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Converting a day scene to night reminds me that I did the first pitch for converting the opening of Tales from day to night. It was originally a bright sunny day at the start of the game, and I suggested we change it to a dark night with thunderstorm, rain etc, and then have it fade to day as Guybrush washes ashore on Flotsam. The effect animation I made to test this time of day transition looked extremely goofy at 10x speed (which is a common speed to run at in Telltales tools because it has a 10x/1x toggle hotkey for quickly getting through things without skipping over any keyframes or code) because of how LeChuck and the ships bobbled around, and became a video I dumped onto my personal YouTube the day before the game came out

Oooh, cool LeChuck cover on the new PC Gamer UK.

Uuuuupdate: grab a ScummVM 2.7.0git daily build here and play COMI with the original GUI! Now! 😛 We're working on older games too: https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/4206

There are people who do this a lot better than I do, and hopefully there'll be an official version, but either way... Here's the cover without text, etc.

Thanks, I really appreciate that! 🙏 Yes! DREAMM, other than being a blessing in itself, is definitely the one spark which started this new "accuracy wave". 😛 So big thanks to Aaron for that! But I'd like to point out that it's never just me: in these recent times a lot of people (old and new) have an active part within the SCUMM team (and some of them are here! @dwa@Torbjörn Andersson). We've had (and still have) a lot of things going on, the implementation of old video modes, countless accuracy fixes for even the most small and almost unnoticeable things, the enhancements!!!, and so on. I'd say it's very exciting to be a SCUMM maintainer these days 😄

Fortunately, the Ultimate Talkie release put it back! By the way, looking at what's currently cooking in the ScummVM kitchen… these old menus you like are going to come back in style…

The budget on art must’ve been really constrained, they couldn’t afford to draw this guy any pants! Here’s some additional art found in the article. And here’s a chicken, let the speculating begin.

Not just one, but it was an entire fad! There's a ton of these on YTMND. I like this first-person/FPS styled one a lot. https://stansellseverything-thegame.ytmnd.com/

How curious! Time to restart the EGA and assassinate Bob again. - - - "Why, Guybrush?!" "Because I want to see what you look like when you die in this reality. Hold still."

@Marius' wonderful thread on the MI1 alley has brought me back to a topic I wanted to post about some time ago... We only see most of the islands during day or night. Actually, only "Tales" is the exception with Flotsam Island in chapters 1, 4 and 5 (and maybe the EGA sunrise in MI1). Now, I'm sure we've all wondered what one or another place looks like at a different time of day - and luckily there's a source or two to give us a little idea here: MI1 - Parts of Mêlée Island during the day (Fanart videos, apparently even playable) MI2 - Booty Island at night (Official Concept Art) CMI - Plunder Island at night (Fanart) CMI - Blood Island during the day (Fanart) Maybe there are even more of such wonderful "what ifs" out there? If so, why not post them here, too? 🙂 I find it totally exciting to see these places in a different light and mood, as it directly changes the whole scenery. Plus, it leads to certain mind games, such as: Where do the pirates go when they're not in the SCUMM Bar? What does the Voodoo Lady do when her store is closed? Does Carla also spin back and forth in front of her cabin during the day? What does Stan do in his spare time? (Same questions for all the other games of course!) Sure, there are no concrete answers to any of this (so far), but it's fun to think about. Let's see what happens!

And poor old Mort, the gravedigger

I mean I alluded to something similar earlier in the thread, but I'm trying not to dwell on it because of what I also said recently, that I think it's risky to play 'I hope the game doesn't do this or that' games. But yeah, if there's one thing I allow myself to hope this game doesn't try to pull it's a bunch of old-man-yells-at-cloud 'pirating was better in the old days when I was young and let's get back to that' kind of meta-commentary of guybrush v.s. the youths. Young people are, and forever have been targets of blame for society's ill. Millenials were such huge targets that everyone sort of just forgot that they grew up and have jobs and kids and stuff now and assumed they were perpetually in their early 20s for about 15 years. I saw a great twitter thread of the history of older people calling young people lazy and workshy, and of course it goes back to ancient times. Anyway, my point is we have enough 'things were better in the old days' material to last us for years, and I could do without ReMI adding to that pile. I'm hoping it tells a bit more of a nuanced story.

OK. You wanted it. I hate "Maniac Mansion" and "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders" with a passion and I think that they are badly designed games, especially the first one. I assume that they were the inevitable result of an experimental phase when, at LucasFilm Games, basic/good guidelines for adventure game design were not fully formed or shared among authors. My love for The Secret of Monkey Island can exist only because, a bit later, Ron Gilbert developed a few design rules, which he also shared publicly in his somewhat famous article "Why Adventure Games Suck". I wholeheartedly agree with Ron when he wrote: (I will deny any evidence that I wrote this post. Any attempt to impose reality on me will be met with violent counterattacks of confusing fantasies.)

Eep ook ack! I failed at #Mojole #149. 💚💚💚🖤💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Yep, that was what I edited. I’m more talking about a proper high res original. Would make for a good poster.

Well, to me it is: a confirmation that Carla is the new Governor of Melee Island. a confirmation that Herman hasn't lost his charming look. a confirmation that LeChuck still keeps ghost chickens on his ship. I look forward to meet the pigs again.

Another one I suppose from GF would be trying to persuade Celso and his wife to buy a number 9 ticket. Pretty minor puzzle, though

I'm just glad these finds are giving us more shots of right-way-round-facing bob, with a right pegleg

Useless, unimpressive and inactive. They basically sat around in the Scumm Bar and pretended to drink grog. Made every passing flooring inspector a pirate so they wouldn't have to do squat. They did nothing against the LeChuck threat in TSoMI and when the governor was kidnapped... they were not seen again. So, basically, now we have active pirate leaders with a plan and some voodoo stuff. Ye Olde Pirate Leaders took over the shop and are blowing up blowfish. 🐡 And there's actually a blowfish emoji in here! That will come in handy for walkthroughs.

That DREAMM has apparently kicked off some sort of accuracy arms race in @AndywinXp's head is really the best possible outcome.

It's only really after seeing this in the trailer that I noticed that in the original Monkey Island the Monkey Head is also a dusky scene in contrast with the rest of the island. Why was this done at the time? Just for atmospherics? It looked cooler? Probably. Why did they seem to decide to replicate this for ReMI? Same reason? Maybe. But it's an interesting detail isn't it? I can't help but look at that, and think about the Melee Island and wonder if some of this day/night stuff might now have a bit of a deeper significance.

I don't think this is exactly an unpopular opinion because most people probably just don't care, but.... I always thought the naming of MI2 is stupid! Not the "LeChuck's Revenge" part, but the order of the two elements: The logo on the boxart and in the game clearly says "LeChuck's Revenge: Monkey Island (2)", but everywhere else it always says "Monkey Island 2 - LeChuck's Revenge". And I have no idea why! A small detail one may say... But 1. it's inconsistent and 2. it seems more like a cheap sequel to me, when the "Monkey Island 2" is put first. I mean, we're talking about the best sequel of all times here (go home, "Last Crusade" and "Empire"!).

ARGH Eep ook ack! I failed at #Mojole #149. 💛💛🖤🖤🖤 💛💚💛💛🖤 🖤💚💛💛💛 💛💚💚🖤💚 🖤💚💚💛💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

This is embarrassing. Eep ook ack! I failed at #Mojole #149. 💛🖤🖤💛🖤 🖤🖤🖤🖤💛 💛💛💛💛🖤 🖤💚💚💛💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Absolutely! And I don’t think that it would be a good idea to show an official version of either Scabb or Mêlée as it’d probably ruin the place for me in that moment. It’d take too much of the mystery. Visiting places like Booty, Monkey or one of the new islands in “Return” by night however - or have some actual change while playing - could be really cool. Just imagine, finding out something at the cannibals by day and then sneaking in the village by night to do or steal that later by night... 😌 I really liked what “Tales” did with Flotsam in Chapter 4 and 5. Of course it was kind of a good way to save money/resources, but it also made me change my opinion on the island a lot (as I didn’t really care for it in Chapter 1…).

Thanks for sharing the second video ("Daylight Melee island from a fan game I almost started making about 12 years ago"), I didn't know it! I like these daytime depictions of Melee from an artistic perspective and I've always been curious about how those places would have looked like during the day. Still, I think that the atmosphere in Melee was particularly mesmerizing for me because everything happened under the calm and mysterious cover of the night. When I played the game for the first time, in some scenes that mysteriousness turned into a slightly unsettling sensation, linked to possible dangers hiding around corners. I'm sure that the nightly theme contributed significantly to those emotions and I'm also glad that MI2 starts in the same way as well. 🙂

I totally agree: Those Mêlée daytime works feel kind of strange. I think to me it’s too much brown… If I’d get at it, I think I would try to paint the houses more in gray tones. Plunder is great at night, yeah. Totally forgot about the opening shots in the intro, thanks, @Thrik! I imagine most places look nice(r) at night than the other way around. Although I really like the Blood Island graveyard at daytime. It just feels much friendlier, but still interesting. I have the urge to wander around there and explore more of the island at that time (much more than with Mêlée).

Yeah not keen on the Melee treatments there, but I absolutely love Blood Island and Puerto Pollo! We get the briefest of glimpses of a nighttime Puerto Pollo during the CMI intro: I saw this a while ago, which is a take on Melee during the day that I find more appealing:

Return characters in the style of curse. Think it's probably important to point out that this is in no way a criticism of the return style (which I love) but just a goofy experiment.

The way Guybrush just stands there, with that expression... 😚👌

I guess it’s worth pointing out that the Mojo forums actually have a 100% complete lucasforums archive in them (available at the bottom of the main page) as opposed to the one from lucasforumsarchive.com, which is a partial scrape of archive.org. You should even be able to search it and stuff!

I still think Weird Al's version fits best.

I would love an interaction between LeChuck and Murray. It's actually wild, but I just realized Murray had only interacted with Guybrush and Decava's crew and Morgan if the player selected the option.

It's a fine read, but nothing earth shattering. Only real spoiler are the screenshots posted above.

Ooh. 😍 Is it... paper?

I wouldn’t call it great but I think trying to escape the garage via Salvador would qualify as one. Also setting the correct answer machine message is indirectly a dialogue puzzle.

Probably something already talked about but it's only just occurred to me... Are the pirate leaders in this game a metaphor for the franchise? It seems that the original leaders have been replaced by new characters and melee island has gone to hell because of it. It also seems likely that Guybrush is to be tasked with ousting the new guys, reinstating the old guys and thus restoring melee island to its former glory. Is this an intentional meta commentary on Ron leaving, 3 games of a perceived lesser quality being released and now Rons triumphant return? I sort of hope not because that feels a little shitty but at the same time, now that I've noticed it, It feels very intentional.

Don't forget: Full Throttle: getting Maureen aaaand this is dubious but I'd argue that the final puzzle in Full Throttle is basically just a dialog puzzle with a fancy interface. At least, it has the same sort of structure

This is why Maniac Mansion Deluxe (the fan made game) is basically the best version of MM... it blocks all the dead ends. However, even the original MM and Zak are oozing with charm. But they are, indeed, a product of their unforgiving day. (Just don't try any Infocom titles if you don't like these early LucasArts efforts!)

I wonder how unpopular this opinion actually is. I have sort of 'messed' with Maniac Mansion via DOTT, but I've never played it with a serious intention of seeing it through to completion. If I did, I'd use a walkthrough, because I have no intention of playing an adventure game which doesn't basically follow the design rules Ron developed ahead of Monkey Island. Whenever I've tried, I've not had a good time. Even if the game is not hard, if I'm worried that I'm going to be fighting the game's design constantly to make progress, and it might even become unwinnable, I'm not going to be able to relax and play them. I love adventure games, but it would be more accurate to say that I love post 1990 LucasArts adventure games. Everything else? Very hit and miss, for me.

It does not. It doesn’t seem likely any version based on the VGA art does. I’m guessing it was just part of the background and somehow got overlooked during the redraw.

I'm not too keen on the dithering used in the Melee during the day video, looks a bit to Sierra-esque for my taste. Other than that it's feels strange, but still familiar to see Guybrush walk through those places during the day. I'm glad you can only do so at night in the game though, it makes the introduction to pirating more mysterious.

👕 I beat #Mojole #149 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 2/6 🖤💚💛💛💛 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

👕 I beat #Mojole #149 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 2/6 🖤🖤💚🖤💚 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

👕 I beat #Mojole #149 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 4/6 🖤🖤🖤🖤💚 🖤💛🖤💛💚 💚💚💚🖤💚 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Doesn’t look like it, unless it’s in the other Amiga version. EGA: Amiga:

Intriguing. I actually enjoyed that. I've always felt that Guybrush smashing open Big Whoop was where the voodoo curse began (and slowly permeated his reality the longer he stayed in those tunnels)... but there's lots of tantalising hints in MI2 (like THAT dream sequence) that open the door to so many questions. Will we discover the truth about Guybrush's parents??

Thank you! I might reevaluate the map after playing ReMI ... and draw a new one. Next time, with a bit more pizzaz. 🍕 And here I thought "Duck Island" would get you first. 😛 Thank you so much! I love maps so much, every time they show Wally as a gullible punching bag I'm like BUT HE DRAWS MAPS HE'S LIKE A SUPERHERO YOU DORKS. I hope Return can set the record straight and have him save Elaine and Guybrush from a burning building. Or maybe there's actually time travel involved, he goes back in time, the cannibals chop off his head and use him as a navigato ... oooookay, let's not go there. I always interpreted Mêlée Town as a tiny village at the edge of a vast island wilderness, just a starting port for budding pirates. Maybe I just wanted to feel like TSoMI gave us the full picture. My map mostly tries to link what we've already experienced as backgrounds with Secret's title screen. The title screen shows a certain elevation of the glowing lights already, but it's the clocktower background that really gave me a sense of 'going up': The archway to the right shows houses placed significantly lower. And left to the actual clock tower there's a building that could either be five or six stories high ... or it's simply placed much higher than Hand-at-ten Avenue. Add to that that coastal towns usually take care not to be accidentally washed away (Florida being the exception to the rule) and Bob's your ghost uncle.

There still is! https://stansellseverything.ytmnd.com/