The International House of Mojo

We're back with another MP3 from what indeed seems to be a new Monkey Island game! The anonymous person sent us this file (click here to download it), which is supposed to be from a cutscene that will be shown at this year's E3. The scene features (from what we can tell) new music and a character that hasn't been seen since MI2. Some people continue to question whether or not Dominic Armato is voicing Guybrush in these, but it appears to us that it is in fact Dom.

I've been told that we should recieve a few more samples in the coming days. Keep checking back, as we'll post the files as soon as we get them. This looks to be the real thing mates! Stay tuned!

For those who celebrate it and those who don't, Mojo wishes one and all a happy Easter! Go enjoy candy and whatnot! Get fat on chocolate! And, look at this lovely Easter Max up at the Unofficial Sam & Max website.

A couple more reviews have appeared, on epiGamer and ActionTrip, giving the game 9/10 and 92/100 respectively. Both reviews are obviously calling JKII great (ActionTrip gave it their "Editors Choice" award), but both cite gameplay bugs and shortcomings that hold it back from perfection. Patch, anyone?

Also, there's a JKII cheat list for those that don't know them already up at cheathappens.

Source: Shacknews

In totally unrelated news: the (British) Queen mother is dead... crazy... to celebrate commemorate the occasion I made a picture of what she will look like on monday as she is ressurected like Jesus was this time approx 2000 years ago. I thought I'd share it with you. Isn't Easter a happy time?

(I, of course, loved the Queen Mother and would never wish to offend her maysherestinpeace so don't anyone get angry ok? :)

Over the last few weeks we have been recieving mail from an anonymous person who not only claims but insists that a 5th Monkey Island game has been under production at LucasArts for the past year. Seeing as we are pretty close to LucasArts and have heard nothing of the sort, we demanded proof... and we were sent this sound file, which apparently is taken from the game.

Revealing a possible plot, the voice is undoubtedly that of Dominic Armato, who has yet to respond to our e-mails asking if he was involved with LEC at this time.

We will apparently be sent more 'leaked' sound files over the coming days, as this one we said was inconclusive since it could have been an out-take from EMI. Hopefully the other files will give us a better idea. Of course, if there is a Monkey Island 5 in production, more details will probably be given this May at E3.

Today's Penny Arcade news is not so much news as it is staff infighting over the goodness or lameness of Jedi Knight II's multiplayer mode. One of them (Gabe, the one against JKII's multiplayer) has proposed making a "true JKII multiplayer" mod for Unreal Tournament.

Here at Mojo we wonder why they don't make a JKII mod, as that would not end in LucasArts legal shutting down their project. Good times. Anyway, if you want to be amused, or participate somehow, visit this link immediately.

Today JediKnightII.net updated with some info on modifying and tweaking Jedi Knight II.

The update deals mostly with getting the game to play properly with your NVidia and 3DFX video cards, but also has information on some small mods which have been released and info on how to record demos and videos in game.

JediKnightII.net has interviewed Dan Pettit, JKII's producer on the LucasArts side.

What can you tell us about the walking on walls? Is it a brief effect, or can it be sustained for longer periods?

It's a fairly brief effect. The best way to gauge this is to review the video we just released on March 14th. The walking on walls effect shown in the video shows the longest period of time you can do this effect.

Dan Pettit was also the lead tester on The Curse of Monkey Island.

It seems that quite a few stores do not have Jedi Outcast on their shelves a day early, as the LucasArts e-mail suggests. We advise that you call your favorite gaming stores first to make sure they have them before going there. As a fan, have you had any trouble finding Jedi Outcast in your local store today? Please share your comments.

A year and a half after the release of Escape From Monkey Island, The SCUMM Bar has released a review of this most controversial title. As many Monkey Island fans are aware, this title was cause for endless debate concerning its overall quality, as well as how it fit into the series as a whole.

Therefore, instead of doing one review, several of the TSB staffers have submitted their impressions of the title, creating a series of mini-reviews. The feature is well worth reading, so check it out already! Also, you are welcomed to leave feedback, or your own EMI review in the comment area.

Okay, so now you find yourself all pissed off that Jake has gotten a copy of this game before you and now you can't stand the wait. Well, LucasArts has good news for you! According to a LucasArts e-mail, Jedi Outcast will be in stores tomorrow, March 28th. That's one full day earlier than what was expected, meaning that you need to rush down to your local game store now and wait in line. Good luck sleeping tonight.

Guess who has JKII a few days early? Yeah, that's right.

This is one of the nicest packages LucasArts has put out in a while. The box, CD, and manual are all excellent quality. To tide you over until the game ships, I've put up some pictures. Enjoy!

Interested in more fan art after last night's look at the MIAC? Well fear not, as there is a second big gallery lurking about on the Web: Mojo Art.

Though it shares a name, url, and color scheme with our Mixnmojo, MojoArt is an entirely different beast. Started by JBRAA during our 4 month downtime (remember that?) originally as a Mixnmojo.com-related art page, it has since branched off to instead cover LucasArts games.

LucasArts has put up, for a limited time, the TV Commercial for PS2 flight-action game Jedi Starfighter.

The ad spot is a humorous one, parodying car commercials, and was done in collaboration with Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound. It's only available at LucasArts's site until April 23, so see it while you can.

Just letting you know that LucasForums, the host of Mojo's forums, is in the middle of a server move, so some posts may be lost, and it may be up and down for the first half of today.

Hopefully, though, when this move is finished, the hours of downtime and MySQL errors which we've been seeing will be gone for good!

Update: The forums are all moved and working, so unless your ISP hasn't switched the domain info to the new server, you should be able to go post crazy!

This is probably old old stuff to many, but I'm sure there are quite a few potentially interested readers who have never visited The Monkey Island Art Connection.

The online gallery, run by Haggis, Haxaty, and Dank, is probably the most complete collection of (and home of some of the nicest looking) Monkey Island fan art you can find online. If you're looking for a fan art fix, new wallpapers, or are just bored, you should stop by the MIAC.

PS: Ignore art by that "Jake" guy. It is no good.

Saw on Shack that Raven has put out the dedicated Linux server software for Jedi Knight II. This has nothing to do with playing JKII on your own machine, but is intended for people who plan on serving JKII multiplayer matches from their Linux-based machines. The file is about 1 meg and is not supported by Raven or LucasArts.

Source: Shacknews

I fixed up a couple things on Mixnmojo today that you might want to know about:

First off, in addition to our other news categories, we've added a new category for the sole purpose of covering fan community news. You can get to the community news filter by clicking on a community news post's icon, or from the navigation bar at the top of the site.

And, second, the news@mixnmojo.com email address is working again for news submissions. It's also been added to the list of links at the very bottom of this page. Of course, MojoMessenger also works. That's it!

We have a new hosted site added to The Mojo today: "The Polecat's Lounge." As you might guess, it's dedicated to the LucasArts classic adventure, Full Throttle. Featuring an extensive image gallery and flash content coming in the near future, it aims to entertain all the Full Throttle fans milling around the Internet without a home (page). Enjoy!

Yes.. we have updated a feature. A small offering for now, with a promise of many more VERY exciting articles to come soon. OK so the "VERY" bit might be a lie...

Our Fabulous writer Lemonhead has taken a look back at another classic game Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Some people may note that we entirely forgot to celebeate the 10th anniversatry of this great game... Someone, anyone tell me: When did it come out? We want a birthdate!

Skyfox, founder of The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar and pretty much the guy who started the who MI online community announced that he will be leaving the site after 6 years of running and updating the site. Here's an exerpt of his update:

Well, looks like this is it folks... after 6 years in the Monkey Island web business, it's time for me to take a back seat. Both this site and #monkey-island will be under the (ruthless) control of RemiO, he's done a fantastic job of late.. and he will not let us down. (no pressure mate!)

We here at Mojo wish Skyfox the best in all his future endeavers and especially wish to thank him for starting the MI community, because if he hadn't, Mojo would probably not be around today. Good luck mate!

On a personal note, I'd just like to say that back in the day (God I'm not that old am I?) The ScummBar was THE Monkey island site, and still is. Anything MI you wanted you got there - Including the inspiration to build the site that eventually became Mojo.

Sky has been a friend for all this time (Mojo is 5 this summer) and i'm sure shall remain one.. Also I bet we will still see his face around here for some time to come. Enjoy yerself Ian! - Spaff.

In a press release issued today from LucasArts, it has been revealed that Star Wars Bounty Hunter will be a third-person action game for PlayStation 2 and GameCube systems this fall. This game will allow you to play as Jango Fett across six worlds and 18 levels. Plus, it seems this title has been given a high production priority. Here's a quote:

The development of Star Wars Bounty Hunter utilizes the unique, world-renowned talents of LucasArts' sister companies Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Skywalker Sound. This marks the first time other companies in the Lucas group have combined their expertise in the production of a LucasArts game. ILM is generating cinematics for Star Wars Bounty Hunter, and Skywalker Sound is creating sound effects for the game.

Now what other game company can compete with that? Although sadly, no screenshots were shown at this time.

Two new screenshots have been posted for the upcoming multiplayer game, Star Wars Galaxies. The first screenshot features a beautiful and impressive hillside, while the other shows us some suspicious looking characters. It's nice to see they have simulated Greedo's lack of style. Both screenshots are a large 1024x768 and are well worth a look.

LucasArts has created a very small teaser website for its recently announced Star Wars game, Bounty Hunter. The site, which can be found at www.starwarsbountyhunter.com, contains a simple Flash animation giving us a tentative release date of Fall, 2002 for this title. More details on this game will probably be given this May at E3.

I saw on Shacknews that Korean game developer Phantagram is working on a sequel to Cavedog's RTS game "Total Annihilation," due out in 2004.

Cavedog was a game company started by Ron Gilbert a few years back. I believe it was sister companies with Gilbert's Humongous Entertainment, creators of kids games Putt Putt and Pajama Sam. It's 100% unlikely that Gilbert has anything to do with Total Annihilation 2, though.

Source: Shacknews

Today, LucasArts issued an official press release confirming that its new PlayStation 2 title, Jedi Starfighter, will appear on the XBox sometime in May. The press release does not mention whether or not the title will be a special edition, similar to the XBox port of the original Starfighter. Also, keep an eye out in the near future for our own review of Jedi Starfighter.

LucasArts has updated their careers page with some important information for individuals hoping to join the ranks of LEC staff. They will have a booth this year at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. Here are the details:

San Jose Convention Center - March 21st -23rd LucasArts will be actively recruiting at this years GDC. Please stop by our booth at the Job Fair located on the main convention floor. Representatives from Human Resources, Art and Programming will be on hand to answer questions. Please bring a resume and/or throw away demo reel/portfolio.

Perhaps you could show off what you learned from Penny Arcade.

Hulabee Entertainment, the new children's software company founded by Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert, has released two of its new game titles for purchase. First, there's Moop and Dreadly: The Treasure on Bing Bong Island, a children's adventure game involving pirates and a big, purple... thing. Ollo in the Sunny Valley Fair is another title involving an escaped giant tomato.

Both of these games were written by Dave Grossman, who was heavily involved in such classics as the first two Monkey Island games and Day of the Tentacle. Mac and PC demos are available from Hulabee.com, so go check them out!

LFN site JKII Mod Central has interviewed Raven's Christopher Foster, the design lead on JKII. He's interviewed not only about modding JKII, but lots of general (sometimes interesting!) questions too.

Also, Elited.net has an interview with Kenn Hoekstra, talking about the use of the Quake III engine, some story bits, and the whereabouts of Kyle's ship, the Moldy Crow.

Source: Shacknews

In case anyone hasn't visited LucasArts.com, they now have a huge banner across their main page letting everyone know that, while JKII may have gone Gold a couple days ago, it's really gone gold now. Enough!

Following on the heels of GoneGold.com's announcement of Jedi Knight 2 going gold on March 28th, LucasArts has released another action-packed trailer for the game. Go watch it! (Note: You must be a member of LucasArts.com or StarWars.com to view the trailer. Signing up takes only a second and they don't spam you or anything.)

At the end of the trailer, LEC announces that the game's official release date is March 29th, 2002.

Penny Arcade may have an idea about how you can get a job at our favorite game company. In case you aren't familiar with it, Penny Arcade is a popular online comic about gaming that frequently makes references to LucasArts. Check it out!

According to TheForce.net, two sources have indicated that Jedi Outcast went gold yesterday and is now waiting on the LucasArts PR department to make the official announcement. Of course, at this point, I'll believe it when I see it. Don't forget that Lucas Online members can view the second trailer for this new game tonight after 6pm PST at this location.

Update: JediKnightII.net has the following info from GoneGold:

You may as well call this one "gold" folks, although LucasArts is actually saying... "Not just yet.". According to Tom Sarris, the game will not go gold today, but will indeed finish up either tomorrow or Friday the latest. When will we see it on shelves? March 28th Tom says. :D Super news.

That basically confirms what TheForce.net said, but attempts to ground it with some better sources.

Hey, just letting you know that the pop-ups that are appearing, as well as the banner ads at the top occasionally screwing up the site layout, are for the most part temporary.

There will still be the occasional pop-up in the future (gotta make some money to pay for this thing), but nowhere near the what seems like 75% of all page loads that it is now.

Jedi Knight II has been reported as going gold again, this time by EBWorld.com. A fellow LFN site that will remain unnamed reported late last week that JKII was going gold, and the story was picked up by some bigger sites. No official announcement ever came from LucasArts, though, and the story was dropped.

Could JKII be golden master and ready to ship? Maybe EBWorld knows something we don't, but at this point it's impossible to trust anything that isn't stamped LucasArts or Raven Software.

Update: People have been telling me that I'm misreporting a fact and EBWorld isn't mentioning JKII at all. The JKII news on EBWorld is a little ways down the page. Their top item is Jedi Starfighter, totally unrelated.

Continuing "Star Wars Day" here at the Mojo, we have the following tidbit of news: The release poster for Star Wars Episode II is up on starwars.com. To no one's surprise, it looks very similar to the posters for the other 4 Star Wars films. That doesn't mean it's not pretty.

Source: QueZTone

According to an e-mail from the LucasArts Game Alerts, Jedi Outcast will have a new trailer released at the LucasArts website on Thursday. However, if you are a Lucas Online Member, you can view the trailer as early as this Wednesday after 6 pm PST. If you're not an Online Member... what's your problem? It's free, so go sign up now, ya freak. The new trailer will feature all new content, so be sure to check it out.

LucasArts managed to include a brief trailer for an upcoming title in the bonus section of Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter for the PlayStation 2. What looks to be the first in a line of Attack of the Clones-related games, Bounty Hunter appears to be an action game starring Jango Fett.

The trailer boasts some amazing 3D graphics and particle effects, and for those that don't own Jedi Starfighter, you can view the trailer in its entirety here.

Source: LucasConsoles

bgbennyboy has created version 2.5 of his Quick and Easy tool, which can be downloaded here. Quick and Easy is a tool that lets you play many of the old LucasArts adventure games under Windows 2000, Windows NT, or Windows XP with full sound.

In this version, the lockups have been fixed for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and the saving issues have been resolved for Day of the Tentacle. Please note that you must have VDMSound installed for this to work.

Computer and Video Games "Magazine" has a preview of the upcoming extreme action story explosion Star Wars FPS game Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. The preview says that although die hard fans of the original Jedi Knight may be annoyed with some of JKII's details, the game is an all around good one and should be played by everyone.

LucasArts has increased the amount of enemies by including many weird and wonderful species, as well as formidable foes, such as TIE-Bombers on strafing runs and AT-ST Walkers. When one of these comes charging out of the fog with all guns blazing, it not only adds variety to the gameplay but also a certain amount of extra weight to your underpants too. Sadly, the AT-ST's bigger brother, the AT-AT, will not be in the game ? something to do with giving the player a chance, apparently.

To view past page 1 of the article you need to sign up for an account with Computer and Video Games. I recommend against it, unless you really really need to see the screenshots (which don't appear to be new). I signed up and am anticipating nothing extra but some spam.

Source: Shacknews

LucasFilm has put out the much anticipated "real" trailer for Star Wars Episode II, and it has been surprisingly well-received. That's right, I drank the Kool-Aid.

Despite the opening shot bearing more than a slight resemblence to Flight of the Navigator, the new trailer has everything you hoped would be in Episode 1: huge explosions, large amounts of fighting, big beat up triangle-shaped ships, and more huge explosions.

Though the other three trailers (yes, three others have been released - over 200 shots from the film have been included so far in the four trailers) were hinting that there was lameness afoot in EPII, it might be hidden by the massive explosions and death that appear to be in store during the rest of the film.

As usual, despite the trailers being on the Internet, you first must be a Lucas Online member (so sign up if you haven't already at starwars.com or lucasarts.com), and to view the highest quality version of the trailer you need to hand Apple your 30 bucks for QuickTime Pro. Though the high quality version isn't released for free officially, you can find mirrors of the file if you look hard enough.

A JediKnightII.net forum regular has made an unofficial botfile for the stormtrooper Quake 3 model. For those that don't know what this means, it will allow you to play against the stormtrooper while offline.

You can pick it up here (updated with correct file format), and start fragging these Imperial jerks like the good rebels we all know you are. For those new to Q3A, you must put this in the baseq3 directory to use it in the game.

A huge preview for Star Wars Galaxies has been published at Gamers.com. This extensive article includes some new screenshots and lots of really cool information on this game. I can't wait to play this one. Here's a quote:

The designers appear to be making a wholehearted effort to portray combat in all the ways you'd expect. Want to shoot stormtroopers with blasters? Fine. Wield a light saber and lop off a Zabrak's demonic head? Cool. Fancy yourself a Wookiee who's deadly with a bowcaster? Go for it. To make all those things look real, Sony is hard at work making hundreds of combat animations to depict everything from fistfights to blaster battles with Imperial Walkers.

Well, all signs point to Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast going gold at any moment, but the announcement has not yet been officially made. What, you want evidence for my outrageous claim? Just check out all the JK2 goodies that were added today!

• An all new Inventory section on the official site!
• A Stormtrooper model for Quake 3: Arena!
• Three nice-looking (yet aforementioned) screensavers!

All I can say at this moment: Sweeeeeet.

Update: We've added a gratuitous number of pictures of the Stormtrooper model. The best part of the whole thing is probably the intentionally hasty paint jobs on the red and blue team skins.

Source: JackTheGaffer

GalacticBattles.com has put up part three of the "Making of Galactic Battlegrounds" videos that have been coming out from both GB.com and LucasArts. This week's is basically a chat between three of the game's level designers discussing how they went about making the different scenarios in the game. Lots of Wookiee talk (including the phrase "Wookiee proponent"), which made me happy.

If you missed part one and two they are archived on LucasArts' site.

GameSpy has compiled its own list of the 30 Most Influential People in Gaming. Ron Gilbert, creator of SCUMM and Monkey Island, makes the list at #29 for basically changing the way we play adventure games. Interestingly enough, George Lucas makes the list at #17 for starting LucasArts. Here's a quote:

But beyond the Star Wars franchise is where LucasArts has really shined, with the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango, unique adventure games with truckloads of humor and surprises. I mean, when was the last time you saw a Sam Spade-esque detective story set against the backdrop of a Mexican "Dia de los Muertos" mythology?

When indeed.

According to JKII.net, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast will be going golden master tomorrow, meaning that it will be shipping in the very near future. Hopefully LEC will confirm this in their weekly "Fabulous Friday" website update.

Update: Instead of hearing announcements of GM software, we have been given these fine Windows screensavers. Yay? Big thanks to GonkH8er at JKII.net for the scoop. ;)

It seems that LucasArts may be working on a new original game entitled Gladius, according to observant readers of TheForce.net. On October of 2001, LucasArts filed to protect the trademark name of "Gladius" as a software title. The trademark information, which can be viewed at this page, includes such keywords as "science fiction games", "films", "music", "CD-ROMs", "DVD-ROMs", and more.

The use of both CD-ROM and DVD-ROM technology suggest that this might be a PC and console title. Also, the lack of any Star Wars references in the trademark suggests that it may be an original title. TheForce.net thinks this could be the new original title from Planet Moon that was recently announced. Hopefully, if this game is indeed in production, we will hear more about it in the coming months.

Source: TheForce.net

The Official Star Wars Galaxies website has been updated with quite a few new and impressive screenshots. Check them out!

Gamespot, as usual, has received an in-depth early look at an upcoming LucasArts title. This time it's LEC/BioWare RPG team-up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Set roughly 4,000 years before the events in the original Star Wars, the game will have you adventuring in the Old Republic that has been alluded to in the films. Star Wars fans got a hint of what things were like before the rise of the Empire in Episode I, but Knights of the Old Republic offers a look at the really good old days.

And of course, what's a sci-fi game article without a photo caption reading "Just one of the many aliens you'll encounter in the game?" Probably illegal is what. Go take a look for yourself, SWK looks to be good!

This is your last chance to bid on this round of ebay goodies. In 5 hours the first wave of auctions will be over! Get 'em while they're fresh

According to this article from GameSpot, the upcoming PlayStation 2 title Jedi Starfighter will be released for the XBox sometime in May. The XBox version, unlike the previous port of the original Starfighter, will not be a special edition.

Hal Barwood is working on a brand new game at LucasArts, according to a recently published biography from the 2002 Game Developers Conference. Let the vagueness begin:

Hal Barwood is a project leader at LucasArts, where he was designer, writer, and team leader on Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, a PC adventure game; Big Sky Trooper, a Super Nintendo role-playing game; Indy's Desktop Adventures and Yoda Stories, a pair of PC desktop diversions; and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, a real-time 3D action-adventure. In addition, Barwood directed the live-action video for Rebel Assault II, a Star Wars combat game. He is currently working on a new slam-bang tale.

Slam-bang tale, eh? Call me old fashioned, but I'll always love bang-slam tales better. Time will tell, however, whether or not this is tied to the new Indiana Jones game that was recently announced.

Update: According to this thread [English Translation] on a German gaming forum, Barwood isn't working on the Indy game. Who knows then? (thanks Norimaki)

Clint Bajakian, who has written music for such memorable LucasArts games as Monkey Island 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and Outlaws, seems to have started an additional company. Clint originally left LucasArts to create his own freelance music company called C. B. Studios. Now, according to the 2002 Game Developer's Conference, Clint has created a new company simply called The Sound Department. Here's a quote:

Currently president of C. B. Studios, Inc., he is in the midst of co-founding a new audio production company with Julian Kwasneski called The Sound Department, a company providing music, sound and voiceover production services. The Sound Department features state-of-the-art digital production studios with 5.1 surround sound capability.

On closer inspection, this Jedi Knote confirms that The Sound Department is working on Jedi Outcast.

The Ebay auctions are going great, I just wanted to remind people that there are only 3 days left until these auctions end, and then we get some new ones up. At the moment we have a bottle of EMI Grog, a signed copy of EMI and a crazy magetic pluzzle thing.

If you are super-duper lucky, Jake might have snaffled some goodies from LEC on his recent trip there.

I just got back from a crazy long day at LucasArts. Fellow LFN members Chris (ChrisC3po), Don (Aristotle) and Michael (ZeroXcape) went in for some business-y (but exciting) meetings, and then got subjected to the grand circle tour and then some.

If you were wondering (which you probably are not, thank you very much) we played a couple upcoming games, including a venerable upcoming FPS, and it has definitely lived up to the hype.

Also saw some new super-duper secret stuff coming down the pipe that might actually excite this jaded pack of fans that we call Mojo. Thanks to Tom Sarris for taking us around, we're eternally greatful. You could even say it made us glad.