Thrik

Sea Monkey, right? Mad Monkey is the one in MI2.

Ah man, takes me back! There was a ytmnd about this years ago.

It was definitely very much written with the deathly subject matter in mind, but I think it also works well as a recurring theme. It feels sacrilegious but I think the EMI version would probably work best because of the ocean ambience they mixed in:

Not particular sure why I bothered doing this but I was curious how well they matched up after looking at the cover art earlier. I thought it mildly striking that they line up so well, particularly the eyes. It supports my belief that the EGA close-ups were based on the Purcell style seen on the cover and (to a lesser extent) illustrations such as the ‘dress a pirate’ and code wheel. 😅

Wow, so my original belief was right, even though this thread made me revise it!

Bloody hell! Quick, someone check Dosbox/DREAMM/actual early 90s PC.

Well… exactly! Which is why I said it’ll probably never end unless that happens. Maybe he can bring clarity, like Ackley to the much-loved verb coin discussion. I think ultimately this discussion was about artistic intent, even though it seems to have been deviated to being more ‘does VGA look better from a photorealism point of view’.

I think we might be starting to venture into debating a point nobody really made, or meant to anyway. It goes without saying the first picture is the more photorealistic at face value, but we’re really talking about whether MI1’s close-ups were meant to look realistic behind the glorious veneer of EGA limitations, right? In that respect I feel we’re no further along, and to be honest I don’t think we ever will be unless one of the artists confirms the close-ups were meant to resemble the code wheel art or something. Maybe it’s time for some good old Twitter molestation. (Or we could focus our energies on more important matters such as the precise dimensionality of alleys…)

I personally think the EGA close-ups look more stylised and less realistic compared to VGA, but I could buy that the artist intended them to look as realistic as possible, constrained only by the extremely limited medium and/or their own skill. Purcell admitted in an interview that he struggled to do the more realistic art asked of him for the SMI cover, and tended to veer more towards his natural stylised look. You can see this to an extent on the cover: But even more so with the code wheel: I’ve also seen concept art that has this sort of look — grounded in realism but clearly more stylised than the close-ups seen in VGA. Now, to be honest I don’t know if Purcell did the close-ups. But I can totally imagine that he did, or if not then a similar style was aimed for as seen in those images I just posted. My mind at least can very easily fill in the blanks between that sort of art and the EGA close-ups which of course are severely constrained in colour. (See also: EGA vs VGA code wheel screen.) I also agree that Manbrush is a bit unusual compared to the other characters. I think they just missed the mark with him, possibly because of the cheeks. Cobb is also a bit anomalous because he’s just a cameo.

I think this is a ScummVM bug if you were using that. I spotted the same thing myself but when elTee ran it through DREAMM he didn’t get the same. 🤔

It’s not as conspicuous as MI2 but SMI definitely has the cartoon-like moments. The most obvious is the fight on the mansion, which features comic book-style graphical exclamations. There’s also the fact Guybrush gets fired out of cannons straight into solid wood and it doesn’t bloody kill him. Not to mention that he falls off a cliff that collapses Wile E. Coyote-style and then bounces back up off a rubber tree. 😄

Or…

What rock?! Have we overlooked taking a step back for the bigger picture?

It seems to not be in the floppy version based on this video: You can see it in action here (note that it’s not shadows but the illumination from the fireworks):

You get a much fuller set of buttons on a desktop size screen, however I believe the forum supports most classic BBCode. You can wrap things like b and spoiler in [square brackets].

Another pair of things I forgot to mention is the at the store seems to end pretty quickly in the street view, so unless there’s a further appendage at its back it doesn’t really make sense. Also, if we did accept #3 despite the church incoherence, the street outside seems far too thin to be the street we know and love. The real secret of Monkey Island.

This is some mind-bending stuff. I have always thought #4 and never even considered other possibilities. Looking at the two scenes more closely, the only way l can sort of make sense of it is by paying close attention to the store. Part of the building juts out and is supported by a diagonal beam, which we can also see in the alley: The only problem is that this puts the lift in the church, and the side of that building simply doesn’t line up with what we see on the street. It also makes it strange that Shinetop is able to lure Guybrush in and then get the drop on him by following him in. Of course LeChuck could do this, but it seems more likely this is just a second alley further back a la #5. However, unlike your #5 I’d expect the store to extend all the way back, hence we can see the jutting out and diagonal beam.

The sluggishness you describe in FT, is that through ScummVM? I’m wondering if it’s the same on era-appropriate hardware or DREAMM (one way or the other). That does sound weird and not something I particularly remember noticing. Damn, all this talk puts me in the mood for FT, and I still have three Monkey Island games to get through before ReMI!

Man, look how Guybrush is appropriately lit for the darker lighting of the forest too. Unlike… God bless that floppy VGA edition.

Nothing yet for UK. 🥲

How odd that they made them green after the original release. I thought they were always that way, making DoTT seem like the one messing with the colours. What a gravely mistaken accusation. They seem a bit off colour in the family portrait, which perhaps influenced the change. Not sure if the portrait existed prior to the enhanced version.

Needless to say, everyone here will be buying four copies as a starting point.

Are you sure you don’t mean Full Throttle’s verb coin?

Yes, that was a masterful touch.