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Okay, I'll admit it. I only pretended to misremember that interview as an intricate way of prompting Jake to share more behind-the-scenes stories.

My memory of when Tales showed up at Telltale is, there was reluctance from a lot of people on the team to make the game, because the expectations were huge and it would be hard for Telltale to meet them given the smaller scope Telltale usually worked in, especially when we learned we would be targeting the Wii, which would shrink that scope even more. But once it became clear that the company would be making the game for sure, there were a bunch of people who threw in to give it their all and try to “do right” by the series as much as we could, and make the best game possible with the comparatively tiny space we had to work in. I think the games strengths and weaknesses all come from that desire.

'The Monkey Island'

This is just my recollection and may be off in some way, but: Dave worked on Tales but it was in a studio director role. So he was in story and design meetings but to my memory wasn’t a main writer on any chapter of the game, which is different from his role on Monkey 1, 2, or Return. As a design and writing lead at Telltale, Dave’s superpower was how good he was at quietly allowing people to do their own ideas and give them space, while also helping them push things into being the best version of those ideas. Dave was rarely a leader who would say “no, you should use my idea instead,” which is definitely one way you can run a team. So if anything, I’d say a perception of Dave being less involved is more, him being interested in making sure the people who were in the lead writer and designer seats on the episodes themselves were getting opportunities to talk about their work. With Return, it’s back to a tiny writers-designers room and he’s one of the only people in the seat, so it makes sense he’d be the one doing the talking. I’m very excited for that on Return - Dave was always great as a lead at Telltale, but it meant he wasn’t able to be in the nuts and bolts of the game as much as he is now.

While Dave was involved with TMI, it's not totally clear to what degree. After the first Sam & Max season he assumed the role of Design Director at Telltale, which seems to have been an overseeing role on all of the studio's projects. Judging by the credits, the project-level creative leads on TMI were Mike Stemmle and Mark Darin, while each episode had one or two primary directors and writers. While I am sure Dave had a non-trivial role in shaping TMI, he didn't assume any of those key titles on that project, so it's hard to gauge his direct contribution.

Another Ron & Dave interview: https://www.ign.com/articles/return-to-monkey-island-ron-gilbert-dave-grossman-how-it-became-reality-monkey-island-3

It might be a debug feature that somehow got mentioned in the keyboard shortcuts on HOL even after being dummied out of hte published game. SCUMM had the ability to "record" gameplay sessions and write the logs to files for playback on other computers. The only time this was used in anything published was, oddly enough, in the MI2 DOS rolling demo, which is also why ScummVM doesn't play the demo properly and treats it like an interactive game.

I just tested it in the MI2 DOS floppy release. Apparently Shift+F9 lets you record demo files (though you'd have to include the .rec file extension in the names you give them, like the "demo.rec" file used in the MI2 rolling demo), but Shift+10 doesn't allow playback. Still, it's pretty surprising that functionality was left in at all.

Really? From what I remember, Tales was generally really liked by the community at the time. Maybe that's changed over the years but I still look back on it fondly. Personally, I think it started off weaker from a game/puzzles/humour perspective but got much better as it progressed, with Episode 3 really being the turning point. Even though I felt the actual maguffin of "La Esponja Grande" itself was not particularly strong (though are we really going to say that "Big Whoop" or "The Ultimate Insult" were much better in comparison? ) and some of the episodic style pacing/bosses not being the best, I did feel that the plot in terms of the characters' journeys was the strongest in all of the games. LeChuck turning human, Guybrush being killed and becoming a ghost/zombie, Elaine/Guybrush's love being challenged, the Voodoo Lady's true intentions being questioned... I don't think any of the other games tested the characters and their relationships as much as Tales did. Every character felt less black and white than before, and that's something that Telltale in general did really well back in the day.

I haven't played ToMI in a while, but at least in my memory it didn't feel too constrained, but gave the feeling of covering a lot of ground during your journey. Sure, you return to Flotsam, but it was different enough to work well. What excites me in that IGN interview was the definitive confirmation that this is a pirate story, island hopping and all. I was still somewhat afraid that it might be a meta setting along the lines of Thimbleweed Park, which could easily suck all the atmosphere out of the pirate setting.

I just gave it a quick try in WinUAE and those keys didn't work, but then again I couldn't get debug mode working on it either so I may have had issues with the keymap or a wonky copy of the game. Shift+F9 and Shift+F10 are indeed the keys for recording/playing back a demo. Whether they are active depends on the version of the game. Normally I think you you need a full windex debug interpreter for the recording/playback functionality to be enabled (like the one included with the MI2 talkie prototype). So the pc cd version of MI2 doesn't let you do it, even in debug mode. However that functionality is enabled in the pc floppy version of MI2 without needing to enable debug mode. So I can well imagine that there's a version of the Amiga MI2 interpreter where playback and recording is enabled.

That's true. He actually mentioned that in the recent Adventure Gamers interview: Basically, I was referring to the fact that a lot of people kind of seem to think that the two original games were single-handedly developed by Ron Gilbert, and that every puzzle and every single line of dialogue was his creation. To the point that the fact that one of the other original writers/designers was involved in the development of Tales (in whatever capacity) was not perceived as particularly noteworthy. Or at least that was my impression. As for my other point, I was thinking of this Eurogamer interview from 2009: But actually, after skimming through it again, it does look as if I might have filled the blanks a bit too creatively. As in Guybrush-telling-the-story-of-how-he-defeated-LeChuck creatively. Feel free to completely disregard that.

I guess it can also be a factor that ToMI wasn't exactly loved by the fanbase in general plus the game distances itself from the plot of the main series. It's a bit of a shame because I always thought that out of all the MI games made after MI2 ToMI was the only one that could somewhat recapture the tone of the original 2. Also the MI2 based Guybrush redesign they had going on was just lovely and I always liked that Lucasarts used that design for MI2 SE too.

One of the things that surprise me the most about this widespread fixation with the "authorial purity" of the Monkey Island games is what happened, and still happens, with Tales of Monkey Island. Is it just my impression, or is there absolutely no general awareness of the fact that Tales was directed by one of the original writers/developers? By one of the three persons who shaped the primordial "voice" of the series? Sure, there were some interviews where it was mentioned that Dave Grossman was part of the original team. But the general perception, even among enthusiasts, doesn't appear to acknowledge this at all. Judging by everything that has been written about it, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the game was helmed by a complete newcomer. Having said that, am I the only one who thinks that there's a somewhat distinct contrast between Grossman's obvious enthusiasm when discussing this upcoming game and the interviews he did while promoting Tales? Obviously, I'm not saying he wasn't interested or anything of the sort. But I do remember him saying words to the effect that he kind of felt the series had run its course; that he was a bit surprised to see the team so eager to make a new Monkey Island. Things like that (I think Tales is great, by the way). Now, with Return, he keeps talking about how this is the perfect project for him, so it seems particularly promising. I hope we get a firing-on-all-cylinders adventure game, with an ambitious puzzle design.

What an embarassing confession that Mixnmojo isn't your home page.

I finally got around to reading the last bunch of comments... I think I was expecting the worst after hearing other people's impressions. I think the biggest problem was probably just how endless they were. You get the feeling that it would have gone on forever if Ron hadn't turned them off. Sure, there were a few assholes in there, making sarcastic comments like "I know this is a joke, Ron, you'd never do this to us!", but on the whole it was fairly cordial. There weren't any direct attacks (unless I missed them). I even saw our Rum Rogers trying to politely argue another POV. More than anything I could see Ron getting tired of seeing them endlessly pile up all day, every day. Better to just pull the plug until the game is out. It's true that direct creator access has changed what creators have to endure these days. People get very passionate about the company I work for. We get a lot of shit from die hard fans sometimes. It never bothers me because it's just their honest opinion -- it's not personal (although with Ron, it's more personal, as he's generated a one-man brand). I personally feel lucky to work on things that people care so much about. And I'd rather face that passion, even when it's overwhelmingly negative, than be a position where we're trying to convince people to care. "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." The only time it bothers me is when it's objectively wrong: Where people are angry with us for things we haven't actually done or are guilty of. I hope Ron can see it the same way, but with it being his game, his brand, his name, the pressure must be higher 😕

While we're all relying on the perpetually incoming Mojo review to know if the game itself is any good, it's tempting to put this big box on the shelf on the basis of Purcell's cover art alone.

Another bit of key information on what we can expect! It sounds like Ron has decided to be mischievous after all. No neat bows on this ending.

Big Trouble on Monkey Island Guybrush is revealed to be 80's Kurt Russel, It also has Monkey Kombat, everyone else but Guybrush can do it and apperently does constantly. Basically the game happens very quickly around us and we really have no clue what's happening and have very little effect on the story except for one huuuuuuge fluke defeating David Lo-Chuck

The Seacrets of Monkey Island. It's about a Jamaican bar and night club in Maryland, USA expanding into Deep in the Caribbean.

So far though Monkey Island has titles similar to Stars Wars. We've had revenge and Return. How about... Monkey island: a new three-headed monkey monkey island: Scurvy strikes back Monkey island: the Phantom Lechuck Attack of Monkey Island Rise of Monkey Island Monkey Island awakens The last Banana on Monkey Island

What the fuck 👕 I beat #Mojole and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 5/6 🖤🖤🖤💚🖤 💛💛💛💚🖤 🖤💛💛💛🖤 🖤🖤💚💚🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Return to Monkey Island Returns! Duh! 😜

Some people don't like the new art style for being just too different from previous Monkey Island games. Those same people dread that Ron Gilbert would just unload cob webbed nostalgia boxes with the same old characters and islands and mechanics with this game. So in essence they believe that ReMI would modernize where it doesn't count for them, but not modernize where it would count for them. That's ... wildly pessimist, I think. 💀

I doubt there's any real bad blood. I get the feeling that Ron is generally too stoic for that sort of thing. And Dave doesn't seem to be the type to harbour grudges. Of course they're all just people too, so I'm sure they've occasionally had problems, like anyone does. I remember Tim himself describing how he was a jerk to work with during Day of the Tentacle, for example (in Rogue Leaders).

Yep, it’s a question I’d really like to know the answer to. Even if there’s nothing interesting in that answer. Anyway, great post by Ron. Glad he has the insight, experience and fortitude to stick to his guns. I completely support him making the game HE wants to make. I look forward to playing it and really hope I love it. I’m glad that the ReMI conversation at Mixnmojo has been polite and respectful, even towards those of us who haven’t immediately warmed to Rex’s artwork. (There’s no need for the fan base to tear itself apart because of differences of opinion.) And that everyone agrees the ReMI team don’t deserve any ire directed toward them. I’m sorry Ron had to even write that post, but everything he’s said has just makes me more excited. Can’t wait!