The International House of Mojo

Look, I'm fresh out of commentary for all the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle marketing profligacy. It finally broke me. Take this and leave in peace:

Source: Twitter

Wait, you think you’ve dived deep into Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, just because that last promotional video called itself a deep dive? Well, that makes you an idiot, because now there’s an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast called “Diving Deeper Into Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.” We’re hanging with the goddamned benthic organisms over here.

Source: Xbox Podcast

You might not know it, judging by the sales figures, but Star Wars Outlaws released earlier this year to sort-of good reviews. The "open world action adventure" game was published by Ubisoft, initially on their own platform and now, in an act of defeated hubris, on Steam, where, among other updates, disliked "obligatory stealth" sections have been nixed. So, you know, if you care about the latest entry in a 50-year-old franchise, pew pew pew away.

… nauts. Psychonauts 2 to be specific. Or, to be even more specific, Peter McConnell’s “Lady Luctopus” theme from Psychonauts 2, performed during “The Sound of Gaming” concert. November 23rd, 4 pm at MediaCityUK, Salford. Give me a break; it’s been a long day – just read Tim’s Bluesky post about it:

Run over to BBC to get yourself a basically free £6.50 ticket.

Adventure Game Hotspot keeps the A Vampyre Story: A Bat’s Tale coverage coming, following up their earlier interview with a podcast. The featured guests are Šarūnas Ledas and Žilvinas Ledas – the brothers behind Tag of Joy, who are co-developing the game with Autumn Moon. Bill, to be fair, has a lot of drawing to do.

Though the episode runs an hour and a half, the AVS2 substance seems to be concentrated in the first thirty minutes. Listen, we command you.

Source: Adventure Game Hotspot

Rightly fearful of a world where Escape from Monkey Island magazine coverage gets lost to the Mysts o'Tyme, our own Scummbuddy blew the dust bunnies off the scanner and preserved the feature story that graced the Sept. 2000 issue of Computer Games Magazine.

You may already be familiar with the cover of this issue, as it’s been universally acknowledged since the game came out to be objectively superior to the actual box art the geniuses in Marketing saw fit to approve in the end, but the preview itself by Cindy Yans is some proper journalism, and the pre-release quotes from Mike Stemmle and Sean Clark will take you back to those innocent, anticipatory days when we thought we had another classic coming our way. (Footnote: And we were right. Don’t want to hear it.)

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Source: Mojo Forums

There was a time when even Star Wars fans liked Star Wars—the term's become an oxymoron; it's truly saltier than Crait out there—and a good enough video game in the franchise guaranteed money. But eternity is no-one's, and Star Wars Outlaws, "the first-ever open world Star Wars action-adventure game," has been received with an apathy only the writers of Rise of Skywalker previously possessed; only Han Solo, realising that his girlfriend kissed her brother, was more unmoved. "Generally good reviews" no longer guaranteed money make, and if it's indicative of the apathy, we found this out months ago.

But it releases on Steam in a week—November 21—in an attempt at a Force Ghost-like resurrection, so here's a little fanfare and the anticipation of seeing whether Star Wars Outlaws, unlike in-laws, is wanted.

Source: PC Gamer

There’s a lot going on, at far too rapid a clip, when it comes to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for the front page to really keep up, but that’s why you’re such a devout follower of the forum thread. Let’s cover the highlights though, starting with a fifteen minute “gameplay deep dive” video Bethesda put out earlier in the week.

And if you thought the spared-no-expense marketing madness could only have peaked, the game’s latest promotional partner is here to say, “Hold my chemically-sweetened syrup.”

Further info on the IHOP tie-in, inclusive of a collectable drinking glass and a sweepstakes for Exclusive Prizes™, can be found here. I know what you're thinking: Where the heck was the ReMI-inspired breakfast menu?

You’ve probably seen the news pop into your inbox already, but in case you haven’t – GOG has launched a certification program of sorts that promises to, and I quote:

Well, then! I think we can all get behind the sentiment, though exactly what it means on a practical level is a bit foggy to me. I.e., will classic LucasArts titles still rely on the baked-in version of ScummVM?

Either way, included in the first batch of titles are Indiana Jones® and the Fate of Atlantis™, The Curse of Monkey Island™, and The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition.

News of EGA versions and – most importantly – Amiga games forthcoming, I’m sure.

You spoke, and Disney listened. Ron Howard’s 1988 opus Willow is heading to 4K Blu-ray December 10th.

You can get the full specs over at The Digital Bits. As for the short-lived but beloved television series, it appears that Disney really did perform the ritual that exiled its spirit into oblivion. These things happen.

Source: The Digital Bits

Another Tech Talk has arrived, this time with multifaceted audio engineer Larry the O, who worked at LucasArts around 1995-2003 on a bunch of Star Wars titles as well as Escape from Monkey Island. When you’re done listening to his stories, you might also check out his web site, Toys in the Attic.

Source: Tech Talk with Daniel Albu

“I do see what causes some people to rate Grim Fandango so highly, and I definitely don’t think any less of them for doing so."

This sporting sentiment from Jimmy Maher gives you a decent idea of what you're in for in his latest entry at The Digital Antiquarian, dedicated to Tim Schafer’s 1998 classic. Fans of hot takes rejoice -- or does he speak for the silent majority? Whether you read it in outrage or validation, you know you’re always getting the good stuff over there.

Our CEO, who just happens to be the webmaster of The Grim Fandango Network, was last observed sharpening knives, but we’re sure it’s perfectly innocent.

Source: The Digital Antiquarian

No, not that Adventurer – this Adventurer. You know the one. The newsletter we unleashed with a roar and then kind of forgot about because of a shiny object that flew by. (The has taken an unhealthy interest in Duke Nukem Forever, for example.) Anyway – it’s back and you should subscribe…

… because we’re totally gonna keep it going this time, maybe. Hell, even if we did drop the ball, the worst thing that would happen is that you’d receive fewer emails. Which is kind of a bonus.

So, don’t be a butt – subscribe!

In the SCUMM catalog, there are three early games that found themselves produced during a transitional era of graphics cards, where VGA (256-color) was most definitely around, but EGA (16-color) still had the dominant install base.

As a result, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, and The Secret of Monkey Island initially shipped as EGA versions, but had their art retroactively redone (often within a year) in elitist fancy VGA form by other artists.

Over the years, the argument from purists that the EGA originals should be privileged has grown louder -- and also more tragic, as those most definitely don’t tend to be the versions offered by Lucasfilm. Regardless of individual preferences, for which there can be no right answer (Footnote: EGA is the right answer), the comparison is always interesting, and a typically Norwegian hero has made this inspection easier than ever.

Though he hasn’t gotten to Monkey 1 yet, you’ll have a lot of fun hovering your mouse over backgrounds from Indy 3 and Loom. Check out how much bigger that Sam & Max totem pole got in Indy’s office (and is that a subtle ode to the Great Monkey Head added to the top shelf there?), or how superior Loom was in its original form in every way. Above all, bow down before the one true Cobb:

Source: SuperRune