NightWalker

That's great! I confirm that Grim Fandango works perfectly now! This is incredible ^_^

Thanks, Aaron. I can't solve the problem even deleting REGISTRY.REG. I don't know if it's only an issue of mine or not. I have even uninstalled the last stable version. I have checked the AppData directory (and the subdirectories named 'Local', 'LocalLow' and 'Roaming') and deleted the 'aarongiles' folder. With everything clean, I have installed DREAMM 3.0b4. Then, the program asked me to search the folder with the games and everything went allright, Grim was installed. But the game keeps being in debug mode. I have push Shift + P and Manny jumps to the end of the game, the Act 4, near the fountain that is like an ashtray. I don't know if I have to delete any other file in any other directory or if it's something that only happens in my computer.

I have tried the 3.0b4: and Grim Fandango is still in debug mode and it's almost unplayable by now. If you press some key combinations (Shift + P) Manny jumps over acts of the game and he appears in random places. The game can't be restarted, so if you push that combination of keys, it's impossible to get back and keep playing where you were before the accident. The emulator, by the way, is amazing. It's a DREAMM come true XD. It's great to be able of reliving every old LucasArts gem.

Thank you very much!

Hello, Aaron (I hope you read this), I'm having big troubles with Grim Fandango. I'm not a native English speaker, so I will try to write the best way I can... When I executed the game, I tried to play with the number pad on the keyboard. With the key "Bloq Num" I have been able to play with this section of the keyboard, but I have problems. If you are pressing "8" (advance), "Shift" (run) and then you press the "5" key (examine), Manny will disappear from his current position and he will appear in a kind of default position of the screen. That will happend in every different screen, everytime you press the combination I told you about. So... I tried to play with the other section of the keyboard: the cursors keys and the letters. I had even more problems. If you, accidentally, press the shift key (run) and "P" (pick up), Manny will jump to another section of the game. For example, if you are in the beginning of the game (I think it's "El Marrow" in English) and you press "Shift" + "P", Manny will appear in Rubacava suddenly (in Act 2). And if you press those two keys again, Manny will appear under the water (Act 3). It´s as if the game entered in a kind of "debugger mode" where Manny goes jumping from one act to another. Another weird problem: if you press "Shift" + "O", there will appear words on the screen. Every word is over each interactive object of the screen. Grim Fandango is not supposed to have that words, so... it's a little weird, because when you enter in the inventory, the words that appeared over every object are floating over the screen even when you are seeing Manny's jacket in a close up view. Oh, and another problem. Everytime I load Grim Fandango, the game continues automatically where I left the last time. Grim Fandango is supposed to start from the beginning everytime, but I can't restart the game anymore. If I use F12 and press "restart game", it won't work. The only way to restart the game is deleting some files from the registry of DREAMM. I don't know if this problem just occurs to me. Anyone here had such problems? I'm playing the English version with the 1.01 patch and I'm using the latest version of DREAMM from Aaron's webpage. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much!

In the fist place, I would like to say "Thank you, Aaron". This emulator is one of the coolest thing I have ever seen about videogames. I like playing the games in the original form, so I haven't played Grim Fandango in years, because I didn't want to play the remaster. Now it's amazing (a miracle!) to see the game working again in my new PC after all these years. I don't know if this is the place for it, but I wanted to tell you that the game seems to work fine, except the Shift key (which is used to run) doesn't work properly with the numeric pad. It works fine with the cursor keys and the game works perfectly with a gamepad, though. But I always played Grim Fandango with numeric pad, because I find it confortable, since I have all the functions of the game there ("5" is look and "+" is take, for example). I write this in case you want to fix that. If you press the shift key before the 8 number, Manny doesn't run. Or if you are running and try to turn with the numeric pad, Manny walks. I have tried this with my laptop keyboard and even with an external USB keyboard. Again, thank you very much for your excellent work! This is an authentic DREAM (hehe) for old LucasArts fans!

This explanation keeps bein perfectly valid to me. If we take into account that Curse if a new adventure that Guybrush tells to Boybrush, and that (as the video games) the story continues the story of Monkey 2 (that Guybrush told Boybrush too), it is a perfect way to bind all the things inside the fantasy world of Monkey Island (the world inside the imagination of Guybrush). Yeah, we know that the last minute of Monkey 2 was a rehearsal of Boybrush and Chuckie, inside their minds. But when Guybrush told the story of Monkey 2 to Boybrush the first time, the ending of the story was Guybrush being trapped inside the tunnels of Dinky Island and dissapearing from Elaine. So, inside the storytelling world that Guybrush creates for Boybrush when he tells his stories, he had to find a conclusion for the next story (Curse), and the explanation of Curse is perfectly valid since that point of view.

Maybe it was the original idea but it wasn't called "escape room" by then. Maybe it was a park with a kind of treasure hunt events or something like that... Look at this part of Monkey 2 I extracted the images from a video of Youtube, the original source is:

One of the best analysis I have ever read about the series. I agree with every concept you expose. I think that is the true meaning of the ending too. You exposed it perfectly.

I associate this to the gears and machinary of the park. Even if you are in the imaginary world, inside Guybrush's head, you still can hear the gears of the park. This is my interpretation, but it could be what you say too. It would have been interesting to know Cogg Island fully and maybe that would have given some answers to this sentence of Widey Bones. Widey says this too: "No one ever works together. All want their own prize". This could be a reference to LeChuck, Madison and Guybrush wanting to go ahead and have the prize everyone for himself. But it could be a reference to the fans too, because everybody had his own theory about the secret. "The secret smells like popcorn!", says Widey too. And the first thing you find when you are going to know the truth is the popcorn on the floor, when you get out of the door in the alley, in the back of the church at the ending. Yeah, the game is full of phrases with double meaning. After completing the full game, I found that almost every conversation has some link to the ending. For example, at the beginning, when you talk with Stan in the jail, he says that "he gives everybody what they want, although not everybody knows what they want". It could be a reference to how the park gives you the experience you are looking for. If you stay still in the jail, Stan will say random sentences. In one of them, he says: "They say the only real prison is the one in your head". This is amazing when you know about the ending. The curator of the museum explains, at certain moment, that "everybody makes their own connections with the exhibits, and it's highly personal and different for everyone". This could be a reference as how everybody, in the real park, lives his own experience and his own adventure. There are a lot of more links to the ending. The game is full of winks to it. It's greatly written.

Yeah, I think that too, that the world of the game could be set in the modern day. Maybe even the clothes that Guybrush and Elaine are wearing in the park, while Guybrush tell his stories to his son, are costumes that the park sells you (or rent you). And maybe the treasure of Mire Island is some other amusement park attraction or another game prepared by Stan, who knows. Anyway, one thing I found weird is that it seems to be lesser anachronisms in Return to Monkey Island than in the two first games... or maybe it was my impression. But in Monkey 1 and 2 we saw things very obvious such the grog machine, the water pump or even the signs with lightbulbs. In Return to Monkey Island... I don't remember many anachronisms... Maybe the staple remover and I can't think of much more apart from some dialogues which talk about modern things.

I couldn't figure the solution out either. Does anybody know how the puzzle works? I saw a kind of tombstone or stone with instructions (something about 4 years, steps to the right and the left)... but I cound't find the solution. As you, I tried every possible combination to solve the puzzle.

I have been thinking a while about Guybrush-Elaine relationship too... To me, the relation between them has been weird in this game too. And the character of Elaine seemed to be a little different and lack of energy and importance. But... thinking about it... Maybe it could have an interpretantion after knowing the ending. In this game (even in the first one and the second), the adventures of Guybrush are happening apart from Elaine's goals. It's like Elaine is doing adult and mature things, you know, saving the Caribbean from scurvy and using important pamphlets and such things. She seems to be doing some political actions, something very real, mature and from our era. She seems (as many of you have pointed) very disconnected from Guybrush. And, in the other hand, Guybrush is fighting Dead Pirate Zombies, looking for fabulous treasures and living thousands of adventures (something less real and more from an imaginary world). So that's could be the reading of the situation between Guybrush and Elaine. Maybe, in the real world, they used to go together to the park but, later, Elaine enjoyed the experience from a more mature point of view. And maybe Guybrush was the only one that really believed his own stories and got lost inside his own imagination. And that's should be why they are never together in this game for a long time, because Guybrush is in his own world and, as reflection of the real world, Elaine is with his own things and thoughts. Sorry for my English in all my posts. I'm not English native either.

I know that Ron has recently said that he had no idea about his original Monkey 3 apart from Guybrush, Stan and LeChuck being in hell. But I think he really had some more ideas for the game in the early 90s. Indeed, he should have known the secret by then. Along all these years I have read once and again this interview: https://scummbar.com/resources/articles/index.php?newssniffer=readarticle&article=1033 And if you don't want to read it fully, I'll put here the important part about the secret: Ron Gilbert: I read a lot of novels and reference books, more for the flavor of the period than for accuracy. This isn't a historically accurate game. In fact, you'll see when you play that there are a lot of anachronisms, like the vending machine at Stan's used ship yard. They're there to add humor to the game of course, but they also have a secret, deeper relevance to the story -- but I'm keeping that secret for the sequel. This interview was made in the fall of 1990. So, maybe he is talking about the park we have seen in Return to Monkey Island. That's why I think he put that plaque. As Jake said, this has to be the original secret.