parabolee Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 I doubt Ron Gilbert ever really had a Monkey 3 in mind. From what I gather the end of 2 would have been the end of 1 but they decided to make a sequel so they spread the secret over 2 games. I think if Ron Gilbert has a Monkey 3 story in his head, he thought of it after 2 was finished. And he's also a huge jerk for sitting on it all these years and not coming back to the series. Seriously he loves to talk up his "secret " and his imaginary Monkey 3 (undermining the actual sequels) but he's never made a real effort to come back and make his sequels has he! Anyway here are my thoughts on my new playthroughs. Had SE been announced when I started this about 8 Months ago I would have skipped MI1, but I didn't so here are my thoughts. The Secret of Monkey Island Playing the enhanced CD-ROM version for the first time was a treat, nice graphical upgrade and beautiful music. The humour in this game really, really holds up. Can not wait to hear all this voice acted! All these years later and I can still see why this game had such an impact on me. Wonderful character design, flawless dialogue and fantastic puzzles really made this the best "graphic adventure" (remember that's what we called them back then! Because they had graphics unlike text adventures!) of it's time by a very large margin. And these were my favourite kind of games. I think Operation Stealth and Future Wars was my previous favourites (remember Delphine software?!). Have to admit a few puzzles stumped me this play through, but I'm sure I'll have no problem with SE Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Best in the series, no doubt. The character design really had an upgrade in this game, everyone is so memorable. Probably the funniest game ever made, although there are some FIENDISH puzzles in this one! No wonder they added Monkey Lite mode! Oh and the ending is pure genius. I know some people don't like it. But if you understand the Secret of Monkey Island , then this is an inspired ending. Because of this ending I always kinda felt like the following games were spin off's. Because for the true intention of this ending to hold up, the following games can't take place. Not that it matters because "canon" in games like this is pointless, you just enjoy the ride and don't worry if it all fit's together logically. Not much else to say, this game is almost perfect. Roll on a very faithful HD Special Edition with full voice Curse of Monkey Island My experience with Curse is probably a little tainted. First off I was pretty upset when the game was revealed and Guybrush had (seemed to have) gotten younger than he was in MI2. I was so found of the MI2 Guybrush that I had a real problem with this new younger skinnier Guybrush. Although I got over that pretty quickly once I started playing and Domic's voice really gave him life. But my main problem with Curse was that MI1 and MI2 both took me close to a year to finish (I was only 13-14 when they came out), and I was so excited about Curse that I bought it Friday and played it all weekend, finishing it Sunday night! So at the time I was convinced it was too short and too easy. But after a few more playthrough's over the years I see that I was just getting too good with adventure game logic, and I probably played it over 20 hours that weekend. Easily the best looking of all the Monkey Island games, and the animation and voice acting are really superb. Amazing how well the graphics hold up today. Not as well written as the first two though. Escape From Monkey Island Just got to Act II and while I am enjoying it. It is unquestionable the weakest entry in the series, the writing is really poor in a few places and the animations fail to express the humour as well as the sprites and hand drawn graphics of the past games. For instance when Ozzie Mandrill breaks his cane after you spray his stuffed animal rug he slowly gets up, walks over to his cane, walk over to you, turns and looks at the rug, then says "what the hell are you doing?" and then turns around, lifts his cane and breaks it over his leg. Hardly expresses humorous outrage when he does everything so slowly and methodically. The controls are also quite terrible, and while you can get used to them on a control pad it was an awful idea to not include a point and click interface. Especially for the PC version! But I like the Guybrush design, still looks younger than MI2 though! But his jacket is back But despite the flaws, EMI is still a fun game. But I am glad it will no longer be the last of the series. Would have been a shame for it to end on it's lowest point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Nice write-ups! You should come back and finish EMI when you're done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parabolee Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Nice write-ups! You should come back and finish EMI when you're done. Will do :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickelstein Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 I've been trying to stick to the schedule but I just don't have the motivation anymore. Its been so long! Ah well I'll have to try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huz Posted June 17, 2009 Author Share Posted June 17, 2009 I've been trying to stick to the schedule but I just don't have the motivation anymore. Its been so long! Ah well I'll have to tryHah, I wouldn't worry about it. Guess how far I've got in Monkey Island 1 since my last post? I've beaten the Swordmaster. I may never get to the end of the schedule, I fear... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven_Q45 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 But I can if I want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scabb Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Hah, I wouldn't worry about it. Guess how far I've got in Monkey Island 1 since my last post? I've beaten the Swordmaster. I may never get to the end of the schedule, I fear... CTRL + W! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huz Posted June 18, 2009 Author Share Posted June 18, 2009 Does that automatically beat the Swordmaster? Oh man. Well, I won fair and square - collecting the insults didn't take anywhere near the length of time I remember. Sadly, I still remembered most of the responses off by heart, which came as a disappointment when it was one that I hadn't collected in the game. :~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 I think it wins the whole game actually... well, there was something like that in CMI anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parabolee Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 I think it wins the whole game actually... well, there was something like that in CMI anyway. Yep wins the whole game and is in all the Monkey Island games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicallyInspired Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Even EMI? Wonder if they'll keep that for the TMI episodes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven_Q45 Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Or: The very fast modus in ScummVm. And then fight... And sometime you have a lot of insults collected. If you want play fast. But caution! The mode is highly contagious, like a drug or something. Or (at the Swordmaster): Learn ONE insult and ONE answer! Save and load everytime it comes. And so on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SyntheticGerbil Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 CTRL+W was like the worst cheat ever. I remember being so disappointed in grade school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicallyInspired Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 What's the very fast modes in ScummVM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 CTRL+W was like the worst cheat ever. I remember being so disappointed in grade school. Haha! It's an awesome joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickelstein Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Nah. The stump joke was the best. I remember spending hours in the forest looking for it. Then when I did it said I needed to insert Disk 114 or something. I was like WTF?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Hmm! I'm glad it was cut out of the Amiga version, I would have gone nuts trying to "fix" it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parabolee Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Hmm! I'm glad it was cut out of the Amiga version, I would have gone nuts trying to "fix" it. LOL I don't think so, it was a pretty obvious joke. A great one but pretty obvious and after you failed to insert disk 23 and 44 (or whatever they were) it said "well I guess we can't play that part of the game then" so you knew it was a joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Lol, I guess so. It upset a fair amount of fan, I think, though! (Judging from the call center in MI2.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parabolee Posted June 19, 2009 Share Posted June 19, 2009 Lol, I guess so. It upset a fair amount of fan, I think, though! (Judging from the call center in MI2.) LOL I'm shocked people actually believed, wait a minute no I'm not I used to work at a technical help call line and people are idiots Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity - Einstein Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicallyInspired Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 For those who weren't there or didn't know, LucasArts did a live 1-hour playthrough of the new Monkey Island Special Edition today at Justin.tv and it just ended a little while ago. I recorded most of the entire playthrough (audio only). So you can't see anything, but you can hear some of the updates. Plenty of examples of voice work and the new soundtrack as well. It's in OGG Vorbis format because it's smaller than MP3 and it's quite a long file (brought the file size down 94.7%!). I missed the intro music and the opening. But the recording starts in the Scumm Bar while talking to Spiffy, I believe. They also switch between the Special Edition and Classic modes often so when the sound dies down and you hear the original CD-ROM version that's what that is. Enjoy. The quality is actually pretty good. If you don't know how to play OGG files then download Winamp or a plugin for Windows Media Player. The sound is also a little loud and distorted just at the beginning because I had the volume level up too high. I fixed it shortly after recording. Monkey Island Special Edition Playthrough 52:42 long, 28.4MB Some musical cues. Some of these aren't the only times they come up: 00:00 - Scumm Bar 06:47 - LeChuck's Theme (cutscene) 14:38 - Jail Theme (Otis) (notice that this version uses the alternate bass lead from the Adlib/MT-32 soundtrack that wasn't included in the CD-ROM version) 16:40 - Following the Shopkeeper 21:56 - The Circus 24:22 - Melee Island Map 26:24 - Voodoo Shop I love this version but my only issue is that this wouldn't sound near as threatening enough in the Monkey Island cave tunnel maze 52:02 - Stan's Used Ships Also I missed the Loom guy's sales pitch, but the voice acting for that character was spectacularly goofy! Too bad I missed it. The shopkeeper's voice is absolutely excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizzymitsu Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 Yeah I saw most of the beginning I actually had to leave the PC right around the time he was talking to Spiffy... so I did get to hear Cobb talk about Loom and it was freaking awesome. My only complaint was that there is no flashing <ADVERTISEMENT> on the screen :\ But anyway they picked a really good voice actor for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicallyInspired Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 It might still have been there. Remember the framerate wasn't very high and the <Advertisement> message flashes in game so we probably didn't see the dropped frames where it was actually on screen. I also just realized that my recording isn't the grandest gift you can get as you can still watch the archived video apparently... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 You can watch the whole thing here: http://es.justin.tv/clip/51614f11159958be The sound quality of the videos was awesome. It really helped. The gaps between the lines are very annoying... especially during bits like the Fettuccini Brothers which are supposed to be delivered like a bullet. I'm hoping that's only because the subtitles were on. I can imagine the gaps were even more obvious when you were listening to it on MP3. Some great stuff, though. The Loom guy was too OTT for my liking, and LeChuck's 2nd in command mumbled too much, but on the whole it was really good. The storekeeper was perfect! What excellent casting! They did a good job on the "behind the scenes" mansion bit, too. Guybrush still looked too geeky, though. Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted June 20, 2009 Share Posted June 20, 2009 I also just realized that my recording isn't the grandest gift you can get as you can still watch the archived video apparently... It WOULD have been awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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