The International House of Mojo

Sam and Max creator Steve Purcell has decided to sell a piece of unused concept for the Monkey Island 2 cover off eBay (or, as pirates call it, "YeBay"). Description:

The painting is 7" X 10" was done in gouache (an opaque watercolor) on heavy illustration board and has been covered with acetate since it was created in 1991.

Purcell was also responsible for the final cover, The Secret of Monkey Island cover, and the Tales of Monkey Island pre-order cover. In the words of my inner pirate, this painting "is fab-u-lous." The starting bid is a healthy $795.00.

Purcell's also selling this rare Full Throttle promo poster. In the words of my inner biker, "It's le fantastique."

Shipping to Europe is still being looked into.

If you're in a piratey mood, by the way, you should check out Mixnmojo's latest contest. The prize is a copy of Tim Power's novel On Stranger Tides, the main inspiration of Monkey Island. Check it.

Source: Spudvision

G4TV confirms that Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse is indeed the official title of the duo's upcoming third season, and present a nice Twilight Zone-inspired logo as proof. More importantly, G4 apparently recorded an exclusive video with Dan Connors which contains Sam & Max stuff along with "some more big Telltale news," and which will be posted on the site in the next few days. So, woah!

Elsewhere in the grungy world of Sam & Max, a new fansite, http://samandmax.co.uk/, has sprung up out of nowhere and published a profane interview with Joey Camen, the voice of Bosco and the Two-Teeth family in the Telltale episodes. Read it, fools!

Update by Kroms: Bless those ratings guys. New details have slipped. The big news is that Sam and Max will be arriving on PS3. Do beware, though, of the presence of spoilers on the page I just linked to.

Source: G4

Joystiq asks Dan Connors 10 questions. He gives 10 answers. Here's one of them;

What's the biggest challenge you see facing the industry?

Busting out of the niche it is in and building enough high quality diverse content to put it at the top of the entertainment food chain where it belongs. I think we are starting the process, and I think the diversification of distribution is creating the opportunity to reach wider demographics. As we expand into these demographics we need to rethink some of our core assumptions about how money is made. At this point the personal computers are as ubiquitous as televisions, but not everyone with a computer is using it to play games even though they could if they wanted to, why is that?

Source: Joystiq

The fifth and final chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, "Rise of the Pirate God", is now available for Wiiware in North America. Europe, being Europe, has to wait.

In other news, former Telltale designer Heather Logas finally has enough funding for her game. Congratulations, and good luck to her!

Heather's father Jerry contributed some music tracks to Telltale's very first game, Telltale Texas Hold'em. You can buy his band's album from the Telltale store. It's jazzy!

Update: Europeans can Wii with the Pirate God on Friday. Thanks to Metallus for the info.

Update by ATMachine: Er, apparently Nintendo was just kidding about that Friday European release thing. Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God will NOT be coming to European WiiWare today. Once again, thanks to Metallus for the info, although it's hardly news to be thankful for...

Update by JP: Hey-yo Europe, Australia and New Zealand. It's finally out.

Appletell, a website that focuses on apples Apple and its products, has been busy covering the Mac World Expo 2010. They managed to corner and interview Dan Connors (Telltale CEO), and then get Mark Darin to do a video interview. Darin, for those of you who do not know, was one of the leads on Tales of Monkey Island, and the writer/designer of "The Siege of Spinner Cay" and "Rise of the Pirate God".

iGames Radio later managed to get Telltalers Chris Schmidt, Will Armstrong and "Matt Darin", Mark Darin's clone, on this podcast. It's short, but worth listening to; there are interesting tidbits throughout, including how Tales's story was developed.

In slightly more disturbing news, it seems that (Mark) Darin has joined the ranks of the Formerly Beardless, which include Tim Schafer and Dan Connors. What all of this is leading to remains to be seen.

Source: Appletell

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.)

The Australian Classification Database (remember them from the Handsome Halibut LucasArts game title?) have done it again and leaked the following forthcoming multiple platform video game title;

SAM & MAX: THE DEVIL'S PLAYHOUSE - EPISODE 1: THE PENAL ZONE

So we have a Season Title and an Episode 1 title. Wheeeeeeee!

Update by Kroms: A little irrelevant, but the Wallace and Gromit Collector's DVDs are shipping.

Source: The Classification Website

Telltale Games has put up their back catalog on GamersGate, with a (temporary?) 10% discount. That's Tales of Monkey Island, Sam and Max (both seasons), Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People and Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures. Neither Bone nor CSI, however, are available.

Source: GamersGate

Double Fine CEO/Creative Director Tim Schafer, and Telltale CEO/Co-Founder Dan Connors, will participate in a special event hosted by EEDAR and moderated by G4-TV host Adam Sessler, at this year's somewhat sucky DICE Summit. The event is comprised of three debates on the topics of casual games, innovation, and independence, though it is unclear if all participants will be part of every one. Chris Taylor - who is vaguely related to Mixnmojo, as creator of the Ron Gilbert-produced Total Annihilation - and David Jaffe - who is not related to Mixnmojo and the creator of Sony's God of War games - will also join the debate.

If you're looking for something more immediate to do, check out the photos on Bay Area Sound's Facebook page. Bay Area Sound are responsible for the audio in Telltale's games. Inside you will find everything from Mark Darin directing, Mike Stemmle correcting and Sean Vanaman being scared by a large dude (start with this and then look at the four previous photos in turn), to how different the voice actors look from their counterparts, what Jared Emerson-Johnson looks like when he's in character as the Marquis De Singe and Dominic Armato's death stare.

Source: Gamasutra

Telltale has dispersed the latest issue of its semi-regular newsletter, the Telltale Interloper, to the fans who've made the no-brainer decision to subscribe. There are a lot of noteworthy tidbits included in the newsletter, so here's the diligent Mojo round-up:

• Sam & Max Save the World is on sale for $4.95 through January.
  
• A new piece of concept art from the upcoming Sam & Max season has been released.
  
• Telltale is running a new survey. You'll want to take the questionnaire both because you know this is a company that values feedback, and because the questions drop major hints about the third season of Sam & Max. (Tingler adds: you get a 15% off coupon too)
  
• The DVD release of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures will ship to season subscribers on the week of February 8th. In the meantime, Telltale has actually published the game in select North American stores, among them Best Buy and soon Walmart. This practice, which I earlier speculated will be true of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, represents the very first time Telltale has published a game in retail channels on their own.
  
• Speaking of Strong Bad, Telltale is extending the special $19.95 price they've slashed the season to in celebration of Trogday to last through the end of January as well.
  
• The oft-delayed North American Wiiware release of "Rise of the Pirate God" will occur on Monday, February 1st.
  

Hopefully this makes it clear that you should be on Telltale's mailing list if you aren't already.

The Tales of MI blog has managed to interview the Telltale Monkey Island writers, plus Dave Grossman. Included are bits about the design process, an explanation for some of the more vague elements of the story (including a confirmation of a lot of ATMachine's theories), what Ron Gilbert did or did not contribute, and the possibility of a sequel.

- Mark Darin ("The Siege of Spinner Cay", "Rise of the Pirate God").

- Dave Grossman (head honcho, also writer/additional designer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge).

- Mike Stemmle ("The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal", "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood").

- Sean Vanaman ("Lair of the Leviathan").

Good stuff, but more is needed. Maybe these guys can arrange it.

Source: Tales of MI blog

You probably know about the Collector's DVDs of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, which are available for purchase from Telltale's web site as is traditionally the case for all their series, which are collected on a disc at the end of their initial, digitally distributed run.

The Collector's DVDs have made their way to Amazon as you can see here and here, but somewhat more interesting is this additional Strong Bad DVD with a slightly different cover art. Also published by Telltale, it has a release date of February 16th and a price point of $19.99. Is it possible that Telltale is quietly releasing their own retail version of Strong Bad that may turn up in stores?

Sean Vanaman, writer of Tales of Monkey Island chapter three "Lair of the Leviathan", and writer/director of the third Wallace and Gromit episode "Muzzled!", has put up an interesting and informative blogpost about the meaning behind games. Included are tidbits on how the puzzles in "Leviathan" were designed and how they are approached, as well as featuring one cut puzzle.

I can't really do anything much of quality until I've figured out what something is about. Wallace and Gromit's Muzzled! was a steaming pile before I realized that it was about Gromit's relationship with and faith in Wallace and not about flash gadgets that turn arctic water-fowl into jewel thieves. Same goes for Monkey Island -- I routinely pee'd in Joe Pinney's cheerios, metaphorically speaking, giving him narrative garbage to work with until I put my finger on the pulse of Guybrush's grand story and what it's about. (Uh, monkeys, right?)

It's worth a read.

Chuck Jordan, who you may know as one of the writers on Curse of Monkey Island, and one of the writers/designers/directors on Strong Bad and Sam and Max ("Abe Lincoln Must Die!" onwards), wrote a sort-of response that is also very interesting and worth a read. Moreover, it, too, uses urination as an example to explain things - just sayin'.

Both of them frequently post interesting things to talk about - as do most of the blog-owning people Mixnmojo covers - so I'd recommend subscribing to their blogs in general for good measure.

It seems that the obscenely delayed but still highly welcome retail release of Sam & Max: Season 2 (redubbed Sam & Max Through Time and Space) for PC and Wii by the fine folks at Atari is just about here, if Amazon is anything to go by. They list both versions, which have highly excellent prices attached, for February 9th. While this remains unconfirmed, it isn't that improbable, and at any rate Telltale's official word on the subject is "soon."

While I imagine most of us already own the PC version of this excellent game through the Telltale route, complete with amazing Purcell cover art, it's always great to see more Sam & Max on a store shelf, where they can wreak havoc on the general public more easily. And of course, we now finally have the opportunity to play through the adventure using our Wiimotes, which pretty much rules.

... and to celebrate, Telltale is giving away a free Strong Bad game featuring Trogdor the Burninator. No. Seriously. For free.

Stop reading this, then, and run and download.

Okay, the Escape from Monkey Island Secret History article has fallen way behind. But all that means is that you've had all kinds of extra time to submit a reader opinion on the game. Yet you still haven't! So, really, it's you that dropped the ball here.

But we're giving you one last chance. The EMI article is in its final few years of production, which means that we need all second opinions received by the end of this week in order to lock them into the article before we hand it off to ImageMovers to commence all that CGI work. So send them in, ye swabs!

Also, as my way of saying thank you for not keelhauling me over the article's slight postponement, enjoy this trailer Jake probably put together back in The Day:

The complete Sam and Max is going for a $15 on Steam today. The series - developed by Telltale Games - centers on an anthromorphic dog and sociopathic bunny dubbed the "Freelance Police" (the joke's in the title) who take down everything from 70's TV stars to Santa Claus.

Note that when I say "complete," I do not mean Hit the Road or the canceled Freelance Police, but don't let that stop you from campaigning. It never stopped the Poison Pen, even though no-one agrees with him.

So, why did Telltale make the first two chapters of Jeff Smith's Bone but never continued then? Here's a possible explanation: the movie is well under way. The producer of the new Sherlock Holmes movie, Dan Lin, was talking to Collider about his future projects - of which Bone is one, well into production at Happy Feet creators Animalogic.

It's a (CGI presumably) animated movie, Jeff Smith is closely involved, they're meeting with directors now and hope to have one announced in January, and it (HOORAY!) won't be one movie. So, bought the books yet?

(Tingler's Side Note: although excited frankly I'm terrified about Lin and Animalogic's other project, a Tom & Jerry origin movie, which sounds like a terrible idea. Oh well, let's hope for good things)

Source: Collider

Subscribed to the Telltale Newsletter? If you are, then check your email. (If not, subscribe here.) There's a bit of concept art of the concept of Sam and Max Season Three, including that of the space gorilla from space. Remember, my friends: future events such as these will affect you in the future, especially around the time that the game becomes available to buy.

Speaking of the future, why don't you save up for it by taking advantage of Telltale's holiday bundles? The future is where your future lies, and that is where you will need money the most: not the past, but the future (and the present).

(The future brought to you by one Ed Wood; space gorillas courtesy of the power to comprehend the inability to comprehend Sam and Max 2010.)

The TMI Blog's unstoppable jubilee of Monkey Island voice actor interviews continues with a probe of the immensely talented Jared Emerson-Johnson, who you no doubt know as a composer, sound designer, and voice director whose resume includes games made by all of the studios Mojo covers.

In addition to sound design and voice direction, Emerson-Johnson's contributions to TMI include the voice of deranged French culturally variant scientist DeSinge, whose obsession with collecting Guybrush's pox-ridden hand caused our hero a number of inconveniences. The factoids he shares in the interview are not to be missed by those who aren't keen on missing something not worth missing out on.