Articles

Telltale: You fools. 01 Apr, 2006, 18:48 / Comments: 17

By Huz


"After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC."

So states Jack Rodford, Telltale's head honcho, as he in one quick sweep stops any further development of Bone and Sam & Max. While the announcement might come as a surprise to Mojo readers, it sort of makes sense considering that Telltale's CSI game currently is enjoying great success. "Next up is a Dan Pettit headed game based on Desperate Housewives," says Randy Breen, Telltale's recently hired creative consultant. "Think Grand Theft Auto but with the girls from Wisteria Lane." He further states that, "a game with walking and talking dogs and rabbits just doesn't make sense."

When contacted about the announcement, super adventure site Adventure Gamers did not seem visibly upset. "We still have Scratches 2, which features both graphics and puzzles. That in itself makes it a five star game."
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Purcell gets interviewed real hard 30 Mar, 2006, 01:06 / Comments: 1

By Jason


Everyone's favorite not dead Monkey Island fan site World of MI has put up a pretty extensive interview with Steve Purcell. It covers pretty much Purcell's whole career, not just Sam & Max, and there's a number of anecdotes about his early time at The Star Wars Games Company that's sure to bring you glee.

Source: World of MI

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"I suck at adventure games," says leading adventure game developer 28 Mar, 2006, 21:41 / Comments: 7

By Remi


Once upon a time there was a web site called The SCUMM Bar which had a bunch of Monkey Island related stuff on it. It was kind of sweet, but then Gabez decided to close it down. Apparently there weren't enough goths reading it or something, I can't quite remember.

Anyway! Just before it closed, and we're talking about a day before or something, an ex-LucasArts employee sent me this "Escape from Monkey Island pizza orgy questionnaire" he filled out. The pizza orgies are where other LucasArts employees can chime in on fairly early playable builds of upcoming games. Or so I think, please correct me if I'm wrong. It's worth a read anyway, so make sure to check it out.
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Play Bone: The Great Cow Race on Saturday 20 Mar, 2006, 21:43 / Comments: 3

By Thrik


What's that? You loved Bone: Out from Boneville, and just can't wait to get your hands on the sequel, Bone: The Great Cow Race? And you wouldn't mind spending an entire day focus testing it to iron out any remaining bugs and flow issues before its April release date?

Well, you're in luck: Telltale Games is currently looking for volunteers in the San Rafael area ? just north of the Golden Gate Bridge ? to play the hell out of the upcoming title on March 25th between 11am and 5pm.

Yes, that's right: this upcoming Saturday, you can sit amongst the denizens of Telltale Towers and experience the game before anybody else; the only catch is that you'll have to give the development team some juicy feedback!

If you're interested, get yourself over to this thread on Adventure Gamers started by Telltale's new community coordinator, who you may or may not have heard of before; send him a private message with your age, gender (??), location and history of adventure gaming to be considered.
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Unstoppable festival of LEC composer interviews continues with Michael Land 01 Mar, 2006, 19:45 / Comments: 7

By Jake


Hot on the heels of that Peter McConnell interview from a couple days ago is an interview with ex-LucasArts composer Michael Land over at Mixnmojo hosted site The Dig Museum.

Not surprisingly, the interview focuses largely on Land's work on the soundtrack to The Dig, going into the process of incorporating small samples of live Wagner recordings, and the retooling of the soundtrack for its audio CD release. Take a look.
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Peter McConnell Interviewed by the Italians 28 Feb, 2006, 17:57 / Comments: 3

By Jake


Italian LucasArts fansite Lucasdelirium has scored a new interview with music composer and ex-LucasArts employee Peter McConnell.*

The interview discusses his work on specific titles like Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 2, Fate of Atlantis, more general LucasArts subjects like his work on the iMuse interactive music system used in most of LucasArts' classic adventures, and touches on what he's up to now. As a bonus to non-Italians, the interview's even in English! Check it out.

* The horrible pun involved in the concept of "scoring an interview with a musician" was unintentional. Apologies all around.

Smooth Griminal 13 Feb, 2006, 22:59 / Comments: 5

By Remi


If you, like me, have tried to play Grim Fandango with anti-aliasing on, you have probably noticed that it doesn't work well. In fact, it ends up looking slightly ridiculous. Thrik, ever the explorer, took matters into his own hands, and found that despite popular belief, it is fixable. At least with Nvidia cards.

This might be the perfect excuse to play up some Grim again.

More Monkey movie art 24 Jan, 2006, 20:29 / Comments: 10

By Remi


Once upon a time the dudes over at The SCUMM Bar posted some info about an animated Monkey Island movie that was under development (and later canceled.) And it was good. As it turns out, Tony Stacchi, the artist behind the concept art, has posted some more movie art in his portfolio. Like Guybrush. And The SCUMM Bar. (Apparently Stacchi doesn't like direct links to his images, so either go to his folio for more, or copy and paste the links in your browser to access those images directly.)

Little is known about the movie, other than that it was supposed to combine the three first games into one new original story. Judging by the art, it also looks like Guybrush would have a (no doubt wise-cracking) sidekick in a monkey also. Head over to Stacchi's site for some more Monkey Island movie art.

Miscellaneous ramblings 05 Jan, 2006, 00:53 / Comments: 8

By Gabez


I got a bit lazy over Christmas and did nothing but eat mince pies and watch Arrested Development. I now have to pay for liposuction.

But in other news, Jennifer Calapuno built a statue of purple tentacle... out of snow!! See it here.

And I noticed the other day that the Double Fine store was selling Christmas cards. I completely missed that. How did I miss that?

But don't cry too hard because word is that there will soon be character based clothing for you to buy and wrap your thin gangly limbs in! Take a look at the news and cheeky hints here.

And someone e-mailed me about this. It has Tim Schafer in it so it must be awesome.

Christmas competition results! 24 Dec, 2005, 19:33 / Comments: 1

By Gabez


Twas the night before Christmas and all through Mojo, nothing was stirring, not even a hobo.

But enough about our sad lack of moving vagrants... it's time to announce the winner to our annual Christmas competition!

The results are in, the judges have been bribed and a decision has been made. It wasn't an easy conclusion to reach, but in the end I decided to pass on the free copy of Bone to Laura Abbott who sent us some amusing LucasArts Christmas carols plus an animation of Indy and Sophia under the mistletoe.

Even though the other entries were just as brilliant, Laura's cheeky confidence in submitting songs despite having no talent or vocal qualities warmed my heart and moved me to a bigger house.

You can download the carols here and here, and read the lyrics here, and also gaze in wonder at a few of the other entries that we got that deserve very honourable mentions:



Merry Christmas!

Directed by Ronzo, probably 01 Dec, 2005, 17:40 / Comments: 15

By Gabez


The Pirates of the Caribbean 2 trailer has recently made its way onto t?Internet and, whilst this may be old news to all you World of MI surfers out there, it was at least new to me when I accidentally stumbled across it on Google five minutes ago.

Anyway, go give it a watch if you?re interested. I certainly am ? it looks like it?ll be on a much grander scale than its predecessor, and that can only be a good thing.

And also it?s Monkey Island the movie by Ron Gilbert omg we?ll get to know the secret in this one I?m sure hah u sux!!11

Source: Google, I swear!

"I'm really excited creatively", says Purcell. 28 Nov, 2005, 15:00 / Comments: 13

By Thrik


The lovable GameCloud has thrown up a mighty interview with everybody's favourite Steve Purcell, asking him about all manner of things related to recently-revived Sam & Max.

"Of course it was disappointing [for LucasArts to cancel Freelance Police]. It came as a big surprise but I never had the chance to react because the fans did it for me. The outrage and solidarity that they showed was an amazing thing to behold. I'd never want to cross those folks."

You see? At least somebody appreciates your efforts. To enjoy this and many more questions, be sure to read the entire feature.

"Haha I'm beatin' him with a baseball bat!" 20 Nov, 2005, 01:07 / Comments: 2

By Gabez


If you thought that J?rn and Vogel were impressive then get a load of this: a hardcore gaming granny who plays Psychonauts (and just about every other game ever)! Check out her blog, this video showing her controlling Razputin in hospital and this video introducing her 1337 skills. It?s impressive (and hilarious) stuff.

But if you just can?t get enough of J?rn and Vogel then JBRAA has been awesome and uploaded some more uber adventure gaming frenzies onto Mojo Art. Go check them out here and watch in awed amazement. In fact, whilst we?re on the subject check out Pure Pwnage too. It doesn?t have anything to do with LucasArts, but it is damn funny.

To all hardcore gamers out there: Mojo salutes you.

And on an unrelated but no less significant note, MJ has update Nightlight Productions with part three of his side-splitting Star Wars radio parody. Go give it a listen!

Source: KingCheez

I vant to suck your blooood 20 Nov, 2005, 00:34 / Comments: 3

By Gabez


With the opening of the new Vampyre Story forums some details about the game have emerged or, at least, been confirmed. Here?s a low-down:

  • There will definitely be a PC version, and the game might also be released on PS2, Xbox PSP or DS.
  • The controls will be point and click on the PC but full control on any console versions that might get made.
  • Autumn Moon are still at the pre-production stage working on the ?characters designs, scripts, puzzles designs, rough backgrounds, colour scripts, 2D mock ups, and technology tests, etc.? as well as still looking for a decent publisher.
  • No release date has been given, but Bill Tiller is really hoping for the game to be finished in 2006. Fingers crossed!
  • The game will be 3D but ?not in the way you think?; the plan is to utilise multilane camera technology that places 2D painted backdrops on 3D planes, giving the detail of 2D but the depth of 3D. The characters will all be full 3D on top of that.

    Naturally these details may yet change as Vampyre Story moves into full production, but for the moment at least we have an idea about what Autumn Moon are aiming for. Read more and keep up to date via the gothic-tastic forums.

    • General newsathon 13 Nov, 2005, 15:48 / Comments: 0

    By bgbennyboy


    A few news updates today:

    As previously reported, Plunder 3d appeared in December's PC Zone. The Tingler has helpfully scanned in the article. See this forum thread for more.

    Defying critics, expectations and Duke Nukem Forever comparisions, the new ScummVM Website has finally appeared. Go have a look.

    A new version of the self-explanatory tool Psychonauts Explorer has been released. New in this version is partial support for the PS2 version, a new search tool and a bunch of bugfixes and enhancements. More details are available here.

    Kapow! Plunder 3D updated 03 Nov, 2005, 22:35 / Comments: 5

    By Gabez


    The Plunder 3D team have added weapons to their Monkey Island inspired Unreal Tournament mod, and, yes, you will be able to throw Murray at chickens to make them explode.

    What?s more, top UK gaming magazine PC Zone featured Plunder 3D in their December issue, saying that it looks "fairly intriguing" and printing a couple of the lush screenshots. I?m without a scanner at the moment, but if some dedicated Mojo reader wants to scan-it-up then I?m sure it would be appreciated (I?m looking at you, Tingler!)

    ScummVM 0.8.0 is here 30 Oct, 2005, 17:07 / Comments: 2

    By bgbennyboy


    A new version of ScummVM (the tool that allows many old adventure games to run on new systems) has just been released. It can be downloaded here.

    Notable changes this time round include a new improved launcher and ingame gui, preliminary support for NES and C64 LucasArts games and support for vintage adventure games Inherit the Earth and Gobliiins.

    Today also sees the launch of the new ScummVM forums, so any questions about the new release can be posted there.
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