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Since the announcement of Return to Monkey Island I worked on the Monkey Island 2 Flash Film!! I just announced it with a little trailer, and will release the whole movie on monday.

Playing around with ESRGAN a bit, I noticed how cleanly the HTR backgrounds could be upscaled, so I went the extra mile and added stuff like paper textures and brush strokes to them. The results could almost pass for scans of original background paintings (or remastered backgrounds), even though you can also see the limits of this technique on smaller details and stuff that's been meticulously pixeled in (especially text). Still, with a bit of manual work on each background, these could probably work as "Special Edition" backgrounds. A few samples (Note: These aren't aspect ratio-corrected yet):

That would be me To be fair I didn’t come up with most of them. I asked for help on Twitter and people sent a lot of suggestions, but most of those are actually suggested by people that commented on the YouTube videos.

Two weeks ago, I found the 2008 Subterranean Press edition, for around 10 pounds. I was ecstatic:

Some answers for the prompt "Write an outline for a sequel to LOOM." First try - not quite there yet: Second try - this one's much more in the right ballpark: A few attempts later, the AI has decided the Weavers need a rival Guild of some sort: Another random entry that seems to be drawing from very different source material: Or perhaps a Star Wars crossover: LOOM 2, by Electronic Arts This one's actually rather intriguing: Speaking of crossovers... how about Halo? Some more input that is obviously based on different source material. I don't remember the "Sarans" from the first game. And here's a storyline that pits "Loomweavers" against the "Weaver". I think video-game writers can keep their day jobs for now.

I'm not sure why you think ScummVM isn't interested in supporting high res asset replacement. The Grim Fandango Deluxe forum is even hosted by ScummVM. Edit: Just noticed you were mentioning the PS2 port, which is unsupported. It's not a matter of plugging the PS2 version files into the code to get the game working (which IIRC is what ScummVM does, hence the crash), as it is completely unsupported. There's a bunch of differences specific to the PS2 version which would require a coder who owns the game, has enough free time, and who knows PlayStation 2 disassembly to work on it. That's a tall order. Without that coder, it's not possible to support the PS2 version, and no amount of complaining is going to help. There's a lot of alternate platforms of games that aren't supported. It's not because we don't want to, but because it has code that requires someone with knowledge of the platform and free time to do it. That being said, the Windows version works great. I played through the Windows version on three different systems with three different operating systems (Mac Mini running macOS, MacBook running Windows with Bootcamp, and a Chromebook running Chrome OS) and I was able to play through the whole game without problems. If you have problems, make sure you have all the files listed on our Wiki, including renaming the files to the proper names, etc. Make sure you have the latest stable version of ScummVM. Try running the game with all three of the different display settings (OpenGL, OpenGL with shaders, or software). If all of these didn't help, make sure you have all of the most recent drivers for your video card. If you tried all of that and it still crashes, leave a report on our issue tracker.

So... I've long been someone who has voiced negative things about Thimbleweed Park. I backed the game on Kickstarter and loosely followed its progress. I even have an answerphone message recording in the game (1488). I played it when it was released and, taking my cue from CMI, started with "Easy" mode. The game wasn't what I expected. Rays and Reyes were essentially the same character. The world didn't captivate me. It was filled with endless details (like massive libraries and phone numbers to call). It got better when Delores, Randsome and Franklin were introduced. I played it until the end and was just utterly let down by the conclusion. It felt like a non-ending. I've carried that memory around with me for 5 years. With all the commotion around the announcement of Return to MI, my appetite had become whet for a classic point and click. And for some reason, I decided to give TP another whirl... This time I made little notes about the characters, their desires, and the central mysteries around the game. If there was going to be ANY pay off at the end of the game, I wanted to catch it. To my complete and utter delight... I loved every minute of TP. Even the ending. It was so clever and interesting. I don't know if it's due to me playing in Hard mode. Or if it's because I roughly knew how it was going to end, so I was more prepared for the type of game it was. Or if changes have been made since I first played it (I know several major patches were release: Adding the ability for characters to talk to each other, a hint system, and the arcade hall with playable arcade games). But whatever the reason... I FREAKIN' LOVED IT! Total perception shift. (I think the new Hint system helps a lot, actually. I didn't use it THAT much, but I really appreciated it for some of the more obtuse puzzles -- of which there were a few.) So anyway, what I'm saying it: 1. I was completely and utterly wrong, Thimbleweed Park is a fantastic game. 2. If you're carrying around a bad memory of it, like I was, I really suggest giving it another go. I don't know why I had such a bad experience the first time around. I would say as a tip for any new players: Don't get bogged down in the endless details that fill the world (maybe turn off the injokes, and don't bother hunting around the phone book or library for hidden things). Ignore the specs of dust, too (they don't mean anything -- and you'll get an achievement for doing so). Just focus on the story and the characters. They're really rewarding. Kudos to Gilbert, Winnick, Fox, Sandercock, Ferrari, et al. TP is a clever, modern successor to Maniac Mansion style games. I'm so glad I backed it! That it all. PS - Turn on the uncut Randsome dialogue when you get to the inner chambers of the factory at the end of the game. It's adds to the theme of the narrative

Dave Grossman retweet in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Also I posted a couple stills in my twitter thread. It's been so much fun y'all, I never worked with that art style before. For the environments I grabbed the SE backgrounds, and they fit super well.

This is what I read into it: weird_fantasy: "I've got to believe that we will have something before Pax West" Dom: "Yes. (You've absolutely got to believe that because the truth would drive you insane)"

And while the original DOTT background paintings had a lot of texture to them, they were much less detailed than MI2's backgrounds. So DF did right in rebuilding the backgrounds, but I agree that trying to make them look like physical drawings would have improved the look a lot. To be fair, these upscale tools weren't widely popular or available when they worked on the remasters.

I had a similar experience with Broken Age. I was also a backer and followed the development with great anticipation, I remember every time a new backer update or DFA documentary episode dropped it felt more like a new Game of Thrones episode! Then came the game... split in two parts to make matters worse... and I felt pretty underwhelmed by it. It was just meh, no strong feelings one way or another. I think by then I was so exhausted by the development that I wasn't in the right mood to play the game anymore. A few weeks ago I decided to replay it and I was able to have a fresh look at it, remembering very little about it. And it is a gorgeous little game, so full of details, a true labour of love. It is not without its flaws but at least this time I had feelings for it, positive for the things that worked and negative for those that didn't. It's hard to understand how that game could leave me feeling so indifferent at the time. Expectations can really work against your enjoyment, I take it as a lesson to try to keep some distance with upcoming projects and our hopes in check.

I'm glad you enjoyed it this time around! I also played it for the first time a few months ago, and I really loved it. I do think it has a lot to do with expectations, and I think I was prepared that it was going to be quite meta and a spiritual successor to MM. I don't know, but for having low expectations I was blown away by the details and story, and I actually found the puzzles to be some of the best. I found they were generally challenging, but I never felt annoyed when I figured out the solutions. I do think that finding out about it later and then being able to play it right away might have helped, as I didn't have years worth of expectations built up that didn't match the game I played. In short, I played it because RtMI was just announced and I wanted to see a recent RG game, and after playing it I felt super confident that I'd love Return. I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and if I remove the MI series and ranked it next to the rest of the LA adventures then I'd rank TP right near the top after DOTT and Grim and just before FOA.

It's really hard to not run to a Best Buy and grab it right now but reminding myself that I already bought the game twice helps haha! I really only want it because of the cover, it has ALL of my attention!!! It's soo pretty and when that announcement came up I had the uncontrollable urge to redraw it, cuz it's THAT good and fun! I kind of wish the green swirly cover had gotten the same remastered treatment, I'm sure there's a very good reason why it didn't get it but I really would have loved to see the new models and lighting on that one. 😔

That was an old ResidualVM project that I headed up back when I had spare time. The original game actually supported adding additional datafiles (it allowed for patches), but I believe Residual was still needed for some things (although I honestly can't remember what). Still, I'd love to see LaserSchwert's AI uprezzed CMI backgrounds/videos inserted into CMI via ScummVM! Edit: Holy cow. One of the contributors on that forum finished their own Widescreen mod! With AI uprezzed backgrounds and everything!!! http://www.grimwidescreen.com/

Skunkape posted on Twitter that there is a retail Switch version of Save the World remastered at Best Buy with a retail-exclusive cover (and Jason posted it as Mojo news, which is where I found out about it). I had to dust off my Best Buy credit card as the completionist in me needed to get one. '

Maybe THIS THREAD is Return to Monkey Island...

Now that's a post that would have belonged in one of those patented "waiting threads" on the Telltale forums. Back then, we gave users 24 hours timeout on episode release days when they cried "IT'S OUT" even though it wasn't. Ahhhhh fun times. 🙉 No news means they're pretty busy getting this game done, I swear. The announcement is juuuuust around the corner, I can feel it! And even if the ReMI buzz is short lived, for one sweet sweet moment when I looked up Dave Grossman on google and twitter, the first results gave me the excellent game designer and not the less than excellent "I train cops to be killers so what" dude.

That would break me. There's still a part of me that won't believe this game is real until I'm playing it.

On a related note: Until the remaster, I actually thought we saw Bernard's eyes whenever he faced left or right. My mind always interpreted one of the pixels of the rim of his glasses as a pupil for some reason. Why my mind never questioned why he was always looking at the ground, I will never know. 😂

Huh, I don't think I'd ever noticed Mr Hitchcock there!

Nothing, I think, but the sign outside the factory said it was being managed by Safely First so I figured out it must be to do with the bank. I realised that it might open later in the game, but I wasn't sure about it, so I spent quite a lot of time around it and calling it and trying alternate methods of entry. This is just one example though, I ended up calling the hint line on several puzzles and finding out the answer was just 'wait until later'. And that was only one of the ways that I found the puzzles irritating. But as soon as they focused the game in any way (for example the ending when you get locked in) then I found it much more enjoyable to work them out, and they seemed to become proper puzzles again, and less busywork. I really do think the middle of the game has a tendency to mistake 'amount of stuff to do' for puzzle complexity.

I almost feel like Ron is taking great pleasure in us losing our minds. 😆 Eventually he will reveal it really was a April Fools joke all along and there is no game.

Yep. Actually Twin Peaks The Return is another good example of this: The second viewing was sooo much more enjoyable than the first time around. I think we're all in for a bumpy ride with ReMI!

This is almost as bad as when the first episode of Tales dropped. Right now it feels like Ron is deliberately holding back... but it's probably just because we're so anxious to learn more that every second feels like an hour. I bet the timeline is actually typical for indie games. OR... Ron is going to do something really audacious and go: "It's out tomorrow... GO!"

Arguably even more prestigious is that it's been Mojo'd.

That's amazing! I love the look of Rum Rogers. 😅 Sooooo looking forward to this now! ❤️

Who even needs a trailer if we get that instead?!? 🥰

You lucky bandbard! On Stranger Tides is a main inspiration for one of my favorite game series, and James Gurney ... I wish he was my dad, that's all I'll say.

Yes, sorry, I thought that he was answering to the Pax West thing. This waiting is killing me

I found the Reddit thread this is from and Dom is actually just responding to the question posed by the OP which was "are you also going crazy from not hearing more news about the game" so all this means is he is just as desperate as us...impressive since he still knows more than we do 😂

Don't read too much into this, because, as he said after the Devolver showcase:

The very first step is a simple 4x upscale with the PixelPerfectV3 model (available HERE, in the Legacy folder - V4 smooths the image too much for my taste) plus some sharpening with ArtClarity. After that, it's only Photoshop work. I wouldn't rule out there being even better models out there, and sometimes a blend of multiple models (at different levels, in different areas of an image) gives the best result. I'll keep investigating.

Delores: A Thimbleweed Park Mini-Adventure was made two years ago as a prototype for RtMI's engine. I wouldn't expect Monkey's interface to be drastically different.

I don't care if the whole game is an extended Monkey Kombat sequence, I just wanna know more about the game, dammit!

Bloody hell, that's amazing! Seriously, the sooner ScummVM supports Hi-Res packs, the better. Just...*chefs kiss* great work.

I really like that you have texture on there. Although Double Fine did a good, meticulous job with the DoTT update I did find that sometimes it all just seemed a bit too smooth and perfect — especially where texture that was in the original graphics wasn’t maintained in favour of a fully flat shade style. This is more up my street.

For every plausible synopsis, it came up with 20 more like this with implausible premises and plot details that only half make sense:

I guess, as always, it has a lot to do with expectations. I didn’t back it (shame on me), also because I somehow wasn’t really interested in the whole project. I only really stumbled upon it a few month ago, gave it a go on the iPad - and loved every minute of it: the story, the characters, the puzzles etc. I read here on the forums that the ending was… special and that many people didn’t like it. So maybe I was kind of prepared? Anyway, I also really loved the ending. It’s interesting, clever and totally fits to the whole game. A game which was meant to be a big nostalgic adventure party. For me it was exactly that and the end was the icing on the cake. I really wouldn’t that kind of ending for a Monkey Island game, but here, it was just perfect. Too bad, some people had a bad (first) experience, because of expectations, an “incomplete” game or some other reason. I’m glad you changed your mind! Because it might not be the game everyone wanted/expected or likes – but it’s not a bad game either!

This Al shit is much too spoilery for me! 😶

Oh, here, you can have the most plausible Grim Fandango sequel premise it could come up with: In Grim Fandango, Manny Calavera is stuck in the Land of the Dead, working off his debt as a travel agent for the dead. He meets and falls in love with Mercedes Colomar, a newly-deceased woman who is trying to find her way to the Ninth Underworld. In the sequel, Manny has managed to escape the Land of the Dead and is now living in the Ninth Underworld. He is reunited with Mercedes, and they are able to start a new life together. However, trouble soon arises when it is revealed that Manny's escape from the Land of the Dead was not entirely legal. The authorities in the Ninth Underworld are not happy with Manny's presence, and they want him gone. Manny must find a way to clear his name and stay in the Ninth Underworld with Mercedes. Along the way, he will encounter new challenges and face old enemies from his days in the Land of the Dead.

This may be cheating, but this YouTube channel (which I think is run by someone on these forums?) is full of these kinds of details: https://www.youtube.com/c/legendofmi I binged it a while back. It's amazing how much they stuffed into these games while keeping it unobtrusive.

I have to admit, I was curious: seems legit and... Wow, they really DO know us

I'm constantly surprised by how funny this is: Write a sarcastic back of the box blurb for Return to Monkey Island: "What do you get when you cross the fourth wall, a talking pirate monkey, and Tim Schafer? The answer is: a whole lot of nothing. That's right, in Return to Monkey Island, you play as Guybrush Threepwood, a washed-up pirate who has to save his wife from a bunch of monkeys. With gameplay that consists of picking up bananas and saying 'Argh!' a lot, this game is sure to provide hours upon hours of mind-numbing fun."

Thanks, AI. Both for being no help at all, and also for adding 'LeChuck's Revenge' to my prompt.

Today I asked an AI to "Write a detailed synopsis of a new game called Return to Monkey Island set directly after the end of Monkey Island 2, including details of how the key shop and courthouse are involved:" The game begins with Guybrush Threepwood being shipwrecked on the shores of Monkey Island. He is soon met by a band of pirates led by Captain LeChuck who mistakes him for one of his long-lost crew members. After being taken captive, Guybrush manages to escape and finds himself in the middle of a battle between the pirates and the native monkeys. He eventually makes his way to the pirate headquarters where he meets up with LeChuck's first mate, Carla. Carla tells him that LeChuck has been seeking a powerful artifact known as the Idol of Ultimate Piratey which will grant him absolute power. She also reveals that the only way to stop LeChuck is to find four pieces of a map which lead to the location of the idol. With Carla's help, Guybrush sets out to find the first piece of the map which is being held by Governor Marley in the governor's mansion. After infiltrating the mansion and acquiring the first piece of the map, Guybrush attempts to leave but is caught by Marley who demands that he turn over all pirate treasure in exchange for his freedom. Guybrush manages to talk his way out of it and escapes but not before overhearing Marley mention something about meeting up with someone at The Cutthroat Arms tavern. At The Cutthroat Arms, Guybrush eavesdrops on a conversation between Marley and Le Chuck wherein they discuss their plans to double cross each other once they have possession of the Idol. They also mention that there are two more pieces of the map, one held by Mr. Fossey at Fossey's Fabulous Key Shop and another held by Judge Grindstone at courthouse square. With this new information, Guybrush sets out to acquire these last two pieces ofthe map so he can finally put an end to LeChuck's reign of terror...

Anyway, I’ve always liked that the stairwell into the Bloody Lip is dark, and the characters get dark when walking through it. It’s a detail that immediately made Woodtick seem like a real place I was existing in with the characters.

I have to imagine LucasArts management was interested in reviving Monkey as a franchise and it was all at least partly strategic on their end, even if it came from seeing some unrelated opportunities and tying them together. But at Telltale, we didn’t feel like part of some strategy, we were just happy to be making a new Monkey game, and happy that LucasArts was interested in adventures and the IP enough again to be doing two projects at once.

I did a litte stream of the first game (Ultimate Talkie) on Twitch yesterday, my first ever foray into streaming, and OF COURSE I forgot to make sure stream archiving was enabled, boo me. I plan to stream MI2 soon! Will do Curse, Escape and Tales as well, but I've decided to play Return for the first time outside of Twitch. I want to keep that as a personal experience, free of temptation to get hints from the chat...and you just know some dickhead will come in and spoil the Secret, I'm having none of that nonsense.