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Kickoff theory: The Monkey Island series is and always was set 1000 years in the future. There was an apocalyptic weather event right on what is now called Monkey Island that brought civilisation as we know it to an end. But what we know as Monkey Island today was actually a much larger island that broke in three: Monkey Island, Brr Muda and Melee Island. The original Pangaekey Island held weather in balance, but now that it's broken, Brr Muda has become this icy thingamagig. Way back when Melee Island was of course called "Meltee Island" for obvious reasons. Return to Monkey Island is about joining these islands again and fixing the climate catastrophe.

Is that Bob hanging from the spar??

The re-use of character models in Tales of Monkey Island was not a system constraint but a deliberate homage to the replicated animatronics in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean rides: https://earzup-podcast.com/2021/03/the-many-faces-of-disneylands-pirates-of-the-caribbean-part-1/ This opinion is unpopular because it is objectively wrong. But maybe you can start circulating it anyway.

My dumb theory about the Secret: Guybrush finds a chest hidden inside the catacombs under the monkey head. He opens it, and as it glows in front of his eyes, he exlaims "wow! so THAT'S the secret!" We never see what he saw, but our inventory now has a little question mark in it that says "The Secret of Monkey Island TM" and every time we look at it Guybrush has a different variation of "this was well worth all those years lookng for it" and such.

Sure, here we go.

What I miss the most in the CD version is the verb interface becoming red when you're in the Monkey Island catacombs. Both the EGA and VGA floppy releases had it. I really liked that dramatic effect the first time I reached that part of the game, but they've dropped it with the new verb interface of the CD release.

Jess Harnell is LeChuck!! I’m so excited for the Voice actors joining this game!

I for one am very disappointed, we were promised the voice of a character we were excited to hear speak and she didn’t say anything!

FIVE MINUTES LATE AND STILL THE FIRST

I think Return to Monkey Island will have Guybrush searching for the secretory of monkey island, accessible by 3 stone disks hidden throughout the Caribbean. He will partner with Elaine, who now has a voodoo necklace associated with a voodoo god and together they island hop to retrieve them before LeChuck and his ghost army. Long story short, the secret of Monkey Island turns out to be orichalcum.

SCUMM games contain the interpreter (the exe file) and the resource files (the game data). To find the version info for the interpreter you run the game (in dosbox these days) with an invalid command line parameter like /? and it'll output the version of the interpreter and its build date Interpreter Verson 5.2.02 (Nov 21 1991 08:35:15) Unknown flag: '/?' The game data also has version info that you can access by pressing ctrl+v ingame. For years we've had text files with lists of different interpreter versions but not the version info from the scripts. For the 3 of us who care about things like this its a pain to gather the different information. I've made a program that automatically extracts the version information from a folder of SCUMM games, puts it in a grid and lets you export it to a spreadsheet. For the interpreters only the Dos and Windows versions are parsed but for the game scripts its platform-agnostic and has been tested with Amiga, Atari, FM-Towns and Mac games. Download it here. Here is my list of version information. One oddity I've noticed from the game scripts is that the DOTT demo is named in the game scripts as "Day of the Tentacle BBS Contest DEMO". Anyone know anything about any contest for DOTT?

This is Largo.

I don't have much of an opinion on the voice as I feel like it's too early to say, and not even a 'real' kind of line read, buuuuut I am soooo glad they went another direction and didn't just try for a Boen impression.

So now Wakko and Yakko are both in the game 😛 Edit: Apparently all three Warner siblings were in Escape?? I was not aware of this...

have we considered Bigger Guybrush theory?

Nice Third Guybrush (“Time Pyramid Guybrush”) theory.

Their paths crossed already in the swamp sequence in Escape.

No strong opinions on Jess Harnell. He has a solid career and this one line is a good performance. Leans a bit more into the cartoony side, although that could just be from the words spoken in this line. I like it fine. Also I am loving the lip flap animations in this game. They really remind me of the exaggerated head-bobbing of old, but you know its also new and HD and different and a new spin at the same time. I'm sure this has been discussed in this thread before, but LeChuck's lip wagging animation reminded me. Still looks good. gross tongue, man 👅👍

I know it sounds improbable but there have actually been two guys called Guybrush Threepwood with incredibly similar lives, and we’ve played them both across the different games (I’m not saying which was in which game, but if you knew it would surprise you). In Return their paths will finally cross.

Give me the damn game already! Sorry. Just want to play it so badly...

It's Guybrush! He's eavesdropping, that rascal.

It's like the POV of an employee in a meeting with their toxic boss.

Woah, LeChuck sounds different, but I already like him. It's like the art style, it's eerie at first, but I grow to like it quickly. I'm glad they were looking for a new voice, instead of an Earl Boen imitator. Also, I love the super exaggerated mouth sprites, my god.

it turns out ninjas were better than pirates all along, and both guybrush and lechuck are defeated by ninjas.

I look forward to playing as Elaine for a brief moment on the Swords path, getting Guybrush ready to dive.

2 hours! (plus 1-2 minutes )

The world itself is on the verge of destruction because the number of pirates has been gradually decreasing, resulting in global climate change. Surprise: Monkey Island has always taken place in modern times, in a reality where the world's governments have coordinated (as the Mêlée Island Chamber of Commerce) to avoid environmental disaster by re-introducing pirates to various areas of the world. The problem now, is that no new pirates have been created for decades because the Three Trials on Mêlée Island were disrupted. 1) The Swordmaster disappeared for several years, and upon returning she refused to fight new recruits. The situation is even more dire with her election as governor, as the Mêlée Island charter expressly forbids the governor from interacting with the swordplay or treasure huntery trials, and a bureaucratic oversight made the position of Swordmaster a lifelong term. 2) The Idol of Many Hands disappeared at about the same time as the Swordmaster. Rumors are unclear as to whether it was last seen with the Formerly Very Important Looking Pirates, or with Guybrush when he first left Mêlée. The Three Trials bylaws have no stipulation for the Idol of Many Hands being lost or removed from the island, so the true idol must be located and stolen, so that someone can break into the governor's mansion and return it to its proper pedestal for future generations of pirates to steal. 3) Swag experts have finally agreed: the Legendary Lost Treasure of Mêlée Island has been reduced to nothing. It's probably been that way for years. To provide for the future, a new hoard of treasure needs to be buried. All of the old maps were also made obsolete by the most recent update, so a new burial location must be found with new maps drafted and distributed. 4) Four? Yes, each new pirate must drink grog with the current Pirate Leaders. A grog source must be found, and the sitting Pirate Leaders must be made amenable to their key role in the three trials. When this is over, the world can be saved and Guybrush can finally be certified as a pirate. EDIT: This is all completely unrelated to the Secret of Monkey Island. The Secret of Monkey Island is that the Giant Monkey Head has holes in its ears and nose that have secret buttons to open the mouth.

I finally finished playing through Insecticide on DS and now I'm ready. That's what we all were doing, right?

Yeah, but it was rigged for Dead Cousin Ted... Couldn't help myself. I'll look through what I have.

I see a lot of comments saying LeChuck seems too goofy, but I always find that LeChuck is at his best when he has goofy moments that disarm us and then a sudden shift to scary and creepy. LeChuck's Revenge was probably the closest to seeing a purely serious and sadistic LeChuck, followed closely by Tales Episode 5, but I think it can work better when you don't expect it. The idea that we can laugh at this guy, but then remember in the next scene that he kills and tortures people, forms pacts with demon netherworlds, becomes a demon himself, and conducts satanic rituals, has always been one of my core experiences with the series. The trailer implies that LeChuck will very much still have plenty of dark moments and remain a legitimate threat, which I think is the more important piece. I don't mind him having goofy moments, so long as he's still a legitimate threat. I would also say that I don't view LeChuck himself as being really goofy here; it's just the context of the scene. The scenes that will showcase his malice will be when to really judge if this version is too goofy or not, but so far, I really like the voice and it fits the character well in my opinion.

Yes, that was a masterful touch.

Didn't some blah blahs also happen with one of the LeChuck's fortress exteriors? As a fan of MI2's creepy LeChuck, I'm not loving this goofy LeChuck with his stubby legs and cartoony voice, but as with everything else, looking forward to seeing it all in proper context.

Fate of Atlantis subs in "blah blah" for Sophia's dialogue with Trottier while you sneak around during the seance even in the voiced version as I recall. So there's some precedent. Edit: Who needs conjunctions

The main villain in Return to Monkey Island will NOT be LeChuck. The villain will be unveiled in the third third of the game. It's ...

Ah, you’re a believer in Third Guybrush (“Time Pyramid Guybrush”) theory.

Huz thank you for picking a classic forum smiley to go with your results.

Ah no that was the same Guybrush just having a dream. You can tell by the presence of Blue Coat LeChuck, who is very important to the Second Guybrush theory.

Their paths crossed already in the nightmare sequence in LeChuck's Revenge.

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That's exactly what I like about it! Makes him more crazy.

Maybe they should just say no more. The interesting question is: Whose POV is it? Can't really be Guybrush. So who is the narrator figure here? Maybe even LeChuck?

Every time I see a new Rex character, I think "This can not possibly be a minor character. They probably have a HUEG role to play." Also, can we start with the upside down ghost memes already? Thanks. The absence of the violinist is getting annoying! 🥺

I know this thread is for wild and wonderful-ish answers only... but seriously I think we're going to get into some deep meta territory. But then again Ron said he wanted to tell a pirate tale... Can you do both? 🤔

Now 1.5 hours... (plus 1-2 minutes )

Violin ghost confirmed to be named Razor. Brrrmuda judge confirmed to be named Syd.

Great. Now I want to paint that band.

I think the #MonkeyIslandMonday clips make it obvious that Return to Monkey Island is about

Chuckie is Guybrush's brother, or half-brother. He's been dead since Guybrush was a child. Monkey Island is his way of dealing with his complicated memories of his brother, who used to bully him but also used to play pirates with him. LeChuck in all his forms is basically a monster of Guybrush dealing with his own complicated grief. At the end of Monkey Island 2 he falls down a hole, and has a strange dream while exploring around a fairground that he somehow brings Chuckie back to life. When he grew up, he stopped thinking about Monkey Island but he never really resolved anything about his brother. He revisits the fairground, and it starts to bring back memories of Monkey Island. The Secret of Monkey Island is that it's a mental contstruct that Guybrush used to used to help frame his complicated relationship with his brother.

The most noticeable difference in behavior I've seen in the VGA CD version compared to the VGA floppy version is that some text was (accidentally?) cut in the scene where you bribe the Monkey Island cannibals. There are some graphical differences besides the user interface, though. Mostly it's subtle differences in colour. I suspect some of them may have been caused by the colours being ordered differently in the palette. At least with things like the smoke from the voodoo lady's cauldron. That change carried over to the special edition, too. Maybe it also explains why the actors are a bit brighter in the CD version? Unless that was a deliberate change. (I had to use a demo for the EGA version, since I don't own a copy of that game. Hence the difference in text.) But the most noticeable colour difference, and one that I'm sorely tempted to fix in ScummVM because I think the CD version is harder to read, is the sign about the dogs: One other graphical difference was probably introduced by mistake: When playing the floppy version from hard disk (rather than directly from the floppies), the close-up of captain Smirk has animated cigar smoke. The same smoke animation as for the cauldron, apparently. I'm guessing whoever updated the game just mechanically removed those checks, and only kept the case without the smoke. Restoring the animation in ScummVM turned out to be easy, but getting it to appear a the correct position and with the correct colours took a bit more fiddling: The only case I've seen where graphics have been redrawn, rather than re-coloured, is the meat in the SCUMM Bar kitchen. The floppy version looks like ribs to me, while the CD version looks like a leg. And while preparing this screenshot, I just noticed that the colour of the grog changed to green. Edit: This change may have been to match the animation when you use the hunk of meat later?

For more detailed investigation, logo and all removed...