TUBMC (The Unofficial Bad Mojo Crawlthrough)
 

My Dear Fellow Adventurers,

This is the beginning post of an unofficial playthrough, a magnificent crawlthrough along the walls and floors, brooms and boxes of Eddie's On the Waterfront, the not so famous bar on Townsend St. in San Francisco, USA. Yes, it's the game many of you have been waiting for, the one and only - Bad Mojo (Redux version, hopefully).


http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q..._BMR_cover.jpg

What's so special about this game? Well, it would be easier (and shorter) to say what Bad Mojo has in common with other adventures, but I'll stick with the differences.
First of all, in BM you're not a "run-of-the mill" hero you've used to be in most of the titles of the genre. Actually, you're not much of a hero either: you're a selfish, lonely, beaten by life thirty three years old scientist (entomologist at that) Roger Samms who gets turned into a cockroach. I know that many of you will now jump and shout: "Kafka!" - and you're right. Yes, the initial idea of the game comes from Franz (Franz is also the name of the feline that plays Bogart the cat in this title) Kafka's story about one Gregor Samsa (Samsa -> Samms, and Roger written backwards is (G)regor, you see it?) and his metamorphosis to a bug.

In the intro of BM you'll learn that Roger had embezzled a large sum of money and that he intended to escape to Mexico with it leaving his unsuccessful work on a revolutionary pesticide and his misfortunate life behind him. He's on the top of the world, and, as we all know well, that is when things in life usually start going downhill. Poor Roger gets turned into a roach while observing the strange medallion his late mother left him (before he went to the orphanage where he spent big part of his life, not knowing who his father was). So, you're the cockroach Roger has turned into and your task in the game will be to figure out what actually happened and to find the way to become (a) human again.

You won't have to save the world in this unique game, you'll be saving only yourself and... well, you'll see that in the game.

The commanding system in BM is also a bit unusual: forget the mouse and point & click, the only means of steering you'll use in the game will be the arrow keys of your keyboard. There isn't any inventory in this game either, but there are puzzles for you to solve and you'll do that by walking (crawling) and pushing things around you. No dialogs too (cockroaches don't talk, remember?), but your mother will speak to you - through many creatures that live in Eddie's not quite hygienic (to put it mildly) place.

We'll start playing Bad Mojo together on Friday, November 12th at 17:00 Central European Time. Why then? Seventeen is my lucky number and Friday is my lucky day and I'm superstitious - that's all. You have three days to find the game CD, blow off the dust and install Bad Mojo. The game was published in 1996 and works fine on Win 9X and Win XP (with some tweaking). If you want to buy it, I suggest you buy Bad Mojo Redux (2004) which is basically the same game with improved graphics and cutscenes and with technical issues eliminated to play smoothly on newer computer systems. During the installation you'll be prompted to install QuickTime 6.5.1 (the version that comes with the game) but you don't have to do so if you already have a newer version of QuickTime on your computer.

This playthrough will be divided into...

Spoiler:

... seven stages (corresponding six rooms and the grand finale of the game).

Feel free to comment the current stage but be careful to put spoilers from the upcoming stages in spoiler tags (for those who intend to play this masterpiece for the first time).

If you will excuse my lousy grammar, so-so spelling and poor vocabulary :P, then perhaps I would help you have some nice and memorable moments scurrying through Eddie's Bar.

I'm ready to take of (or crawl down the dumps).
After a few minor problems i finally got the game working on my computer.
It's the (german) BadMojo redux version.
For fellow xp users: i had to deinstall all of quicktime to get the game started.
I hope it will work.

I'm ready for re-crawlthrough :D, because Mr. "meanie" zobraks already "forced" me once to play with the cockroaches. Maybe i'll try to finish the game this time :devil:

Everybody is welcome in TUBMC. Even truant students http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q..._opanachke.gif (although you're improving lately, Diego :)) and the ones that failed at last year's Bad Mojo playthrough at FSK http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...ji/th_bleh.gif.

Oh good, I've had this game on my shelf for a while but for some reason other games kept popping up whenever I looked for something to play. It's the Redux version so it should be fine on Vista, right? I'll try to install it tomorrow.

I've played Bad Mojo Redux on XP (although there were reports of problems with QuickTime), some people had no problems on Win 7. I hope it will work for you too PD and welcome aboard :).

I'll be joining this Crawltrough? So how do we do this? With checkpoints?

This is gonna be good, dear fellow roachies! Eddie's Bar is paradise. Can't wait. :)

Bad Mojo is clearly divided into stages (1 room = 1 stage of the playthrough). Welcome aboard. :)
You (accidentally and quite unintentionally :D) started all this :P.

I'm looking forward to your comments, Fien! :)

I'm in...
 

Got this game laying around for ages, yet never played it. I shall check today if it runs on my windows 7, otherwise it will be a nightly netbook crawlthrough.

Let us have fun :)

I'm glad you made it and I'm looking forward to your comments too. :)

That's what TUBMC is all about! :D Hop in the wagon and welcome!

Lol, I suspected so. But I stopped playing it too join this collective playthrough. Works out great, since I dislike finishing good games too quick.
I have stopped playing after the first stage.

I think I figured out some twists already. =P
But I don't feel like discussing it. I want rather the game to revelate everything.

Attachment 2145 Attachment 2146 Attachment 2147

You've legally bought Bad Mojo, you've installed and tested it and you already saw Michael X. Sommers (Roger) acting his a$$ off. You became a roach and a tube opened in front of you.

OK roaches, here we go! Move straight into that tube and keep crawling on.
The first stage of Bad Mojo crawlthrough has officially started. :)

I almost forgot something:

Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Bad Mojo - abridged edition
(written by an idiot, for the idiots :P)

Here are some basic advice about adventuring in Bad Mojo (Redux):

1. Go everywhere.
[When you enter a new location try going in all directions, as far as you can. If you come across an obstacle (water, paint, cobwebs, etc.) go along it until you find a way through. If you're crawling on an object (table, box, radio, ...) go along all sides of it because there may be something interesting there (a new perspective, passage, ...).]
2. Pay attention to everything and carefully observe everything around you.
[It is worth taking notes of everything written on letters, bills, notes, newspapers and specially of strange numbers that repeatedly show to and fro. When you see a fellow cockroach scurrying in a certain direction - follow it and you might learn something useful. To get a larger picture of your whereabouts try to climb anything that protrudes (shelf, table, broom, box and so on). You may be amazed by a scenery!
Listen carefully: a dramatic change in music usually means you're approaching a danger/something evil.]
3. Save often.
[All kinds of peril lurk in the rooms of Eddie's bar, so make sure to save your position before every potentially dangerous situation (and almost all situations in BM are dangerous :devil:). You have only four lives, remember, so I suggest you return to the saved position after losing a life. Or you may take risks if you feel lucky.]

Zobraks, where do we stop and how long do we have for the first part of the crawlthrough?

The end of the first stage is when you leave Eddie's room (the place you're in now) and enter...

Spoiler:

... the toilet.

I wasn't sure about how long the first part of the crawlthrough should last: based on enthusiasm showed in Origami's theme I reckoned it would take you only a couple of hours to finish it ;), but now I think it would take longer (you all obviously need more time to accomodate) so the next part of TUBMC will start on Friday, November 19th, at 17:00 CET.

Excellent. It installed just fine. I watched the intro movie and saved right after that, haven't actually played. :)

I watched the intro movie. :9
My game only works if i have no quick time on my computer. So i have to whatch youtube for the little movies. :frusty:
And i have a few questions:
At the beginning we see a bridge. Is it cognizable for someone what bridge/what town this is? I don't think it's important, just curious.
What's this room with the pipes? Is this a normal place in an american house? Seems really strange to me.
Before Eddi knocks, Roger states that it is because of his landlords he gets in trouble. But Eddies "lock it" only makes him remember the locket. So Roger only wants to blame somebody?
I like the way Sommers is acting over the top. Roger seems to be totally crazy. And totally ready to crawl into "the night of my soul", as he says it. :crazy:

That's more than just a little frustrating, cause there will be many short FMV cutscenes which flesh out the background story. I'm not good at technical stuff, maybe someone else can help you.

The famous San Francisco bridge. The same bridge you saw in A New Beginning. :)
[[Question for quizz lovers, like Master Zobraks: there are at least two other adventures where you can see this bridge. Which ones?]]

The basement. We have sewer pipes in Holland and I bet you have them too in Germany. :P

Yep. Eddy claims he's no longer the victim, but whining is second nature to him.

A complete idiot's guide! Perfect! Sound convenient for me. ;)
Last time I tried playing I indeed felt like an idiot.

Golden Gate (obviously) and some of Tex Murphy games :P

Of course, the Tex Murphy series! I'd forgotten all about them. :shifty: So there's at least one other adventure with the Golden Gate. I'll put it in spoilers and hope Master Zobraks forgives me for digressing.

Spoiler:

Runaway: A Road Adventure

You don't need to watch the BM movies on the Internet, Seagull. Go to the MOVIE folder of the BM disc, right-click on any movie you want to watch and choose your media player to play it. Even better, you can set your media player (I use VLC Media Player and recommend it) to open the .MOV files - Apple QuickTime's proprietary format - by default.

Here is the list of all the movies from the first chapter of BM:

I already said what city (even what street) Bad Mojo is taking place in :P:
I knew you would bring new angles on BM stuff. Roger is miserable, so blaming others for his misfortune is quite normal :D.

In my opinion that's all part of the master plan to make Roger disgusting and despicable, so horrible that the form of cockroach fits him like a glove :P.
BM management did a great job by finding and choosing Michael Sommers for the role of a yucky insect.

BTW, when I was waiting for the comments it was all quiet here. Yesterday I took a day off and went for a walk (the Sun was shining, the temperature was over 20°C, no wind - like always in November :P) and when I looked at the topic this morning - there were so many interesting observations that I still can't answer to all of them (outside is another gorgeous day - this climate has gone crazy http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...i/th_wacko.gif - inviting me to go outside). But I will.

Oops, I didn't remember neither Tex Murphy games, nor...

Spoiler:

... Runaway.

I'm a bit slow and totally exhausted after six weeks of perpetual guessing the mysterious adventures :crazy:.

What do you now? Even we in Serbia http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...asaslamkom.gif have those pipes.
Progress is a wonderful thing, we no longer have to do it behind the beech trees :D.

You'll be hanged by the neck, as a warning :7.
Just kidding - when I said I am a benevolent dictator the stress was on "benevolent", not on "dictator".
Feel free to digress a little, this is an unoffical crawlthrough :).

Thanks for your help. But i tried your tips and many others: they don't work.
I need the youtube bad mojo walkthrough because only with it i can see what action triggers what movie.
But it's ok by me. As long as it works. :P
I had problems with sanitarium and even with blackstone chronicles: it is normal for my playthroughs (or for my experiences with quicktime).
oh, yes, sorry. I can't read. properly.
Oh, yes, i played it two week ago. I fit in the complete idiot category wery vell. :D
It works! :crazy:

You're welcome. I'm sorry it didn't help you.

You're right. It's no use to know what cutscenes are played in a chapter if you don't know when/where they're played.

I just remembered other people had the same problem with QuickTime like you, Seagull, and posted this:

source
I hope this will work. It's less exhausting than to look at YT every now and then.

I'm glad you liked it. :) We aim to please!

Don't feel embarrassed, we all did at some stage. Let me tell you what an idiot I was http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...i/th_blush.gif.

When I played BM for the first time (in 2006) everything went smooth: I easily installed it, started it, watched the intro and there I was in front of the opened tube (leading to Eddie's room, which I didn't know by then).
I (naturally) didn't read the manual so I tried moving the mouse :P, pressing Enter, F1, F5, Spacebar - to no avail http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...th_isuse-1.gif. Then I gazed at it for a couple of seconds and (in a mystic moment of revelation :D) suddenly realized I have to go forward http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...th_boodala.gif and I pressed the "up" arrow!

And look at me now, I'm leading a BM crawlthrough http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...i/th_kralj.gif.

Oh dear, this game is hard. Not just because the controls are a bit too sensitive for my taste which makes my attempts at pushing stuff go wrong all the time, and not just because I have a hard time distinguishing between lethal and non-lethal puddles. But also because I've encountered a glitch a few times. After saving and resuming, I am often in a totally different spot on the screen than before, sometimes even right in the middle of something sticky and dangerous or on the next screen... so I tend to avoid saving when I'm near a potential source of danger, and then ofcourse I walk right into it. :D :frusty:

Oddly enough, the only place you'll need some real skill in (quick) pushing things around in BM is the very first time you have to push something in BM. Yeah, I'm talking about the spider-cigarette butt routine, but you can practise pushing cigarette butts before encountering the spider, right after entering Eddie's room - whether you go left or right ;).

That's simple: don't go into any puddle, lethal or not (the lethal ones kill you, the non-lethal ones slow your progression). When you start getting stuck - press the down/back key to get back.

That's not a glitch, that's just how BM is made :P. The best way to save a position is to save it in a screen immediately BEFORE a screen containing a danger (if you want to be able to return to a safe position after failing to pass an obstacle) or immediately AFTER a screen containing a danger (if you passed it and want to avoid finding yourself in the middle of trouble). I remember saving a game after passing the Cockroach Corral but in the same screen. When I loaded it I was in front of the whole puzzle and had to do it all over again. Next time I passed the Cockroach Corral I went into the next screen, saved there and everything was OK afterwards.

Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Bad Mojo - unabridged edition contains all these advice (and some more), but I was too lazy to translate the whole of it :D.

Well, I experienced something similar. I restored a saved game and was stuck, couldn't move at all. Restoring again didn't work, the only way to solve the problem was restarting the game and restoring again. Funny thing is my little roach was in a different place on the screen. I didn't have this problem in my previous playthoughs. So far it has happened twice, near the spider and near the high-wire act (no immediate danger there).

I finished the first part of the crawlthrough and will post my comments later today. ;)

I noticed that while playing Bad Mojo for the first time. Apparently (after loading a saved game) there are positions you are placed in by default in a certain screen, regardless of where you were when the game was saved.
Great! :9~

Yes, but I meant that my roachie was in a different position when stuck and unable to move after restoring, than when the restoring went fine and I could continue playing.

This is how it worked for me.

I save I start at a different position.
I restore that save, I start from the same position as when I saved.


So what is the deadline? I need to be finished with the bathroom before friday right?

No, not the bathroom. You should get out of Eddie's room by Friday evening. Preferably. We need a schedule in order to set a pace of the crawlthrough, but that doesn't mean you can't play/comment a chapter once its playing time is up.

Revisiting Eddie’s Bar. For those of you who haven’t played the first part yet: yes, spoilers ahead.

I watched the intro several times and I already said I love it, over-the-top acting and all. So here comes the nitpicking. Eddie warns Roger he shouldn’t leave his door open with so much money laying around. But there is no money laying around, it’s all safely tucked away in the closed briefcase.

For me, the most important and most enjoyable aspect of Bad Mojo is the exploration from an unusual point of view. A whole new world in the basement to discover, limited at first but after the high-wire act it really opens up. On the floor under the bed, over the bed with Eddie in it, the underside of the bed with the money under the mattress, and so on. Can’t get enough of it. Awesome. Very well done. It does feel like a three-dimensional world.

The puzzles come next. “Mom, look! No hands!” They are clever within the obvious restrictions and a refreshing change from collecting-usable-objects. I hate the spider, it’s so fast. But it’s the only action puzzle. I hope everybody has discovered the two secrets of the disgusting dead rat. And I’m joining the line of idiots, cause it took me almost thirty minutes to find my way out of the trashcan (did I mention that I have played BM twice before... :shifty:) and I was stuck forever in the paint, discovered the way out by accident.

The story is the weakest part for me. But I quite like the way it is told. Fortunately, the over-the-top acting doesn’t stop with the intro. That doctor. And the baby is so obviously a doll it’s hilarious. The stories in the paper are illuminating. My favorite is the part about how Roger’s goal was to “put cockroaches onto the endangered species list by the year 2000". :D

That’s it for now, there’s much more to say, for instance about the interesting transition to the next room, the overviews and the advice from the other creatures. It’ll keep, this is just part one and I’m looking forward to the comments from first-time players.

Last but not least: the antsy music is perfect. I can’t imagine any other type of music that fits the roach journey so well.

Heh, I didn't notice that at all :Z. And I played BM four or five times before.
I fully agree. I love to explore the unknown, and Eddie's room is a very interesting place to explore.

The most famous (specially because he's one of only the few of the kind :frown:) adventure games reviewer in Serbia, Slobodan Macedonić from "Svet kompjutera" magazine, objected that there were too many screens in Bad Mojo that "have no use at all". In his opinion, there was too much crawling in the game and too few puzzles:

source
He said Eddie's room has some 200 screens and only about 15 in which you have do do something.

In the BM playthrough at FSK I said he was wrong and argued that Eddie's room must be observed as a single location (not 200 locations/screens) in which you have to solve more puzzles than in a single chapter of an average adventure game. I also stressed that BM is more about exploration (physical exploration of the rooms and detective exploration of Roger's life/past) than about puzzle solving (you can play "Myst" or "Rhem" if you need more puzzles), and reminded the audience that S.M. himself (correctly) noticed that in BM the accent is on exporation. I also asked what kind of space exploration BM would be if there were only, say, twenty-thirty screens of Eddie's room [there are 260 of those, actually - I counted them :crazy::7 - and 43 of them have something to read/notice and 17 something to do ("creative screens")].
Yeah, it really opens up after coming off that table with a vacuum cleaner (one way or another, having more to explore after switching the v.c. off, of course).
As I said, I love exploring and I really enjoyed the cockroach perspective (with usual everyday life objects looking strange and mysterious). I tried to go everywhere and do all kind of crazy things:

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q..._Edispava2.jpg http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q..._Edispava4.jpg http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q..._Edispava5.jpg
I was delighted to have the opportunity to crawl over sleeping Eddy and so disappointed I couldn't get into his nostrils :frown: http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...i/th_kreza.gif (now, THAT would be something! http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q..._opanachke.gif).

It's amazing how they made all those lively pictures from so many angles.
Yes, the puzzles in Bad Mojo are so original and so well conceived. I enjoyed every one of them.
It's interesting that each new time I played BM I (also) had more trouble with the obstacles (spider was somehow tougher to beat each new time, I lost a couple of lives trying to short-circuit the vacuum cleaner and (like you!) I got lost in a trash can, although I remembered the basic pattern of going through it). I also forgot that I have to turn the v.c. on before meddling with the wires...
It's not easy to write a good story. I think the story in BM is quite good and original and (I agree) the way it is revealed (with all the notes, newspapers, certificates, Eddie's monologues, family history sequences and so on) is supreme.
The creators of BM (unconsciously?) took advantage of a tight budget by making those hilarious details. It's interesting that the doctor in the birth cutscene is Gerald Simon, the father of BM's producer Phil Simon.
Thank you for making me learn what "antsy" means :) (never heard a word before)! Yeah, the music is really fidgety, it fits perfectly and adds a lot to the whole atmosphere.

That difficult to describe atmosphere of Bad Mojo is so unique http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...th_worship.gif.

Attachment 2148
Trivia: the author of the great extraordinary music in BM is Peter Stone, aka DJ Bat or XORCIST who mainly composes gothic music. You can listen to his online radio show Cyberden if you like.

BTW, what do you think "bad mojo" in the title means: a bad spell Roger is under or literally a bad amulet that brought him a misfortune (blessing in disguise?) of turning into a cockroach?

The bridge from the Bad Mojo intro (going over the Townsend St.) is NOT Golden Gate:

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...ge-picture.jpg

, it's the Oakland Bay Bridge, better known as the Bay Bridge:

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...bay_bridge.jpg

I love crawling through the game once more!
It' my third time (as you, Fien). But every time i see new points of views.
You are sparkling with details, zobraks. I must try to crawl on Eddies face. Gives my the shivers to see your screenshots.:D
260 screens - i'm sure i must have missed a few.
Must... try... once... again ....
bye bye, very busy :9

Thanks, Seagull, I'm trying to give all the details I can remember. Most of the Bad Mojo trivia I took from the Bad Mojo Redux Chat. Read it carefully, there are spoilers out there.

There's even a more interesting (quite bumpy! :D) spot to crawl over :9~ http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...i/th_kreza.gif, but that's in chapter six.
Who said Suki? :9

I believe I missed some too. I'll post a couple of the rare screenshots when the chapter is over. ;)

I have to thank you, zobraks. I finally can play the game with the movies. I installed QT_LITE_400 and it worked!
Didn't see your reply till today.
But now i have another problem. I wanted to create a map of the room by making screenshot with Fraps. But Fraps doesn't work with BM.
Do you know another quick way to make screenshots or did you make a map? 260 screenshots with print screen would drive me crazy!:crazy:
Didn't see the chat.
Have to take a look. Happily i played the game and can't be spoilered. :D

Great! http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...liji/th_up.gif
I'm very glad you made it :).