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And just for you, unspecified reader of the "Details of Monkey Island" thread on mixnmojo dot com, I have solved the mystery of the extra dialogue. The "not a bay leaf, but every cook makes substitutions" line is there in the other versions, but you can only get it by doing "use pot o' stew with yellow petals", surely the actions of a maniac, and not the other way around. In the CD-ROM version, both work. So it's not exclusive content added for the CD-ROM edition, just a bug fixed.

That's the second shortest hacker career I've ever seen. 😐 If they used a large encryption key, I'm afraid that by the time I finish doing everything, the universe would have met its heat death and I wouldn't even be able to enjoy a cup of coffee while playing.

I was considering something similar, but instead having a different drink as I play through each game. Here's what I'm thinking: MI1: Root Beer cause we kill LeChuck with it Mi2: Either a green alcoholic drink or Mountain Dew to represent the spit and the mixed drinks MI3: Lemonade like Kenny's (but without the bottomless mug) MI4: Coffee cause of Starbucaneers MI5: Orange juice to represent the acidic Ichor that Moose drinks

Ron and Dave had a long phone conversation with our own @elTee and @Marius. Or the other way around, arguably. It was fun.

Yes, you just need to jailbreak your Switch, hack whatever encryption they have on the game files, and then reverse engineer a working executable. Of course by the time you'd done that we'll all have completed the game, still..

In fact this one thing is likely to promote SO much discussion that I almost wonder if it's worth having a seperate thread for people who have played the start of ReMI but still don't want to risk spoilers for the rest of it. "Return to Monkey Island [Spoilers but only the first bit]"

I s'pose thinking about this with a design brain on, one of the reasons that side-goals in adventure games aren't so popular might be that they could muddy the rest of the puzzle design. After all if I have to not just think about what items I have and how they will help me complete the goals to progress the story of the game, but also think about what I have that is not related to the main goals of the game but some side stuff, and ALSO possibly be sure if something I'm doing is actually required or optional... well, I guess that could make the whole puzzle structure somewhat messy. Players could spend ages wondering about stuff that is absolutely unnecessary. A good design could work around these things, though. An adventure game I'm starting to design needs to have a sort of quest log of 'goals' because the way the puzzles work kind of demands it, and I could easily see that just being extended to include critical and optional side goals. But it doesn't look like this game is doing anything like that, so I guess they'd want some other way of conveying when a task is important or not.

Sorry to interrupt! I had this sudden stroke of marketing genius to promote the game! people here in the frum know the developers, they HAVE to suggest this to them!! It's a Disney game and Disney is full of money, right? And they can pretty much buy anything, right?! If they wanted, they could paint the Sleeping Beauty castle over all the F1 cars and bodypaint the statue of liberty like Goofy! No limits! So I was like what could they do to reach new customrs? Something BIG. And then it hit me!!!

What a great interview! It was also neat hearing a brief history on the Mojo site too.

Well well, if it isn't our old friend the VGA CD-ROM edition - one of the few versions I didn't try! I tried Amiga, EGA and VGA (not CD-ROM) in ScummVM and couldn't get Guybrush to say anything interesting when I tried to add the yellow petals to the stew. It would be unusual for the CD-ROM edition to have improved content!

Just watched the IGN scrapbook video. Dom does such a great job here of inserting genuine emotion into Guybrush's character, specifically when talking about Elaine.

For me, I was looking for something to put on the meat to poison it, thanks to the Pirate Leaders. Things I recommend: - Add the flower to the meat by putting them both in the pot, for a thematic line from Guybrush. - Try begging for 2 pieces of eight from random pirates, after you learn Otis needs a mint but before getting money. - Give the troll wrong things three times, then ask about it. -Try to fill the Ming vase with grog. -Try to buy a file. - Haggle for a better deal than 5000 pieces of eight and no extras. - On Monkey Island's vista, use the telescope while the art is pointed to the corner, to let the Lookout of Mêlée catch a glimpse of you. -At the end, save your game before talking to LeChuck at the wedding. ALL of these dialogue paths are gold. I'm a fan of the variant where Guybrush says he has a wife and kids (Elaine shouting "I heard that!"), and later Elaine commenting about something her husband would say. Wholesome back-and-forth?

You never know, you might get lucky! Question: Will we ever learn why Elaine had a yak in her mansion?

Just for you, I acquired the CD-ROM version and tried putting the petals in the stew. He said the stuff about substitutions! And I tried it again on the Amiga version just in case I had gone insane, but still no dice. The shopkeeper stuff is gold - I've never seen it before either. He even changes his mind about going one time!

New interview with Noah Falstein: he confirms his prediction about thesis written in the future for Return to Monkey Island and says that the game is not only entertaining but also quite deep, in some way. 🙂

I believe the way that these things uuuusually work is that if it's locked it needs to check the internet to see if the game can be played yet. Once it is unlocked, though, you should be able to play it in offline mode.

That'd be @Marius.

I get the feeling it's not that important. Even in the clip the pirate leaders say they don't really care. And in interviews Dave seems to imply it's not a big thing: "Technically, I suppose that’s true. Whether that matters or not is sort of up to you. " But that said, I love the notion that you could somehow present them with all the evidence optionally and that changes the ending. Though that said. IS it the first sidequest? I'm trying to think if there are any other optional puzzles at all in any of the games. I guess ... sinking your ship in MI1 could concievably count. And in MI2 you can optionally win various prizes on the wheel of fortune though it's not a different puzzle. As far as EMI goes I can't remember, and I can't think of any for CMI or Tales.

I actually already started my Switch a few times, just to see that and get hyped. 😅

While I am in panic waiting for the GOG announcement, I found out what Return to Monkey Island really is about and this is the spoiler thread, so ... The three pirate leaders from Monday's clip say they moved on, but of course it is a huge burn mark on Guybrush's soul to never have completed the three trials or rather, brought back evidence to the pirate leaders. These three artifacts have to be brought back to them. And, what do you know, we already spotted the idol in one of those screenshots! That leaves us with just two T-shirts to find. We return to Melee Island, present the pirate leaders with the evidence, screen says "Act I of The Secret of Monkey Island completed", game ends.

Check what's cooking on my Switch, right now!! 😃

What Ron said near the end about the ending having 5 variations...that's REALLY interesting. Guess I'll be playing through it a LOT to see each one

I also love this. To think Dom was afraid that Ron hated him at one point. I think in addition to this game just being real, it's great to see Ron and Dom hanging out and really becoming good friends.

To celebrate the launch, I’m thinking of putting together a celebratory meal featuring the food from the games. I’ve listed what I’m putting together so far below: MI1: Grog (the real world recipe not the game, I'm fine consuming battery acid and SCUMM, but pepperoni in my drink is where I draw the line) MI4: “Kudu” Jerky Pretzel MI2: Saltines (yeah I know… but there’s like three food items in the game and I’m not putting a rat in a vichyssoise) MI3: Blondbeard’s chicken and biscuit (I’m working on something to make that “special flavor”) ”AND MORE SLAW!” MI5: Hardtack’s Potatoes I’ll try to post pictures once I make it later this week.

There are some things that excite me a ton, and I would consider them "small details" that we rarely talk about. Please share your favorite things from the games that make you happy. Window Lights In the town of Mêlée Island you can see some window lights turn on and off. Changing location names on the map Some location names change when you visit them the first time.

This is research for a future Mojo feature, and thus of the utmost importance: I'm trying to compile a list of real-world food items referenced in the first two Monkey Island games. Specifically brands -- Cap'n Crunch, Cheetos, etc. -- and actual dishes, like vichyssoise. I'm not doing anything with beverages (Shirley Temple is out) but something like root beer float (referenced by the cannibals) is fair game. Also, I'm limiting this to MI1 and MI2 for reasons that are completely unrelated to laziness. My short list so far: MI1 Cap'n Crunch Root beer float Carrot cake Rump roast Red herring Breath mints MI2 Cheetos Vichyssoise Toasted marshmallows/cotton Weenies Fruit cocktail Saltines Contribute, and you will be rewarded with... well, you just have to wait and see.

I have to add that I'm appreciative of our monarch dying just to allow her loyal subjects September 19th off to play Return to Monkey Island. Thank ye, ma'am.

Don't think of it as bait! Think of it as clicking on every dialogue option with the Voodoo Lady in Curse. I'll read your stuff later tonight; thanks for it!

Ron putting the Universal Hints System out of business... Edit: Thank you @Remi for fixing my formatting!

You know, when we've all finally completed ReMI, I'm going to miss the intense period of activity we've enjoyed since April 😥 I wonder if I could get Ron to delay the release... 🤔

Also, IGN posted a new video featuring the Voodoo Lady. Not really implicating her having serious involvement in the overarching story, at least in terms of her agenda, but one short clip at the beginning of the game isn't too much to go off of, especially since the video was more about a feature rather than her character. Trying to be vague for anyone who hasn't seen the video.

So cool! Then you just need to become an hacker so that you can play them before the official release. What happens if the Switch isn't connected to the Internet, when the moment comes? Can you play the game even if no Internet connection is available? 🤔

I think you're exactly on point. It was Dave's twitter comment about "a technicality" that made me theorize we'd do Trials again, but reading the Mojo interview has changed my mind. And yet, I hadn't considered your thought on it maybe affecting the ending! Wouldn't it be fantastic if Guybrush coincidentally and subtly completed the Trials again (eg. fought Carla for reasons, found treasure on Mêlée because he needed money, met up with Elaine who had the Idol just because), and nobody in the game commented on it. I imagine things like... a combination of finding your crew in Secret (or Curse or Escape), plus choosing your group in Maniac Mansion. Imagine recruiting three MM-like characters for your crew. Jeff is easy to recruit, you just ask him... but he can't get you to Monkey Island. The other potential recruits unlock a different puzzle path Guybrush could use to get there... Bernard has the most satisfying solution, but he's the hardest to recruit. And then, as you reach Monkey Island, you're rewarded with unique dialogues (or altered ending) based on which puzzle-routes and hoe many puzzle-routes you solved to get there.

I think if you were making an adventure game that had some sort of interactive narrative element (rpg style or telltale style "dynamic" character relationships, either entirely narratively based or stat based) you could start delving into side quests, either optional or mutually exclusive or whatever else. Like you said Kestrel, I think players would need to know the rules around them. If you're just making a SCUMM style game, side quests will potentially muddy the water of "what is progress" (since in a SCUMM game players understand any puzzle solution to be progress, thats the arrangement you make with the developer when playing those games). I think as long as the rules of how your world works are communicated early on, you can try things like "side quests in an adventure game." That doesn't mean it literally needs to say it on the box, but you would need to build an early scenario whose job (in the game design sense) is to train players on the rules, on what their actions in the game world mean. That is a half-baked post, I'm sorry. Please don't debate me on the finer points because I just dashed it off.

The official communication always was "It's not about the nostalgia", but we already know that two dozen characters and two islands will return, and that Guybrush is rather explicitly out to retread the paths and relive the glory of the past days. It will be so interesting to see how these seemingly contradictory things can be seamlessly joined. Naturally, fans are ambivalent in that respect too – they proclaim that they want to see something new and fresh, but would still rejoice at recognizing backgrounds, characters, and themes. Optionally collecting proof of trial completion would be a great and unobtrusive way to give the more nostalgia minded what they want out of the game, without upsetting the people who are trying to keep their experience new and fresh – but I also don't think they will do this particular thing. Still, I would love to see more pronounced "side quests" in point and click adventure games, and I kind of expect ReMI to radically shake things up in some areas, so ... who knows, especially at this point?

Not in this life.

* Glad that that Monkey Robot thing was finally put to bed. I never believed that was the plan all along. * Glad Craig was involved. For all that we nitpick the special editions, I always felt like he has been a strong driving force in keeping LEC's adventure game history alive. * I wonder how different the endings are. Will it be like MI1 where there are a couple of extra/different bits, or will it make a bigger difference? I'd guess the former. * I'm glad that the biggest spoiler or at least one of them seems to be at the beginning, because it means that almost as soon as we play it on Monday, we'll get at least some of our answers, or at least fresh questions.

👕 I beat #Mojole #176 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 3/6 🖤🖤🖤🖤💚 💚💚🖤🖤💚 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

Ken's quite the character and it shows in his writing. He's got a very spartan like business approach. (You've got A employees, B employees and C employees. Get the best of the best and if you can't get the best, don't get in the game. That kind of attitude.) While I don't like that stance on business, he does have some fascinating insights in what the Sierra business philosophy was, and where he got his inspiration. I can still recommend the book, even though I don't think Ken's the kind of guy I could have a particularly nice chat with.

Oh! 👕 I beat #Mojole #176 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 2/6 💚💚🖤🖤💛 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

That was my problem with it, hence my confusion! Like, show me a comprehensive book outline about Sierra and what I'm getting and I'll throw my (very limited) money at you. But if I can't even decipher from the Kickstarter and posts in this forum what the book does, I'm not going to pay for it. Sidenote: I will still get Ken Williams' book so that @Lagomorph01 and I have can have book club about it, but in recent interviews I've read with him about masks, the need for the Police Quest series ("LA was full of junkies!") and certain other issues he seems like someone I do not politically agree with, hope that doesn't affect the read.

Never Say Never Again! When I saw Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in the theater, at the point Indy references Pancho Villa (and therefore the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) someone in the room guffawed. Now *that's* a dork after my own heart.

This is a perfect list!

That reminds me...will we eventually get the traditional Memoirs for THIS game? Maybe when there's a boxed release?

Hah! I didn't know that changing the position of the art affects what you can see, mostly because it makes no sense. That's cool. Seeing animals in the jungle eating each other makes Monkey Island sound like a scary place! But... This one seems like fake news - Guybrush just says it doesn't work. Unless you mean something other than the "yellow petals"?

I'm finally replaying MI1 in prep for next Monday (I mean I feel like I know the first three games off by heart)... and I'm sort of trying to break the game a little by NOT doing what it wants me to. Like I'm NOT talking to the Important Looking Pirates, etc. A nice little detail: You get slightly different dialogue if you talk to Otis before you talk to Shinetop (and you don't get the "pssst" scene, oddly). I love that stuff. Anyway, playing it again just reminded me of the sleeping poodles puzzle: Was this the "monkey wrench" of MI1? Apparently the flowers are called "Caniche Endormi" but you only get that hint* from Otis if you select one particular dialogue choice at one particular point. If you miss it, it's gone forever. * - Yes, apparently the flower's name is French for "sleeping poodle". So how was anyone supposed to know that the flowers has a drowsy effect on dogs? Or poodles in particular? There's no clues anywhere in the game to that effect... is there? Certain flowers have a poisonous effect on dogs, but is it widely known that they will get drowsy? Or is the idea that he was poisoning them, hence the "They're only sleeping!" message that pops up? Maybe I just missed the dogs + flowers piece of general knowledge?

Monkey Island 1 is out. It has an infinite number of roadside locations on Melee Island, it's just they all start to look the same.

Temple of Doom is still a lot of fun... but it's also surprisingly boring. There's next to no story: Indy goes to a random palace in the absolute middle of nowhere and happens to find bad guys hiding in the basement. It's a bit weird. But the high points are still high: The opening sequence. The mine cart chase. The rope bridge still looks incredibly impressive (and scary). There's just very little in between Raiders is still amazing, and Last Crusade has plenty of fun, wit and action to recommend it. (Spielberg correctly sensed the film was missing an action beat and added the motorcycle chase... if that sequence had been on par with the jeep convoy in Raiders, then I think Last Crusade could have possibly equalled that movie.) But the interplay between Connery and Ford remains priceless.

Maybe the new movie will be an adaptation of the long delayed Fountain of Youth fangame. If we see a de-aged Ford it will be canon!