I have always wondered why the developers spent time to let Guybrush reach some place, when there is nothing to do there.
One example is a path towards south, on the map of Melee Island. Another example is the upper side of the captain room of the Sea Monkey:
Yes. I got it after decades. 
Thanks to you.
My bet is that there was something to do there originally, and it got removed.
Those are usually my thought as well every time I find unused locations.
The code of MI1 contains several locations that didnāt make the cut and, along the years, Iāve read articles in which Ron states that both rooms and puzzle were removed from the game.
A lot of rooms in Monkey Island were cut and no one noticed.
Actually, I have to back up from my previous statement.
In this article (or its copy on Archive.org) Ron mentions Meathook among the characters that Guybrush meets during normal puzzles:
I like the way you meet Otis, Sword Master and Meathook during regular puzzles, then hire them later. Builds a sense of friendship before they are needed. They arenāt just three random people you meet for the first time while look for a crew.
Still, I donāt remember any pre-recruitment puzzle that requires Meathook to be solved. 
To me, the rooms in Melee forest always seemed randomly generated and in the article linked above, I have found that Ron states the same:
Back then, the randomly generated forest was cutting edge technology.
Did you mean that, despite the randomness, the maximum quantity of different generable rooms was 11 or so?
Probably with the caveat of in a particular playthrough.
It is not random. Maybe he confused it with some other forest. We had random forests in Zak McKracken and in Monkey Island 2.
Maybe, as he continues with āDisk space was at a premium.ā, he wasnāt referring to the maze property after all, but to the technique of reusing the assets. In fact, they invented pseudo rooms to achieve exactly that.
You can also randomly generate it on the design side only of course.
Yeah. That is why I never cared for part II
Well, if this is a shish kebab:
I like that! It adds realism!
I have a technical question: do I need to keep MI1 SE installed on my PC (though Steam) in order to play the Ultimate Talkie Edition?
No - the Ultimate Talkie is self contained. You can even transfer the Ultimate Talkie to a phone or tablet if you like - which doesnāt work with the SE!(just make sure you also include the extracted audio folders). For sure no need to keep the SE installation after building the UT.
One of the things I like the most about the last part of The Secret of Monkey Island is the correspondance between Herman Toothrot and the cannibals, that you discover via the messages left on various parts of the Island. Is one of those passages where the humouristic side of such adventures helps a lot in depicting a background story with a few simple notes (literally).
Theres a part I forgot about, right before you go into the alley and first meet Uncle Fester Shinytop. Thereās a mysterious voice that says āhey you, get over hereā. Do we ever find out what the voice was?
I like when Otis says thereās nothing to eat but rats. Seems pretty real.
YouTube has conveniently suggested to me to watch the following video. I never did this thing in the game, so I loaded a savegame just to try and experience it. 
Thatās awesome lol. I never tried that before either.
The fact that you can beat the game without ever talking to the voodoo lady kind of blows my mind
You have no idea how I felt ashamed when, back then, MI2 was announced and I read the first teasing articles in the magazine. Everybody and their dog were talking about the return of the Voodoo Lady, this mesmerizing character who contributed so much to the atmosphere of the game, and I was like āWhat Voodoo Lady?ā
Added: not to excuse my dumbness, but I would say that not linking a character to any puzzle and making it completely optional could be considered a narrative flaw or at least a waste of resources.
Added 2: I also believe that no other character mentions the existence of the Voodoo Lady. So, she doesnāt seem very well integrated to the world. In MI2 itās very different, she is needed for puzzles and other characters acknowledge her existence.
I actually saved the rat back then in the nineties. I remember the lines of Otisā rant after. I probably made most of the things possible while being stuck on Melee Island for a long time, just wandering around. No internet walktroughs available back then.
