I don’t remember if that rickroll was written by Ron or not. Did this community ever discover who wrote that book? ![]()
These are different arguments. let’s examine then one by one.
Well, of course he remembers what the original secret is. But I think you mean “are you confident he remembers he scattered clues that the secret is about the island”. Is it possible he forgot? In theory it is; but we know he replayed MI1 twice before starting the design of RtMI, so I think we can rule this out.
This is a different argument. He might change the secret, knowing he is contradicting the clues he gave, and hope most fans won’t notice. Ok. But he also knows that some fans will notice. He knows he will be exposed and called to answer. And then he will have no reason not to reveal what the original secret was. So, in the worst case, we are going to learn from an interview what the original secret was. Not ideal, but it’s something.
Right, I forgot about the recent play-throughs.
The fact is that he never provided many clues or clear clues. From the game dialogues, it’s clear that the secret has something to do with the island. But Ron can pretty much create any fact about the island, given that he never gave clues about it.
I’m also talking about the clues in the interviews he gave true the years. He constrained his own freedom quite a lot with those.
If he’s changed the secret so as to contradict those interviews, he will be called to answer about that too ![]()
I don’t remember meaningful clues given in those interviews. One time he hinted at the many anachronisms existing in MI1 and MI2, and even in that case it wasn’t clear if he was talking about “the” secret or not.
They aren’t clues but they are still constraints. For example, he said (quoting from memory): “if you really pay attention to what’s going on, you might be able to get close to discovering the secret”. After playing RtMI, someone is going to say "wait a minute: how would I possibly have guessed that, by paying attention to MI1 and MI2? " And that will expose him.
Another example of constraint: he said he conceived the secret from the beginning, and that he conceived the ending to MI2 much later. And that the ending of MI2 connects to the secret, but is not the secret.
Quite a few constraints. If he has changed the secret, he can’t possibly have respected all those contraints. Then we will know he changed it.
OK, I’m convinced that the constrains are enough to make a change of mind very unlikely. ![]()
In any case, if you rotate the map of Monkey Island by 90 degrees, you get a chicken and that might be the secret:
You’re joking but I can see that working really well!
Like when Indy goes on top of the stairs and looks at the floor from above :
so he suddenly discovers a secret by looking from above.
Guybrush could watch the island from a ballon maybe…

THAT’S THE TOTTENHAM LOGO
SECRET SOLVED
Madre de Dios! Es el Pollo Diablo!
There is a different Thimbleweed book that has a narrative about kids listening to Ron Gilbert tell them a story. Then they ask him to tell them the last part. He says he can’t do that, but he can tell them a different story instead.
I would say it’s the closest link connecting Thimbleweed Park to the Secret of Monkey Island, but I’m pretty sure all those books were fanwritten.
I wish I could remember that book’s title or section.
Chicken Island!!!
EDIT: The hanged captain died at about where the PULLEY would be. Coincidence???!
I’m pretty sure you’re referring to the “13” series, which has been co-written by members of this forum
I know because the ending about Ron telling a story (the book called “Uncle Ron!”) was by me.
It’s basically a “choose your own adventure” series, where the first book, called “13 - A worthy beginning” (by @ZakPhoenixMcKracken ) would then end with two choices which were the titles of the two books you’d have to read depending on what you chose, and so on.
Unfortunately they were all scattered in different sections so probably nobody ever read the whole game ![]()
They are all in the 1.6 section, near the spiral staircase: from here…
…to here:
Al the titles begins with the “13:”, because they are 13 books.
Start with “A Worthy beginning”. At the end of the pages, you have 2 choices: they are other book titles. Choose the book you want to continue the story.
I made the very same mental connection, but I thought it was too obscure to post.
Oh, my bad. I remembered they were scattered, I don’t know why.
That’s because during our internal conversation with Ron Gilbert, there was an initial idea to scatter the books all around. At the end, since there is an incredible number of backer books, Ron choosed to group all our 13 books together. And I think it was a wiser move.
Since I’m a crazy completist, I would have liked them scattered all around the library and getting an achievement for reading them all. ![]()
Someone in a Monkey Island discord linked this: Aric’s World
Reading the three early documents on Monkey Island? I’m pretty convinced that, whatever the Secret of Monkey Island is nowadays, it was originally meant as the hellgate and accompanying undead resurrection. Note that the concept of a “secret of Monkey Island” seems to exist before the game had anachronisms as a running gag.
“The secret was unknown, but legends value it as priceless.”
“A bizarre glowing crack which sits exactly where the map says the treasure should be.”
“That crack descends to a place at the center of the earth, the name of which changes from religion to religion, from faith to faith. Most pirates call it Hell.”



