ATMachine

In practical terms I think your point is sound, at least in the world we live in. But as I understand it some of the theorists take it further, saying it's "impossible for a white person to be meaningfully discriminated against" not only practically in lived society, but in the abstract on a more fundamental level. I don't think I agree with that, simply because it sets up human prejudice as an eternal monolith, when it instead evolves alongside culture. It may be "impossible" here and now - but how far do you extend that before it removes the core meaning of what racism is as a theoretical term? By definition racism is prejudice against someone based on their skin color or ethnicity. But if only a certain kind of racism is "meaningful racism", then that same argument by definition excuses other, less common kinds of racism - saying it's not just super-uncommon or basically irrelevant on a larger scale, but impossible to commit on a theoretical level, and therefore "not really racism". The massive inequality that does exist makes it far, far, far more likely that on any given day, actual incidents of racism are those perpetrated by white people against people of color. But how does it help to build a more equal society if we say that ONLY white people can be racist? I doubt any one ethnicity has an absolute monopoly on vice, even if in our society they tend to have the market cornered overall. I broadly agree with the arguments about recasting Bosco. But I think a lot of modern critical theory on racism basically treats it as a given that structural inequality is permanent and ineradicable, which I think is self-defeating from the word go.

I think some academic theory does deliberately ignore or downplay the existence of disenfranchised white people - e.g., some scholars contend that it's literally impossible to be racist against white people, for instance. But the reason such a theory can exist at all is that in 99 cases of racism out of 100, it's white people being racist against people of color. The institutional and political balance of power has been tilted in favor of European-descended white males for so long that many of them still feel able to indulge their hatreds, and people of color often can't afford the risk of complaining about it, let alone seeking justice. Not letting white actors play characters of color is something that might seem counterintuitive, but it's a small way of kicking back against a world that is very heavily tilted against people of color already. It's hardly a full-stop solution in terms of correcting hundreds of years of historical injustice, but it's a start and a laudable one, I think.

I wonder if Darragh was responsible for the idea of having multiple line readings for the insult-sword-fighting comebacks (ie, using them successfully or unsuccessfully) in the MI1 SE. It seems like the sort of quality move I'd expect from an LEC veteran of his stripe.

I do think "reverse racism" is quite possible (though frankly it's saddled with an intentionally derogatory term: racism is racism is racism). But as far as its actual reality on the ground it's infinitesimal compared to what people of color have to put up with. And in the case of the acting world, actors of color have limited opportunities compared to people of European descent, so taking roles away in cases like Bosco feels like adding insult to injury IMO. I have no problem with it. So I did buy the remasters in the end. On the other hand, I do have a very big problem with the rewriting of dialogue in the remastered version. That's far too close to rewriting history, "Greedo shot first"-style, for my taste. If the originals weren't included alongside the new versions on GOG I would never have bought them.

I liked Alexandra Boyd's voice in CMI but wasn't a fan of the work she did in the SEs and Tales. I know that Telltale had a temporary voice actor for Elaine in Tales episode 1 at one point and I've always been curious what she sounded like.

I was OK with the Bosco recasting, but apparently some of his original dialogue has been rewritten also - because apparently a few of the jokes were considered "inappropriate.". Sometimes in ways that breaks continuity with the responses from other characters. That actually does edge too close to self-censorship/Star Wars Special Editionism for my taste. The original games are apparently included in the bundle on GOG, however. Which is the reason I still might buy this remaster rather than ruling it out.

I hang out a lot on the unofficial LucasArts Discord founded a few months ago. It's a fun place.

That's the same cutscene someone on the Monkey Island 1 SE team described in this 2009 blog post about the original source code: The post is truncated as is, but I'd say the idea is "...he goes into the Monkey Head and the mouth closes behind him."

The logo is fine to me. It's basically the CMI logo rather than the Tales/SE logo with the awkward stylization created by 2009/10 Lucasfilm, so I'm happy.

More likely, it'll be made available to researchers and other people who have the wherewithal (and cash) to access the code in the name of academic publication, but will never be given out to the vast majority of fans who would love to see it just for its own sake.

More specifically, it's on the side of the game box, so was probably redrawn for that, and just recycled for the standee design.

That perspective also gives us a great view of the back of the lookout's head, which got a makeover with a more orderly bald spot in the VGA version. In the scan it looks like the lookout's sprite is a bit different, too - the edges of his coat appear to be dark blue rather than gray.

I asked Frank Cifaldi on Twitter if there was anything else of interest in that magazine scan and he kindly posted the whole article. Of special note (and I believe Laserschwert has seen this already) - the MI1 poster art in this article appears to show an early version of Guybrush's face.

Frank Cifaldi just posted THIS on Twitter. The source is apparently Game Player's PC Strategy Guide Vol. 3 No. 6 (Nov/Dec 1990), which is sadly unscanned on the Internet.

Wow. Yike.