Udvarnoky

A month and seven days, I'm afraid.

You might be thinking of that time the then-president of LucasArts Jim Ward infamously suggested that the studio's legacy properties wouldn't be revisited until at least 2015. For context, this was 2006. That was the reason Mojo's serialized retrospective of all the graphic adventure games was called the Secret History series. Mocking Ward for those comments was still very much topical. I don't think it's what inspired the idea in the first place, but I wanna say @Gabez was the one who saw an opportunity to jokingly style what we were doing as if we were a dissenting newspaper under a totalitarian regime. There was also the prosaic fact that we were at a loss to come up with a good title and @Jake suggested from the sidelines that "Secret History" if nothing else was simple and sensationalistic. Nothing like making a dependency of a running joke that nobody remembers -- the Mojo way. Also I just uncovered the promotional campaign of fake movie posters Gabez made before he lost interest after Fate of Atlantis.

Oh, we’re doing a bonus disc? I wanted to avoid including any of my own stuff in my list, but within the disreputability of the forums I’m comfortable singling out Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix: The Lost Sequel to Fate of Atlantis (in many ways my training for the big Freelance Police article), Maniac Mansion and the Orphaned Tone (mostly for the header I convinced Remi to do) and Disinterring “Fiction by Louie” (because it felt like we genuinely got to unveil the most obscure thing of all time) as some of my favorites that I got to do. Articles that I felt were unjustly snubbed: The “watchalong” of Jake and Marius’s The Secret of Monkey Island stream during COVID; elTee’s failed attempt to get more than curt corporate platitudes out of Mary Bihr in what I call the reality check for the halfhearted “comeback” everyone wanted to pretend LucasArts was having in 2009; a Hulabee-era interview with Ron where he essentially proves he invented Telltale before even the cancellation of Sam & Max 2 and refers to a deleted moment in LeChuck’s Revenge where Wally gets eaten by a shark that he directly denied to us twenty years later; Lemonhead’s one-star fuck-you to Maniac Mansion; Bill Eaken’s exceptionally tea-spilling interview that is admittedly fused (as are a lot of fine interviews) to a Secret History feature instead of catalogued under Interviews.

Some new stills: I'm a little troubled by the waxen look given to the characters in the first one. Ford in particular looks like the mortician didn't have the grace to wait for him to die before getting on with it. I'm guessing that's an actual screenshot from the movie. Comparing it to a production still makes you wish they'd let those "tools" collect rust.

I feel like this will be more front-page worthy when the actual pages get scanned (which is wrong, by the way), but check out these covers for the upcoming Total Film magazine spread:

I wonder how many trailers have used that needle drop over the years. Has to be in the trillions. That's probably in the area of what UMG charges for it, too. Tropey as it is though, I can see them trying to establish the 60s in terms that blunt in the actual movie, to hammer home the "Indy is out of place in this era" aspect. It's right in line with Spielberg bringing Indy into the 50s with "Hound Dog."

What your eyes see is irrelevant, Jake. You just need to humble yourself to the reality that they know better. Interesting that in the end, the Paramount logo made the cut on the one-sheet. Does the mountain dissolve gag live after all?

As far as I'm concerned, the whole exercise was worth it for baiting you into sharing that. Good stuff.

Well…since this thread was made we’ve seen or will soon see the LRG treatment applied to Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Loom, Return to Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion – including the NES version, thus fulfilling this thread’s inaugural wish – and now Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders. I don’t know how long LRG’s arrangement with Lucasfilm is good for, but it’s starting to look like they might actually get through the whole SCUMM catalog at this rate. Will unabridged grail diaries feel the warmth of a printer again? Will you risk foreclosure for the chance to own a cheap replica of an orichalcum bead? Will your retirement be further preempted by individual Monkey Island releases? We’ll just have to see how the year plays out. When Maniac Mansion was announced, we thought the time was right to reach out to Limited Run and try to get answers on some of these questions. Though they were up for a second interview, Disney put the kibosh on it. I guess our questions were just too hot, but you can judge for yourself in our forever unpublished stub article we lashed together as a head start when we had taken it for granted we were getting answers back. Of course, the real casualty of all this is the Photoshop’d soup kitchen header art I was in negotiations with Remi to deliver. RIP.

You said it.

Looks faintly Zelda-esque, and is possibly coming out this year? https://mixnmojo.com/news/A-Little-Something-gets-a-little-closer

Having been watching the making-of documentary...I guess we know better now.

This is what happens when Commander Buttonhead is claimed by COVID.

Even Lucasfilm.com is flogging this thing. https://mixnmojo.com/news/Lucasfilmcom-gets-in-on-the-Maniac-Mansion-re-release-hype

Though all the attention’s been drawn to the de-aging effect on Harrison Ford for the 1944 prologue, Indy’s nemesis Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) will similarly be appearing in both eras of the story. Thought it was interesting to compare the character’s two “looks” as glimpsed from the promotional media. 1944 Voller 1969 Voller

More scandalously still, the NES box isn't directing me to check out the TV show now broadcasting on The Family Channel.

It's a shame that, as with Loom, they didn't think to throw in a reproduction of the Hint Book with the PC version, even though Hit the Road is getting one. Guess there are just brighter, more handsome minds behind the latter package. Also, it would be a total power move if the uncensored ROM is what wound up on that NES cartridge.

WHELP Three options: a Standard and a Premium for the NES version, and a Collector’s Edition for PC.

There are always a handful going on at any given time, and they’re always good for a chuckle. Whether you want a Fate of Atlantis poster for $750, or a factory-sealed copy of Maniac Mansion NES for $3,999.99, this is the thread to document and admire the breathtaking nerve of people who were brought up incorrectly – sort of the evil twin of the bargain thread.

Just EMI keeping the bench warm for the return of Ron and his preferred brand of humor.

True, but when they do it for the less obvious IP it feels like a little more meaningful a precedent where our prejudices are concerned.

The fact that a soundtrack album is being included in the ReMI box from Limited Run is an encouraging sign that the red tape has gotten a little more surmountable with Lucasfilm-owned (and thus Disney-owned) soundtracks. Even the Willow show's score has received a three-volume digital release from Walt Disney Records.

I was able to pick up EMI where I left off with the latest beta. Just finished the game. All water issues were fixed from what I could tell as well. I noticed only two minor things along the way: -Every time you perform a dive in the diving contest, there's a little scene where Guybrush walks back to the judges to see his scores. He gets briefly stuck along the way, every time. It only lasts a second or two, and he is always able to press on, but maybe whatever's causing this negligible issue relates to the one stalemating the chef in the LUA Bar. -In Monkey Kombat, some of the banana overlays representing health would occasionally linger behind when damage was taken. So for example, if three bananas were supposed to have been lost on a hit, you might only see the second and third of those actually disappear, creating a gap. That was all. Good stuff!