I wish the games were hand painted or like the ones Peter Chan, Bill Eaken, Steve Purcell and I did, or fully rendered like Grim Fandango was. I like that better than real time 3D environments. Their engine has really neat capabilities too.

Thanks to the giant, unblinking, lid-less eye of Ddrunkymonkey for the tip off!

According to Tim Schafer in his writeup of Psychonauts' inclusion on Gametap, Majesco is no longer manufacturing boxed copies of the game. He also approximates (and I believe some of you have been curious about this) that the game has sold 400,000 copies to date. While that number is not record setting, it's pretty good to know that the game apparently had legs despite the dreadful early sales reports. And as Tim notes, the game's lifespan has been indefinitely prolonged thanks to its presence on Gametap, Steam, and other digital outlets.

You know what else is now on Steam? Sam & Max. Fancy that.

As he's prone to do every half a year, Tiller the Killer has updated the Autumn Moon blog. In this entry he reiterates the A Vampyre Story's scheduled Q4 release, reveals his extensive sequel plans, and lists several of his artistic influences. Reading the blog will reward you with lots of insight, so don't delay.

And just a reminder for the imaginary populous who reads this site, is subscribed to Gametap, and has never played Psychonauts: the Excellent Game has been uploaded to the client today. Don't blow your nineteenth chance to play it.

And this time around we're treated with the first of a four part feature dubbed "The History of Sam & Max." Included is a detailed account of the duo's early existence which includes never-before-seen art. Don't be a fool; read it.

Stay tuned next week for some super cool extras related to Situation: Comedy. I'm tempted to say that this particular summer appears to be one of a Sam & Max like classification.

In case the garish banner advertisement on the main page didn?t attract your attention, here?s a news post to really drum the message in: Mojo is having a competition. Quite a good one, this time. We have some very kindly donated swag from Autumn Moon and Telltale, all to give to one lucky person.

All you have to do is create some fan-work. We?ve included a few suggestions, but really, anything goes. Just make something that says: "I?m a fan of Autumn Moon and Telltale and LucasArts, and I deserve to win wonderful prizes!"

Find out more here.

Now I may be getting this wrong. I'm on the wine while the wife's watching ER or Grey's Autonomy or some such.

Anyway, this guy, Pinkhamster, on the Telltale forums pointed out a game of sketch-ping-pong whereby 25 years ago a Sam & Max fanboy sent Steve Purcell some fan art. Steve took that art, added more and send it back. Mark Martin (fanboy) added more and sent it back. Steve, ditto.

It's in anti-chronological order, so best to quickly scroll down the page and work your way back to the top.

What page? This page.

It's not every day one gets to see Purcell's take on God.

Source: Jabberous

You can see a tiny version of the Wii box over at GameCrazy's product listing page. There's also an Xbox 360 version of the game from the looks of things, which I'm not sure we've heard about before but was always expected. In fact it probably was made known a long time ago and I just forgot about it. The cover art appears to be final (at least compared to the plain but admittedly sleek placeholder), but that's just my guess.

A new press release that will re-announce the game for PC and consoles for what looks a simultaneous September 18 release is apparently immiment. Stay tuned!

In other Telltale news, and probably not unrelated to their recent acquirement of mucho dinero, the company's job offerings page has experienced a resurge. Be sure to nab that Studio Manager position before Randy Breen does!

Telltale have recently secured a six million dollar investment "round." I?m not entirely sure what the means, but what it basically boils down to is this:

"Telltale will use the financing to drive growth in existing and new episodic series, allowing the company to continue defining and refining new models for interactive entertainment and digital distribution. Multi-platform development and new staff additions are key elements in these strategic plans."

No doubt this time next year, Telltale will have moved into a glass-roofed penthouse in Dallas. Good for them!

From the same guy who brought you the latest Monkey Island 5 rumor comes this infinitely more believable report that LucasArts' upcoming You-Are-Darth-Vader's-Apprentice game will have a version for Nintendo's latest console. LucasArts has yet to develop a Wii game and has never officially announced any plan to do so, unless you count the hints at the oft-speculated Wiimote lightsaber game. Whatever the company's first Wii project turns out to be, I'm sure we can all agree that it's to test the waters for that point 'n click Loom sequel.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is currently scheduled for release on virtually every current system except the Wii sometime next Spring. Should this rumor be confirmed in any official capacity, I'm sure you'll be able to learn it from a site that cares, and then here a bit later.

Sir Lemming, on the Telltale Forum reports some interesting discussion on the Shout! Factory discussion boards where someone who appears to be Shout! Factory Producer/Manager Brian Ward (no relation?) declares;

Actually, the majority of full-length seasons are only 22 episodes. There are some notable exceptions, of course.

In the case of Sam & Max: Freelance Police, there were only 13 half-hour episodes. Don't get excited... I know what you're thinking. All but two of these episodes (the first and last) were split up into two cartoons a piece. Therefore, the total number of stories is 24 spread out over 13 episodes.

Oh, and by the way... We're developing this title's box set right now. Tee hee...

Brian

P.S.-- That's right. I said it. "Tee hee."

Holy jumping Mother o'God in a side-car with chocolate jimmies and a lobster bib!

Source: Shout! factory

And it's starting off with a bang! The first thing they've put up is three separate commentary tracks for Culture Shock cutscenes by the Designers, Producers, and Sound crew. The page let's you know what cool stuff to expect on each particular week.

Looks like we're in for some super-terrific content (some of which you'll also be seeing on Telltale's CD) over the next twelve weeks. Even Gabez, who's in the process of suing Telltale for ripping off his Summer of Retro/Summer of Indy Mojo trademarks is said to be pleased as punch.

Update: Telltale has added some more stuff, most notably loads of concept art from the pilot episode.

Nightlight Productions have posted part two of Beneath Monkey Island! This week, Guybrush and Carl (the Swordmaster of Jambalaya Island) have to recruit a crew in order to sale to Monkey Island and steal a monkey idol. Can they find anyone insane enough to join them? Find out by listening here!

The first part of the excellent Tierra De Los Muertos has also been reposted, and if you haven?t already heard that series, now?s a good chance to start listening.

In other news, we haven?t had a Monkey Island 5 rumour for a while, so why not read take this one? And have a piece of Monkey Island fan music (by Olli Suoranta) while you?re at it. Thanks to The World of Monkey Island for the news.

And speaking of The World of Monkey Island: Steve Purcell recently sent them concept art from something that was definitely not a cancelled Monkey Island movie (honest). Check the images out here - needless to say, they look scurvy inducing.

I was going to append this to the previous post, but it's long enough as it is. I was checking out Amazon's site listing for the season where they include what looks like Dreamcatcher's official, er, product description:

Sam and Max: Season One brings back the crazy fun of Sam & Max, the freelance police.It's a vile world out there. Get too complacent and all sorts of weirdos start coming out of the woodwork. Good thing Sam & Max are here to hose down the sleaze and keep some kind of peace. Violently, if possible. Sam's a six-foot tall canine shamus with a love of justice. Max is a hyperkinetic rabbity-thing with a taste for mayhem. Together, they're a team of freelance police officers, on a mission to take down a bizarre mind-control conspiracy. And they're bringing you along for the fun. Get ready to meet some off-kilter characters, puzzle through some brain-tickling conundrums and to laugh at a whole lot of jokes! The game collects six different "episodes," each with their own crazy fun and adventure. Join them as they face mind-controlling villains, the Toy Mafia, viral video games and even a crazy President. BONUS full-size poster and CD with - making of video, trailers for all 6 episodes, bios, concept art, wallpapers, soundtrack sampler, Sam & Max online comic strip and a comic generator for making your own Sam & Max comic strips

Sounds like it's going to include much the same content as Telltale's version will, give or take some things. The poster in particular sounds quite nifty! It's good to see that Dreamcatcher is not skimping on this release - it's almost like they respect the license or something.

Update: Apparently this was an early list of extras sent out to retailers. Telltale has put up their press release which is accurate.

When you last checked Gamestop's Sam & Max product page just to see if their "temporary box art" had changed, you may have noticed that it is now listed as shipping with a bonus - a free strategy guide! This is also the case with the EB Games page so I don't know if it's something that's only going to be offered from those stores, or what. There's also no word on what, if anything, will be included in the hint book other than the walkthrough itself. I'm sure you shouldn't expect anything as extravagant as what LucasArts used to offer, but who knows what's in there.

This very much reminds me of Escape from Monkey Island, which was released with a "Quick-Path" walkthrough inside the box of the PC version. (If you recall, this was just a straight up, no nonsense walkthrough; the full-fledged strategy guide, sold separately, was big and thick and had all sorts of junk in it.) This was done presumably so that non-adventure gamers would not give up on the game after getting stuck and would therefore, you know, actually buy it. I find it interesting to see the trend continue.

It's true! Expect it to appear on the client next week, on the 14th. Of course, this doesn't pertain to you, since you pre-ordered the aforementioned Excellent Game the first day you could. But you know.

Speaking of Gametap, the service has recently undergone some pretty major changes. First off, it's now international. Secondly, the subscription system works a little differently. You can now use Gametap for free with access to a limited number a games (no, the Sam & Max episodes are not among their number), with paying customers now falling under the distinction of "Gold Membership." Gametap also now offers games for digital purchase a la Steam (on which Psychonauts is already available for the same asking price), as you've learned if you clicked my link to above.

Anyway, I'm not sure how interested some of you guys are in Gametap beyond its Sam & Max connection, but it must be said that it's been making some huge improvements, and between stuff like Sam & Max, The Last Express, Beyond Good & Evil and now Psychonauts, it's got a collection of games that might, just might, be worthy of your ten bucks a month.

While this will come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention, CSI: Hard Evidence, the second Telltale-developed CSI game, is now officially slated for a Fall 2007 release. The game was originally projected for Spring when it was announced, but hard empirical evidence indicates otherwise.

So what's the cause of the delay? Murmurings suggest that Ubisoft wants to release all versions of the game at the same time, and since the Wii port is supposedly Fall bound, the PC version is being held back. September 18 has been attached to this game by pretty much every game web site for months now, so you can probably consider that as the tentative release date. We'll obviously let you know when something more is made known.

The circle is now complete. Returning to Mojo's customary extreme lateness one last time, please join us for the final Sam & Max review. Then pull up a chair and play all six episodes back to back, just like Gabez did with the Star Wars Saga. To the moon, Alice!

As you know from reading Telltale's latest blog update, the good folks there plan on keeping you entertained throughout the summer with weekly Sam & Max content (including historical pieces and extras from the bonus DVD), the reprisal of their newsletter, and so much more! It's their clever way of keeping us reading while they toil away on more Sam & Max games, and it's working.

The less active but more orange Double Fine web page wants your attention as well, and they're competing for it by upping the ante on their merchandise offerings: Introducing a second batch of Double Fine Action Buttons, this set dubbed "The Happyheads." Included on the product page is a rare interview with Scott Campbell. Tim may not play clean, but he plays to win.

You may recall that people have been imagining a Wii based Star Wars lightsaber game ever since the first Wiimote was waggled about.

The rumor has resurfaced again recently due to a quote sandwiched between news of a Pirates of the Carribean Wii game on Fin24;

The head of the LucasArts, the game division for "Star Wars" series creator George Lucas, told AFP a Wii game that lets players wield virtual light sabers is on the horizon.

Pretty vague, but that hasn't stopped the news spreading around the webisphere, as you'd expect.

Source: fin24