The International House of Mojo

According to Mixnmojo reader zebulon, our previous post about a new LucasArts classic game compliation pack wasn't entirely accurate. Here's a quote from zebulon:

After reading your news entitled "New European LEC Classic Collections", I wrote a mail to UbiSoft (which distributes LucasArts games in France) and their Consumers Department says there is nothing planned. There is a compilation called "LucasArts Edition Collector" actually, but it was released in December 2001, and the price was the one you mention, i.e. 60 ?.

Indeed, you can view the compilation details here at the UbiSoft website and see what games it includes.

Adventure Gamers has republished their preview from July 2000 of Tony Tough and the Night of Roasted Moths. As you may remember, Tony Tough is an old fashion 2D point 'n click graphic adventure from publisher Got Game Entertainment and is being compared to the old LucasArts classics. Adventure Gamers discusses this as well, and here's a quote:

Had it not been for the Italian speech still in place in the demo and the occasional clumsy translation in the subtitles, I could've swore I was playing some unreleased LucasArts title from a couple of years back - Tony Tough is that much reminiscent of some of LucasArts' older adventures. The meter-long protagonist wears oversized glasses and looks a little like Wally from the Monkey Island series. The overall graphics style is pretty wacky and supports the game's cartoon atmosphere.

An English version of Tony Tough will be available in North America sometime soon.

Just noticed in this thread on the Mojo Forums, which mentions that some new LucasArts classic game compliation packs are headed to France and Germany (and possibly more countries). The new one at Amazon.fr, called (I think) "LucasArts Collector(s) Edition," is 60 ?, while the pack at Amazon.de, called "LucasArts Adventure Pack," is priced at 20 ?. The blatant price difference probably indicates that they're totally different packs with different contents.

According to Das Jan, the Germany-bound 20 ? version is supposed to contain Monkey Island 1, 2, and 3, and Indiana Jones 3, 4, and 5 (which are, to my knowledge, Last Crusade, Fate of Atlantis and Infernal Machine). The contents of the French 60 ? version are unkown to me.

If you haven't played this bunch of games, now's your chance to scoop them all up at once (for cheap, too, if you're German).

Grim Fandango Network's hosted site Nightlight Productions has put the first episode of their original radio show, Tierra de los Muertos, online. TDLM is set in a land very very similar to that of Grim Fandango, but features all new characters and an original plot. Here's the scoop:

Welcome to Tierra de los Muertos, the Land of the Dead. A place of transition between the Living World, and the Underworld. It is here that a new soul has just made the transition, and a mortal has been found.

The presence of a mortal in the Land of the Dead is unheard of. He is proclaimed the chosen one, the one person prophesised to lead the people to the Gates of the Afterlife, to which he alone holds the key.

The series is 10 parts long, and is updated every week. Anyone interested in Grim Fandango, classic radio dramas, or fan creations should definitely give it a listen.

The Brim Stone Beach Club has interviewed Wally Wingert, known around here as the voice of Herman Toothrot in EMI. Mr. Wingert talks about recording EMI, his other voiceover work at LEC and more.

Also revealed in the interview is the fact that Dustin Diamond (the voice of Screech in Saved by the Bell) is a Monkey Island fan. Neat!

In what could possibly be a new series on DoubleFine.com, Tim Schafer has written The Double Fine Coffee Status Report. Click here to find out how today's coffee tastes in the Double Fine Productions offices, where programmers and artists work bug-eyed on the upcoming Psychonauts title.

Is it me, or do these creative gaming types have an unusual dependency on coffee? I know I've seen Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer talk about it many times... maybe coffee is like a liquid muse that gives you heart problems.

Despite the American holiday this week, LucasArts.com has been updated with some new goodies. First up on the menu this evening are five new screenshots from the upcoming PS2, XBox, and PC title, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb.

For seconds, LucasArts has put up its first 20th Anniversary merchandise at the company store. No, it's not a key ring. It's a coffee mug for $12.95! Of course, since LucasArts doesn't ship internationally, those of you living outside the US and Canada may be out of luck.

And finally, there's a new poll that I'm sure you all will want to take part in. The new poll asks which original classic LEC game is your personal favorite. Who knows, maybe now Zak McKracken will finally get the attention he deserves!

Roy Conrad, most well-known (at least in the LEC community) as the voice of Ben from Full Throttle, passed away from cancer at the age of 61, in January.

As a tribute, Tim Schafer at Double Fine Productions has posted a page dedicated to Roy. Our condolences to the Conrad family, and we know the entire community's best wishes are with you.

Update: I just thought I'd include this signed note that Mr. Conrad sent me a long time ago. I, like many others, mailed a card to him after LucasFans posted about his illness, and he quickly sent back this thank you note. You could tell he was a very nice guy. - telarium

Source: Ben_Whatsisname

It's not every day you see a review of Jedi Outcast take a swing at Escape From Monkey Island. In ECSMag's assessment of Jedi Outcast, they stated the following:

Of late, [LucasArts] has stumbled with its experiments in adapting properties (like the Star Wars universe) to various genres. Even the most recent Monkey Island game made less of a splash, in part hampered by the replacement of insult swordfighting with Monkey Kombat.

By the way, they gave Jedi Outcast 8 out of 10 keys, whatever that means.

Mixnmojo reader Logic has informed us that in issue 109 of PC Gamer, quite a few LucasArts titles have been dubbed the top adventure games of all time in the "Big Game Hunt" section.

In the list, Day of the Tentacle comes in fifth, Sam & Max Hit the Road place fourth, Grim Fandango reaps the number three spot, the Monkey Island trilogy pillage second place, and surprisingly, Escape From Monkey Island is #1. Thanks again to Logic for the news.

Are you suffering from withdrawals since LucasArts doesn't seem to be interested in making 2D point 'n click graphic adventures anymore? Well, another game company may help fill the void. Gamer's Hell has published an interview with the makers of a new 2D graphic adventure called Tony Tough and the Night of the Roasted Moths. Although this isn't related to LucasArts, the article does compare it to the games we all know and love. Here's a quote:

Sadly and slowly classic Monkey-Island-alike 2D puzzle/adventures are disappearing, replaced by today's 3D frenzy and all those beautiful hand painted backgrounds and characters are starving. Luckily Got Game Entertainment and developer Prograph have still one SCUMM-alike title upcoming.

Read the interview if you're interested, and then check out the game's official website here.

There's a new poll up at the official LucasArts website related to the the LEC 20th Anniversary theme. This time around, LucasArts.com asks: When did you first play a LucasArts game?

I remember my first LucasArts gaming experience fondly. The year was 1992, and I stumbled upon the work of genius that is none other than Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for Super NES. From then on, I was hooked.

Mixnmojo proudly presents Part 2 of the Wilmunder Memoirs, which may be the final addition. In case you didn't read Part 1 last week (for shame), the Wilmunder Memoirs are a small series of stories and memories shared by long-time LucasArts programmer, Aric Wilmunder. Aric worked at the company from the early 80's until the late 90's and has seen everything from jaggi aliens to evil demonic pirates. Check out Part 2 here!

A curious finding. While surfing the internet, one of our readers named Tim (no, not Schafer) discovered that if you go to www.indyjones.com, you will be redirected to the LucasArts 20th Anniversary page. Upon doing a whois, it seems that LucasFilm registered this domain name back in March.

What, if anything, does this have to do with LucasArts' 20th anniversary? It's far too early to make wild speculations, but let's face it. The internet was built on wild speculations! We'll keep our eyes open in the meantime.

The Dominic Armato Fanclub, a gathering of fans for the Guybrush Threepwood voice actor, has been experiencing some server issues. Hopefully it will be sorted out soon, but if you need your Dom fix now, you can temporarily find it here. Go on and bask in its Domness.

Paco Vink has released page 14 of his infamous Monkey Island 1 comicbook on The World of Monkey Island. This page shows Guybrush's quest for the treasure of Melee Island. Read it. Now.

James ?Ender? Brown, Project Leader on ScummVM, received a request from LucasArts Legal Affairs earlier today asking that he close his site by July 1st.

ScummVM, in case you don?t know, allows some of the old LucasArts adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Hit the Road to run on a variety of operating systems. For example, you can faithfully play these older products under Windows XP or even different platforms like Sega Dreamcast using ScummVM.

In the e-mail to Ender, LucasArts defended their actions. ?We are grateful when fans take such strong interests in our games,? the letter said. ?In order to protect our intellectual property interests, we must ask you to take down your site as it infringes on LucasArts's intellectual property ownership interests.?<:MORENEWS:>

LucasArts also points out that the SCUMM engine is ?still proprietary to LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC (?LucasArts?) and is not released under general public license as referenced in the FAQ section on your site.?

Ender replied to LucasArts, discussing the very nature of his project. ?ScummVM is NOT the SPU [Script Presentation Utility] engine as used internally by LEC,? Ender said. ?ScummVM is a valid clone of the SPU engine, designed to facilitate the playing of LucasArts adventures on modern machines and operating systems. ScummVM allows the data from LEC adventures to be played on many platforms (Intel, PocketPC, etc) and operating systems (Linux, Windows 2000, etc) which are not supported by your own SPU engine.?

ScummVM, as described by its project leader, is the product of reverse engineering without using any information from LucasArts itself. ?The [reverse engineering] techniques used are generally protected in most states under what is generally known as the 'compatibility' clause,? Ender said.

At this point, Ender has informed LucasArts that he will not be taking down the site. ?We are distributing our own software designed to mimic the functionality of the SPU(tm) engine, which we have licensed under the GPL (General Public License),? he said. ?We are not distributing proprietary LucasArts software itself.?

Most fans would argue that ScummVM has done nothing but support the classic adventure games of LucasArts rather than damage them. However, it is interesting that LucasArts? lawyers took this opportunity to attempt the shutdown of ScummVM, which has existed for almost a year. Speculation has been made that these actions could have ties to the comment LEC President Simon Jeffery recently made to Mixnmojo concerning the update of its older graphic adventures. Mr. Jeffery discussed the ?streaming? delivery of these games over the Internet, which would require that they actually work on Windows 2000 and XP.

We will be sure to keep you posted on these matters, and hopefully a favorable resolution will be reached soon.

In an effort to help celebrate LucasArts' 20 Anniversary, we are proud to introduce a new feature entitled Wilmunder Memoirs. Many of you may not be familiar with Aric Wilmunder, although you definitely should be. Aric started out in the early days of LucasFilm Games and remained at the company until 1999.

During his time, he helped co-create the famous adventure game engine called SCUMM and had a hand in almost every legendary LucasArts title. In this feature, Aric shares some of his favorite stories and memories of working at the company during the early days. Don't miss this one, folks. Read it here!

Have you always felt empty inside because the world seemed somehow empty? Well not anymore! GJ has formed her own Dominic Armato Fanclub, which can be found at this location. In case you don't know, Mr. Armato provided the voice of Guybrush Threepwood in the latest two installments to the Monkey Island series, and has continued to do a variety of voices in other video games and cartoons. If you join the club, you'll be given access to message boards, fanart galleries, and more. Of course, stalking is strictly against the rules.

LucasArts' official website has been updated today, kicking off the celebration of the company's 20th anniversary. At the 20th anniversary site, you will find a video montage of all the LEC logo uses through the years, an article about how the LEC logo "Gold Guy" was created, and a Shockwave trivia game.

Additionally, the Ask LucasArts section includes the question, "What was the first game developed by LucasArts?" Stop by the site for all of the fun! Weeeee! Thanks to QueZTone for the notice.

Update: You can look at the entire 3D Gallery by heading over here. Sadly no 3d rendered ghost galleons, but plenty of spiffy SW thingies and the dude from RTX :)