Jake Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 I'm guessing I'm not alone as someone who has made Mojo-adjacent content in the last few years and would like to share it. Maybe this thread can be a home for it? Anything you've made that you think Mojo Forums readers here might be interested in, but is small enough or old enough that it may not need its own thread, feel free to place it here! I'll start! Monkey Island 1 and 2 Livestream with Marius Winter and Dominic Armato A couple months ago, I did a complete playthrough of Monkey Island 1 and 2 on Twitch with Marius Winter (@Marius) and the voice of Guybrush Threepwood himself Dominic Armato (@Dmnkly). It was something Marius and I had been talking about doing for ages - we worked together at Telltale and both loved just talking about Monkey Island forever, and years later wanted an excuse to do that again - and having Dominic show up as a surprise guest made it even more special. If you want to watch the stream, you can watch the first video or view the whole collection of Monkey Island 1 and 2 (and a brief break to talk about Disneyland) here. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddevlin Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 I had a ball watching that stream on replay, and I'm bummed I seem to have missed it by a couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blondebeard Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 Thanks for sharing Jake! I have to admit that besides the confinement due to COVID, your livestream also had some impact on me for wanting to bring The Legend of Monkey Island back from the dead. Speaking of which, while designing the website at some point I got too ambitious and wanted to create a Dark theme that would turn on automatically while Dark Mode was on. I even got to the point of creating the night version of the banner I used on the top, but then I realised it wasn’t worth the effort. I still think the banner turned quite alright though. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 (edited) I guess one of the bigger things I did (literally) was using some machine learning models (via ESRGAN) to upscale all the CoMI backgrounds to 4x their size. All backgrounds can be found HERE, while I've posted several comparisons to the originals HERE. This is more of a proof of concept, because currently there's no way to use these inside the game (via ScummVM), plus all the sprites would need to be upscaled as well, which would be an enormous task on its own. Maybe I'll combine these with an offspring of the poster thread, in case someone wants to hang CoMI's backgrounds on their wall. And in the same vein I've also used ESRGAN (and further manual work) to clean-up and upscale the CoMI intro to HD resolution (while rebuilding the logo and credits): A side-by-side with the original cutscene can be found here: Edited August 9, 2020 by Laserschwert 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 I'm not fond of the idea that one of my first post on the forum is an advertisting message, but I'm still very proud to have had the opportunity to write a humble essay on the Monkey Island series published last year in France. So if there are French-speaking fans of Guybrush's adventures ... https://www.amazon.fr/Monkey-Island-Nicolas-Deneschau/dp/2377840906/ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) Ever since you've revealed that book I was hoping that one day we'll see an English translation. My French is way too rusty to be of any use here. On the upside, it gave us another Steve Purcell artwork (which I bought immediately!). Edited August 10, 2020 by Laserschwert 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nano Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure this book is particularly interesting for you or for the veterans of MixNMojo. You already know everything about everything there is to know about the series, adn the interviews that I have had may not have taught me much either. On the other hand, it was an opportunity to chat with all the LucasFilm / LucasArts alumni, and to write to try to find this atmosphere and ask myself this question : Why do we remember Monkey Island ? Regarding the translation of the book, I do not despair of convincing my editor to translate it into English. There is another language planned in the coming months, but unfortunately I cannot say more. Finally, it's true that Steve Purcell's drawing s fantastic. You cannot imagine the feeling I had when he accepter my proposal and especially when I saw the very first sketches... It was... amazing. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 You probably underestimate the nerdiness of Mojo readers. I think a book about Monkey Island with an amazing Purcell cover would be a must buy for many of us even if we knew everything that was in it. I really hope it does get translated into English. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 @Laserschwert Your backgrounds look so much better, even when scaled back down to 1x resolution. I have dreams of adding those backgrounds into ScummVM at some point so everyone can enjoy them with CMI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 Like @Jake pointed out, we did some really interesting and fun Monkey 1&2 streams with @Dmnkly. I'm really happy how they turned out. To me the point was to figure out why I am drawn to these two games so much, and better understand how they make me feel. I see both games from different angles now, and appreciate them even more today. Both of them don't feel like comedy games to me. They have tons of humor in them, but it's not the basement. I believe both games would still be great games if you remove the humor. Anyway, I would redo streaming both games again and again, because I am drawn back to the games forever. Thanks everyone for watching and participating in the chat! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted August 19, 2020 Author Share Posted August 19, 2020 Just saw this on the Sam and Max subreddit and... it’s pretty great. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) Oh wow. If they ever remaster the game, they need this. I just recently replayed HTR and the music was worst of any LA game IMO... but this shows how great the music actually is. Edited August 19, 2020 by ThunderPeel2001 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) 11 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said: Oh wow. If they ever remaster the game, they need this. I just recently replayed HTR and the music was worst of any LA game IMO... but this shows how great the music actually is. I think you're confusing the two games here. That cover version is from the soundtrack to Telltale's Sam & Max, not LucasArts' Hit the Road. The original version of that soundtrack already used a bunch of live instruments, so a remaster of it is hardly necessary (the orchestral parts of those soundtracks n the other hand would benefit from live recordings). The Hit the Road soundtrack is a great Jazz/Americana soundtrack though, which I would LOVE to hear played by live players. Edited August 19, 2020 by Laserschwert 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remi Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 Meanwhile, the TTG Sam & Max office theme is one of the true great tracks in the LEC+ world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted August 19, 2020 Author Share Posted August 19, 2020 Here's the Office track on the Telltale Sam & Max OST. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 Ha, I thought it was sounded way better than I remembered! 😂 I really have just never enjoyed Hit the Road's soundtrack. I think it did the "tacky Americana" thing a little too well. Fair play to TTG for doing a great job with their games. I should get around to playing Devil's Playhouse one of these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 29 minutes ago, Jake said: Here's the Office track on the Telltale Sam & Max OST. Ah yes. So good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinchpenny Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 Everything in this thread is awesome! @Jake, @Marius and @Dmnkly, your streams were so much fun and it was awesome to watch, get insight, and hang out in the chat (please do COMI and beyond!). @Blondebeard, I'm very happy to see your site back up, I used to visit it a lot back in the day. Great job on the relauch. @Laserschwert, your work continues to amaze, and if I had a multi-monitor setup then I'd be using that COMI background immediately. @Nano, thank you writing your book (I wish I could understand French) and getting Steve to paint an amazing new Monkey Island piece that now adorns my wall. As for my own stuff, here's a Sam & Max fansite! I launched it 10 years ago, but I spent a long time rebuilding the site from the ground up over the last year+, including rewriting all the content, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It even has an already-inactive forum! 😉 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 1 hour ago, Jake said: Here's the Office track on the Telltale Sam & Max OST. I loved the version recorded for "Poker Night at the Inventory": Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted August 19, 2020 Author Share Posted August 19, 2020 Yeah, Sam & Max by way of Lethal Weapon or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaliMonk Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 Wow it's been a long time since I posted on the forums, since then, well I guess the most notable thing is that I've taken over the reigns of Adventure Gamers from Marek about 5+ years ago.. Redesigning it entirely and even having Bill draw a new logo! Amazing as always (his drawing, not my design skills). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laserschwert Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 16 minutes ago, Jake said: Yeah, Sam & Max by way of Lethal Weapon or something. Just missing the smooth Murtaugh-sax. But now that you mention it, I don't know why I never drew the connection of Max being Riggs and Sam being Murtaugh. It's so obvious now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blondebeard Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 16 minutes ago, CaliMonk said: Wow it's been a long time since I posted on the forums, since then, well I guess the most notable thing is that I've taken over the reigns of Adventure Gamers from Marek about 5+ years ago.. Redesigning it entirely and even having Bill draw a new logo! Amazing as always (his drawing, not my design skills). That logo is really cool! I really like Bill TIller drawings. The lighting is always on point. He also did a logo for my website long time ago. I was really surprised when he replied to me and said yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remi Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 I sadly only have it in GIF format, but here is his old TSB logo. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blondebeard Posted August 19, 2020 Share Posted August 19, 2020 (edited) Also sharing mine. He actually sent me two versions: one just saying Monkey Island and the other with “The Legend of Monkey Island”. I believe the old SCUMM bar logo was also done by him which was also cool. Edited August 19, 2020 by Blondebeard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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