The Monkey Island box set from Limited Run Games

[ATMcashpoint]

Just got a response on Twitter:

 

"The production emails were sent using our active mailing list, if you've not opted in you may not receive those. Shipping notifications will go out as the team is packing out orders though and those are not tied to the newsletter mailing list. -SE"

 

That explains why I wasn't receiving emails from Limited Run Games even in my spam folder (except when I changed my password). Hopefully at some point that "item shipped" email does show up in my inbox...

[Glokidd]

52 minutes ago, Rum Rogers said:

On a side note, will I have the guts to open it? I still have 2 Thimbleweed Park copies shrinkwrapped, surely you can't keep them in a better condition but I feel like I'm missing out a lot this way. End of the OT.

 

I did this with Broken Age... sorta. The box is unsealed but the blu-ray box is still fully wrapped lol

 

46 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

I regret not getting LRG's Switch version of Thimbleweed Park. Only got Fangamer's PC box.

 

Me too, I also didn't realize fangamer still offered it and bought mine at a much higher price on ebay because I didn't do my research first in that case 😞 at least it was listed as a backers edition which the code that it came with seemed to confirm but yeah... that still stings a bit

[Remi]

5 hours ago, Marius said:

My box arrived today! The book is really something, it's basically tons of oral history quotes from the developers, and here and there you can see notes from Ron's notebook. A new thing, at least to me, was a scan of the first story treatment of Monkey 2. I tagged one funny thing as a spoiler:

  Hide contents

It seems like LeChuck originally wasn't the villain, but his brother El Carlo. Wild!

I didn't get around to check what versions of the games are on the usb stick, since I'm on a mac.

Also I don't have a floppy disk reader, and am very intrigued what they put on Disk 22.

 

I'm gonna repeat what I mentioned to Marius earlier -- the El Carlo thing was briefly mentioned in both marketing and previews for the Amiga version before it just... stopped. I was quite literally starting to think I had imagined it (as I never gained any traction talking about it over the last 30 years) so I'm very happy it is now a stated fact!

[Thrik]

Yeah I went for years believing I’d imagined the ‘LeChuck’s brother’ thing until I saw it on an old box.

[ATMcashpoint]

53 minutes ago, Remi said:

 

I'm gonna repeat what I mentioned to Marius earlier -- the El Carlo thing was briefly mentioned in both marketing and previews for the Amiga version before it just... stopped. I was quite literally starting to think I had imagined it (as I never gained any traction talking about it over the last 30 years) so I'm very happy it is now a stated fact!

Maybe that's why it shows up on the back of the MI2 Kixx XL box from the UK, which always made me wonder:

 

 

And, thanks to the original game backgrounds in the MI2 SE concept art gallery, we know that Peter Chan's painting of LeChuck's office in MI2 was labeled "El Carlo's office" on the original art:

 

This definitely clears up some mysteries, I'd say.

Edited December 13, 2021 by ATMcashpoint

[Remi]

33 minutes ago, ATMcashpoint said:

Maybe that's why it shows up on the back of the MI2 Kixx XL box from the UK, which always made me wonder:

 

 

And, thanks to the original game backgrounds in the MI2 SE concept art gallery, we know that Peter Chan's painting of LeChuck's office in MI2 was labeled "El Carlo's office" on the original art:

 

This definitely clears up some mysteries, I'd say.

 

Yep, that Kixx box blurb I'm fairly certain is verbatim what the ads were saying. I assume some discarded marketing copy made its way into the wild.

[Marius]

7 hours ago, ATMcashpoint said:

And, thanks to the original game backgrounds in the MI2 SE concept art gallery, we know that Peter Chan's painting of LeChuck's office in MI2 was labeled "El Carlo's office" on the original art:

Wow, I never really wondered why it said "El Carlo's office". Very nice to have an answer to that now.

 

6 hours ago, Remi said:

Yep, that Kixx box blurb I'm fairly certain is verbatim what the ads were saying. I assume some discarded marketing copy made its way into the wild.

Funny how these things happen, because if the text mentions LeChuck's brother then it would also talk about three difficulty settings. But here it correctly mentions only two.

 

There is only one logical explanation to this! Kixx knew the game in and out and that "the brother" is Guybrush, and to them "LeChuck's Revenge" is all about fighting greed, and the real villain is ones ego, and...

 

Hmm, or maybe it's what Remi said.

[Remi]

I think the only correct conclusion is that Kixx accidentally revealed the secret. ;

[Nano]

That's amazing

I am very eager to have your feedback on the book included in the anthology!

[Rum Rogers]

15 minutes ago, Nano said:

That's amazing

I am very eager to have your feedback on the book included in the anthology!

You worked on it Nano? That's great to hear, can't wait to receive mine

[Nano]

Oh no, not at all ! but as I did not have the opportunity to buy the anthology, I am more than curious to know what we will learn there.
It's such a shame that the book is not sold separately

[Marius]

11 hours ago, Remi said:

 

Yep, that Kixx box blurb I'm fairly certain is verbatim what the ads were saying. I assume some discarded marketing copy made its way into the wild.

One more thing. Since the text is hinting at LeChucks brother being the villain, then the headline "He's big, he's bad, he's back" can't be referring to LeChuck, but to, uh, Guybrush, I guess.

[Rum Rogers]

I'm leaning towards seriously believing that the so-called Voodoo Priest in MI2 (such an elusive character in the game, not sure why he needs to appear in two cutscenes with a fully animated sprite just to completely disappear later on) was originally El Carlo. The throne bears his mask and it was supposed to be his own "office". @ATMcashpoint thoughts on this?

[Laserschwert]

How are the discs divided anyway? I've seen that 1&2 are on Disc 1 and 3&4 on Disc 2. If Tales is on Disc 3, what's on Disc 4?

[Marius]

11 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

How are the discs divided anyway? I've seen that 1&2 are on Disc 1 and 3&4 on Disc 2. If Tales is on Disc 3, what's on Disc 4?

Tales is split into Disc 3 and 4.
I currently don't have a disc reader to look if there is more stuff hidden on them though.

[Laserschwert]

Ah, so it's CDs, not DVDs. Weird choice... and surprising that MI3 and MI4 still fit on a single disc. Are the GOG versions so small?

[Rum Rogers]

I can't believe how freaking massive this thing is! Wasn't expecting it. Here's a MI2 box comparison:



I've also received some fancy numbered card with that odd-looking first take of EMI Guybrush. Good times!

Edited December 14, 2021 by Rum Rogers

[Marius]

21 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

Ah, so it's CDs, not DVDs. Weird choice... and surprising that MI3 and MI4 still fit on a single disc. Are the GOG versions so small?

Maybe the mac versions are on them too?

Whatever the case, how annoying is it that the game, that the devs had to downsize for WiiWare, still doesn't fit on one disk?

 

10 minutes ago, Rum Rogers said:

The box itself is incredibly amazing.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Marius

[Thrik]

LRG’s product page says DVDs, and suggests some of the game are shipped in their entirety in different languages.

[Laserschwert]

Ah, I haven't checked the product page, thanks. Makes sense - they announced that apart from the English DOS versions of 1 & 2 (and whatever is on the USB drive), everything else would be the GOG versions. That means the two SEs and 3 & 4 are multi-language. However, I still don't understand why Tales comes on two discs then.

 

@Rum RogersCould you check the USB drive and let us know which versions are on there?

Edited December 14, 2021 by Laserschwert

[Rum Rogers]

5 minutes ago, Laserschwert said:

@Rum RogersCould you check the USB drive and let us know which versions are on there?

Glad to, but you'll have to wait until I sign off from work. I'm kinda maniacal for the way I keep relics such as this one, so I need to be extra cautious and not rush it.

[vandands]

2 hours ago, Rum Rogers said:

I can't believe how freaking massive this thing is! Wasn't expecting it. Here's a MI2 box comparison:

 

What about the content of the book? Hopefully someday they sell it separately  

[ATMcashpoint]

4 hours ago, Rum Rogers said:

I'm leaning towards seriously believing that the so-called Voodoo Priest in MI2 (such an elusive character in the game, not sure why he needs to appear in two cutscenes with a fully animated sprite just to completely disappear later on) was originally El Carlo. The throne bears his mask and it was supposed to be his own "office". @ATMcashpoint thoughts on this?

Nah, the Voodoo Priest was originally supposed to be featured more in the game just as his own character, as I understand it. There are two different versions of his office in LeChuck's Fortress that were cut from the game.

 

One version was a black-and-white room sketch shown off in the 30th anniversary source code stream - that version had voodoo ingredients beginning with every letter in the alphabet, as part of a puzzle where Guybrush apparently had to combine them in the right order to form a phrase. The other version shows up in the MI2 SE concept art gallery as a colored painting. This version is simpler, and apparently just had a large screen that Guybrush could hide behind at one point, as well as an altar of some sort, where perhaps he would spread the "more voodoo crap" inventory item that was obtainable at the time of the non-playable demo from the shipping crate that Guybrush arrived in.

 

There's also a black outline of a newt associated with this second version of the room. And LeChuck's office door has a small hole in the base. Plus the original background of the office door was mirrored in layout, but when it was flipped for the game three of the runes on the wall next to the door were kept in their original orientation. Those same runes (shaped like "C-B-M") show up on the cut close-up background of LeChuck's desk as seen from above.

 

I wonder if the original puzzle to get in LeChuck's office involved making a spell for Guybrush to become a newt ("I of Newt"?) and use it to crawl under the door, at which point the GUI maybe went away and the cut close-ups of LeChuck's office were used as backgrounds. Finding the combination for LeChuck's door on the top of LeChuck's desk, Guybrush would leave the office and become human, then press the "C-B-M" runes (as in Commodore Business Machines, makers of the Amiga - "Friend", for a LOTR riff there) to open the door. The change to the voodoo priest's office background suggests this hypothetical puzzle may have been simplified at one point (i.e., probably making the spell) before being cut entirely - which also would have allowed for the LeChuck closeups to be cut, since the puzzle they were used for would be gone.

 

As for El Carlo, I do wonder if part of the joke was going to be that LeChuck was a ghost and his brother was a zombie, for a family of various undead types.

Edited December 14, 2021 by ATMcashpoint

[Lagomorph01]

Interesting stuff! Enough questions for another Q&A with Ronzo it seems!

 

I’m very curious about the box set in general. For all of you who have it, please post pictures!

[Rum Rogers]

About to open it. Hold on tight.