Wow, I've just been and the Steam store and I might just buy Loom, which I've never played.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is another of my favourites, which I still have.

Can't say the same about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I have tried it and the control system is very cumbersome compared to even the original Monkey Island 1 (EGA), not to say reading the lines at the top of the screen is distracting.

It looks like Monkey Island is where it all came together!


I love this period from LucasArts. Games such as MI 1, 2, Fate of Atlantis and DOTT are all classics. It's a part of my childhood and it too warms my heart just to think I might again become a gamer if they release new 2D adventures in the same spirit, just like they did with MI 1: SE.

I bet people are now asking three questions:

1. When will Monkey Island 2 be revisited like MI 1: SE ?

2. When will an all new 2D adventure come out ?

3. Will LucasArts hire you back ? Eventually to do new adventure games ?
(and of course, finish in grand style the Monkey Island series)


Could this mean your blog might change it's name to something more cheerful ?

Loom is a fantastic game, go for it.

However the steam version is the talkie one which is good and bad :
_ Good because the graphics are really good and well... there are voices
_ Bad because the dialogue are severely cut, the close up (monkey Island style) are nowhere to be found and the Music is much less present than in the original game.

My favorite version of the Game is the FMtowns one (usable on Scumm) which has the greatest graphics, high quality music, all the dialogs and close ups but no voices.

Anyway I've played this game so many times over the years that I felt compelled to buy it on Steam to show my support and gratitude.

I will never forget those games.

cyu,

Romi

I won't die happily until a true Ron Gilbert Monkey Island sequel is made.  I can't imagine how sick you might be of hearing that, but the retarded amount of joy this would bring so many people should be incentive enough.

Yeah...... but I really enjoy ToMI so far. And contrary to all the hardcore nuts who claim to have finished bloody Myst on nightmare mode, I was even stuck once just yesterday.

That logo is fairly awesome, by the way. And it looks like it's ripped straight of Indy3, right?

That was the corporate logo for Lucasfilm when I started.  It was on everything from letterhead to bowling jackets.

Wow! You guys had bowling jackets?

No I think he just said that to mess with you.

I still have mine in plastic in the closet.  Silver, monogrammed, and just like he said.  But Ron was one of the first of us to be too cool to wear his.  But they definitely exist.  Check out the one in front of David Fox on this page:
http://www.langston.com/LFGames/TenTips.html

The Steam release sucks. It's full of all that DRM'd crap. I want to OWN my LucasArts classics.

Steam has long said that if for whatever reason they were to go offline and not have servers to authenticate your games, they'd find a solution for you to keep access to everything.  Where is the DRM issue?

I'm not the type of person who wants to be checked up on everytime he runs a program.

Aside from eventual DRM-issues, I am a sucker for hardcopy. I want a disk, and I want it in a box.

Having said that, I'm glad I am now finally able to pay for the games I couldn't buy but still played and immensly enjoyed. Still... is there any possibility that some hardcopy will be available?

as long this "statement" is not part of the Steam General Terms and Conditions it's an empty promise.

I was really looking forward to MI1:SE... But I wanted a box to have and hold... Just having these classic game boxes around brings a smile to my face whenever I see them...

Your time at LucasFilm was not just influencial for your life.

As an avid LucasFilm adventure gamer from the 80's, all of these games from Zak to Monkey Island shaped who I am today.

All I can say is thank you Ron!

From a player's perspective, I wholeheartedly agree.  These were the games I grew up on, and there is nothing like them anymore.  These aren't games where the gameplay itself is the creators' only concern.  These are fun AND cinematic.  My fondest memories of the videogame aspect of my childhood (a large aspect of my childhood) were the mysterious, even dark drama of Bobbin, the comedic adventures of Guybrush, and the cosmic discoveries of Commander Low and co.

I spent the better part of last night rambling on to my girl about how some Ron Gilbert guy helped shape my adolescent gaming career. We spent the evening playing the LucasArts games along with the new Monkey Island episode. You can be darned sure we'll be knee deep in the MI remake next week as well.

Be aware, Ron, that anything you write has carte blanche access to my wallet.

Ron - I want to truly thank you for all you've done. Without Monkey Island, I would have had to play sports in my youth!!!!!!!!! I am anxiously awaiting DeathSpank - and also anxiously awaiting the next nostalgia-prompting endeavor of LucasArts!

Will Lucas Arts be making available Jedi Academy for Steam purchase and download?

back in the day, my parents gave me a commodore 64 for xmas and before long i discovered maniac mansion.  i played that game for what seemed like weeks.  then came zak mckraken and all the others.  fate of atlantis was one of my favourites because of the replayability features not seen since maniac mansion.  but i must say that the monkey island series was my favourite simply because of the originality of the stories and above all else, the humour.  

thank you so much for your work.  i can only hope the events of the past few months (sam & max series, new monkey island series, re-issues of lucas classics, etc.) can only mean a renaissance period for geeks like me.

-garth.

Well LucasArts games ruled my youth and are responsible for a part of who I am now too, and so did you as you're part of some, so thank you both :o)

Aye!
Started with Maniac Mansion, fell in love with Zak and Monkey Island changed just about anything. There's never been another game in my life that made me play with so much passion.
Thank you Ron, Thank you LucasFilm.

P.S.: I'd love to obtain such Bowling Jacket... Merch anyone? ;)

I also need to thank you for all those childhood memories. All the english I know I have learned it playing Monkey Island.

yes, 2009 is a great year for LucasArts fans! I just finished playing the first tales of MI chapter. After all these years, it was a joy to listen to the MI soundtrack again. It was great seeing your name in the credits as visiting professor of monkeyology :)

in 1989 I was a 12 year old kid who used to play MI for hours with a gigantic english-portuguese dictionary on my lap.  I´m from Brazil, and I pretty much learned english while I was playing MI and MI2 and many great lucas arts games that followed.

So thanks Ron,  for creating THE most compelling reason for me to learn another language (arrrr, although I may have a weird accent now matey).

Oh, that was a real love letter to LF-Games. I loved them, when they made the best adventures, ever. Nowadays with all the Starwars-Franchise LucasfilmGames was "just one of those" game-companies for me.

I looked at Monkey Island SE on the website and I am happy to see how the game was "updated" for gamers.

I miss the old days.

...nine of the smartest people I had ever met.

"Smartest" primarily because you grew up with high school and college friends like me.  :)

I hope they get them out on wiiware too, I already play some (MI, Loom, Sam & Max) on ScummVM on wii, but it'd be nice to have them in their own channel, and if they sell well it could mean more new adventure games :)

I love that logo, I love that time in my life.
You, Tim and Al (Lowe) were the ones who made me want to learn English when I was a kid.
That's why I'm going to buy all these games again and their HD remakes (if they make them) and their inevitable ultra HD re-remakes (with twice the monkeys and trice the tentacles) and the new Tell Tale games. So if I ever have kids I can teach them English in the same way.
Thank you man!

Nice words Ron, nice words.
I hope they could someday ask you to work with them again, specially now that they're thinking on doing new adventure games like ToMI (Which I've played the DEMO and it's simply great!).
It would be great, really.

I may openly weep. Seriously, these good times we're suddendly living after the darkest years for adventure gamers, are really touching me.

Thank you, Ron, for make me happy with your games. Monkey Island are still the King of the adventure games.

You thank them, we thank you (and them).

Aw.
I... I think I have something in my eye...

But thank you Mr Gilbert, I'm only 15 but the Monkey Island series has beem a huge part of my life from when I was very young.
One of my earliest memories is me and my brother and sister playing SMI.
Hopefully LucasArts will continue the good times and hire you to make Monkey Island 3.

At the time you had the decency to develop for several platforms. Today, unless you have windows, no way to get anything from steam...

I didn't know this until I read it here. Thanks for letting me know, Ron! I bought them all!

I worked at Lucasarts in '04-05, right when Telltale was starting up, and was shocked to discover very few current employees were even aware that Lucasarts had ever made adventure games.  I mentioned Grim Fandango to a group of QA testers once, and they had no idea what I was talking about... even though they had a giant Grim Fandango standee in their office.  

I got the distinct feeling Jim Ward wanted to bury the adventure game part of the Lucas legacy as far underground as he could (which is why I quit).  Hopefully the Steam releases signify a return to form, rather than just a one-off attempt to harness some synergy out of Telltale's MI release.

What did you think about Tales of Monkey Island Ron?

This is THE year for us oldschool adventurers. Monkey Island from Telltale, LucasArts back into play, Ron's new game, Tim's new game (yeah, these last two might not be adventures, but it's still Ron Gilber, and it's still Tim Schafer).

Might there be a second golden age of adventures coming? Everything is possible right now.

Hehe, I think they "made him an offer he couldn't refuse" to write this post :P

P.S.: The better scene in Indy and the Crystal Skull is the introduction with this logo... it shinneees, my preciouuus!

Hi Ron! I´d like to know your opinion on the new Monkey Island game. Have you played the first chapter already?

Best wishes from a big fan from Argentina.

Hi Ron,

You're most likely to be sick of answering this but what do you think of the other Monkey Island episodes, 3 and 4. Do you think Dominic Armato was a good pick for the voice of Guybrush?

I'm just happy to see these all of these gems in the hands of a new generation. It's good to be a fan of adventure games nowadays.

2 days still......

can't wait to rejoice to good feeling

Montevideo!!!! mono de Montevideo yo vivo en Montevideo, URUGUAY

Che porque usan a Montevideo en TMI y no ponen subtitulos en español,
Montevideo no es MINNESOTTA MONTEVIDEO el original es de URUGUAY

It was pretty crazy when the company that made Star Wars and Indiana Jones, also started coming out with wonderful games, like labyrinth, and MM, and Zak, and MI, and Fate of atlantis, and gosh. Do you think it was the case of the best company attracting the best talent, or was the ranch just an insanely creative place to be?

Can you burn the steam stuff on CD?

Could it be that LucasArts is finally back?
Tomorrow the remake will be released. ToMI episode 1 is out and I hope there is a future for Ron Gilbert as project lead in a new Monkey Island game. :-)

I'm super excited to check out all these re-releases! Games division was such a great place to start out and I think LucasArts was such a unique place full of such creative folks it spoiled me.

Having said that, if I never have to play Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis again I will die happy!

And I'd like to thank you and your then colleagues for giving us such fantastic games. It's been two decades and those stuff are still fun to play and their core values are unquestionable.
Thanks, and give us some more of that jazz!

Needless to say I've bought all the old stuff on steam, and looking forward the "future" releases!

"I hope LeChuck hasn`t cast some horrible SPELL over him or anything." Please come back Ron ...

hey ron whats your steam name so i can friend you on steam :D mine is shivan3000

Well Ron.

As Lucas is just rereleasing the good old monkey island with fresh gfx and orchestral sound. I had to think back to this very special moment in time when I first met your creations. I really cannot understand why this period in time is just over. The adventures back then just sucked you right into another universe where anticipation and fantasy grew with every puzzle solved and every cutscene witnessed.

Its lost. Its past.
So Today I am happy if there is one game per year that moves me in any way. Its so much about revenue so much about target audience so much complexity that its no wonder they re-release toys from the attic.

Maybe one last thing. I am not good with any names. I did not care who made a film I did not care who made the sound or anything else. I never cared for the people behind their creations just like hindus never write their names under an artistic creation in a temple. Its just the creation not the creator anymore that matters ....but.... when monkey islands intro began back then I just read the name Ron Gilbert and your name stuck to me for over 20 years now. Thats how much great Ideas and stories can inspire change in various and unknown ways!

be safe and take care

It's getting a few people interested in old games they'd never heard of. I've talked to a couple of guys just since yesterday who don't play videogames normally, loved MonkeyIsland, and bought the odd "classic" game as well.

Your grumpiness fills me, mister Gilbert.

Speaking of old Lucasfilm/Arts adventures, have you seen "Been there Dan that"?

http://www.zombie-cow.com/?page_id=17

I haven't played enough to know if it's good, but it's certainly reminiscent.

Should I explicitly flatter Ron Gilbert? I don't want to make the poor guy queasy.

Hey Ron,

i want to use the opportunity of the "Secret Of Monkey Island - Special Edition" to thank you for all you have done to the pc world. My first Adventure Game was Monkey Island 2 - Le Chucks Revenge, and i loved it right on spot. Took me several month to play it through without hints back then. :) I hope Lucas will also redo Monkey Island 2 the same way they did the first (but with a proper haircut for Guybrush) ;)

Together with SoMI:SE i also bought the talkie version of Indiana Jones 4 - Fate Of Atlantis (only owned the disk version) and The Dig.

Thank you for making me a Point and Click Adventure Fan to this very day.

Ron I have an interesting question, do you think we'll one day see emergent gameplay in adventure games? Puzzles in adventure games just aren't dynamic, a designer decided beforehand what needed to be done. Its kind of like linear FPS games where you shoot everything that comes onto the screen. Those games bore the shit out of me, and I get very frustrated when I get stuck and that's typically the moment when you exit and the immersion is lost.

The more different solutions there are for a puzzle the better the game will be, because you will most likely at least get one of the solutions pretty quickly and not get frustrated (If designed correctly). Also another thing that always bugged me about adventure games is how characters will always react the same way. A good example take Day of the Tentacle, where you are playing as Hoagie. You are in George Washington's room and you pull the rope which rings a bell and brings in the maid to clean the room, she enters the first time you go outside and try to steal the soap she catches you and goes away. Now you go into the room again, and again pull the rope she comes again to clean the room. She was just there 5 seconds ago to clean the room, immersion lost at that instant. Would it be possible to create dynamic adventure games, which creates a dynamic world for the player to explore?

como se hace para que un juego de 2 disquettes sea de 1,4 gigas y ademas pase de correr en un 286 a que un pentium 4 no pueda con el.......

La respuesta monkey island SE

Hi Ron,
I remember this game because this is the first game i played in my first pc. IBM PC-AT.Since that, I played all the series from 1-4.

Keep up the good work ron

Hendri

Hey Ron and everyone else! Tell Tale is running a contest to get a line of dialogue into a future episode of Tales of Monkey Island. I could use your support! Use the provided link and vote for mine. Thank you! http://talesofmi.com/contest/entry/2670

or just vote for this line: http://talesofmi.com/contest/entry/3605

Now I understand why gamers play games like Monkey Island, because they are not funny themselves! I went through some of those entries and they were lame.

don`t confuse the source of the lameness. anything that comes from or goes to social networks is by definition lame and unfunny

With so much lucasfilm going around i`m having weird nightmares where im stuck in a room from a graphic adventure... all pixelated and everything.  it wasn`t as fun to be in one as it was to play one.

here you go everybody, MISE soundtrack:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/napo1o

wow i'm tallking to the great Ron Gilbert !!! lol

remember this moment it will be the best you`ll ever have

I'm sad to say that the warm fuzzy feeling I got hearing that Monkey Island and all the other classic Lucasarts games would be re-released has ceased after having played the Special Edition of Money Island.

I still love the game to bits but I can't help but feel that the game is tarnished by the new special edition. I bought it on steam right when it was released, having high hopes, but all I can think of it now is quick cash in.

The Special Edition is buggy but even worse the new and "improved" navigation in game is abysmal. I found myself switching back to the original version to solve a lot of puzzles simply because it was much easier with the old system. Especially the grog puzzle is a nightmare with the new control system. It takes 6 steps to fill the grog from one cup into another while it only takes 3 clicks in the good old system.

Also the new HD graphics aren't really that good either. Playing through the game the graphics seem to get less and less detailed and it is painfully obvious that they all were hastily painted in Photoshop. Especially the excessive use of some brushes is very obvious to the trained eye. The worst part though are several areas where the new graphics glitch and lots of spots where we are left with unfinished bits of the artworks showing square pixels 4 times the size of the low res original.

I have to admit that the rerecorded music was pretty good and the recorded dialog was really good for the most part. All in all though, I can see why Lucasarts is on a steady decline. The Special Edition is a cheaply made cash tie in to grab some more money from fans. I wish they had genuinely given their best to make a special edition worthy of this wonderful classic game instead of tarnishing the memories of their old classics.

The old glory of Lucasarts is really gone, and with efforts like this they will never bring it back to life. I knew there was a reason why Jedi Knight 2 was the last Lucasarts game I had bought before this Special Edition reminded me why. The quality of old is just not there anymore. I'm sorry Ron but the awesome Lucasarts from from back then doesn't exist anymore :(

I'm off now playing Monkey 2 on ScummVM, so I can try and forget about the lackluster SE of the first game. Emulators really are the way to go. Good thing I still have my old Amiga and PC disks =D

I agree with all of your points. It's how I feel about this newer version.

Anyways, I must be a gluten for punishment, because I bought this game for STEAM and my Touch, but only because it includes the classic version.  I still have the CD version of Monkey Island, but sadly not my disks, as I gave them to a friend when I sold my old PC. :(

Ron, you're the BEST! I'm a big fan of your work at Lucas. Greetings from Argentina

http://droidmaker.blogspot.com/2009/06/droidmaker-book-now-downloadable-free.html

look, Ron, you're in this book as well!

@Karl - Thanks for the free download tip; I can't put the book down. @Grumpy - is this an authorized book? How cum no one talks about it? Did you get interviewed? It's incredible so far, how real is it? What's your rating of it?

I'm going back and reading more. Two thumbs up!!

@Sebastian
I have to disagree. Exactly the same nostalgic feeling came back to me while playing the Special Edition. I hope other ones will follow. :-)

Just gave Tales of Monkey Island a try.
Sadly my 2GHz 2GB RAM laptop with a 3D card is not good enough to move the cursor on the initial screen smoothly.
I feel like I'm trying to run it on a CASIO calulator in a power saver mode.
Yes I know, wrong website to complain, but I don't care : - )
p.s. Ron, if DeathS. is a mix of MI and Diablo, please keep in mind: they both run perfectly smooth on my (abacus like) Laptop.

Secret of Monkey Island is now out for the iPhone and iPod touch as well: check the app store.

Every adventure game that LucasArts produced back then I bought - they were definately the de facto standard.

I don't know what it was, but since Day of the Tentacle (i.e. Sam & Max onwads) the puzzles seemed very easy and the depth was on a steady decline. That said I still love playing them just as much.

Now one thing I loved about Monkey Island and Indianna Jones was how 'real' the graphics were becoming. Then they all went cartoony - aaargh ! Hated, hated, hated it. And then Indianna went Tomb Raider. I can understand why but I just wanted a point & click.

I hate how LucasArts is now every all about Star Wars - what ever happened to you guys? Well I else Ron & Co. left ! Great shame.

I've also found that the TellTale games just lack the depth. You'll be presented with 5 witty pieces of dialoge to say but whichever you choose your characters will only say a bog standard reply - the original LucasArts games would cater for them all!

Rigth this is turning into quite a negative comment so I'll leave with these final words. Ron, you and the original team MADE LucasArts what it is today and I thank you for giving us the wonderful games you created whilst there.

--Cynan.

Personally I love cartoons they're awesome!

My wife was about to buy me a present. A computer game to be precise.
She thought she can just walk in the store and take it from the shelf.
On top of that insane plan, the idea crossed her mind that the gift can be given on one of our train trips, where internet access in not available.

So here I was, away from home (and internet access) unable to enjoy my gift.

I admit besides my disappointment about the todays "content" delivery methods I had lot of trouble to explain to a non technical person WHY THE HELL A INTERNET ACCESS IS MANDATORY TO START-UP this piece of software.

Now I'm
waiting for internet activateable toilet paper (witch a chip please to check if the roll is compatible with the dispenser)
Kind Regards

Internet activateable toilet paper with a chip to check if the role is compatible with the dispenser. Now that's funny.

Ron, I am your son.

Hello, I still have a trauma caused by the Monkey Island 2 ending.
¿Have you ever talked about it? If you say no, would you help me to drop it, talking a bit?

Thanks

Me too. Let's build a self-help group where we play drums in rhytm, hug each other, and talk about how the ending of Monkey Island 2 and the remake of Indiana Jones raped our childhood.

I would join!

check out my youtube page! http://www.youtube.com/user/GB2VIG0

why?

i won't. i hate people who broadcast their personal life on youtube. or make videos that are crappy and not funny. people have way overused their 15 minutes now, it's time to shut youtube down.

Don’t  agree, it's great when people "broadcast personal life" on the web.

Make profit by being a:
- A internet access provider ~~> Sell a faster line.
- Sales dept. ~~> Invent a new word for ADSL and sell , sell, sell. So many things to upload waiting on those harddrives.
- WebSite provider ~~>Place adds, earn money
- Information provider ~~>Collect data and sell them
- Software provider ~~> Develop and sell new gadgets for the “generation upload”. If can’t sell, open WebSite and refer to point 2.

But, should you seek important information... be patient.

Have to go now (must register website...)

Ron, check the calendar. It's time to release DeathSpank.

Yay!! Twitter got attacked today and went offline!!! Hooray for the cyber hackers!! Take twitter down and keep people from posting their boring shit on the internet!

I estimate there are 5% of users that seriously depend on that service. Like coordination during ellection in Iran (was not much of a helper anyway)
For the rest: Use that unavailability to do something else.
Ups sorry: ...to do something else[CONFIRMED] ; - )

Just bought the special edition of The Secret of Monkey Island.

It's a great tribute to The Videogame in the computers games history.

It is possible to switch in any moment between the new mega-improved-graphic and the old mega-pixelled one. And guess what? I think that the old one is still the best: much more poetic and intense…

Pals…you weren’t build a pc game, you were build dreams.

Thanks

This really happened!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iYZy2xyR-g

Ron,

i was wondering this for years, and now it's (slightly) on topic..

how big was your involvement with DOTT? i know it was released after you left, but did you work on it at all?

and what are your thoughts on the final product (weather you worked on it or not)?  

i mean, we all know how you feel about MI3 & 4, but you hardly ever (never) speak of DOTT..  or at least i can't find anything on the interwebs (and lord knows i tried)..

Wasnt sure where to post this,
But i was thinking how much would it cost to create YOUR monkey island 3
If you were to get back the same people who worked on monkey island 2 (im sure its not possible but if it was)
and you used the Scumm engine from either Monkey island 2 or Day of the Tentacle.
The Scumm engine is still my favorite Adventure interface

Are we talking millions or just hundreds of thousands?
taking into consideration that there would be no voice actors, and only using 1994ish technology

It would be the best thing ever if you got to finish the series as you saw it, and to use the scumm engine and the sprite graphics of the early/mid 90's, as I see it the more detailed the graphics the less you see, if that makes any sense to you.

I see from your PAX keynote speach that Secret of Monkey Island had a budget of $135,000,
Thats quite a small amount of money, related to my last post i suppose that would mean it would be possible to make a direct sequal to MI2 for about $300,000 say

It's been 3 months and no life on this site detected.  Either Ron is squeezing out a hell of a DeathSpank or he died trying.

If it's the former.  What's the ETA?
If it's the latter, will HotHead still release the game? :-)