Teenagent Gets Free, Open-Source ScummVM Support

After yesterday's news of Dragon History support, the ScummVM team brings more good news. Another former commercial game that was the first CD-ROM game in its country (in this case Poland) has been added to ScummVM. Today ScummVM officially supports Teenagent, which can be downloaded for free from GOG.com.

Dragon History Now Has Free, Open-Source ScummVM Support

Dragon History is a freeware open source adventure game that was the first Czech game to be released on CD-ROM when it was a commercial title. This summer a student participating in the Google Summer of Code adapted the game to ScummVM. Today, after some fine tuning by the student, the ScummVM team, and one of the original programmers of Dragon History, the game is officially compatible with ScummVM. So grab a daily build of ScummVM and head over to the Dragon History website and pick up the game in English, Czech, or Polish, and try out the game on any one of the dozens of platforms to which ScummVM has been ported completely for free!

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Demo

Capcom has put up a new browser based demo of their upcoming Nintendo DS game, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.

In this installment of the Ace Attourney series, you take control of Miles Edgeworth, the longtime nemesis of Pheonix Wright. Rather than the first person perspective of the former games, this game takes place in a third person perspective, as you take control of Miles Edgeworth as he searches for clues and interacts with suspects and witnesses.

I have not played an Ace Attourney game before, but the demo makes me want to play more. I've heard nothing but praise for the Ace Attourney games, so hopefully this entry is worthy of its predecessors. If nothing else, it's good to see Capcom changing the formula up a bit.

Click here to play the demo.

Tex Murphy I & II Free Until Christmas

Good Old Games is offering the first two Tex Murphy adventure games for PC, Mean Streets and Martian Memorandum, for free until Christmas Eve (12/24/09).

Wadjet Eye Games Holiday Sale

Independent adventure game developer Wadjet Eye Games is offering 50% off select titles and donating a portion of all sales to the Get-Well Gamers Foundation (www.getwellgamers.org), a California-based public charity dedicated to bringing electronic entertainment to children in healthcare facilities.

All of Wadget Eye Games adventures are included in the deal, but the 50% off coupon can't be used in conjunction with the Blackwell Bundle. The offer also includes some third-party games.

In order to save 50% on select titles, make sure to type the promotional code “HOLIDAY” when prompted.

In site news, you'll notice that the site name has changed again, this time to The Adventuress. I've been adding non-LucasArts inspired companies to the site, so I decided it was time for a change in scope. I enjoy adventures in general, and not just LucasArts adventures, so I thought this was a good change. :)

Sam & Max in 2010

A new Sam & Max 2010 page is up at Telltale. You can click on the stars in the background for concept art, as well as audio of a narrator. What's interesting about that is that the audio mentions that you won't be pointing and clicking, and that "you are all that stands in the way of the total annihilation of the planet Earth".

The concept art shows space-themed graphics, and the audio definitely seems to point to an adventure in space. As The International House of Mojo points out, Justin Chin's no-longer functioning business, Infinite Machine, once held the rights to Sam & Max and was making an action-adventure game called Sam & Max Plunge Through Space. Is it possible that Telltale is resurrecting this game?

Justin Chin joined Telltale in 2008, but he has since left. It's certainly possible that he was working with Telltale on Sam & Max Plunge Through Space during his time there.

Update: V-Ben pointed out in the International House of Mojo comments that Justin Chin's Linked in profile lists Justin's current position as owner, operator, and artist of Infinite Machine, Inc, although this time it's listed as part of the motion picture industry rather than the games industry. Even so, it's very possible that he could be freelancing at Telltale through Infinite Machine. If the new game is Sam & Max Plunge Through Space, it would be great to see an Infinite Machine logo attached to the game. :)

UPDATE: Jake Rodkin confirmed in Mixnmojo's comments section that it's not based on Sam & Max Plunge Through Space.

Ghost Pirates English Release Date

The Pumpkin Post posted news that you can pre-order the English version of Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island now directly from the publisher, Mamba Games, for £29.99. The release date for the English version is March 26, 2010.

Rise of the Pirate God is out now for PC!

Rise of the Pirate God, the final chapter of Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island, is now available at Telltale's website for season subscribers, and also available as a single episode download!

Rise of the Pirate Screenshots. Plus Earl Boen!

Rise of the Pirate God comes tomorrow. The Telltale Blog has screenshots of that episode for those who can not wait.

If you need to catch up, check out the new trailer that sums up what's happened in Tales of Monkey Island so far.



You'll notice that Earl Boen does the lines of the Zombie Pirate LeChuck from Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, which were originally done by Adam Harrington. In the Mixnmojo comments section, Telltale's Jake Rodkin mentioned that an Earl Boen voiced Launch of the Screaming Narwhal will be released, but he doesn't have any information on when the release date will be.

More Brütal Legend Downloadable Content

Gamepro conducted an interview with Tim Schafer wherein he revealed that more downloadable content is coming for Brütal Legend, both in multiplayer and single player content.

ScummVM is now at version 1.0.0!

ScummVM has reached a big milestone, it's 1.0.0 release. In versioning terms, this means that ScummVM is no longer in the beta phase, and is now considered stable software! This means for all 100 games ScummVM officially supports (yes ScummVM hit 100 games for its 1.0.0 release, isn't that cool? :) ), the games have been extensively tested and were found to be completable with either no problems (like the DOS, Windows, and Macintosh versions of LucasArts SCUMM games!) or just minor graphical problems. There's no showstopping bugs in the games that are supported anymore!

So, go visit ScummVM.org and pick up ScummVM to play the LucasArts classic adventures before Grim Fandango (plus many more games from other developers!) for your Windows, Linux, Macintosh, BeOS, Amiga, or Atari computer. Or pick it up for Wii, iPhone, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, or any of the many other supported devices!

Ghost Pirates Gets a Publisher For Its English Release

Autumn Moon's Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island is already out in Germany, but fans outside of Germany have been wondering when we'll hear information about an English release. We don't have to wait any longer, because Ghost Pirates now has an English publisher, UK-based Mamba Games. According to their latest press release, the game will be released in 2010, but a specific release date has not yet been announced.

LucasArts Rumor #2: Monkey Island 2 SE

It's been a while since I last posted a rumor mill article, and surprisingly I hadn't yet posted about what is probably the biggest rumor going around. That rumor involves LucasArts creating a special edition of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge in the same vein as their Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition.

The rumor is beginning to pick up steam, with the release of issue 70 of the UK magazine Retro Gamer. This month's magazine has a Monkey Island cover, a retrospective on the series, and new interviews with Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Steve Purcell.

Even more exciting is that inside the article, Retrogames wrote this tidbit about future special editions:

As for the future, that will depend on how the current projects perform. But with The Secret of Monkey Island topping the Steam and XBLA charts, and Tales proving to be Telltale's most popular game in its history, we're confident that the story hasn't finished yet. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition is inevitable, and we're told by our friends at LucasArts that next March might be a special month for fans.

I'd also like to point out that not only has the Monkey Island SE been performing well on Xbox 350 and PC, but that it has also been selling well for the iPhone.

Another quote that hints towards a Monkey Island SE release comes from the ever helpful Laserschwart in the Mixnmojo post about this rumor. Retro Gamer contacted Laserschwart to get his permission to use his cleaned up version of the Monkey Island 2 artwork. Laserschwart had this to say about Retro Gamer's comments about his request:

Interesting side note: The Retro Gamer guys told me that when they went to get the okay from LucasArts to use the MI2-artwork, LucasArts was actually concerned about that, because - as they put it - "they haven't released Monkey Island 2 yet". Sounds like it's going to get a definite re-release... question is: will it be an SE?

As to the power of this rumor, I'd have to agree with Retro Gamer's comments that a special edition of Monkey Island 2 is inevitable. Whether the March timeframe is accurate or not remains to be seen, but it's pretty clear we'll be seeing a high resolution presentation of Guybrush's second adventure some time in the near future.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Demo

Capcom has put up a new browser based demo of their upcoming Nintendo DS game, Ace Attourney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.

In this installment of the Ace Attourney series, you take control of Miles Edgeworth, the longtime nemesis of Pheonix Wright. Rather than the first person perspective of the former games, this game takes place in a third person perspective, as you take control of Miles Edgeworth as he searches for clues and interacts with suspects and witnesses.

I have not played an Ace Attourney game before, but the demo makes me want to play more. I've heard nothing but praise for the Ace Attourney games, so hopefully this entry is worthy of its predecessors. If nothing else, it's good to see Capcom changing the formula up a bit.

Monkey Island Symbiote Statue Now Shipping

The Monkey Island Symbiote Statue is now shipping. It is a limited edition of 1000 pieces and is available for $90 from The LucasArts Company Store or directly from Symbiote Studios. If you buy the Monkey Island statue directly from Symbiote, they have a deal where you can get the Sam & Max statue for half price (usually $75 and also a limited run of 1000 pieces).

Ghost Pirates is Out in Germany

I was doing my usual checking of The International House of Mojo, and saw that Ghost Pirates of Voojoo Island, Autumn Moon's second game, is now out in Germany. German speaking people can pick it up from the dtp entertainment shop for €37,45 or from amazon.de for €32,95.

An announcement about an English release should be happening soon.

More Telltale Season Packs for $20

I'd just like to point out that not only is the season of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures $20 for a limited time, but Sam & Max Season One, Sam & Max Season Two and Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People are also $20 each for a limited time.

So, if you haven't picked up any of those seasons yet, now is the time to get them!

Telltale Celebrates Wallace & Gromit 20th Birthday!

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Wallace & Gromit short, A Grand Day Out, Telltale is celebrating with a lot of Wallace & Gromit Goodies!

First of all, the third episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures is now free for the PC until the 8th of November! Also, the entire season is only $20 during that time as well!

Every episode that is purchased will have a portion of the proceeds donated to Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation in the UK and Penny Arcade's Child's Play in the US. Free digital copies of the game will also be donated to children's hospitals supported by the charities.

Also, DVD pre-orders are now being taken for the season subscribers of the PC version from Telltale's website. Season purchasers will get the game for just the cost of shipping! It will include the four games, behind-the-scenes videos, image galleries, as well as the entire set of Wallace & Gromit's "Cracking Contraptions" shorts and more!

Lastly, it's been a long time coming, but now Xbox 360 players can play the entire season of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures because Telltale has released all four episodes to Xbox Live Arcade today!

Brütal Legend Downloadable Content Available

Brütal Legend now has downloadable content available for both Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The Brütal Legend Tears of the Hextadon map pack expands the Brütal Legend Stage Battle multiplayer experience with two new multiplayer maps. The Xbox 360 got the maps first. It's available since yesterday for 400 MS Points. However, PlayStation 3 users get the better deal. The content won't be available until tomorrow, but it will be free on that system until until November 19th, when it will become $4.99, whereas Xbox 360 users will have to pay for it from the get-go.

The two maps are called Circle of Tears and Death's Fjord. In the first map, Circle of Tears, vile waters have carved a rough-hewn circular battlefield into a forsaken land that players must circumvent to destroy their opponent. In the second map, Death's Fjord, players find themselves on an icy mountain pass with a dense cluster of fans that lie below, waiting to be harvested by those brave enough to capture them without cover from enemy attack. All players who download the new map pack will receive a free axe, the Blade of Ormagöden.

Tim Schafer hosted a multiplayer death match live from Double Fine showcasing the new maps, and GameTrailers has a video of it, if you're curious on how they play.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween again everyone! Once again, the treats are a-plenty on this holiday! Telltale's Dave Grossman has posted another one of his annual pumpkin pictures in The Pumpkin House of Horrors. He goes all out this year, with a total of eight carved pumpkins in the picture!

Next up, is the Telltale Halloween contest! Thanks to the flood of Monkey Island fans into Telltale's fanbase this year, the contest had more entries than ever! That means that the winner won't be announced until about the second week of November, but it also means there's a lot of really impressive fan art that can be shown off! Check out the Telltale Blog for those! Telltale's been adding more fan drawings in their blog posts every day! Oh, and of course, I entered in the contest again this year. Check out my video "A Telltale Halloween" if you want to. :)

And, for the final piece of Telltale-related Halloween goodies, The 2009 Homestar Runner Halloween cartoon is out!

Monkeys On PC and Inventors On Xbox 360

Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood is now available to season purchasers for the PC!

Also, in November Telltale celebrates Wallace & Gromit's 20th anniversary by bringing a lot of Wallace & Gromit goodies out. All four episodes will be available on Xbox Live Arcade on November 4th. Also on that day, Telltale will begin taking orders for the Wallace & Gromit PC bonus DVD. The DVD is packed with goodies, including the complete set of Wallace & Gromit Cracking Contraptions short cartoons!

Keep an eye out for more surprises from Telltale coming soon too. More Wallace & Gromit news should be coming soon, and Telltale's newest unannounced series should be announced soon, since it's in it's testing phase now!

CSI: Deadly Intent is Out!

Telltale's latest game based on the CSI Las Vegas series, Deadly Intent, is out now. The PC version will be able to be purchased and downloaded from Ubisoft's site on October 29th. The PC and Xbox 360 versions were developed by Telltale, but the Nintendo DS version was developed by Other Ocean.

Sam & Max Beyond Time & Space out on XBLA

Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space, formerly known as Season Two, has finally been released on Xbox Live Arcade in a bundle pack like the first season of Sam & Max on Xbox Live Arcade. Be sure to pick it up if you've never played it before or if you really have to catch them all when it comes to Xbox Live Arcade achievements. :)

Brütal Legend is Out!

Brütal Legend, the second game from Double Fine Productions, is now out in stores in North America for PS3 and Xbox 360!

Brütal Legend is the seventh game from the mind of Tim Schafer, who previously co-wrote the first two Monkey Island games (along with Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman), and brought us Day of the Tentacle (along with Dave Grossman), Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango at LucasArts, and Psychonauts at Double Fine.

Lucidity is out!

The LucasArts puzzle platformer, Lucidity, is now out on Steam, Direct2Drive, and Xbox Live Arcade.

If you are having problems running the game, this post on the Steam forums might help you.

Brütal Legend Demo is Out for Everyone!

The Brütal Legend demo release party is happening today. Yes, today is the day everyone who didn't pre-order Brütal Legend gets to try the demo out for themselves. A short promo video for the game is also out.

The party will have interviews, a live Twitter Q&A, live axe lessons, and a message from Tim Schafer. And they will also be giving away some goodies! It all happens at Noon PST (GMT -5).

Tim Schafer's 20 year anniversary!

Tim Schafer is celebrating the anniversary of his 20th year in the video game industry with a retrospective of his quest to start a career in the video game industry in 1989, including the much talked about but never seen comic that he drew and included with his job application to LucasArts (then known as Lucasfilm Games).

Congratulations on 20 years Tim! I enjoyed all the games you worked on, even when you were a scummlet on the NES version of Maniac Mansion. Here's to 20 more years! :)

Point-and-Click Adventure Game Review: Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People - 8-Bit is Enough

Here at long last is the highly anticipated* review of the fifth and final episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, 8-Bit is Enough, by The Adventuress.

This episode takes place immediately after the end of the last episode. After Strong Bad says the trademark line of Dangeresque, "Looks like I'm going to have to jump", he jumps off of the couch. Unfortunately, he lands right into his Trogdor arcade machine, causing the machine to spark profusely. In typical Strong Bad fashion, he blames Strong Sad for breaking the machine and coerces his big baby brother into telling him how to repair it.

Unfortunately for Strong Bad, Homestar gets in the way of the repairs and inadvertently causes Trogdor and many other characters from Videlectrix video games to appear in the "real world" of Free Country, USA. This is where the fun really starts. Just like Sam & Max Season One's Reality 2.0 before it, 8-Bit is Enough is a fun satire of video game cliches. Here though, fans of the Homestar Runner universe get treated to some great injokes since Strong Bad visits video game worlds of the flash video game "company" Videlectrix, from the creaters of Homestar Runner, the Brothers Chaps. This is definitely a love fest to the fans, so a familiarity with the Videlectrix games is highly recommended. There is also some fun general video game injokes, especially in regards to Nintendo, probably as a result of both the Brothers Chaps love for the company and due to the fact that this series is made with the Wii in mind.

The game world has considerably expanded this time, as you get to explore both Free Country USA as before (but with 8-bit video game artifacts spread about). You also get to explore the inside of the video game world and interact with the Videlectrix games inside of the Trogdor cabinet. The map returns, and both Free Country USA and game world locations are marked there for easy access, thankfully meaning you don't have to keep going out into the field to find the cabinet to get into the game world.

The puzzles seem to be the most fine-tuned out of the whole season here. They start out fairly simple, then get progressively harder as the game goes on. There aren't any real nailbiters here like some of he classic adventure games, which is expected since its been mentioned difficult nearly-nonsensical puzzles is something Telltale wants to avoid. Some of the puzzles are a little off the wall, but thankfully they all make perfect sense once you put your mindset into the world of Homestar Runner.

One extra that didn't make it (and wasn't in the last game either, is Teen Girl Squad). Like I mentioned before though, the customizable feature didn't really work, and the pre-made Teen Girl Squad was the most fun out of the season. If Telltale can make the comics more customizable and more funny next season, they'll be a good addition, but as it stands, I'm glad that they aren't in there just for the purpose of being there. The rest of the extras are still here though, and the trend of using the extras as plot devices continues. In this game, the Funstation game and the treasure hunting shovel are both used as plot devices. It really feels that Telltale has finally found the right amount of gameplay vs. extras ratio, and I hope that if there is a second season, Telltale continues to integrate the extras into the main gameplay.

8-Bit is Enough is the strongest game of the season in my opinion. The gameplay is tightened, the jokes are top-notch, and the ending has the best end boss yet in all of Telltale's games, including those in the Sam & Max games. The only thing that brings the score down a little bit is that it is such a fan-service episode that pre-hand knowledge of the Videlectrix games is pretty much required.

Final Verdict: 4 out of 5


* Like Strong Bad's dubious claims, the claim that this review is "highly anticipated" may not be entirely true.

Tales of Monkey Island Episodes are out everywhere!

Lair of the Leviathan, the third episode of Tales of Monkey Island, is now available from Telltale's website. Also, the second episode of Tales of Monkey Island, The Siege of Spinner Cay, is now available in Europe for WiiWare! There's lots of Monkey Island goodness going around for everyone this month!

Lucidity Trailer and Release Date

There is a new Lucidity Trailer at GameTrailers, with more gameplay footage and cutscene footage. LucasArts Workshop, the official LucasArts blog, also confirms the price. It will be 800 MS Points on Xbox Live Arcade and $10 on PC download services such as Steam. It will be available on both platforms on October 7th!

CSI: Deadly Intent Video Diary and Release Date

Gamer's Hell has a video development diary detailing environments and characters from season nine of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. They also have a release date for the game. CSI: Deadly Intent is scheduled to be available on October 20th, for Xbox 360, PC and Wii.

Telltale Seasons Only $19.99 This Weekend

Telltale Games Seasons on the PC are only $19.99 for this weekend only! If you've missed out on one of Telltale's seasons of Sam & Max, Strong Bad, or Wallace & Gromit, now is the time to pick them up!

Talk Like a Pirate Day Monkey Island Madness

In celebration of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, both Telltale Games and LucasArts are having deals on Monkey Island games.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is now half off, and is available for just $5 US at Steam or Direct2Drive for this weekend only.

Telltale is offering Talk Like a Pirate deals too! Launch of the Screaming Narwhal will be completely free, and the entire series will have a drop of price to $29.95 on September 19th only!

So, if you haven't picked up any of the new Monkey Island games, this weekend is your chance to do so!

LucasArts Adventure Pack on Steam

The four LucasArts games available on Steam, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and The Dig, are now available on Steam in a LucasArts Adventure Pack for only $9.99 US!

I haven't purchased any yet, so I'm definitely going to pick them up now. $2.50 per game is really hard to pass up! :)

Lucidity Officially Announced

GameTrailers TV aired on Spike TV, and Lucidity was officially announced. It's a puzzle platformer, where you don't actually control the little girl Sofi, but instead place objects in her path so she can keep moving.

Sofi is a little girl who lives with her grandma, but her grandmother is old and not doing so well. Sofi drifts into a sleep, and has to travel through worlds looking for her grandma. There are 30 main levels and 15 bonus levels which can be unlocked by collecting fireflies in the main levels. A price has not been announced yet, but Lucidity will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PC later this month.

I love games like these! I spent so many hours on Lemmings as a little girl, and I loved Doublefine's excellent flash game, Tasha's Game. My anticipation for this is really high now. :D

LucasArts Announcement Tomorrow

The Gametrailers LucasArts announcement happens tomorrow. As I mentioned in the last post, the LucasArts twitter page mentioned that it will be a new intellectual property, and the LucasArts blog has been hinting towards Lucidity.

However, the Gametrailers Preview shows blurred concept art from The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition when the secret announcement is mentioned.

The question is whether the Monkey Island art is hinting at something, or whether it was put there to throw fans off the scent. It's possible that a Monkey Island 2 Special Edition could be announced, but if that's the case it's curious that they showed Monkey Island 1 concept art. We'll just have to find out tomorrow. :)

Lucidity, a LucasArts Puzzle Game, To Be Announced

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or not, since I tend to only enjoy the adventure games by LucasArts. But Lucidity, a puzzle game for the Xbox Live Arcade that was revealed to Joystiq by an anonymous source in July, sounds like the game I'd really enjoy. Then, later in July, Joystiq released the first screenshot of the game. The art style in that single screenshot looks beautiful, so my interest was piqued even more.

Now, LucasArts has opened a new blog called the LucasArts Workshop. On that blog is a picture of people dressed up as Star Wars Jedi. On the right side is Sofi, the little girl who stars in Lucidity. She is holding a puzzle piece. There are four pictures in total, each with a puzzle piece. 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, and 4.jpg.

Thanks to fajerkaos in the Mixnmojo comments, the pieces have been combined to show art of Lucidity.
It looks like Lucidity is just about ready to be officially announced by LucasArts. According to an August 17th post on the LucasArts twitter page, Gametrailers will release an interview with LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez, where he will reveal a new LucasArts intellectual property on September 10. It certainly looks like Lucidity will be that new IP.

It's great to see LucasArts developing new titles with charming artwork again. My hopes for a LucasArts-developed adventure game are just a smidge higher now. LucasArts has officially gained itself back a fangirl. :)

Purcell's Tales of Monkey Island Cover Revealed

Steve Purcell's Tales of Monkey Island cover art has been revealed. The art is a giant picture at the PAX game show. They are also selling the art in poster form at the show as well, so if you're one of the lucky ones who were able to get a ticket to the show, stop by the Telltale booth and buy yourself one!

UPDATE September 6, 2009: Telltale's Twitter page has a better image of the artwork up now.

LucasArts Rumor #1: Maniac Mansion SE

Here's a LucasArts rumor for a change! It is so fun to be able to post about adventure game rumors at LucasArts knowing that these rumors actually have a chance to come true now! :)

On July 4, 2009, Jan "Laserschwert" Hofmeister reviewed the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition soundtrack. With the music that he was given was a file that was listed in the review as "Bonus Track: Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx Xxxx Xxxxx (Xxxx Xxxxx)".

On the Mixnmojo forums, ATM machine posted "I'm pretty sure the mystery tune is "Maniac Mansion - Main Theme (Rock Remix), which was confirmed by Laserschwert.

LucasArts has stated that if the Secret of Monkey Island special edition sells well, they'll consider creating more special editions. The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition is indeed selling well, landing the #1 spot for downloads on Impulse, Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and has been in the consistently in the top 5 in the iPhone App Store.

If the rumor of Telltale creating a Maniac Mansion episodic series turns out to be true, it's almost certain that LucasArts will re-release Maniac Mansion in some form in order to best maximize their profits on the series like they did with Tales of Monkey Island and the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition. With Maniac Mansion being a non-talkie game, it's very likely that they'll release a special edition over releasing the original on Steam.

With both the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition and the classic editions of LucasArts adventure games selling well on Steam, it's certain that Maniac Mansion will be re-released in some form in the future. With the chances of Telltale making an episodic adventure series based on Maniac Mansion being very high, the chances of Maniac Mansion getting a special edition are very high as well.

It would be great to see all of LucasArts non-talkie adventure games get the special edition treatment, but the first LucasArts SCUMM game would be a real treat. I loved the game on the NES, and I'd absolutely love seeing the game updated so modern audiences could enjoy it as well. :)

Telltale Rumor #2: Loom episodic series

After the last post about dramatic licenses, it's time to do another Telltale rumor feature!

Out of all the LucasArts properties, Loom seems the most unlikely for Telltale to choose for their episodic game model. However, recent comments have made the chances of a Loom episodic series coming into being increase dramatically.

In August 2009, in an interview with Total PC Gaming Magazine, when Telltale design director Dave Grossman was asked about LucasArts adventure game licenses, he stated "The one I always think about these days is Loom actually, and how ahead of its time it was. I think the problem with it at the time was that it was only two and a half hours long and now I find myself deliberately trying to design games that are only two and a half hours long. So I think... well, why not do that?"

Then, on September 3, 2009, in an interview with VG247, Telltale's CEO Dan Connors stated that Telltale was going to announce a new dramatic episodic series, rather than their usual comedy series.

Dan Connors said, “We’ve always believed that there was a chance to get there as well. We want to continue to evolve the genre. We’ve already evolved the genre in a lot of ways in what we’ve done with Sam & Max and Wallace & Gromit… but we believe there’s a lot of head-room to make more dramatic advances in storytelling and drama inside of this genre.”

So, with Telltale deciding to take on more dramatic series outside of their already dramatic CSI series, and Dave Grossman wanting to do a Loom series more than any other LucasArts series, the chances of a Loom episodic series from Telltale actually seem to be pretty high.

I for one would love to see Loom continued. It's the one LucasArts game that I feel needs a sequel, since the original game ended on a cliffhanger. I just hope that if it does come to fruition, Loom creator Brian Moriarty will have an active role in the series.

CSI: Hard Evidence On Steam

Steam, Valve's direct download service for Windows, now has CSI: Hard Evidence available for nine US dollars.

This is the first time that any of Telltale's CSI games have been available for purchase through direct download services. Here's hoping that the game is added to Telltale's own download service, Telltale Now, along with CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder (Deadly Intent would be nice too in the distant future :)).

Mixnmojo's History of Grim Fandango

I've been contributing reader opinions on all of The International House of Mojo's LucasArts Secret History articles, but I keep forgetting to post about them here! >_< They are on LucasArts adventure game 13, not counting the first LucasArts adventure game, Labyrinth. The articles feature informative reviews by the Mixnmojo staff, opinions by readers of Mixnmojo about the games, behind the scenes interviews with the creators of the games, and a trivia section about fun stuff that you might have missed or might not have known about. Read the Grim Fandango Secret History, and then read the other Secret History articles in their review section. You won't be disappointed. :)

Also, Colin Panetta, the artist of the Grim Fandango header art in Mixnmojo's Grim Fandango Secret History article has updated updated his blog with a "making of" the header art and wallpapers for download.

New Telltale Games

VG247 conducted a phone interview with Dan Connors of Telltale.

In that interview, it was mentioned that Telltale will be announcing new titles within the next few months. According to Dan Connors, "There’ll be some combination of things. I think we’ll be sticking with some of the franchises we’ve worked with, and we’ll be announcing some new franchises, probably in some new genres as well, not just comedy.”

Sam & Max Season Three will almost certainly be among the old franchises, since Telltale had already announced that the new season of Sam & Max will debut this year.

It's interesting to note that Telltale is planning on working on a dramatic license. They have delved in more series licences before with their games for Ubisoft based on the CSI series, but never in their main episodic downloadable games.

1UP LucasArts Reunion

1UP has posted a video interview of several former LucasArts designers talking about their time at LucasArts, and talking a little bit about what they are up to today (or at least as of 2008, when this interview was filmed).

 

It's a group discussion, and features Ron Gilbert (project leader of Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games, co-leader of The Last Crusade), Dave Grossman (co-writer of the first two Monkey Island games, co-leader of Day of the Tentacle, and design director at Telltale Games), Noah Falstein (co-leader of Fate of Atlantis), Bill Tiller (lead background artist on The Curse of Monkey Island, lead artist on The Dig, and founder of Autumn Moon Entertainment), Larry Ahern (co-leader of The Curse of Monkey Island), Mike Levine (lead effects technician on The Dig, and co-founder of Crackpot Entertainment), and Tony Hsieh (programmer on many SCUMM titles, also the project leader on Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi).

It's a great interview. The group talks about almost every adventure game LucasArts released, from Labyrinth to The Curse of Monkey Island, as well as several non-adventure games. They talk about the different climate changes in the management at LucasArts over the years, what killed adventure games at LucasArts, as well as what killed good games in general at LucasArts, and what almost killed the adventure genre. There is also an interesting bit in the middle of the interview that talks about cancelled games at LucasArts as well as games by the people in the group that never got out of the planning stages.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and watch the video. It's really a great treat for any adventure game fan. :)

Fan Game in Progress: Han Solo Adventures

Update January 14, 2014: The game's website is now dead, but the game is not. Stacy Davidson clarified that he killed the website because he'd rather have the game fly under the radar by developing it quietly and then releasing it when it's done, in order to avoid the legal department of Disney. The game can now be followed (and a demo can be downloaded) at this thread on his game development company's forums.

With LucasArts having me so excited about them getting back into the business of adventure games, I'm starting to get into the giddy fan girl mode over them again. :)

Part of being a giddy fan girl revolves around creating and enjoying fan creations that center around the company's creations. I'll admit, I've never been a big Star Wars fan. I just watched part two of the original three all the way through last year, and I've watched bits and pieces of part one and part three. I've also only watched bits and pieces of the new three, and I've never played a Star Wars video game.

The bit about me never playing a Star Wars game will change in the near future, however, if Stacy Davidson releases Han Solo Adventures. The game stars Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford in the first three Star Wars movies), and it is set before the events of the original Star Wars movie.

There is a clip on YouTube that Stacy created for the Star Wars Uncut project (which gives fans a chance to film 15 seconds of a scene from the original movie, and then the movie will be pieced together from those scenes). The scene in the video below includes voices (because it is a scene from the movie). Voice acting will not be included in Han Solo Adventures, it will be purely text like the "non-talkie versions" of LucasArts adventure games from the early 1990s.



Stacy has said that the first game will merely be the first chapter of the Han Solo Adventures. This is definitely one Star Wars fan project that I will be keeping an eye on. :)

Telltale Rumor #1: Maniac Mansion episodic series

Telltale is pretty close-lipped about their projects. They don't announce them until they are just about ready to release the first episode in the series. But that doesn't mean that they haven't given hints to what their future series might be. Lately, there seem to be quite a few mentions of possible new series at Telltale. So, I'm going to start a new feature here that looks at Telltale rumors and I'll dissect the probability of that property getting released in a completely unscientific way. :)

I'm starting this feature off with the biggie. Fans want a Day of The Tentacle sequel. After Monkey Island, it's probably the most fan-requested LucasArts property there is. And we already have Tales of Monkey Island to enjoy. So, what's the likelyhood of seeing an episodic game set in the Maniac Mansion universe?

In June 2009, after the announcement of Telltale licensing the Monkey Island series for Tales of Monkey Island, Videogamer.com interviewed Dan Connors, Telltale's CEO.

"I always think of Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island as the big three franchises," Connors continued. Seeing as two of the three are under the company's belt already, that makes DOTT the logical next step, but it's "having a 'wait and see' approach with Monkey."

As for the "wait and see" statement, things are looking good financially speaking for LucasArts to want to continue their adventure franchises. LucasArts' own Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition was #1 in sales on it's week of release on all of it's release platforms (Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, and Direct2Drive), beating out some heavy hitters in what are generally thought to be more popular genres. Telltale's CEO Dan Connors told Videogamer.com that Tales of Monkey Island is Telltale's "strongest performing franchise to date”.

It looks like the chances of this rumour coming true are very high. I personally can't wait to see the Edisons again after all these years. And, with Dave Grossman on the Telltale Team (he was the co-leader of Day of the Tentacle with Tim Schafer), the franchise couldn't be passed into better hands than Telltale.

Ghost Pirates Video Preview

Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, Autumn Moon's second game, is set to be released soon. The Pumpkin Post has a new trailer for the game available. It's on YouTube here, or you can play it below. Check out the box art in the final shot. It's preliminary (it says the box art isn't final, but it's nice to see boxart since that makes it just that much closer to being released :)).

Siege of Spinner Cay is Out!

Siege of Spinner Cay, the second episode of Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island series, is now out for the PC! The Wiiware version will follow shortly.

The Bogey Man and Guybrush

The Bogey Man, the season finale of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures has been released for PC today!

Also, the first episode of Tales of Monkey Island, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, was released for WiiWare a few days ago!

Lots of adventure goodies for various systems recently! It's a great time to be an adventure game fan. :)

The Bogey Man Comes Out Tomorrow

Telltale Games has announced that the last episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures will be coming out for the PC on July 29, 2009. Tomorrow!

Cracking job, lad!

iPhone Monkeys and Treasure Hunting Pirates

The iPhone version of the Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is now out at the iTunes store! So anyone who wants to play the special edition while on the go now has an option to do just that!

In other Monkey Island news, Telltale has a new treasure hunting minigame set up in Tales of Monkey Island called Guybrush's . Until the end of the season, Telltale will be releasing maps on various locations on the web, which can be used within Tales of Monkey Island to uncover some cool Monkey Island extras.

Once you discover a new treasure map, open up the first chapter of Tales of Monkey Island--Launch of the Screaming Narwhal (it works on the demo, too!)--and select "Treasure Hunt" from the game menu. Guybrush will arrive in the jungles of Flotsam Island, where you can have him start searching for the X. Once you find it, you'll be awarded some swag back at telltalegames.com. The prizes range from wallpapers to discount codes and other, not-yet-announced stuff.

Monkey Island SE is Out!

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is now out on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360, as well as on Steam and Direct2Drive for the PC!

It's so great to see LucasArts acknowledge their adventure game history for a change. Hopefully enough people buy the special edition so that we can see more of these in the future!

Telltale to Develop CSI: Deadly Intent for Ubisoft

Looks like Dan Connors little slip about "CS...oh" when talking about games that Telltale has in production with GameSpot's On the Spot show is now common knowledge. Ubisoft has a product page for a new entry in the Las Vegas CSI franchise called Deadly Intent with Telltale listed as the developer. Wii is listed as the platform, with Adventure Gamers stating a PC release is due out too. Other Ocean Interactive is developing the Nintendo DS version.

LucasArts Games Are Now On Steam

The 10 games from LucasArts that I posted about yesterday are now up on Steam. The games all come with their own updated Windows executable, and don't use DosBox or ScummVM. Some of their datafiles are now embedded in the EXE as well, as noted by bgbennyboy on the International House of Mojo comments section. So, they won't run in ScummVM.

But, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and The Dig are now available for the first time in over 10 years, so that's the most important thing. LucasArts also mentioned they are going to be announcing more Steam releases in the future, so here's to hoping their entire back catalog of adventure games will become available again in one form or another. :)

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is Out!

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, the first episode of Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island is out both on Telltale's website, and on Valve's Steam delivery service on PC.

The WiiWare version isn't out yet, but judging from Telltale's other console digital delivery releases, the WiiWare release date should be announced within the next couple of months.

Adventure Game Goodness

LucasArts announced that they will be re-releasing some of their older titles onto PC download via Valve's Steam delivery service. There are 10 games being released, and 4 of them are LucasArts' classic adventures. The four adventure games are:

• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LOOM
• The Dig

Joystiq has also posted news that the version of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure is a a "previously unreleased version" with "even more bugfixes" than the original CD-ROM re-release, along with a "Tandy 1000 sound engine."

LucasArts also confirmed the July 15th release date for The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition.

And, if that's not enough, later today the first episode of Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, will be released. There's still time to get in on the pre-order deal that includes a limited edition Steve Purcell-drawn cover-art for the DVD and a free episode of your choice of any of Telltale's series. But not much time. :)

MI: SE Release Date

1Up has updated their Monkey Island: Special Edition page with a release date of July 15th, which is unofficial for now until LucasArts confirms it.

Muzzled Out Now, Sam & Max Save the World on Xbox Live Arcade tommorrow

The third episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures was released for the PC yesterday. It will be released for the Xbox Live Arcade in the upcoming months. Sam & Max Save the World (formerly known as Sam & Max Season One) will be out on the Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow, June 17th.

Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis is out on Wii

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, LucasArts' classic adventure game from 1991, is now available on the Wii as an unlockable in the new installment in LucasArts' Tomb Raider inspired Indiana Jones action-adventure series, Staff of Kings.

This is LucasArts' first re-release of their adventure games in the United States in well over five years, and the first re-release to appear on a video game console (games released during the original timeframe non-withstanding). Thankfully, it's not the last, as The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition will be coming out for Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360, and for direct download for PC. I can't wait for that one. :)

Telltale to make Tales of Monkey Island

Tales of Monkey Island is the new episodic series from Telltale Games! Also, The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition rumor is true! LucasArts will indeed be rereleasing the classic original in the series on both the Xbox Live Arcade and the PC via digital download!

This is great news, and way more than I ever expected from LucasArts when I created this blog! :)

Brütal Legend Gameplay Impressions and Trailer

GameSpot has posted new impressions of the game, and have posted details about how the combat system works. It sounds fun, and humorous with the troops that you control being headbangers and teenage runaways. I'm not too sure about the strategy involved, as I don't really like real time strategy games, but it's mentioned as being RTS-lite, so it should be more direct and hopefully intuitive.

In (much) older news, this trailer was released two weeks ago, but I just watched it now. I wasn't too enthused about Brütal Lengend before, but I'm starting to warm up to it after watching this and reading GameSpot's preview. Tim's games always have great humor in them, and an engaging storyline. I'm not too much of a fan of multiplayer games, but the single player part should be fun.

Fright of the Bumblebees on Xbox Live

Fright of the Bumblebees, the first episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures, is now available on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live. A behind the scenes video is also available on the Xbox 360 as well. Also, the Wallace & Gromit episodes can now be purchased separately for $8.95 on Telltale's website. They were previously only available as part of the whole season package, and weren't available for purchase separately.

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition Coming to XBOX Live Arcade?

Wow. Here's something that I never, ever thought I'd post about. When I posted about the Destructoid article about LucasArts resurrecting a classic franchise, I never posted about their claims of Monkey Island or Grim Fandango being talked about by their source as an example of a "classic franchise", since I thought there was no chance of these games ever getting revisited.

Well now, it turns out that the classic franchise may indeed be Monkey Island: the original The Secret of Monkey Island in fact. First Eurogamer posted news about the official German ratings board USK, posting a rating for "The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition" for the Xbox 360.

Now Adventure Gamers has posted that their sources have revealed that the SOMI special edition is indeed coming, and that it will be on the Xbox Live Arcade rather than a retail release.

No one knows what changes this special edition will have, but if this does come to pass, even in a completely unchanged form, I'll be one very pleased gamer girl! :)

Telltale Texas Hold'Em Sequel Coming?

Telltale has a new poker and card game survey up. When you complete the survey, you are given the full Telltale Texas Hold'Em game for free. What's more, the survey seems to point towards Telltale creating a sequel to that game, which is their first and so far only casual game. A recent interview on Edge stated that Telltale is looking towards moving to casual gaming portals in order to increase interest in their brand. I'd love to see this come to fruition. My mom loves Pogo, and so do I, so an online multiplayer card game from Telltale would be right up both of our alleys.

Telltale is 5 Years Old!

Telltale is celebrating their fifth anniversary, and they are celebrating the occasion by offering any of their downloadable games (Telltale Texas Hold'Em, Out from Boneville, The Great Cow Race, or any single episode from Sam & Max Season One or Two, or Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People) for $5 instead of the usual $8.95. If you are a Telltale customer, you can visit this page to get a coupon code. You can give that code to friends so they can get a game for $5 too. What's more, for everyone that uses your code, you will get $1 in store credit to use at Telltale's Store.

If you aren't a Telltale customer, or you're feeling generous, you can Use My Code to get your $5 game and let me get $1 in the process. :)

Telltale has also reached another milestone to coincide with their anniversary. This press release states that Telltale has sold over one million episodes of their games across all distribution channels since the company began! Congratulations Telltale! Here's to 5 more years, and many millions more sales and games on more consoles, computers, and distribution channels to come. :)

Telltale Will Announce a New Series at E3

According to a Telltale press release, they will be announcing a new series at E3. Whether it is a new intellectual property designed by Telltale, or another licensed property is not known, but The International House of Mojo got the word straight from Telltale's Emily Morganti that the announcement will not be Sam & Max Season Three but is an entirely new series. Yay!

UPDATE (5/14/09): Destructoid says that a source has told them that LucasArts will be revealing plans to resurrect a classic franchise at E3. jp-30 mentioned in the comments at the mixnmojo article that Dan Connors said that he was in talks with LucasArts about licensing one of their properties, and that he would like to do an episodic game based on the Day of the Tentacle characters. Also, he pointed out that LucasArts renewed their Maniac Mansion (the first game in series that preceded the Day of the Tentacle) trademark in October. It's probably not very likely that these two announcements coincide, but I would love an episodic Maniac Mansion game! The original was the first adventure game I ever finished. ^_^

The Last Resort is Out Now

The Last Resort, the second episode of Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures is out now! I'm downloading it as I type this. I can't wait to play it. :)

I'll have a review up as soon as I'm done with it. :D