The International House of Mojo

PC Gamer has put together a small oral history of sorts about what they -- and probably many of us -- consider the best Psychonauts level, "The Milkman Conspiracy." A quote:

Now run and read it.

So back in July, the official Arby's Twitter posted this.

That is a real thing.

Not sure what I can really add to this. I knew Stan was a whore, but...social media?

I'd make a smart aleck comment about how Arby's is doing more to promote Monkey Island than its actual copyright owner, but what point would I really be communicating? Everyone, by definition, is doing more to promote Monkey Island than its copyright holder.

J’accuse! See Stan there? That’s shamelessly stolen from the venerable SCUMM Bar. How do I know this, you may wonder. Simple. Notice Stan having a black something or other coming out his mouth. When Skyfox created that animation for TSB, he did it by hand, capturing each frame manually, removing the background . . . All while thinking Stan was smoking a cigar, when it was actually part of the background. Arby’s, have you no shame? - Remi

Source: Arby's Twitter

I don't know if you guys have been following the scandal - and no feeling person could blame you for trying to hide from the awful truth - but it's "come out" that traditional music in the public domain has occasionally been quoted in the Monkey Island soundtracks. INNOCENCE LOST.

You might think that's something, but it gets even worse than those moral arbiters on the front page are willing to scar you with. I won't patronize you by omission. I have it on good authority that Loom flat-out pilfered music from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.  Oh, wrap yourself in the fuzzy slanket of denial if you must; that won't make it any less true.

Hold on!  This just in: In the 18th century setting of Day of the Tentacle, recognizable patriotic tunes like "My Country Tis of Thee" are snuck into the tracks involving the founding fathers and Betsy Ross.  Did they really think they could get away with this?

I am not done updating your ethos, my naive friend.  Turns out, the ubiquitous Latin sequence "Dies Irae," incorporated into perhaps hundreds of works, is woven into the God Machine room in Fate of Atlantis.  But that's far from the worst offence.  Hang onto your hat for this next one -- the very same game, in a total rejection of all decency, also has the shameless audacity to steal the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme song.  I mean, that's the kind of chutzpah you can't even get offended by, because you are too busy admiring the sheer gall of it.

Burn your diskettes.

After the controversy surrounding the SCUMM Bar theme, an anonymous source going simply by Bozeke has pointed us to Burt Ives’s "Go Tell Aunt Rhody," a 1956 1752 ditty which sounds eerily familiar . . .

I do believe Stan’s theme appeared first in LeChuck’s Revenge. Follow the notes, and we undoubtedly will find the elusive Secret of Monkey Island.

(And yes, this is pretty much all we have to post about these days.)

I maintain that the one consistency we saw through Telltale’s turbulent history, was the quality of their soundtracks, composed nigh exclusive by Jared Emerson-Johnson. And now you can own (or rent, if streaming services are your thing) a piece -- a large piece -- of it, by grabbing The Walking Dead soundtracks featuring thirteen hours of music from the games. Digitally, you can find them at Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.

And if you’re really with it, go pre-order the four soundtracks on vinyl from Skybound. They’ll be available this December.

Mojo: We’re All About the Music(TM).

Why can’t you bastards give us this kind of feedback?

The theme, that is, not the honorable web site.

@Nicozilla_FR points us to a Reddit thread, where the SCUMM Bar theme's origins are revealed . . .

So now I guess we have a name: "Oh Good Ale Thou Art My Darling."

(And before the usual suspects start whining, I know it's not actually a rip-off, but it's interesting the original material wasn't credited. A very quick search reveals the song at least has existed as a recording since the fifties.)

Update! Our crack reporter, elTee, has through diligent research confirmed the song has existed at least since 1859.

Over at PAX West, a thing which was going on last week, Double Fine was on hand to show off Psychonauts 2. Judging by this preview on Shacknews, Double Fine was giving the same demo they were giving back at E3, resulting in said preview offering exactly zilch in the new information department.

But despite the fact that Shacknews has let all of you down in a very personal way, PAX West wasn't a washout. That's because those stalkers at Destructoid chased Tim all around the expo until he "consented" to be interviewed at length. With a gun pressed against his cheek, Tim talks about all sorts of juicy stuff, like the fact the Microsoft acquisition is still an ongoing affair, the unclear fate of Double Fine's publishing arm, hints about the studio's post-Psychonauts 2 project, and how he really feels about virtual reality, now that the cameras are off and Rhombus of Ruin is Old News. And then there's this observation:

Why do you resist Tim, Japan? Why have you not read the full interview, everyone else?

Source: Destructoid

Double Fine doesn't just make games, they sometimes bless them with love, and release them into the world, too. Not that we normally mention that, but why don't we? So breaking with tradition here's news on another new DF game, hot on the tail of RAD. This one is called "Knights and Bikes", from by London-based Foam Sword Games, and it has already been called "gorgeous" in the comments.

It's out "today" (actually last week) for PlayStation 4, PC, Mac, and Linux. But not XBox. (The last time that will be happening.)

Source: @foamswordgames

Shortly after it was announced that the Telltale brand has been relaunched, its web presence was relaunched as well. A few of the studio's catalogue titles are directly available again, letting us know which IPs that Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle, the men behind Telltale Redux, where able to snatch up. Behold the 2019 Telltale library, in the order the site presents it:

• RGX Showdown
• Batman The Enemy Within
• Batman: The Telltale Series
• The Wolf Among Us
• Puzzle Agent 2
• Hector: Badge of Carnage
• Puzzle Agent

So, a smattering. And two of those games were merely published by Telltale, rather than developed. (Remi had to explain to me what RGX Showdown even was. It didn't take.) The highlight as far as I'm concerned is Nelson Tethers. Hopefully that means Graham Annable at least got a check outta all this hooey.

Happily, some decent person behind this revival (or maybe just our own Jennifer, going by the comments of the previous news post) has made it so that you can sign into Telltale with your old account and download your old purchases once again. I just logged into my account from January 18th, 2005 to confirm that. So take the second chance you've been handed and get your games if you failed the first time.

Source: Telltale