Great interview ^^

Do you have the rest of the show too?
Cos by chance i'm from germany...
and maybe (if i'm bored) i could try to translate something what he's talking about while i have vacations next weeks...

You should, definitively, make a blog, in first person, about the tales of a young guy who arrives in an island and wants to become a pirate... (Boybrood Threepwood, Guybrush's son, who escaped home to become, against his parents will, a pirate)
Could it be possible to use some of the names for a written piece?
After all, the story was the most important part of those games...
And you can use the comments to shape the story or decide events...
Sorry if this has been suggested previously (most probable) is just that I installed SCUMMVM on my Nintendo Ds and I'm playing Monkey Island... again! and Oh!, I miss those kind of games (Super Mario Galaxy's fine, though...)

He says stuff like: "Like I said on the beginning, we came to a living legend i talk about *toungslip*;) Ron Gilber the inventor of MI and we wanted to have a translator but we couldn't get one so its only in english but that shouldn't bother us. Now let us just greet him..."
This is what Felix Rick says in german roughly bevore he starts with the interview.

Yay, Gary Larson!

Very cool interview! Really enjoyed listening to all that. Past few weeks I have been itching to play through the MI games again! CMI I loved, but I have to admit to still wanting to know what Ron planned!

To hear that he still would like to do it, warms my heart greatly :D

It was a very normal interview. But in the 9:41 minute I got pwned. xD
The germans are weird.

You're the best Ron, and when I won 999999999 million dollars I'll buy you the MI rights from Lucas Arts. I promise you.

We Germans think the Americans are weird.

That was - God - pleasant. I expected you to be a lot more bitter and evil and all grumpy but you're really quite charming Ron. Hey looking forward to next your announcement, be that next month or in six months (read: I want to know by the end of January or you'll know what being raped by monkeys feels like).

Ron Gilbert, das hast du gar nicht schlecht gemacht, Ron Gilbert.

Ja, das war tatsächlich ein recht nettes Interview mit Ron Gilbert. Der Typ, der Ron Gilbert interviewt hat, schaut allerdings die ganze Zeit irgendwie seltsam aus der Wäsche, was mich das ganze Interview (mit Ron Gilbert :-)) über sehr irritiert hat.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loved CMI. I always see people saying it's crap just because Ron didn't make it but I consider it pretty much as good as the other two (though not as dark and a little less dry).

Monkey Island 4 on the other hand was frustrating in that it's puzzles often didn't make sense, it wasn't funny in the slightest and the controls were horrid. Not to mention how I got to a spot in the game (attempting to complete it without a walkthrough) where I was stuck. Finally, giving into defeat, I looked up a walkthrough. It told me something along the lines of:
IMPORTANT - Do not hit Herman Toothrot over the head with anything you're not supposed to, you will not be able to progress.
Well guess what I'd done. So having wasted a substantial portion of my life on that game I loaded an old save, promptly finished it using the walkthrough and left it for good.

What really made my blood boil was that IGN gave it about an 8.5.

If there is anything worthwhile I'll do in my life it is to say "DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BUY/PLAY THAT GAME."

Hey that was pretty interesting what you said about adventure games losing popularity.

It's like, when I think about the development of the games in general, it seems like only a fandful of concepts survived the 90's .. 1st person shooters being the strongest one today maybe. Adventure games just seemed to vanish.

And like you said it's something about the easiness of the gameplay and the constant action that people are looking for today. What happened to games with slow pace and the requirement to think before acting. Even rpg games today resebmle diablo with more plot elements much more than something that requires thinking.

And then there are all these console games being ported to pc, and they all have this simplified gameplay to suit the restrictions of the pad based controls.. or at least the amount of text and thinking seems to be less and less.

Don't get me wrong, I love some of the game standards today. Like in so many blizzard games, it's much easier to control your character and the level of annoing little things seems to be much less in todays games. These things have sort of become a standard and it's good thing.

BUT why isn't there any game that feels original. I mean it's just like... it seems that everyone is playing so safe. And the old concepts are just repeated and polished more and more each time. And the way they use actors and the way the scripts are more complicated than in, say, the old zelda games, it just feels like a merge of a no-brain shooter/diablo game and your averaga drama tv-series. Where is the originality? Not that the old zelda games were perfect either but atleast I got some feeling out of them. Or the monkey island games, like the ending of the first one. I remember having this warm and fuzzy feeling about it like ... that everythings good and the characters that I CARED about are safe and sound. Nowdays it's just like... I don't care about the ultra cool and trendy gunslinger that Im playing. The amount of superficiality is just repulsive ..

Yeah well anyway. Money is the root of all evil. And the marketing guys are spawns of satan sucking the joy and originality out of the games !

for me all that german sounded like :
"WOOF? Aruff roof! Woof ARF! ...arf? Ruff, a-roof arf! GRRRRRRRRRR!!! Woof-woof arf woof... ...warroof, Mêlée Island! ...a-roof wuf: ...LeChuck! Grrrrrrr!"

"Wuf, 'LeChuck?'"

"Grrrrrrrr! Worf woof woof ruff-ruff... Wor-roof wuf? Ruff arf-arf, bow-ruff... ...Governor Marley! A-OOOOOOO! A-OOOOOOO! (ruff ruff ruff) Bow-roo wuf rowwf-- -Arrooof- --LeChuck! GRRRRRRRRR! Arf, oof-oof, Monkey Island! sniff *sniff*"


Now we know which comics strip you "borrowed" the dialog from !
Touche !

I'm sorry you had to be on one of the worst pieces of German television. In fact its so bad television, it's not even on TV.

I dont know what you are talking about but that show actually is very cool. You should watch it before you start bashing something you haven't even seen because otherwise you would know that you can watch it on TV as long as you have digital cable or a satelite dish.

If I wanted to start bashing something I haven't even seen, why should watch it? :)

Seriously though, I have seen it, thank you very much. In fact I've seen pieces of it since 1999, and it started out cheesy and got progressively worse after that.

And yes I am aware there are ways to receive it (duh). That doesn't mean I consider it anymore of a real TV station than any of the 24-hour fishing channels, which I don't doubt are on digital cable and actually very cool once you get to know them.

Because it's the internet and everybody thinks they know it better.

I disagree. That was probably the best made chronological piece of LA pointnclick adventures that I have seen anywhere. Loads of ingame, cool interview, whole bunch of info and entertaining as well. And that in a time where games just don't have a heart and soul anymore. Just nice.

Haha,
I am from Germany, this show is nice, but it is shown on a very unknown tv-channel...

Gamer, was redest du da? Die Show ist scheiße!
/
Gamer, what are you talking there?! The show is just crap!

Nice interview though, the most interesting thing was hearing you talk since you don't seem to answer questions here ;)
Yeah, yeah, I know, you read every comment ^^

German German German German Bioshock German German German German Monkey Island German German German German German German German German German German Zelda German Porn German German German German German German German German German German German German.

hehe, Zelda Porn? .... Beurks

http://www.deutsch-lernen.com/

I don't know what some of you guys are talking about. That show really is cool. There is no other show like it that deals with old school games and does it that well. And talking about the show is more than off topic here. I think it is really cool that Ron took his time for it. Shows that he really is a down to earth guy. Liked the interview. Thought it was cool and gave some good insight in the times back then.

Do you remember me, i'm the one who's cursing you because of your negligence...why don't you stop fuxxing around with this shitty articles and sit down at your damn pC and do what you have to do: read my lips: "T-H-I-R-D  C-H-A-P-T-E-R  O-F  M-O-N-K-E-Y  I-S-L-A-N-D"...Haven't you understood me, you old jerk!?!? Fuck you

Be nice.  Don't make me kill anyone.

Some people just don't understand what you've been saying all this time, eh?

Do you do requests?

Yeah sure, it's nice he took his time to do the interview.
But Giga did some really crappy TV shows so that's what we are talking about. And the interviewer looked somehow... strange. I have to admit, I'd look strange if I could talk to Ron Gilbert on the phone....

I have a question to Mr. Gilbert: Who is holding the copyrights for MI merchandise right now? Thanks!

Lucas holds all the rights to MI.

What if... he... had an accident? ;)

LucasArts :P the corporation

You are not very bright are you?

Who was that aimed at?

are you talking to me???

i think he is talking 2 u

So? Every TV station has crappy shows. And this one just isn't one of them. But I guess it is easier just whining about something which I guess you probably haven't seen judging by your comments than admitting that it actually might be good. Talk about prejudice.

Everything on TV in germany is crap.
But this show here is one of the better ones.

I agree with you beside simpsons, scrubs, heroes but these all american productions, so literally german TV suck :/
Okay, Telespiel is cool, i like it to see all this old games and consoles from my youth again.

German TV became crap once they adapted all the great American formats: infomercials, soap operas and afternoon talk shows.

@R.G.: Thanks!

@stan: No, you better think about 'different opinions'...

Well speak for yourself then instead of making your opinion sound like the ultimate truth. And keep your opinion of the show to yourself or post it somewhere else, because this here is clearly about the interview itself and not the show. And just beacuse you have an opinion, does not mean I have to respect it in the slightest.

Hey man, come down and don't play "police of the internet" when your parents are out and you're alone at home.

Seriously, get a life and while you are at it, get over yourself and be happy that Ron gave such an interview in your country no matter what show that was on. Nobody cares whether you like it or not. In fact such acting is just counterproductive and is not going to help future interviews. And indirectly calling someone immature doesn't make you the least bit more mature.

I originally just mentioned that I don't like this show. That was just one sentence.
Moaning about offtopic and writing offtopic at the same time is a bit strange, don't you think so?
So stay on topic and by the way: directly calling someone immature doesn't make you the least bit more mature.

Will Lucas Arts own the rights forever or is there a limit, e.g. for 20 years or something like that?

I think that's 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, yes indeed.
MI has corporate authorship (LucasArts), so Secret of MI it will be free around 2085, thanks to "Mickey Mouse Protection Act".
Maybe R.G.'s grandson could make MI3...

cool interview! like it a lot.

The most interesting thing for me was, by far, then you said that you'll might be giving us information about 'the game' in a few months.
Can't wait! =)

Good to see Monkey island was big in Germany.

Question: Why wasn't monkey island big in Japan?

They like text popping up over their graphics. They make lots of graphical non-talkie text adventures. They like humour in their games. I heard the story that when you pitched it to the Japanese, they didn't like it, and didn't get the humour. It's hard to believe now, considering the success of games like Phoenix Wright.

I don't ever remember pitching it to the Japanese.  It might have happened when sales trying to find a distributor, but I was not aware of it.   I think the big issue with Japan has more to do with PC games being a very small market over there.

I think Lucas should try to do a manga version of MI for the Japanese ;)

Great Idea!
You could make a tiny guybrush sprite with the size of a square tile, and you could add some stats and pokemons and every once in a wile the screen would flash in pink with cute smiley stars falling from the sky! Japanease would love it!

after the interview he says:
im very proud that i had this interview with ron gilbert, one of my biggest lifedreams are completed, and its ok if i have to die right now. :-)

another thing about maniac mansion:
i dont know if you know that Ron,
we have a fanproject based on Maniac Mansion.
Its called Maniac Mansion Mania -> http://www.maniac-mansion-mania.com
Its in episode format, and its located in the city Ronville :-)
The project started March 2005 and right now, we have over 100 episodes, who all takes place in the maniac mansion universe.

(We got the game-resources from LucasFan who maded the Maniac Mansion Deluxe Remake, and unfortunatly completly disappeard one year ago)

Unfortunatly the most episodes are in german only, cause most of the developers are not able to translate their episodes in good englisch, but some of them are translated to englisch and spain, you can find them in the international section.

and by the way, im from austria so the old Lucas Arts Adventures are also very popular in other countries as well.

I should stop writing about golden years.
It´s time to make another game without money and monkey... anyway it´s the script what matters most.

Sure you'd have to connect Part 3 and 4 to your REAL(tm) Monkey 3, but that would be eeeeeasy: They were both just (bad) dreams :D

Personally I wouldn't be very mad at you (Ron, for those who wondered) if you'd just ignore part 3 and 4 if you'd ever get the chance to do a Monkey game again. How nice's that? :D

MI the lost chapters.

You could release MI 3 Japanease Version just like mario bros. 2 for NES

I can't watch GIGA anymore since they switched to satellite transmission only but it lost a lot of quality anyway... the fact they interviewed Mr. Gilbert makes it a litte more attractive again though.

What I really wanted to say is: Ron, did you see this http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif ? I've re-checked the facts and it's all true and scientifically waterproof. I think a combined funding of UNESCO, Greenpeace and Al Gore should make a new part on MI possible!

Wow - if you ever wanted an FAQ, now you have it.

Nice interview; it's always oddly soothing to hear you talk, Ron. You could be a great nanny, talking children to sleep =) And do let us know if something comes up in the next two months for your game!

Also, I could take out 18 five-year-olds and survive to tell the tale.

Hi!

I saw the interview on the show just after I played Monkey Island 1 again^^

I love the tv station ´cause it´s the online one that just deals with games in different shows (General games show, 360 show, PS3 show, Wii show, retro show) and the hosts aren´t really famous so they are pretty nice to the viewers, answering emails and stuff like this..

It´s a nice interview ;-)

How many time can you say "you know" during one interview? godamnit.


(btw, I admire you)

Hummm... By the way when you'll make another flash-comic? Maybe in christmas? :)

Make a new MI, make a new MI3, make an MI movie, tell us the secret.

MAKE US A FLASH COMIC RON! MAKE US A COMIC!

Is it me or is this guy pushed a bit? Jeez.

The moon is affecting my behaviour I apologise.

Wow, whenever I feel I must illustrate a point with a specific Far Side cartoon, it is nowhere to be found. Did you have to go into a book and scan it?

Before Larson kicks it, I wish he would create a searchable, keyworded database of all his cartoons, so you can just type "cow tools" or "bears, skulls" and find the one you're thinking of.

Classy picture of you they were using.

Hi Ron! Happy Holidays!
I´m really looking forward to playing your new videogame!!
bye!!

The full version of the show can be found here:

http://www.giga.de/features/vod/4973/

Unfortunately, you need a premium account for the GIGA website to view it.

If I were the interviewer, I 'd ask Ron to tell what's up the broken stairs in MM :)

Ahhh well then. That really is the question.

Really.

Hey Ron,
ever heard of Open Source projects like Peach or Apricot? Both are using the OS software Blender and improving it at the same time. (Peach for Open Movie - like Elephants Dream, the first Open Movie ever, also made in Blender; and Apricot for Games, a premiere that will start developing in 2008).
The Apricot team has finished recruiting the devs and artists as far as I know (they are working together with the guys of the OS engine Crystal Space) and the Peach team is already working hard and the results are really nice so far, if not impressive.
Could you ever imagine to lead a small team of volunteers (or not ;)) to do another part of Monkey Island (as I think this is your most popular game series) with your plans and your concepts?
This would need a foundation, of course... but I think it would be possible. People would have to apply for certain team positions and show their artistic or programmer skills.
Links are: http://peach.blender.org, http://apricot.blender.org
Those projects are special because there is a whole community and foundation behind it and this community contains a lot of talented artists and devs...
Would like to hear your opinion and a Happy New Year :)

Those projects are possible because they are creating there own IP.
Without LucasArts licencing MI island for such a project, it would become a fan game, and LucasArts have a tendency to shut those down (like every major company).

But that's just the legal point of view of course.

Yeah, you'd have to change the name of the game itself of course. I don't know if there are legal issues when using the original names of the characters and locations...

I'm sure that wouldn't work :)

I appreciate your comments but I also would like to hear the opinion of the Master Ron Gilbert

@Rocco
You forget, that they make their own MMM-Episode. ;)

@Ron Gilbert
How much does the licence of MM an MI cost? :D

And one question.
hen was the release date of MM??
http://www.tentakelvilla.de/newspro/arc6-2007.html

I have my own Release-List. (It is mentioned on this page):
Maniac Mansion (1987) October
ZakMcKracken  (1988) October
Indiana Jones 3 and the last crusade (1989) Juli
Loom (1990) January    
Monkey Island 1 The Secret Of Monkey Island (1990) October  
Monkey Island 2 Le Chuck´s revenge (1991) December
Indiana Jones 4 and the fate of Atlantis (1992) June
Day of the Tentakel (Dott) Maniac Mansion 2 (1993) June  
Sam and Max  Hit the Road (1993) November
Full Throttle (Vollgas) (1995) May  
The Dig (1995) November  
Monkey Island 3 the curse of Monkey Island (1997) November  
Grim Fandango (1998) October
Monkey Island 4 Escape from Monkey Island (2000) November

I have no exact release-date. (I mean the exact day)

Yes... how high exactly on the scale of unbuyable does a license to an adventure game franchise rank?

Does anyone have any idea?

yes Ron. Maybe it's time to go out again. We are wating for you. Maybe we don't have monkeys, maybe it's not as it was in the good old days but!

look at Grim Fandango. Good work, good stories, still live up to us.

Happy new year!

Hi Ron,
since I'm really from Germany, I'm gonna say this in a way you will understand for sure:

Bla bla blabla bla bla blablabla bla bla bla bla. Bla blabla bla bla bla blablabla bla blabla bla. Bla bla Happy New Year.

Bla bla
Maak

I know lucas has the rights to MI but do they own the rights to "The legend of Simian Landmass" starring Guybroosh Threephood and the evil LeChock?

What´s that??

it's my different enough to be legally ambiguious, but similar enough to . . . DAMMIT I WANT MORE MI!!!!!

You? Don´t make me laugh. EVERYBODY WANTS MI!! Muahaha :D

Its not a matter of rights, I assume Ron is not interested in developing an adventure game right now

he reads every comment ... be aware

I quite like the idea that Ron might read some of my words, after I have read so many of his. :)

(shh... It was an incitement) ;)

Part of me is tempted to use that reverse psychology stuff and say "I bet the reason Ron isn't making more MI-esque games is because he's not up to being funny anymore"
. . .
But that would be rude, disrespectful and wrong.



Kinda like trying to tell God that beards are "so last season"

Ron, if you read every comment, why don't you answer to the poor folks here who try to get some sunshine in the blograys of the great master!

Because I'm a mean person.

That's just what you want us to believe.  I bet secretly, you want to hug every last one of us . . . . .

(possibly hug us to death though :S)

I knew it

Ron, make an unofficial prequal to Monkey Island 3!

Or just write a very nice letter to George Lucas asking if he can give you your job back. :P Then MI5 can be the sequal to MI2 and the prequal to MI3, and you can tell your tale about young Guybrush and Chucky the way you planned. :) (As long as it ends with Guybrush growing up and ending up in the ocean. ;)

Talking about German, did you know the German translations of Monkey Island 1 and 2 just suck?

No, they don't.

LucasArts is not going to make a MI sequel right now, good or bad, because they don't make games anymore. They just handle Star Wars licences to third parties so they can make some completely unoriginal and forgettable arcade game.

@Guy Living in Germany.
My words! I say this very often. LA is a publisher! Not more!

@Tom S. Fox
The title of my german version is not translated. ;) I think it´s not sounding bad!

Hey what a nice interview with you Ron. It´s so nice to hear something old and new about you and your good old classic games. Would love to have a real MI2 sequel or a new point and click adventure from you. Keep my fingers crossed that all goes well.

Giga-TV is like MTV or VIVA and is available over satelite (astra) or cable-tv.
It´s more popular to the younger generation than the oldskooler ;-) But thats ok and the interview was really cool. Sadly i missed it on TV.

Hope so much that Ron does a new adventure with all the good old jokes from back in the days.

Wish you all the best and keep on da good work :-)

Many greetings from germany/bavaria,
Peter