The International House of Mojo

Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas, and we now bring you back to your "regularly" scheduled news updates.

Adventure Gamer's controversial Top 20 Adventure Games of All-Time feature continues on with more LucasArts titles earning spots on the list. Sam and Max Hit the Road comes in at #8, Grim Fandango lands at #7, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is ranked #6. I, however, still maintain that Monkey Island 2 was completely robbed at being ranked #18 on the list, but I digress...

Keep checking back to Adventure Gamers in the next week to find out what the top 5 adventure games ever made may be.

LucasArts was kind enough to send the Mixnmojo staff a very nice Christmas card via postal mail with the art from the official website. We've gone ahead and scanned the card at a high resolution (874 x 600 px) for your enjoyment. So... enjoy!

Other holiday greetings definitely worth checking out around the network include this Christmas wallpaper featuring many of your favorite LEC characters, courtesy World of MI drawn by the venerable Paco Vink. Also, the Mixnmojo Christmas card, with a santa hat drawn by Dan Lee and some bad humor from Jake.

According to Friday's update of LucasArts.com, the site will feature musical clips from the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb live orchestral score in January.

The site will also show pictures from the recording sessions as well as tidbits from composer Clint Bajakian, similar to our own feature article.

Oh, and there's a new screenshot up on the official site as well.

Sam & Max.net, former host of The Unofficial Sam & Max Website and Snuckey's, has consolidated into one big site, which mysteriously just resembles The Unofficial Sam & Max Website, and bears no resemblence at all to Snuckey's.

"Fear not, loyal citizens," said Metallus, self-titled co-webmaster of Samandmax.net, "all of the features you enjoyed on Snuckey's such as... well... Mercatfat's episode reviews will certainly be appearing on the new site."

Check out the renovated Unofficial Sam & Max Website for an all new Christmas card painting by Steve Purcell, some video clips from the Sam & Max TV series, Purcell Pixar updates, and more.

As seen at The SCUMM Bar, the famed "Best of LucasArts Soundtracks" audio CD is now available for purchase in Europe, thanks to German online retailer SynSoniq. Now stop bugging me for MP3's! (people in the US and Canada can still get the CD here)

Hopefully what has happened here is that North America has offered to trade Europe some copies of the Best of Soundtrack CD in exchange for some copies of The Entertainment Pack adventure compilation, but that has yet to be seen

(Closed!) Here's your chance to become famous! Well, not really, but you should participate anyway. We at Mixnmojo have been granted an exclusive interview with the producers of Hal Barwood's upcoming action adventure, RTX Red Rock.

If you would like to submit your own questions, please leave a comment on this post or send a Mojo Message to telarium and we will pick the best ones. Keep in mind that most of these questions will be answered by the producer Reeve Thompson, but if you'd like to submit a few questions to Hal Barwood as well, he may just surprise us and answer a few of them. Note the emphasis on "few."

Submit your questions now!

LucasArts.com has whipped up this online Christmas card for the holiday season. The image features Max, R2D2, EZ Wheeler, Jango Fett, Ursula, Ben, and others riding a motorcycle through a winter wonderland. The image is pretty well, done, so be sure to took a look!

Our good old friends Gamespot have got themselves a shiny preview of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, it contains a bunch of new screenshots and impressions from the Xbox version of the game. No amazing revelations so i'll just add this quote

The levels will also offer a bit of psychological torment in the form of breakaway floors and cave-ins that occur throughout the game. As a result, you'll find yourself thinking twice about snatching relics you find laying out in the open.

If Shortround is in this game im going to take great pleasure in punching his face in...... =P

So then... who was responsible for this? it's got to be one of you :) this character for the popular RPG online blah blah game Never Winter Nights, is based on the one and only Mr Guybrush Threepwood! Now all you wannabe pirate RPG fans out there can parade about in your own fancy pants. Hooray!

The SCUMM Bar reports that after a long disappearance, LucasArts is once again selling the Monkey Madness compilation CD at the LucasArts company store. So, any US or Canadian customers interested in finally being able to own both Monkey Island 1 (with the CD audio tracks) and 2, now's your chance.

Rumors suggest that Monkey Madness may have been re-added only because Remi whined at reminded asked someone about it.

Everyone's favorite hat stand, The Wibble Wobble Hat-stand, has a page dedicated to the recently discovered LucasArts adcenture classic compilation, "Entertainment Pack" (see our previous story). Take a look at the page on WWHS to learn about what was updated for XP and 2K compatibility, and take a look at some of the improved visuals (some say they're improved) with a couple screenshots of Full Throttle and Sam & Max. Check it out.

Around this time every year, someone in the #monkey-island chat room (now located on irc.gamesnet.net) puts together a little survey asking about the funniest moment in the chat room, who the most annoying member is, and many other weird questions. The results of the survey are often amusing and a great way to waste time when you should be doing something more productive.

If you're a current or former regular of #monkey-island, be sure to stop by and fill out the survey at this location.

According to Adventure Gamers, the latest issue of PC Zone includes an interview with LucasArts Public Relations guy Tom Sarris. In the interview, Tom discusses Full Throttle 2 and the potential for more LucasArts sequels. Here's a highlight:

There'll definately be another Monkey Island game. You've seen four incredibly well-done versions of Monkey Island, and there's an immense amount of stories that remain to be told within that series. And not only that series -- I mean Grim Fandango especially, we'd love to revisit that one day. Sadly, Tim Schaffer probably won't be involved, but we don't think that means the property has to suffer at all.

Poor Tim... always getting his last name misspelled. Check out Adventure Gamers for more highlights from the interview as well as a screenshot of a 3D Ben standing outside of The Kickstand.

You'd think we'd be all over it when a massive update occurs on the LucasArts 20th Anniversary site, but it seems we missed it this time around!

First off, in the LucasArts Theatre you can find a nice 320x240 version of the old Curse of Monkey Island trailer AVI that was released a few months before the game originally came out. Yes, the one featuring wacky overly synthesized placholder music, and the little "Elaine!" bit of cutscene that never showed up in the real game.

Second, we get part four of the History of LucasArts, which covers EMI, Indy and the Infernal Machine, the whole slew of Episode 1 titles, and some other classics like X-Wing expansions and Rogue Squadron, and current titles like Bounty Hunter and Rogue Leader. History!

And third, we're treated to a Q & A with Larry Holland, the CEO of Totally Games, who worked with LucasArts to create the air combat series (Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, etc), as well as the X-Wing series. He's back with them again working on an unnamed WWII flight combat game in the tradition of Luftwaffe.

Finally, we also get a storyboard from Outlaws.

Source: Incessant whining from Someone

First off, a word of warning to all: If you own an Epson inkjet printer, and your town is experiencing a ton of short storm-caused blackouts... turn off the printer. The power will inevitably switch on and off at 4 in the morning and your Epson will go through its 15 minute (noisy as Hell) warmup cycle.

But whatever. If you're going to be woken up at 4 AM, you'd hope to at least be greeted with some juicy Lucas dirt!

And now... the real news... or, as the case may be, a rumor that is, more likely than not, entirely true. Hot off the presses at Adventure Gamers is the scoop that LucasArts is in the process of making the "The Entertainment Pack," a collection of SCUMM (and GRIME) classics including Windows 95/98/Me/2K/XP compatible versions of Sam & Max Hit The Road, Full Throttle, The Dig, and Grim Fandango.

Whoa.

Yes, a pretty exciting rumor, especially for those who are scared to death of ScummVM. Really, though, the best guess going around is that The Entertainment Pack was mainly made to serve as a sequel primer, to bring new gamers up to date on the classics before they go out and buy Full Throttle 2, Sam & Max 2, et cetera.

Wacky things are afoot for sure. Goodnight!

Update: Adventure Gamers points out that the pack has shown up somewhere outside of rumors. Well, there it is. Wonder if it's UK/Europe only?

Source: Adventure Gamers

Apparently a (bi-)annual thing, Adventure Gamers has started a Top 20 Adventure Games of All-Time list. A new game will be added to the list each day until we get to December 31. The first game listed, game #20, is the LucasArts/Tim Schafer classic, Full Throttle. Click that link to hear what their writer thinks about the lovely FT.

I'd assume that we'll see many LucasArts games show up (and some other favorites I'm sure. After all, LucasArts only made a dozen or so adventures - they'll need to dig out some others I guess to pad the list), so keep a your eye on Adventure Gamers.

Update (Metallus): By day three, we're already seeing multiple LEC titles on this list! Here's how they stand so far:

• 20. Full Throttle
• 18. Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

Yes, that's 2 out of the three total games listed so far. Hopefully we'll see some more of Guybrush and co. in the days to come!

RemiO of The SCUMM Bar points out that a new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb can be found at Gamer's Hell. The new trailer shows more of the really cool fighting animation and brawling combat. It looks very, very sweet. I highly recommend checking it out here.

Jim Tso, LucasArts producer for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, has been interviewed yet again. IGN discusses the game's attributes with said producer and showcases some new screenshots. Here's a quote:

In terms of mission design, we wanted a fast-paced game with a good variety of things for the player to do. There's a lot of hand to hand combat, ranged combat and navigating around the environments. To a lesser degree, there are also the traditional puzzles and traps that Indy fans expect.

The new screenshots are pretty cool, so be sure to stop by IGN.

Ralgath has pointed out that a LucasArts 20th Anniversary Character Montage Longsleeve shirt is now for sale at the official LEC store.

The shirt features images of such characters as Elaine Marley, Manny Calavera, Ben from Full Throttle, the angel from Afterlife, Purple Tentacle, Indy, and more.

Check it out here, but of course, the shirt seems to only be available for those of you living in the US and Canada.

Our last poll has ended concerning what method you like to use for running old LucasArts adventure games. Running the games without any utilities came in at 37%, ScummVM took 33%, LEC Quick & Easy had 21%, and 9% of you didn't seem to know who we are.

A new poll has now been opened, asking this question: Which game being released in the near future are you most interested in? Go vote! It's your civic duty.