The International House of Mojo

"LeChucks Revenge: Special Edition is official! New puzzles, new enemies, new hair!"

New Puzzles? What?

And... is there an announcement Three?

Update by Jason: While clarification of the features will no doubt come in the morning in the form of a press release and an official site launch, it's been confirmed that, like with Monkey Island 1, there will be full voice acting, and the original game will be included. "Developer commentary" has bizarrely been alluded to as a bonus feature - who knows what that means, but Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert were on-site for the announcement. Also, here's the cover art.

Further Update by ATMachine: According to LucasArts' Twitter feed, MI2:SE will feature voice acting both in the high-resolution updated-graphics mode and in the low-res, original-graphics mode. Plus, Guybrush's hairstyle has been changed, so hopefully there will be fewer complaints about that this time round.

Update 3: According to LucasArts, MI2:SE will be available for PSN, XBLA, Mac, iPhone, and PC.

Update 4: This Joystiq article suggests that the game will be released "this summer." Also, there will be a new direct control scheme implemented in addition to the previously used point-and-click method.

Finally, it notes this about the extra content:

"They've also added never-before-seen art from Peter Chan and Steve Purcell and developer commentary (!) for you Monkey Island fanboys out there (that's you)."

Update 5 by Jason: Official site launched and here's the press release.

Source: Twitter

LucasArts has revealed via its Twitter account that The Secret of Monkey Island (Special Edition) is heading to the Playstation Network and to Mac. That's "Announcement One", apparently.

Expect more details in the coming hours from the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco.

And bring on "Announcement Two"!

Update by ATMachine: Reports trickling out from the LucasArts press conference suggest that SOMI:SE will soon become available for purchase from Telltale's website. However, this has not been confirmed yet.

Update 2: In addition to the earlier Twitter report, Kotaku has now picked up the news of Telltale selling SOMI:SE in their online store, so it seems pretty official.

Source: Twitter

Aside from a no longer available port of Out from Boneville by Vanbrio Entertainment, Telltale's catalog has never been naively available for Macintosh despite a sizable amount of requests over the years. Based on this rumor, however, Mac users may not have to rely on Boot Camp for their Telltale fixes much longer:

We have it from a very reliable, confidential source that Telltale Games may be planning to release its entire lineup of games to Macintosh very soon, possibly next month (February 2010).

The timing is perfect to coincide with the upcoming MacWord 2010, taking place February 9 through 13, 2010, at the Moscone Center in in San Francisco, CA (USA). An official announcement likely won’t be made until then.

I reckon we'll know for certain in the coming months, but it's sure looking like Telltale's long running claim of wanting to expand to as many platforms as possible wasn't just a lot of talk!

Update by Kroms: Crazy Telltale forum user natlinxz has found this little thing, although it's still not completely up yet. In their own words, "Whoah, looks like my years of making up URLs paid off!" Click on the words little thing to see what they're talking about.

Update 2 by Gabez: The Telltale Police have since pulled that Mac site, but it did confirm that Tales of Monkey Island, as well as the Sam & Max series, was coming to Mac, and that there would be some special deals in which you can buy bundles of games for a good price for a limited time only. Presumably the site will be announced officially soon.

Update 3 by Remster: Aaaaand it's official!

Update 4 by Kroms: Tales of Monkey Island is already available; vote for the next Mac port from that last link.

Update 5 by ATMachine: According to Telltale, if you purchase (or have already bought) the PC version of one of their games, you will automatically be able to play the Mac version of that game for free!

Which means that Monkey Island fans who bought Tales on a PC but really want to play it on a Mac can do so RIGHT NOW. For FREE. Isn't it great?

(And if you want the same deal for your other favorite Telltale series, do be sure and vote on which one should be ported next.)

According to macworld, a Mac port of A Vampyre Story is available now.

Virtual Programming announced Friday the release of A Vampyre Story for Mac, a graphical adventure game only recently released for Windows (it came out in November). It costs $29.95.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later, G4 1.33GHz or faster, Nvidia GeForce 5200, ATI Radeon 9600 or Intel GMA950 or better 3D graphics with at least 64MB VRAM, 512MB RAM, 3GB hard disk space, Internet connection for registration.

A Vampyre Story is available for direct purchase and download from the Deliver2Mac Web site.

More details here, and the download/purchase page on Deliver2Mac is here.

Source: Macworld

It turns out that the Mac can now be used to run one other worthwhile application besides Final Cut Pro - LEGO Indiana Jones! The port, the work of Feral Interactive, is now shipping. There's even a press release and everything!

The Pumpkin Post is at it again, this time reporting that Bill Tiller's vampire game to end them all will be making its way onto the Macintosh courtesy of Virtual Programming.

Whoever thought we'd ever see that logo again? The port is said to be due before the year's up. Oh, and checking out Mac World's write-up of the announcement will give you the first look at one of the game's dialogue trees!

Thanks to Evan of Adventure Gamers for pointing this out: SoftwareOutlet.com is selling boxed copies of the original Full Throttle for a low low price of $7.99. That's totally cheap.

It is, however, the Macintosh version. But wait, fear not! With these instructions, you can play the Mac version in Windows with ScummVM! (MacOS X users can play it with ScummVM using these instructions) So you have no choice but to buy, buy, buy.

Update: If you're looking to save 9 cents, GoGamer has it listed for $9.90. Thanks to loonyboi for the link.

Apparently so. The Apple.com "Pro" page has an interview with and article about Clint Bajakian, former in-house LucasArts composer (Outlaws, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle) and sound designer (Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, countless Star Wars games) who has since left LEC to create his own company, the Bay Area Sound Department where he's continued to work for LucasArts (Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb) as well as other publishers. Also included with the story are a few music clips from Outlaws and Emperor's Tomb and, um, other things. If you want to get some sort of glimpse into the world of game sound design and music composition, this might be a start.

Though Aspyr hasn't made any official notice, the Mac publisher has put out patches for both Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (Download. Mirrored here and here), and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Download. Mirrored here and here). The patches, I guess, bring the games up to date with their PC counterparts, and fix some stability issues.

(Re-post from yesterday! Submit more questions!)

Roll up Roll up! It's Question time once more. Our inteview with Reeve Thompson was so succesful, we are going to do it again!

This time Aaron Giles takes the stand as our Mojo-Bionic questions are fired randomly towards his ether.

Aaron Giles has been in the news recently for his conversions of Sam & Max and Full Throttle to windows XP for use in the LucasArts Entertainment Pack. He also worked on the old ports of LEC's finest adventure games to the Mac way back in the last millennium.

You can submit any questions you'd like to ask him in the normal way, which just so happens to be by leaving a comment.

If you still have no idea who Aaron Giles is look over here!

Aspyr Media recently announced that they've completed and are shipping the Mac versions of both Jedi Knight II, and the Galactic Battlegrounds expansion pack, "Clone Campaigns." You can order them from the Aspyr store, or pick them up at CompUSA or wherever else they might sell Mac games.

Because the Mac port of Jedi Outcast recently went gold, TFNGames and Aspyr Media have teamed up to offer a new contest, giving away a free copy of the game and a few other goodies. To enter, you have to create a piece of artwork based on the game and submit it by November 30th. Visit TheForce.net for more information on the contest. I'm sure all two of our Mac readers (Jake and maybe someone else) will be very excited about this.

Mac Central reports that publisher Aspyr Media has reached the Final Candidate milestone for the Macintosh version Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Simply put, the game is very close to being released on the Mac platform. Here are some system specs for eager Mac gamers:

• Mac OS 9.1 or later (including Mac OS X)
• G3/400MHz or faster
• 128MB RAM
• 4x CD-ROM
• 665MB free HD space
• ATI Radeon or Nvidia-based hardware 3D graphics acceleration

Jedi Outcast for Macs is already available to preorder directly from Aspyr.

Clones! Get it? Aspyr and LucasArts have announced that they're bringing the Galactic Battlegrounds expansion pack, Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns to the Mac. This coming hot on the heels of the PC's Galactic Battlegrounds Saga combo-pack announcement, one can't help but wonder if a Mac version of that is coming sometime as well? Probably is.

LucasArts has just issues a press release announcing a new bundle package for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Can't you feel the excitement in the air? Here's the press release in full:

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. -- August 14, 2002 - LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC today announced Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga, which gathers the popular real-time strategy Windows PC game Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and its dynamic Star Wars Episode II mission expansion Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns in a single package.

<:MORENEWS:>

The value oriented Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga , expected to release this October, will challenge players with more than 50 battle campaigns representing the classic and prequel Star Wars universe. As an added bonus to Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga, LucasArts has teamed with Wizards of the Coast, the worldwide market leader in the trading card and tabletop roleplaying game categories, to include the Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, booster packs for the highly successful Star Wars trading card game. The booster packs, available in limited quantities in the U.S. version of Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga, have an estimated retail value of $10.00."

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga presents two of this past years' mostpopular real-time strategy games in one low priced package," says Mary Bihr, vice president, worldwide sales and marketing for LucasArts. "Together with the Star Wars trading card game booster packs, Star Wars fans will have countless hours of gaming fun." Powered by the Age of Empires: Age of Kings technology, Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds Saga allows players to deploy vast armies, manage resources and create custom single or multiplayer campaigns on Tatooine, Naboo, Endor, Hoth, Geonosis and more.

About LucasArts

LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide. Based in San Rafael, Calif., as well as on the Internet at www.lucasarts.com, LucasArts is one of five companies in the Lucas group which include Lucasfilm Ltd., Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, Lucas Licensing Ltd., and Lucas Online. Lucasfilm is one of the leading film and entertainment companies in the world. Lucasfilm's businesses include George Lucas' film and television production and distribution activities. Lucas Digital, which consists of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Skywalker Sound, provides visual effects and audio post-production services to the entertainment industry. Lucas Licensing is responsible for the merchandising of all Lucasfilm's film and television properties. Lucas Online is a digital destination for entertainment, education, reference and e-commerce for Lucasfilm's intellectual properties and business units.
# # #

TheForce.net points out that the Macintosh port of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast has reached the beta stage. However, unlike the Galactic Battlegrounds port, it seems that this version will support multiplayer between PC's and Macs in its final release. Look for this OS X-friendly game sometime in early October.

Source: Yahoo News

Aaron Giles, a former LucasArts employee who made many Mac ports of classic LucasArts games, has updated his website with a special Sam and Max treat. Back when Aaron had just completed his Mac port of Sam & Max Hit the Road, some fan sent in this piece of fan art with their order. Hilarious and yet oh-so-true. Thanks to Aric Wilmunder for the heads up!

Modern-Mac using folks rejoice (the three of us)! Drigo, of the MacSCUMM site, has informed me that his SCUMM Revisited-like tool, SCUMM Explorer, has been updated to run native on MacOS X.

For those who don't know, Scummrev and SCUMM Explorer let you browse through the data files of SCUMM-based games like Monkey Island 1, 2, and 3, and Full Throttle and view the original art, sound, and music. Here's the page for the OS X version of SCUMM Explorer, and here's a screenshot.

Aspyr Media released an announcement yesterday stating that the Macintosh port of Galactic Battlegrounds has shipped to retailers. However, it is interesting to note that according to the site, network play for this port is Mac only. Thanks to Lord Savage for the heads up.

Source: Business Wire

Yes, MacSCUMM. This site is an essential stop if you're a Mac user and own any of the older LucasArts SCUMM games. MacSCUMM is the home of "SCUMM Explorer," sort of the Mac equivilent to SCUMM Revisited (it's a program that lets you dig through the data files to games like Monkey Island and Full Throttle, play the sounds, look at the background art, and more).

In addition, the site also contains numerous patches and updates to SCUMM games (both official from LucasArts and unofficial patches for bugs LEC never fixed), as well as history and easter eggs specific to the Mac versions of the games.

There's more than that if you poke around some more, so go poke around some more.