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Monkey Island: Special Edition OFFICIAL!


spiralout

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might be interesting to see how the new background art would look like downconverted to 320x200 or 640x480. that would be fun combining that with the old sprites :)

here is a quick downconvert to 640 cause 320 is just too tiny ;)

the SE looks good! and the lazy little bugs disappear :)

miforest640compare.th.jpg

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Actually they had only 3 artists working in house... 2 gals and a guy... they did a fan interview on facebook not too long ago with the three of them that is why I know. It honestly looks more like laziness than mistakes missed. Like the art directer was not stern with them so they did what they could get away with. That is the way it seems to me.

They had a higher ratio of girls to guys in that shop, that's bad juju.

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Its not all bad... It does look great but not what you would expect from professionals....

 

I have a hard time believing they thought nobody would notice all the mistakes.

which leads me to believe they got lazy and just didn't care... and thats a shame you would think that MI fans deserved a little more respect than that.

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Zak McKracken

Both Lucasarts and even Dominic Armato have stated several times that some of the dialogue was difficult due to the fact that it was never meant to be spoken.

 

I'm not talking about dialogue such as when Guybrush can't pronounce words in front of Elaine. I'm talking about delivery and the way they were directed. And there were several times for both Guybrush and LeChuck that it was off.

 

If you look that deeply into the dialogue of other Lucasarts talkie games I'm sure you'll find voices that you're upset with there as well.

 

Actually, I've loved all the voice work in LucasArts games. I thought they fit the characters to a T. The only time I was on the fence was the first time I played Curse and only because I had a pre-conceived idea of how the characters would sound in my head. But I got used to it.

 

Oh and by the way, ever consider that other people have different opinions on the games original spirit and vision? Because I'm pretty sure that varies wildly.

 

Yes, it does. But in case of Monkey Island (and I'm talking for Ron here) there were certain characters that were not supposed to sound over the top or cartoony. Even the way the narrator recites is kind of a goofy, tongue in cheek tone. I believe the art was supposed to be semi-realistic and not set in a cartoon world like Curse was. Don't get me wrong I love the game. I just think the design team should have tried to be more faithful to the spirit and tone Ron Gilbert set instead of injecting it with more humour and cartoony art.

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Yes, it does. But in case of Monkey Island (and I'm talking for Ron here) there were certain characters that were not supposed to sound over the top or cartoony. Even the way the narrator recites is kind of a goofy, tongue in cheek tone. I believe the art was supposed to be semi-realistic and not set in a cartoon world like Curse was. Don't get me wrong I love the game. I just think the design team should have tried to be more faithful to the spirit and tone Ron Gilbert set instead of injecting it with more humour and cartoony art.

 

This is a dangerous statement, but I'll make it anyway... Might be worth noting, that certain people would argue, that if the original had been more faithful to the spirit and tone Ron Gilbert originally set, instead of injecting it with more humour, it's less likely that it would have been the classic it is today. <end of cryptic remark that can't really be made less cryptic> :confused:

 

While I do agree that some details are off (including the narrator), the tone isn't really my main issue :)

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All right, so I finished the SE today and overall I'd give this game an 80%. There are a few nitpicks or bumps in the road that I think the design team need to take into account for another SE if they choose. But overall I think they tried to do a really good job and I commend them for even trying this. Thunderpeel's right, they had a lot of guts.

 

First things first for future SE's PLEASE PLEASE consult the original team be it designers, programmers or artists. This is crucial. I truly believe if you try to remain as faithful to the original as possible a little facelift by the way of voice and updated graphics is all you need. Don't try to make the game funny just because it's known for its humour. Let the game stand on it's own.

 

Now on to the game itself. I noticed three things that need to be tweaked, other then that you have a pretty good game.

 

1. CONTROL SCHEME

 

It needs to be fixed. I had to switch back to Classic Mode several times such as opening the safe, switching the mugs of grog and getting into the cannon on the ship. It was too difficult and wonky with the new controls. Simpler is better. I can only imagine the challenge for new gamers.

 

2. VOICE-OVERS

This has been touched on by me and others before so this will be short. Don't inject unneeded humour to make something more funnier. Voices such as Cobb, Otis, Estevan, Narrator and Herman Toothrot were too over the top. Tone it down and less is more. Everyone else I liked for the most part. Highlights were the shopkeeper, the Sword Master, Cook and some of the various pirates. Guybrush, LeChuck, Elaine, Voodoo Lady and even Stan (this time) were good and fit the characters.

 

3. ART DESIGN

 

Try to make the art fit the original design as much as possible. Remember you should be re-touching the original art to make it crisper. I loved Melee Island but art such as Herman Toothrot, the monkey head area (the various Shiska-Bob's) LeChuck's skull at the end and the close-ups were too cartoony and lacked the realism which I believe the original intended and was trying to invoke. I got the sense that Ron and the artists were trying to paint this as serious and realistic as they could.

 

Now, again, for the most part I really enjoyed this game and it was well worth the ten dollars but I just believe that with a little more time and effort this could have been even better. I'm just hoping that if there is a next time LucasArts either brings in the original team to consult first or they can listen to feedback and constructive criticism before they finish the game.

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This is a dangerous statement, but I'll make it anyway... Might be worth noting, that certain people would argue, that if the original had been more faithful to the spirit and tone Ron Gilbert originally set, instead of injecting it with more humour, it's less likely that it would have been the classic it is today. <end of cryptic remark that can't really be made less cryptic> :confused:

 

While I do agree that some details are off (including the narrator), the tone isn't really my main issue :)

 

That is true, the design became more humorous then originally intended but I was talking about the finished product of the first game

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Ok, I've had time to watch the videos and learn more about the new Special Edition. Amazingly, these guys appear to have done a damned stellar job. The voice-acting seems spot-on, the backgrounds are absolutely faithful, the music seems sweet. Generally the type of job I would have done myself if I'd have the money to hire a boatload of talented artists and programmers to do all the work for me.

 

There is one small flaw, however...

 

fckhead.jpg

 

Dear lord god almighty... No. Who is this ****wit? Somewhere along the line somebody mixed up "guileless" with Guile. There isn't an ounce of charm within this character... He is NOT Guybrush.

 

Compare with the easy-going charm of Guybrush from CMI. Just looking at him can't help raise a smile...

 

guybrush.jpg

 

 

:raise:

 

I dont like the way they made guybrush look. I like the guybrush from curse of monkey island instead. This one looks too inteligent (Excuse my spelling) and he looks to calm. Just my opinion on the subject.

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so you compared a surprised and sword fighting CMI Guybrush with the idle pose of the SE Guybrush? Well done!

I think his "calmness" is pretty justified...he goes through all this weird **** and pretty much always stays calm.

 

regarding realism: I really doubt that "Ron and Co tried to paint it as realistic as possible".

the houses in Melee town, one of the first things you see are totally exaggerated.

I think Monkey Island always was a little conflicted when it came to the art style. The first one was semi-realistic with the character close-ups (which the creator doesn't like very well) and pretty cartoony in some of the backgrounds. It never crossed into CMI territory though. It definitely should be no Sam & Max or DOTT in style, but it doesn't have to be naturalistic or semi-real either.

With MI2 they pretty much nailed the style perfectly. gone were the moments where the game felt a little like they couldn't decide on a single art style and it still was pretty fully detailed and moody looking. Architectural details were exaggerated, as were character animations - but not so much the characters. I think that is the secret: Cartoon humor works better if a pretty normal looking guy suddenly looses his hair (MI2), his eyes come out or he packs a dog into his coat. If he were too cartoony looking from the start, those moments would loose their impact.

The SE hit the art style of the first MI pretty close. Colour palette is near identical and they went for a slightly more exaggerated style regarding some of the background details. Characters fit pretty well into the world without looking too cartoony. I have high hopes for a MI2:SE. A little more care and polish and we should be in for a treat.

 

Look what I've found here, inside the .pak file under "copycrap" haha:

micopycrap.th.jpg

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so you compared a surprised and sword fighting CMI Guybrush with the idle pose of the SE Guybrush? Well done!

I think his "calmness" is pretty justified...he goes through all this weird **** and pretty much always stays calm.

 

regarding realism: I really doubt that "Ron and Co tried to paint it as realistic as possible".

the houses in Melee town, one of the first things you see are totally exaggerated.

I think Monkey Island always was a little conflicted when it came to the art style. The first one was semi-realistic with the character close-ups (which the creator doesn't like very well) and pretty cartoony in some of the backgrounds. It never crossed into CMI territory though. It definitely should be no Sam & Max or DOTT in style, but it doesn't have to be naturalistic or semi-real either.

With MI2 they pretty much nailed the style perfectly. gone were the moments where the game felt a little like they couldn't decide on a single art style and it still was pretty fully detailed and moody looking. Architectural details were exaggerated, as were character animations - but not so much the characters. I think that is the secret: Cartoon humor works better if a pretty normal looking guy suddenly looses his hair (MI2), his eyes come out or he packs a dog into his coat. If he were too cartoony looking from the start, those moments would loose their impact.

The SE hit the art style of the first MI pretty close. Colour palette is near identical and they went for a slightly more exaggerated style regarding some of the background details. Characters fit pretty well into the world without looking too cartoony. I have high hopes for a MI2:SE. A little more care and polish and we should be in for a treat.

 

Look what I've found here, inside the .pak file under "copycrap" haha:

micopycrap.th.jpg

 

 

ya the new guybrush is pretty lame in my eyes.

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HEY FOLKS!

 

I found out how to get rid of the nasty pauses between the dialogue:

-Go back to classic mode and put the text speed up to maximum.

The best place to see the difference i Cpt. Smirk's shack. There is a sign there. Let Guybrush read it. Once with the lowest text speed, and once with the highest one. And then you'll se that the pauses are gone.

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HEY FOLKS!

 

I found out how to get rid of the nasty pauses between the dialogue:

-Go back to classic mode and put the text speed up to maximum.

The best place to see the difference i Cpt. Smirk's shack. There is a sign there. Let Guybrush read it. Once with the lowest text speed, and once with the highest one. And then you'll se that the pauses are gone.

 

Very interesting, makes sense though since the audio cues are from the text. The pauses never bothered me but I'll test this.

 

Any chance this causes lines to be said over each other? Like when the Troll says "none shall pass" over himself when you talk to him?

 

Also on the pixels showing under the backgrounds. I have not seen any of that on the 360 version! Now maybe I'm sat far enough away from my screen so I don't notice it, or maybe they exported the images correctly for the Xbox (which admittedly seems unlikely). I'll check tonight.

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HEY FOLKS!

 

I found out how to get rid of the nasty pauses between the dialogue:

-Go back to classic mode and put the text speed up to maximum.

The best place to see the difference i Cpt. Smirk's shack. There is a sign there. Let Guybrush read it. Once with the lowest text speed, and once with the highest one. And then you'll se that the pauses are gone.

 

Good job, I can confirm that this does work. I just wish it had occurred to me to try this before I finished the game!

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mihacked.th.jpg

 

muhahaha. You need the new remonkeyed explorer and a dds->dxt converter to start modding. Oh the joy!

 

Great, now how do we distribute the modded versions? Without infringing on copyright issue's?

 

Can we just create patches? Or patch packs that need to be used on our own versions?

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well, you just have to put the files into the appropriate subdirectory and the game uses them instead of the ones inside the giant monkey1.pak.

 

So e.g. to make your own title gfx:

..\art\rooms\images\10_logo\objects_a1.dxt

 

there might be the possibility to change something inside the code so that the game would search for e.g. "monkey_mod.pak" but this method is less invasive as it doesn't alter any code whatsoever.

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Well at least we can fix some of the sloppiness. After it was pointed out to me, that rope in the shop (that disappears when the door is open) drives me mad!

 

Although for the most part the errors in the background art are really rare, and not too noticeable.

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