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Hello, I wanted to introduce myself "briefly" I'm Romain, 34 and I've been reading here for a few weeks now. But especially with the discussion about "Return" I feel the urge to join in the discussion from time to time. Who knows... My Monkey history: I grew up with CMI in 1997, but I also learned to love the originals very early and I'm always open for new things. At the time I really liked EMI (but the recent playback deceives the opinion a bit - apart from the story). It just has to work and be fun. But everything that isn't it doesn't ruin the rest for me either. I'm looking forward to the exchange in any case and am curious about everything that still happens (these are exciting times for Monkey fans in the end :D)!

Like most people here… I love Monkey Island for its amazing music! And since I like to have everything in order (🤓), I've created consistent covers for my Apple Music library (using the great visuals from Laserschwert). I'm already pretty happy with these versions - but not 100% yet. I am therefore very open to alternative suggestions. [Update: For the sake of overview I have moved the downloads to "Imgur" and replaced them with an index here.]] Links to the cover downloads All album covers with framing – Version 1: https://imgur.com/a/B0CWRVe All album covers with framing – Version 2 (as seen in overview image): https://imgur.com/a/e55iyw0 Alternate covers for MI1, MI2 and MI4 with "original" framing: https://imgur.com/a/UBFgqNE Alternate covers – with logo, without framing: https://imgur.com/a/uKNk6ee The artworks without logo or framing: https://imgur.com/a/9jMgeMy Disclaimer: For the sake of the sorting, I have decided against the more beautiful CMIs and ReMIs of this world and reduced it to MI1 - MI6 ("Threewood. Guybrush Threepwood…"). (If I have unnecessarily opened a new topic here, although this can be wonderfully integrated elsewhere, then sorry.)

All those years we thought it was always 10 PM on Melee Island when in fact it was 10 AM!

It's famously impossible to get stuck in a dead-end in LucasArts adventure games - or is it?! Research commissioned by Mixnmojo has cast doubt on this bold claim. You can get stuck in The Secret of Monkey Island. "But how?!" you may be crying in anguish, particularly if you're one of these guys: Well, it's pretty simple. On the ship, the game only lets you burn some of your flammable items (necessary to fire the cannon), and it's possible to put them all in the cooking pot, destroying them. No fire, no cannon, no Monkey Island. As a guy explains in the Twitter thread, there's a failsafe item the game prevents you from cooking - the Melee treasure map - but it's possible you never obtained it in the first place. If you "unlock" the forest by following the storekeeper, you can find the treasure by trial and error, so you don't need the map. Don't believe me? Well, go on then. Get past here. I dare you. monkey-ega.s06 monkey-vga-amiga-1.s07 EGA and Amiga ScummVM saves for your enjoyment. Are there other dead-ends in any of the adventures? I can't think of any, and I'm definitely the sort of moron who tries really hard to break a game. I don't think I've managed it on a LucasArts adventure game - until now.

Indeed. And of course I couldn't resist to take a look... A lot goes on during those first frames, other than just showing the logo. The machine rating is measured, based on how long it takes to first draw the logo room - but that's not what causes the speed-up - but rather this (pseudo-SCUMM, as per usual): override skip-intro ; some stuff to wait for the music here... run-script sparkles sleep-for 1 second override skip-intro sets up where we'll go, if ESC is hit. "sparkles" is the script that does the sparkles ("run-script" means this script won't continue running until "sparkles" is done - or the override key is hit). At the beginning of the "sparkles" script: min-jiffies = 5 Yes, that's for "high frame rate". It sets the minimum jiffies (60ths of a second) for a frame to 5 - i.e. 12 frames per second. At the end of the script, when the sparkles are done, it's set back to 6 (10 frames per second - also the initial value for MI1). If you hit ESC in the meantime, the script will be stopped before it reaches the end, and "min-jiffies" will stay at 5. So you have to wait until the sparkles start - when it's set to 5 - and hit ESC before they end, when it's set back to 6.

Is it possible that all the buildings are just painted blue? 😂 Imagine if it turns out that screenshot is set during the day and that's just what the buildings look like

Something that he talks about in his talks about Knights and bikes is that for the art used for that he limited everything to two brushes only in order to make everything feel that more integrated. I think that kind of thinking becomes very important with digital art as it must be tempting to solve problems with all the tools at your disposal but imposing limitations really lends itself to coming up with creative solutions that feel intentional and cohesive with the overall style. God I can't wait to see this stuff in motion, in context Also for me it's less about what you lose/gain from traditional vs digital and more about what inspired you. It's not surprising to me that people who are inspired by traditional art but have to work in digital art because of constraints might not make their best work. The great thing about this being a digital art project is that Rex is really motivated and inspired by the potential of digital art, you can see him in his talks talking about how when he first got an Amiga and dpaint he was really excited by the possibilities. As a composer my advice to anyone wanting to try their hand is to work with whatever tools get you up in the morning, and I think the same rule applies to art. Take the path of least resistance. It's easy to feel like you're cheating by doing what is easy for you but I think really all it means is that you're free to spend your energy being creative instead of fighting with the medium

I love those Scabb Island original paintings especially. Even though it's clearly nighttime, they still have great light/dark contrast and very strong hues. I was playing "Gibbous" some time ago, which is mostly a night time setting as well, and even though it's a nice point & click, they really haven't thought about contrast and color. At all. It's all way too dark and muddy, the vast majority of the backgrounds are. Traditional art on paper is great (so great that it's the only art I create at the time), but it seems to me that the main problem with modern adventure games is not that the art is "digital". It's that sometimes the traditional, time honored knowledge seems to have been lost in the transition, and that knowledge could easily be applied to the digital process. It's just another thing that Rex understands and applies. The Melee Island color palette just feels right, the contrasts are all there.

Hi, I also wanted to give my two pieces of eight on the topic. 🙃 I really love the new art style so far! I like that it goes in the direction of DOTT and I'm curious to see how crazy the overall design will be. I also very much like the character design: Shopkeeper (?), Locksmith and ghosts in the trailer - all look great to me! With the Judge... I'm not so sure if I like it, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. I (as everyone I guess) am really excited about the Guybrush design. I would like to see a nice evolution from the MI2 Guybrush: A bit more melancholic, maybe even a bit "bitter". The old MI2 sprite always felt a bit depressed to me (in a good way). Also in terms of personality I would find it nice to experience a more "jerk" Guybrush again in comparison to the stupid ones we often got since CMI. Maybe even with a good portion of humility (?) and melancholy. 😁

Those are good! I like your alternate take on the borders.

My strategy for the cook: open kitchen door, get yelled at. Look at fire: cozy. Wait 5-8 seconds and the cook will emerge every time

https://mixnmojo.com/news/A-dead-end-monkey-style Looks like you can end up stuck in LeChuck's torture pit if you sidestep getting the mixed drinks. (Someone commented on that Mojo post from 2008 referencing the MI1 fire dead end, so it's been known for a while.) Am I remembering correctly, can you waste all your money in the grog machine in MI1?

Okay after hooking up my old sega cdx and firing up the sega cd version I just want to discourage anyone ever considering playing it that way for speed. the loading between transitions and even just wandering around is insane. Additionally my LRG versions would not play which is likely an effect of how they made them. Most sega cd consoles don't really have copy protection so you can play backups unintentionally, later revisions like my CDX however added security which blocked burnt disc's etc. Not saying the LRG edition is a burnt copy but it may not be signed in whatever way sega used eventually to verify authenticity. my original release plays just fine

I think SOMI's Melee shares a lot of the same colour palette with Scabb. Especially Captain Dread's dock. That luscious moonlit/candlelit world. There's a real warmth there which I don't see in Crowle's Melee. Again, maybe once I play the game that will all make sense. Maybe it's all very deliberate and part of a wider look for the game that I will appreciate more when I get my hands on it. But until then, all I can do is obsess!

Welcome, Billy “Romain” Cheers! Hope you enjoy the forums as much as we do!

And of course half the lights are probably fluorescent anyway. 🎡

Hi Romain! 😄

The palette seems fairly close to the original to me. The yellows and oranges are there in the original – as variants of the same hue though. What's new to Rex' depiction of the same street is a tinge of cyan, I think. What still pervades the scene is, of course, that strong blue. Which certainly is the traditional choice for "night" (not necessarily " the correct" choice of course). In any case, we'd need Guybrush to enter that church and light a few candles in there. That would bring us some of those right hues back.

Not to pile on Rex, who has certainly had far too much criticism and undeserved ire. And whose artwork is gorgeous in Knights and Bikes and who hasn't really had a chance to show off what his ReMI work looks like in situ. But one of the things I reacted badly to was his Melee is the colour palette. In theory, the only source of light at night in these piratical times would be fire or moonlight (unless it's the Hook Isle sign, natch). That's why everything in the town is blue and orange in the original game. There's such an odd array of oranges of light source colours that it throws me: From white, through to green, to luminous yellow to pale orange. I'm sure I won't actually care when I'm playing the game, but you happened to mention the palette, and right now all I have to obsess about are these tiny selection of images! Bah! Please give us more soon!

I just can't bring myself to getting excited yet. The trailer will surely push me over the edge (I know KOTCS's trailer did), but 4 missed the mark on so many aspects, even after the promise of going absolutely old-school with it. Granted, the switch to Mangold could provide enough new ideas to result in a great movie, but I'll stay sceptical until seeing it. What I AM excited about to no end is the prospect of one last John Williams soundtrack. The last soundtrack of his career, and it will be Indy. How amazing is that?