The International House of Mojo

So word on the proverbial street (err, the Telltale Games forum) is that the latest issue of Nintendo Power magazine (the December issue, which is on sale now) includes a preview of Tales of Monkey Island Chapters 4 and 5, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood (omg!) and Rise of the Pirate God.

FAIR WARNING for those who seek the issue out: The preview includes some major plot spoilers dished out by Mike Stemmle, as well as some possibly spoilery (and previously unseen) concept art.

Source: Telltale Forums

Well, that's what this Tweet says anyway; "Heyo, if you want to come playtest the fancy unannounced next TelltaleGame and will be in the SF bay area on saturday, drope me a line-o"

Must be gearing up for an announcement any day now...

Source: Twitter

This won't excite you in the way Monkey Island does, but Telltale's third CSI game, Deadly Intent, is available today for PC, Wii and Xbox 360 from online and brick-and-mortar retailers everywhere in North America. If you can't wait for an order to arrive or to make the trip to your local store, you can always buy the digital version straight from Ubisoft. (Edit: Or, you could, if for some reason that version weren't unavailable until the 29th.)

Telltale have (rather belatedly) announced on their blog that this coming Friday will see the release of Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood. (Oh noes!)

Clicky for the news and some screenshots! (Do beware of some spoilers, though.)

A double piece of good news for Wii owners, as both Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan and the eagerly awaited SNES classic Zombies Ate My Neighbours (AT LAST) are now available on the system for download, on WiiWare and Virtual Console respectively.

Hoorah!

Source: Kotaku

Remember that page-long post about Tales of Monkey Island remixes?

Let me tell you: not only has crazy remixer-slash-made-available-for-downloader wdrpgwd made a new one for Chapter 3, she also did one for Largo LaGrande from MI2. ("More an update than a remix.") And at work on something right now.

"Well, she's great," I said, "but who else will answer the call?" And it was Highland Productions who answered, with their amazing remix of "The Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu".

Can you top this? Can you even equal this?

There's no time like the present. Especially considering that you're kind of, sort of, really losing at the moment.

Telltale have released four new pieces of concept art for Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood (due out soon!), which we've kindly put up in our Concept Art gallery for the game.

Be warned: there are some slight spoilers.

Edit by ATMachine: Description of the concept art removed to avoid spoilers. If you DO want to be spoiled, click away!

Sam and Max: Season Two (or Sam and Max Beyond Time and Space, depending on what title you prefer) is available for a mere $19.95, for a limited time only (through October 21st).

Update: It's going for the same price on Xbox Live Arcade. If you have not played this, then do.

Source: Telltale Games

The Ubisoft product page for the digital download of CSI: Deadly Intent has changed the projected release date to October 27th, which now makes Ubisoft's estimation reflect that of every online retailer. I'd say that makes the 27th the game's probable release.

Update: And now it is confirmed.

After a long delay, Telltale will finally be releasing Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space (aka Sam and Max Season Two) on Xbox Live this Wednesday, the 14th of October. The price is 1600 Microsoft Points.

Telltale are also promising that further episodes of Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures will arrive on Xbox Live starting in November.

Source: Telltale's Blog

Steve Purcell is now showing off on his blog his three initial concept sketches for the Tales of Monkey Island cover painting.

(Yes, we know this post is a week late. But here at Mojo we like to say that slow and steady wins the Cheese Squigglies.)

Interestingly, Purcell writes that he was never satisfied with his drawing of Elaine on the Secret of Monkey Island cover. In fact, his pencil layout drawing for the MI1 cover shows that he redrew Elaine, taping a cutout of her revised figure on top of the paper.

(And if you've never visited Purcell's blog, don't forget to check out all the posts under the Pirates label, which includes some character concept art he did for The Curse of Monkey Island, as well as storyboards for an "unidentified" pirate film.)

Source: Spudvision

Over at Ubisoft's digital store is a product page for CSI: Deadly Intent, which, uh, will apparently be available for digital download. The page includes the following statement:

CSI: Deadly Intent is expected to release October 20th, 2009. Release dates are subject to change without notice.

Which makes the date tentative, but it is nonetheless from Ubisoft itself. It would certainly follow in the tradition of Ubisoft giving its CSI games little to no marketing momentum online prior to their abrupt launches, but that doesn't seem to have hurt the sales in the past.

Whenever it comes out, CSI: Deadly Intent will be released by Ubisoft simultaneously for PC, Wii, and Xbox 360. A non-Telltale version for the DS that we don't care about will also be joining them.

Telltale Games are now shipping out the artist-signed poster prints of Steve Purcell's lovely Tales of Monkey Island cover art. If you haven't ordered one yet, now would be as good a time as any.

Those of you who've completed the third chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, "Lair of the Leviathan," will be familiar with a puzzle in which Coronado De Cava expects Guybrush to collect 100,000 grubs as part of a plan to escape the manatee's interior. The actual puzzle involves Guybrush coming up with a substitute, but you are nonetheless capable of delivering to De Cava one grub at a time, not unlike the ability to continuously collect a piece o' eight every time you polish the peg leg of one of the Men of Lower Moral Fiber in LeChuck's Revenge.

Well, some fans couldn't help but wonder if Telltale actually allowed for the possibility of coming up with 100,000 grubs (an arduous task estimated by forumers to take a month's time), and, using some sneaky techniques, managed to find out that it is indeed an alternate solution, with Guybrush and De Cava having a short smattering of dialog before the game cuts to the appropriate point later in the game. The proof lies within.

Talk about attention to detail.

Over at Game Trailers, Ubisoft has put up a three and a half minute "Developer Diary" video for CSI: Deadly Intent, wherein the Telltale guys talk about the new features that the game has over the previous installments. Deduce this.

Computer and Video Games has again raised the possibility of Telltale picking up the Maniac Mansion / Day of the Tentacle franchise for future adventure games.

Dave Grossman, when asked replied

"I don't want to answer that question (laughs). You'd have to ask [LucasArts] that..."

He also repeats the line about the new LucasArts boss being interested in the old properties. So there you go, a complete story centered around nothing at all. Eat your heart out Seinfeld.

Source: C&VG

Why don't you try remixing the Tales of Monkey Island soundtrack?

Although the music is absolutely beautiful, Telltale have had to compress the music a bit and it's synthesised. Now, I don't know about you, but I personally prefer live instrument. And what I'm asking, and what I've seen others asking, is for some sort of remix: not necessarily with just live instruments, but with anything musicians more talented than I am like. You want to do a jazz version? Go for it. Techno? Why not?

I want to especially point you to this particular YouTube user, who re-did a lot of the music from The Siege of Spinner Cay, most notably a fantastic version of the the Spinner Cay theme. They also did their own version of the the Flotsam Island overhead map theme. This awesome person has made all of these available for download.

Right now the only TMI tracks up on YouTube (in their original form) are LeChuck's theme, the ship music, the music when on the raft, the Spinner Cay theme, the siege music (all from Chapter Two), and the Monkey Island theme itself. I've searched in other places, but I can't find the music. If you want anything else, it might be a good idea to use bgbennyboy's Telltale Music Extractor. (Quick and Easy is a Mojo hosted site by the way. Did you like that plug? About as subtle as SMI plugging Loom.)<:MORENEWS:>

Do you need inspiration? You can find the Monkey Island 1 + 2 soundtracks orchestrated over at LucasArts Soundtracks; the original MIDI's are at IMuse Island. Zaarin's Soundtrack Island and Highland Productions (don't believe the "No Music" signs) also have the files you need for inspiration, in different formats. (Zaarin notes that the MIDIs on his site can't be played properly without hooking up two MT-32s to two different MIDI outs.)

(All of these are Mojo-hosted sites, by the way. I tell you, what would the world be without us? At war, I think.)

If you make your own remix or orchestration of the Tales of Monkey Island music, or just want me to point you to some sites where you can grab remixes of the first four games, click on my name up there and email me and I'll post about it. Current Mojo will give you a message that says the email didn't work, but that's just a bug.

Here's the sheet music for you guys who need it. YouTube is filled with tutorials on the Monkey theme as well.

To whet your appetite for this coming Tuesday's release of Chapter 3 of Tales of Monkey Island, Telltale have posted a few more screenshots of Lair of the Leviathan on their trusty blog. Beware some spoilers within, however!

Telltale have also released a Lair of the Leviathan gameplay video, currently exclusive to IGN, which is equally spoilery.

Source: Telltale's Blog

Today is the 25th of September (for a little while longer, at least) and that means that The Siege of Spinner Cay (the second chapter of Tales of Monkey Island) is now available to download on WiiWare in Europe.

If you
(a) live in Europe
(b) own a Wii
(c) do not own Spinner Cay yet, and
(d) want to own it (and why wouldn't you)

...then get cracking!

There's some new details revealed in this interview with Siege of Spinner Cay/Rise of the Pirate God writer and director Mark Darin, who was questioned by IgorHardy. The interview covers everything in Darin's career, from his classic Nick Bounty games to all the passive-aggressive violence that goes on at Telltale. And this:

Nothing is worse that playing a story based game

Scatdal! Who said I was taking the quote out of context? I hate you.

Source: Hardydev