Together Retro: Secret of Monkey Island

[dsheinem]

Any chance we could get a link to (or a scan of) the manual and guide?

[arion]

i think i found it

manual for the pc version

http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.916

and one for the sega cd

http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.5605

[Limewater]

Greetings,
I've never posted here before, and likely won't be posting a whole lot, but I do want to participate in this round of together retro, being a big fan of all of the old LucasArts graphic adventures.

I thought I would throw a couple of things out for discussion.

1) I believe that Monkey Island 2 is the best of the series. The art and animation are stepped up a bit from the first, and I think it's the funniest of the four. The island(s) also feel a lot less desolate than the first. I also did not care much for the change in art style for the last two games, though they are still great.

2) One thing that has always bothered me a little about The Secret of Monkey Island is the close-up art. An example of this early in the game is the bar scene. When you speak with people, the view often switches to a close-up of the drunk with whom you are speaking. This was not really maintained for the rest of the game except for a few key moments, which is a little odd. Also, the art style for the close-up shots, while very nice, seems to contrast strongly with the general art style of the rest of the game.

Why do you think they did this? Was art prepared but they just ran out of disk space? Was it meant as a teaser so that people who only saw the beginning would believe that the rest of the game was similarly detailed?

[racketboy]

2) One thing that has always bothered me a little about The Secret of Monkey Island is the close-up art. An example of this early in the game is the bar scene. When you speak with people, the view often switches to a close-up of the drunk with whom you are speaking. This was not really maintained for the rest of the game except for a few key moments, which is a little odd. Also, the art style for the close-up shots, while very nice, seems to contrast strongly with the general art style of the rest of the game.

Why do you think they did this? Was art prepared but they just ran out of disk space? Was it meant as a teaser so that people who only saw the beginning would believe that the rest of the game was similarly detailed?

Nice to have you aboard!

I always thought the same thing. Not sure why they didn't do more of them, but in terms of the art style, it seems like this was in the period that many Western game designers/artists thought they needed to go more for realism than cartooney. It reminds me of things like the original western game covers for games like Megaman and Street Fighter 2.

[noiseredux]

Oh man, the original US cover art for Mega Man is horrible! I hate that it shows him HOLDING a gun. Awful.

[noiseredux]

I'm at the part where I need to get a job to raise $ to get my boat. Not sure where to get a job? Hmm. I forgot how addictive this game was though.

[Ivo]

You mean Amiga 500
If you want to play it on the Amiga, you can try emulating it. The WinUAE emulator can even emulate the sound of the floppy drive

I don't know if the music is good on the PC version, but in the Amiga it was very good.

I never finished Monkey Island the first time round on my Amiga 5000 and I can't play on the Amiga anymore as the outputs are broken. I have ScummVM on my laptop though and have been trying to play some of this when I can. I got stuck a few months ago though and let it sit. This time I will endeavour to play it and finish it. Yay, good choice.

[noiseredux]

I figured out the whole Job thing. haha. Anyway, I'm at Part 2 (meaning, I'm on my ship with my crew). Never made it This far back in the day. I'm having a blast.

[Limewater]

I don't know if the music is good on the PC version, but in the Amiga it was very good.

Heh. I don't know if the music is good on the Amiga version, but it's very good on the PC.

Has anyone compared both?

[tumes]

Sweet. I'm so excited, Lucasart adventures are pretty much my favorite games in the whole world. I got a copy of the Rogue Leaders book for Christmas, and while it doesn't go into that much detail for the adventures, I'll see if I run across any good info in it. I'll try to free up some time this month to pitch in on the play.