The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Latest News

He might have been best known for his numerous Star Wars roles – not to mention Powerpuff Girls and Kim Possible – but Tom Kane also made a memorable Monkey Island appearances as Pegnose Pete, Captain Rottingham, and the Flying Welshman.

Kane retired after a stroke in 2021; he was 64 at the time of his passing.

Give yourself a pat on the back if you get that reference – it means that you’re both old and alive. Ostensibly. Anyway, where was I… Oh, yeah, AIs!

We’ve been seeing a weird uptick in walkthrough visits lately, and, after glancing at the AIs’ feeble attempts to provide game hints, we think we’ve figured out why. Turns out stuff we wrote in 1996 is beyond the bots’ grasp, and… Well, I just wrote an article about the thing, because why the hell not?

AIs, man… weird little things. And, for those in search of walkthroughs:

• The Secret of Monkey Island
• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
• The Curse of Monkey Island
• Escape from Monkey Island
• Tales of Monkey Island
• Return to Monkey Island

I really put my heart into the last one.

We just added another The Secret of Monkey Island version to our database. The Mac port is the first time we use a video for that section because, well, look for yourself…

Mac

A bit of a bizarro version that features the CD-ROM interface and lacks “dynamic” lighting. The music is available in three (janky) qualities. Yet, the graphics are anti-aliased, which makes them somewhat distinct from the other versions.
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The CD-ROM interface mixed with weird music and anti-aliased graphics? I mean, why not?

Readers of the latest issue of our newsletter, The Adventurer, will already know we have a new nugget of SoMI trivia, too.

Tim’s Meathook Art

The “Visit Fabulous Hook Isle” was created by Tim Schafer himself, who expected it’d be replaced in the final game: I drew that sign as temp art, assuming a real artist would replace it. I think they left it in to punish me. Look, it’s not easy to draw a cursive F with a mouse in Enhanced Deluxe Paint II. I think Steve Purcell added the shading on “restrooms” and “souvenirs.” And then was like, “That’s it. I can’t look at this anymore. It’s done!”
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Thirty-five-plus years later, and you’d think we had reached the bottom of all this, but apparently not.

The Bluesky post from one “happy-ferret ” kind of says it all: “Early progress shots of my SCUMM engine port to PlayStation 1, graphical glitches and all.”

That’s definitely one way to stay busy!

I mean, there’s not much more to it than that – if you want to relive the Special Edition commentary tracks, here’s your chance, either on the ’tube…

… or through our commentary browser. Fun will be had!

Ah yes, we’ve published two new ICYMI articles over on Mojo. If you’re not familiar with these – what’s the matter with you?! – they run through trivia and oddities of various games. This time: The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island:

Previously:

• The Secret of Monkey Island
• Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
• Return to Monkey Island

You may or may not remember our LeChuck’s Revenge Line Art section, which is just what it sounds like: Line art from the game’s hint book. And why stop there? For those looking for The Secret of Monkey Island’s equivalents, here ya go:

Hell, I’ll even save you a click if you want to peruse the Monkey Island 2 content.

Over at Mojo, Jason has posted a downright delicious article called “The Stayed Execution of Wally B. Feed,” which delves into what Wally’s final fate in LeChuck’s Revenge was set to be. And, as it turns out, that shocking conclusion was closer to making it into the game than we realized.

Is that raft a box of dynamite? Run to Mojo to learn more.

Oh yeah, speaking of things we post on Mojo – our review of Sea of Thieves: Legend of Monkey Island:

Gotta say… not a fan. Go read!

… we have published a review of it over at Mojo.

In case you aren’t familiar – though let’s be honest, you are – this is Ron Gilbert’s latest opus, to which Dave Grossman also contributed. It’s basically Monkey Island 7.