International Release Big Box Differences (and Oddities?)

[Jayel]

I saw that post about CMI cloth map which lead me to riffle through my Korean big box collection and figured hey, why not take some photos and post it here (since detailed look at international releases are hard to come by and I find it interesting). If you have other interesting international release(s) you want to share please feel free to post here!

 

Monkey Island 2. One of my most prized possessions. The name of the Korean distributor is Dong Seo Game Channel. I don't know the exact release date... probably 91 or 92?

I appreciate the font treatment.

 

Back cover. ₩25,000 (approx $19 USD, not adjusted for inflation). Some interesting differences compared to North American release (which I'll go into later).

 

The cover is actually a thin paper sleeve that goes over the featureless cardboard box.

 

Reference card, printed on a thick, quality, textured cardboard stock. I like.

 

The manual and Mix N' Mojo copy protection wheel. In offensive xerox-proof burgundy. Was it also burgundy in other regions?

 

6 high-density 5.25" floppy disks. Nothing unusual here.

 

It says "Hintbook" but it's actually the whole walkthrough. Back in those days games almost never got localization treatment in Korea, so it was pretty common for an adventure game to ship with a full walkthrough. (the last paragraph in the walkthrough says that the joy of adventure games is figuring out on your own without looking stuff up. Now they tell me!)

 

The back cover has pretty faithful translation by and large, but with some weird (sometimes inexplicable) differences:

The first 2 lines are kind of adjectival? They loosely say "Arrogant" and "Disgusting". The "He's Back" part is the same. No, it does not rhyme.

 

 

The excerpt has no source! Who's speaking?!? The bulletpoints are pretty dry and humourless. "Interactive Jamaican music" without the accent. "Separate mode for beginners and magazine reviewers" but written completely seriously. No "void where prohibited" (I guess the phrase doesn't translate well)

 

 

Weird. Obviously the same screenshot, but it's cropped differently. The caption simply says "realistic graphics". Nothing about expectorations. Again, pretty humourless.

 

Again cropped differently. "There's always something scary behind a pirate's chair"? Not quiet the same meaning, but fine...

 

This one an odd one out. It's not uncommon for boxes or promotion materials to use work-in-progress screenshots, so I didn't think much of it, until I saw scans of the North American release, and it's completely different! Korean release uses a screenshot with MI1 interface and Guybrush. The caption says "Dig up graves of pirates to find clues". What clues!? I guess whoever translated it thought that it's too rude to dig up graves without a good reason or something.

 

As far as international game covers go, not bad. The humour is completely gone, but nothing grievously misleading (I've seen worse)

[Jayel]

Bonus Monkey Island 1 (VGA)

This one is quite boring. They didn't bother translating any of the text (not even the title! how were they supposed to know what the game is even called??) Again distributed by Dong Seo Game Channel. 90 or 91? who can say.

 

 

Curiously the text is all misaligned, but otherwise the same as North American release. ₩20000 (Approx $15 USD not adjusted for inflation)

 

The reference card is clearly a cheap photocopy. Disappointing.

 

I'm surprised that they bothered with the full-colour printing of copy protection wheel. The manual is in black and white and very cheap. 4 high density 5.25" floppies.

 

The manual contains full walkthrough (not a separate book like MI2). The solution to the insult swordfighting puzzle photographed here.

[Scummbuddy]

This was fascinating and very thorough. Thank you!

 

The Mixnmojo copy protection wheel was a beige/sand/tan color. I've never seen that burgundy color before for the wheel. Neat!

 

And the use of MI Guybrush and the interface is quite interesting. But also the oddly cropped screenshots. Like, why bother cropping them?

 

[Huz]

"You make me want to borrow one" in the walkthrough is a weird mixture of an insult and a different comeback. Funny.

[Jayel]

20 minutes ago, Huz said:

"You make me want to borrow one" in the walkthrough is a weird mixture of an insult and a different comeback. Funny.

Hah, you're right! I never noticed that one before.

Also worth noting that that's the whole solution to the puzzle - they only list half of the insults and comebacks (the next page has the solution for the Swordmaster fight). I don't really understand why. Perhaps whoever wrote the walkthrough was savescumming and managed to get by with those few.