Here we go, then – another Skunkape remaster and another Mojo review. Do we love it? Like it? Dislike it? Anything?!
Spoiler: It’s unbugged and upfunned, both of which are real words. Go read!
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As if the universe was offering us a chance to make up for recent Hal Barwood delinquencies, we can instantly post another interview with him, this one from Ron’s Computer Videos. At some point I’m going to need to throw him, TechJesse, Cressup and Daniel Albu into some sort of Interviewer Thunderdome so we only have to report on the uploads of the last streamer standing and maybe catch some shut-eye.
But enough of me complaining about wealth. You’ve gotta get your Hal on:
Source: Ron's Computer Videos
TechJesse has added Ron Gilbert to his collection of interviews with LucasArts luminaries, and a pretty impressive amount of ground is covered in a little over a half hour. In addition to highlighting his career, the conversation includes confirmation from Ron that those promised console versions of Death by Scrolling are very much on the way.
Also, I didn’t realize until he mentioned it in his introduction that Jesse had interviewed Hal Barwood a while back, so I’m throwing an embed of that one under Ron’s. We weren’t giving you the high hat, Hal!
Source: TechJesse
It seems that a few weeks back we were too busy looking for the good in mankind to notice that a major contender in the Making Nice Things Unpleasant Olympics had taken the stage:
Developer Woe Industries has announced the AGAT, or "Adventure Game Aptitude Test," which is "a standardized examination designed to assess if anyone can still complete an '80s adventure game without a walkthrough."
I know it sounds like a cute experiment, and it is—but it's also not kidding around. "To ensure no walkthroughs or other outside sources are consulted during play, we will be utilizing college exam proctoring software, which will monitor your smartphone usage and browser activity."
I was able to get an advanced look at the AGAT this week, and I can confirm: funny as this sounds, it's legit. Woe Industries has built a website that indeed hosts an actual 1980s adventure game (I will not say which one) and uses actual proctoring software called AutoProctor that (using AI) watches your face through your webcam and monitors your browser window to make sure you're not looking away from the quiz to find answers or using another browser tab to search for a walkthrough.
Move your head too far from the exam on your screen, switch to a different window or open a new browser tab, or even make suspicious noises (it listens through your mic as well) and Woe Industries will be sent a report on your "violations" during the quiz.
Somehow over 800 people signed up for this ritualistic humiliation, which took place February 28th. The game in question was Maniac Mansion, and because the essence of graphic adventure games is solving them as quickly as possible, the challenge set for these newcomers to the genre by our sage and likable cabal of data harvesters was to beat the game in four hours:
Over 800 participants had four hours to complete Lucasfilm Games 1987 graphic adventure Maniac Mansion, and… it was an absolute bloodbath. According to Woe Industries, there were 831 attempts (plus an additional 168 who began the test too late and were thus disqualified) and only two people actually passed the exam.
In case the italics didn’t clue you in, you are meant to find that a statistic worthy of emphasis. In fairness, while insight strains to materialize out of the results of this “experiment,” one which Dr. Fred Edison has been quoted as calling, “A tad dehumanizing,” I should acknowledge that at least a bunch of people got successfully spied on for no reason. PC Gamer has more.
Over on the forums, Samedods reports some potential Wolf Among Us action, powered by Argentina. My Spanish isn’t what it used to be (or ever was), so I’ll quote Samedods’s translation of Press Over’s exclusivo story:
The new version of the highly anticipated sequel is expected to be announced at some point this year and released in 2027. Before that, however, we may also see an enhanced version of the original title. Its creators believe this is necessary to reestablish the brand in today’s market, considering that The Wolf Among Us was originally released back in 2013.
Well, how about that… The Wolf Among Us is a Mojo favorite and, if nothing else, it’s good to see some sort of movement here, even if it is only a rumour.
Read the whole story if your brain is wired for Spanish.Yep, everybody’s favorite SCUMM+ emulator has hit 4.0, and its reach keeps growing. Want to play Monopoly Star Wars? Now’s your chance.
Run and download or read the docs for an indepth look.Amidst their ongoing enhancements to Duke Grabowski, Cateia Games is also adding it to other storefronts, with the game now available on GOG and ZOOM Platform in addition to Steam, in both cases discounted from the already cheap price tag.
Cateia has also indicated that they plan to eventually get the game on additional platforms. Consoles, perhaps?
Following up on his interview with Greg late last year, Daniel invited him for a playthrough of the classic game – and yes, they make it to the end. Across a breezy two-and-a-half hours, stories are shared, secrets are revealed, and bishops are decollated. What more could you want?
Nothing, that’s what:
Source: Tech Talk with Daniel Albu
The promised improvements to Duke Grabowski: Mighty Swashbuckler! that Cateia Games has in store for this year have begun their rollout. The headline of this first Steam update is 4K support, making use of the fact that the game’s original 2D art assets were of much higher resolution than what shipped back in 2016.
There’s a good deal more, including bettered performance and bug fixes, so read the full breakdown of enhancements by heading over to the Steam page.
Source: Steam
Considering their first session only took them up to the Lucre Island lawyers, it was only to be expected.
This two-hour follow-up advances them…slightly further into Lucre Island. We might be celebrating the 30th anniversary by the time we’re hitting Herman Toothrot with milk bottles, but if any outfit can appreciate the art of stretching content, it’s Mojo.
Source: Tech Talk with Daniel Albu
We were slow to cover in this in order to sidestep accusations of nepotism (seeing as Jake is, in fact, Remi’s son), but the news yields to no man’s vanity. The tenth anniversary of Firewatch was an occasion Laura Cress was hardly going to bear quietly, and she rightly went with the Mojo-est of her Campo Santo interview possibilities:
Source: Cressup
This seems almost random, but at least it's nice: Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat from Your Head to Your Feet is getting its soundtrack remastered and released on vinyl. There's a $40 price difference between the signed and unsigned versions, if you're so inclined.
The soundtrack is already digitally released on Bandcamp.The game was developed by Humongous Entertainment, penned by Dave Grossman, and released almost 30 years ago. I've not played it, but that soundtrack is superb.
2026: it's gonna be a strange year.
There's a rad Steam sale going on connected to Game2Give, a program under Breakthrough T1D Play that brings funds and awareness for Type 1 Diabetes research through the gaming ecosystem. Game2Give was brought to life via Dan Connors, former Telltale Games CEO.
Among the wallpapers plastered in Mojo's bedroom: Thimbleweed Park, Tales from the Borderlands, and the three Telltale Sam & Max games.
But wait: there's more! My friends loved Never Alone, and I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend inkle's Steve Jackson's Sorcery! games. I liked Pendragon, despite the mixed reviews. The Gex trilogy is on there, for you PS2 nostalgics.
On a personal note, I've always volunteered at diabetes associations linked to the unfortunately acronymed International Diabetes Federation; you could do worse than buy video games to help eventually rid us of this disease (and associated puns).
A fellow on Reddit showed off a bunch of original Gary Winnick concept art he got his hands on at some point: a bunch of Maniac Mansion pieces along with one for Loom.
Most of this stuff is never before seen, so be dazzled, envious, and outraged that they’re not hanging in a museum:
It’s been quite a while since Limited Run put out a title from the Lucasfilm library, so it’s a welcome sign that their license still has some tread on it that they’ve applied their typical madness to last year’s Outlaws remaster.
Unfortunately, we didn’t exactly notice this, and now the pre-order window is closed, but check out what you could have gotten:
Anyway, they should really get back to completing the adventure catalog, including Monkey Island singles. Maybe by then I’ll be the kept man of a billionaire heiress and can do more than report on them.
Source: Limited Run Games
You’ve probably read enough interviews with LucasArts developers over the years to have encountered intriguing references to “SCUMM U”, the crash course that new hires underwent to learn the ways of the fabled graphic adventure engine, but your curiosity about the particulars went unrelieved.
We’ve sensed your dissatisfaction – you inevitably get good at things with enough experience – and that’s why we spent the last month tracking down as many developers as we could for their memories of SCUMM U. The result is an article that both reinforces Mojo’s well-documented scholastic mission and serves Remi right for ever implementing the footnote feature.
Their ambition was to remaster the Telltale Sam & Max games…one season at a time…and proving all the doubters (Footnote: I’m not sure there actually were any. But nevertheless!) wrong, they saw the job through, but what now to do with those idle hands?
The answer lies in Poker Night at the Inventory (2010). Along with its sequel, Poker Night 2 (2013), it built on the dialog-heavy poker sim concept of Telltale’s very first game, except exponentially more fun and with beloved licensed characters as your opponents. They were quite enjoyable games with an extraordinary volume of recorded lines, but they fell victim to expiring licenses and have been unavailable for many years.
And that’s where Skunkape comes in. Though we might have all not-so-secretly hoped a remaster of Tales of Monkey Island would wind up on their docket, it seems there’s quite a bit of red tape involved with that prospect. Actually, it sounds like this was no slouch in the legal-wrangling department either. And thereby lies the bad news: Skunkape will by all appearances be doing the first Poker Night game alone, the assumption being that the sequel’s characters lay beyond the reach of mortal attorneys. Nevertheless, be excited for the remaster of Poker Night at the Inventory, coming your way on the happily imminent March 5th.
It’s been a little bit since we last heard any Passport to Adventure: The SCUMM Story updates, but things are simmering. To catch up, Laura Cress sat down with Richard Moss – the man behind the upcoming doc – to talk about what’s happening and where it all is going.
I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but it looks like Ron Gilbert, David Fox, Tami Borowick, and Mark Ferrari are ready to partake in the doc.
You can join the Passport to Adventure waitlist on the official website – Moss needs at least 1,000 people to sign up to get the thing made, so you probably should.
It appears that our in-house newsletter got the jump on this one – and what better advertisement could there be for signing up? – but it still merits front page real estate to point out that a new interview with David Fox has been recorded. It comes to you courtesy of TechJesse, which brought you the recent Peter Langston interview.
You won’t find that T-shirt Fox is wearing among official ReMI merchandise, but then, neither are you David Fox.
Source: TechJesse
YouTuber Rosa Mannen has uploaded a 1998 episode of tech-centric Swedish television show Sajber, which includes a field piece about LucasArts.
The five-minute segment showcases Grim Fandango, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and Star Wars: Behind the Magic, offering a vintage glimpse at the studio during the time when those games were the hot topics and Tom Byron’s claim to the public relations throne stood unchallenged.
Source: Rosa Mannen’s YouTube channel