Further Jesse Harlin Q&A

[ThunderPeel2001]

I found the stuff he posted on the LucasArts forums quite interesting!

 

Will Stan's Theme be in the new Special Edition?

 

The music in Classic Mode is from the CD-ROM version, so you'll find "Stan's Previously Used Vessels" as well as "The Cannibal Village" and a couple of other tracks on there that weren't in the original 1990 version.

 

And it was the CD-ROM version on which I based the music for the SE edition. So, yes. You'll get a redone version of "Stan's," but I brought in a really great horn section, rhythm section, and organ player on it. It's got some swankiness to it now.

 

If you've made it better, you deserve an award!

 

Well, don't expect a radical change with "Stan's" in MI:SE. Yes, I have all new instrumentalists playing on it and yes, I asked them to be as swanky as possible to give it a sense of character and life to it. But at the end of the day, it's still the same song at its heart. So, if you feel that strongly against the original, I'm going to guess it's the song and not the production of it that you have a problem with.

 

A little history lesson, by the way:

 

The music in the original game (1990) was written by four different composers: Michael Land who was the first Audio Department employee of LucasArts, Barney Jones and Andy Newell who worked for a company called Ear Wax Productions, and Patrick Mundy who was a young composer looking to break into the industry at the time. The bulk of the score was divided up between Michael, Barney, and Andy with Patrick's contribution being a co-writing credit on the track "Monkey Island" which he shares with Michael Land.

 

In 1992, the music for the game was updated and reproduced as digital CD audio - instead of PC soundcard MIDI - by Barney Jones and Andy Newell. Michael was not involved. When they updated the music for the CD-ROM, Barney and Andy produced 4 additional pieces of music. "Stan's Previously Used Vessels" was among those.

 

On the later games, Michael Land worked on MI2 along side of composers Clint Bajakian and Peter McConnell (the three of which at that point formed the LucasArts Sound Department). By the time of Monkey 3, Michael wrote the whole score himself. That explains why the music for Stan in MI2 and CMI is the same thematically, but doesn't match that of SMI.

 

Will Stan's Theme play when he's not at the shipyard, like in the CD version of the game?

 

The Special Edition version is built on-top of the code of the original version, so it works the same way as the original. As such, that means that music is tied to what were called "rooms" in the old SCUMM code. Stan's Used Vessels is a "room" and so whenever you go there, the music for that room will play (in this case, the music track named "Stan's Previously Used Vessels").

 

Will we be able to listen to your version of the Maniac Mansion theme?

 

Good question. I'll just say ... maybe.