Adding Voice acting to Non-Voice acting games

[joelphilippage]

I would like to add voice acting to a non-voice acting game like Maniac mansion or Secret of monkey Island. Is this possible to do? If I could edit the script I could probably make it to play speech but I don't know of any way to edit it.

[elTee]

That would be extremely difficult. In fact, the only way I could conceive of doing it would be to rebuild the entire game in AGS or something. And unless the voice acting was pretty good... it might be a very frustrating waste of time. Of course, other people may be very pleased by this project, so I wish you luck!

[Jake]

I'd be wary of that. The dialog in a lot of those old games, especially Monkey Island 1 and 2, feels very much like it was written to be read, not spoken. It's all just pretty literary in tone, written more like dialog in a book than a screenplay. At least, in my opinion. There are some lines in Monkey Island 1 and 2 that I just couldn't imagine being read and coming across nearly as successfully as they do "on the page," so to speak.

 

That said, if you've got a plan to make it work, by all means nobody is stopping you (But yeah, elTee is probably right that you'd need to practically re-create the games to get voice acting into the old titles... or find the most amazing SCUMM hacker on the planet to port the old games up to a voice acting savvy version of SCUMM, which is actually a fantastical idea I just made up, and is therefore probably wholly impossible.)

[Remi]

There was a short demo of MI1 where somebody had done this. So technically it is sort of possible... Sort of... Remember a lot of the randomness in those games though, with numbers and such. You can do that with text, but it'd be impossible to voice.

 

And also, yes, I agree with Jake about the dialogue being very literary in those games.

[ThunderPeel2001]

There wasn't much in terms of randomness with numbers in the first game, and not that much that I recall in the second. Nothing that couldn't be done with enough time, certainly.

 

Not sure if the lines are too "literary", it might just take a very good voice actor to bring them to life?

[elTee]

I think Jake has a point in that this game was designed in an era where voice-acting didn't exist. It wasn't a matter of the budget, or who out there might have the required hardware, it just wasn't done. And a game as funny as Monkey Island is using more clever techniques than just taking a hypothetical 'script' and copying it verbatim into the code.

 

Also Guybrush might end up sounding like an ass if he actually said some of those things he says in the game. The timing of the jokes might fail badly too. But as I said in my original post, just because I don't think it's the best idea doesn't mean it shouldn't be attempted.

[daltysmilth]

If anyone did figure out how to do this, I'd love to volunteer my voice for whatever part or parts you'd want me to play.

[Threepwood42]

I would volunteer my voice as well, you can hear my voice on movies.lionhead.com/studio/snakeeater42 . Even though it was written to be read some of it could be funnier with voice overs. I agree with what Thunderpeel2001 said it will just take a very good voice actor.

[The Tingler]

Loom, Sam & Max Hit The Road, and Day of the Tentacle all had talkie versions that were superb. And the idea that these games are meant to be read is complete and utter Red Dye No. 2. Rule twenty-seven of writing is: if you're writing dialogue it has to be believable, it has to sound like someone would say it.

 

It just needs someone to say it in the right way. Of course, that's the hard part. It can be done - question is, can it be done well?

[daltysmilth]

Don't forget Fate Of Atlantis on that list. Surely if they could convert those games into talkies, the technology exists to convert some of the older SCUMM games to talkies.

[ATMachine]

Loom, Sam & Max Hit The Road, and Day of the Tentacle all had talkie versions that were superb. And the idea that these games are meant to be read is complete and utter Red Dye No. 2. Rule twenty-seven of writing is: if you're writing dialogue it has to be believable, it has to sound like someone would say it.

 

The original version of Loom had dialogue that was quite certainly meant to be read and not spoken. Paragraphs and paragraphs full of it, in fact. It was overly verbose. In the CD version all the dialogue was rewritten and abridged--and in the process made much more suitable for voice acting.

 

Now Sam and Max and DOTT are different stories. They were written when it was expected that actors would read the dialogue, and so were scripted with performance in mind.

[The Tingler]

True, but it doesn't change the fact that written dialogue is intended to sound like it's meant to be spoken. It may, I admit, require some tweaking though.