Bad Mojo

The game begins in an underground hub with pipes to all the different rooms, which are sealed except one. By navigating from one room to another, the player unlocks the pipe to that room for easier backtracking. Roger is controlled solely using the directional arrow keys. As a cockroach, he can move small objects like cigarettes and bottle tops or weigh down precariously placed items.

In each room, there are hazards to avoid, lethal barriers to get around and puzzles to solve. The presence of hazards and ways to navigate to certain areas can be determined by observing other cockroaches. The player has four lives. A life is lost when Roger makes contact with anything deadly. When all lives are depleted, the player is sent back to the underground hub and must start the last room reached from the beginning (although the state of objects stays as the player last changed them).

In 1995, entomologist Roger Samms rents an apartment above a rundown bar owned by Eddie Battito. Roger has embezzled $1 million worth of research grant money from a science corporation he had previously worked for and is planning to leave for Mexico City to start a new life. After a small argument with Eddie, he remembers a trinket that he had gotten in his early childhood: a cockroach-patterned locket that belonged to his deceased mother, Angelina. Upon its discovery, the locket transforms Roger's soul into a cockroach and transports him to a sewer system connected to every section of the bar.

His adventure takes him to the basement (which is also Eddie's bedroom), the bathroom, the kitchen, the bar room, Roger's room, and finally his research room. As Roger explores his world and faces dangers such as rats, garbage disposals, and his own pet cat Franz, he is guided by his mother's spirit, who serves as an oracle.

Bad Mojo's development was troubled: director Vinny Carrella noted that there was "a pall over the production" and "no happiness, just pain". The original designer Drew Huffman came up with the concept of having a small character in the gameplay due to the technical slowdowns on computers at the time. To begin with, the game was codenamed the "Booger Project". Huffman and Carella were brainstorming the game with Phill Simon taking inspirations from their experience with cockroach infestations, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, and the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. The puzzles that were implemented focused on realism and the capabilities of a cockroach.

For graphics, the team used a mixture of CG and live action. It took a lot of study and modelling to get realistic looking roach graphics in the game animating the walk cycles frame by frame. About 720 screens in the game were produced. Parts of the cutscenes were created using Swivel 3D.

According to co-producer Alex Louie, the original 1996 release of Bad Mojo was commercially successful. Following the game's launch, Macworld reported that it was "selling steadily." By February 1997, roughly 12 months after its release, its sales had reached 175,000 units. Louie said in 2004 that he was "pretty sure we sold over 200,000 units" by the end of Bad Mojo's shelf life.

It also received accolades from critics. Inside Mac Games nominated Bad Mojo as its pick for 1996's best adventure game, but ultimately presented the award to Titanic: Adventure Out of Time. Conversely, the editors of Macworld gave Bad Mojo their 1996 "Best Role-Playing Game" award. Steven Levy of the magazine called it "an amazing experience".