MI2: SE - Minor Annoyances

[DAISHI]

I liked Kate as well.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I also liked Kate... but I'm saddened to hear about the other annoyances (haven't got that far yet). I did think it was a bit annoying to hear Kate say the same lines over and over with little or no variation, though.

[Rosefull]

Kate's voice was good, but it was hard to listen to her say those random snippets over and over every time you walked by. But that was nobody's fault really; they were written before the game had voice acting and it wasn't annoying then.

[LeChuck Norris]

I like new Elaine, but I think they should be a bit more suitable with the original one.

 

Like this:

 

[Rosefull]

I don't really like Elaine's face in the new SE. It looks kind of... man-ish to me. Or something.

 

Your edit of the outfit looks really nice, though.

[Snugglecakes]

I like new Elaine, but I think they should be a bit more suitable with the original one.

 

Like this:

 

 

Brilliant! I don't know why they changed it.

[SyntheticGerbil]

Kate's voice was good, but it was hard to listen to her say those random snippets over and over every time you walked by. But that was nobody's fault really; they were written before the game had voice acting and it wasn't annoying then.

 

Actually on the subject of that, Wally whining when losing his monocle, and people cheering during the spitting contest, am I just imagining things or was all of that dialog happening at a constant flow? I swear there used to longer be pauses between people talking, like maybe the constant occurrence of dialog has something to do with the timing problems?

 

Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass since I'm used to Sierra games doing crap like that in modern times and now everything is heard instead of read.

[Spadge]

Apart from the obvious stuff people already mentioned, mine are:

 

1. LeChuck looks a bit too 3D and is really out of place compared to other sprites.

2. Herman Toothrot! What did they do to the poor guy's face?

3. Now this is a big thing and I don't think it really counts, but it still bugs me. They did that 3D trailer with Guybrush and LeChuck in the woods. And I can't help but think... Why didn't they make the intro, the bone song and/or the ending as pre-rendered 3D cut-scenes? It's not too hard just making a 3d model of a monkey and a skeleton, then animating the whole thing and adding some black/red background. Maybe I want too much. But still... They COULD have done it and it bugs me because they just didn't.

[Monkey Mania]

Apart from the obvious stuff people already mentioned, mine are:

 

1. LeChuck looks a bit too 3D and is really out of place compared to other sprites.

2. Herman Toothrot! What did they do to the poor guy's face?

3. Now this is a big thing and I don't think it really counts, but it still bugs me. They did that 3D trailer with Guybrush and LeChuck in the woods. And I can't help but think... Why didn't they make the intro, the bone song and/or the ending as pre-rendered 3D cut-scenes? It's not too hard just making a 3d model of a monkey and a skeleton, then animating the whole thing and adding some black/red background. Maybe I want too much. But still... They COULD have done it and it bugs me because they just didn't.

 

It's not because they didn't feel like doing it, it's because they ran out of time. The intro was one of the last things they were working on. There is still no excuse not to patch it.

[Rosefull]

Actually on the subject of that, Wally whining when losing his monocle, and people cheering during the spitting contest, am I just imagining things or was all of that dialog happening at a constant flow? I swear there used to longer be pauses between people talking, like maybe the constant occurrence of dialog has something to do with the timing problems?

 

Maybe I'm just talking out of my ass since I'm used to Sierra games doing crap like that in modern times and now everything is heard instead of read.

 

Hmm, well everything was definitely faster in this game, so I'm sure the dialogue got a boost too. I think they chose just to speed one thing up (maybe the ambient speaking, maybe Governer Phatt's food tubes, could be anything) and never realized that it messed with like, the whole rest of the game.

[SyntheticGerbil]

3. Now this is a big thing and I don't think it really counts, but it still bugs me. They did that 3D trailer with Guybrush and LeChuck in the woods. And I can't help but think... Why didn't they make the intro, the bone song and/or the ending as pre-rendered 3D cut-scenes? It's not too hard just making a 3d model of a monkey and a skeleton, then animating the whole thing and adding some black/red background. Maybe I want too much. But still... They COULD have done it and it bugs me because they just didn't.

 

Not that it helps fully explain your question since LucasArts also used prerendered 3D models for the basis of many of the characters, but the 3D trailer was done by Blur Studios who is more experienced in 3D animation.

 

Hmm, well everything was definitely faster in this game, so I'm sure the dialogue got a boost too. I think they chose just to speed one thing up (maybe the ambient speaking, maybe Governer Phatt's food tubes, could be anything) and never realized that it messed with like, the whole rest of the game.

 

That's possible. The main reason I think of it is because Tim Schafer was talking about turning up some kind of weird thing in Scumm during the commentary... argh, I can't remember what. But he used it for speeding up nailing the coffin and the flag changing. So maybe it has something to do with it? but I can only guess because I don't know anything about programming or how Scumm is put together.

[DAISHI]

That was a Scumm component and present in the original. Not sure that it would have hurt the remake?

 

<Not a SCUMM expert either.

[JezzaTheLagomorph]

Was anyone else bothered by Kate's leaflet and the Elvis Collector's Plate while they were in your inventory? They looked really ugly.

[Rosefull]

Was anyone else bothered by Kate's leaflet and the Elvis Collector's Plate while they were in your inventory? They looked really ugly.

 

I don't remember noticing Kate's leaflet, but I do remember thinking something was a little off with that Elvis plate, now that you mention it.

[whipwarrior]

Okay, I just finished Secret of Money Island. It was cute. I only got stuck a few times, and referred to the walkthru as a last resort. We had to call the 1-800-Star-Wars hint line back in the day (1994), because they didn't have handy walkthru guides in those days. LOL

 

I laughed at the very end of the credits when it said: Now turn off your computer and go to sleep!

 

Classic LucasArts!

[TheJoe]

My biggest gripe is a claim from Gilbert himself:

"On a modern computer, turning off min jiffies would make it go faster than light."

 

The fact that min jiffies is no longer turned off is what causes all the timing issues, such as the spitting contest and the fact that the roulette wheel takes 200 years to stop spinning.

 

Ron's claim is wrong, too, since ScummVM can successfully turn off min jiffies.

 

(the quote is from the commentary at Stan's. It may have actually been Tim that said it, but I can't remember now, "turning off min jiffies" in SCUMM is how you get the sped up animations and whatnot)

[ThunderPeel2001]

The roulette wheel always took ages to stop. In the SE I think its more tolerable.

[TestType]

My guess would rather be that they simply sped up the animations to make them seem more fluid. Much easier way of improving any choppy animation than adding more frames to it, and it seems like LucasArts will always take the quick and easy path if provided the option. And we all know where that leads to.... the dark side!

 

After my huge disappointment with the first SE I decided I would read the impressions of you guys before purchase and while most seem to be happy with it I'm glad I didn't pick it up yet. I guess I'll be waiting for a patch or a sale, whichever comes first. Although it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't do any patching despite a very ambiguous/vague hint on twitter/facebook.

[Monkey Mania]

What? Even with all these problems, MI2SE is still a must-have. $10 is a steal! I'm glad I bought it.

[V. Melkalis]

I dislike the way they revamped the Guybrush design. And what aches me the most is that they nailed it right at the first time but decided to go with a completely bland and expressionless design instead.

 

 

[original design]

 

 

[final design]

 

 

For god's sake how can you turn out something like this?! It's near perfection! So I would like to beg; beg to someone who might read this and is talented enough, to please remake the Guybrush sprites into something like the original version. We can rebuild him. We have the technology.

[bergqvistjl]

Purcell's original cover picture of gybrush on the MI2 cover was how I imagined him. They should have made him like that. Anyway I will never get the special editions, I think half the point in those days was that you used your imagination to fill in the gaps, technology wise (like the voice acting for example). Which suits me fine.

[Laserschwert]

I think half the point in those days was that you used your imagination to fill in the gaps

I really doubt that was intentional, it was just the limit of technology. If they had a chance to do hires graphics, voice acting and live music, they would've done it just as well. But of course, the "filling the gaps with your imagination"-thing is the reason, why some are pleased with the SEs and some are not.

[V. Melkalis]

Purcell's original cover picture of gybrush on the MI2 cover was how I imagined him. They should have made him like that.

 

Purcell's Monkey Island character sketches, (at least the pieces most of us are familiar with, like the cover art and the coffin sailling piece) are bit more on the realistic side, not exactly fitting for in-game placement, unlike his background concepts who were straight adapted. The first version, I posted, although newly sketched by someone else, really follows along the Purcell lines on more cartoony character creation (if you're familiar with his other works).

 

Anyway I will never get the special editions, I think half the point in those days was that you used your imagination to fill in the gaps, technology wise (like the voice acting for example). Which suits me fine.

 

Like Laserschwert just said, that was the edge of 2D graphic technology back then. When they were first released, the Monkey Island games were what we today AAA titles. Probably had some of the best graphics of their time, for a game of that lenght. However there were games that worked exactly like you described. Full text adventures like the Zork series, or proto-RPGs like Rogue.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Now I've heard Kate's voice more, I have to agree it's really bad. When Guybrush is talking to her on Booty, I can see what they were going for, and it kind of works, but when she's in jail on Phatt or calling out "Sightseeing", she sounds really bad.

 

I understand the Janeane Garofalo thing they were going for, but that stuff only works best when Guybrush is trying to get something from her. When she's angry... she really is angry.

 

There's a few wonky inventory items, too. Like the matches and Ash-2-Life. Rap Scallion's animation was really buggy and weird, too. Getting closer to the end!

[V. Melkalis]

Rap Scallion's animation was really buggy and weird, too. Getting closer to the end!

 

The problem is that they didn't increase the amount of frames when they remade the sprited to HD. So the animation obviously looks a lot more clunky despite having the same number of frames. It's animation 101 for you. The more detailed your character is, the harder it is to animate. That's why they only use one colour per body part on actual cartoons (occasionally 2, if you can afford shading).