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A lot went down at PAX in Seattle over the weekend, and as you may have gleaned if you’re one of those social media types, good times were had by all who attended. As with Gamescom last week, an elaborate booth devoted to Return to Monkey Island – a wooden replica of the High Street of Mêlée Island – was on hand for photo opportunity and general shock and awe:

This time, the team was also in the hall for fans and press to mingle with, and the panels were evidently no slouch either: You may have caught the livestream of the expo’s much-touted gathering of influential old people, otherwise known as “Adventure Game Heroes & Legends.” Moderated by Frank Cifaldi, the hour-and-a-half-long conversation featured Ron, Ken Williams, Roberta Williams, Al Lowe, Dave Gilbert and Jane Jenson. If you weren’t tuning in live, you can find it archived below:

As for ReMI-specific coverage, so far there’s a pay-walled interview with Ron from Rock Paper Shotgun (what the hell, guys), and presumably more to come, but you’ll probably find the real gold on the developers’ Twitter accounts. Highlights include the ReMI team photo (probably the first time many of them were physically together since the game got started), the starstruck gushing of Neil, Druckmann, and hands-down the event’s best T-shirt.

The benevolent madness was said to have culminated in a ReMI wrap party, which Mojo may have technically attended by abstraction if the rumors (or, you know, photo evidence) that Jake weaseled his way past the bouncer are true. I’m getting the light here, so in closing I’ll steer two interviews out of Gamescom that we'd overlooked your way: one from publication Heis Online (original German here; English translation here), and another from Hobbyconsolas (original Spanish here; English translation here).

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Those of you who didn’t have the spending money to hit PAX should have plenty of material from the expo (occurring as we speak) to look forward to soon. Even ahead of it, though, the ReMI press tour sailed on with a new interview from webzine GamersGlobal featuring Ron, Dave and Rex. The article is in German, the official language of adventure games, but here’s an excerpt from Google’s loose English translation:

GamersGlobal: In Return to Monkey Island you didn't just make decisions about the graphics that maybe not everyone likes. For example, the new part is not a sequel that takes over all the decisions and events of the predecessors. One or the other should be difficult for the fans to swallow.

Ron Gilbert: I don't think that's true. In other words, there were already a number of discrepancies between the previous parts. One of the first things Dave and I talked about in the beginning was which part of the canon we were going to follow and which part we weren't going to. Because a lot of the Monkey Island canon came from a time when Dave and I were no longer responsible for the games. We do not agree with all ideas. Others are clear fan favorites, like Guybrush and Elaine's wedding. While I personally feel that this should never have happened, I am against this marriage - but we cannot seriously backtrack and undo it. We briefly considered whether they might be divorced in our part. Or if they could never have married. But we quickly dismissed that. Fans love the idea that they got married. There is no turning back.

Another example would be: I never understood why Guybrush should be afraid of china. Serious? But we said what the heck, we won't deal with that. Dave summed it up very well: You ignore canon whenever it gets in the way of storytelling. So we respect canon as much as we can, but if it gets in our way... we don't hit it or anything, but we just don't pay it any attention at that point.

Though the noun came out the other end of the AI as “china,” one ascertains that Ron isn’t the biggest fan of the porcelain joke, and thus this trait of Guybrush’s will be censored in ReMI, which is just how Ron rolls.

There’s more great stuff in the interview, including the surprisingly open-ended position Ron takes on the series’ future (Relevant: Beloved, you-thought-he-was-dead community member Captain Mystery has triumphantly returned to notice that the descriptor “conclusion” has been artfully expunged from ReMI promotional spiels), so do read the full article for maximum cognizance of all Monkey tidbits.

Source: GamersGlobal

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Though the movie is still almost a year away, the score for Indiana Jones 5 is currently being recorded, and John Williams got permission to play a piece for a live audience at The Hollywood Bowl. A rogue cell phone then did what it must. Enjoy “Helena’s Theme,” which belongs to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character:


And let me round up a few items while I’m here by pointing out that the Willow series was recently previewed by Entertainment Weekly. Meanwhile, The Dig gets its turn being rotated into the Prime Gaming catalog. Nice to see they’re getting to seemingly every last one.

Source: YouTube

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You’ve already preordered that game that releases on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so why not grab another couple of adventures this September:


You can never own enough copies of the excellent Sam & Max remasters, so this should be good news for everyone!

The games will run you $20 each, and you can find them here:

Save the World: North America and Europe.

Beyond Time and Space: North America and Europe.

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Close your eyes if you’re allergic to spoilers, courtesy of Dave


For the rest of us? At this point, I’m going to hold my tongue in respect to those who want to go into the game blind-ish. But man, this looks good.

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We finally have a release date for Return to Monkey Island: September 19, 2022 (formally known as International Talk Like a Pirate Day).

Further more, pre-orders are now open (or will be soon): And, a special pre-order bonus, you'll get a completely useless and inconsequential piece of Horse Armor added to your inventory. Joy.


So, what are you waiting for? Get pre-ordering. Update: For Switch, too!

Another update: The Steam preorder is for both PC and Mac -- purchase one and you'll get the other. Also, the horse armor is truly real, so... who knows what that's all about?!

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GamesCom "Open Night Live" is due to begin livestreaming imminently, with some promised "big news" regarding Return to Monkey Island. Will it be a new trailer? The much-hoped for release date? Or a surprise April fools double bluff: The game was never coming all along!

Watch on tenterhooks here: http://openingnightlive.com

Or just click PLAY below:

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DREAMM was originally intended as an emulator for the DOS-based SCUMM games, but Aaron just couldn't abide a missing title, so he walked one last barefooted mile in broken glass, emulating just enough Win32 to support The Curse of Monkey Island.

Without promising anything, it seems he's being plagued with another itch:

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Well, today’s #MonkeyIslandMonday did not disappoint: You get an updated version of The SCUMM Bar theme with an iMuse-like effect, and a glimpse of the interface. For the latter, it looks like we get a glimpse of Guybrush’s inner monologue, too.


The gamescom event takes place tomorrow—we’ll see what it has to bring. Release date? One can hope.

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As you may recall 4,794 days ago, the year was 2009 and Laserschwert had completed a wonderful interview (news post) and separate review about The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition music. The interview was of Jesse Harlin, the composer for the Special Edition release. Along with our hint at a hopeful "official" digital release of that soundtrack (just checked; not quite ready yet) also came with the tease of a Bonus Track known only as "Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx".

Little did we know how clever the Mojo readers were with word puzzles years before we would let them prove that daily (Mojole) that it would be quickly figured out that the cypher solution could only be referring to a "Maniac Mansion" track. And although the Monkey Island Special Edition Soundtrack would make its way online, the Maniac Mansion Bonus track did not.


Source: YouTube

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It’s a funny pun, apparently. “Monkey around.” Thirty years on, it’s still the pun du jour when writing about Monkey Island, with PC Gamer UK jumping on the bandwagon. The print magazine’s October issue will, as it seems, feature Return to Monkey Island prominently:

This month, we’re chatting to Ron Gilbert about the sequel that was never supposed to exist. The old Monkey Island team has a new perspective, from evolving its art style to modernising the point-and-click style of gameplay. What exactly is the plan for our dear Guybrush Threepwood all these years later? Monkey Island fans are in for a treat with the subscriber cover too, featuring gorgeous art of Guybrush’s favourite zombie pirate pal LeChuck.

Oh yeah, that cover…

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… may very well be worth the price of admission alone. Chef’s kiss.

More over at PC Gamer.

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Though the geography of the Edison mansion makes about as much sense as the Overlook Hotel when you try to diagram it out, the principles of sound engineering haven’t stopped amusing attempts at visualizing some parody of a floor plan. Take, for example, this loose stab at the impossible from the game’s Nintendo Power preview back in the fall of 1990:

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Nintendo Power Issue #16 (September/October 1990) Maniac Mansion Feature 3/6
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Nintendo Power Issue #16 (September/October 1990) Maniac Mansion Feature 4/6

Well, it looks like you’ll be seeing another attempt to map the mansion, along with the overworlds to 35 or so other NES games. It’s all part of the upcoming book Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom: Greatest Hits Edition, which appear to be a curated version of a larger book. Here’s a promotional tweet that shows Maniac Mansion made the cut:

Pre-order the book here.

Source: Retro Game Books

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First of all: Do not watch the video if you’re allergic to spoilers. They’re minor, but they’re there. In fact, stop reading if you want to play the game with fresh eyes, as I have some ramblings below the video.


So…

  • First, the dialogue is fantastic. Stylistically, right out of the first two games. You can fight me if you disagree.
  • The music features some suitable cues from The Secret of Monkey Island’s Mêlée Island map theme.
  • The Voodoo Lady proves that themed chains are a dangerous business. (Blink, and you’ll miss it.)
  • Still ten-o-clock.
  • Wally sounds notably older. “Ah I see Wally now has a third voice by the same voice actor” -Thrik.
  • Wally’s last name is, of course, Feed. Wally B. Feed.

There, just some observations of a fifty-second video that concludes today’s editorializing.

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Look, this is beyond a longshot, but Reddit claims to have it, Return to Monkey Island’s release date: September 1st.

Take this with a BIG PINCH OF SALT: in Devolver Digital official website, the code of the page for Return to Monkey Island contains a block of structured data with information on the game.

There are two date "keys":

"date_override" : "Coming 2022" (which is what appears in the page to users)

"date" : "2022-09-01T12:00:00.000Z"

The Redditor goes on to speculate that it’s a placeholder, which... is likely.

Mojo, meanwhile, generally leans toward the more plausible Talk Like a Pirate Day: September 19th.

Update! A quick scan of a couple of Devolver's other upcoming games suggests they default to the first of the (presumed) release month. E.g. Skate Story has April 1st, 2023 set as "date" and "date_override" to "Coming 2023." Reigns: Three Kingdoms' "date" is December 1st, 2022 and "date_override" is "Coming 2022."

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Geoff Keighley took to Twitter to announce gamescom will feature a “brand new” look at Return to Monkey Island on August 23rd, 11 am PDT.

What “brand new” means is anyone’s guess, but as Ronzo is involved, it should probably be interesting.

And, for your convenience, Mojo has an easy-to-tap-and-add calendar entry for you. Be reminded with no hassle to you—that’s the Mojo way of life!

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Adjusted for inflation, $20 from 1990 would be roughly $45, which is a roundabout way to say that this is a good deal:

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$25 for Return to Monkey Island? Granted, it isn’t official yet, but with Mojo’s stellar past with Brazilian hackers, we will just go ahead and trust this one, too.

Thanks to The Legend of Monkey Island for the heads up!

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It seems like everyone and their cousin are doing video retrospectives of the Monkey Island games these days (not Mojo, of course—we don’t know how that kind of witchcraft works). Alanah Pearce has taken it to the next level with writing101: 30 Years of Writing Video Games - Tim Schafer | Video Game Writing 101 where (according to Eurogamer) Tim had this to say:

We were writing on Monkey Island, and we were told ’you guys, we can’t go on six floppies. We have to go on five. We have too much text. Ron was like, “we have to cut 25 percent of the dialogue.” I went and would look at a scene I wrote and I was like “no, I nailed that… that’s perfect.”

I admittedly have not watched the video, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.


Source: Eurogamer

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In the wake of DREAMM, our resident Luddite Jason has sharpened his pen and thrown a critical look at obtaining uncompromised versions of original LucasArts classics. Some poor saps* might think the Special Editions of the first Monkey Island duology contain the classic versions of the games—these people are sadly incorrect.

So, what’s the deal then? Are the differences that big? Jason investigates in “The Poxy Custodianship of Monkey Island”—the first of many articles planned for this topic.

  • Not my words, nor really Jason’s, but he strongly implies it.
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Show your love for the Fatherland and enjoy Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, available on Prime Gaming as part of the August batch of titles:

It doesn't make up for cancelling Truth Seekers, but I suppose Amazon accidentally knows what it's doing now and again.

Source: Prime Gaming

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Here we go, then: Neo LeChuck:


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