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I really want the Fate of Atlantis box set to include a box full of orichalcum beads and a wad of chewed gum 🤣

After the recent spectacular MixNMojo retrospective with Larry Ahern and Jonathan Ackley where among other things they mentioned that they had sealed CMI boxes from around the world, I reached out to them. I mentioned that it was likely the South Korean release of CMI has an actual cloth map within the box. There was one post about it over on the LucasArts Museum website of which the linked image is a dead link and I couldn't yet find my saved copy of the image on my old computer. Never intimidated by a treasure hunt, Jonathan Ackley discovered this:

I saw that post about CMI cloth map which lead me to riffle through my Korean big box collection and figured hey, why not take some photos and post it here (since detailed look at international releases are hard to come by and I find it interesting). If you have other interesting international release(s) you want to share please feel free to post here! Monkey Island 2. One of my most prized possessions. The name of the Korean distributor is Dong Seo Game Channel. I don't know the exact release date... probably 91 or 92? I appreciate the font treatment. Back cover. ₩25,000 (approx $19 USD, not adjusted for inflation). Some interesting differences compared to North American release (which I'll go into later). The cover is actually a thin paper sleeve that goes over the featureless cardboard box. Reference card, printed on a thick, quality, textured cardboard stock. I like. The manual and Mix N' Mojo copy protection wheel. In offensive xerox-proof burgundy. Was it also burgundy in other regions? 6 high-density 5.25" floppy disks. Nothing unusual here. It says "Hintbook" but it's actually the whole walkthrough. Back in those days games almost never got localization treatment in Korea, so it was pretty common for an adventure game to ship with a full walkthrough. (the last paragraph in the walkthrough says that the joy of adventure games is figuring out on your own without looking stuff up. Now they tell me!) The back cover has pretty faithful translation by and large, but with some weird (sometimes inexplicable) differences: The first 2 lines are kind of adjectival? They loosely say "Arrogant" and "Disgusting". The "He's Back" part is the same. No, it does not rhyme. The excerpt has no source! Who's speaking?!? The bulletpoints are pretty dry and humourless. "Interactive Jamaican music" without the accent. "Separate mode for beginners and magazine reviewers" but written completely seriously. No "void where prohibited" (I guess the phrase doesn't translate well) Weird. Obviously the same screenshot, but it's cropped differently. The caption simply says "realistic graphics". Nothing about expectorations. Again, pretty humourless. Again cropped differently. "There's always something scary behind a pirate's chair"? Not quiet the same meaning, but fine... This one an odd one out. It's not uncommon for boxes or promotion materials to use work-in-progress screenshots, so I didn't think much of it, until I saw scans of the North American release, and it's completely different! Korean release uses a screenshot with MI1 interface and Guybrush. The caption says "Dig up graves of pirates to find clues". What clues!? I guess whoever translated it thought that it's too rude to dig up graves without a good reason or something. As far as international game covers go, not bad. The humour is completely gone, but nothing grievously misleading (I've seen worse)

Bonus Monkey Island 1 (VGA) This one is quite boring. They didn't bother translating any of the text (not even the title! how were they supposed to know what the game is even called??) Again distributed by Dong Seo Game Channel. 90 or 91? who can say. Curiously the text is all misaligned, but otherwise the same as North American release. ₩20000 (Approx $15 USD not adjusted for inflation) The reference card is clearly a cheap photocopy. Disappointing. I'm surprised that they bothered with the full-colour printing of copy protection wheel. The manual is in black and white and very cheap. 4 high density 5.25" floppies. The manual contains full walkthrough (not a separate book like MI2). The solution to the insult swordfighting puzzle photographed here.

I didn't know CMI received official Korean localization until today! The first 2 games were released there but they weren't localized. I looked up some korean playthroughs and it's pretty jarring. In particular, Elaine uses "polite speech" towards LeChuck and Guybrush, while Guybrush uses impolite speech towards Elaine. Because of casual Korean misogyny I guess. (if you're not familiar with polite speech, it's a form of speech that exists in Korean and Japanese and maybe other languages as well, used towards elders, teachers, strangers, people you respect etc. I can't imagine Elaine using polite speech towards anyone, let alone Guybrush)

Full Throttle Remastered and released on PS and Xbox. They could make those editions as well as a PC box.

I agree we're unlikely to see a release date until it's very close... but I would say what we're seeing lately is the widening of the mid-tier indie release, and Devolver being very much one of the kings of that kind of still-indie but has-a--bit-of-budget territory, and I think Devolver in general have tended to stick things closer to a traditional release schedule. The only time I didn't think this was going to be late 2022 though is when the date wasn't announced with the trailer. All other signs point to sooner rather than later: They seem confident about 2022. Ron has said something like 'unless something disastrous happens'. And I don't think you need a disaster to slip from November 2022 to, like, January or something These new Monkey Island Mondays. They probably don't plan to keep on pumping those out indefinitely The fact that there are exactly 10 of them before Talk Like a Pirate day, a day that Ron HAS acknowledged in the past. Could be total coincidence, could speak to a release plan. It probably isn't going to be released during that late-september through october heavy release window Devolver aren't releasing any other games in September I think, but they are releasing something Mid-Auguest, so that suggests to me September is a perfect time for them to focus on Monkey Island. They've put the credits in But yeah, I think it's going to be something like... on talk like a pirate day they say 'and we're dropping it this thursday' or the week before that they announce a release for the following Monday. I think by the time we know the date it'll be very nearly out.

I'm only looking forward to one thing on Monday, and that's #MonkeyIslandMonday

It's the new glitter bomb! Emphasis on bomb. 💣

I really hope we get a release date next Monday, especially if it comes out in September. Would only be two months away (if it comes out on "International Talk Like a Pirate Day," it would be one day short of exactly two months) and it would be perfect time to open up preorders. Would also love if they keep tweaking Stan's dialogue trees on the site to match the reveals.

In today’s “news for the slow news day”, the Thimbleweed Park account switched over to become the Terrible Toybox account, I have a feeling we will be seeing even more good times and free grog headed our way!

@tmetic -- here's the link: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/mixnmojo The issues have the last week's solutions. You probably should sign up to get it in the email for your convenience, of course.

If you sign up to the Mojo newsletter, you can find out!!

I had the odd thought that maybe the real purpose of the rubber chickens is to be used with a spell that summons a spiritual cable from the ether, allowing the user to glide between any two destinations they please using the conveniently placed pulley. It’d explain how the fortune teller gets around so quickly, anyway.

It wouldn't be Laverne if she didn't seem a bit off. 🤣

*pssh*.... as if.

OK, here's my Guybrush. I decided to take my favourite bits of all the guys brush. * A rounder, less long guybrush like in the first two games * Not too blond * scruff beard * CMI nose

I did a little Guybrush. I’m trying to get my head around using Procreate on an iPad and using such things as colour, rather than the ‘doodles on paper’ approach which is about as far as my art has ever gotten. 😅