WANTED: “Dial-A-Pirate” code wheel for Monkey Island [FOUND!]

Yeah, of course… :wink:

Anyway, here’s the link. I’m afraid the auction is over. Wow, it reached a quite high price, being with no box! When I saw it, the highest bid was 14EUR…

https://www.ebay.it/itm/Zak-McKracken-and-the-Mindbending-Aliens-vintage-Commodore-Amiga-game-LUCASFILM/202439460575?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

No way you’d be able to read it if it were any of our handwriting! I’m sure it was all laid out by a graphics design company we hired for the project. They probably hired a calligrapher.

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Well, my (early) birthday present to myself arrived yesterday (all the way from Italy!)
I am one VERY happy pirate! :blush:
(I broke the $20 rule tho, sorry Ron! :man_shrugging:)

Still on a look-out for the Code Wheel to complete my box… :mag:
Don’t suppose @RonGilbert’s got a spare being using as a coaster by any chance? :smile:

#YeahIKnow #WasWorthAShot

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I can send you my scans and you can print your own like this:

I know it looks like I have a spare, but really I don’t. It took me YEARS to get a complete Classic Tales set, and I was SO lucky to find one that had wheels in pristine condition too. You can see it’s printed in a deeper purple to the one that comes with the OEM box.

Actually come to think of it I do have a spare, my original Classic Tales code wheel (and the only one of the three that survived the fate of time)-

I still want to know where the hell I can find a poster like this:

To this day I regret not buying it when I had the chance. And this wasn’t based on a box scan. It pisses me off that people are selling prints of my box scans on ebay, this poster was an original textless print and it looks like it was in an art gallery. Ron, if you have one you want to send me please please do!!

Actually, (thanks to a very generous person on a LucasArts Facebook fan group),
I JUST bagged myself the missing code wheel! :partying_face:

(Yes, I’m a lucky git & don’t I know it! :sweat_smile:)

Thank you for the offer thos, @Aractus - much appreciated!
(P.S. I did NOT know the code-wheels that came with TWP are “smaller” ones - cute! :grin:)

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There are already scans of the wheel(s) as PDF files in the internet.

I have seen digital copies of that cover art on the web, both with and without the title. I have assumed that both versions were post-processed scans, but maybe the “clean” one even was a scan of an official poster print. I don’t know. I would like to buy an official copy, though there doesn’t seem to be any chance. Maybe I should print my own one - for private usage only, of course.

You’re sure it isn’t one of those hugely detailed scans you can print on poster fornat? I can find back the link.

I would also be surprised if the original painting would be on that scale.

No those are ones I printed, years ago. Fully functional. To get a nice clean edge for the top layer I combined the faces together like this (actually not “like” that, that’s the actual file). There’s some slight variance in the colours on some of each half of the faces, but if you look at a physical codewheel you’ll see it’s like that anyway (actually you can see it just from a plain scan as well). Anyway, you take that picture, take the raw scan clean it up a little bit (turn the background solid) and add the combined faces, and then you have a 2mm or whatever bleed you can trim from the rim when printed.

Yes, absolutely certain. There is more on the bottom and left side of the poster than has ever been on any box, and this was sold before anyone was printing these from scans. Even I could find one of these I’d be happy:

The seller wanted stupid money for that, and yes that’s an original OEM poster that Lucasfilm gave out for free to fans. Now all you can find are morons that sell posters based of my old box scan. I can make a much higher quality version now too using, although if I put it out there it will end up on ebay just like my old scan so not sure I want that.

I’ll do a scan of the Classic Tales code wheels (not separated just as they are) and post some pics here. You’ll be able to see how different the Ozisoft printed one looks to the OEM one.

You keep saying that… are you laserschwert or any of those guys?

I see how that picture has more image on the sides than even the original free poster (look at Guybrush’s arm, the monkey feet and the native’s elbow).
My guess is this is a poster based on the original painting by Steve Purcell. Or perhaps it is the only original in existence :scream:
Where did you see this?

I agree that people ask (and sometimes get) the craziest prices for this stuff. In case of the oiriginal free poster, there is indeed more collectors value than a “fake” newly printed one. Still, printing one of those isn’t cheap but it would be stupid to buy that on eBay for more than you can get it printed yourself (not forgetting about shipping and so on).

Now that is really heartwarming!

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Laserschwert used my scans for MI1 and 2, other people scanned other Lucasfilm boxes. I have a better way to match the colours between KIXX and OEM now too, and there’s a much better super-sizing algorithm than was used years ago as well. If I ever print one off from box scans it would be from the KIXX scan as it’s way more detailed than the OEM scan:

You clearly don’t believe me, so I’ll upload a bunch of them so you can see. I can recognise any image that’s based on them pretty much instantly, that includes the Wikipedia image (this looks like it was downsized from a filtered “poster” but it’s my box scan, and this is my version just downsized). These are all very old scans now done on a scanner I threw out years ago, but I can photograph the damage/wear that you see in all the images based off them.

Okay so scans (LARGE files), Monkey1-

“Cleaned” version (removed system box) that all the posters and the Wikipedia image are based off. Also this is NOT the filtered version, you can still see the raw offset printing dots. It was a stupid way to do it because it was combining two very different versions, it would be smarter to load the images into NeatImage first, and then take the filtered versions and combine them. I’m pretty sure I had a version like that actually, but not anymore (although it can certainly be done again it’s not hard).
Alternate cleaned version
Atari ST box - this is the main scan used for the clean version.
Atari ST back
KIXX box - the secondary scan used for the alternate clean version.
KIXX back
CD slipcase - the secondary scan used.
CD slipcase back

Monkey2-
“Cleaned” version that all the posters and the Wikipedia image are based off.
KIXX box - this is the main scan used for the clean version. Also, my childhood version.
KIXX back
IBM box - the secondary scan used for the clean version.
IBM back

There’s more I would link to, but those are all the source files for those two “posters”. The CD-ROM box is surprisingly low quality:

CD-ROM box
CD-ROM box back

I don’t have the exact variation used to make the Wikipedia image for MI2 anymore, but it’s basically a combination of the dark version but with all the text of the “for web” version. I have no idea who put it on Wikipedia, but I can tell you before 2002 (or sometime anyway) there were no high quality versions of the MI1 and MI2 boxes on the internet, and I was the first to provide them from scans which is why they are now everywhere.

And I even have this:

I can remember when that image was the “highest quality” box image of MI2 without the system box you could find anywhere on the internet. Although I now obviously know it’s actually the Hintbook not the box with the bottom cropped off. My scan of it though is a bit higher quality, if I do say so myself.

I don’t remember. I’m not even sure it was actually for sale… it probably hung in a hallway at Skywalker Ranch or something.

That original poster (photographed with the box) was for sale before there were any “fakes” on ebay.

Not not believing you, just wondering how you can tell one box scan from the other :man_shrugging:
Unless you hid some hidden signature in them… with lemon juice as any adventurer would do :wink: yeah, yeah based on the blemishes, I know.
Anyway, I have an A4 print (simple colorprint at home, not even on special paper) of the MI boxes without the logo, and they’re just awesome, so thanks for scanning those!

I have these. I positioned the logos myself, and also had to extend (draw) the graphics in order to fill the space needed for the prints.

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It’s very easy to tell. MI2 is completely unique because it comes from the KIXX box extended out no other image looks like it (especially the variation with the darkened background). The position of the MI2 logo for example tells you whether it came from the KIXX box or the OEM box. Festarossa’s image has a modified logo in it (the “Le Chuck’s Revenge” paper has been altered to look like the KIXX version but it’s in the OEM position), I did make a version like that and I’m not sure if anyone else did (although they would have taken it and made super-sized filtered versions). You’re much better off IMHO taking the scan, loading it in Neatimage to remove the offset dots and then downsizing by half (something like that), and then using waifu2x-caffe to supersize it. I’ll show the difference,

Laserschwert MI1

Waifu2x-caffe

That’s just a very quick test, to do it properly I would size both image sources separately and then combine them, not size the already combined image. And better to do it from a new scan as well. But regardless you can see that doing it that way retains way more detail that is actually in the box print compared to whatever sizing algorithm Laserschwert used 11 years ago (although nowhere near as much detail as is found in the KIXX box as you can see here). For printing you would crank up the sharpening.

Also, I found the “earlier” MI1 clean version, it’s here (I’ve edited the previous reply to reflect that).

Nice, although it doesn’t look like you used the actual painting as the reference-

Where you can see for example the rope below Purcell’s signature should loop back up.

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I didn’t, because I think this is the first time I see this painting :smile: Thanks.

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Now THAT is a frame worthy of MI2!

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That is pretty interesting, I always considered Kixx was a budget release (as ebay selling prices confirm).
Anyway, we should get reproduction prints of the original painting by Steve Purcell. Not enhanced box scans. It is actual art! It belongs in a museum. And I want to have high quality reproductions like you can get for any other classic famous paintings. Not at extortion prices based on scans on ebay, but in the museum shop for like $15.

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I agree - would totally love to hang an affordable HQ repro of Steve’s original painting on my wall. :heart_eyes:

Oh yes I didn’t think you had seen it. :slight_smile: But not dissing your atwork at all, I’m useless at art. It was one of the first things I noticed, even before I noticed the logo placement. You took artistic license and imagined what the nether regions would be!

Well he doesn’t have them. They were sold long ago. Like this one-

If you notice the watermark in the images you know where they were from.

There is easily enough detail in the boxes, when put through waifu2x-caffe, and honestly I doubt the actual posters (in the previous reply) resolved any more detail in them compared to the boxes.

I’ll start a new thread on box art soon.

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Wow, I never noticed the stitches! So those are actually the 4 pieces of the map to Big Whoop!

That watermark looks familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it.

Like I (and Indy) said before: “they belong in a museum!