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.

There are several layout designs for this art in the FT Remastered concept art gallery. It seems this was going to be the cover art at one point, with a vertical orientation and a folding flap on the front like The DIG's US box. But then it got replaced with a 3D rendering of the same design, and a box with a horizontal layout but no flap.

Mike Stemmle on today's livestream mentioned that Peter Chan is doing concept art for the new Sam and Max VR game, which is exciting.

Which is precisely why Disney would be petrified to have us get our grubby little hands on them.

Seeing the peg-legged flapper in the MI1 stream brought a similar character to mind from Quest for Infamy - a peg-legged, red-haired prostitute who "looks familiar": http://dustbin.mixnmojo.co/qfipeggy.png http://dustbin.mixnmojo.co/qfipeggy1.png http://dustbin.mixnmojo.co/qfipeggykick.png From previous posts, Quest for Infamy is a game that I already surmised is probably connected to the whole Secret Project thingy. Now this might just be a case of landing on the same visual gag... but there's no reason ever given in game for this character to "look familiar" to the player or the main character. Except perhaps as an allusion to her being modelled on the MI1 flapper. They even have similar character stances, both showing off with a leg-kicking animation. Though the MI1 EGA flapper had dark hair. Rather like how Elaine's own hair also went from dark in EGA to red in VGA. Also, if you talk to her, the QFI prostitute (named "Peggy", naturally!) mentions being an adventurer herself, but that line of business having dried up "around 20 years ago" - and she's looking to "get back in the game". (As in, out of the source code and onto the disks? )

In the light of the stream earlier today this looks eerily prescient. Either that or there might actually something be to this whole Secret Project business and Jake's already seen the MI1 source code. (Insane, I know...)

Yes, two of the backgrounds and some of LeChuck's body animations were included in the MI2 SE concept art gallery.

Yeah, it looks like they couldn't be bothered to recreate the old Lucasfilm Games logo, so they just slapped the modern Lucasfilm Ltd. logo on the USB drive and painted it purple (which the game title logo in MI1 was, but the LFG logo wasn't).

The codewheels should have been in there, no question.

Historical footnote: in vintage 18th century English texts, the word "brass" was often used by writers when they really meant "bronze". But it wasn't spelled with six letters back then either. 😉

So it is "bronze". Which would make sense.