The International House of Mojo

Clint Bajakian, the head composer on Escape From Monkey Island, has released the entire 7 minute music-only MP3 of the "Final Showdown" cutscene near the end of the game. This wonderfully orchestrated piece can be found on Mr. Bajakian's official company website, CB Studios. If you are any kind of LucasArts music fan, I highly recommend you download this MP3.

Source: iMuse Island

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar has a contest going and is giving away copies of EMI for the Playstation 2. You can choose to enter any of 3 categories, building a Monkey Island LEGO set, making a MI themed wallpaper, and making a MI flash animation. Check out The SCUMM Bar for full contest rules and information on how you can enter. You can also view the latest entries here.

Highland Productions is at it again and has brought us a brand new MP3, this one a remix of the Crab Raft theme from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. This MP3 was created by telarium and the flute solo was done by invisibelle. And to add to that, it sounds great. Check it out at Highland Productions.

A Mixnmojo exclusive! In an update to our EMI PS2 Review, we have added an extra page exposing the PlayStation 2 easter eggs. These include an improved version of Murrayball, a new Monkey Invaders game, and a mystery easter egg. Check them out!

As you may or may not know, LucasArts conducted a huge experiment when they released Escape From Monkey Island on the PlayStation 2, and it seems that it might be paying off. According to ChartTrack, EMI is the third best selling PlayStation 2 title in the UK. This is very good news, but does it mean that things will continue to go well? We'll just have to wait and see... and hope!

Our pride and joy, The SCUMM Bar, has posted an exclusive interview with Shara Miller. Shara was entrusted with the daunting task of converting EMI to the PlayStation 2. The interview explores some of the enhancements in the reincarnated EMI and discusses the possibility of future ports. Be sure to give it a read.

As if two or three contests weren't enough, Gamespot UK has launched a contest where ten copies of EMI for the PS2 are up for grabs. All you have to do is answer one very simple question, I'll be disappointed if you don't know the answer to it. Yes, I'm talking to you! Go check it out.

Source: The Scumm Bar

An update to our EMI PlayStation 2 review. I've just been informed that one of the top buttons on the PlayStation 2 controller will open a diagram during Monkey Kombat. This shows the player all of the moves and transitions up to that point. I haven't had time to check it out myself, but it sounds pretty cool. Thanks to Ryan for the update! Now if we could just find out about Murray Ball and Monkey Invaders...

In an article hosted on The World of Monkey Island Phillip Hooks and Paul Creasy compare EMI to Grim Fandango, a contrast lovingly refered to as Big Monkey Head vs. Land of the Dead.
Here's a snippet:

"The first point I would like to make is about the control system. Some say that EMI was a big evolution from GF, but I disagree on some accounts. I think that the fact that item names did not appear at the bottom of the screen in GF is not necessarily a devolution from EMI because this control system means that you look around more and do not take any innocent-looking areas of the screen for granted."

Check the whole thing out here

Source: The World Of Monkey Island

Drumroll please; it's the redesign we've all been waiting for! No, not Unofficial Sam & Max. It's the fourth incarnation of Grim Fandango Central, and it's now up and running. If you've never seen GFC before, you might also be interested in checking out the history of the site. Go now, because we all know you love Grim Fandango.

Mindflight Entertainment have posted a Flash toon of Sam and Max, but this one is far from a fan creation. It is the work of the legendary creator of the 2 most loved freelance police in the world - Steve Purcell.

Steve directed the toon along with Gary Winnick and Frank Cinocco. Both Gary and Steve are ex LEC employees. Steve not only invented Sam and Max, but drew the cover art to the first 2 Monkey Island games (among countless other classic LEC game box covers), as well as the characters in the game itself. As for Gary Winnick, he worked on Maniac mansion, Loom, and Zak McKracken.

Mindflight Entertainment describe themselves as "a creative development environment for character driven animated content for the web" and I will certainly look forward to more content after this toon.

The Sam and Max toon features the loveable duo performing an autopsy Roswell style! Now go watch it.

Those who own the Mac EMI should get version 1.1.2. The bug fixes a stability error with one of the rooms on Monkey Island as well as some low level stuff that basically translates to "it works better". Before you patch to 1.1.2 you need the 1.1.1 patch as well.

Source: MacNN

After about a year of being offline, Mojo Full Throttle based hosted site The Kickstand is back with "Twice the size... Twice the power... Twice as many bugs in yer face!" The site is expected to be in full swing by the weekend time. So be sure to check out The Kickstand over the next couple of days. Now with Tomb Raider/Full Throttle crossover fan fiction.

Now you can relive the fun of the Guybrush v. I Cheese insult armwrestling battle without having to load up your copy of EMI! Oh boy! LucasArts has released a simplified Flash version of EMI Insult Armwrestling, available at the EMI Product Spotlight. Have fun!

This is probably a complete rehashing of previous news for those who have been paying attention, but for those that haven't you've missed some really good stuff from Bill Tiller, lead background artist on Curse of Monkey Island which has appeared recently on Mojo Network sites:

• Most recently Bill participated in a chat in the Scumm Bar's irc channel #monkey-island. He answered questions about his work on CMI, his plans for the future, and his current job at arena.net. Read the chat transcript here.


• Also on the Scumm Bar is a really lengthy interview with Bill, talking about his work on Monkey 3 and featuring some never before seen concept art from the games.


• And finally you should take a look at Bill's first of a series of columns at Adventure Developer, titled "Tiller Techniques." In these columns Bill Tiller takes a look at art submitted by those working on amateur adventure games and gives them feedback from his experience at LEC and other projects.

Okay, so most of you probably missed the Bill Tiller chat since the server that Mixnmojo is located on was down for most of the day yesterday and the word didn't get out... but not to fear! The SCUMM Bar has posted a transcript of the chat which has lots of interesting tidbits. Any Monkey Island fan worth his grog-induced rock-hard liver should check this one out.

The Unofficial Escape From Monkey Island site, in association with LucasArts, has five copies of the Play Station 2 version of Escape From Monkey island for you to win! And all you have to do is match four images to their location in the game. Any monkey with (at most) one eyepatch should be able to solve this puzzle. Good luck and give it a shot.

The SCUMM Bar is reporting that there will be moderated chat this evening at 7pm PST (10pm EST or 3am UK time) with former LucasArts artist, Bill Tiller. In case you've been marooned on an island full of monkeys for the past four years, you should know that Bill Tiller was the lead background artist on The Curse of Monkey Island, so he should have some interesting answers to your questions. The chat will take place on the IRC #monkey-island channel on DALNet. Keep in mind that this chat has a tentative schedule, but we hope to see you all there. Bring grog.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar has posted a long-due interview of Bill Tiller, lead background artist of Curse of Monkey Island, among many other things. If you've ever wanted insight into art production and general affairs at LucasArts, this is a must-read! Click here to go directly to it.

I was just sent an interesting mail that stated

The Latest issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly reports Full Throttle and Maniac Mansion are headed to the PS2 and possibly other consoles.

Seeing as Simon Jeffery told us there were no plans to port older games to consoles at present, if these *rumours* are true, then are they more likely to be sequels? A lot of evidence already points to Full Throttle being the sequel that LEC are working on currently - and rumours also hit us that it could be an action adventure (or that one of the new titles will be) ...... Interesting stuff huh? - it also means that if both these games are in production then there are atleast 3 non starwars titles not 2 as previously believed, as The New Stemmle Project is not a sequel.
Once again, time will reveal....