Original Bones song :o)
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Shameful confession time:
I have just got that, in Monkey Island 2, âPhatt Islandâ means⊠âFat Islandâ⊠
Do you know why Melée Island is called the way it is? Because it sure was a minor revelation for me when I found out!
Please do elaborate. From my own experience, I remember reading or hearing the term âmelee combatâ for the first time only years after playing MI and thinking âhey, thatâs a familiar nameâ. Took a few more to get it 
(While playing MI, I always associated its name with bees or honey⊠https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meli-Park
)
Hmm, no, I donât know. Itâs a fictional name (on the contrary, Monkey Island do exists for real).
Whatâs the origin for MelĂ©e Island?
I donât know that.
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It should be related to the fights. A melee is that moment in rugby in which everybody is packed together struggling for the possess of the ball.
Mischia, in italiano.
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So, MĂȘlĂ©e Island should mean: the island with a mix of pirates, voodoo ladies, whatever?
Melee is located in japan (hope the link works).
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MĂȘlĂ©e itâs actually the french word for that. In English, itâs called scrum.
Which is also a software development methodology that bosses love and developers hate because itâs full of nonsense overhead that takes the developers away from actually developing stuff but allows the management to obtain numbers they can manage and understand and who cares if the code is shitty.
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Melee combat is another word for fighting with close ranged weapons. Like with swords. You learn sword fighting on Melee island, IÂŽm pretty sure that is where the name comes from.
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Yeah, but why is Monkey Island called like that?
Wait, I think I know.
Oh, sure. I donât even go to the toilet without checking the article on Wikipedia, nevertheless I didnât think to look for Melee⊠You seem right.
Learnt some new things that I overlooked in the past. But all the in-joke part made me think about hidden in-jokes that didnât make it into the game.
I just remembered the novelisation of The Dig by Alan Dean Foster. In the relative beginning of the book there is something, that wasnât in the game. AFAIR the president of the USA is notified of the meteor that is approaching the earth. In the English version itâs:
âWell, come on, then, Willy. So itâs a rock. What kind of rock? Big, small, purple ⊠what?â The
President waited, expectant but impatient.
A clear reference to Maniac Mansion. So now I wonder, if he knew the games and in-jokes or if the novelisation is based on a script for the game and this part just was cut or never implemented.
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This wasnât obvious to me, though I was just a kid and wondered what happened to those additional scenes. I finally understood several years ago when I played through again for the first time in about 10 years. So you are not alone!
And great observation on the Wolfenstein games! I never thought that, but it makes sense and would be interesting to see if there was any inspiration there.
Castle Wolfenstein (1981)
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade The Graphic Adventure (1989)
A melee is a fight. A typical thing in the life of a pirate.
Well it was a secret that LeChuck and his crew were hiding there⊠But mainly I think itâs because it was a play on the typical names of adventure stories of the time.
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Although there was a secret of Monkey Island before LeChuck hid there. Estevan in the Scumm Bar tells you this. He mentions that LeChuck was looking for it.
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