[Fien]

[QUOTE=seagul;566772Never thought about the stolen money before. But is it really stolen? If Roger is doing his cockroach research in the rain forest, without the pressure and the indignitys he has to cope with at the university, he spends the money the way it was supposed to be used.[/quote]

Seagul, I'm shocked! Those funds were not meant to be spent on a bar in Belize, where Roger is "sipping margaritas, basking in the warm glow of a job well-done". And how is he to communicate his research results, if any, to his anonymous benefactor?

But writing this i beginn to think that perhaps she wrote to Rogers adress at the university? It is the only thing that makes sense. Roger only moved into Eddies house a short time ago, if i remember well.

I hadn't thought of that, it's indeed the only thing that makes sense. But I don't remember anything in the game about the date when Roger started renting the apartment.

I don't think Roger remembers every thing that happend while he was a cockroach. It is more a subconscious thing.

That makes sense too, cause in the best ending he remembers nothing. Eddie has to discover he is Roger's father.

I would of course love to read the final verdict of first-time players Diego and Pollo, but I guess I won't be posting in this thread again, I've said almost everything I wanted to say. Zobraks, thanks for leading this crawlthrough, for all the detailed info you gave us, the text file and the many wonderful pics. Yes, I'm serious. I may not like your jokes at my expense, but you have done a terrific job. Your hard work is appreciated.

[PolloDiablo]

I liked the game a lot, it is so different from other games in terms of perspective and exploration. The fact that you don't have pockets to put stuff in, but are still able to interact with your environment is a great feature. The story was mediocre, I didn't enjoy the fact that it was so easy to die all that much. I know it's kind of realistic, being such a tiny creature, but I prefer adventures in which I can freely explore without being careful where I walk all the time and saving every three minutes. I also had a couple of instances where I skipped some crucial screens (containing clues or documents that contribute to the story) or even puzzles, and went straight to the next room by accident. Ofcourse, you can always do these in the endsequence, but there already is so much to do in so short a time that it would be better if the player was forced to solve all or most of these puzzles before being allowed to start the endsequence (e.g. fuses - the way there is so long and complicated that it takes too much time to do anything else during the timed bit of the game).
So, I am glad I finally got to play it, and I liked it, but it doesn't end up in my top 10 of best games ever.

[seagul]

Originally Posted by PolloDiablo

I also had a couple of instances where I skipped some crucial screens (containing clues or documents that contribute to the story) or even puzzles, and went straight to the next room by accident.

But you always could go back to a previos room during the game.

Normally i don't like beeing killed an an adventure game. But it didn't annoy me while playing Bad Mojo. Perhaps because a know the game and the nasty parts very well. Or perhaps because you immediately get another life.

I could never tell my ten best games ever. Not even my 20 best games ever.
There are so many wonderful and totally uncomparable games out there(and in my rack).
And it depends on what mood i am. Sometime i'm more romantic, sometimes i love cartoons and silly slapstick, sometime i'm a deep thinker and sometimes i love to get scared.
But Bad Mojo will always have a place in my heart.
A cheer for the cockroaches!

[PolloDiablo]

Originally Posted by seagul

But you always could go back to a previos room during the game.

Sure you can, but you don't know that you have to go back because you've missed something until the end. Or until someone posts screens on a forum.

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by Fien

Those funds were not meant to be spent on a bar in Belize, where Roger is "sipping margaritas, basking in the warm glow of a job well-done".

Yes, but it's more fun that way, and I bet a bar in Belize doesn't cost much (a trifle part of one million dollar). Roger was such a bookworm that he continued studying roaches (the size of the turtles) even in a tropical heaven (rainforest) and I believe the greater part of the money wasn't wasted.

Originally Posted by Fien

And how is he to communicate his research results, if any, to his anonymous benefactor?

I'm not sure about Belize, but in Switzerland they had the Internet by 1995.

Originally Posted by Fien

Zobraks, thanks for leading this crawlthrough, for all the detailed info you gave us, the text file and the many wonderful pics. Yes, I'm serious. I may not like your jokes at my expense, but you have done a terrific job. Your hard work is appreciated.

Thank you . I really tried hard (too bad Vincent couldn't give a greater contribution to the whole event - his everyday duties obviously got in the way, but still I can't think of any other playthrough here or anywhere else that had a special guest appearance of a game's author and it makes this crawlthrough even more valuable). I'm glad you're opinion about my humo(u)r didn't influence your objectivity .

Although we exchanged a couple of bad messages at the end of TUBMC I must sincerely thank you for your contribution to the whole thing. It's not that other players were bad (on the contrary), it's just that you're influence on this crawlthrough was the most valuable. Really.

Originally Posted by PolloDiablo

I didn't enjoy the fact that it was so easy to die all that much. I know it's kind of realistic, being such a tiny creature, but I prefer adventures in which I can freely explore without being careful where I walk all the time and saving every three minutes.

I'm one of the people who simply can't stand dying in adventure games, but Bad Mojo is one of a few of the kind I didn't mind dying in at all. In fact, dying in Mojo was more justified and natural than in any adventure game I've played so far.

Originally Posted by PolloDiablo

I also had a couple of instances where I skipped some crucial screens (containing clues or documents that contribute to the story) or even puzzles, and went straight to the next room by accident. Ofcourse, you can always do these in the endsequence, but there already is so much to do in so short a time that it would be better if the player was forced to solve all or most of these puzzles before being allowed to start the endsequence (e.g. fuses - the way there is so long and complicated that it takes too much time to do anything else during the timed bit of the game).

It's always bad if a game lets you procede to a next stage without doing everything required in the previous chapter, but I don't recall anything like that in BM. Yes, you can go almost to the very end of it without solving the fuse box puzzle, but you can't start the end game without doing away with the fuses.

BTW, I just tested it and found it possible to start the end game without crashing the aquarium/meeting Roger on the floor. It isn't a bug though, it's only that authors of the game wanted a player to be more thorough and investigative in order to save Roger too.
I was more industrious than you, PD, so I dealt with the cat before starting the end game even the first time I had played BM.

Originally Posted by PolloDiablo

I skipped some crucial screens (containing clues or documents that contribute to the story) or even puzzles, and went straight to the next room by accident. Ofcourse, you can always do these in the endsequence, but there already is so much to do in so short a time

I don't quite agree. In the end game (if you start it properly, that is) you only have to...

Spoiler:

1) crawl to the toilet, push the cigarette from the top of the urinal and light a toilet paper and 2) go to the den, climb down the wall and the working table and position yourself on a locket.

Piece of cake, it takes only a couple of minutes (and you have about six minutes to do so).

Of course it takes a first-time player much more to realize what is required of him, but that isn't so tough to figure out by trial and errors (you can play the end game over and over again immediately after failing the first time).

Originally Posted by PolloDiablo

So, I am glad I finally got to play it, and I liked it, but it doesn't end up in my top 10 of best games ever.

I'm glad you took part in this crawlthrough too.

Originally Posted by seagul

Bad Mojo will always have a place in my heart.
A cheer for the cockroaches!

Cheers! Thank you for taking part in the crawlthrough and for bringing interesting angles on the subject.

[seagul]

About the money wasted in Belize:
I like to believe that the bar makes profit - Eddie seems to like his bar, so i think he is a good landlord. So Eddie and Roger live from the money earned via the bar and this enables Roger to study his cockroaches. So in some way the bar is only a unconventional way to "elongate" the money - as long as there will be enough tourists in Belize.

It was a nice crawlthrough. It was so much fun and very interesting. Zobraks, you must know every corner and every cryptic scene of this game - you really are our supercockroach - like you showed in the picture.
Thanks to you and my fellow cockroaches it really was an adventure.

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by seagul

About the money wasted in Belize:
I like to believe that the bar makes profit - Eddie seems to like his bar, so i think he is a good landlord. So Eddie and Roger live from the money earned via the bar and this enables Roger to study his cockroaches.

I like the way you pictured Roger's and Eddie's future.

Originally Posted by seagul

Zobraks, you must know every corner and every cryptic scene of this game

That's what I thought too, but then you came with that blackboard in the toilet .

Originally Posted by seagul

It was a nice crawlthrough. It was so much fun and very interesting. ...
Thanks to you and my fellow cockroaches it really was an adventure.

I'm glad we all liked it .

I won't give my final verdict on Mojo. Firstly I'm sure I'll have to add something more in the days to come (this crawlthrough is over, but anyone can come up with his/her comment about anything Mojo-related in the future) and secondly I find it somewhat superfluous to submit my general opinion about the game/to express my love for Bad Mojo after I said so much about its features during the last month. I'll just quote a friend of mine (what she said at the end of the last year BM playthrough), because I feel the same now, at the end of another crawlthrough:

Originally Posted by Snežana S. (translated - poorly - by me)

"Somehow I find it so sad to utter I finished this wonderful game. Now I'm really sorry the end is here, but at least I'm happy with the good ending.
This is the most unusual adventure game I've played so far."

Bad Mojo still is in the top ten adventure games I played so far.

P.S. Sometimes I wonder what Bad Mojo would have looked like if the computer technology had been more advanced in the early 1990s:

Originally Posted by MojoAlex (Alex Louie)

Remember this: At the time we were developing on 486/33 computers. We didn't have a lot of horsepower. Moving a large bit of screen data required a fast machine. We didn't even get our first Pentium computer until the end of the production cycle. (Actually Vin and I played through Full Throttle on that thing in two days.)

A small insect sprite was the perfect choice at the time.

Perhaps we would have gotten to "drive" a turtle (rat? bunny?)?

[seagul]

Snezana must be my doppelganger (even if i can't write her name right). Me too, i didn't want this game to end.
About the small insect sprite: sometimes limitations in one level let us get higher scores in other levels. And by "us" i mean all humen beeings, not only game developers.

[Fien]

Let's do another Unoffical Playthrough soon!

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by Fien

Let's do another Unoffical Playthrough soon!

Hey, this one isn't over yet! Remember the object I mentioned in the beginning of the crawlthrough, the one that can be found both in Eddie's and Roger's room?
It can also be found in the den (which I forgot, but is quite logical considering that Roger dwelt there too). Did someone figure out what it was?

[Fien]

I'd forgotten all about it! Still have no idea what you're talking about. Except the newspaper with the story about Roger's mysterious money, which both Roger and Eddie have in their respective rooms. But I mentioned that one before, so that can't be it.

[seagul]

I don't know. Give me time to think about it.

[zobraks]

The mysterious object is whiteish, it's small (about the size of a hand) and can be found:

1) on the floor of Eddie's room
2) on the suitcase in Roger's room
3) on the working table in the Den

Here's a visual hint:

[seagul]

Do you mean the

Spoiler:

cigarettes?
Desperado?

The name is exactly fitting.

[zobraks]

Bingo!
I'll post the pictures of the mysterious object later to give others the chance to find out what it is by themselves.

Sure, the brand is just right. For both Roger and Eddie.

[Fien]

About the link to an earlier part of this crawlthrough: You mean the one on Eddie's floor belongs to Roger and he dropped it there or something?

[zobraks]

Originally Posted by Fien

You mean the one on Eddie's floor belongs to Roger and he dropped it there or something?

I think the one on Eddie's floor was dropped there by Eddie. I believe Roger and Eddie used to consume the same brand - that's one more thing they had in common - and (I think) the fact they liked the same brand of

Spoiler:

cigarettes

was intended to make a player see that Eddie and Roger shared something more.

Originally Posted by zobraks

... since there is an object you can find both in Eddie's "roach-infested hovel" and Roger's "luxury apartment" , we can also assume that Roger had visited Eddie's room before (Roger was spying on Eddie? ) and threw the letter into the garbage can.

This also can be true, but I think it's less probable than the former explanation.

[diego]

Better late than never, so here's some of my thoughts - what i thought about Bad Mojo had only been confirmed after finishing it, and even changed in for a better - and while Bad Mojo is maybe not my favourite adventure, if i was to name adventure games extraordinaire, Bad Mojo would along with The Last Express be on top of it.

The way i see the story is primarily through "good ending". While other endings are certainly more complex than traditional "bad endings", like "failure", dying or not reaching destination in The Last Express, i still see them as variations to the main story that can help us understand two main characters even more.

"Bad Mojo" might also stand for dealing with past, for both Roger and Eddie, and as things are usually in life - doing it in a harder way. It's also changing and achieving along the process, going for the goals and battling overhelming odds and ironic destiny. Just like Steve McQueen would rather eat bugs than starve to death only because of his instict tells him that he needs to escape the prison and damn island no matter what - and even if Roger might not be aware of his transformation into cockroach - it's still his instict decisions with visions of mother that push him forward.

Beneath that is a complex and emotional father-son story with fate throwing "Bad Mojo" at them, and with Eddie's bar as sort of a purgatory for both, especially Eddie. It's interesting how Eddie becomes more of a main character rather than Roger throughout the game. At first, we see him as simple, rude and careless man. He's only after the rent money and making jokes. We sense through empty and dirty bar also his isolation and loneliness, but learn even more along the way. During the final scene in front of the bar, we see a completely lost man, and not only because the bar is on fire. He goes with Roger without asking, not caring for the fire or police sirens. We learn that he kept sadness and regret inside of him the whole time.

Originally Posted by Fien

Okay, so I'm desperate to find a connection to Oedipus.

Beside that both Oedipus and Roger were abandoned by father, there's also the fact that both Oedipus and Roger fulfilled the prophecy or "Mojo" in this case, unintentionally as neither Roger and Eddie are aware of their relation until the end.

Originally Posted by zobraks

Well, the big companies usually don't give you a cent for some research just like that, and that Swiss company handed Roger a million dollar check without previously contacting him, having an interview or something, becoming more closely informed about his work "from the horse's mouth". Not very likely.

Because it's more important to realize Roger's feelings of a "little man" than to explain how he exactly got hold of million dollar. It's just a matter of chance, but it not that unusual that he got the money without personal contact, because donator can just negotiate with the company and not with the actual scientist. The anagram might just be another hint for "play of fate".

Originally Posted by seagul

It lost one of its nine lives.

Originally Posted by zobraks

It... got wings?

Maybe, but the last time we see it was heading for the door direction. And you know what, my cats even learned how to open doors by themselves

Originally Posted by seagul

We wanted to discuss what the "bad mojo" is

From the "good ending" perspective, it's interesting that "bad mojo" can be interpreted as good mojo as well. Like book or movie titles that imply tragedy, curse... while they could be "decieving" also. So it could be also a tragic destiny and mojo that eventually reunites the two.

Originally Posted by Fien

Yeah, you're right. I waited a couple of days before posting the four endings, but before that I was too eager to post my comments. Should have waited longer.

No what i meant was that because i played second half for the first time titles helped me to understand it better.

[zobraks]

As I promised:

Originally Posted by zobraks

I'll post the pictures of the mysterious object later to give others the chance to find out what it is by themselves.

I wonder if that brand of cigarettes (really) exists.

Happy Holidays, roachies!

[seagul]

Happy new year to you too, superroachie.