The International House of Mojo

elTee wrote the following article, after having experienced a strange compulsion to play both Police Quest and King's Quest, and instantly regretting both.

The thrust of the argument? The Secret of Monkey Island should be remembered in the context of its time, and that means Sierra.

Read on to find out more, but be warned that there is some strong language and mild insanity.

During an upcoming interview with VG247, who just couldn't wait to spill this particular news, Telltale Uber-Mind Dan Connors said that they would be announcing new titles (plural) "around October, or in the next few months".

“I think there’ll be some combination of things. I think we’ll be sticking with some of the franchises we’ve worked with, and we’ll be announcing some new franchises, probably in some new genres as well, not just comedy.”

I think it's safe to assume that Sam & Max Season Three will be one of those old franchises, and maybe even another round of Tales of Monkey Island (although maybe not, as that won't be finished until November).

However it's the note that Telltale are looking to take some more serious franchises like CSI that's quite interesting, especially as Dan then name drops The Sopranos, True Blood and Lost as well as the much-hyped PS3-only adventure Heavy Rain (from the makers of Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy & The Nomad Soul). Take a looksee.

So, what YOU (yes, YOU) think? Would Loom count as "more dramatic"?

Source: VG247

A Maniac Mansion fan by the absurd moniker of "Charlie" wrote in today, asking if she could share some fan art she did of Razor, the hamster-cooking red-headed rocker from the immortal Maniac Mansion. And as soon as her check cleared, I said, "Sure thing!" Here it is, ya'll:

Part two of Telltale's exciting Monkey Island series will soon be upon us all: but in the mean-time, you can read all our thoughts on the matter.

Tales of MI.net also have a review, from which I stole a screenshot.

Mata Hari, the game Noah Falstein and Hal Barwood had some sort of hand in developing, is now available to download via Adventure Shop, for £29.99. Share what you think of the game if you end-up buying it.

Update by Tingler: Alternatively, Direct2Drive has it for £13.95 ($19.99 for the US) or if you're used to buying things off Steam they have it for £19.99.

Source: Twitter

Hooray for cliches! A picture paints a thousand words? Okay then! (See what I mean?)

Can't wait.

Source: ATMachine via Twitter

I don't know what the chances of this actually happening are, but Dave Grossman's interested in continuing the Loom series.

In a recent podcast interview with Total PC Gaming (which doesn't seem to be out yet), they asked Dave what Telltale might be up to next:

“The one I always think about these days is Loom actually, and how ahead of its time it was. I think the problem with it at the time was that it was only two and a half hours long and now I find myself deliberately trying to design games that are only two and a half hours long. So I think… well, why not do that?”

Why not indeed?

Source: Total PC Gaming

The game's already out, but I assume most of you haven't bought it yet, which is why this gameplay trailer for Mata Hari may be of some use to you. It's quite brief, and the soundtrack is like fake Super Mario 64 desert music, but, hey.

While they seem to have removed the game's individual product page, the Mata Hari/Sherlock Holmes combo is now in-stock and shipping from Amazon. I doubt $19.99 is any more than the game would be sold for individually, so if you're interested in the game go buy.

Apparently the Hal Barwood/Noah Falstein-advised Mata Hari is now out in US stores, although GameStop haven't heard of it and Amazon are only offering that double pack with a Sherlock Holmes game, and that doesn't ship for "1 to 3 weeks" (Amazon slang for "out of stock").

If you want it though, Direct2Drive may be your best bet as GamersGate have it for a frankly ridiculous price.

We're really late getting on this, but it's interesting enough to make a post about. You may recall that last summer, select titles from the early Humongous adventure catalog (which were SCUMM-powered) were ported to the Wii last summer by Atari, the current owner of those properties. Some of you joked that Atari should just bundle ScummVM with those games so that they wouldn't have to update them themselves, and apparently Atari felt the same way, because that's precisely what they did.

As ScummVM is under GPL, it is actually free to use as Atari did, but they didn't even bother to credit the program's usage, leading to a legal situation between them and the ScummVM guys. The hilarity (well, I'm sure those two parties don't find it particularly funny) is documented here.

In other ScummVM news, some of you might have been wondering if the news Steam releases will be compatible with the emulator. Sev of ScummVM has addresed that in his blog as well. The short story is that it would be easy enough to make them compatible, but they're holding off in case LEC decides to develop their own ports for other platforms, and to nurture the possibility of cooperation between the two parties.

If you were to look in the comments of the previously reported interview with Dave Grossman on Gamasutra, you would find the following comment by Noah Falstein:

Hey Dave, if you want to team up to tackle a Dig 1-A complete with your Citadel Beast, let me know.

Just passing the message along, Dave.

Jan "Laserschwert" Hofmeister recently got his crusty talons on the Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition soundtrack, and wrote up his thoughts over here.

We're hitting Monkey Mania here at Mojo Mansion!

Although the North American release of Mata Hari was finally and thankfully announced to be published by Viva Media, no release date was attached to it other than the promise of it coming out "this month." Well, a product page on Amazon of a bundle including Mata Hari and some Sherlock Holmes game alleges the rather near release date of July 14th.

The price of this bundle is listed at the quite cheap $19.99, which makes one wonder how much Mata Hari (now with cover art that does not recall Leisure Suit Larry) will go for riding solo. Surely even an underwhelming Falstein/Barwood effort is worth such trifling change?

So on the 7th, we get Tales of Monkey Island - then, a week later it's The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.

Well, at least if this is to be believed. Thanks to Nickelstein over on our forum for pointing this out.

As many of you have mentioned, releasing the Special Edition after TMI seems like a bad move on LucasArts' part. The game is clearly ready to roll, and it's a digital distribution so... what's the wait?

But LucasArts are experts on the adventure game marketplace, and I can't even figure out what time the sun sets on Melee Island. So we'll wait and see on this one, I suppose...

But yeah, let's not end this on a sour note: the preliminary report is that MI:SE will be available from the 15th of July, and that is awesome.

Source: Nickelstein / 1UP

Igor Hardy, comic creator and omelette eater, is making an adventure game! It's called "Frantic Franko: A Bergzwerg Gone Berserk" and he's just released a demo, which you can download on his web-site.

Igor would sure love some feedback, so if the game takes your fancy and you have a play with it, be sure to let him know what you think. Igor would also like some play-testers for the main game, so get in touch through his web-site or the comments here, if that interests you.

Out of blue, from Microsoft to you: MONKEY ISLAND: SPECIAL EDITION - the E3 Preview Video.

You weren't expecting the actual game, were you? Still plenty of time for Marketplace Realities yet...

Of note is the fact that they chose to use an image made by LucasForums member parabolee, rather than any official artwork. The Mojo lawyers are considering the legal impact of sending an ironic 'cease and desist' letter to LucasArts as we speak.

Check it all out here.

Source: xgfx

Although the digital version was thought to be kaput, it seems that North American players will finally be able to check out Mata Hari, the latest Falstein/Barwood collaboration, without the fuss of importing. Adventure Gamers reports that publisher Viva Media will be making Mata Hari available next month (no more specific date is offered) to us North American folk. Oh and also, this release of the game apparently extends the name with a cheesy subtitle, transforming the game into Mata Hari: Betrayal is only a Kiss Away.

It is unclear if this means a retail release or a digital one, although judging by the press release I'm guessing the former. The game is listed at a quite reasonable $19.99 price, so here's hoping those meh German reviews were being too harsh. Mojo itself will have a review up not obscenely long after the North American release.

UPDATE: Want it?

Source: Joystiq

In amongst all the jizz and hoo-har of Monkey Island fever, you might have forgotten that Indiana Jones has got a new game coming out as well. It's called "Fate of Atlantis Wii Port" and it has a free "Staff of Kings" game bundled with it as well.

Actually, I tell a lie: Staff of Kings is the main game, and apparently it's rather good.