The International House of Mojo

So it seems that the rumours about LucasArts re-unveiling Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings this week were false. Oh well, hopefully next week. Or month, or year...

Whatever, but we do have new news on the tie-in novel written by Rob McGregor, who confirms the title once more (fancy doing it too LucasArts?). Some bright spark at TheRaider.net's forum emailed him and received this response:

Thanks for your kind words about my Indy novels. I do have another one coming out, but not until next year. It's related to the sixth generation of the Indiana Jones computer game. Game and novel have the same title -- Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings -- and somewhat similar story lines. My novel was completed months ago and was originally scheduled to come out at the time of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But production on the game was delayed. The current publication date is Fall of '09...

So does that mean we're not getting the game until late 2009?

Well, the game's possible German release date, plus a few other details on Amazon.de have been revealed.

Release date: November 21 2008
Platform: Windows XP / Vista
Price: E39.99

The Mata Hari on the box art has become a little less 'historically accurate' than the teaser art rendering or the real thing, it would seem.

No word yet on when the English version might be released.

Source: Amazon Germany

So much so that they've written a piece about the game for their "Fond Memories" series. Check out their loving retrospective of the game, which are as we know all the rage these days.

Thanks to Glokidd on the forums for the heads up!

After making two games for the CSI license, it would appear that Telltale is moving on from that particular series as Ubisoft has announced that the latest installment, CSI: New York, based off the show's second spinoff, will be developed by Legacy Interactive. (They are the third developer to take a crack at CSI adventures games, with the first being 369 Interactive.)

Although I have nothing really to back this up, I would imagine that Telltale's abandonment of the license was voluntary rather than a decision on Ubisoft to find a new developer since their games probably sold well (as anything with the CSI name on it undoubtedly does). When Telltale acquired the license in 2005, the "big name" appeal of CSI was more useful to the company then than it is now, when they are busy enough with their own increasingly high profile self-published series. (The two Telltale CSI games remain the company's only example of a traditional developer-publisher relationship.)

Those of you who've never picked up Telltale's CSI games may want to look into Ubisoft's soon to be released CSI Super Pack, a $29.99 compilation that includes Telltale's CSI games as well as the two previous, non-Telltale Vegas titles. Since fifteen bucks apiece is cheaper than I've ever seen 3 Dimensions of Murder or Hard Evidence, look at the other games (which I've never played) as an added bonus.

The legendary Drew Struzan, inarguably the most famous movie poster artist of all time, has decided to end his seasoned and extensive career. Our friends at TheRaider.net have the full story as well as this quote from the man:

Having been working at not working has produced a guy who could never return to illustration again. It took a lot to attempt the idea of retiring from my 40 years of effort and sacrifice but now that I have, I am delighting in life as never before. I had forgotten how to rest, to smell the proverbial roses and to see the future as opportunity. I am grateful and honored to have had the opportunity to do all the work I did. I am well pleased to have been able to give a gift of beauty and peace through my artwork to so many throughout the world. Now I have laid down the burden and have peace and happiness as the reward for my day's labor.

As you hopefully know, Struzan has his fingerprints on a multitude of posters for high profile films, including all of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. (His style of course also served as inspiration for LEC artist Bill Eaken in creating the cover art for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.) Struzan has recently updated his web site with galleries of his artwork, which includes the unmolested, un-studio-Photshopped versions of his Crystal Skull art, which this thread on TheRaider.net's forums has done a good job of collecting.

Damn.

With the latest "Secret History" article published, another one looms on the horizon. In roughly a month we will be presenting the eighth article in our retrospective series (already halfway over, if you can believe it), which will of course be about Day of the Tentacle, the loose sequel to Maniac Mansion.

As usual, we want your opinions for our reader section. We will also consider any mini-articles for DOTT that you may have in mind for the article, though if you'd like to write one please give us a ring first so that we can get an idea of what you're doing, and you don't potentially waste your time.

Let's get cracking!

Good Old Games is a new type of web-site that will have Good Old Games^TM available for download, either 6 or 10 bucks (either way it's cheap cheap cheap).

This already sounds good to me, someone who's main gaming love is for titles released in the mid 90s -- but there is the possibility that the service could be extended to the LucasArts library as well, making GOG.com sound even more appealing. In a recent interview, a (Mr) Manager of GOG said that:

"Some of our holy grails are probably going to be TIE Fighter or X-Wing, some of the other LucasArts adventure games. Stuff like that would be awesome. I'm sure EA has a lot of stuff sitting in their catalog, Wing Commander and things like that."

He then went on to wax lyrically about the X-wing series in particular, and the possibility of providing real boxes and manuals with the games that people buy from the site.

The games will also all be XP and Vista compatible, since GOG.com will have access to the source code of the games. Another interesting detail is that there will be no copyright protection on the games, meaning that downloading it onto different computers will be as easy as farting.

Obviously it's all still in the planning phrase as far as LucasArts titles go, but it does at least look like GOG.com is a web-site to keep an eye on.

The site will launch in September, with games like MDK, Giants, Sacrifice, Kingpin and Fallout already confirmed for release.

jp-30 Update: "If you want to get into the GOG.com Early Access Beta and you haven't signed up yet, enter your e-mail before September 7 at midnight (EDT)." Go here to sign up!

Source: The SW Collective

After a little over a month of beta testing, ScummVM 0.12.0 was finally released to the public today.

Head on over to the official site to grab a copy!

Support for five new games, including Kyrandia books two three, has been added. The following changes and improvements were done to the SCUMM engine part:

• Rewrote parts of Digital iMUSE, fixing some bugs.
• Rewrote the internal timer code, fixing some speed issues in e.g. COMI.
• Improved support for sound effects in Amiga version of Zak McKracken.
• Added support for mixed Adlib/MIDI mode in Monkey Island 1 (Floppy).

This year's Penny Arcade Expo (or PAX) will unsurprisingly be attended by our conditional friends Telltale Games, who will be showing off their latest and upcoming episodic creations. If you plan or hope to attend, check out the full expo schedule to see what time the Telltale-hosted panels will take place (such as a rendition of last year's "Make Your Own Scene" panel, this time Strong Bad themed). You can also pay a visit the the Telltale blog to observe the web crew building the company's excellent booth for the event, if you are so inclined.

Those aren't the only Mojo Guests showing up at PAX. It is apparent that one Ron Gilbert will be there, though he is quick to note that no form of DeathSpank will be shown off only in the form of teasers. Still, if you want to get that copy protection code wheel signed or something, here's your latest chance.

If you should happen to be like most people and are unavailable to physically attend the expo this weekend, fret not. The always worthwhile Telltale Blog will likely be brimming with coverage of what went down.

A reader named "DJEJAY" sent over some Maniac Mansion themed fan art, the inspiration for which seems to encompass the original game, Day of the Tentacle, and that awful unique TV show.





In the interest of clearing a few things up, he had this to say at the conclusion of his e-mail:

P.S. some things about these fanarts:
1. The pink fox thing is my fan character, DJ.
2. The little bug man is........HARRY THE FLY! Lol I love how he turned out!
3. The hamster on my ear in the first pic is my little companion. Ed and I both have hamsters. Ed's hamster, I decided to nickname Hermy while I named my hamster, Chaka.
4. The second pic is backwards but it says day of the tentacle.
That's all! Enjoy!

You heard him. Enjoy.

When do you stop making something that people enjoy? When they’ve had enough, when you've run out of inspiration, or simply when your creation is finished?

I don't know how you are, but whenever I go around to somebody's house for tea, a part of me is always panicking because I don’t know how long to stay for. Sometimes it seems that the line between staying too long, and not staying long enough, is too thin for conception. The problem applies all across the board: to television, to theatre, and to electronic entertainment.

The following article was formulated in seven hours worth of cold, dirty bath water.

I'm sure all of you have seen this before as it's almost a year old, but I don't remember seeing it mentioned on Mojo then. Anyway, it brightened my day a bit, and so thought it was worth posting.

Holy crap, is it time for another secret history article? Yes, yes it is, and this time we dig through LeChuck's Revenge, the perennial Mojo favorite.

Run over and read like crazy! Oh, and that wonderful piece of art is totally another Dan Lee original.

While we're waiting for the full info on Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, why not have a read of the Comic-Con Q&A on episodic content featuring both Telltale and Hothead. Sadly Ron Gilbert didn't make an appearance on the Hothead side, but the developers still talked about DeathSpank.

And then they all got into a big argument over the correct amount of time within which to release episodes in. Have a read.

Clone2727 of Indy chat fame discovered today another proof that Grim Fandango is awesome; It's been featured on Jeopardy (thought somewhat wrong) in show #3906!

Previously, trying to visit the URL of Mata Hari's official web site from the recent trailer brought you to a nonexistent destination, but now it's finally launched. It's a lovely site (click the flag on the top-right for the English version), and features plenty of new screenshots and concept art, along with the trailer and other things. Best of all, the English version of the game is now confirmed. Be sure to check it out, and let's hope their "Fall 2008" estimation turns out to be more accurate than not.

Also, don't ask me to explain which of the five companies I've seen associated with this game are actually the developer and publisher respectively. Anyone want to clear this up for me?

This video of a guy playing the Monkey Island theme on his Monkey Island guitar is pretty much awesome.

Source: Nightlight Radio

Swordfights! Pirates! Ghosts! Ships! Dodgy dealers! Monkeys! Desert islands! Revenge! Romance! A mysterious secret!

But enough about my Facebook profile, what I really want to introduce you to is our Secret History article on The Secret of Monkey Island.

We especially resurrected Ron Gilbert from the crypt for this baby, so please do Digg us if you like what you see, and by doing so it might justify Ron's new, hellish limbo existence. Next month: Monkey Island 2!

Note: the feature image to your left right is from Dansky's 3D render of Monkey Island.

Some interesting pieces of news today, so instead of dividing them and risking you missing one of themwe I thoughtwe'd I'd put them together!

• Insecticide has been released for the PC... maybe. Well, on GamersGate anyway. None of the other download sites that were supposed to have it like GameTap, Direct2Drive and even the game's website make no mention of it. Also not mentioned on GamersGate is that it's the first of two episodes. It also seems to be rather expensive for just one episode.
  
  According to Crackpot, they're still working on Episode Two, so it can't be both episodes together. Something may be wrong here. Thanks to Diduz for the heads-up though, and we'll keep you informed as to what's going on.
  
  
• LucasArts fire even more staff. Reports at Joystiq, who have interviewed an ex-employee, say that key members of The Force Unleashed's team have now been laid off. If LucasArts want to make another game in the series, they would have to either outsource or pointlessly hire new staff and train them. LucasArts maintains that they're committed to internal development and the next Indy game is not affected.
  
  What is most surprising about this is that several of the staff laid off were long-term members of the team who survived the previous culling and walkouts and actually worked on titles like X-Wing, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.
  
  
• Simon Pegg has written a new Spaced sketch spoofing the American remake unaffectionately dubbed 'McSpaced'. See it at his blogsite here. While this really has nothing to do with us (aside from the "TFU" gags we often use to accompany Force Unleashed posts), more proper British Spaced means the world is a slightly happier place. And that's always worth posting about.

NON-SPACED UPDATE:

• Strong Bad previewed at IGN. Less than a month to go!

• Lego Indy demo now on Xbox Live Marketplace. A bit late, but welcome.
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The next part of our Secret History series is coming soon...

Monkey Island Awaits!