The International House of Mojo

Swordfights! Pirates! Ghosts! Ships! Dodgy dealers! Monkeys! Desert islands! Revenge! Romance! A mysterious secret!

But enough about my Facebook profile, what I really want to introduce you to is our Secret History article on The Secret of Monkey Island.

We especially resurrected Ron Gilbert from the crypt for this baby, so please do Digg us if you like what you see, and by doing so it might justify Ron's new, hellish limbo existence. Next month: Monkey Island 2!

Note: the feature image to your left right is from Dansky's 3D render of Monkey Island.

I'd have just appended this to the former post, but it was getting a bit long and unwieldly. It's been confirmed by Larry Ahern that the price of the first "Part" of Insecticide as listed on GamersGate is incorrect. I'll repost was Larry wrote in the comments of our previous news item in case you missed it:

Unfortunately, I wish I knew more about the lack of official info, but the word I got from the publisher is that we should be available on all the sites come Tuesday. Also, I asked our producer about the situation with Gamer's Gate, and unfortunately, it sounds like it was an error for them to be charging $29.99. We'll get this sorted out, but it is supposed to be $14.99 for Part 1, and Part 2 will be available at the same price later. He said he'd be contacting the site to have them fix this error. I tell ya, we're like a well-oiled machine here! Yeah, well anyway, last I checked, there's a great PC game in there. Lots of cool stuff above and beyond what we were able to fit onto the DS, so we appreciate your patience.

The GamersGate product page has since been updated with the correct price. And look out for the game from those other sites (Direct2Drive and Gametap) on Tuesday. There's still no word yet on if the PC version of Insecticide will makes its way to any other online outlet, nor is there yet a tentative release date for Part 2. We'll keep you posted as we hear more. In the meantime, rest assured that you can definitely buy the first Part of Insecticide from GamersGate right now for the correct price!

I think we can all agree that America isn't exactly living its happiest days. Political blunder after another, mistake preceding mistake, crime on the rise and a race for the White House involving some really old men - we are truly, deeply effed.

Or, as I should say: we were. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty President.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

Today, the Mojo database decided to make a break for it and travelled 8 hours back in time. Some comments and at least one news post was lost in the commotion.

The authorities have told us that they've captured the rogue time traveller and if all goes to plan, nothing more will go the way of the dodo.

Some interesting pieces of news today, so instead of dividing them and risking you missing one of themwe I thoughtwe'd I'd put them together!

• Insecticide has been released for the PC... maybe. Well, on GamersGate anyway. None of the other download sites that were supposed to have it like GameTap, Direct2Drive and even the game's website make no mention of it. Also not mentioned on GamersGate is that it's the first of two episodes. It also seems to be rather expensive for just one episode.
  
  According to Crackpot, they're still working on Episode Two, so it can't be both episodes together. Something may be wrong here. Thanks to Diduz for the heads-up though, and we'll keep you informed as to what's going on.
  
  
• LucasArts fire even more staff. Reports at Joystiq, who have interviewed an ex-employee, say that key members of The Force Unleashed's team have now been laid off. If LucasArts want to make another game in the series, they would have to either outsource or pointlessly hire new staff and train them. LucasArts maintains that they're committed to internal development and the next Indy game is not affected.
  
  What is most surprising about this is that several of the staff laid off were long-term members of the team who survived the previous culling and walkouts and actually worked on titles like X-Wing, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.
  
  
• Simon Pegg has written a new Spaced sketch spoofing the American remake unaffectionately dubbed 'McSpaced'. See it at his blogsite here. While this really has nothing to do with us (aside from the "TFU" gags we often use to accompany Force Unleashed posts), more proper British Spaced means the world is a slightly happier place. And that's always worth posting about.

NON-SPACED UPDATE:

• Strong Bad previewed at IGN. Less than a month to go!

• Lego Indy demo now on Xbox Live Marketplace. A bit late, but welcome.
24
Link copied!

The next part of our Secret History series is coming soon...

Monkey Island Awaits!

Crackpot's released new Insecticide screenshots (PC version). Good stuff.

Source: Gamershell

Part five of the hilarious Monkey Island radio play is now online at Nightlight Productions! This week, LeChuck plans and schemes with Number Two, and Karl and G.T. work out who is behind the latest menace.

Listen to the latest part, or catch up on earlier episodes. Arg!

The always wonderful Zaarin has completed his recording of the complete Monkey Island 2 soundtrack and uploaded it to his hosted site Soundtrack Island!

Now go listen!

Telltale Games's Mark Darin has been dragged out of the studio, beaten-up and interrogated to reveal new details on Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People. They managed to get some good information; but he passed before they could extract that one, elusive secret about Strong Bad's gloves...

Source: Wiiware World

It's been awhile since we've heard anything on Mata Hari, that graphic adventure game the LucasArts alumni Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood (both best known for the Indiana Jones adventure games) have been making for the Germans, but you can see a new streaming trailer for it over at Gamershell, where it is also available for download.

There's little to no gameplay on display here, but the footage is nonetheless enticing. Also, the end of the trailer reveals the URL of the official site, but visiting it may result in disappointment. Look out for Mata Hari sometime this year for PC wherever it's going to be released.

Nintendic has confirmed with Crackpot Entertainment that the Nintendo DS version of Insecticide is heading for Europe in August.

Source: Nintendic

After possible possibly the longest "just two weeks" we've seen in a while, GameTrailers have finally continued their Star Wars Retrospective series. Episode 5 (for which this is that) deals with the Strategic side of Star Wars gaming, from Rebellion/Supremacy to the Battlefront series.

The next episode will be on the adventures of Kyle Katarn, although who knows when that will be?

The long-awaited (well, by me at least) Indiana Jones Comics Omnibus Volume 2 is now available in stores, online or off, a few days earlier than expected.

All of these comics have been out-of-print for years and are very hard to come by, but they're mostly of interest to us because this volume contains the two stories that could have been Fate of Atlantis 2 - Iron Phoenix and Spear of Destiny.

While Spear of Destiny most likely bears little relation to the intended story for the cancelled game, Iron Phoenix is very game-like in its structure, and contains several elements that ended up in the true sequel - Infernal Machine. The artifacts being scattered across remote points of the world, including one at Shambala Sanctuary, and Russians being in it for example.

Source: Grumpy Gamer

The first trailer for Star Wars: Clone Wars: Lightsaber Battles: Jedi Alliance: Wii is now watchable exclusively at GameTrailers. While it mentions the DS version it all seems to be footage from the Wii game and also the film.

The game seems to be a beat-'em-up more than anything else. Lets hope that it ends up better than this.

All you have to do to find that out is to ask Telltale.

Source: Wall Street Journal

So apparently Telltale is having trouble choosing between these two possible covers for the Sam & Max: Season 1 Wii release:



and needs your help to decide! Participate in the only election this year that means anything and let 'em know your preference.

In an article at Venture Beat, the first details on the Clone Wars games for Wii and DS were revealed;

...two additional Star Wars titles will ship this November based on “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” the new Warner Bros. computer-generated (CG) animated movie and TNT/Cartoon Network TV series.

“Star Wars The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance” on Nintendo DS is the first game developed at the LucasFilm Animation Studio in Singapore, which is where the new Clone Wars TV series is being animated.

Krome Studios is behind “Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels” for the Wii, which will deliver lightsaber battles via the Wii’s remote control. Although Star Wars The Force Unleashed is being released on Wii, Lightsaber Duels marks the first original Star Wars game for Nintendo’s best-selling console. Both of these new Clone Wars games will be playable at E3 and the Comic-Con convention in July.

Also it was confirmed that Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is still in production, "a source inside the company confirmed that the original Indiana Jones game, which was first shown at E3 2006, is still moving forward with some of the development team from The Force Unleashed."

Update: There's a lot more info, including screenshots at this IGN interview.

Update by Tingler: The same article at Venture Beat also mentions that LucasArts will not be unveiling any new games at E3 this year. While this could hopefully mean Indiana Jones might make an appearance, I wouldn't hold your breath. Force Unleashed and Fracture are the only confirmed games appearing.

Source: Venture Beat

There's a new interview up at IGN with Haden Blackman about The Force Unleashed (duh). He gives the usual spiel about the game with a bit of new footage, and thankfully doesn't mention the words "kicking ass with the Force" (I think he's got my letters).

Honestly though the most interesting part (at least for me) is near the end where he starts talking about the new music for the game. The composer is Mark Griskey, who did a stellar job with the score for Knights of the Old Republic 2, so I'm hoping for a John Williams-rivalling epic.

Adventure Gamers reports some news that everyone (me) has been waiting for: the announcement of a North American publisher for A Vampyre Story. Said publisher will be, in the most unsurprisingly turn of events ever, The Adventure Company. According to today's announcement, the game will ship in North America in October (a full year from its original project release window, but what month could be more fitting?) at an SRP of $29.99. Woo!

Thanks to reader n0n4m3 for the heads up!

We're having another one of our famous Mixnmojo-meet-ups!

Where: The Northernmost Marker, Stonehenge, the Threshold of Worlds, Where the Moon Doth Rise with a Dragon's Face, Wiltshire, England, The Universe
When: The Summer Solstice, at the time between Venus has risen over Neptune, and the Crow has called out thrice to the rising sun
Who: All fans of Classic LucasArts!

Just let me know you're coming.

Oh, give me a break. We have four reader opinions for the The Secret of Monkey Island article so far. Four. Is that a joke? Send in something or you're banned.

Thanks! :-)

Update: A few people have asked for a deadline on this. If you intend to send in a Reader Opinion, please do so by this Friday, the 20th. Ye land lubbers.

Did you know this already? Probably, but we didn't post about it. So here you go.

The script for Frank Darabont's version of Indy IV that leaked online and released the Wrath of LucasLegal upon a few hapless websites has received a few reviews. G4TV did one first, and now Vanity Fair has one too.

You can discuss the script and these reviews in our forum thread here.

So, despite last week's press release announcing the downloadable release of the PC version of Insecticide (Part One) on June 13th, I'm not seeing it on Direct2drive, Paradox, or Gametap unless I'm missing something.

I can tell you though, even though it's probably pretty old news, that the DS version of the game's SRP has gone down to $19.99, which doesn't say anything positive about the game's sales, but may make it more attractive to you if for whatever reason the PC version is not an option.

Update by The Tingler: Hmm. If you look at GameZone's page on the game, they mark the digital download as coming 1st July.

2nd Update: We've now heard back from Crackpot about the release. On asking for a quote about the release, here was the reply from Michael Levine:

My quote is this: "The game is done and the release is imminent.”

That work? (-:

So, soon then!

The brothers Chapman, creators of Homestar Runner and, by extension, Strong Bad, have been interviewed by Kotaku (update: the actual link!) and some of the questions are about Telltale and the cool game for attractive people.

Update by Zaarin: While I'm sure that book about Napoleon is excellent, this is the interview we wanted to point you to.

Source: Kotaku

LucasArts have released a video that manages to spoil the plot of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed three months before the game is released. This beats Lucas' previous record of two months for us in the UK by releasing The Phantom Menace in July rather than May, but still giving us the game, book, soundtrack, toys and all the other merchandise.

Still, at least it opens with the Golden Guy back to his lightsaber-flinging self.

If you don't care, check it out here. But then, if you don't care, you won't want to check it out. So who is this video for again?

The official trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars (movie, not game) is now watchable at Yahoo! Movies. The biggest surprise is the presence of Christopher Lee, reprising his role as Count Dooku.

There's a new Attractive trailer for Strong Bad, which, as you all know, is the Wiiware/PC game coming in July from Telltale. Take a look: it's good gameplay footage.

Also, three lucky people will get to win the first episode of the Wiiware version from Nintendo World Report Telltale. All you have to do is to create a Mii, submit it and bribe the judges. Good luck to everyone, and come on Strong Bad!

Source: Nintendo World Report

Just thought I'd mention that the most infamous of the rejected screenplays for the fourth Indiana Jones film, the one by Frank Darabont, has finally been leaked online. While there's no way to verify the script's authenticity (though I'm pretty sure it's legit), and it's not clear whether or not this is the final draft, Indy fans will surely want to grab it anyway before LucasLegal gets wind.

Update: Wind gotten. :(

If you managed to read it before pdfscreenplays opened the Ark of the Covenant and found a 'Cease And Desist' letter inside, or just want to know about it, have a chat about it on our forums.

It would seem that Joe Pinney, who used to work at LucasArts a long time ago, has joined the ever growing ranks of Telltale as their latest designer.

Don't feel bad if you've never heard of Pinney's name, as it seems the only game he served on back at LucasArts as project leader was Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, the sadly canceled graphic adventure sequel to Fate of Atlantis. Nonetheless, it's always nice to see another member of the old LucasArts family find a new home at LucasArts 2.0 Telltale Games, where their talents can hopefully be applied to games that are actually allowed to see the light of day!

I have no idea if you've seen the MTV Movie Awards, but if you have you might have noticed that Jack Black went wearing a Brütal Legend t-shirt.

The majority of the press didn't ask him what these two words of awesome meant, but MTV News did. There is scarce little information but what information there is is interesting. Basically: the game is coming "someday," the PR man from Sierra has no comment on whether the Activision-Vivendi merging will affect the game, and we can expect new information "soon". Soon can't come soon enough, really.

Source: MTV Multiplayer

The latest development in the world of A Vampyre Story, as reported by The Pumpkin Post, is a new preview for the game by Total PC Gaming in their upcoming September issue. While that obviously makes the contents of the preview unavailable to us, the following quotes from it provided by Ascaron (one of the game's fifty publishers), gives you an idea of the sort of opinion the magazine had for Bill Tiller's brainchild.

"Considering the impressive pedigree, it's no surprise at all that A Vampyre Story is one of the most artistically accomplished games currently in development."

"Tiller has spent the last 4 years painting the backgrounds and characters along with fellow LucasArts alumni Bill Eaken, and the results are certainly impressive."

"From what we have seen so far it is definitely capable of provoking laughter"

"Bought to life by the excellent comic timing in the animation and voice acting"

"a unique approach to the core gameplay suggests that we're in for some real head-scratchers come September."

"We're confident that A Vampyre Story will turn out to be one of the greatest adventure games of the year."

If you live in the UK, look out for the full preview on magazine shelves in a few months time. And, apparently, we should be looking for the game itself around that time as well.

There's important news, there's really important news, and then there's this. Remember when you were playing through Telltale's Sam & Max games, all the while saying to yourself, "Wow, these games have great characters, a compelling story, wonderful dialog, and fantastic artwork, but they nonetheless totally blow because they're lacking a seemingly inconsequential element from Hit the Road and those Freelance Police screenshots that really pulls the whole package together: Sam's hand as a cursor." From the looks of things, Telltale is correcting their tragic mistake with the upcoming Wii version, still due for an August release. Says Jake:

We're doing the game justice on the wii, though. Widescreen [...] Also, the UI has been tweaked for consoles, allowing you to select dialog options and inventory items (and browse the menu) with the d-pad as well as with face buttons, and there is a new, pretty episode launcher. The Wii version also marks the return of a favorite Sam & Max cursor of yore.

Those of you who've been staying away from Season 1 can now finally get onboard. Don't scare us like that again, Telltale.

It appears that rumors of LucasArts' death ("death" here having the meaning of an absence of game development) may have been somewhat exaggerated. Despite the most recent reports indicating that "all other partially-completed internal projects will be outsourced," it seems that at least the upcoming Indiana Jones game will remain an in-house production. From Joystiq:

The "next-gen" console adventures of Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. will continue ... and not just in LEGO form. LucasArts has confirmed to Joystiq that the Indiana Jones title first revealed in 2006 is still in development internally at the company's San Francisco offices. Despite yesterday's staff downsizing, there are "no plans to outsource its development to an external studio."

An update on the previously mentioned Shacknews piece confirms this. So, good news for Indiana Jones at least. But what about after that?

Well, we're also of course aware of LucasArts' claim that "We are definitely committed to the internal studio," though the more cynical of us may be more swayed by the thoughts shared by "MonkeyCoder," who in the comments section of the aforementioned Shacknews article says he's a LucasArts programmer and that the company is not in any way abandoning internal development.

So, what to think? Certainly things don't look as resolutely grim on the LucasArts' internal production front as they perhaps seemed based on the last few reports. Only time will tell, of course, but at least for now we can confirm that the Indiana Jones game (titled Staff of Kings by all accounts besides official announcement) is still in active production and in the hands of LucasArts developers, for better or for worse.

Thanks to JP for the heads up regarding the "MonkeyCoder" stuff.

6

Link copied!