The International House of Mojo

Well, almost. A new trailer for Lego Indiana Jones is up at GameTrailers, and it contains our first look at the Lego-ized Last Crusade, as well as several other previously unseen areas of the game such as the Rope Bridge in Temple and the Well of Souls from Raiders.

Beware though, for if a trailer for a Lego version of three films we've seen thousands of times can contain spoilers, this one certainly does!

I especially liked the moment at 49 seconds!

Many a wannabe designer has tried, but few have done it. That is, completing a fangame. Zak McKracken 2, after 7 years in development, has been completed and is now available here.

Unfortunately, it's only in German right now. They are apparently looking for English speaking people to do the lines for the English version, so if you think you can do it, get in touch with them!

Source: Zak 2 homepage

Now this is total Surfer Girl rumour, but a hopeful one. This was on her latest rumour list:

The release for A2M's Indy game is currently scheduled to coincide with the Crystal Skull home video release.

A2M's Indy game, which has not been officially announced and has only ever been mentioned from Surfer Girl's blog, is the supposed Indy equivalent of Krome Studios' version of The Force Unleashed. In other words, the Wii/PS2 non-LucasArts developed version.

She has been wrong before about the new Indy game's release date (for example saying that it definitely will be out before Lego Indiana Jones), but where there's hope for a 2008 release I'll back it all the way! Even on the Wii (which looks like the best version of The Force Unleashed at the moment. Imagine using the Wii Remote to flick the whip! Or fight like in Wii Sports Boxing!)!

I'm not sure whatever happened to that Stemmle interview Adventure Gamers promised a few months ago, but in the meantime Rock, Paper, Shotgun has us covered with a Q&A with the Sam & Max designer/writer of lore who's yet again back together with the madcap duo - where he belongs.

RPS: Is it strange to be back so close to Sam & Max after all these years?

Mike: Strange, vertiginous, and somewhat disturbingly erotic. I keep expecting someone to tap me on the shoulder, yell "psyche!", and hit me with a two-by-four. I'm sure this'll pass.

Read the whole interview for important facts such as what Stemmle's been up to between Freelance Police and employment at Telltale, some rather perturbing revelations about Sean Clark's hair, and his secret ambition to take on a Maniac Mansion sequel someday. Could Sam & Max: Season 3 be any more anticipated?

Some new footage from Lego Indiana Jones is now up at Entertainment Weekly showing cutscenes and gameplay from Temple of Doom. Included is the lovely human sacrifice (really edited I hope) and the Mine Cart Chase! Infernal Machine ain't got nothin' on this!

Check it out!

Roll up, roll up, and see the amazing Last Crusade adventure game from the distant land on "1989."

Look within to find trivia, reviews, gamer reflections, a narrative walkthrough, and Ron Gilbert.

Thanks a lot to everyone who sent in their memories and thoughts of the game, to Ronzo for supplying a few burps of information, and for the wonderful Paco Vink for supplying us with a header image.

Update: Interviews with David Fox and Noah Falstein have been added to page five, thanks to ThunderPeel2001.

...just kidding! This news post is actually about a Youtube video I recently found of the Monkey Island theme reconstructed using "Mario Paint Composer"

The main theme from the first Pirates of the Caribbean, and the "Up is Down" music from the third film, are also available, thanks to the talented work of Uhiwi.

"Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here!" -- Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

"Andygeers" from Geero.net published an article last month that explores the possibility of using LucasArts style adventure games to promote Divine Truth. A quote:

"LucasArts has a long tradition of rather weedy protagonists, like Guybrush Threepwood, Bernard Bernoulli, and (if your memory stretches that far back) the somewhat second-rate reporter Zak McKracken. Such down-to-earth characters allow you to easily convey the fact that there's nothing remotely worthy about them, and to keep the spotlight firmly on God."

Also from last month is Grim Fandango fan music from OC Remix.org. It's called "The Enlightened Alaskan," and was new (at least) to me.

And finally, results from Destructoid.com's Sam & Max Photoshop contest can already be see on the web-site's comments section. Some of them are very persuasive.

The third instalment of Mojo's riveting LucasArts' Secret History series will soon be upon you.

This time we'll be looking into Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure. In case you haven't done so already (and so doing risk having your face melted by the almighty), send your opinions for our aptly named Opinions page to this address. See your name in lights and get an amusing avatar all to yourself!

Only a couple of months now until a new Indy film and a new Indy game! The game being Lego Indiana Jones, of course. There's a new mini-Q&A with associate producer Kellam Eanes at GameInformer that informs us that yes, you can beat up Marcus. He also skilfully skirts around the "is there any Indy IV content in this game, yes or no?" question.

Of more interest however is the Video interview with senior producer Shawn Storc at GameSpot, showing loads of new footage. There's plenty of moments from the opening level that we playtested recently, as they obviously still haven't fixed the glitchy ropes.

Of particular interest to me was a short bit from the cutscene where Indy and Marcus talk to the intelligence guys about the Ark of the Covenant. The picture in the Bible is incredibly cool!

This is a weird one. I was about to go to bed when I went through my spam folder and lo-and-behold if there wasn't an email from my old @mixnmojo address. God knows why it was being forwarded to my spam, or how many important e-mails I may have missed (grrr) but anyway, check this out:



It is what appears to be box artwork for a SEGA copy of The Secret of Monkey Island. What's weird about it is that Monkey Island was released on the SEGA CD, but not the SEGA Megadrive (or Genesis, if that's what you prefer.)

I can't tell you the source of the image, but apparantly it's on a rolling slideshow on a big plasma screen somewhere in the LucasArts complex. This photo was taken on a mobile phone as it rolled past, as the photographer experienced what I can only assume to be blind disbelief.

It all sounds crazy, and apparantly 'the woman' at LucasArts didn't know anything about it. Perhaps LucasArts were working on a Megadrive port of The Secret of Monkey Island and then canned it when the SEGA CD was announced? It's possible I guess.

For completists the original photo can be found here, albeit in a cropped form.

(PS. I don't know how to work the image system, but I figured this news was worth sharing as soon as I found it. Sorry if I've messed up our galleries!)

Update: Yes of course, it was an april fool. View the real (and very clearly fake) image below.

Have a very pleasant Easter, everyone.

We -- meaning Tingler and I -- got our filthy weasel paws onto a copy of The Incredible Adventures of Lego Indiana Jones and have written up some thoughts for you to see. The game should be pretty good. If you want an idea of what it might be like, go read.

Nuts, Kroms got there just before I did. Still, his post was more about the release date of Lego Indy than the Play.com Live event, so I'll leave this post up.

Do you live in the UK, fancy going to Wembley Stadium next weekend (15-16th), have six pounds and don't mind long waits and the duo of an irritating twat and a girl who doesn't know where the shoulder buttons are on a gamepad? Then good news! You can play Lego Indiana Jones next week!

UK store website Play.com are having a big gaming bash at London's Wembley Stadium next weekend, trying to give the UK their own equivalent of E3 (where so many have tried and failed). Tickets are £6 per person (£3 for children), but annoyingly are only valid for four hours. Although I don't know how they'll stop Morning patrons from staying. Maybe there are tracking devices in the tickets, or mini-explosives...

Besides Lego Indy, also on show (hopefully playable) will be Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Lego Batman, Soul Calibur IV, Ghostbusters: The Game and Tom Baker. Yes, I realise the last two don't have anything to do with Mojo and the last one isn't even a game, but it's Tom Baker! And Ghostbusters, guys!

The Lego Indiana Jones box art is now available for your viewing pleasure at CVG, which explains the logo plastered over the bottom.



There's also a new preview up by NGamer magazine, which will presumably be in the next issue of the mag but was just so cool they couldn't wait to share it.

The Escapist magazine really has a thing for writing articles on the classic LucasArts Adventures, something we should do once in a while. Anyway, after their look at Monkey Island a couple of months ago, they've now posted a similar article about Grim Fandango.

The general theme of this month's issue is Why Great Games Sometimes Flop In Sales, something that GF and Psychonauts know all too well... sniff. Anyway, check it out.

As suggested in the previous post, IndyJones.net is now fully up-to-date! Hooray!

It's been a personal mission of mine over the last month or so to make IndyJones live up to its tagline 'The Number One Source for Indiana Jones Gaming!' I now think we're there!

Here's the full list of updates I've added to the site:

• Added Last Crusade Info & Music Pages. Last Crusade is getting on a bit now, but is still one of the major Indy Games. It deserves some respect!
  
• Added Emperor's Tomb Reviews and Music Pages, Updated Emperor's Tomb Info page. Been a long time coming, but now Emperor's Tomb is fully updated. The Music page is the most worthwhile addition, as there isn't anything like it on the net. Now you can enjoy Clint Bajakian's last and greatest Indiana Jones soundtrack!
  
• Added Lego Indy & 2008 Previews Pages. Now you can keep up with all the latest previews for the upcoming Indy games on one handy site!
  
• Updated Lego Indy and 2008 Facts pages. Now we know a lot more about both, whether Facts or Rumours! Any notable videos have been put on these pages too.
  
• More Images added to Lego Indy. We'll keep on adding any good ones as they come out.
  
• Added 'Hidden Room 2', 'An artist's signature' and Images to Infernal Machine Trivia page. Well, I didn't know about the Close Encounters room until recently!
  
• Added Infernal Machine Music page. This is the big one, but I've talked about enough in the post below! The only one of its kind!
  
• Updated Desktop Adventures page. Added Info and box-art for the runt of the 90s Indy litter.
  
• Added Greatest Adventures page. The lovechild of Super Star Wars and Indiana Jones finally gets its own page.
  
• Updated Fan Games to include Last Crusade 2. Whether any of these games will be released or not is another matter.
  
• Added Revenge of Ancients page. The first ever Indy adventure game gets a page!
  
• Added Cancelled Games page. A detailed page for all the Indy games that didn't quite make it. Well, did you know the Spear of Destiny actually exists, was actually captured by the Nazis, actually presented to Adolf Hitler and actually now sits in a museum in Vienna?

I'm sure more will come, but that's enough for now I think! Enjoy!

IndyJones.net has been updated once again, and I'm particularly excited about this one. I'll do a list of all the updates once they're finished (which will be shortly), but this one is particularly interesting: the Soundtrack for the PC version of Indiana Jones & The Infernal Machine!

While Zaarin has posted instructions on how to rip the music from the game, it is a very time-consuming process. Luckily for you guys I had a lot of time on my hands recently (unemployment, laziness, etc)!

Unfortunately, due to the legal wrangling that lost the brilliant LucasArts Soundtracks the Indy soundtracks, IndyJones has omitted any tracks that contain the copyrighted Raiders March, aka Indy Theme. The same goes for the incredible Emperor's Tomb soundtrack, with the exception of one track that was released by LucasArts themselves. The MIDI stylings of Fate of Atlantis and Last Crusade however are unaffected. And I'll stop saying 'soundtrack' now.

Source: IndyJones

ScummVM, the program that lets you play SCUMM games (and also various other adventure games) on many a platform, has been updated!

For a more stable experience, head on over and download!

Entertainment Weekly has today posted some lovely footage of the opening level of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. Check it out right here.

It doesn't look like TT Games are steering too far from the Lego Star Wars template, but there's definitely a lot of Indyness there, including spike traps and arrow-shooting statues. There's also a surprising amount of dark humour in the opening cutscene, with two of Indy's companions meeting unfortunate (but hilarious) ends.

Oh, and you get to see the iconic boulder chase too.

As Sven_Q45 helpfully pointed out on our forum, Ron Gilbert has a lovely new interview over at Inc Gamers, who I admit I'd never heard of before today. They talk about DeathSpank, Penny Arcade Adventures, and some game with pirates and monkeys in that I'd also never heard of.

This is probably my favourite question and answer:

How do you think storytelling has improved in gaming over the years?

It hasn’t.

Honest to a fault, that man. Check it out.

Update: And as Kroms just as helpfully pointed out, Eurogamer's got one too. Now them I have heard of.