Monkey Island Marathon
It's time to get serious about designing my game. I keep telling myself that I'm designing my game, but I'm really just procrastinating by programming web pages and installing wiki software and finding the perfect desktop wallpaper that will literal suck the ideas out of me and into my design document. I'm doing just about everything but actually designing my game. My latest attempt to not design my game is writing this Grumpy Gamer post. Victory!
So it's now time to roll up the proverbially sleeves, sharpen the metaphorical pencil, straighten the stack of similistic paper and get to work...
...playing Monkey Island 1 & 2.
It's been years since I played either of these games. I'm occasionally embarrassed when someone comes up to me and goes on and on about some puzzle or what-not in Monkey Island and I have no idea what they are talking about. I'll often respond with a made-up puzzle and ask them what they thought of that one. This usually catches them off guard enough for me to turn the conversation to politics or religion, the new TV season or I do the fake choking on a piece of steak routine.
I suppose I could just read a walk-through, or watch Majusarts' excellent and masterfully timed Monkey Island movie (of course I'd watch the original German Version because I'm a foreign film snob), but no, I'm going to play though both games from end-to-end. See what all the fuss is about. I hear there are Monkeys and I'm dying to find out what the secret is.
Other people's comments:
Posted by ICE_COOL on Oct 2, 2007 five to eleven am
Posted by Wormsie on Oct 3, 2007 ten to one am
Posted by Nick on Oct 6, 2007 five past seven pm
Posted by Xandi on Oct 2, 2007 noon
Posted by dinah on Oct 2, 2007 five past noon
Now, get to work already will ya? :)
Posted by Nick on Oct 6, 2007 five past seven pm
Not the graphics, they were beautiful, but what;s the meaning of this silly fast-paced audio?
Posted by Majus on Oct 9, 2007 twenty past eleven pm
Posted by Shadee on Oct 2, 2007 twenty five to one pm
Always focussed and determined (to find something else to do to distract me from work).
MI1&2 are well worth postponing work for though.
Soon you'll be posting completely off-topic comments on your own blog entries asking yourself to make another sequel too :)
Posted by gnome on Oct 2, 2007 twenty five to one pm
Posted by DAGO on Oct 2, 2007 five past one pm
Posted by Luca on Oct 2, 2007 twenty to two pm
Posted by Mr. Bleck on Oct 2, 2007 five past two pm
Posted by ^Doogie on Oct 2, 2007 quarter past two pm
Thought you'd like to know that I'm passing on the legacy to the next generation. It's funny to think that 7 year olds in 1st grade will be getting called "noobs" when their answer to the question "if this is 3 (holding 5 fingers up), what is this (holding 4 fingers up)" is not 5.
hehe... Noobs!
Posted by Ozzie on Oct 2, 2007 quarter past two pm
Some consider it to be the worst ending of any game ever, and I have to agree, because it doesn't make any sense regardless of which perspective you look at it.
Nevertheless, the second one is my favorite of the series.
Posted by Gorbachov on Oct 4, 2007 ten to five pm
I licked that ending so much that I saved the game just when the final cutscene started, just to wach the ending many times per day...
I'm serious about that.
Posted by Jon Kristinsson on Oct 13, 2007 twenty five past ten am
Posted by Marchudichu on Oct 2, 2007 quarter to three pm
Btw, if you ever need manpower for the game, you should ask for it, you could easly get a whole army of MI fans with computer knowledge fully willful to make such thing come alive.
I'd certainly help anyway I can.
So yeah, know you gave like an awaiting army specting the call of MI V
Posted by Shell on Oct 2, 2007 quarter to three pm
Posted by Gabriel on Oct 2, 2007 five past three pm
Posted by Nando on Oct 2, 2007 ten past three pm
MI 1 & 2 are great games, you know? I'm sure you'll love them both ;) Have fun!
Posted by hurramegrundt on Oct 2, 2007 quarter past three pm
As mentioned, there must be thousands of semi-skilled old-time adventurers sitting around the world, waiting for a small hint that you would like them to contribute with a some graphics, music, or even ideas for a plot.
Those Zak fangame people in Germany did something similar, throwing a contest for the design of their gui.
Even if your game has to make it in a commercial context, I bet your fanbase would love it if you could find the space to put something of the worldwide adventure community into it.
What about an an online brainstorm?
Posted by hurramegrundt on Oct 2, 2007 half past three pm
http://www.scummbar.com/imageviewer/imageviewer.php?useimage=/community/fanwork/full/elaine_blue092803013441.jpg
Posted by Majus on Oct 2, 2007 twenty five to four pm
Don’t buy a map from this guy on the screenshot! He will trick you!
- Spoiler end!! -
Thank you very much for linking the movie. And for the cool words. And for watching the german version. Did you really understood this stuff?
Anyhow. Made my day!
Majus
Posted by Ben Copsey on Oct 8, 2007 ten past four am
In the CGA (remember 4 colour graphics?) version I played originally, the 'map' was totally unreadable, so the only way to find anything in the forest was through trial and error.
<joke>Almost the kind of puzzle you'd have expected in a Sierra game...</joke>
Posted by The_Raven on Oct 2, 2007 five to four pm
Sounds like a euphemism to me.
Posted by Edmundo on Oct 2, 2007 five past four pm
Maybe I should finish them up.
Posted by Ron Gilbert on Oct 2, 2007 ten past four pm
Posted by Vincent Hamm on Oct 2, 2007 half past four pm
Posted by thekidd on Oct 2, 2007 twenty to midnight
Posted by camradekgb on Oct 5, 2007 quarter to three am
get to work!
Posted by gonçalo on Oct 2, 2007 twenty five past four pm
BTW on behalf of Portugal thank you for monkey island Ron :)
Posted by David Thomsen on Oct 2, 2007 twenty past eight pm
The loading page of that Monkey Island movie doesn't really bother with comic timing... all the lines are delivered like clockwork. There's none of the actual 'performance' that I remember from the original game. So pants to that.
Posted by David Thomsen on Oct 2, 2007 quarter past ten pm
Posted by Roderick on Oct 3, 2007 quarter to three am
Then, next time you're in Amsterdam, Ron, I can let you sign them and Ebay them for ridiculous amounts of moneys.
(Also, good luck on getting to designing your game.)
Posted by Sam on Oct 3, 2007 twenty five to eight am
Anyways, I've found that I always tend to postpone work until tomorrow, because there's always time, apparently, even if that time is one second and that second is the one we need to save the world, etc. Just start working, and you should kick-in without realising. Always works for me.
Good luck with the design Ron. I'm always looking forward to adding another good game to my library.
Don't choke on steak!
Posted by Gage Blackwood on Oct 3, 2007 half past noon
And something tells me I won't be alive for much longer after saying that.
Posted by Majus on Oct 3, 2007 half past two pm
Posted by Kroms on Oct 4, 2007 nine am
Posted by Jordan on Oct 3, 2007 quarter to five pm
Sorry for my bad language. Your years older than me, but yeah, make this fuckin' game.
Posted by Whup on Oct 5, 2007
I get the impression you weren't really sorry, were you?
Posted by Jo on Oct 3, 2007 quarter past seven pm
Although finally finishing Zak McKracken recently was a dissapointment.. I really thought the ending would be so much more epic then it was, especially after the amazing intro scene...
er, sorry.. massive geek out there!
Posted by Chiguire on Oct 3, 2007 twenty past nine pm
Posted by Alex on Oct 4, 2007 quarter past nine am
Whats wrong with MI 4 and 3? I know that both aren't Ron's game but, I really enjoied it. Overcoat MI3. I think that it isn't good idea to make sequel between these games, MI3a MI2.5 :S
It is true that MI4 had several contradictions but I believe that Ron can repair some history troubles… Can you? (Maybe, .....Fix... Fix with tools.... Fix the Telephone "Great Bernard!")
Ok now you can kill me ^^
P.S: Excuse me if my English is not correct
Posted by ElMaestro on Oct 4, 2007 twenty past one pm
So, what you workin' on? I'm all ears. And the monkeys, they're already listening. Though I could be Rong.
Posted by Alex on Oct 4, 2007 twenty five to two pm
P.S: Sorry for my english again.
P.S2: Amigo, necesitas otro traductor ;)
Posted by JSW on Oct 4, 2007 ten past two pm
Posted by Alex Whitington on Oct 4, 2007 twenty past three pm
Posted by Alex on Oct 5, 2007 quarter to seven am
(I don't like rats.)
( Otis)
Posted by Johnny W on Oct 4, 2007 twenty five to seven pm
Posted by Dhex on Oct 4, 2007 ten to midnight
Posted by Click Here on Oct 7, 2007 ten past eight am
Posted by Whup on Oct 8, 2007 twenty to five pm
Just take a screenshot whenever you've got something to say, and stick them all together in a slideshow with an mp3 for each screenshot. If thats too hard, just post a CD to one of your adoring fans and let them put it together for you...
Posted by Call me Squinky on Oct 8, 2007 twenty five to ten pm
I am a huge fan of your MI games and I hope someday you can conclude your original trilogy. If I ever make a million, I will enter negotiations with Lucasarts myself!
But please, please, I know how fun the Net is, but it really IS a net in which you can become trapped and do nothing... so please, please find a way to complete your new RPG/Adventure hybrid. After all, Indigo Prophecy was somewhat commercially successful as an arcade/adventure hybrid, and I think if you tapped into the whole Morrowind/Oblivion market, you'd make a good living if you apply your talents more appropriately.
If you read this, thank you so much for your time - bows
Posted by fr0d0b0ls0n on Oct 10, 2007 quarter to five am
And I don't know why I'm talking here about Lost... well, anything is fine if you wanna procrastinate at work.
Posted by Maratanos on Oct 10, 2007 twenty five to ten am
If Ron Gilbert is half the game designer I think he is, he realizes that regardless of what his original intentions were for a Monkey Island trilogy, the fact of the matter is that CMI and EMI are canonical. Any Monkey Island game he would possibly make at this point is MI5.
Why? Simple. Above all, a game franchise is not one person. The designer for any single one game in a series does not hold absolute veto power over the entire canon, and does not continue to define canon after the designership has moved on to someone else.
Furthermore, there are some things that can be ret-conned. Darth Vader's appearance at the end of Star Wars: episode 6, as a ghost.
And there are some things that cannot. For one thing, two games made by the same company as the original two Monkey Island games, never immediately officially denounced as non-canonical by the original designer (the worst he ever said was that that's not what he would have done), and published 5-10 years ago, cannot suddenly be declared non-canonical at the whim of the original designer. Like it or not, CMI and EMI are canon.
And if Ron Gilbert is half the game designer I think he is, he's known that all along. And that's why he's writing games, and some of the people who commented here... are not.
Posted by Bashar on Oct 10, 2007 ten to four pm
Posted by Dustin on Oct 10, 2007 half past eight pm
Posted by toothrot on Oct 11, 2007 half past one am
monkey island". There would be puzzles like getting the cloroform, rope, tasors etc. Right at the end when Ron is about to tell the secret, you guessed, "fatal error program aborted".
Posted by Jordan on Oct 11, 2007 twenty to four pm
Because if you didn't, I AM going to make the real Monkey 3. Not you.
Posted by Vincent on Oct 12, 2007 quarter to eight am
Posted by toothrot on Oct 12, 2007 quarter to ten pm
graphics imo. Alot of animations and graphics. You need a team of people if
you wanted to complete it in a reasonable time. Else you use the gfx from MI2,
but then you'd be restricted in terms of story.
The whole point of MI3 being not good enough was that Ron didn't write it. Even if you're funny it won't be the same as something Ron wrote. Its like
saying "I have paint, I can paint the mona lisa's sister".
Posted by MarioColbert on Oct 14, 2007 quarter to one am
MI1: I burned the damn How to Get Ahead in Navigating Leaflet in the EGA version and could not proceed (Sierra's trademark "missing an item" lock-down) after unlocking the Monkey Head...
MI2: Spitting Contest. Had no idea that you could actually buy alcohol with a library card... Just never occurred to me.
Posted by toothrot on Oct 15, 2007 five past two am
M2: picking up guybrush and using the leaflet of the Kate girl with the wanted poster.