The International House of Mojo

The previous poll, "Which of the following characters do you most identify with?," has ended, with the Two-headed Squirrel winning out, Laverne coming in second, and Dan Pettit in third. You can view the complete results here.

The new poll is about sequels. Supposing you had a LucasArts development team at your disposal, would you rather see them give you and "the fans" a sequel to one of your most beloved games... or would you give them the chance to create something new? A tough question really. Go vote!

Well it's that time of week again. Yes, the day before LucasArts post a few screenshots, update a product info page and maybe re scan some old monkey island art! But what's different about today?
(apart from jake's birthday)

It's Halloween!

Every year Halloween is celebrated across the web in the all singing tradition of "logo-change-time" this also happens at Christmas, and sometimes also on that random American celebration of July 4th, when sites around the world American sites post Java-based fireworks everywhere that we all love!

OK.. so what did we do to celebrate Halloween?? We changed our logo into Jake. But other sites have put a bit more thought into the whole thing:

Samandmax.net has a lovely comic strip up featuring the word "poonk"

The Scummbar has had a little pumpkin lurking behind the logo for a few days now. I'm hoping it wil start to dance later on.

Grim Fandago Network has updated their page with a scary skeleto.... oh no wait....

Mojo Art has gained a pumpkin or two.

And, here are some other non-Mojo things (hopefully we'll be adding to this later):

For those that missed it, we posted this link to Dave Grossman's page of pumpkin sculptures he has made.. all of which completely own any attempt I have ever made.

This guy and the rest of his dorm at Cornell University had some amazing Blue Casket party for Halloween earlier this week, and here's some pictures from it. Our very own DJG might have attended this Grim party as BatDan, but you'll never see a picture of it, or hear him admit to it.

Please add your Scary findings into our comments section, and expect this news post to be updated as more folk wake up and get it together to update their websites.

Update: Whilst at work I have decided to create a pumpkinesque sculpture from available resources. These have included an apple and some lego. I will hereby encourage other mojo Staff to upload pictures of their halloween efforts and add them to this post.

Update: We now have Jake's Halloween efforts!

Finally a new review! Dave Grossman, co-writer of Monkey Island 1 and 2, co-designer of Day of the Tentacle, and author of numerous childrens books and adventure games for Ron Gilbert's Humongous Entertainment, has written a book!

The book? Ode to the Stuff in the Sink: a book of guy poetry. Is it good? Well, here's a hint: one of the poems is titled ?Is That Your Shirt Or Did A Clown Throw Up On You?" You must buy this book today! No, first read the review, then buy the book.

Yes! It's Thursday again and that means it's time for Calm Before the Storm, a now regular news post in which we bask in the newsless world of LucasLimbo, preparing for tomorrow's inevitable LucasArts Friday funtime update.

This week: a bunch of heart warming links to keep you busy while you wait, most of them delivered oh so kindly by my bosses into my mailbox at work.

So what do I have up my sleeve of distraction? A video of two twats. Yes. My boss told me to "Turn up your sound and bear with it..." so do it! I've no idea where this came from so.. erm...nothing (Its 3mb).

The best Flash game in the history of flash games - Name That Beard!

And the transcript from a court case now underway, investigating why Mr. Chrysler stole over 40,000 coat hangers from hotels. Watch as he defies the barrister! Read as he insults the judge! Cry as you discover the reasons behind his theft!

Now... it's your turn. If you have any interesting Lucas related (or not) news or links, now is the time to share and enjoy!

Our most recent poll has ended, with 44% if you believing that Webmonkey (yours truly) is the combined essence of all Mojo updaters of days past. Our new poll has already begun, asking the question, Which of the following characters do you most identify with? Have fun!

Bgbennyboy's popular tools "LEC Quick & Easy" "ScummVM Quick & Easy" and "CMI Launcher" finally have a website of their own here at Mixnmojo (so we don't have to host his files out of our /temp/ directory anymore)!

These three tools (and probably more in the future) are designed to help you play classic SCUMM games on newer versions of Windows without annoying video and audio bugs. If you're angry at your old games for not working on your new computer, or just desire the ability to tinker a little bit, visit quick.mixnmojo.com!

The time is upon us once again when you, the loving monkey community, get to vote for your favourite sites in a number of catagories from a list of nominees.

The catagories are as follows:
-Best Monkey Island Coverage
-Best International Site
-Best LucasArts Coverage
-Most Creative Design (& Features)
-SITE OF THE YEAR

In the nominee listings you will see many of our esteemed friends along with mojo itself. Go to http://www.mia2002.cjb.net and make your choices!

There seem to be a lot of slow days, but none are more slow than Thursdays. The day before LucasArts graces us with new screenshots from Gladius and the like, we usually just sit around. Recently, downtime notwithstanding, we've been trying to make threads like "we're bored, what's going on with you?" asking about community news we may have missed, or just something entertaining to reduce my boredom at work.

Well, it's Thursday again. Anyone with anything interesting, fun, stupid, what have you, please leave a comment so everyone else can have something to do. Would be nice if it was LucasArts related, but it doesn't really matter.

For instance, me, I'm very sleepy. Now its your turn.

Well that certainly sucked, didn't it?

We're all back together now, though, and don't expect to drop off the face of the earth again any time soon. What started as a routine hard drive upgrade (our old one was 98% full!) was shot to all heck as they'd say in EMI, when our web host's router decided to die, causing many a nerd to run around honking like mad, trampling glasses and pocket protectors left and right. Obviously, nobody knew what was going on, but everybody was glad when it was over.

We're sorry for the massive downtime, folks. In the future hopefully we'll have better warning about such things. Eep.

Note: Some sites are still coming across on the transfer. Each site is being checked but you never know. If you are a webmaster of a site and it hasn't transferred in the next few hours, leave a comment in this thread, see Jake on IRC (#monkey-island on dalnet), or ICQ me at 51539848.

Though it has nothing to do with us at all besides being about Lucas fandom and artwork, and sharing the name "Mojo," we've finally buckled and given JBRAA's always-improving Mojo Art - the unofficial lucasgallery hosting here at Mixnmojo. Check out their collection of fan art, Lucas company-inspired work, and some art from LucasArts/Film creations themselves. Again, that's Mojo Art.

Just saw this over on World of MI: Anyone who remembers back a few months must surely remember our excellent April Fools joke, totally fake "leaked" Monkey Island 5 sound clips. Well, some guy somewhere didn't get it, mistook our ultra high quality flawless forgery for the real thing, and now you can download it from FilePlanet. Get in line!

Though we're amazed and pretty amused that the public can now enjoy the all-too-real "short clip from Monkey Island 5 featuring the return of one of Threepwood's greatest foes" it makes me wonder. Maybe this is why LucasArts doesn't like people going and making fangames with their game names and game characters? Eh? Eh?

Amusing Side Note: Our "authentic" cutscene audio has received a four star rating, beating out the EMI Demo by one star!

Source: World of MI

It's that time of time again: new poll! After the last poll, "How involved in the LucasArts community are you?" (which ended with 53% just reading, and 34% of you running your own sites! eep!), we've decided to throw the poll's importance-lever to the extreme. To which extreme you think we threw it is really up to you.

The current poll asks: Who am I? That's right, me, Mr. Webmonkey. Who am I? The winner will receive nothing at all. To select your answer, click on it!

As you can see, we're dragging along today with little to no news, and we hate it. If you know of anything interesting happening out and about online, please leave a comment about it. I don't think we care all that much if it's a LucasArts related thing at all - just entertaining - though a little Lucas wouldn't hurt.

Searching through Mojo's extensive photo archives has revealed a gem that we believe has never before been shared with our reading public. Feast your eyes on our very own founder and friend, James Spafford. (He's the one in the skull shirt, cowering in shame. Compare to this confident looking fellow, who must be an imposter.)

Booyah! We've got five more retro-articles up for your reading pleasure. Enjoy these new ones, and we'll try to have the last batch of them fully ported before you can say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery-chwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!

Check 'em out:

Interview with Simon Jeffery (The First One)

EMI: First Impressions

Zak McKracken Review

Maniac Mansion Review

Super Bombad Racing Review

Mojo wants to be more than just friends.

It took way too long, but we've gotten around to converting over some of Mixnmojo's featured articles from the Mojo7 era (Late 2000-August 2001), and have put them up for all to view in our features section. There are ten features that have been ported to date, and the rest will be following soon!

Converted so far:

The Old Days

Barbican Museum: The Art of Star Wars

Contest: Create the Ultimate Insult

EMI: A Random Rant

A Day at LucasArts

Review: EMI for Playstation 2

EMI PS2 Release Party

PC Format Collectors Series

Trip To Double Fine (The first one)

Interview with Gary Winnick

We hope you enjoy these, and it won't be long before the remaining features reappear.

...Just the way you like it. It's time once again for you to go vote on the excellent new poll: How Involved in the LucasArts Community Are You? We're curious as to how many of our readers have an LEC fan site tucked away somewhere. Feel free to let us know about it in the comments section!

Here's the run-down of the previous poll, Has Mixnmojo sold out?: 43% of you don't care, as long as we keep making with the news. 37% of voters love us dearly and would never accuse us of selling out. And what of the other 20%? Well, we made sure to delete their accounts as a precautionary measure. Democracy wins again.

DAR! ECTS be the place that one fine pirate cap'n n' another did finally meet. Cap'n Bronstring from thee good ship AdventureGamers, long time Ally o' myself, Cap'n Spaff o' Mixnmojo, the finest ship in the high seas! We be Meetin' to discuss plans o' Grog Swilling and Treasure Yar! Here Be a fine paintin, painted by me first mate to commemorate the Day! YAR!

Source: Jim lad

Psst! Avast there! It be too late to alter course, mateys, and there be plundering pirates lurking in every cove, waitin' to board. Sit closer together and keep yer ruddy hands inboard! Today be official pirate-talk day so ye best be talkin' like a pirate which be meanin' lots of "yar." Yar. Aye, yar's a'pleanty. Ye best be leavin' yer piratey comments here. I have a parrot, and I be incredibly bored.

Happy birthday to The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar, who has turned six years old today! The SCUMM bar is probably the oldest site left active in the community. Its existence pre-dates Mojo's by a little less than a year from the sound of it (we're about five years old). Since you all love them (or at least act like it when they're around), go stop by the SCUMM Bar and give them your best.