Monkey Island 1, 2, 3 remakes!

Adventure/Lucasfilm Games
82

ok, the problem with those remakes is the popularity! Those remakes had high expectations that hasn’t been done perfectly. If anybody is working on super famous tittle that has millions of fans, we wanna see a huge improvements. What is happening in most cases, studios just trace original art, doesn’t bring anything new, and just improve the audio quality.

That is not enough! 100% or nothing.

Lucas Malaysia did very lame job on MISE 1, and that was very scary moment for every fan! the art looks like unfinished concept art with rough brushes. I was always wondering why, … MI 1 started this beautiful madness, and they decided to ruin it with lazy art brushes? rough, fast job.

Now, MISE 2…got more attention, now it looks like a finished concept art that is missing lots of details and smoothness. That brings up another question why? … If Ron started this great story, why they didn’t do it for 100%? answer? money? deadlines? I still strongly believe, that George had his plan to sell his company any time soon and he wanted satisfy his fans before he totally destroyed LucasArts. It has been planned for loooong time.

Believe it or not, selling a huge expensive company might takes a years and you need to think about all consequences.
Also, all employees got a gifts like a ipads etc. that’s approved :gift: basically saying: Sorry guys, I sold you to Mickey Mouse…hard times are coming… pack your stuff.

Anyway, why he chosen to remake Monkey Islands?? There are other games that could be done too…and he is more familiar and original creator of Indiana Jones… was he afraid to ruin his baby? or is it, because Monkey Island could be more popular? …

Conclusion, whatever you guys say, … they didn’t do a great job…they did “ok” job.

83

Thank you for posting, what a brilliant style. All Lucasart remakes looks horrible compared to this.

84

@patrik3dspacek just curious about what improvements you would have hoped to see in MI1 and 2 special editions that wouldn’t be bashed by hardcore fans and purists… specially since most of them rave about those games not needing remakes :P.

Also George Lucas didn’t care about Lucas Arts for a very long time before he sold everything to Disney.
The special edition was promoted by a director that took over and actually liked p&c adventure games and wanted to bring them back, though the SE was done with very limited resources, at the time they didn’t know if the remake would make a profit (hence the rushed visuals), and even less sure for a remake of the second one was going to be possible.

In any case I don’t hate what they did on the special editions, and I enjoy MI2SE much more than I did the original (which is my top favorite game to date).

I’m kind of at odds with your stance on the remakes when there are lots of people bashing FoASE for basically the same reasons :ransome:.

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85

Using the original art of MI2 in high quality and resolution would be great. I don’t think anyone could bash that.

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86

It is a great game, but it’s just… wrong. It has NO connection to the first two games. MI2 ends with Guybrush and LeChuck being kids… and now Guybrush is adult again? And why is Elaine at war with LeChuck? And why is Elaine willing to marry Guybrush despite making it clear in MI2 that she hates him?

If it weren’t sold as “MI3” but something extra, non-canon, it wouldn’t have gotten that much hate. When it came out, I liked it, but even then I was puzzled by the lack of connection to the story. Then I grew up and understood how big of an issue it was.

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87

IIRC, Elaine wondered at the end of the second game, if LeChuck jinxed Guybrush. The fun fair environment could just be a charm.
Elaine’s at war with LeChuck, because he wants to marry her, but she doesn’t. Kinda like in the first game?
I’m not sure why she wants to marry him, but shortly before he falls into the big hole, she agrees to help him. If she really hated him, she could just have left him hanging there… But I agree, liking you enough to not let you die hanging on a rope is not the same as being willing to marry you.

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88

Well, she even published a book on how awful it was to be with him! :stuck_out_tongue: How could she then say he was the only man he ever loved, and accepting to marry him without hesitation? That didn’t make any sense.

89

I just think that there is a good reason why Luke didn’t marry Leia despite them being somewhat attracted to each other in the Star Wars V.

90

Elaine is Guybrush’s cousin?

91

The only one that needed new graphics is CoMI, which should have been remade in the style of MI1 & 2.

92

You mean something like this?

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93

Now that you mention the EGA version. The mood of the dock was changed quite significantly from EGA to VGA. So would the only true version be EGA? (I played EGA version only once in my life and knew only the old interface VGA version for most of the time.)

Early morning in EGA:

In the middle of the night in VGA:

full20090604212534.jpg1280×720 65.6 KB

Full moon night in SE:

maxresdefault.jpg1280×720 80.3 KB

Also the new interface VGA version is missing the insert floppies gag, as this version was published on CD as far as I remember.

94

It wasn’t the dawn, it was sunset. After your dialogue with the important looking pirates, when you come out again, the sun has gone down.

95

I believe so. I think Ron himself even sad that´s his ultimate version, because that is the one he worked on.

I like the closeups of the VGA version better, they look like real people.

96

I played the EGA version first. But I think that the VGA version is simply better, because of the 256 colors, which were well used. Wasn’t it by Mark Ferrari too? Anyway the closeups were completely redrawn, while the rest of the game was very faithful to the original, with only some remarkable exception. When I bought the VGA CD version (yes, I pirated the EGA) I couldn’t wait to see that sunset in 256 colors and I was very disappointed to see it was missing.

97

Mark Ferrari was directly involved in the EGA version only, as far as I know.

98

Oh, OK. Anyway I have to say that who did the VGA version did a good job because replicated the mood remaining faithful to the original. I don’t think the same about the FM Towns version of Zak, for instance. The textures of the backgrounds (especially the floor) is very cluttered…

99

AFAIK all early EGA to VGA upgrades were done for Japanese FM-TOWNS releases and were later backported to PC. Zak was just forgotten. And Loom was shortened for the Talkie version, as for dialogue everything was present as audio track and didn’t have enough space/time.

Loom Talkie was never published in non-English countries officially, so most people know only the EGA version.
There was a German EGA version of Monkey Island 1, though I never found a copy, must be almost forgotten or OOP. On the other hand the CD VGA version of MI1 was available in 2 editions, with MI2 and only the English MI1 and just MI1 but in 5 languages including German. And it seems this version was never sold in Germany officially. All LucasArts box and budget magazine release featured only the German VGA floppy version.

Kind of confusing history.

100

The in-game credits of the VGA version are saying: “256 color art by Tami Borowick, James Dollar, Bill Eaken, Avril Harrison, Iain McCaig, Jim McLeod, Michael Stemmle, and Sean Turner”.

No. I bought the Loom talkie in Germany in one of the biggest stores. :slight_smile:

No, I bought (and still own) that version. :slight_smile:

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101

Have never seen either of it. And never seen it in any mag like Bestseller Games, which published all classic adventures back then. And at some point of time I bought this collection:

At least according to Amazon it was released in 2000, though I’m not sure. Could be it. I bought it in Saturn I think. Perhaps both versions were released at some point later, but I never could get them officially on CD. Now thanks to GOG I at least have legal digital copies even in English of all the games.