The Secret of Monkey Island
Encyclopedia
The Secret of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game
developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by the same company after its name was changed to LucasArts. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series
. The fifth game to use the SCUMM
engine, The Secret of Monkey Island was released in October 1990, and was primarily designed by Ron Gilbert
, with Tim Schafer
and Dave Grossman. The trio also led the development of the sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
.
adventure game
played from a third-person perspective. The player guides Guybrush Threepwood through the game's world by using point-and-click
mouse interface. Guybrush can be made to interact with environment by selecting from a variety of verb commands, which include "talk to" for talking to another characters, "pick up" for picking up items, "give to" for giving an object to someone and "look at" for looking at something. Players must properly construct action combinations between commands and the world's objects in order to successfully solve puzzles and thus progress in the game. While conversing with another characters, the player may choose between various topics for discussion which are listed in the dialog tree; the game is considered to be one of the first titles to incorporate that system. The in-game action is frequently interrupted by cutscenes, non-interactive animated sequences which are used to provide information about character personalities and advance the plot. Like several another LucasArts adventure games
, The Secret of Monkey Island features design philosophy which makes player character's death impossible.
island of Mêlée, where a youth named Guybrush Threepwood
wants to be a pirate. He seeks out the Pirate Leaders, who set him three challenges to prove himself a pirate: defeat Carla, the island's swordmaster in insult swordfighting, steal a statue from the Governor's mansion, and find buried treasure.
Along the way he meets several interesting characters, including Stan the used boat salesman, Meathook (a fellow with hooks on both hands), a prisoner named Otis, the three men of low moral fiber and, most significantly, the gorgeous Governor Elaine Marley
. The ghost pirate LeChuck
, however, has been in love with Elaine since his living days. While Guybrush is busy, LeChuck's ghost crew abduct her, taking her to Monkey Island. Guybrush gathers a crew (Carla, Meathook, and Otis), buys a boat, and sets out to find the mysterious island and free Elaine.
When Guybrush finally reaches Monkey Island, he explores it and discovers a band of cannibals and a strange hermit named Herman Toothrot. After he helps the cannibals recover a lost voodoo ingredient (a magical root) that was confiscated by LeChuck, they provide him with a seltzer bottle filled with "voodoo root elixir" that can destroy ghosts. However, when Guybrush goes after LeChuck, he is told that LeChuck went to Mêlée Island to marry Elaine.
Guybrush returns to Mêlée and goes to the church to prevent the wedding. When he arrives at the church wedding, he realises that Elaine had her own plan to escape. Guybrush loses the elixir and LeChuck starts beating him, until they arrive at the ship emporium where he finds a bottle of root beer. Substituting the beverage for the lost ghost-fighting elixir, he sprays LeChuck and the ghost pirate is destroyed. With LeChuck defeated, Guybrush and Elaine enjoy a romantic moment, watching fireworks.
conceived the idea of a pirate adventure game in 1988, after completing Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
. He first wrote story ideas about pirates while spending the weekend at a friend's house. Gilbert experimented with introductory paragraphs to find a satisfactory idea. His initial story featured unnamed villains that would eventually become LeChuck and Elaine; Guybrush was absent at this point. He pitched it to Lucasfilm Games's staff as a series of short stories. Gilbert's idea was warmly received, but production was postponed because Lucasfilm Games assigned its designers, including Gilbert, to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
. Development of The Last Crusade was finished in 1989, which allowed Gilbert to begin production of The Secret of Monkey Island, then known internally under the working title Mutiny on Monkey Island.
Gilbert soon realised that it would be difficult to design the game by himself; he decided to join forces with Tim Schafer
and Dave Grossman, both of whom he hired for Lucasfilm. The game's insult swordfighting mechanic was influenced by swashbuckling movies starring Errol Flynn
, which Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman often watched for inspiration. They noticed that pirates in those films often taunted their opponents instead of attacking them, which gave the designers the idea to base the game's duels on insults rather than combat. Writer Orson Scott Card helped them write the insults during a visit to Lucasfilms' headquarters at Skywalker Ranch
. Many of Gilbert's original gameplay ideas were abandoned during the production process, although he stated that "most of that stuff was left out for a reason".
Gilbert originally wanted the game's tone to be serious, but the humorous dialogue written by Schafer and Grossman convinced him to revise the game as a comedy. Nevertheless, Grossman said that the plot retained some of Gilbert's original ideas: “It’s a story about this young man who comes to an island in search of his life’s dream. He’s pursuing his career goals and he discovers love in the process and winds up thinking that was actually more important than what he was doing to begin with. You’re laughing, but there’s actually something deeper going on as well.” When work on the plot began, Gilbert discovered that Schafer's and Grossman's writing styles were too different to form a cohesive whole: Grossman's was "very kind of a dry, sarcastic humor" and Schafer's was "just a little more in your face". In reaction, Gilbert assigned them to different characters and story moments depending on what type of comedy was required. Grossman believed that this benefited the game's writing, as he and Schafer "were all funny in slightly different ways, and it worked well together". Schafer and Grossman wrote most of the dialogue while they were programming the game; as a result, much of it was improvised. Some of the dialogue was based on the designers' personal experiences, such as Guybrush's line "I had a feeling in hell here would be mushrooms", which came from Schafer's own hatred of fungi.
The game's world and characters were designed primarily by Gilbert. After having read Tim Powers
' On Stranger Tides
, he decided to add paranormal
themes to the game's plot. He also cited Powers' book as an influence on the characters, particularly those of Guybrush and LeChuck. Inspiration for the game's ambiance came from Gilbert's favorite childhood amusement park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. Grossman said that Gilbert always wanted "to step off the ride" and "talk to the people who lived in that world". Near the final stages of the design work, Gilbert introduced several characters who were not directly related to the game's story. He considered this to be an important decision, as the player would need those seemingly minor characters in later parts of the game and would receive a chance to "really interact with them".
, but committed a number of mistakes during development. For example, dead end situations that prevented the player from completing the game and poorly implemented triggers for cutscenes. Gilbert aimed to avoid such errors in The Secret of Monkey Island. The team decided to make it impossible for the player character to die, which focused gameplay primarily on world exploration.
The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth Lucasfilm Games project powered by the SCUMM
engine, originally developed for Maniac Mansion. The company had gradually modified the engine since its creation. For Maniac Mansion, the developers hard coded verb commands in the SCUMM scripting language. These commands become more abstract in subsequent versions of the engine. The developers carried over the practice of referring to individual segments of the gameworld as "rooms", even though the areas in Monkey Island were outdoors. The game uses the same version of the engine used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with minor changes. A dialog tree was added, which facilitated conversation options and the sword-fighting puzzles. The developers removed the "What is" option (an input command that describes an on-screen object to the player) in favor of allowing the player to simply highlight the object with the mouse cursor. The game's improved interface became the standard for the company's later titles. The game also introduced logical verb shortcuts, which could be performed with the mouse; for example, clicking on a character defaults to the "talk" action, the most obvious action in the situation. SCUMM's visuals were updated for the game—the original EGA
version had a 320x200 pixel resolution rendered in 16 colors. According to artist Steve Purcell
, that became a major limitation for the art team; due to a low number of "ghastly" colors, they often chose bizarre tones for backgrounds. They chose black and white for Guybrush's outfit for the same reason. The VGA
version of the game later corrected these issues by implementing 256 color support, which allowed for more advanced background and character art.
The game's "pirate reggae
" music was composed by Lucasfilm Games' in-house musician Michael Land
in MIDI format. It was his first project at the company. The game was originally released for floppy disk
in 1990, but a CD-ROM
version with a high-quality CD soundtrack followed in 1992. The music has remained popular, and has been remixed by the musicians of OverClocked ReMix
and by the game's fans.
, Microsoft Windows
, and Xbox 360
exclusively via download; PlayStation 3
, Mac OS
and iPad
versions followed on early 2010 for download on their respective services. It features remade, hand-drawn visuals, remastered musical score, all-new voice work for characters and three-step hint system; Another notable feature is the ability to switch between remake and the original game on fly. Switching to the original game, however, means loss of all other features mentioned above.
The remake's idea was conceived in 2008 by LucasArts's game producer Craig Derrick and his team. After doing some research on Monkey Island series's history they decided to make "something fresh and new while staying true to the original", which resulted in idea of The Secret of Monkey Islands remake. The decision to distribute the game online was explained by LucasArts's Web Producer Brooks Brown as being spurred by the fact that "digital downloads have finally gotten going". LucasArts confirmed the game to be in works on June 1, 2009; rumors of its development appeared several days earlier, when the Xbox 360 version of the game received USK
rating. The game was finally released in July 2009 after having been shown to public at the June 2009 E3 for first time.
praised the designers' attention to detail, and cited the game's humor as a high point. Although they believed that the game was too expensive, they summarized it as "a highly enjoyable graphic adventure replete with interesting puzzles, a fantastic Roland
soundtrack, superb VGA
graphics, smooth-scrolling animation, and some of the funniest lines ever seen on your computer screen." Duncan MacDonald of Zero praised the graphics and found the game "quite amusing". His favorite aspect was the fine-tuned difficulty level, which he believed was "just right". He ended his review, "At last an adventure game that's enjoyable rather than frustrating."
Paul Glancey of Computer and Video Games
consider the game superior to Lucasfilm's earlier adventure titles, and wrote that, "Usually the entertainment you get from an adventure is derived solely from solving puzzles, but the hilarious characters and situations, and the movie-like presentation ... make playing this more like taking part in a comedy film, so it's much more enjoyable." He considered the puzzles to be "brilliantly conceived" and found the game's controls accessible. He summarized it as "utterly enthralling". ACE
s Steve Cooke also found the controls convenient, and he praised the game's atmosphere. He wrote that, "in graphics and sound terms ... Monkey Island, along with King's Quest V, is currently at the head of the pack." However, he disliked the designers' running joke of placing "TM" after character and place names, which he thought detracted from the atmosphere. He singled out the game's writing, characters and plot structure as its best elements.
Amiga Power magazine described it as "the first truly accessible adventure" and awarded it 90%.
The game is also in Computer Gaming World
's Hall of Fame and IGN
's Video Game Hall of Fame. IGN rated the Xbox Live Arcade version the 20th best title of all time for that platform in a September 2010 listing. In 2009, IGN
named The Secret of Monky Island one of the ten best LucasArts adventure game.
Finally, Gaming Bus gave it a rating of A-, citing a graphics overhaul, voice acting, good music, better controls, and hints as positive additions to the game, and a lack of additional content and hints that can be too helpful as negatives.
, was released in 1991 and focuses on LeChuck's return. Six years later, LucasArts released The Curse of Monkey Island
, which features a new visual design. In 2000, the company released Escape from Monkey Island
, which uses the GrimE
engine of Grim Fandango
to produce 3D graphics. The next title, Tales of Monkey Island
, is a series of five episodic chapters.
In 2005, student Chris Heady wrote, directed, and produced a live stage version of The Secret of Monkey Island at Hammond High School
in Columbia, Maryland. LucasArts licensed the play for a year, but stipulated that the script be used for nonprofit purposes and could not be distributed outside cast and crew. The adaptation resulted in Guinness World Records
awarding the game a record for the "first graphic adventure to become a stage play".
The grog
recipe found in Monkey Island was mistakenly reported as real by the Argentinian news channel C5N, which urged teenagers not to consume the dangerous Grog XD drink. In Tales of Monkey Island
, Guybrush refers to this while pushing the Grog XD button on a Grog machine.
The developers included a character from Loom, Cobb, in the game. When approached for conversation, Cobb encourages the player to purchase Loom. In creating the remake, Lucasarts' community manager, Brooks Brown, had considered updating the reference to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
because Loom was not on the market at the time, but concluded that the game would not be the same if such changes were implemented. Prior to the Special Edition release, however, LucasArts announced that Loom, along with other games from its back catalog, would be made available on Steam.
Graphic adventure game
A graphic adventure game is a form of adventure game. They are distinct from text adventures. Whereas a player must actively observe using commands such as "look" in a text-based adventure, graphic adventures revolutionized gameplay by making use of natural human perception...
developed by Lucasfilm Games and published by the same company after its name was changed to LucasArts. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series
Monkey Island series
Monkey Island is the collective name given to a series of five graphical adventure games produced and published by LucasArts, originally known as LucasFilm Games through the development of the first game in the series; the games have produced a significiant cult following. The fifth installment of...
. The fifth game to use the SCUMM
SCUMM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
engine, The Secret of Monkey Island was released in October 1990, and was primarily designed by Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert
Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...
, with Tim Schafer
Tim Schafer
Timothy Schafer is an American computer game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in January 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts...
and Dave Grossman. The trio also led the development of the sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
.
Gameplay
The Secret of Monkey Island is a 2D2D
2D or II-D may refer to:* 2-d, two-dimensional space* 2D geometric model* Bi-dimensional space* 2D computer graphics* 2D , a member of the virtual band Gorillaz* Oflag II-D* Stalag II-D* Transcription factor II D...
adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
played from a third-person perspective. The player guides Guybrush Threepwood through the game's world by using point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
mouse interface. Guybrush can be made to interact with environment by selecting from a variety of verb commands, which include "talk to" for talking to another characters, "pick up" for picking up items, "give to" for giving an object to someone and "look at" for looking at something. Players must properly construct action combinations between commands and the world's objects in order to successfully solve puzzles and thus progress in the game. While conversing with another characters, the player may choose between various topics for discussion which are listed in the dialog tree; the game is considered to be one of the first titles to incorporate that system. The in-game action is frequently interrupted by cutscenes, non-interactive animated sequences which are used to provide information about character personalities and advance the plot. Like several another LucasArts adventure games
LucasArts adventure games
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s, LucasArts was well known for their point-and-click graphic adventure games, nearly all of which received high scoring reviews at the time of their release. Their style tended towards the humorous, often irreverent or slapstick humour, with a few exceptions...
, The Secret of Monkey Island features design philosophy which makes player character's death impossible.
Plot
The game begins on the CaribbeanCaribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
island of Mêlée, where a youth named Guybrush Threepwood
Guybrush Threepwood
Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood is the main character of the Monkey Island series of computer adventure games by LucasArts. The voice of Guybrush is actor Dominic Armato in the third, fourth and fifth games, as well as the enhanced remakes of The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's...
wants to be a pirate. He seeks out the Pirate Leaders, who set him three challenges to prove himself a pirate: defeat Carla, the island's swordmaster in insult swordfighting, steal a statue from the Governor's mansion, and find buried treasure.
Along the way he meets several interesting characters, including Stan the used boat salesman, Meathook (a fellow with hooks on both hands), a prisoner named Otis, the three men of low moral fiber and, most significantly, the gorgeous Governor Elaine Marley
Elaine Marley
Elaine Marley–Threepwood is a fictional character in the Monkey Island series of graphic adventure video games. Created by Ron Gilbert for LucasArts, the character first appears in The Secret of Monkey Island and is one of the core characters in the franchise...
. The ghost pirate LeChuck
LeChuck
LeChuck is a fictional character in the Monkey Island series of graphic adventure games. Created by Ron Gilbert for LucasArts, LeChuck was introduced in The Secret of Monkey Island and is the chief antagonist of the series. Gilbert drew on aspects of the characters in the 1988 novel On Stranger...
, however, has been in love with Elaine since his living days. While Guybrush is busy, LeChuck's ghost crew abduct her, taking her to Monkey Island. Guybrush gathers a crew (Carla, Meathook, and Otis), buys a boat, and sets out to find the mysterious island and free Elaine.
When Guybrush finally reaches Monkey Island, he explores it and discovers a band of cannibals and a strange hermit named Herman Toothrot. After he helps the cannibals recover a lost voodoo ingredient (a magical root) that was confiscated by LeChuck, they provide him with a seltzer bottle filled with "voodoo root elixir" that can destroy ghosts. However, when Guybrush goes after LeChuck, he is told that LeChuck went to Mêlée Island to marry Elaine.
Guybrush returns to Mêlée and goes to the church to prevent the wedding. When he arrives at the church wedding, he realises that Elaine had her own plan to escape. Guybrush loses the elixir and LeChuck starts beating him, until they arrive at the ship emporium where he finds a bottle of root beer. Substituting the beverage for the lost ghost-fighting elixir, he sprays LeChuck and the ghost pirate is destroyed. With LeChuck defeated, Guybrush and Elaine enjoy a romantic moment, watching fireworks.
Origin and writing
Ron GilbertRon Gilbert
Ron Gilbert is an American computer game designer, programmer, and producer, best known for his work on several classic LucasArts adventure games, including Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Gilbert was also co-founder of Humongous Entertainment and its sister company Cavedog...
conceived the idea of a pirate adventure game in 1988, after completing Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a graphical adventure game, originally released in October 1988 , published by LucasArts . It was the second game to use the SCUMM engine, after Maniac Mansion...
. He first wrote story ideas about pirates while spending the weekend at a friend's house. Gilbert experimented with introductory paragraphs to find a satisfactory idea. His initial story featured unnamed villains that would eventually become LeChuck and Elaine; Guybrush was absent at this point. He pitched it to Lucasfilm Games's staff as a series of short stories. Gilbert's idea was warmly received, but production was postponed because Lucasfilm Games assigned its designers, including Gilbert, to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1989 , published by Lucasfilm Games . It was the third game to use the SCUMM engine.-Plot:The plot closely follows, and expands upon, the film of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...
. Development of The Last Crusade was finished in 1989, which allowed Gilbert to begin production of The Secret of Monkey Island, then known internally under the working title Mutiny on Monkey Island.
Gilbert soon realised that it would be difficult to design the game by himself; he decided to join forces with Tim Schafer
Tim Schafer
Timothy Schafer is an American computer game designer. He founded Double Fine Productions in January 2000, after having spent over a decade at LucasArts...
and Dave Grossman, both of whom he hired for Lucasfilm. The game's insult swordfighting mechanic was influenced by swashbuckling movies starring Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
, which Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman often watched for inspiration. They noticed that pirates in those films often taunted their opponents instead of attacking them, which gave the designers the idea to base the game's duels on insults rather than combat. Writer Orson Scott Card helped them write the insults during a visit to Lucasfilms' headquarters at Skywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch is the name of the workplace of film director and producer George Lucas. It is located in a secluded, but open area near Nicasio, California, in Marin County. The ranch is located on Lucas Valley Road, although Lucas is not related to the road's namesake, who was a...
. Many of Gilbert's original gameplay ideas were abandoned during the production process, although he stated that "most of that stuff was left out for a reason".
Gilbert originally wanted the game's tone to be serious, but the humorous dialogue written by Schafer and Grossman convinced him to revise the game as a comedy. Nevertheless, Grossman said that the plot retained some of Gilbert's original ideas: “It’s a story about this young man who comes to an island in search of his life’s dream. He’s pursuing his career goals and he discovers love in the process and winds up thinking that was actually more important than what he was doing to begin with. You’re laughing, but there’s actually something deeper going on as well.” When work on the plot began, Gilbert discovered that Schafer's and Grossman's writing styles were too different to form a cohesive whole: Grossman's was "very kind of a dry, sarcastic humor" and Schafer's was "just a little more in your face". In reaction, Gilbert assigned them to different characters and story moments depending on what type of comedy was required. Grossman believed that this benefited the game's writing, as he and Schafer "were all funny in slightly different ways, and it worked well together". Schafer and Grossman wrote most of the dialogue while they were programming the game; as a result, much of it was improvised. Some of the dialogue was based on the designers' personal experiences, such as Guybrush's line "I had a feeling in hell here would be mushrooms", which came from Schafer's own hatred of fungi.
The game's world and characters were designed primarily by Gilbert. After having read Tim Powers
Tim Powers
Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
' On Stranger Tides
On Stranger Tides
On Stranger Tides is a 1987 historical fantasy novel written by Tim Powers. It was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and placed second in the annual Locus poll for best fantasy novel....
, he decided to add paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
themes to the game's plot. He also cited Powers' book as an influence on the characters, particularly those of Guybrush and LeChuck. Inspiration for the game's ambiance came from Gilbert's favorite childhood amusement park ride, Pirates of the Caribbean. Grossman said that Gilbert always wanted "to step off the ride" and "talk to the people who lived in that world". Near the final stages of the design work, Gilbert introduced several characters who were not directly related to the game's story. He considered this to be an important decision, as the player would need those seemingly minor characters in later parts of the game and would receive a chance to "really interact with them".
Creative and technical design
Gilbert, Schader and Grossman's primary goal was to create a simpler and more accessible gameplay model than those presented in previous Lucasfilm titles. Gilbert had conceived the main designs and puzzles before production began, which resulted in the bulk of the designers' work to flesh out his ideas. He was frustrated by the adventure games that Sierra On-Line was releasing at the time, and later said that "you died any time you did anything wrong". Gilbert considered such gameplay as "a cheap way out for the designer". He had previously applied his design ideas to the 1987 graphic adventure title Maniac MansionManiac Mansion
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It was Lucasfilm's first published video game, and it was initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. A comedy horror parody of B movies, it follows teenager Dave Miller as he ventures...
, but committed a number of mistakes during development. For example, dead end situations that prevented the player from completing the game and poorly implemented triggers for cutscenes. Gilbert aimed to avoid such errors in The Secret of Monkey Island. The team decided to make it impossible for the player character to die, which focused gameplay primarily on world exploration.
The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth Lucasfilm Games project powered by the SCUMM
SCUMM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
engine, originally developed for Maniac Mansion. The company had gradually modified the engine since its creation. For Maniac Mansion, the developers hard coded verb commands in the SCUMM scripting language. These commands become more abstract in subsequent versions of the engine. The developers carried over the practice of referring to individual segments of the gameworld as "rooms", even though the areas in Monkey Island were outdoors. The game uses the same version of the engine used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, with minor changes. A dialog tree was added, which facilitated conversation options and the sword-fighting puzzles. The developers removed the "What is" option (an input command that describes an on-screen object to the player) in favor of allowing the player to simply highlight the object with the mouse cursor. The game's improved interface became the standard for the company's later titles. The game also introduced logical verb shortcuts, which could be performed with the mouse; for example, clicking on a character defaults to the "talk" action, the most obvious action in the situation. SCUMM's visuals were updated for the game—the original EGA
Enhanced Graphics Adapter
The Enhanced Graphics Adapter is the IBM PC computer display standard specification which is between CGA and VGA in terms of color and space resolution. Introduced in October 1984 by IBM shortly after its new PC/AT, EGA produces a display of 16 simultaneous colors from a palette of 64 at a...
version had a 320x200 pixel resolution rendered in 16 colors. According to artist Steve Purcell
Steve Purcell
Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007...
, that became a major limitation for the art team; due to a low number of "ghastly" colors, they often chose bizarre tones for backgrounds. They chose black and white for Guybrush's outfit for the same reason. The VGA
Video Graphics Array
Video Graphics Array refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector or the 640×480 resolution...
version of the game later corrected these issues by implementing 256 color support, which allowed for more advanced background and character art.
The game's "pirate reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
" music was composed by Lucasfilm Games' in-house musician Michael Land
Michael Land
Michael Z. Land is an American video game composer and musician best known for his scores for various games produced by LucasArts.-Early life and career:Michael Land was born in the North Shore area north of Boston, Massachusetts...
in MIDI format. It was his first project at the company. The game was originally released for floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
in 1990, but a CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
version with a high-quality CD soundtrack followed in 1992. The music has remained popular, and has been remixed by the musicians of OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
and by the game's fans.
Special edition
The game's remake, titled The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, was released in July 2009 for iPhoneIPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
exclusively via download; PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
and iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
versions followed on early 2010 for download on their respective services. It features remade, hand-drawn visuals, remastered musical score, all-new voice work for characters and three-step hint system; Another notable feature is the ability to switch between remake and the original game on fly. Switching to the original game, however, means loss of all other features mentioned above.
The remake's idea was conceived in 2008 by LucasArts's game producer Craig Derrick and his team. After doing some research on Monkey Island series's history they decided to make "something fresh and new while staying true to the original", which resulted in idea of The Secret of Monkey Islands remake. The decision to distribute the game online was explained by LucasArts's Web Producer Brooks Brown as being spurred by the fact that "digital downloads have finally gotten going". LucasArts confirmed the game to be in works on June 1, 2009; rumors of its development appeared several days earlier, when the Xbox 360 version of the game received USK
Usk
Usk is a small town in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated 10 miles northeast of Newport.The River Usk flows through the town and is spanned by an ancient, arched stone bridge at the western entrance to the town. A castle above the town overlooks the ancient Anglo-Welsh border crossing - the river can...
rating. The game was finally released in July 2009 after having been shown to public at the June 2009 E3 for first time.
Reception
The Secret of Monkey Island received positive reviews from critics. Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser of DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
praised the designers' attention to detail, and cited the game's humor as a high point. Although they believed that the game was too expensive, they summarized it as "a highly enjoyable graphic adventure replete with interesting puzzles, a fantastic Roland
Roland Sound Canvas
Roland/Edirol Sound Canvas lineup is a series of PCM-based MIDI sound modules and PC sound cards primarily intended for computer music usage, created by Roland Corporation. All Sound Canvas modules are General MIDI compatible...
soundtrack, superb VGA
Video Graphics Array
Video Graphics Array refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector or the 640×480 resolution...
graphics, smooth-scrolling animation, and some of the funniest lines ever seen on your computer screen." Duncan MacDonald of Zero praised the graphics and found the game "quite amusing". His favorite aspect was the fine-tuned difficulty level, which he believed was "just right". He ended his review, "At last an adventure game that's enjoyable rather than frustrating."
Paul Glancey of Computer and Video Games
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
consider the game superior to Lucasfilm's earlier adventure titles, and wrote that, "Usually the entertainment you get from an adventure is derived solely from solving puzzles, but the hilarious characters and situations, and the movie-like presentation ... make playing this more like taking part in a comedy film, so it's much more enjoyable." He considered the puzzles to be "brilliantly conceived" and found the game's controls accessible. He summarized it as "utterly enthralling". ACE
ACE (games magazine)
ACE was a multi-format computer and video game magazine first published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing and later acquired by EMAP.-History:...
s Steve Cooke also found the controls convenient, and he praised the game's atmosphere. He wrote that, "in graphics and sound terms ... Monkey Island, along with King's Quest V, is currently at the head of the pack." However, he disliked the designers' running joke of placing "TM" after character and place names, which he thought detracted from the atmosphere. He singled out the game's writing, characters and plot structure as its best elements.
Amiga Power magazine described it as "the first truly accessible adventure" and awarded it 90%.
The game is also in Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...
's Hall of Fame and IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Video Game Hall of Fame. IGN rated the Xbox Live Arcade version the 20th best title of all time for that platform in a September 2010 listing. In 2009, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
named The Secret of Monky Island one of the ten best LucasArts adventure game.
Finally, Gaming Bus gave it a rating of A-, citing a graphics overhaul, voice acting, good music, better controls, and hints as positive additions to the game, and a lack of additional content and hints that can be too helpful as negatives.
Legacy
The Secret of Monkey Island spawned a four sequels. The first, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's RevengeMonkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
, was released in 1991 and focuses on LeChuck's return. Six years later, LucasArts released The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the third game in the Monkey Island series. It was released in and followed the successful games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge...
, which features a new visual design. In 2000, the company released Escape from Monkey Island
Escape from Monkey Island
Escape from Monkey Island is a computer adventure game developed and released by LucasArts in 2000. It is the fourth game in the Monkey Island series....
, which uses the GrimE
GrimE
GrimE is an adventure game engine, created by Bret Mogilefsky at LucasArts using the free software scripting language Lua. It was first used for Grim Fandango. Partly based on the Sith engine, GrimE was the successor to SCUMM, preserving some of that engine's features...
engine of Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango
Grim Fandango is a personal computer game in the graphic adventure genre released by LucasArts in 1998 and primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered, static backgrounds...
to produce 3D graphics. The next title, Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island is a 2009 graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games and LucasArts. It is the fifth game in the Monkey Island series, released nearly a decade after the previous installment, Escape from Monkey Island. Developed for Windows and the Wii console, the game was...
, is a series of five episodic chapters.
In 2005, student Chris Heady wrote, directed, and produced a live stage version of The Secret of Monkey Island at Hammond High School
Hammond High School (Columbia, Maryland)
Hammond High School, established in 1976, is a public secondary school located in Columbia, Maryland and is part of the Howard County Public School System. It is located near the Kings Contrivance Village Center, south of Maryland Route 32, east of U.S...
in Columbia, Maryland. LucasArts licensed the play for a year, but stipulated that the script be used for nonprofit purposes and could not be distributed outside cast and crew. The adaptation resulted in Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
awarding the game a record for the "first graphic adventure to become a stage play".
The grog
Grog
The word grog refers to a variety of alcoholic beverages. The word originally referred to a drink made with water or "small beer" and rum, which British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon introduced into the Royal Navy on 21 August 1740. Vernon wore a coat of grogram cloth and was nicknamed Old Grogram or...
recipe found in Monkey Island was mistakenly reported as real by the Argentinian news channel C5N, which urged teenagers not to consume the dangerous Grog XD drink. In Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island is a 2009 graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games and LucasArts. It is the fifth game in the Monkey Island series, released nearly a decade after the previous installment, Escape from Monkey Island. Developed for Windows and the Wii console, the game was...
, Guybrush refers to this while pushing the Grog XD button on a Grog machine.
The developers included a character from Loom, Cobb, in the game. When approached for conversation, Cobb encourages the player to purchase Loom. In creating the remake, Lucasarts' community manager, Brooks Brown, had considered updating the reference to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a multimedia project developed by LucasArts along with Dark Horse Comics, Lego, Hasbro, and Del Rey Books...
because Loom was not on the market at the time, but concluded that the game would not be the same if such changes were implemented. Prior to the Special Edition release, however, LucasArts announced that Loom, along with other games from its back catalog, would be made available on Steam.
External links
- The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition Official Website