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MI: Special Edition - A comparison study


parabolee

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Who else loves the giant moon? I think I would have actually forgotten it wasn't in the original (despite playing it since like birth) if I hadn't seen it in comparison like that XD It just kinda looks like it was meant to be there

 

I agree, the new moon fits that scene well. I also like how all the pirates boats are docked at the SCUMM Bar, thats a nice touch. My only real complaint of that entire scene is that they removed the smiley face off the sign of the SCUMM Bar. :(

 

This just goes to show how old and miserable and set-in-my-ways I am, but those things are the only bits that even remotely bother me about the Special Edition. In the old, old EGA version of Monkey Island, when you first arrived in Melee it was sunset. As you walked over the dock, you could see the sun just dropping below the horizon. It was only later on, as time progressed, that it became the night.

 

sunset.jpg

 

And as for those ships, everyone loves them. But I disagree that they're 'fixing' the fact that there was no dock in the original version - there was a dock! It was down the road, sure, but the dock was where Stan's was.

 

The problem is that people assume that Stan's is some kind of private harbour for the purposes of his business - but that's crazy. If you were going to set up a business to sell 'used' vessels, why would you go all that way out of town and build it in the middle of nowhere? No-one would go! You'd build it at the existing harbour.

 

If you look at Melee Island:

 

melee.jpg

 

You can see that Stan's is in a sheltered cove, which is the only sane place to build a harbour on an unprotected Caribbean island.

 

And I know people disagree with me, and say "but why would the town be so far away?" It's a fair point. But damn, don't forget that none of these pirates actually want to go out sailing. They're terrified of the ocean! That's all any of them talk about the entire time you're on Melee Island. They're plain scared of LeChuck. And of course, even with all the people you meet on Melee, they could still only man about two or three ships between them. Those are probably the exact ones Stan has for sale, because, if you don't want to go out pirating, you don't need a ship.

 

Hee what a rant that turned into...

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In the old, old EGA version of Monkey Island, when you first arrived in Melee it was sunset. As you walked over the dock, you could see the sun just dropping below the horizon. It was only later on, as time progressed, that it became the night.

 

But doesn't that go against the whole "Seems like it's ALWAYS ten o'clock on this island." thing. And there was a much smaller moon in the VGA version.

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In the summer, especially without light pollution, and with a clear line to the horizon, it's not so crazy that you would still see sunlight in the distance at 10pm. The water you're looking over in that shot is also technically pointing west, which I just realised - assuming the overhead shot of Melee Island uses a top=north system anyway. Not to read too much into things!

 

But yeah, the moon was smaller in the VGA version, but then the VGA version of the game is the most 'realistic' version of all, and probably the least cartoony Monkey Island game entirely. They seem to be using CMI as their benchmark for the Special Edition, which was obviously a much more styleised game.

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Christ! Do you attack everyone on these threads? Am I the only one noticing this? Can you try and avoid flaming please rather than encourage it

 

What on earth are you talking about? I wasn't attacking anybody, I was merely saying that if the thread is destroying MI for people then they, luckily, don't have to read it. Unlike listening to a DVD commentary where someone might say something that ruins an illusion -- without giving you any warning, you can purposefully skip out of this thread before anything gets spoiled.

 

Who else have I "attacked"? Please provide links!

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Personally I don't think Thunderpeel attacks anyone, and we have disagreed on some things.

 

I think it's just an issue with message boards not capturing the tone of a post so a negative attitude can be incorrectly inferred. Probably the root of 99% of flame wars. lol.

 

I also agree, love the huge moon :D

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In the summer, especially without light pollution, and with a clear line to the horizon, it's not so crazy that you would still see sunlight in the distance at 10pm. The water you're looking over in that shot is also technically pointing west, which I just realised - assuming the overhead shot of Melee Island uses a top=north system anyway. Not to read too much into things!

 

Dude were you ever in the Caribbean? I was on vacation in Grenada, Carriacou (which is THE Monkey Island) and the Tobago Keys and the sun goes down at 18:30. It is pitch black at 21:00. Trust me.

 

And did you see those sandy beaches that are only at the west side of Melee Island? Thats for a reason: The winds come from east and the sand banks normally "grow" on the west side of the islands, which most often is the location of a harbor or bay. The seaside towards the Atlantic is always a lot rougher. At least on the three islands I was on, the harbors always were on the west side facing the Caribbean sea.

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You've made a powerful argument! I hadn't considered the factor of the Atlantic being to the east. But I'm still not convinced that, for this particular island, building the harbour in the cove isn't the right thing to do. Obviously the Caribbean gets hit by hurricanes with some regularity, if nothing else a cove provides a breakwater for the waves. But again, this is all essentially ignorant speculation on my part, and there are probably reasons why I'm wrong once again. The interesting thing is, I've never even thought about the beaches on Melee Island (and who would?) but as you've pointed out, if there's a logical reason for them to all be on the westward side then maybe there was more thought put into that map than meets the eye?

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When I was in The Caribbean and started to study the islands that was the first thing to pop out. We wanted to go to beautiful beaches after all. And it was most always the westward ones that had the perfect white sand and palm trees. The ones facing the Atlantic had rough sea, more wind and normally black sand.

I had ScummVM with me on my mobile and every day befor sleeping played a little Monkey Island, that's when I noticed...

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This is far too much realism for an island that's being haunted by a ghost pirate and that has a shop that sells "Rubber-Chickens-with-a-Pulley-in-the-Middle" :)

 

I agree, in the end it is just a game... meant to entertain you not be true to real life. I think comparing it to older versions of itself is comparison enough. On that note, I never played the EGA version before, only the EGA demo. I think thats really neat how the sun is setting when you first get to Melee Island... kinda stinks how little things like that don't get transferred into the newer versions of the game.

 

Again I don't know how much you guys care about Cobb and all but I played the EGA version the other day and saw that he looks alot like Cob from Loom in the EGA version, so I added it to my Cobb comparison:

 

cobbcomparison.jpg

 

They just made him look prettier and prettier as the newer versions came out.

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I'd love to a hold of the EGA version. Do you still have the same "sunset" background later in the game (like when you're watching the boat with Stan?).

 

The more I think about it, the more I remember little changes, as well. Like, for example, the "10 O'Clock" joke used to be funnier... Like it would only change the dialogue when you LOOKed at the clock once you'd been to other screens. For some stupid reason, in the later versions Guybrush can complain that it's ALWAYS 10 O'Clock after a few seconds.

 

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the Amiga version had a totally different animation for LeChuck revealing himself to Bob... He exploded, as I recall. I wonder if it was different in the EGA version?

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They just made him look prettier and prettier as the newer versions came out.

 

I don't know about you lot but it seems to me like they combined both the EGA and VGA versions when deciding on the Special Edition look (taking note of his badge and jacket)

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I don't know about you lot but it seems to me like they combined both the EGA and VGA versions when deciding on the Special Edition look (taking note of his badge and jacket)

 

Sorta, if you notice in the EGA version he's sitting facing the "camera". In the VGA/SE versions he's sorta sitting sideways and his head is turned to face the "camera". To me, the picture of Cob from Loom matches the EGA Cobb, and the VGA Cobb matches the SE Cobb. They just made them look nicer in each version as they had more colors to work with.

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I'd love to a hold of the EGA version. Do you still have the same "sunset" background later in the game (like when you're watching the boat with Stan?).

 

Start of game:

 

sunset.jpg

 

After a short while:

 

sunset2.jpg

 

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the Amiga version had a totally different animation for LeChuck revealing himself to Bob... He exploded, as I recall. I wonder if it was different in the EGA version?

 

Revealing himself to Bob? Do you mean the Fester Shinetop scene on the boat? In the EGA version he sort of... steps out of Fester. Quite a nice animation though...

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Oh, I also didn't have a picture of EGA Cob from Loom. I was sorta matching them up really. The top picture of Cob in Loom looked simular to the EGA version of Cobb in SMI, and again the VGA picture of Cobb looked simular to the SE version.

 

People have been talking about hoping they remake MI2 next... I was thinking with Cobb in SMI:SE it would make sense to me if they made Loom next since he advertises that. Personally I'd rather MI2 be next but it seems like it would be more work to make it and make it right.

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Man... the sunset at the start of the game is brilliant, I never knew about that. I wish it were in the Special Edition or the VGA version that I played.

 

On a side note, Monkey Island is the one game that always gets me in an artistic mood :p

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It's possible to run the VGA version in EGA mode I believe (possibly with the exception of the CD version, unless I just imagined that.) In ScummVM you can go into 'edit game' and change the graphics from 'default' to 'EGA' (or whatever else you want to try) and it should work. If you're playing from a floppy disk version of the game you can change the music also.

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