It’s Business Time

But before we get into Double Fine’s Kickstarter avalanche, let’s have a quick look at some mucking around courtesy of the forums:

Apparently, the latest version of DOSBox Staging has a dithering-removal feature, which… I’m sure it makes sense for some games, but if you try it with, say, The Secret of Monkey Island EGA, it seems a bit sacrilegious.

“anothercustard” took some time to demonstrate:

I’m not even sure what to say about that.

In other news, The Wolf Among Us Remaster hits the streets on October 29th.

And if you’re in the mood for some Maniac Mansion, Ron (not that Ron) has you covered.

Over to the headliner…

Amnesia Fortnight 2026: The Indie Reboot

By now you probably know about Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight Kickstarter, but in case you’re in need of a reminder…

Amnesia Fortnight is Double Fine’s annual game jam – two weeks when small internal teams come up with ideas for games, vote on favorites, and develop prototypes. This year, Kickstarter backers can vote on their favorites, and four games will be chosen for further development. And, in the end, one will reign supreme and be finished into a full game. That game, too, will be decided on by the backers/voters, and it will be released under the studio’s new Double Fine Action Labs label.

The whole jam will, to no one’s surprise, be documented by 2 Player Production.

Cool stuff, and a mere $15 will get you into the voting pool, albeit with only half a vote. And $100-million? Well, Double Fine will jump straight into Brütal Legend 2, so you better empty that piggy bank right now.

You can watch the first batch of pitch chats with Tim over on Twitch – more coming today. Or, we’ve got the thirty-second pitches listed here for ya, with a link to their respective short pitches:

Architactics presented by: Asif Siddiky – Architactics is a small scale, tactical city-builder where your structures can move around like giant robots and fight back against environmental monsters. The roads and zones you place will determine where your units can spawn and move to so that your citizens can live to see another week.

Astro Slam presented by: Jeremy Natividad – Astro Slam Intergalactic Pro Wrestling is a deck builder with tactical elements and story-driven branching paths.

Bard Crawl presented by: Jared Mills – An online cooperative adventure game where a bar crawl with up to three of your friends shifts into a fantasy dungeon crawler. Consume drinks, vanquish evil, collect treasure, and remember to settle your tab.

Brouroboros presented by: Alex Turner – Brouroboros is a local multiplayer party game where each player controls a snake head on a shared body. Bite, strike, and slide through chaotic, fast-paced gameplay to claim more body than your opponent before time runs out!

Centauride presented by: Lee Petty – Centauride is a two verses two game where you scavenge, build, and race a mechanical centaur. Centaurs take two to pilot, so choose who controls the front and who steers the rear and get racing!

Cosmic Bonsai presented by: Michael Tucker – Grow stars from scratch and keep them burning in this horticulture-inspired astronomical pseudo-simulation game. Patient observation is key to a healthy star, unless you want to see some super novae, in Cosmic Bonsai.

Dragons, Gels, and Bear-Owls, Oh My! presented by: Rocio Salas Dragons – Gels, and Bear-Owls, Oh My! is a chaotic, co-op survival game where you and your friends must take care of magical beasts through a series of progressively more difficult mini-games. Don't mess up or you may not survive the night!

ECHO presented by: Zach Baharov – ECHO is a music-based multiplayer 2D platformer, where your goal is to perform a short tune through parkour. Find the right elements in the world, then run a path through them to echo the given melody before your opponent.

Emergency Foley Artist presented by: Devin Kelly-Sneed – Emergency Foley Artist is a party game where you create silly cartoon soundtracks using an expressive interface. You and your friends vote to see who is most qualified to fill the role!

Fermi's Playground presented by: Oliver Franzke Enrico – Fermi famously asked why, in a galaxy this old and this large, we've never heard from anyone. Fermi's Playground hands you the controls: tweak the laws of nature to shift the odds of habitable worlds, sprinkle in supernovae and meteor impacts, run the simulation, and see what a galaxy full of curious explorers would actually take.

FRIENDSLAP presented by: Juli Gregg – Slap your way to the top of the scoreboard in this SATISFYINGLY SILLY and SLAP-TASTIC multiplayer arena! FRIENDSLAP!

Golem Hero presented by: Adam Kelsey-Giddings – Rogue-lite mix between Dynasty Warriors and Castle Crashers. Heal the earth and banish the overreaching blackberry bushes through Tai Chi-like movements with your friends; cultivate, don't destroy!

Insolation presented by: Derek Brand – Insolation is a survival game where you’ll pilot an agile spider-bot across a desolate landscape to find and protect the last few species of plants left on the planet. Traverse like a spider. Cling to surfaces, rappel on cables and swing across gaps while imposing machines patrol the space below.

Lesbian Sled Death presented by: Fiona Gallagher – Join the women's Rocket Sled Derby to impress your girl, in LESBIAN SLED DEATH: a four-player, jet-powered, full-contact racing game, where you don't always win by finishing first.

Lucid Gardening presented by: Matt Enright – In Lucid Gardening, you cultivate a supernatural garden of mysterious plants and animals. Support the Amnesia Fortnight 2026 Indie Reboot Kickstarter to vote for this and other game ideas to become playable prototypes.

MochiMochi Line Dancer presented by: Miyuki Richardson – Mochi Mochi Line Dancer is a fast-paced, fun game where you collect cute Mochis building the longest and wiggliest dance line before time runs out. The more Mochis you bring together, the more happiness you restore to the super sad person’s mind.

Muscle Madness presented by: Geoff Soulis – Muscle Madness is a 4 player creatine fueled race to see who is the swolest of them all!

Plot Armor presented by: Lauren Scott – Plot Armor is a turn-based RPG / visual novel combo in which your narrative choices in the latter affect your characters’ performance in the former. Characters who are involved in juicy storylines receive combat buffs to reduce their chances of dying, and characters who are neglected narratively are vulnerable to being killed off in battles.

Quokk 'N Roll presented by: TJ Joubert – This is Quokk 'N Roll - a "play with your friends co-op escape" game. In Quokk 'N Roll, you and your shaka of quokka want to escape the enclosure on Rottnest Island! Use your pouch to store items that can be useful in your escape. Cause mischief to distract humans and go see the world!

Reluctance presented by: Mike Doeren – Reluctance is an arena shooter that bends its genre according to player action. Will you indulge in dark magic, or allow the heavens to smite your foes?

R.U.N presented by: Keenan Patterson – R.U.N is a 3rd person action platformer where players must run from a mysterious force, making quick decisions to find the best path forward. Players use parkour moves, clever stealth, and a keen eye to make their escape.

Super Power Performance Evaluation presented by: Kee Chi – Super Power Performance Evaluation is a cooperative action puzzler where you use your randomly assigned super powers to perform heroic feats. Learn how to control and combine your powers with your friends to foil the bank heist!

Tonight We Feast! presented by: Peter Silk – Tonight We Feast! is a chaotic co-op caper about a fox, raccoon and pigeon trying to score a meal for the night in the big city. Hoodwink those hapless humans, turn your half-baked plans into the food-based heist of the century... then do it all again tomorrow! (Of note! Silk is a former Mixnmojo intern, so give this title some love! – Remi)

Tractor Takedown presented by: Seth Marinello – Tractor Takedown is a 4 player local battle game where players drive hotrod tractors to stop data center construction. Inspired by Blast Corps, Mario Kart Battle Mode and SSX Tricky, this game provides fast, fun battles for any party.

Uprise presented by: Jolie Menzel – Uprise is a kite-flying high-speed platformer where you'll build and fly kites to rise up against a mysterious invading force.

Virtual Pet Manifesto presented by: Merita Lundstrom – Virtual Pet Manifesto is a social idle game where you and your friends are virtual pets. Take care of each other, hang out, and define your new regime, all from the comfort of your desktop.

In Other Double Fine News

The studio can be found at PAX West from September 3rd through the 7th. Apparently, you can play their Mystery Small Game there, so check it out if you’re in the Seattle area.

This Week’s Poll

Looking at last week’s poll, 43% of you refused to let the dream die: “Elijah Wood behind a mask” won outright. “Thrik,” Mojo’s proclaimed-to-be-CEO-by-everyone-but-himself tallied an impressive 24%, while “Ryan Reynolds & Rob Mac” limped in with 14%. Hey, if they could make it work for Wrexham AFC… Finally, 19% picked the correct answer, “Other,” with Sushi linking to a questionable possibility from the official Thimbleweed Park forums.

This week then…

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 31 Aug: Open Your Hearts (and Wallets) for Another Amnesia Fortnight: Cancel your kids’ college tuition – this is an investment in who matters: You.

• 31 Aug: The Wolf Remasters on October 29th: And it goes noir, too.

• 29 Aug: Douglas Crockford recalls smuggling smut classic Maniac Mansion past the censors: Nintendo: “Offense was taken.”

• 27 Aug: Daniel Albu rages back to life, resumes EMI playthrough with art director: Jambalaya Island is your itinerary for these two hours.

• 27 Aug: A week of Maniac Mansion videos pledged by Ron’s Computer Videos: It’s also what most physicians prescribe for heart health, so you can see how it works out.

• 27 Aug: Sam & Max “War” song celebrated with subscription-walled memories: An oral history, conditionally available.

• 26 Aug: Farewell to actor Tim Curry: The actor played Doviculus in Brütal Legend.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 25 Aug: “in#####” – ... and back in again!

• 26 Aug: “damnit#” – Oh, we’ve upped the difficulty level a bit.

• 27 Aug: “mojole#” – ... 4 life!

• 28 Aug: “proper#” – Mojole is PROPER MOJO.

• 29 Aug: “xtreme#” – MojoleXtreme.

• 30 Aug: “##road#” – Sam & Max Hit the Road, but you knew that.

• 31 Aug: “psvita#” – Did you know Full Throttle was released for the PS Vita?

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Welcome to The Adventurer!

Thimbleweed Park 2 might just’ve been announced, but the Domino news-bricks are falling at an alarmingly awesome pace. The official blog has made its way online, while Bloomberg sat down with Ron and talked financing. And, perhaps most importantly, Laura Cress put together a video interview with the grumpy gamer himself.

For being so early in development, there isn't a lack of TWP2 information, and the video sheds light on a number of things. For example, the game won't try to explain away the OG’s rather controversial ending — if you have played Delores, that might not come as a shock. Meanwhile, the verb interface will be streamlined, yet maintain the classic point-and-click vibe. Physical boxes and other merch are under discussion. And, the mysterious investor is not Elijah Wood.

Go watch the whole video — it’s as excellent as anything we've come to expect from Cressup.

In non-TWP news, Neil Cicierega — you may remember him from the Mojo Forums during the early aughts — has done some palette magic in DOSBox.

EGA has never looked so realistic.

And, if you're interested in how the Anthology statue of Guybrush came to be, here’s your chance.

Looks like we're in for a Ron-filled couple of years, and we’re all better for it.

— Remi

This Week’s Trivia

So, in lieu of a stable MojoDB, we went with the second… third… maybe fourth… best option: Using The SCUMM Bar as TWP Central. It's a work in progress — like most anything Mojo ostensibly “does” — but it's also as good of an excuse as any to toss in some TWP trivia…

Sandy & Dave Lives

There are some characters in Thimbleweed Park that appeared in older games. Perhaps most prominently, Sandy and Dave from Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick’s Maniac Mansion.

Dr. Fred’s Office

Also making a comeback from Maniac Mansion: Dr. Fred’s office, or at least a replica of it.

Call Edna for a Good Time

Even more Maniac Mansion — Edna makes an appearance in the most Edna-style way.

Ron Gilbert’s Graphics BASIC

Delores’s copy of Graphics BASIC is real and was indeed written by Ron Gilbert and Tom McFarlane. HESware released it for the Commodore 64 in 1984 (some sources claim it was 1983). (Image nabbed from eBay.)

This Week’s Poll

The polls were, perhaps not surprisingly, busy the last time around, and 87% of you named TWP2 an instabuy. 3% said it was too early to tell, while 10% simultaneously admitted to being friendless losers and that they weren't buying the game. Sheesh, just unsubscribe right now1.

This week’s poll:

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 15 Aug: Ron Talks Thimbleweed Investments: … and the possibility of a future Monkey Island.

• 15 Aug: Telltale Hosts Choices Matter Festival Steam Sale: Discounts on Telltale and other choices-and-consequences games

• 13 Aug: Guybrush resin statue backstory: revealed: And you probably thought it just sprouted into existence.

• 11 Aug: Reimagining The Secret of Monkey Island with softer colours: Some love EGA, others can’t go without VGA. How about neither, eh?

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 09 Aug: “mark###” – Mark Darin -- Telltale veteran.

• 10 Aug: “wii####” – They sadly downgraded Tales of Monkey Island for the Wii.

• 11 Aug: “boen###” – Man, Earl Boen was awesome as LeChuck.

• 12 Aug: “#fish##” – Cavefish. ‘Why put fish in a game about bikers?’ - A Wise Man (paraphrased). Also, Joey the Fish.

• 13 Aug: “hit####” – Sam & Max Hit the Road, but you knew that.

• 14 Aug: “year###” – Mojole turns a year today! Basically the longest-running Mojo project of all time.

• 15 Aug: “bye####” – And as it has been a year, we decided to shut down Mojole. :(

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

We’re all on our CEO-mandated summer holiday — for tax reasons, natch — but there are limits to his benevolence. Like, should Ron Gilbert announce Thimbleweed Park 2? It’d be back to work for all of us, no matter if we’re limited to working on our iPads.

And, here we are, back to work, on less-than-ideal devices for typing. I apologize for any and all oddities.

TWP then. Go read the whole announcement, but to toss out a few highlights:

Mark Ferrari, Gary Winnick, David Fox, Octavi Navarro, and Robert Megone are all back, which is universally good news. I guess Ferrari was pulled out of retirement to a tearful applause from every EGA aficionado. Take my money and all that.

The TWP dev blog will be back, which is great news for Mojo — stealing reporting news will be much easier.

The game will be self-published with the help of a private investor, who we can exclusively reveal is not Thrik.

TWP will be available on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and you can wishlist the game on Steam. A GOG version will also see the light of day. I’m not a gambling man, but if I were, I’d put down a few bucks on other platforms being made available as the game gets further into development — release date is some ways out: 2028.

Mandated Reading

So, there’s very little information out there as of yet, so why not enjoy some Mojo content from the original game?

Our interview with Gary Winnick and Ron Gilbert: In retrospect, it was a bit premature, but what can you do?

The timely review: We liked it.

And that was it. Yow. Kind of embarrassing, but those were meager years for us, and, as far as I can remember, the end of Mojo was nigh. Luckily, the CEO’s power play put us back on course.

This time we won’t drop the ball. At least not quite as frequently.

— Remi

This Week’s Thimbleweed Park Trivia

Look, I swear to god, we’ll put some effort into our OG-TWP database entry. For now, here are the three trivia pieces we got.

Bonus: During the pando, I made a web version of the in-game White Pages. How many Mojoers can you find?

Bonus bonus: Ransome is our Fun Zone mascot.

Bonus bonus bonus: Twenty-two years ago we coined Ron’s oh-so-commonly-used nickname, “Ronzo.” More below.

Rock Out to TWP

Buy the sucker on Bandcamp. I mean, yeah, you can find it on the ‘tube, but it’s worth the purchase.

Poll: Ya Guessed It

TWP2 — will you buy it?

Historical Moments in History

• 22 years ago this week, We coined the term “Ronzo.”

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 29 Jul: Ron announces Thimbleweed Park 2: Coming your way 2028.

• 28 Jul: Double Fine Reportedly Hit With Layoffs: Bummer of a news day.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 23 Jul: “##bat##” – Batch file -- you used them to run LEC games in DOS.

• 24 Jul: “house##” – International House of Mojo. Come on!

• 25 Jul: “demo###” – LEC games often had demos.

• 26 Jul: “rapp###” – Rapp Scallion. RIP.

• 27 Jul: “nicki##” – Nicki Rapp: Common TTG and Double Fine actor.

• 28 Jul: “debug##” – Debug mode -- how you really get into those SCUMM games.

• 29 Jul: “sound##” – It could be a royal pain getting sound working in those DOS LEC (or otherwise) games.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz Niemendwasser.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Welcome to The Adventurer!

If you feel like you haven’t seen a lot of us recently, you would be right. No, we didn’t shut down after a hundred issues; instead, the CEO graciously permitted us to watch the World Cup over the last few weeks1. Frankly, with Norway facing England in tomorrow’s Quarterfinals… that might be the end of this whole operation. Sides have been chosen, and the outcome will probably affect Mojo forever2.

All eyes were, of course, on the US-Belgium game a few days ago, after the President told FIFA to conveniently forget Balogun’s red card. And after the subsequent trashing by Belgium, said President once again had words.

Moving right along…

The biggest news of… well, probably the year, maybe even longer… is Double Fine escaping Microsoft/Xbox’s axe by yet again going indie. Tim’s statement:

Once again, Double Fine Productions will be an independent studio.

We’re thankful to everyone at Xbox for seven great years together, and for working with us to reach an outcome which preserves our history and culture, and returns ownership of our games to us.

To everyone who has reached out to us these past few weeks: Thank you so much for all your kind words, we’ve been deeply touched by all your messages. We will share more news soon on what comes next.

Your continued support is greatly appreciated,

Tim & All at Double Fine

There’s a lot to unpack there, and though many’s shoot-from-the-hip reaction is that it’s universally a good thing – which is partly true – we’re also stepping into dangerous waters. What kind of funding, if any, Double Fine has is an unknown at the time of writing. Still, it’s hard not to be excited by a truly independent Double Fine. More to come, I’m sure.

In lighter news, The Dig is getting a documentary! Danish film editor – Golden Globe voting Danish film editor – Johan Albrechtsen is close to releasing a long-form video on the game, and the trailer looks pretty sweet.

Sean Clark, Michael Land, the gang is all there. A good reminder to check out our Secret History article on the game to reminisce about The Dig – we treat you so fine.

That’s about it – now go enjoy the not-at-all-corrupt World Cup.

🇳🇴 Remi

This Week’s Trivia: The Dig

We don’t have a whole lot of funsies Dig trivia, but here’s one where the game’s spider appears in The Curse of Monkey Island.

Soundtrack of the Week: Also The Dig

I mean, good grief, what a banger…

This Week’s Poll: Even More The Dig

I guess the defunct Adventure Gamers website wasn’t something most of our readers cared that much about. Only five (5) of you voted in our previous poll, where 80% frequented the site in its heyday, and 20% did not. You do the math for the actual numbers.

Today, fess up: The Dig – were you a fan or not?

Historical Moments in History

• 17 years ago this week, Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal releases.

• 16 years ago this week, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition launched. It got Mojo quoted on the box, so there’s that.

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 10 Jul: Dig This Documentary: The Dig is about to hit it big.

• 06 Jul: Double Fine Goes Indie: Double Fine finds a way.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 03 Jul: “#master” – Remaster my ass.

• 04 Jul: “summer#” – The SCUMM Bar, meanwhile, has kicked off its Summer of Retro.

• 05 Jul: “the#bar” – Yep, the Bar thurns 30 this year.

• 06 Jul: “##retro” – Hence why there’s a Summer of Retro.

• 07 Jul: “thirty#” – Thirty years old, though, sheesh.

• 08 Jul: “##dash#” – Yep, twenty-nine.

• 09 Jul: “next###” – Next year? Mojo turns thirty!

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

And They Said It Wouldn’t Last…

… “they” being us. But here we are, four years later, one-hundred issues, and still kicking. Who’d have thunk it? Plus, Mojo Proper turned twenty-nine a couple of days ago. You can’t keep a good, snarky site down.

The real world, meanwhile, isn’t quite as shiny.

Double Fine looks to be one of the studios facing the chopping block, courtesy of Microsoft. Tim Schafer’s two-headed baby is, apparently, in negotiations to go independent again, so let’s keep our fingers crossed. Double Fine itself approaches it with its usual quirky humor, at least publicly.

The Wolf Among Us 2, meanwhile, is the game that keeps on stumbling. For a second, it was all roses, until it was revealed that one Zak Garriss will direct the game. On his resume: “breaching ‘personal boundaries’ with female coworkers,” calling BLM a “hate group,” removing a transgender character from Life is Strange: True Colors, and forcing his team to “list their political affiliations.”1 I don’t even know… Why can’t Wolf Among Us catch a break? The original game was excellent. C’est la vie, and we’ll see what happens next.

It’s not all bad, though, and after a long process, we finally got the gone-but-only-sort-of-forgotten Adventure Gamers Forum backups online. They’re read-only, of course, but serve well as a deep dive into what the “community” looked like in the aughts. Read at your own discretion.

More to come soon. Truly!2

– Remi

The Psychonauts That Was

Not trivia as such, but we fixed a bug in our screenshots database, and the old Psychonauts gallery is back online. What’s so significant about that? Have a gander…

Yep, it was definitely a different game at some point. What’s that brain truck all about?!

This is also a good excuse to check out our “Return to Double Fine” article and its accompanying gallery.

“Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp”

A great track from Psychonauts – why wouldn’t you want to listen to it on a ten-hour loop?

This Week’s Exercise in Democracy

Going by last week’s poll, 62% of you have been around the Mojosphere for the last twenty to thirty years. Good on you! 15% picked ten to fifteen; 8% fifteen to twenty, while 16% of you are relatively new – ten years or shorter. Really, tell all your friends about Mojo, it’ll make their lives better.

This week:

Historical Moments in History

• 29 years ago this week, Mojo (the most important site on the internet, probably) launched!

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 18 Jun: Adventure Gamers forum archive lives – on Mojo: Was there ever any doubt we’d come to the rescue? Apart from me, that is.

• 17 Jun: The Wolf Keeps Being Cursed: It’s still among us, though.

• 15 Jun: Double Fine among Xbox studios facing closure: Microsoft’s generative AI investments, you’ll be happy to hear, appear uninterrupted.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 11 Jun: “devil##” – Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse. Excellent game!

• 12 Jun: “time###” – Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space. Great game!

• 13 Jun: “save###” – Sam & Max Save The World. Fun game!

• 14 Jun: “poker##” – Poker Night 2 was quite decent.

• 15 Jun: “##q####” – Brendan Q. Ferguson. I don’t know what the Q stands for, but it IS his middle name.

• 16 Jun: “roy####” – Roy Conrad was the voice of Ben Throttle.

• 17 Jun: “titan##” – Titan AE: I found it interesting that Roy Conrad appeared in this film. But I digress.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

When Is a Hundred Ninety-Nine?

Fans of the original The Adventurer – that is, the LucasArts newsletter – will know there was no issue thirteen. The same applies to our Adventurer – we skipped number thirteen, thus we still have one more to go until our grand anniversary.

The SCUMM Bar’s Summer of Retro

Your favorite Monkey Island site, The SCUMM Bar, isn’t quite a hundred years old, but as it rapidly approaches thirty, it might as well be. So, what’s going on around those parts? A lot of stuff, really, all leading up to our September 17th anniversary.

First, we’ve unearthed a bunch of articles and are gradually re-adding them. Of note:

The Brimstone Beach Club Bill Tiller IRC Chat: Brimstone Beach Club was a short-lived website hosted on The SCUMM Bar. It actually produced some pretty good content, the best being a long chat with a rather spicy Bill Tiller (“But secret being that the whole MI world is imagined sucks.”). Check out the whole site on archive.org.

Monkey Island – The Revelation: Apparently, no one listened to Tiller revealing what the secret was, as the debate raged until Return to Monkey Island finally settled it. In 2002, we posted a longer article by one Ralgath (aka Jorrin Quest), which summed up what Monkey Island 2’s ending really meant – how the games were a child’s imagination, and so on and so forth. It feels a bit quaint these days, but at the time, it was about as “controversial” as a Monkey Island article could be.

Oh, and I keep using that image above because, c’mon, it’s all but stated right up front that you’re in some sort of theme park.

Links of Yore: If you want to explore a couple of hundred gone and forgotten Monkey Island fan sites, well, here you go. Just wait until you see World of Monkey Island. No, not that World of Monkey Island; this World of Monkey Island.

Gilbofest ’05: Presented without comments. ¬

Let’s call that good for today. More to come, believe it or not.

– Remi

The SCUMM Bar Logos Through the Ages

Because why the hell not? And to make it trivia worthy: The current (and previous) logo was designed by Bill Tiller. What do you mean you already knew that?

The Secret of Monkey Island: The Amiga Version

Selfishly, as someone who played the Amiga version back in ‘91 or whenever it was, I’ll throw that soundtrack in. Four channels of MOD goodness.

This Week’s Poll

We asked, “Would you like a Full Throttle sequel?”, to which 57% of you said you would if Tim Schafer were in charge. 21% didn’t care who made it, while 21% flat out said “no.”

I think we’ve asked a similar question before, but either way, this week’s poll is all about your resilience.

Historical Moments in History

• 17 years ago this week: Both Tales of Monkey Island AND The Secret of Monkey Island Special were released.

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 03 Jun: LucasArts compatibility guru Lynn Taylor has got stories: Retire early so you can hear them.

• 02 Jun: Collette Michaud and Sean Clark speak: Another pair of LEC veterans get subpoenaed.

• 02 Jun: Puzzle Agent It Up: Merch coming your way.

• 01 Jun: Marcia Lucas passes away at 80: The Academy Award winning editor helped shape several classics.

• 01 Jun: It is still always Pride Month: Have no fear, it’s queer-friendly here.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 29 May: “orson##” – Orson Scott Card: Wrote the MI1 insults.

• 30 May: “card###” – Orson Scott Card: He STILL wrote the MI1 insults.

• 31 May: “xd#####” – Grog XD. From Tales. Y’know.

• 01 Jun: “scott##” – Orson Scott Card: He ALWAYS wrote the MI1 insults.

• 02 Jun: “tides##” – On Stranger Tides -- a source of inspiration for Monkey Island.

• 03 Jun: “code###” – You have to code those games. Also: code wheels.

• 04 Jun: “win####” – You want to WIN those games. Also, Windows -- an oft-seen LEC platform -- is often called Win.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Let’s just jump into it, shall we?

A Week+ of Features

Kiln, Pretty Much Reviewed: Maybe “impressions” is a better word for it? Either way, the article’s out there, and it is positive. Online multiplayer games aren’t really my thing, but Kiln’s fast, fun, and casual gameplay makes it an exception to the rule. I didn’t hear any twelve-year-olds yelling slurs at me, either, so that’s always a bonus. Read the review/feature if you so like.

Meanwhile, AI pushes traffic our way in unexpected ways: Meaning, AIs are – surprise, surprise – dumb, and it benefits all of us. Especially The SCUMM Bar.

To quote the article I wrote in the wake of the discovery:

Recently, I noticed something weird over at The SCUMM Bar: Over the last year, there was a noticeable uptick in traffic to our walkthroughs. Why? I couldn’t think of any reasonable explanation – surely everyone uses AI for game hints these days.

Well, turns out AIs likely were the inadvertent reason for the spike. When it comes to walkthroughs, they are, as it seems, a whole lot more artificial than intelligent. To wit, I decided to take a look at how our friend, Claude, could help us with a few common Monkey Island head scratchers.

I usually scroll past AI hallucination posts, but in this case, I couldn’t help but collect a few bizarre examples myself.

Hell, it amused Dave Grossman, so maybe the article will amuse you, too.

Speaking of The SCUMM Bar

The backlog for The SCUMM Bar content is, for the lack of a better word, vast. But, once in a while, not often, but now and again, I roll up my sleeves and… well, I put in a minimal effort.

First, I put up a short video showing some of the oddities from The Secret of Monkey Island’s Mac version.

Weird musics – plural – and anti-aliased graphics? What’s not to love? Check out our (currently under re-development) version comparisons for more.

Meanwhile, over on The Curse of Monkey Island’s Story Document section, you can find a map/puzzle-flow illustration from what was once known as The Pirate Curse of Monkey Island.

Monkey Island Frantic – Updated

Among the many iOS 26 oddities was Safari’s borked-up datalists (typeable drop-down lists). The new implementation made Frantic too frantic to play in any fair form. All this to say, we’ve released a beta version of the game that fixes the issue. And, we’ve added a bucket full of new images to add some variety. Feel free to read the release notes, or, even better, run and play Monkey Island Frantic Beta right now!

Our Grim Fandango Contest Winner…

… is Matt! Who, as the only entrant – sheesh – won by default. Matt, I’ll contact you within the next couple of days. Congrats!

– Remi

This Week’s Trivia: Full Throttle 2 – Hell on Ears

Here’s a bit of a different one. When Mojo attended E3 back in 2003, we – well, they1 – got a demo of Full Throttle 2: Hell on Wheels courtesy of Dale Geist. This is from our preview.

“Or turning left! Or right!” became a Mojo favorite for a while. And to give you an idea of what Full Throttle 2 would have looked like…

Look, it’s easy to make fun of what could have been – it didn’t look great. That’s not to say it wouldn’t have been fun, though. The announcement trailer wasn’t that bad.

… though maybe not that good, either.

As part of our Secret History article on Full Throttle, I put together a short section on the game’s failed sequels. A lot of the information was based on anonymous sources, which makes me sound like a really important journalist.

Finally, a few unfinished Hell of Weel cutscenes have since leaked. Make of them what you will.

Soundtrack of the Week: Full Throttle – The Gone Jackals Mini Soundtrack

Hey, the original’s soundtrack ripped.

This Week’s Poll

Last week was all about the awesomeness of the “ReMI” (“Return to Monkey Island”) and “SeMI” (“Sea of Thieves: Legend of Monkey Island”) abbreviations. The supermajority agreed with us (62%) that they were super clever – I mean, come on – while 38% of you just didn’t know what’s what. 🤷

This week:

Historical Moments in History

• 16 years ago this week, Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 19 May: Actor Tom Kane has passed away: He performed in various Star Wars games, Grim Fandango, and Monkey Island.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 14 May: “red####” – Red Edison: Fred Edison’s ancestor.

• 15 May: “ed#####” – Ed Edison: Fred Edison’s son.

• 16 May: “weird##” – Weird Ed Edison: Fred Edison’s son’s more informal name.

• 17 May: “edna###” – Edna Edison: Fred Edison’s wife.

• 18 May: “nurse##” – Nurse Edna Edison: Fred Edison’s wife and her profession.

• 19 May: “jed####” – Jed Edison: Fred Edison’s ancestor.

• 20 May: “zd#####” – Zd Edison: Fred Edis... look, are you seeing a pattern here?

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

First, happy Cinco de Mayo!

And yes, that’s as close as we came to a culturally appropriate screenshot. Anyway, let’s have a contest! In the comments, name the exact title of the screenshot’s origins. A correct answer earns you an entry to win this Xbox One copy of Grim Fandango Remastered. And, we’ll give you a bonus entry if you can figure out what platform the screenshot is from.

Why Grim? It’s what I got lying around in my closet, gimme a break.

Status of Our Kiln Review

My current progress:

1. Download Kiln. ✔️

Moving right along…

Return to Monkey Island and ReMI and How Narcissism Is a (Literal) Construct and How This Is All elTee’s Fault…

… per usual.

Over the past four years, many fans have angrily noticed that Return to Monkey Island is commonly abbreviated ReMI. And frequently, they blame us for it. To wit…

Well, Mojo’s fact-checkers decided to dig into it and went to the subject’s one source of truth: Claude.

But are the detractors correct? Is ReMI in any way related to Mojo and the narcissism of one Remi (that’s yours truly, in case you haven’t already figured that out)? This is what the always-reliable, never-wrong ChatGPT has to say.

“ReMI” is, and I quote, “so natural that it doesn’t really need a deeper origin. [..] no evidence the abbreviation was coined with him in mind [..]“ So, I guess that’s that. No gaming on Mojo’s part – it’s a rock-hard fact.

I mean, unless you look back at our Slack archives from April 4th, 2022, the day Ron announced ReMI.

Whoops… OK, fine, maybe we did come up with it, but as evidence shows, it’s clearly elTee’s fault.

As far as AI goes, in the words of the man himself:

Even the AI machine designed to stroke your ego can’t comprehend the possibility that this was all narcissism

My final words on the subject:

Either 1) AIs are incredibly intelligent and good-looking, or 2) manipulating an AI is ridiculously simple.

And if your takeaway from all of this is that we have preciously little to write about these days, you aren’t incorrect.

This Week’s Trivia

Tim Schafer sprung an interesting tidbit of trivia after seeing one of our “Screenshot of the Day” posts – looks like he was the one responsible for drawing the Hook Isle sign:

The screenshot in the post was the Amiga version; presumably Tim’s artwork originated in the original EGA game…

He proceeds to say:

I think Steve Purcell added the shading on “restrooms” and “souvenirs.” And then was like, “That’s it. I can’t look at this anymore. It’s done!”

Which is a good point – those are the only two words with a drop shadow.

The river called SoMI keeps on flowing.

Soundtrack of the Week

People also loved our SeMI abbreviation…

… so let’s just give that a listen.

This Week’s Poll

Last week, 73% of you said you were not grabbing Kiln. 9% already got it, and 18% are waiting for our review. So… yeah, we’re getting there ever so slowly.

This week:

Historical Moments in History

• 19 years ago this week, Sam & Max Save the World: Bright Side of the Moon released. (Technically released Apr 26, but who the hell subscribed to GameTap?)

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 28 Apr: “hugh###” – Hugh Bliss. See, I did the ol’ switcharoo there.

• 29 Apr: “huz####” – Likely the world’s most dedicated Mojole player, which says a LOT.

• 30 Apr: “jimmy##” – ... Two-Teeth. Rat in Sam & Max.

• 01 May: “mary###” – ... Two-Teeth. Rat in Sam & Max.

• 02 May: “steve##” – ... Purcell. Famed Pixar director.

• 03 May: “cave###” – The Cave: Majorly underrated Ron Gilbert/Double Fine game.

• 04 May: “rad####” – Double Fine game. Didn’t do it for me.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Welcome to The Adventurer!

We have, weirdly enough, been pretty on time with our reviews as of late. Poker Night Remaster, Death by Scrolling… even Keeper hit the web the day of release – and that was when Mojo experienced one of its infamous downtimes. Worry not, though, as we have broken that kind of uncharacteristic timeliness with last Thursday’s release of Kiln. Will we ever review it? Maybe! It looks like a lot of fun, but online multiplayer games are generally not Mojo’s “thing.” I’ll try to get to it myself if need be.

If you are playing it and are looking for opponents, we have a few forumites jumping into the fray. You, too, can clobber Tim.

Anything else? Is anything stirring in the world of Mojo? Doesn’t look like it. Whatever, we’re not gonna make up news or anything1.

Until next week then!

– Remi

This Week’s Trivia

Psychonauts 2: Hollis Forsythe – Employee of the Year. Sort of.

After the end credits, Hollis Forsythe will tell you she received the “Employee of the Year” award. A quick glance will reveal that it is likely not real, but rather Dr. Loboto’s “award” from the beginning of the game. (Raz even comments, “That thing’s real?”) The text reads:

“this goes to the guy who is the best at doing the thing that is the thing of which you could be doing for a year.”

Additionally, the date reads “12-4” – that is, not the summer time in which the game takes place.

Brütal Legend: Mount Rockmore

The Hammer of Infinite Fate DLC adds Mount Rockmore effigies in the shape of Razputin from Psychonauts and Tim Schafer himself.

Psychonauts 2: Accessing the Waterfall and Finding Lili’s Fungus

Use the Time Bubble on the logs in the Questionable Area to reach a hidden area behind the waterfall. Here you’ll also find one of Lili’s fungi.

Find more trivia in our games database.

Soundtrack of the Week

Keeping with the Double Fine theme, here is the original Grim Fandango soundtrack. I.e., not the superior remaster, which you should pick up on vinyl. (I realize it’s sold out, but keep checking – they’ll probably restock it at some point.)

This Week’s Poll

We asked, “I’m running out to buy Death by Scrolling on…” – 44% said Steam, 33% Xbox, 11% Switch, and 11% “More than one platform.” PlayStation? 0%.

Today’s question is what you’d expect…

Historical Moments in History

• 31 years ago this week, Full Throttle wroomed into the world.

• 44 years ago this week, LucasFilm Games was founded sometime in May ‘82.

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 23 Apr: Kiln Is Out There and Killing It: (Presumably.)

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 20 Apr: “magic##” – There’s a ton of magic in the Monkey Island games. And in Loom. Probably elsewhere, too.

• 21 Apr: “shock##” – Culture Shock -- Sam & Max episode.

• 22 Apr: “moai###” – Moai Better Blues -- Sam & Max episode.

• 23 Apr: “soda###” – ... Poppers. Is it obvious I have the Sam & Max wiki open?

• 24 Apr: “flint##” – ... Paper. Y’know.

• 25 Apr: “paper##” – Flint Paper. Y’know.

• 26 Apr: “stink##” – ... y. She owns a diner.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

A Mini Review-ish of the Death by Scrolling Update

Not so much a “this is what we think” review, but rather a “what’s new in Death by Scrolling” review. And what we think about those things in particular. Splitting hairs, I know, but you get the point. My original Mojo review is still out there, as fresh as ever if you want a more traditional take.

So, to get on with it, what’s new in Death by Scrolling? Quite a bit as it turns out, and most importantly, you can play it on consoles now: Xbox, PS5, and – just for our Jason – Switch. More about the consoles in a bit.

What is quickly apparent is that each biome – each world – now has its own unique music track. Since the repetitive soundtrack was my only misgiving with the original release, I consider this a big win. The music is also excellent. Frantic, but pleasant, each cue suited to its biome.

And speaking of biomes, there is a brand new one for you to play, with a fresh character that belongs to it: “Lava World” and Demon Debbie. In my mind, those are the two most important additions to the game.

The long lava biomes are fiendish – fiery floors and fast-moving demons make the levels noticeably more difficult than the other worlds. Right on the line of being frustrating, without stepping over it.

Demon Debbie, meanwhile, is a colorful addition. Here’s a character that can both fly and summon a helper – a feature set that feels very different from that of the other characters. Frankly, she’s just weird enough to fit into the oeuvre of oddball Ron characters.

Neither of those is a minor addition – they downright change the game.

So, those are what I consider the biggest enhancements, but apparently, people who are “good” at these types of games have their eyes elsewhere.

Readers of my original review (all of you, natch) will undoubtedly remember (because you memorized it) that run-and-gun games typically aren’t my thing. Too stressful, with Death by Scrolling being a suitable exception to the rule. My strategy in the game is to pick up whatever weapon or power-up I find right in front of me and run like hell.

Apparently, I’m just a dirty amateur.

Based on this Steam post, real players go into Death by Scrolling with real strategies. Like, no blind power-up pick-ups or anything. For them, the biggest addition is – and I will have to take Terrible Toybox’s word on this – the power-up removal system. I’d explain to you why this is an important mechanism, but hell if I know… I just run and collect coins. A “full” stats section has been added, too, which people like – I didn’t remember there being a stats section at all. What do you want from me, a proper review? Surely there are real gaming sites out there for that.

Let’s just end on the consoles. I have no issues playing Death by Scrolling on a computer, but man, does it feel better on an Xbox hooked up to a large-screen TV. I’m not sure if the count-up embedded below is new, but since the console loads more slowly than a Mac, I noticed it for the first time:

22? Get it? You get it.

I haven’t tried the game on Switch, but I can imagine it’s an enjoyable handheld experience.

And “enjoyable” is the operative word. The original release was an excellent game – Mojo Game of the Year 2025 – and this elevates the experience even further.

Check out Death by Scrolling on these fine platforms:

• Xbox

• Switch

• PlayStation

• Steam

– Remi

This Week’s Trivia

A quick two-and-done Death by Scrolling trivia entries for today. Our Trivia Database has a couple more for your perusal.

Boybrush is a Chad

Granted, it might be Guybrush, but… “Spoiled rich kid”? “Daddy got him the best gear”? No, that’s definitely Boybrush, and he is quite literally a Chad.

Guybrush’s Dress

Guybrush’s pink dress – with pockets – makes an appearance.

Death by Polling

OK, fine, last week’s poll wasn’t really a poll, and as you apparently prefer that we beat the drum of democracy…

Historical Moments in History

• 21 years ago this week, The most excellent Psychonauts was unleashed.

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 16 Apr: Death Scrolled onto Consoles: $8, come on, get a couple of ’em.

• 10 Apr: Death Scrolls onto Consoles: Mojo’s GotY 2025 gets the console treatment.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 09 Apr: “tomi###” – Tales of Monkey Island. In my mind, TMI makes more sense.

• 10 Apr: “tmi####” – Much better than ToMI.

• 11 Apr: “yoho###” – ... and a bottle of rum!

• 12 Apr: “sybil##” – ... Pandemik. An unfortunate name these days.

• 13 Apr: “space##” – Games like The Dig take place in space. Also, space bar.

• 14 Apr: “bar####” – The SCUMM Bar, for example. Also, space bar.

• 15 Apr: “mack###” – Mack Salmon. If you don’t know Mack Salmon you’re probably dead to us.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Welcome to The Adventurer – Sometimes Things Happen, But Not Always

I know it’s trite to start these newsletters with “there’s not much going on right now,” but… there’s not much going on right now. Not in our corner of the digital universe, at least. Part of me wishes there were, though, as that would mean more work for me, it’d be a bit of a double-edged sword.

Looking back, this was a somewhat action-packed week during the aughts. Bone: The Great Cow Race hit the streets twenty years ago, a game I gave a pretty decent score, probably not expecting I’d be sitting around doing this while stumbling toward 2030.

Nineteen years ago: Sam & Max Season 1: Reality 2.0 released to a 4.5-skull applause. (Remember when we scored games? Those were innocent times.)

And a mere eighteen years ago, “What's New, Beelzebub?”, the Sam & Max Season 2 finale also got a 4.5 rating. We didn’t know how good we had it.

About the only thing I can dig up for you this week is the cover for “Pajama Sam 3 jazz vinyl,” which was sent to us by the artist, “Tim the Curator.” It looks pretty sweet.

We’ve mentioned the OST earlier, but in case you missed it, you can procure the vinyl for a cool $35 – $75 if you want it signed.

Finally, Double Fine kicks off its Kiln open beta today, so check it out on Steam.

Love and hugs,

Remi

Return to Trivia

Let’s toss in some fun courtesy of our (somewhat in need of a good sprucing up) trivia database. Did I only take the time to visit one page? Sure, but c’mon, this is the stuff you crave, maybe.

Return to Monkey Island: The Big Whoop Meat & Cheese Shop

Deep in the concept art, you can find a depiction of what looks to be a meat and cheese shop. Was it to be located somewhere in Big Whoop? Note the digital register.

Return and Secret: The Chef’s Dad

In The Secret of Monkey Island, it’s fairly apparent that there is a picture of the Pillsbury Doughboy in the Scumm Bar kitchen. In Return to Monkey Island, you can steal the painting—of a rather bad boy-looking Doughboy—after you give the Chef the cookbook. Later, the Chef will tell you the picture is of his father. Which puts forth the question: Is the Chef actually Pillsbury Doughboy’s son?

Return to Monkey Island: Prologue With Original Audio

Return to Monkey Island had lines recorded using Guybrush and LeChuck’s voices as opposed to Boybrush and Chuckie’s. This is what it would have sounded like.

Return to Monkey Island: Missing Evidence

An unused close-up from the resource files shows Guybrush grabbing a key, shovel, and a map(?). This scene was completely cut from the game.

The Four Mop Heads and Rose’s Reactions to Them

Show Rose the four different mops, and she’ll have a different reaction to each of them. Bonus: You will also receive the “Mop Top” achievement by doing so.

DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue

For no particular reason, let’s toss in the OST from Ronzo’s super-fun DeathSpank.

This Week’s Poll

Last week, we threw out some non-LEC+ recommendations and asked if you’d be interested in checking out any of them. 33% jumped straight to Lamplight City, and 13% on Life is Strange. Another 13% might check both out, while another 13% had no interest in either. The rest of you had already tried ‘em all.

I completed the latest Life is Strange last week, and I will say: aside from some bugs, it is an excellent game. Emotional, fun, all the feels. I highly recommend it.

Semi-related, it looks like Broken Sword Smoking Mirror: Reforged is imminent – Thrik is already excited.

So, today’s poll is particularly inspired:

Historical Moments in History

• 20 years ago this week, Bone: The Great Cow Race released.

• 19 years ago this week, Sam & Max Save the World: Reality 2.0 released. (Technically released Mar 29, but who the hell subscribed to GameTap?)

• 18 years ago this week, Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space: What’s New, Beelzebub? released. (One day earlier on GameTap, but who subscribed to that?)

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 02 Apr: “ozzie##” – Ozzie Mandrill -- a cherished villain in EMI.

• 03 Apr: “lucre##” – Starbuccaneers -- a cherished location in EMI. It’s EMI week here at Mojo!

• 04 Apr: “miss###” – ... Rivers. Voiced by Edie McClurg herself.

• 05 Apr: “three##” – The three trials. C’mon.

• 06 Apr: “pedro##” – ... Pascal. I thought he was in the new Indy film, but turned out it was Antonio Banderas.

• 07 Apr: “story##” – A Vampyre Story. Also, most LEC games have stories.

• 08 Apr: “crew###” – You need that crew to sail the ship.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

A Week of Silence…

It’s been a slow week, and our only real news story is one we created ourselves. If you’re interested in sitting through half-an-hour of the Monkey Island 2 Special Edition commentary, here ya go:

Hardcore Mojo followers will remember we have an interactive commentary browser, too, all for your pleasure. Yes, we treat you well!

Over on our editorial Slack, The Curse of Monkey Island was a topic of conversation, particularly the small details you may have missed during your playthroughs. Specifically, running around before visiting the Voodoo Lady is a nice touch…

And the return of the stump joke – fun, hidden reference!

Yeah, no, that’s about what we got for you today. More news to come soon, or so one would hope. And, we even have a couple of recommendations to tide you over.

– Remi

Games You Will Like, Probably

Once in a while, not always, but once in a while, we will toss out some recommendations that may interest you. To wit…

Karim: “Lamplight City“

Lamplight City is a gem that more people should have played. You’re a 19th-century detective, hunting criminals and kidnappers in an atmospheric point-and-click adventure set in an alternative, gaslight-inspired world with a touch of steampunk.

Its willingness to let you fail—and then recover—gives weight to your decisions, making it stand out. The characters are compelling, its puzzles sensible, and it has a strong sense of place.

Try it, and its excellent sister game, Rosewater.

Lamplight City is available for Mac, Switch, Linux, and Windows.

Remi: “Life is Strange“

Specifically, the Max Caulfield games.

Existential YA might not be my jam – lovely as I’m sure The Fault in Our Stars is – but Life is Strange gets me in the weirdest way. For being high-concept time-travel stories, the series does, for whatever reason, feel incredibly real to me on an emotional level. Games filled with teenage friendship, love, and drama – they’re games highly indebted to Telltale’s game mechanisms, and are hugely story and dialogue-driven, with some simple puzzles thrown in for good measure.

As an observation, “life is strange” isn’t particularly profound, but within the context of these games? I don’t know, it vibes with me, and after playing the first game in 2017, I truly don’t think a week has passed without it humming in the back of my mind. Maybe it’s aging, who knows?

I just finished the second Max Caulfield game, Double Exposure, and it lived up to the original. The (supposed) final entry in the trilogy – Reunion – was released today. Square Enix only handed out reviewer copies a few hours before it dropped, which isn’t a great sign, but we shall see. I’m here for it. Find appropriate purchase links over on the official website.

Thrik also threw in a bonus recommendation – Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Developed by Don’t Nod, the game shares many similarities to the O.G. Life is Strange – a game they also developed – and, if Thrik is to be believed, it’s a very good romp. (And who would not believe Thrik?)

This Week’s Poll

Last week, 53% of you said you preferred seeing our features exclusively on Mojo; 20% exclusively in the Adventurer, and 27% picked both.

This week, we check the temperature on your interest in Lamplight City and Life is Strange.

Merch for the People

Only the best! The Adventurer has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 24 Mar: Those Monkey Island 2 Commentary Tracks: Your next thirty minutes – planned out for ya.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 19 Mar: “jack###” – Jack Sparrow: Referenced in Return to Monkey Island.

• 20 Mar: “play###” – ... Station. ReMI is hitting the PS5!

• 21 Mar: “xbox###” – Frequent platform for Double Fine games.

• 22 Mar: “captn##” – Capt’n. Captain. It just makes sense.

• 23 Mar: “penal##” – The Penal Zone: An on-the-nose episode name from The Devil’s Playhouse.

• 24 Mar: “mole###” – There are many molemen in Sam & Max.

• 25 Mar: “zone###” – The Penal Zone: An on-the-nose episode name from The Devil’s Playhouse.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Your Daily Challenges

Mojole too easy? Too hard? (Probably too hard.) Here are other daily challenges to get the brain cells firing on all cylinders.

• Monkey Island Frantic: A Monkey Island scene-guessing game at a frantic pace. Image updates at midnight Pacific time. Brag about your results on the Mojo Forums!

• Guess That Tune: Each daily game features a clip from Monkey Island music. Guess the tune in up to 6 tries, and return each day for a new challenge! Here, too, you can post your results on Mojo Forums.

• Return to Monkey Island Trivia Card Game: The card-guessing game, now in your browser.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The Mojo Network

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Cripes almighty, I just noticed The Adventurer is about to turn four. Four! Years! Not months! I can’t remember the last time I put such a long-lasting effort into anything.1

Anyway, let’s have a look at this week’s news…

First and foremost, Double Fine’s next game, Kiln, has a release date: April 23rd. A beta “throwdown” is set to hit Steam from April 9th through the 11th – the former date is when the pre-orders open:

• Xbox

• Steam

• PS5

You’ll even get a pre-order bonus, so put the date on your calendar. $19.99 for the standard edition; $29.99 for the “Fired Up Edition.”

Meanwhile, the potential SCUMM documentary is facing some challenges. Their goal is to hit a thousand signatures, and they’re only at eight hundred as of a few days ago. Should they not hit a thousand, the documentary will likely not happen.

So: Be a mensch and sign the dotted line. Who doesn’t want more SCUMM in their lives? Steve Purcell, Collette Michaud, and Brad Taylor have all confirmed they’d be part of the thing. Can’t get much more promising than that. Here’s that link again: scummdoc.com.

(For future budding project signature gatherers, I would gently suggest not to use a newsletter sign-up as a measuring tool. Not everyone wants to receive even more email.)

In the movie realm, you can find Ron Gilbert’s 1979 directorial debut on Vimeo:

And if videos are your thing, we've got links to a bunch of recently released interviews. Chuck Jordan, Oliver Franzke, Noah Falstein, Aaron Giles… You know and love ‘em all.

Yeah, I don’t know, maybe not earth-shattering content today. So, let’s make up for it with some fun: Trivia! I felt the need to jump into The SCUMM Bar’s trivia section – lord knows why – and plucked out a few gems for ya. That’s just how I roll.

– Remi

The Secret of Monkey Island: Ignoring the Psssssssst:

If you choose to ignore Fester Shinetop’s "pssssssst" and go see Otis, the dialogue will change fairly significantly.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge: The Deleted LeChuck/Big Whoop Scene Voiced

Strangely, voices were recorded for the deleted LeChuck/Largo scene in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition. The scene doesn’t appear in that version of the game, either, but through the magic of reconstruction, here’s what it would have sounded like. (Video taken from VGHF’s fireside chat video.)

The Curse of Monkey Island: Happy New Year!

Visit Domingo in January, and he will wish you a happy New Year. (Note, you can change your system date/time to January and this will still work.)

Escape from Monkey Island: The Inaccessible Harbor

You CAN access the harbor in Escape from Monkey Island—it just requires you to download the demo. (Or watch this informative video!) You even get a couple of lines of extra dialogue. Note, too, the placeholder music from The Curse of Monkey Island. You can download the demo from Mojo and play it in DREAMM.

Tales of Monkey Island: The Two CEOs

In “Episode IV: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood”, portraits of Telltale co-founders Dan Connors and Kevin Bruner can be seen in the courtroom.

Return to Monkey Island and The Secret of Monkey Island: Bob and Conrad’s Sprite Flipping

In the grand tradition of sprite flipping: In The Secret of Monkey Island, Bob’s pegleg would famously switch from the left to the right side depending on which direction he was facing. This was a result of the sprite being flipped in code as opposed to being properly redrawn. In Return to Monkey Island, Conrad, the museum curator, gets the same treatment – and, additionally, his “Melee” shirt flips, too. Fitting for a location that is a nod to the minuita of the previous games.

And Even More!

I run a series of articles on Mojo called ICYMI with a bunch of trivia like this. The type of stuff only a truly sick and perverted Monkey Island fan would care about. In case you did miss the ICYMIs, here ya go:

• The Secret of Monkey Island

• LeChuck’s Revenge (It has now reached eight pages, so take some time if you’re interested in reading it.)

• The Curse of Monkey Island (Now sitting at a healthy five pages.)

• Escape from Monkey Island

• Return to Monkey Island

  • “The Many Epilogues of Return to Monkey Island”

  • “The Secret of Cogg Island”

Tales coming soon, possibly.

So, how many of you came to The Adventurer from Mojo? A healthy (and not unexpected) 83%.

9% came straight to The Adventurer and never read Mojo (what’s wrong with you?), while 8% of you came to The Adventurer first and are now (sensibly) Mojo readers.

Let’s dive further into what stands on the intersection of The Adventurer and Mojo.

(To be clear, this is all in the name of morbid, hypothetical curiosity, not an indication of anything to come. But, y’know, who knows how things will pan out in the distant future.)

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 18 Mar: Double Fine Announces KILN Release Date…: It’s pre-order time! (Almost.)

• 18 Mar: SCUMM/LucasArts documentary gagging for sign-ups: It may not come to fruition if more people don’t make their support known.

• 16 Mar: Ron Reveals His Directorial Film Debut: Pretty sure you can find the original secret of Monkey Island in there.

• 13 Mar: A Vampyre Story: A Bat’s Tale chugging along nicely: The latest developer update reveals all. Or enough.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 13 Mar: “hint###” – ... line. Also, not something we like to give here at Mojole

• 14 Mar: “big####” – ... Whoop. Ron wasn’t kidding: Big Whoop? Big whoop.

• 15 Mar: “lrg####” – Limited Run Games. They make collector’s boxes.

• 16 Mar: “box####” – What the old LucasArts games came in. And also the new collector ones.

• 17 Mar: “boxes##” – Hell, sometimes you need more than one box in your collection.

• 18 Mar: “boxer##” – Hurley does some boxing in Grim.

• 19 Mar: “jack###” – Jack Sparrow: Referenced in Return to Monkey Island.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Putting out a quick one this week, mostly to remind you that Skunkape’s Poker Night at the Inventory Remaster has been released and got a much sought-after thumbs-up review from Mojo. To quote the bard/myself:

I doubt Poker Night at the Inventory was the Skunkape remaster most of us were clamoring for, but you know… maybe it is the right game for the right time? We all need some simple fun these days, and sitting around playing poker with a group of amusing friends isn’t a bad proposition. And, with the bugs fixed and the polish applied, Inventory comes off as a better game than I had expected it to be. It’s also $10, so what are you, some kind of cheapskate that is not going to get it? C’mon.

You’d better just go read the whole thing.

Elsewhere, a bunch of interviews dropped on the ‘tube…

Ron’s Computer Videos sat down with Hal Barwood.

As did TechJesse…

… who also sat down with one Ron Gilbert.

Apparently, a console version of Death by Scrolling is still “on the way,” so keep an eye out right here for when that happens.

Speaking of Ron, his Maniac Mansion was used in academia, where eight-hundred people had four hours to complete the game in the name of science. Two people managed to do so.

Maybe Mojo’s 1-out-of-5-skulls review from 2001 had something going for it after all, though I don’t think it really speaks for our 2026 opinions. Go read it if you like.

Alright, I’m calling it for today.

Your friend,

Remi

Last week, we asked: Did you grab the updated “Duke Grabowski: Mighty Swashbuckler!”? Only 25% of you did, but hey… you’ll have more chances as the game probably will hit consoles or whatever soon (maybe).

This week might sound like a random poll with a duh answer, but this is in the name of market research. If you take a literal second to respond, there will be a special part in where-our-hearts-are-supposed-to-be for you.

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 05 Mar: Poker Night at the Inventorey Not Just Remastered, But Also Reviewed: That’s right, Mojo is all about timely reviews.

• 05 Mar: Hail Holy Hal: Another Barwood interview unlocks: Your life is a series of LEC interviews with occasional interruptions.

• 05 Mar: Ron signals that Death by Scrolling ports are nigh in new interview: Not that you were guilty of losing faith.

• 05 Mar: Smug weirdos launch arbitrary and invasive Maniac Mansion challenge: And nothing of value was learned.

• 03 Mar: The Wolf Keeps Being Among Us: Alternatively: Wolf in New Clothing

• 02 Mar: DREAMM Hits 4: 4.0 at that.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 28 Feb: “talk###” – Hey, it’s a verb!

• 01 Mar: “dave###” – Grossman. Also a tuna head?

• 02 Mar: “bill###” – Eaken, LEC artist extrordinaire. And the other Bill, too, Bill Eaken, voice of Sam.

• 03 Mar: “open###” – A famous verb.

• 04 Mar: “close##” – A not quite as famous verb, but pretty famous either way.

• 05 Mar: “walk###” – Shouldn’t have been an interface verb. I mean, come on. Just point and click and call it good.

• 06 Mar: “mire###” – ... Island. Will the adventure continue?

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

They can’t all be great, something that applies to this week, but let’s see what we got.

First, the promised Duke Grabowski improvements have started to trickle in – Tiller Heads, rejoice! 4K looks to be the headliner over on Steam, but for some of us, the upcoming renewed macOS support might be more welcomed. Actually being able to play the game is always helpful. From the “coming soon” files:

• Restoring MacOS support - the game will run natively on modern Intel and Apple silicon Macs

• Cloud save syncing

• Fixed multiple cases where on-screen text didn’t fully match the voiceovers, as well as a few missing subtitles

• Fixed aspect ratio issues and incorrect text shadow offsets in subtitles

And, if Steam isn’t your jam, you can find Duke on GOG and ZOOM. Jason also hints at an upcoming console release, though I think that was already more or less wink-wink-confirmed in his interview with publisher Cateia and Bill. Either way, relive the re-release trailer.

Not even remotely related – if you want to see Greg Hammond play Loom with Albu, here’s your chance.

That’s basically it… They can’t all be gold. I suppose you can join in some Sam & Max SCUMM U recreations if that tickles your fancy. Hell, it’s a good excuse to check out our SCUMM U article again, because why not? Oh, and iam8bit has reissued their Psychonauts 2xLP (20th Anniversary Edition) – pick one up, it’s great.

‘til next time,

Remi

Reddit: Mostly a pit of despair, but now and again, the source of interesting tidbits. Like this little detail discovered by one Technical_Pass7714:

Search for Guybrush Threepwood on DuckDuckGo, and the logo will turn into a duck version of Monkey Island’s protagonist. Try it yourself. Real fans will notice that issue #66 of The Adventurer is the first non-Wiki hit, because of course we are.1

“In a hypothetical world, which TTG remaster would you like to see next from Skunkape?” It was a no-contest question, with Back to the Future at 59%(!). Strong Bad clocked in at 24%, and Puzzle Agent at 12%. Tales from the Borderlands – an under-appreciated game, but what can you do? – bottomed out at 6%.

A simple question for this week:

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 24 Feb: Duke Grabowski now sailing on GOG and Zoom Platform: If Steam isn’t good enough for you.

• 22 Feb: Daniel Albu plays Loom with producer Greg Hammond: “Ask me about Loom” has never been less innocent an invitation.

• 20 Feb: Duke Grabowski gets 4K liberation in first of several planned updates: Cateia Games starts delivering on its agenda for 2026.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 20 Feb: “bare###” – -bones Island is where you find Ned.

• 21 Feb: “bella##” – ... Fisher. Legendary angler.

• 22 Feb: “xyzzy##” – Cheat code from Colossal Cave and also the escape phrase from the Terror Island cave.

• 23 Feb: “dee####” – Chucky’s friend.

• 24 Feb: “push###” – ... is a verb.

• 25 Feb: “pull###” – ... is also a verb.

• 26 Feb: “look###” – ... is another verb.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Well, things keep happening, so let’s see what we got.

Winnick is Framed

First, a bunch of framed Gary Winnick art made its way online. You got some Maniac Mansion, and you got some Loom, all rolled up into pure awesomeness. The images originally showed up on Reddit.

I tried using this AI we hear so much about to extract the images, with mixed results. This one could’ve looked worse…

… but, that aside, my attempts put me in Mojo timeout…

… which takes a lot. So, I’m not gonna try that again. (Unless it would give me the sweet relief of firing, but that sounds overly optimistic.)

And Jason is Also Framed

This is as good an excuse as any to reread Jason’s gripping story of framing his Maniac Mansion poster.

In Other Non-Frame News…

Chris Miles is still playing Escape from Monkey Island with Albu…

(I’d argue Escape is 26 years old, but who am I to split hairs?)

Looking for some Pajama Sam music? A vinyl release is on the way. And, if you’re interested in reading more about the artist (The Fat Man), check out our Maniac Mansion retrospective.

Oh, and you can combat diabetes, which, hey, is always a good thing?

I don’t know, it’s been a long week, and that’s all I got. What do you want from me?

– Remi

(You may remember that El Pollo Diablo appeared in a frame.)

Well, I guess Poker Night at the Inventory wasn’t the most sought-after remaster – only 38% of you said yes, you were going to buy it. The same number said straight out nope, while 25% of you are wisely waiting for Mojo’s review. (We’ll have one, ye of little faith.)

Today’s poll:

This Week in Mojo History

• 9 years ago this week, Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin was released. It’s probably good, but as none of us have VR headsets, we can’t say for sure.

Mojo Merch

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

(And you can frame the art, too.)

Full News Roundup

• 18 Feb: Daniel Albu and Chris Miles play EMI together, The Sequel: They’ve shared more screentime at this point than Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, and frankly I prefer their chemistry.

• 17 Feb: Cressup confronts Jake for Firewatch anniversary: Other sins, he’ll just have to answer for in separate interviews.

• 16 Feb: Pajama Sam 3 OST to get a vinyl release: Who saw that one in their tea leaves?

• 13 Feb: Get sweet deals on video games, help combat diabetes: Games include Thimbleweed Park, Tales from the Borderlands, and Sam and Max.

• 13 Feb: A special edition haircut for a very special boy: Apologies to Guybrush.

• 13 Feb: A special edition haircut for a very special boy: Apologies to Guybrush.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 12 Feb: “head###” – Something of the head.

• 13 Feb: “#x#####” – X always marks the spot! (It probably will be, indeed.)

• 14 Feb: “scalp##” – Though that was where the dandruff came from.

• 15 Feb: “mop####” – Mop trees: One meets an unfortunate end in ReMI.

• 16 Feb: “stapl##” – Acronym for the Marley scurvy foundation -- she also has a staple remover on her desk. What can it all mean?!

• 17 Feb: “odina##” – The queen of Brrr Muda. Former queen. Y’know.

• 18 Feb: “lime###” – You need a lime if you’re going to Brrr Muda.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Let’s just jump into it, shall we?

The big one from us this week is the launch of Jason’s epic tome on SCUMM University:

If you’re not familiar with SCUMM U, it was simply a way for new LucasArts developers to learn the SCUMM scripting language.

You’ll find all kinds of weird little factoids within the article, alongside interviews with Jennifer Sward, Tami Borowick, Mike Stemmle, and many others. There’s even art in possibly haven’t seen before. For example:

Go check it out.

SCUMM: VM Style

ScummVM is smacking it down with an interesting update…

Read the official update. Interestingly, this means you can play Monkey Island 2: Special Edition in classic mode with both speech and MT-32 music. For some – many? – that might be the ultimate way to enjoy the game.

And, what’s all this MT-32 business? Check out our article on the subject. It’s DREAMM heavy, but also has a SCUMM section.

Speaking of DREAMM, version four is on the way, so keep an eye out on that.

Jake Speaks

Firewatch apparently turns ten this year. What on god’s green earth? Setting aside that we’re all ancient, let’s focus on the positive: Laura Cress sat down with Mojo alumni1, Jake Rodkin, to talk about the game:

And, in other Jake-related news, Skunkape will be releasing a Poker Night at the Inventory special edition on March 5th.

Lookin’ good!

This Week in Mojo History

• 18 years ago this week, Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space: Night of the Raving Dead. (One day earlier on GameTap, but who subscribed to that?)

Last week, we asked if you were excited for Double Fine’s new title, Kiln. 64% probably weren’t, while 14% needed more information. 21% gave a resounding Yes!

Today, let’s ask the (more or less) same question about Poker Night:

Merch!

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 08 Feb: SCUMM U alumni regale us with their campus hijinks: Imagine going to college with Sam and Max.

• 04 Feb: Skunkape selects dessert, now tackling Poker Night at the Inventory: The ex-Telltale restoration artisans push in their chips on the next remaster.

• 04 Feb: Cress SCUMMs It, Documentary Style: Twenty-nine years in and coming up with pun-y headlines is becoming difficult.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 03 Feb: “drown##” – Guybrush can only hold his breath for so long.

• 04 Feb: “lila###” – A new pirate leader.

• 05 Feb: “chums##” – The ‘secret’ angler society.

• 06 Feb: “cogg###” – Cogg Island -- the hidden, easter-egg island in ReMI.

• 07 Feb: “cava###” – Coronado de Cava, from Tales.

• 08 Feb: “body###” – Something of the body.

• 09 Feb: “ibm####” – ... compatible. The platform of choice for many gamers back in the day. And even now. You swine should have gotten an Amiga instead!

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

It has been a video-centric week, but let’s kick off with the biggest piece of news: Double Fine has announced its next game, Kiln. This is a multiplayer party brawler, starring… pots. Yes, it’s weird, which is what we like to see from Double Fine. Here’s the trailer:

And if the game looks familiar, it’s because it is an Amnesia Fortnight graduate. (Amnesia Fortnight being Double Fine’s annual two-week-long game jams.)

Want to give the game a go before the proletariat? Go sign up for beta access – and, for more Kiln, check out the official announcement.

Over to those videos…

First, a 1998 episode of the Swedish tech show Sajber has resurfaced on YouTube. Notably, it features five minutes of LucasArts, specifically Grim Fandango, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and Star Wars: Behind the Magic. Go watch some vintage LEC goodness:

Meanwhile, YouTube channel TechJesse has posted two Mojo-related videos:

Peter Langston might not be an instantly recognizable name, but he was, for all intents and purposes, Lucasfilm Games’ employee number one. Rescue on Fractalus! and Ballblazer – Langston oversaw both of ‘em.

And, just yesterday, TechJesse sat down with David Fox, who… well, you know who David Fox is and that he is always a gentleman.

There are a bunch more TechJesse interviews to peruse through, and Sierra is well represented for the depraved amongst you. We can only assume Jason ran and watched Al Lowe’s Larry video multiple times.

Grickle Hits Substack

You know and love Graham Annable from LucasArts, Telltale, LAIKA, and more, and we’re happy to see that he has moved1 his Grickle series to a daily newsletter. I was going to say he joined Substack because of us, but… actually, seeing there isn’t really any proof of the opposite, we’ll just take that credit.

The Grickle Substack from Graham Annable

A Canadian cartoonist and film director. Creator of Puzzle Agent.

Last week, we asked, “Which LEC game would you like to see get the SE treatment next?” 55% of you picked The Curse of Monkey Island, while 19% wanted to see a new version of The Dig. Maniac Mansion hit 13% and Loom 6%. Zak, too, limped in to 6%, which can only mean this newsletter is doing poorly in Germany.

Today’s question – are you excited for Kiln?

This Week in Mojo History

• 12 years ago this week, Tim returns to adventure gaming with Broken Age.

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo, though be warned: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear – or display – these masterpieces.

Full News Roundup

• 23 Jan: A visit to LucasArts by Swedish television forever preserved: Learn about the hottest N64 games the studio has in the pipeline.

• 22 Jan: Double Fine Is Kiln It: Kiln being the new title, natch.

• 21 Jan: Peter Langston imparts the origins of Lucasfilm Games: And he’s the guy to do it, since he basically created the company.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 19 Jan: “stew###” – Food featured in the SCUMM Bar kitchen. Will it return in Return?

• 20 Jan: “high###” – ... Street: The street with the jail, church, etc. in MI1/Return.

• 21 Jan: “low####” – ... Street: The street with the Voodoo Lady -- and Wally! -- in MI1/Return.

• 22 Jan: “ten####” – Seems like it’s always ten o’clock on that island.

• 23 Jan: “holy###” – ... crap, ReMI releases on Monday!

• 24 Jan: “whooo##” – ... oooooo! Return to Monkey Island releases tomorrow!

• 25 Jan: “today##” – ... is the release day of Return to Monkey Island!

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

If it’s new to us, it’s new to us, and maybe it’s new to you? “Ron’s Computer Videos” is, as one might expect, just that: Videos about computers from Ron (just not that Ron). Turns out that between fixing up Apple IIs and Macs, Ron takes some time to chat with old-time LucasArts+ alumni. Like Brad Taylor:

And, many others:

• Dominic Armato

• David Fox

• Dave Grossman

• Annie Fox

• Tasha Sounart (creator of Costume Quest!)

• Bret Mogilefsky

• Aric Wilmunder

• Peter McConnell

Jason has already given the channel his seal of approval, so you know there’s gold at the end of this particular rainbow. Go check it all out yourself.

ICYMI Marches On

Our ever-evolving Monkey Island 2 ICYMI article keeps expanding like a bloated corpse, and it has now reached eight pages. The additions:

• The Line Changes from the Special Edition: White slavers, we hardly knew ye.

• Tim’s Tweets: Schafer basically provided live commentary for his Special Edition playthrough.

• The Phatt Library Books: All the books with descriptions and Guybrush’s commentary on them.

We posted this video here a while back, but, hey, it’s always worth a rewatch.

Let’s go crazy and add the music comparisons, too.

Soundtrack of the Week

Alright, that was a lot of Monkey Island videos – let’s cleanse the palate with the Gone Jackals’ Full Throttle mini soundtrack.

In the tradition of the many LucasArts special editions – which one would you like to see next? (Substack only allows five choices, so my apologies to Indy.)

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs. For example:

• T-shirts! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo. Warning: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear these masterpieces. (Merch also available as stickers, magnets, etc. Void where prohibited.)

• Magnets! Stickers! Does your fridge look too plain? Your laptop lid too empty? Dress them up with vintage maps of Phatt, Scabb, and Booty.

Full News Roundup

• 12 Jan: Your life is no longer your own as Ron’s Computer Videos interviews LucasArts vets: You haven’t a moment to lose, but you do have hours to lose.

• 08 Jan: In Case You Missed the ICYMI Changes to the Monkey Island 2 Article: Line changes! Tim tweets! Books!

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 08 Jan: “shirt##” – Commonly used as a prize both in The Secret of Monkey Island AND Mojole.

• 09 Jan: “smart##” – Get Smart! Sixties TV show where ‘That’s the second-biggest [insert item here] I’ve ever seen!’ originated.

• 10 Jan: “whoop##” – Big Whoop: Another way of saying ‘so what?’

• 11 Jan: “bone###” – Bone Master and sort of a Telltale game.

• 12 Jan: “chan###” – Peter Chan -- famed LEC, Double Fine, etc. artist.

• 13 Jan: “###x###” – X still marks the spot! (No whining about this one, please.)

• 14 Jan: “plaid##” – Like Stan’s coat.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

Maybe the most notable shift is Ron “Ronzo” Gilbert’s return to blogging on his Grumpy Gamer website. Particularly, “Making New IP” has some fairly explosive information:

Thimbleweed Park cost around $1.1M to make. $600k came from Kickstarter backers and $500k came from private investors I found later. Kickstarter for digital games is all but dead. I could not raise the money to make Thimbleweed Park 2 on Kickstarter today. I couldn’t even raise the full amount back then.

I have spoken to publishers and they have been willing to fund Thimbleweed Park 2, but they get rich and I get very little and have to do most of the work.

I am done with that.

From now on I’m going to make the small games I want and have fun doing it.

Hey, it’s all good, and his Death by Scrolling recently took home Mojo’s “Game of the Year” award1.

Mojo never stopped being old school – it’s in our lifeblood – but some things have sort of, kind of fallen by the wayside. Our RSS feed still works, just with some dents here and there. So, consider this a pledge to get it (and some other stuff) cleaned up very soon. Google Reader’s untimely death was a bad blow to syndicated reading, but even it (RSS, not Reader) seems to be having a second coming. And we’re here for it.

Let’s not stop there, though.

Forums + Trivia = ❤️

Once in a while, not often, but every now and again, our forums reawaken from slumber. As we enter 2026, it looks like they might again have a new lease of life, and several threads have gotten some action. A couple of new ones have made their way in, too. For the latter, user Walmaker has recreated some “lost” Monkey Island 2 scenes, where LeChuck’s voodoo room might be the coolest one:

Nice! You might also recognize that scene from the Video Game History Foundation’s Monkey Island fireside chat – work courtesy of Marius, Jake, and Zaarin. (You know them from Mojo. And probably many other places.)

Meanwhile, “The Details of Monkey Island” is hopping-ish again, showing off old and new trivia. These little tidbits are always compelling, as different people will have missed different details in the games. Others might have missed something that was obvious to some. Having one place to find it all – like the MojoDB trivia section – is always helpful, and so is this thread where, for example, you can learn that LeShip’s paintings are very much alive.

Continuing down the Monkey Island road, Walmaker (yet again) points out a LeChuck’s Revenge nugget I was not aware of: You can give the “Big Book of Fish” to the fisherman on the Phatt Island wharf.

Hey, those small things are fun.

That thread kick-started “References to LEC adventures in other games“ with an ill-advised Loom joke(?) from Sierra.

Scroll down for some Darkside Detective nonsense and even a small nod courtesy of the disturbing Darkseed. (Those two games have two very different takes on “dark.”)

… and, in case you missed it…

This week, I learned that Quick and Easy Ben did not know that “ICYMI” is an abbreviation for “in case you missed it,” which means he – and presumably others – quite literally missed the meaning of our four “ICYMI” articles’ titles. (“The Secret of Monkey Island,” “LeChuck’s Revenge,” “Escape from Monkey Island,” and “Return to Monkey Island.“) Make that five: This week, we published an ICYMI on The Curse of Monkey Island. A fitting example from it is this little New Year’s dialogue snippet:

Play the game in January, and Domingo will wish you a happy New Year. Hey, again, it’s all about the small things.

This Week in Mojo History

• 19 years ago this week, Sam & Max Save the World: Situation: Comedy released. (Technically released Dec 20, 2006, but who the hell subscribed to GameTap?)

• 18 years ago this week, Sam & Max Beyond Time and Space: Moai Better Blues. (One day earlier on GameTap, but who subscribed to that?)

Only the best! Mojo has a web store for all your apparel and decoration needs. For example:

• T-shirts! Don the original LucasArts logo, Manny Calavera’s face, or the OG Adventurer logo. Warning: Popularity will smack you in your face when you wear these masterpieces. (Merch also available as stickers, magnets, etc. Void where prohibited.)

• Magnets! Stickers! Does your fridge look too plain? Your laptop lid too empty? Dress them up with vintage maps of Phatt, Scabb, and Booty.

Full News Roundup

• 04 Jan: Ron Keeps on Blogging: And bless him for that.

• 02 Jan: ICYMI Continues with The Curse of Monkey Island: Get ready to fill your mind with useless trivia.

• 31 Dec: We Deem 2025 Surprisingly Acceptable: … plus, we reveal our Game of the Year.

Last Week’s Mojole Results

It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.

• 30 Dec: “alien##” – They bend minds in Zak.

• 31 Dec: “carlo##” – Aka ElCarlo: LeChuck’s brother got bumped from MI2

• 01 Jan: “part###” – 1, 2, 3, etc.: LucasArts games were sometimes divided into parts.

• 02 Jan: “act####” – 1, 2, 3, etc.: LucasArts games were sometimes divided into acts.

• 03 Jan: “rex####” – ... Crowle: Art director extraordinaire on ReMI.

• 04 Jan: “fox####” – David Fox. LucasArts stalwart and all round gentleman.

• 05 Jan: “noah###” – Noah Falstein. LucasArts stalwart and all round gentleman.

And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.

Become a Mojoer! (sponsored content)

Hey, kids, do you want to become one of us? Why not join our Patreon? One single dollar will make you a Friend of Mojo. And for the privileged few, there’s the $5 Diamond Club tier, which will earn you a special mention in The Adventurer. Join now! Our interns are hard at work finishing up the special mention section!

The International House of Mojo: Web, Bluesky, YouTube, and Mastodon.

The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

The Grim Fandango Network: Web, Bluesky, and Mastodon.