The International House of Mojo

Mark Salloway has created a patch that will fix DirectX problems in win2k, when trying to play Curse of Monkey Island. This patch is not from LucasArts and so is not supported, but of you are having problems, maybe you should give this a try.
You can download the patch here

Source: The Scummbar

Our hosted site iMuse Island managed to get an exclusive interview with Clint Bajakian, the lead composer on Escape from Monkey Island. Clint was also involved in the music production of many other LucasArts titles such as Monkey Island 2, Indy 4, Day of the Tentacle and Sam and Max.

"What cue in Escape from Monkey Island are you most proud of?

I really like the score I wrote for the huge seven-minute cutscene in the end in which Ozzie rides a giant LeChuck statue in combat against a giant monkey robot driven by Guybrush and friends. The score is predominantly orchestral but passes through popular 'island-y' feels from time to time. It gets intense and helps drive the drama."

For more head on over to iMuse Island

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Grim Fandango Central (gfc.grimfandango2.com) has got a Q&A with Bret Mogilefsky, the Lead Programmer of Grim Fandango. Bret was also the initial Lead Programmer of Escape from Monkey Island, so this may be of interest to many of you.

Source: Garth McMillan

For those who are stuck In the Monkey Kombat sections of EMI, there is help. A useful chart has appeard at The World of Monkey Island . Check it out:

Lucashacks has made a very interesting new program filling in a hole in Scumm Rev... A costume viewer, to be precise. It currently only works with the MI1 and MI2 CD, but this will obviously change soon. Get it here

It's official this time. Issue 5 of the LEC newsletter, LucasArts Insider, sent out earlier this evening, let out the official announcement of the Mac port of EMI. Aspyr Media, the publisher of the Mac version has put up a product spotlight containing screenshots and story that you've likely read elsewhere. Of real interest on that page though, is that Mac users can finally place pre-orders at Aspyr's online store. LucasArts' EMI page hasn't been updated to reflect the announcement of the Mac version. More Insider newsletter coverage will appear shortly.

Amongst all the EMI news and ranting shines an old favourite. Adventure Gamer has a Review up of Sam and max.

The atmosphere of the game is appropriately cheesy, with a jazzy musical score and colorful cartoon graphics. Anyone following the comic series will be right at home with the game's visuals. A few scenes also include 3D rendered elements which blend in surprisingly well

Also mentioned the Bill Tiller's announcement was his mini adventure game project. A while back he posted on the scramm board looking for some talented people willing to join him to make a mini adventure game to add to his portfolio. He says that as soon as he has sorted himself out in his new job, he will start work on that anda web site to showcase it.

I want to thank all those who volunteered their valuble time and considerable talent and energy for my little project. I ask that you give me another month to go through my move and I will begin the game in earnst.

If you still havn't read a review of EMI then there is one over at SwankyGames Its an pretty average review and rates EMI 4.5/5

The lead programmer of Grim Fandango, Bret Mogilefsky, dropped into the IRC Channel #grim-fandango for a quick chat. You can read the logs over at GFN's hosted site: Bones of Life On the news page you will also find early 3d renders of Grim scenes, one of which you can see below.

Adventure Gamer has announced their picks for 2000's best of the best adventure games in The Adventure Gamer Awards 2000. The awards given range from Best Voice Acting to Most Dissapointing Game to Game of the Year (and yes EMI is in there a couple of times). More importantly, if you're looking for some great new adventure games games but rarely stray from the Lucas name, these are some excellent suggestions to check out (except for Timeline, of course).

I just got back from MacWorld Expo in San Francisco, and wrote a bit about it at LucasMacs. Of course one of the highlights was Aspyr Media (Mac EMI's publishers) showing off a completely playable Mac version of EMI. More at LucasMacs.

Well do you like secrets? The World of Monkey Island has opened their EMI secrets section with over 60 'in-jokes' with more to be added over time! excellent!

2 interesting news pieces at The ScummBar
first is that you can access some missing lines of script from EMI, but not in the English version of the game! and the second involves skins of Guybrush for the Sims .. wierd!
Head on over to The ScummBar for all the info!

Following the recent news post concerning Easter eggs in EMI, TAG have informed us of the location of their EMI Easter Egg section. Here there are screenshots of "MurrayBall" "skull" and a few more.

News in from Escapemi.com. Here's the blurb:

We recently got the chance to talk with three staff memebers from Monkey Games Entertainment. They are the creators of a freeware graphical adventure game called Treasure of Drunk Island. They are also currently creating a new adventure game called Beyond Fantasy. Check out the interview for information on making amateur video games, a huge preview of Beyond Fantasy, and some follow up questions from Treasure of Drunk Island."

You can read the interview with this great development team here.
May I also remind you that Adventure Developer is open for all your Development needs!

News comes to us that the Mac version of Escape from Monkey Island, currently being developed by Aspyr Media, has reached Alpha stage. No release date has been confirmed other than "some time this year"
Visit MacNN for more information.
Also check LucasMacs for regular LEC Mac news.

Have you tried typing skull in EMI? Apparently it's "Well worth a go". This only seems to work in some locations, but it does work.
Also:Murray Pong! To activate this, spin Murray on Jambalaya until he starts repeating himself, face Guybrush away from any objects, and type murrayball. See the images below for the results!

Source: The Scummbar

Gamespot (US edition) have announced their annual 'best of' game awards. Although shortlisted for the categories of 'Best Story' and 'Best Adventure', Escape from Monkey Island lost out in both to Funcom's The Longest Journey.

See the full awards here.

Source: Adventure Gamer

There is a short article posted on Arenagames about the classic SCUMM engine games of LucasArts. Although not going into very much detail, if you don't know much about this gaming era it's a good read.
Read it here