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I've just completed it! Overall, this was a really fun game. I found it to be funny and charming. I loved the tabloid stories and inspiration. I grew up hearing a lot of these sort of stories so it all felt really familiar to me - in the best way possible. Also there was a lot of the dialogue that wound up making me smile. If I were to offer someone playing for the first time some advice: - Use the READ function on everything - some things may surprise you. - Save often, especially so that you can: - Try multiple different solutions or find little jokes. I especially enjoyed using the GIVE option a lot. A few other specific thoughts: Difficulty I didn't actually find it too difficult, I think I was making it more difficult in my head by second guessing myself along the way. I managed to make it without a walkthrough, and with only the one hint above - which was really just me hoping that I didn't need to do a bunch of backwards logic if I didn't need to. While I understand that this is a bit different for a Lucas game because you can die ... I thought they did really try to make it difficult to die. And there seemed to be enough hints in the game itself to push you towards drawing the conclusions you needed to solve the puzzles. The only point that I thought could have used a little more of a push was something to indicate a bit more of an expected procedural outline. I got stuck above because I thought I was missing something that didn't exist. When I just went ahead and did the stuff I knew I would need to eventually - it all ended up falling into place in more or less the right order. I'm not sure if this is a flaw in the game, or whether it says something more about game design then or game design now (and our audience expectations). Mazes Well, you were all correct that these are here solely to pad play time. But I don't really see the point at all. I didn't find them to be actual mazes. Typically, if I clicked through 4 or 5 screens in most areas, I would wind up at my destination. I found this really strange. I was expecting it to be more like Sierra games of the era, where the maps had to be correct so you could find multiple locations and return to them again without dying along the way. Instead these felt very much just like completely useless padding. Money I've been reading the Mojo articles on it and see that many people weren't fans of the cash system - but I didn't think it was that bad. If you need money, there is the Lotto which you can win - at least up to three times. This should be enough money to last you, especially if you're making use of saved games. I have a feeling many people would face issues of getting stuck without cash for the other player characters, but there are some work-arounds if you're willing to do a little give-and-take. Multiple Paths I could tell there were multiple solutions to puzzles, but was slightly disappointed that some of the things never played a bigger role. I also feel like I had some inventory items that I never really needed - which just made me feel like I wish I'd known what they could have been used for? Missing Components I think the thing I missed the most is a "Talk to" feature, or more of an opportunity for any of the characters to interact with each other. I wanted to hear more about the motivations of different characters and their backgrounds. That being said, I did like that there were some characters that felt like they had more of a backstory than many characters I've seen in recent media. I saw somewhere that someone didn't feel like they got a sense of who Zak was - but I sure did. I have a voice in my head for him. I felt I knew his motivations. His mom's answering machine messages also helped me to fill in a few gaps. I also liked how each of the female characters seemed to have their own unique interests and special abilities. They did feel a bit limited, but I liked the inclusion of reasons why characters weren't interchangeable. A note on timing: I know it will look like I spent a full month on this, but I played only some evenings and some weekend days throughout the month. I didn't time my play-through, but this should not be used as an indicator of how long the game is.

(As usual, Moderators, don't hesitate to correct / translate what I try to write in English !!) The idea of this topic would be to centralize the latest unpublished discoveries on LucasFilm Games / LucasArts projects. To start, do you all remember the amazing gems that Aric Wilmunder posted on his website in 2016 ? It seems that a still significant number of documents of this kind exist. I recently had the opportunity to see a little more, and I am in talks to succeed in scanning and putting online as much information on design documents or projects abandonned by the studio. As Aric says : " Our ratio was probably about 5-8 designs for every game that got approval " So, here are already two documents which, I believe (but I could be wrong, don't judge me), are still unknown and concerns "THE PIRATE CURSE OF MONKEY ISLAND" (We had already the opportunity to see the document that pitches the game).

I did get myself one of those and had it professionally framed with some really nice driftwood-style wood. It cost way more than I expected it to, but I was really happy with the end results. It's currently packed away right now as I am in the middle of moving houses, but I'll update this thread with a few pictures when I get the chance.

On another note, I'd like to show some comparisons of what I mean by updating existing posters. The improvements in quality result from a combination of a) having access to better sources and b) having better tools at my disposal. Note that on my old versions I often used fake texture and bump-mapping to simulate brush strokes and detail where originally there was nothing like that (although some details and grain are added artificially in the new versions as well). Here are a few samples: https://imgur.com/hcrfIOu I'd also like to show an extreme example of better ways to upscale images using basically artificial intelligence (or "machine learning"). The promotional "Infernal Machine" artwork (or something that was an early concept for the main cover) was originally only shared on Drew Struzans own website, albeit at very low resolution. Here's how it looks after upscaling it in various steps:

Good catch! There’s actually 5 or 6 different voices (not just one per boat). Since I don’t show the subtitles I decided I didn’t need it. Also the logic they use is a bit complex. Besides being randomised is also based on the cannonball proximity to the boats.

I think Zaarin had ambitions to do just that. Or maybe I'm imagining that. Either way everyone should start badgering Zaarin until a solution presents itself. Meanwhile, I'm at work on an article about the Maniac Mansion Nintendo soundtrack. Dunno what the audience for it is besides me, but the cartridge turned 30 last month so I figured the timing was right for it. I want to see how many Maniac Mansion articles I can publish in a row before a violent response is provoked.

Craig's teasing for MI 30th anniversary. 🥰

Ron Gilbert put some old unseen docs on his website. The TimeFly may have been written between Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island. https://grumpygamer.com/time_fly Reading this, I think I've already seen that kind of idea somewhere...

From Noah Falstein Facebook. Terryl Whitlatch's drawings of the intelligent alien race in Falstein's version of the Dig (circa 1990). Whitlatch will later design Sebulba or Jar Jar Binks for Geoge Lucas in SW Episode 1.

I'm pretty sure you already saw it, but Noah Falstein dig out some old files from Star Trek : The Computer Game (1988)

A little bit more on that early Outlaws pitch.

Oh. I forgot the third picture.

You may have already seen it. But one of the studio's veterans, Kevin Schmitt, just released three photos of an Outlaws game design document. So far nothing very surprising, but if you look closely at the first photo. You will notice that the document is dated 1995 and that it is a .... adventure game based on the SCUMM engine! I really hope we will learn more

I think there will be more stuff in september. Aric is pretty busy for now. But he is motivated to share all of these. And when I caught a glimpse of the boxes full of design docs, I though I had a heart attack...