Just an idea I had

[daltysmilth]

Now that all of the Monkey Island games have voiceovers in them, I was thinking an interesting project would be to create a Monkey Island Audio Drama. In other words, edit together all the voice-overs, sound effects/ambient sounds, and music to make basically a radio show of the Monkey Island series, from SOMI to TOMI.

 

I realize it would be a somewhat difficult and definitely painstaking process. It would probably be necessary to record some narration to describe some of the more visual elements of the stories. And someone would have to rip the cutscene audio from Escape from Monkey Island. And the most difficult, painstaking process, sifting through all the dialogue to actually piece it together in a coherent form. And the same would probably have to be done for the MI2:SE music.

 

I'm not necessarily volunteering for such a task, nor am I suggesting that anyone else do it. I just thought it was an interesting idea, and wondered if anyone else would think so.

[Gabez]

It is an interesting idea, and possibly doable! TV shows sometimes have commentary for blind people and you don't need that much to fill in for the lack of visuals. Even if you just listen to a TV show or a game you can usually work out roughly what's going on, and if you added extra signposting (narration, more SFX) then I think the story could be followed easily.

 

On the subject of Monkey Island radio plays: http://www.nightlightradio.net/2010/05/21/the-power-of-monkey-island-part-01/

[Haggis]

It's a cool idea, and like Gabez says, it could work in the same way that radio dramas from TV series work. The Blackadder audio series for example just have the unaltered audio from the TV series, and it works great in my view. But with Monkey Island it could work the same way as with the Fawlty Towers audio series, where they have Manuel explain the visual gags.

 

So yes, it could well work, it would just take a lot of time... hopefully someone would be up for it!

[Laserschwert]

Don't you guys think that with creating this we will be stepping on LucasArts' toes?

[daltysmilth]

In a legal sense, yes. But no more than people who post gameplay videos of an entire game on Youtube. And Lucasarts has always been permissive with if not outright supportive of fan creations. We could ask for their permission to do it, if we were in fact going to go through with it. Though I wouldn't know how to go about asking for it, or who to contact. I think the biggest problem potentially would be the voice actors. They might not want their work heard outside the context of the game. Dominic Armato seems like the kind of guy who would be cool with it, but you never know. It might be more likely to fly if we just rewrote and adapted the Monkey Island games as audio dramas and voiced it ourselves.

[Aububuh]

It might be more likely to fly if we just rewrote and adapted the Monkey Island games as audio dramas and voiced it ourselves.

 

I actually thought about doing this a while back. If this is what we do, I voulenteer to help with adaptation, and will attempt to voice LeChuck. My voice is probably deep enough to make a decent effort.

[daltysmilth]

I'd like to play Guybrush and Murray. On a somewhat related note, I've actually recorded a sort of adaptation of the first issue of Out From Boneville in which I voice all the characters, as sort of a voice demo. I omitted the Dragon because although I have an idea of what I think his voice should sound like, I can't do the voice myself. (I've always imagined the Dragon having the voice of Michael Dorn.) I edited it all together with music and sound effects from the game. My plan is to send it to a company in St. Louis that dubs anime, but I wondered if you guys would like to hear it.

[Aububuh]

Also, I am very willing to do music. Here's the MI theme, for example. My arrangement.

 

http://sites.google.com/site/aububuh/stuff/MonkeyIslandTheme.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1

[Rosefull]

Aububuh: I like your theme! That's going on my iPod alongside the other like fifty versions I have of it, haha.

 

Can I help? If my mic quality is good enough, I volunteer to be Elaine. I'm not British, but I can do pretty strong accent (unless you want me to do the American Elaine, but somehow I doubt that.)

 

I can do other stuff too, like Kate or Morgan in my American voice.

[daltysmilth]

If anyone's interested in hearing my Boneville demo, here it is in two versions:

 

This version is in mono for those whose computer speakers, like mine, only operate out of one channel.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7GXCSY6L

 

And this version is in stereo, and fully utilizes both the left and right channels.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=02DXWMZW

[Rosefull]

You know what would be cool to incorporate? Piano music. I just love the way a lot of the MI songs sound played well on piano.

[Gabez]

Nice work, Aububuh! You are The Talent. I like the speed and the bongos (?) are very funky. Oh, and the steel drums... enough hasn't been made of steel drums in the MI soundtracks, though maybe they're too obvious. CMI did some good stuff with them.

 

daltysmilth: amazing work; really, very professional voice-work. Smiley sounds a bit gruffer than I imagined him, but he's as excellently acted as the others anyway. Rat creatures were perfect. You are very good at the husky voices as well as the weedier Bone's voice. The sterio works well too, though I think it's sometimes panned too starkly (I would do it just by 10% or so).

[daltysmilth]

Thanks Gabez. As for the stereo, I figure what's the point of having it if you're not going to use it to its full advantage? Maybe I'm wrong, but I just think it helps paint the picture in your mind a bit better, helps you imagine where the characters are in relation to each other. As Dirk Maggs says, audio IS the visual medium.

[Gabez]

You're probably right -- only I was listening on headphones, so it sounded more lop-sided; I bet it works better on a proper surround sound system.

[Aububuh]

If anyone's still interested, here's my version of the MI2 theme. I'm very glad you guys liked the first one.

 

http://sites.google.com/site/aububuh/stuff/MonkeyIsland2Theme.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1

[Gabez]

I love the steel drum variations in your theme, Aububuh. At the start it reminded me of the start of the Matt Smith Dr Who theme, when a bit of new melody is added before it blends seamlessly into the main tune. Good to do stuff like that when the tune is so well known.

 

The steel drummer definitely sounds like he's in "the zone." How did you make this? Was it a keyboard job?

[Aububuh]

I love the steel drum variations in your theme, Aububuh. At the start it reminded me of the start of the Matt Smith Dr Who theme, when a bit of new melody is added before it blends seamlessly into the main tune. Good to do stuff like that when the tune is so well known.

 

The steel drummer definitely sounds like he's in "the zone." How did you make this? Was it a keyboard job?

 

Everything is done in GarageBand. No live performers, it's all just me and my keyboard. I'm glad you like it.

[Rosefull]

If anyone's still interested, here's my version of the MI2 theme. I'm very glad you guys liked the first one.

 

http://sites.google.com/site/aububuh/stuff/MonkeyIsland2Theme.mp3?attredirects=0&d=1

 

Ooh, I like it a lot! That's a great rendition.

[V. Melkalis]

Something similar I once considered would be the creation of a Monkey Island for the blind, in form of a classic text adventure system, using the audio files of the special editions. Copyright issues could be avoided simply by requiring original game files for it to work.

[daltysmilth]

Not that that's a bad idea, and I don't want to get into semantics, but even though Lucasarts might be okay with it, it still would not be the most legal thing in the world. Trust me, copyright law is complex and very thorough. Add to that the fact that really, anyone can sue anyone for any reason, and it gets a whole lot more complex. Fortunately, Lucasarts has not been a very lawsuit-happy company in the past, and I know we all hope that they don't become that way in the future. In any case, if we do end up doing a project like the ones proposed above, it wouldn't hurt to include an encouragement to anyone who downloads it to buy a copy of the games if they have not done so already. For instance, if we did the audio play idea, we could have the announcer say something at the end of each episode like "If you enjoyed this program, you might enjoy the the video game 'The Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition, available for download from Steam, Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and iTunes. Download it today!"

[V. Melkalis]

Not that that's a bad idea, and I don't want to get into semantics, but even though Lucasarts might be okay with it, it still would not be the most legal thing in the world. Trust me, copyright law is complex and very thorough. Add to that the fact that really, anyone can sue anyone for any reason, and it gets a whole lot more complex. Fortunately, Lucasarts has not been a very lawsuit-happy company in the past, and I know we all hope that they don't become that way in the future. In any case, if we do end up doing a project like the ones proposed above, it wouldn't hurt to include an encouragement to anyone who downloads it to buy a copy of the games if they have not done so already. For instance, if we did the audio play idea, we could have the announcer say something at the end of each episode like "If you enjoyed this program, you might enjoy the the video game 'The Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition, available for download from Steam, Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and iTunes. Download it today!"

 

 

Frankly your audio drama idea sounds a lot more illegal than mine. What I'm suggesting would still require possible players to own the original game, hence avoiding most copyright complications with the use of trademarked assets for a non-profit project (this has already been done various times in projects like Wargus and Stargus). On the other hand, you're suggesting a complete misappropriation and manipulation of these same assets without having the audience to pay for them.

[daltysmilth]

It's not an issue of which is more legal. Under copyright law, ANY derivative work by ANYONE other than the copyright holder or someone who has been officially authorized by the copyright holder to create said derivative work, is illegal, regardless of whether the intended audience of the derivative work owns a legal copy of the original work. If you wrote a Monkey Island fanfic, but somehow made it so people could only read it if they had one of the Monkey Island games, that still wouldn't technically be legal. But as long as it's not done for profit, Lucasarts probably wouldn't take any legal action. Trust me, I have two certificates in Broadcasting, I know about copyright law.

[V. Melkalis]

It's not an issue of which is more legal. Under copyright law, ANY derivative work by ANYONE other than the copyright holder or someone who has been officially authorized by the copyright holder to create said derivative work, is illegal, regardless of whether the intended audience of the derivative work owns a legal copy of the original work. If you wrote a Monkey Island fanfic, but somehow made it so people could only read it if they had one of the Monkey Island games, that still wouldn't technically be legal. But as long as it's not done for profit, Lucasarts probably wouldn't take any legal action. Trust me, I have two certificates in Broadcasting, I know about copyright law.

 

Well obviously, but if we break it down to probabilities of getting C&Ded I would say your initial proposal would be a lot more risky endeavour.

[daltysmilth]

If you mean the one about editing together an audio drama with the voice-overs taken directly from the games, then yes, I agree, and I believe I pointed that out already, which is why we moved onto the idea of doing an adaptation with members of the forum and other interested parties doing the voices, which would be a lot less risky in a legal sense.

[GriswoldFanDan]

I am new here so apologies if this has been posted or discussed about before... I don't think it has but just wanted to say just in case.

 

I read the ideas above about having a spin off through Ron Gilbert's eyes as a game maker... then something struck me for a whole new angle for the Monkey Island series....

 

It just struck me, and I don't know if it has already been done (maybe it has?) but how awesome would it be to have all versions of the game (but particularly secret of monkey island) to be rebuilt but instead of it being through Guybrush's eyes... to actually have the story from LeChuck's eyes!!

 

It occurred to me, the hero could be LeChuck and the game sees the player taking control of LeChuck, and perhaps, now this is where it goes a bit wrong, because LeChuck always ends up getting beaten by root grog, but it would be so cool to play LeChuck and to play it out by tryingto get Elaine to be his wife, capturing the gohst ship, make the crew a bunch of undead and then try and outwhit Guybrush at the very end... maybe LeChuck could encounter Stan..

 

That would be soo cool.