Jump to content

Home

Rogue Leaders and a MI2 "lost room"

ATMachine

By ATMachine
in General Discussion

Recommended Posts

ATMachine Newbie

ATMachine

Posted
Posted

Got my copy of Rogue Leaders today! (The book did take a few images directly from my site - mostly screenshots of alpha builds of games, or from very old ones. I guess while LucasArts must archive the concept art from everything, they evidently don't save the old PCs which held the early builds of their adventure games.)

 

Nonetheless there's one thing I find quite amazing (which hasn't been previewed on the Web already) - the book contains a scan of art elements which were meant for a lost scene from Monkey Island 2.

 

It's a closeup of Zombie LeChuck made with paints like the rest of the backgrounds, cartoony yet still similar to the full-face closeups seen in MI1 and Loom.

 

There is no doubt it was meant to be animated, because the book shows both the "base" image (LeChuck's upper body with blank spots where his mouth and eyes are), and painted "overlay" images of the mouth and eyes which are meant to be pasted digitally on top of the base. The character closeups in both MI1 and Loom, though created in DPaint, use the same technique for their animation.

 

The MI2 demo's list of backgrounds mentions four rooms which didn't make it into the final game: "le-voodo", "lecu-win", "lecu-top", and "lecu-des" - though maddeningly, the demo contains nothing but the names. Note the "lecu" bit: while it may just be a misspelling of LeChuck, the element "cu" (short for "closeup") also appears in the filenames of all the full-face character portraits in MI1 and Loom.

 

Rob Smith doesn't say in the book that the image was meant to be included in the game and later dropped, but I remembered the MI2 demo's "ghost files" and put two and two together at once.

 

On another note, the initial Rogue Leaders ad contained a concept painting by Steve Purcell for the MI2 box cover which didn't make it in the final book:

rogueleaders_altmi2_crop.png

Pity. I guess there's only so much space in one book, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gabez Newbie

Gabez

Posted
Posted

I did think it was weird that Mi2 didn't have animated close-ups, and Loom and SOMI did -- sort of a step-back, technology wise. I guess now we know that they planned to do this, but just ran out of time!

 

I think the only time I really missed a close-up of Lechuck was at the end -- it would have been good to see a change of expression on his face. His dialouge changes, but the same old spitting animation doesn't quite match up wit that change.

 

Also, close ups of Elaine when she's angry at GB at the party would have been good.

 

Perhaps this would be a good fan project for someone...!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ATMachine Newbie

ATMachine

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I did notice several other Purcell MI2 cover concepts (including the one you mentioned), just not the one that appeared in the catalog ad. If it really is in the book could you point me to the page number?

 

There's other cool stuff as well: the original MI2 painting of Phatt Island shows a wooden bridge linking the main island to Rum Rogers' house; and concept art from DOTT showing Chester, a playable character who was axed to simplify animation requirements.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ATMachine Newbie

ATMachine

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Nope. IIRC MI2's Chester was modeled on a female employee named Khris Brown, who worked in LucasArts' real-life Hint Line division at the time.

 

DOTT was originally intended to have six playable characters, three of whom would be selected to use in the game, as in Maniac Mansion. Chester was one of these; he was a high-strung, ultra-skinny poet/artist type. (Judging from the concept art, he was a young black man wearing all-black clothes, had square-cut hair and a goatee, drank lots of coffee and smoked cigarettes.) There was also Moonglow, a sandal-wearing hippie girl, and Razor the musician from the original Maniac Mansion.

 

The idea of six characters was dropped because it would be a colossal, unnecessary waste of animation. Since the three lead characters would all be chosen by the players, the game artists would have had to animate all six characters as the respective "hero" in all three time periods!

 

The characterization of Chester was ultimately re-envisioned as Jed and Ned Edison (including the coffee habit and jittery nerves) in the 1790's Edison mansion in the final DOTT.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sven_Q45 Newbie

Sven_Q45

Posted
Posted

Oh don´t remember. I heard that somewhere. It could be only the idea of the game. But if not: Why is MI 2 technically downgraded??!??

The story idea was also before the first game. Think of that: MI 2 is different than the others:

You can go on 3 islands in one chapter. In the other 3 parts you´re only on one island in each chapter. And there are no insult-anything.

 

Edit: And why is Herman Toothrot in MI 2 suddenly on Dinky Island and in MI 4 again on MI?? No logic I´d say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Gabez Newbie

Gabez

Posted
Posted

Well your last point isn't really about logic -- he went from MI to Dinky then back to MI again, just like Guybrush does. You're allowed to go back to Monkey Island. It ain't Narnia, you know: you don't get banned by Aslan.

 

MI 2 isn't really technologically downgraded -- the background art, size of the game, RPG elements (however basic) and relative non linear aspect of the puzzles shows that it is a step forward in technology (and remember that it was only released a year later) -- the only exception, as I said, was the loss of the close-ups. It wasn't as if they couldn't do them; just that they decided not to, for time or space reasons, or maybe just because they thought they were unnecessary naff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sven_Q45 Newbie

Sven_Q45

Posted
Posted

Yes maybe unnecessary in MI 2.

Linear puzzles are not technologically imho. With technology I mean grafic sound and so on. And yes you´re right it´s not really technologically downgraded. I meant not that the game was a step-back.

 

@Narnia

I´m an adventuregamer but I´m really really no fan of phantasy things! ;) I don´t watched that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
AlfredJ Newbie

AlfredJ

Posted
Posted

And Joe, what's the problem with having Herman back on Monkey Island in EMI? Why is it stupid?

 

For me, it's not a problem that they put Herman back on Monkey Island. Everything else they did with the character however, was. You know, the whole lost-like revelation-bit. You know what I'm talking about.

 

But maybe I shouldn't act so bitter over a 9-year old game.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lagomorph01 Experienced

Lagomorph01

Posted
Posted

Nah, I think you should...

Although the first part of Monkey Island 4 was pretty okay, they really screwed up with the second part.

Loosing the Scumm Bar, Planet Threepwood, Starbuckanneers?

And even if you forget about the huge plothole, the thing they did to Herman Toothrot is inexcusable...

But I don't like to talk to much about that game.

 

Ontopic:

If anyone has some images of this LeChuck Close Up I'd really appreciate it.

I haven't bought the book yet, as I have to import it, but I'm really looking forward to it! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jenni Apprentice

Jenni

Posted
Posted
Nah, I think you should...

Although the first part of Monkey Island 4 was pretty okay, they really screwed up with the second part.

Loosing the Scumm Bar, Planet Threepwood, Starbuckanneers?

I thought this all was great, and fit into the series perfectly. :) The first games had the feel of the golden age of Disneyland, whereas the fourth game portrayed the cold, commercial theme park that the Disney parks became when focus turned to money over entertainment.

 

Seeing as the game was released right in the middle of Michael Eisner's Disney theme park restructuring of the late 1990's and early 2000's, it hit all the right nerves at exactly the right time for me, which is exactly what the best satire should do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...