The International House of Mojo

As predicted by Telltale's schedule, today they offer cutscene commentaries for The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball by the Designer, Production, and Sound crews respectively, not to mention a plethora of concept art. As usual, the tracks are informative and entertaining - in particular those who deep down wanted to know why the color of the episode 3 credits was purple but were afraid to ask will find these illuminating.

Here's the thing about this summer. It's not what you think it is. It's the opposite of not the Summer of Sam & Max.

Finding the Sam & Max collection Surfin' the Highway has been easier said than done for the past few (or many as it is) years, or at least it has been up until now. Telltale, who seems to be the purveyor of everything involving the duo, have just announced that Surfin' the Highway will be available exclusively in their on-line store sometime later this year.

Included in the collection is "On the Road" which was the inspiration for the LEC game, as well as "extra Sam & Max content developed over the last decade, such as rarely seen comic stories, previously unreleased art, and a new cover."

And hey, you can already sign up for it.

Woah, heh, that was fast! Telltale's much coveted disc version of Sam & Max: Season 1 is manufacturing as we speak, and so can now be ordered by all Season subscribers, with an expected ship date of late-July. Recall that the disc is offered to everyone who bought the full season (who will probably be reminded via email), and will only cost the price of shipping. Go enter your order number and stuff!

Telltale has also taken this opportunity to update their online store with some more goodies. These include the "Sam & Max Season One Case File," which is a carefully collected box assortment of useless junk for those who need things to stick into their DVD case, as well as the "Sam & Max Season One Soundtrack," a two-disc album which boasts every background track from the season in addition to several of the cutscene cues as well! Excellent. No wonder they've only put out a select few tracks online.

Well, get to it. You know darn well you're not leaving without owning all of the above.

And as promised, this week we're presented a continuation of Telltale's "History of Sam & Max" piece. Dubbed "The Golden Era", this second of four parts documents the peak years of the tumultuous, tear-jerking (and drying and re-jerking) story that is Sam & Max, and included is a brand-spanking new interview with Steve Purcell and Mike Stemmle. You guys must have been exceptionally well behaved while I wasn't looking.

Additionally, the Telltale Season 1 disc will be coming out later this week. For a sneak peak of the cover and insert art, check out Jake's most recent blog entry if you haven't already.

What separates other summers from this summer might involve more than just Sam & Max, but nothing really consequential.

And this week, we're given three commentaries for the cutscenes of Situation: Comedy with a side order of savory episode 2 concept art and a few other previously available bits'n bobs that are worth discovering or reading again.

So what on earth are you waiting for? Yes, I know you've experienced summer before, but this is like a different kind of summer, a special kind, the kind that involves more Sam & Max than any previous summer was able or willing to bear, specifically.

According to Tim Schafer in his writeup of Psychonauts' inclusion on Gametap, Majesco is no longer manufacturing boxed copies of the game. He also approximates (and I believe some of you have been curious about this) that the game has sold 400,000 copies to date. While that number is not record setting, it's pretty good to know that the game apparently had legs despite the dreadful early sales reports. And as Tim notes, the game's lifespan has been indefinitely prolonged thanks to its presence on Gametap, Steam, and other digital outlets.

You know what else is now on Steam? Sam & Max. Fancy that.

And this time around we're treated with the first of a four part feature dubbed "The History of Sam & Max." Included is a detailed account of the duo's early existence which includes never-before-seen art. Don't be a fool; read it.

Stay tuned next week for some super cool extras related to Situation: Comedy. I'm tempted to say that this particular summer appears to be one of a Sam & Max like classification.

You can see a tiny version of the Wii box over at GameCrazy's product listing page. There's also an Xbox 360 version of the game from the looks of things, which I'm not sure we've heard about before but was always expected. In fact it probably was made known a long time ago and I just forgot about it. The cover art appears to be final (at least compared to the plain but admittedly sleek placeholder), but that's just my guess.

A new press release that will re-announce the game for PC and consoles for what looks a simultaneous September 18 release is apparently immiment. Stay tuned!

In other Telltale news, and probably not unrelated to their recent acquirement of mucho dinero, the company's job offerings page has experienced a resurge. Be sure to nab that Studio Manager position before Randy Breen does!

Telltale have recently secured a six million dollar investment "round." I?m not entirely sure what the means, but what it basically boils down to is this:

"Telltale will use the financing to drive growth in existing and new episodic series, allowing the company to continue defining and refining new models for interactive entertainment and digital distribution. Multi-platform development and new staff additions are key elements in these strategic plans."

No doubt this time next year, Telltale will have moved into a glass-roofed penthouse in Dallas. Good for them!

And it's starting off with a bang! The first thing they've put up is three separate commentary tracks for Culture Shock cutscenes by the Designers, Producers, and Sound crew. The page let's you know what cool stuff to expect on each particular week.

Looks like we're in for some super-terrific content (some of which you'll also be seeing on Telltale's CD) over the next twelve weeks. Even Gabez, who's in the process of suing Telltale for ripping off his Summer of Retro/Summer of Indy Mojo trademarks is said to be pleased as punch.

Update: Telltale has added some more stuff, most notably loads of concept art from the pilot episode.

I was going to append this to the previous post, but it's long enough as it is. I was checking out Amazon's site listing for the season where they include what looks like Dreamcatcher's official, er, product description:

Sam and Max: Season One brings back the crazy fun of Sam & Max, the freelance police.It's a vile world out there. Get too complacent and all sorts of weirdos start coming out of the woodwork. Good thing Sam & Max are here to hose down the sleaze and keep some kind of peace. Violently, if possible. Sam's a six-foot tall canine shamus with a love of justice. Max is a hyperkinetic rabbity-thing with a taste for mayhem. Together, they're a team of freelance police officers, on a mission to take down a bizarre mind-control conspiracy. And they're bringing you along for the fun. Get ready to meet some off-kilter characters, puzzle through some brain-tickling conundrums and to laugh at a whole lot of jokes! The game collects six different "episodes," each with their own crazy fun and adventure. Join them as they face mind-controlling villains, the Toy Mafia, viral video games and even a crazy President. BONUS full-size poster and CD with - making of video, trailers for all 6 episodes, bios, concept art, wallpapers, soundtrack sampler, Sam & Max online comic strip and a comic generator for making your own Sam & Max comic strips

Sounds like it's going to include much the same content as Telltale's version will, give or take some things. The poster in particular sounds quite nifty! It's good to see that Dreamcatcher is not skimping on this release - it's almost like they respect the license or something.

Update: Apparently this was an early list of extras sent out to retailers. Telltale has put up their press release which is accurate.

When you last checked Gamestop's Sam & Max product page just to see if their "temporary box art" had changed, you may have noticed that it is now listed as shipping with a bonus - a free strategy guide! This is also the case with the EB Games page so I don't know if it's something that's only going to be offered from those stores, or what. There's also no word on what, if anything, will be included in the hint book other than the walkthrough itself. I'm sure you shouldn't expect anything as extravagant as what LucasArts used to offer, but who knows what's in there.

This very much reminds me of Escape from Monkey Island, which was released with a "Quick-Path" walkthrough inside the box of the PC version. (If you recall, this was just a straight up, no nonsense walkthrough; the full-fledged strategy guide, sold separately, was big and thick and had all sorts of junk in it.) This was done presumably so that non-adventure gamers would not give up on the game after getting stuck and would therefore, you know, actually buy it. I find it interesting to see the trend continue.

While this will come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention, CSI: Hard Evidence, the second Telltale-developed CSI game, is now officially slated for a Fall 2007 release. The game was originally projected for Spring when it was announced, but hard empirical evidence indicates otherwise.

So what's the cause of the delay? Murmurings suggest that Ubisoft wants to release all versions of the game at the same time, and since the Wii port is supposedly Fall bound, the PC version is being held back. September 18 has been attached to this game by pretty much every game web site for months now, so you can probably consider that as the tentative release date. We'll obviously let you know when something more is made known.

The circle is now complete. Returning to Mojo's customary extreme lateness one last time, please join us for the final Sam & Max review. Then pull up a chair and play all six episodes back to back, just like Gabez did with the Star Wars Saga. To the moon, Alice!

As you know from reading Telltale's latest blog update, the good folks there plan on keeping you entertained throughout the summer with weekly Sam & Max content (including historical pieces and extras from the bonus DVD), the reprisal of their newsletter, and so much more! It's their clever way of keeping us reading while they toil away on more Sam & Max games, and it's working.

The less active but more orange Double Fine web page wants your attention as well, and they're competing for it by upping the ante on their merchandise offerings: Introducing a second batch of Double Fine Action Buttons, this set dubbed "The Happyheads." Included on the product page is a rare interview with Scott Campbell. Tim may not play clean, but he plays to win.

YouGamers sat down with Kevin Bruner of Telltale and Matias Myllyrinne of Remedy Entertainment to discuss the perks and challenges of being a small developer in today's climate:

Kevin Bruner acknowledges the changing playing patterns and audience expectations, and has a solution. "One of the things that is great about episodic games is that pretty much everybody finishes the game." This is rewarding for not just the customers but the developer as well: "Every customer sees all the content that you built for them, so it's really satisfying from the developer's point of view." In traditional game design, "the worst position in the gaming business is being the second to last level designer." Games are so big that most people only see one-third or half the game before running out of time or interest. The few that finish the game plow through the last levels just to get to the end.

Read the rest, and you gain the right to comment.

Back when the release of Abe Lincoln Must Die! was imminent, we learned that Chuck Jordan, writer/programmer on The Curse of Monkey Island, was contributing dialog on episodes 4-6 of Sam & Max: Season 1.

Now, as his blog reports, Jordan's work for Telltale will no longer be merely on a contractual basis. He now works for Telltale Games in a full-time position, adding yet another LucasArts alumni to the company's impressive team. He implies that he's working on the second season of Sam & Max, which is as unsurprising as it is awesome.

Source: HieroHero

As we reported awhile back, localized retail versions of Bone are being released throughout Europe. The French publisher, Anuman Interactive, has launched an official web site for their Out from Boneville release, with all sorts of French goodies, which are in French. Check out the French demo to hear the game in French, or just visit the character pages to hear voice samples.

They're going to be releasing two versions, a "standard" and a "collector's edition," the latter including the book. It looks to have a pretty nice box, too.

Source: Telltale forums

When it was announced that Bill Farmer and Nick Jameson would not be reprising their roles as the voices of Sam and Max for Telltale's season, a lot of people were pretty upset, at least at first, but it would appear that German-speaking fans of the characters will not be sharing that disappointment.

Our own Laserschwert, by way of Telltale's forums, reports that the localized version of the upcoming retail release of Sam & Max: Season 1 will feature Sandra Schwittau doing the voice of Max in the German dub as she did for Hit the Road. It's not yet known if Sam's German counterpart, Hans-Gerd Kilbinger, will also be on board, but it wouldn't be surprising if JoWood (the European publisher) was able to nab him too.

Update They were! The German dubbers of Sam and Max for Season 1 will be the same as those for Hit the Road.

Source: Laserschwert

Even though it's concluded, the first season of Sam & Max just can't stop getting attention. Take for example an article about episodic gaming by The Hollywood Reporter which cites Sam & Max as really the only series to get the model right. There's also this blog writeup which takes a look back at the season as a whole with admiration. And finally Yahoo! Games sits down with Brendan Ferguson to discuss the highs and lows of the season.

Sometime you might also want to check out the Telltale Games web site, which is where I got all of these links from.