Welcome to the Classic Gaming Board's "Game Club", where we play and discuss a game from the past every so often as a group. Modelled on book clubs, in this series of topics we choose a game, often focusing on the obscure or historically significant, that many of us just never got around to - whether out of laziness, lacking the system on which it was released, or just having never heard of it. New people are always welcome to join in, so if you're just looking for the first time, don't hesitate to play and partake in the discussion, and if you'd like to see older topics, they'll be available at http://www.davidn.co.nr/gameclub/ . For our first topic, we're going to be playing one of LucasArts' adventure classics: The Secret of Monkey Island Released: 1990, 1992 (CD), 2009 (Special Edition) Key Personnel: Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, Tim Schafer Currently available on: Steam, XBLA, PSN, iOS The Secret of Monkey Island wasn't the first Lucasfilm adventure, but it was the one that stuck the most in the minds of those who played it in the early 90s. Inspired in part by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland (which shows all the more now, post-film-trilogy), it was the brainchild of three big names in adventure game design, with the aim of creating an adventure that didn't have a typical fantasy setting. Even though it was regarded near-universally as a masterpiece among the PC and Amiga game critics of the time, people who grew up with console games missed out on it (and that includes those who played the sub-par Sega CD version). It's available on nearly all the major game distribution services, and you get the entire original game along with the remake - or, if you have the game files from the disk or CD, it can be played through ScummVM or DOSBox. Adventure games tend to be more enjoyable if you don't have to consult an FAQ at every step of the way - if you get stuck, then depending on the pace you want to play at, you could also look to other people in this topic who should be able to point you in the right direction. Compared to a lot of titles from the early 90s, the game gives you a reasonable amount of direction as to what to do from the start, but if you want an additional pointer, make sure to leave the town and visit the circus fairly early on. You also don't need to worry about dying or making the game unwinnable - both are only possible if you're really, really trying. Good luck, and have fun! --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
A helpful hint for those new to SCUMM games. Right-clicking an object will cause you to do the default action to it, rather than simply walk up to it. Saves a lot of time not having to click on the action menu so often. I'll have more to say later; playing right now. --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
I first played the Sega CD version. It's a solid port. The differences are very minor and don't really effect the overall experience (although I wouldn't recommend it over the PC version, but wouldn't say "avoid it" either). Also played the newer Special Edition. It's worth having just for the real-time classic mode switching back-and-forth. 'Secret of Monkey Island' wins for being a well-polished adventure game that challenges the player through moderate logic puzzles rather than constant trial-and-error deaths. The witty humor and memorable characters make it an enjoyable playthrough. ... So... how about that rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle? --- ... |
I admit that I got the description of the Sega CD one from other people's opinions (which mostly emphasized reduced colours and long loading times), and haven't played it myself - so that's... good to know. I have rather a lot to say about the Special Edition, too, but thought I would leave it until people in general have the chance to get started - I, too, am glad that they included the original games with them, I'll say that ;) For my own part just now... given how little I remember of things that are actually important, I found it slightly distressing that I could still recite the entire argument between the Fettucini Brothers by heart. I don't even remember playing that part that much. --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
I'll start this tonight, with the DOS CD version via ScummVM. Thankfully, there's a Linux version of SVM, so I can participate in this round. --- Official GameFAQs Gunther Hermann Fanboy "No. I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime" |
I plan to start this in the next couple days but unfortunately some really large personal issues, the kind that are best answered by rum, whiskey, and cigarettes, have come up recently so I can;t guarantee that. Sorry to have been so supportive of the topic and perhaps not able to contribute but I'll try my best. For the record, I'll be playing the game on Steam, though I'll play the unremade version packaged into the remake. --- Shelfari - http://www.shelfari.com/o1514380917 Backloggery - http://backloggery.com/ilario7886 |
Guess I'll get the ball rolling, then. Today I played through the first part, which means I completed the three tasks given to you in the beginning of the game. Still just as good as ever. Certain things strike me as being slightly too obscure, such as the exact location of the board to scare off the seagull. But like all adventure games, it rewards players who take their time to investigate every screen for objects to interact with. There are certain jokes I didn't get when I was younger. A pirate that makes fun of Guybrush Threepwood's name is named "Mancomb Seepgood", which cracked me up. I also really enjoyed the conversation with the dog. --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
I was thinking about playing this game again. It's a lot of fun. I'll start it in a day or so. (as soon as i finish getting all the medals in starfox64) --- And if my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine. But its alright, Ma, its life and life only. - Bob Dylan |
This is one of my favorite games of all time. Don't have the time to replay it now, but really I don't have to. My first exposure to it was in a LucasArts demo disc with demos of this, Loom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (all incredible games). I was obsessed with this demo and played it many, many times through. When I finally got the actual game it was no different. I devoured it. I was stuck for quite some time since I was new to point and click gaming and didn't get that you could combine inventory items. But it was so satisfying when I finally was able to move on. I only discovered through a trophy in the Special Edition that it was possible to die at all in MI1. I didn't get to play ME2 until many years later. I was crushed when it was released to see that it required a VGA monitor, which we didn't have and I was told was out of the question. --- How appropriate, you fight like a cow! |
I know of one death in the game: Drowning. Is there another? --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
Apart from the famous not-really-death that you can achieve much later on in the game, that's the only one I know of. I mentioned at the start of the topic that you can also make the game unwinnable if you tried, but you really do have to work at it - you can end up with not enough money to continue if you buy something in the region of 250 bottles of grog from the vending machine. I'm interested to see if people find the game intuitive in general if they're only coming at it now, seeing as Lucasarts all but outright said in the manual that this was meant to be much more friendly and lenient than the Sierra adventures of the time. The plank is something that I'm not sure how I discovered, either - there's nothing really telling you that you should go there, though the seagull draws your attention, and it doesn't become a selectable object until you stand on it, so I think I must have just wandered around there by luck the first time. It's also a point at which I began to have doubts about the special edition - on the iOS version, you really have to ram the cursor firmly into the side of the screen to convince it to point at the place you want to go, making it even more unclear that you can even do so - I certainly wouldn't have discovered it if I had been playing this for the first time. I'm having fun saving and reloading to try out all the conversation trees at certain parts, like Meat Hook (where I never really dared rile him up before!) Because of the splitting nature of the dialogue, there still seems to be a tremendous amount of it that I haven't seen, even with how much I've played this before (like ColinP, I remember the time when every game seemed absolutely wondrous and I would even play very limited demos to death). --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Wait, what's the famous not-really-death? The main disadvantage of the special edition IMO is the removal of the "insert disk x" joke in the forest. Definitely the funniest thing I had ever seen in a game at the time. --- How appropriate, you fight like a cow! |
I don't want to give it away for people who haven't yet seen it, in case they stumble across it themselves, but it's in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9zUYfomAag#t=33s . I was frustrated at the removal of the "stump joke" as well - I actually spent a long time wandering around the forest looking for it, certain that I must be looking in the wrong place. It was removed as far back as the CD release in 1992, though, because apparently people didn't understand it and were calling the helpline about the missing disks. I mean, I was surprised at the prompt at first (especially because it looks exactly the same as any other system message in the game), but after being prompted for disk one hundred and fourteen, I understood that they weren't being serious - and I couldn't have been more than ten years old! ilario, I meant to say - there's no obligation, of course, and I hope you're doing as well as you can in real life in the meantime. (Perhaps have some grog.) --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Holy crap I never knew about that! That is amazing!!! I also love that there are 2 slightly different endings to Monkey Island based on performing one action on the island or not :) --- How appropriate, you fight like a cow! |
I just played and beat this game for the first time a couple of months ago. Amazing game. My favorite part was the swordfighting. --- If you read this and it's before June 7th, 2010, then I should be studying. |
I had never played it before, though I played the third Monkey Island game. Thus the swordfighting was a bit easier to me than it should. Other than that, the only complaint for a non-intuitive puzzle I could give would be about the seagull and the red herring, though you guys spoiled it for me (Not complaining about it, to be honest. I'd probably have to check a walkthrough for that one). The use for the red herring was awesome, too. So far, I've just finished the three trials and did a few more things. It's not the best adventure game I've played, but the writing is excellent. --- (\(\ ~ Hardcore - We'll probably be modded for this... (='.') ~ http://internetometer.com/give/5853 Gimme an internet? |
I just made it out of the first chapter, and explored the beginning of the second a bit (but haven't solved the first puzzle). I'm used to Flash/freeware point-and-clicks, so the size of this game feels tremendous. I've had to turn to a walkthrough a few times for really dumb stuff. I thought the cook in the Scumm Bar was just background noise, so I didn't realize I could enter the kitchen. The herring puzzle also stymied me, since there's nothing obvious about it - I guess the slightly bent plank is supposed to be the giveaway, but it doesn't look special enough to merit examining. I also spent an inordinate amount of time trying commands against the hole in the mansion until I realized I just had to left click... So far, I'm really enjoying this. It doesn't feel as transcendentally good as I know it is, but it might be that I'm spoiled by time, and so many of its conventions are taken for granted now. The no-death design is something I really appreciate, since it opens up a lot of experimentation; you're not constantly working in fear that you'll kill/dead-end yourself somehow, so you're free to rile up characters, explore the world, mix items, etc. --- Official GameFAQs Gunther Hermann Fanboy "No. I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime" |
Loaded the SE copy from my MI3 pack last night and, barring the unmarked plank by the fish (I did go all the way to the end... but you had to go down and "step" on the right spot) and the hard-to-find emplacement on Monkey Island (another classic "hard to find pixel" situation), the game went remarkably quickly. The writing is still as witty as ever (from freeing the rat to everything the cannibals say) -- though the stuff on the back of the original box, as seen on GameFAQs, is even better -- the only big complaints were navigating through the big city and paddling across a 4-screen Monkey Island. (Paper Monkey Island? -- youtube.com/watch?v=2bpSxCCbBUU) And tonight, weariness willing, I will try to destroy my ship and see how my headless crew survive. --- I am not the FOT! ~~the Zoq, the Fot & the Pik~~ |
Spurred on by Zoq's post, I decided to check out the back of the box. That has to be the absolute best game description I have ever seen. Seriously, I would have bought the game just based on what it says. Hilarious. It's a toss-up between "ear-piercing reggae music" and "cryptic in-jokes only smart people will understand". It does, however highlight a criticism I have of the genre. It claims an average playtime of 30 hours, and I wouldn't be surprised if it took me somewhere around that long the first time I played it, but adventure games are hit harder on replays than most other games, given that, if you know the puzzles, you can breeze through the game pretty quickly. You'll still have to take time gathering the insults to fling at the sword master, and there are a few other time sinks, but the game can't ever really offer a challenge again unless you wait several years between playthroughs. (Of course, Myst was even worse. I remember realizing you can beat it in mere minutes and thinking that was pretty hilarious. Though in one of the versions, the final clue you get is incorrect, which would be frustrating as hell if it was the first version you played. Riven was better about this, and Exile actually forced you to do everything before you could beat it.) --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
That back of the box is oddly nostalgic for me - I must have read it a couple of times before losing it, twenty or so years ago. It's very deadpan and self-deprecating, much more so than most American humour tends to be :) Another little bit of interest - the close-up during the conversation with the dog was removed from the final game (it seems to be complete there, but perhaps it was thrown out because it's rather... cuter than the dog sprite appears), but I was pleased to see that he got his promised close-up back in the Special Edition. Switching back to classic mode at that point returned to the normal in-game view. I'm actually surprised by how straightforward everything is, knowing the solution (he said, stating the obvious) - I must admit that I completely ruined this game for myself when I was ten, using a magazine solution the whole way through, and it was that age where the mind retained every single bit of information as long as it had no real-world use, so I've known it by heart since. As part of my attempt to do things in a different way than I would normally, I was very surprised, for example, that you never actually need to exchange a word with the Important-Looking Pirates. Even though I had thought of Part One as being absolutely immense, the actual actions you need to perform are quite straightforward. The swordfighting section takes by far the largest amount of time out of the three trials, and during the second sub-part, only one of the three crew members has any real sort of puzzle that you need to solve to get them. But that is, indeed, one reason why adventure games fell into decline - when you've completed them once, you know the solution and there's less of a reason to replay them. But then again, I'm still discovering heaps of dialogue that I missed, including the insult exchange at Meat Hook's house - I actually laughed at that. And isn't that some replay value? Myst was an odd case - I wondered at the time why they didn't use the simple device of randomizing the number of the pattern that you were told at the end. But then, they might have been trying to say something with that, that the solution was always minutes away from you... --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Session 1: The game runs which is a minor victory in itself (desktop would run it easily but I wanted something to play when lying in bed before sleep). The first pirate I talked to had you picking among different-yet-similar statements that you could not revisit and would only talk to you for so long. This led to me selecting the most interesting option whenever I spoke to a different pirate despite them being designed to use the top option and working your way down. In doing so at least one punchline ended up being butchered so I'm gonna have to be careful with these going forward. Made it as far as the herring and was aware that I had to do something odd given the talk in here. Glad to have it slightly spoiled as it would have been annoying otherwise, hope the rest of the game is better designed than that. Temperature so far: still rather neutral. It is early so I haven't seen much. The writing is cute but I can't tell if the few design hiccups I've come across so far are just a few rough spots that happened to come up early or a sign that the whole game may have problems. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
For me, my favorite part of that box is "Visit interesting places and steal stuff" which rather neatly summarizes the RPG and Adventure genres. I was in the Monkey Head at my last playthrough (which was last yearish) and I'm curious to see how much I retained. Knowing myself and these sorts of games, quite a bit. --- My Backloggery: http://backloggery.com/master_yogurt Classicgaming Steam Community: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Board204 |
Isn't there a Penny Arcade comic about that? Something alone the lines of: "Mom! Who's that in the house?" "Ignore them, dear. Just let them go through our things and answer any questions they have." Also, I may be getting ahead of myself, but I think a great second game to move to (if we do another adventure game) would either be Fate of Atlantis or Day of the Tentacle, two games that take on Monkey Island's gameplay and concepts and expand on them greatly. DOTT (as you would type into DOS to launch the game...) has a lot more inventory work going on, while Fate takes great pains to alleviate my replayability complaints. Wong, you are right in that there's some replay with dialog options. However, they don't change anything that happens later on in the game (that I know of), so there's nothing stopping you from saving and reloading to see each dialog tree. With FoA, a choice after the first third or so of the game changes the entire course of the rest of the game. The same basic objectives still apply, but the puzzles all vary significantly. --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
I only got stumped badly on a few parts on my first playthrough of 'Secret of Monkey Island'. Never had trouble with the herring thing though. The first being the piranha poodles. I knew that I had to "give" them something, but could never figure the solution. The pirate leaders hinted at sedating them, but it was never clear in the game (unless I completely missed an obvious clue) which item/s need to be used. I couldn't find the way to the Sword Master's place. The method for doing so is a bit different than other puzzles since it involves more than just using an item or being on one screen. Another was getting the navigator's head from the natives. The answer is actually a clever joke (think a little outside the box) but I didn't quite figure it out without some guidance. Then there was the key in the ghost pirates room on the ship. I couldn't figure out how to get to it without being detected. Turns out that I just wasn't using the right item (which was already in my possession). Yip. Note to all first time Monkey Island players, TRY USING EVERYTHING in your inventory. If that doesn't work, try combining certain items. The 'Special Edition' has the dynamic hint system, but it might be a little too easy to abuse. I strongly suggest only using it as a last resort, otherwise it will totally kill your sense of accomplishment (and nobody wants that). --- ... |
I believe the guy in jail (Otis?) gives you a hint about the sedative. For myself, the hard part was knowing I had to "prepare" the food; I looked all around for tongs or something, then realized I could just throw it in and pick it out. (I know that's vague, but if you've done the puzzle, you will know what I'm talking about.) --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
I can't actually remember if you even have to do that - though like the other sticking points people have mentioned in this topic like the cook and the plank, it was something that I somehow did the first time by sheer luck. I'm pretty sure that you could get the 'meat with condiment' whether you had previously messed with it or not... but now I want to find out for sure! As far as I remember from playing through a couple of days ago, Otis tells you something that now that I think about it, might sort of lead you to discovering the solution through implications (the fact that they're illegal), but it's never outright said. --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Right, talking to Otis at that point isn't required, but if you're stuck, you're supposed to go talking to everyone, which would include Otis. He's also the source of an item for one of the trials, which you won't know about if you haven't spoken with him yet. ROT13: Ur unf gur svyr va gur pneebg pnxr, juvpu ur gryyf lbh nobhg gur svefg gvzr lbh zrrg uvz, naq lbh unir gb genqr gur tbcure ercryynag sbe gur pnxr. --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
I laughed at the carrot cake. Really, really hard, enough to make my parents look at me and ask what happened. --- (\(\ ~ Hardcore - We'll probably be modded for this... (='.') ~ http://internetometer.com/give/5853 Gimme an internet? |
Session 2: Made a quick run through the town picking up a few items and meeting people. Went to the mansion at the end of town and the obvious solution was deemed too obvious. Will have to backtrack through town to see if any new conversations pop up or items appear, must also check if I can go to the initial pre-town area. Temperature: slightly warmer. Still too early to make any grand statements but while I don't find the writing to be tremendously funny it is cute enough to provide some flavor to the experience so far. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
That whole skirmish in the back room of the mansion is one of the best parts of this whole game. Relying only on text and sound effects to create a mental picture of all the craziness that's happening back there actually makes the scene much funnier. Pure comic genius in game form, it is. --- ... |
I did love that, when I first encountered it :) In fact, in more than a couple of parts of the game, they really knew how to use the interface as part of the joke... here, it's a combination of leaving it up to the player's imagination, and the scene being told through the command bar that you've been using up until then (odd verbs and all). Justin, it's worth mentioning that you won't find much new appearing without direct action from you... it's quite opposite from Sierra's games which were based on sequential events, with the game environment changing quite drastically after each one in ways apparently unrelated to the puzzle you'd just solved. You definitely need to look outside the town, though (see the first post!) I went through part 2 yesterday, which was surprisingly tiny even compared to how I remembered it - in previous plays through, I didn't understand the recipe at all and would just throw in any old rubbish until it worked (I was impressed by the way that they made sure you can't stick yourself here - there's one disposable item that you can burn but that he'll refuse to put in the pot). But this time, I realized that each of the ingredients made perfect sense if you twisted your thoughts in the right direction, with the possible exception of one. I'm at the start of part 3 (in which, opposite from part 1's hanging around until well past the time you've got the titular trials out the way, the title seems rather premature), and I've just remembered how much I got fed up of having my exploration interrupted so often by that busybody! --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Sessions 3 & 4: Had my first daytime session with the game and finished up part 1. Session 3 was mainly spent wandering around the rest of the island and visiting the non-village areas with session 4 being the return to said village and finishing up part 1. The game's celeverness has started to shine through with the non "use random item A at place B" puzzles. Shadowing one of the NPCs, the sword fighting system and in particular the grog puzzle were all noteworthy ones that stick out in my head. The aforementioned fight in the mansion was also clever if not particularly funny. I did chuckle a couple times in this last session so that is a positive development. Temperature: Warming up. The puzzle/progression design has started to step up and the writing is moving in a good direction. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
Has anyone played the iOS version of this game? Is it an exact port of the original? |
I found my copy a few days ago and struggled with ScummVM to get the settings right, but I didn't have the time to play it until today. Typical for me, I'm stuck. I've been avoiding reading this topic too closely to stay clear of spoilers, but I may have to consult a FAQ soon. I've been enjoying it when I can find things to do though. --- http://www.backloggery.com/mightycollector |
That sounds like an invitation for me to be brutally honest about my iOS experience so far ;) The controls, as I touched on before, are... appalling - it sounds like it would be difficult to mess up adventure game controls, but this takes a lot of getting used to. Touching the screen doesn't act as a click at that point - it acts as clicking wherever the cursor happens to be resting, and you've got to remember to sweep that cursor around first to get it where you want to point (which isn't easy, as I described - you're pointing at where the arrow on the cursor is rather than where your finger is, and it often takes some waltzing to do it, and the plank puzzle near the start of the game is made extremely difficult for this reason). I have a feeling that they might have done this to preserve the way that you can investigate the available objects on the screen with the cursor (which is another subject that I've been meaning to talk about). The verbs and inventory are hidden in buttons that at least act like normal buttons as we know them at the bottom of the screen, but they seem prone to not responding sometimes. The new music is nice and I don't really mind the new graphics, just looking at them (though Guybrush has been given a disturbingly Conan O'Brien-like quiff), but the animation is really off sometimes - Guybrush has that signature amateur-game "glide" when walking, when the speed of the animation doesn't match the rate of going across the screen, and people don't have talking frames. In addition, sometimes dialogue cuts off slightly early or lines seem to skip entirely for some reason. I really like the provision that you can switch back and forth from classic mode at any time, as it's interesting to see exactly what's changed, but the classic mode is somewhat off as well - it must be said the controls aren't quite as bad, because you get used to having one (still weird) control system that includes the verbs and inventory, and the cursor is much easier to place when it's actually pointing at whatever's in its centre. But it's scaled in some extraordinarily ugly non-ratio like you're looking at it cross-eyed through the bottom of a grog mug, and you don't have a way of skipping the slightly-too-slow text to my knowledge. In summary, it's all just about workable, but I wouldn't like it to be anyone's first experience as to what the game was actually like. As much as we try to avoid the image of being nostalgia-ridden old folk that don't give a thought to anything more than 320 pixels wide, it honestly makes me wonder why it seems to be this difficult to get something right, now. Most of my play-through has been under ScummVM, and the only problem that I have is that you don't have the "." key to skip the next line of conversation (though I might be on an old version) - I prefer advancing through text myself rather than relying on the computer to do it, as I find the options for subtitle speed jump from "a bit too fast" to "a bit too slow". --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Well, I sat down to play for a while. I was only planning to play for about an hour, but I ended up playing for 3 or 4 hours. Time seems to go by very quickly when I'm playing this game. I stopped right before the end of chapter 1. I've only played this game once before, about 4 years ago. So I'm having a lot of fun re-discovering all the solutions. There are very few games from 20+ years ago with such clever writing and humor. My one complaint is that not all screens have music. The music in this game is great, but the screens without music can feel kinda dull. I'm playing the original version, so I don't know If this was changed in the special edition. Altogether it's a great gaming experience. Can't wait to continue. --- And if my thought-dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine. But its alright, Ma, its life and life only. - Bob Dylan |
Yeah, Wong, I agree that they were trying to preserve the object highlighting aspect. When Myst came to iOS and the DS, they took out the pointer, and it becomes guesswork what clicking on a given object will do--and sometimes you did click on something, but not exactly at the right spot. Though it sounds like they could have done it better just by making the cursor always appear under the finger. --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
I'm late to the party, and now I'm not sure what I can say that hasn't already been said. My thoughts on this game have likely reached equilibrium several years ago - I have this game completely memorized, and I think I've played this game exactly three since 2003 - twice when Special Edition came out, and once just this week. Even though it's not that much fun for me personally to play through yet again, Monkey Island is a masterpiece that should be played by everyone. It may very well be the first truly excellent adventure game ever. It's not LucasArt's first adventure game - they previously released Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Mechanics-wise, the game doesn't really do anything that these games haven't already done. In fact, these earlier games explored concepts that Monkey Island discarded, and LucasArts would seldom use again - multiple characters, puzzles with multiple solutions, branching plotlines, globe-hopping, mazes, and even action sequences. They even had the possibility to die or render the game unwinnable, as was common of game design back in the day. You could say that Monkey Island was a refined version of what came before it. The oddball game mechanics are cut out, and what's left over, the writing, the characters, the dialog, the jokes, the inventory puzzles, are developed to an art form. The only real innovation isn't in the mechanics, but in that the design ensures you cannot make the game unwinnable (barring putting your last piece o' eight into the Grog Machine which will never happen unless you are trying to screw up your game). This is no small feat - unless the game is completely linear, or completely non-linear, it means that the developers had to think of every thing you could possibly do, or not do, during each segment of the game. For instance, there are items you collect in the first chapter that you will use in the second chapter. But there's no going back to the areas in chapter 1 once you move on. So to prevent situations where you are screwed because you need an item you forgot to take that you had a limited window of opportunity to to collect - the kind of situation Sierra's early games are notorious for, all of these items also must be used to solve puzzles in the FIRST chapter as well. This ensures that by the time you finish the first chapter, you have everything you can take that you need. The writing of Monkey Island, though, is what really makes it stand out, now that the "no dead-ends" design is de facto standard in adventure games. Very few non-LucasArts games have writing as consistently witty and clever as this game does. Even to this day, with Telltale the sole developer to carry the legacy of the genre forward, with cheaply made bite-sized adventure game episodes every month (but clearly in the style of LucasArts), the writing is about on par with the better seasons of Family Guy and just can't compare to the adventure games like this which inspired them. --- http://thecrankyhermit.wikispaces.com/ Year-by-year analysis of the finest gaming has to offer, and (eventually) more! |
So I checked a FAQ and it turns out my problem was that I didn't realize you could go the other way (to reach the rest of the island) from the place you start the game. I felt dumb. After getting stuck once more after that, I've finished the 3 trials. The mansion fight was pretty neat and I enjoyed the swordfighting. --- http://www.backloggery.com/mightycollector |
I had wondered if anyone would get caught by that... it's another one of those things that I don't think is totally clear, but that I just discovered by myself when I played it first through luck. I delayed a while because I somehow had this memory that I didn't like Part 3 much, though I couldn't say why - after going through it again, I think it's because it feels a bit more sparse than Part 1, with a lot of note-finding, time on the map screen and not a whole lot of things to actually do (although I could easily be exaggerating the content of Part 1 mentally here - I haven't compared them side by side). Wandering or rowing around from one side of the island to the other takes bloody ages, even when you know what you're doing, so I could see this becoming frustrating without direction. And I found myself in the very unusual situation of not being able to remember what came next, after I successfully got the banana picker, because I'd done something else out of order (I hadn't picked up the spyglass and therefore triggered one of Toothrot's appearances), and so he wasn't where he usually was - in fact, I've only just remembered while typing this where he usually is at that point in the game, and why I suddenly found myself lost. Once again... twenty years on and the game continues to surprise in small ways. The chapter also had two instances - though I can't remember if these were in the original game or whether it was an artefact of ScummVM somehow - where things wouldn't be recognized as objects by the mouse cursor unless you already had a relevant verb highlighted. One of them is obvious anyway, but the other one isn't so much - and this seems a bit cheap. I'm always paranoid in these games that I can't continue because I've simply missed something that I can interact with, even after scouring each screen. The Simon the Sorceror games got around this in a wonderfully simple way by simply having a hot key to highlight all the active objects on the screen - it's probably a matter of debate whether this constitutes 'cheating' or not, but I feel that knowing all the objects that you have available is a fair thing to be allowed, when the puzzle is to find out how to use those objects (rather than find them in the first place). But it's for this reason that Simon 2 is - rather shamefully, I must admit - the only adventure game that I have ever completed without the use of a guide at any point. --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Session 5: Part 2 was rather short, dramatically so compared to Part 1. It was basically one main puzzle and a couple tiny extra ones and then it's over. Not really much to say as there wasn't exactly a lot of writing or details to digest. Temperature: Warm, unaffected by this most recent bit. BTW I hope no one minds the format I've been going with. It was the best I could come up with that would result in regular updates and I figured I'd give it a shot for at least the full first game. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
I have no issues with it! It's interesting to know your impressions as you play through it, and how each session affects your overall picture of the game. I think I'll do much the same thing in the case where we examine a game that I haven't played through before... If you will allow me another brief Special Edition moanfest, as you mentioned Part 2 - somehow, they managed to make the end of the chapter nigh-on impossible to get past. The time it takes for the fuse on the cannon to burn down has been roughly halved (even in the standard more), which means you have to have much more dexterity than the interface allows to prepare yourself in time. I eventually got it on my fourth or fifth try, through actually selecting "Use" again before I'd even lit the fuse, and completing the input for the second action right when it was lit. And then, in Part 3, everyone's sprites have little transparent squares hovering underneath them. And, unimportantly on the face of it, the diminishing item descriptions for the rope have been removed for no apparent reason. It's strange that they spent enough time and resources to redraw the entire game, and then slapped it together so atrociously. I completed it in ScummVM, though. Yet again, by just exploring more conversation options than I had previously, I was surprised at the differences you could get in the ending (not just the choice mentioned further up the topic, but a couple of other things that don't really affect each other at all). The original just had so much more care put into it... --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Sessions 6 and a half: I'm at part 3 and I've hit a wall. Pixel-hunting seems like an unavoidable aspect to these games but whoever thought to design a worldmap that relies on said principle did a bad thing. I think I've found all the locations I can go to but I'm not completely sure. I've also tried everything I can think of at the known locations and while some progress was made I'm just about out of ideas. I have no idea how to use the other system, so spoilers As of right now I've got one rope hanging by the crack that takes me down to a stump, some gunpowder sitting on a dam, a monkey I gave three bananas to for no apparent benefit, a hanging corpse that I can't get a second rope from and way too many memos. end spoilers I put a half in there as I tried again briefly earlier today for a little bit and did make some slight progress but I decided after about 10 minutes that I had to walk away as I was simply stuck. Temperature: Cooling down. Being stuck isn't great but is something one must expect yet being stuck where there are a bunch of single screens spread across a poorly designed slow to transverse map just makes it a lot worse. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
Yes, I think that pretty much lines up with my own thoughts on Part 3. Looking at it now, it seems a lot more sparse and... well, unfriendly, and even I was stuck wondering if I'd missed something. At the point where you're stuck - you have something that it looks like you're planning on igniting, and though you might not have noticed, you already have a primitive way to ignite it! Look at everything in your inventory, if you haven't already. --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
I'm at part 3 and I've hit a wall. Pixel-hunting seems like an unavoidable aspect to these games but whoever thought to design a worldmap that relies on said principle did a bad thing. I think I've found all the locations I can go to but I'm not completely sure. I've also tried everything I can think of at the known locations and while some progress was made I'm just about out of ideas. Got stuck here too. I had to look up a guide to find out there was a location I DIDN'T FIND in my mad mouse-wipe over the island. Oh wait, you have the gunpowder. Hm. Sail away and find more locations. --- I am not the FOT! ~~the Zoq, the Fot & the Pik~~ |
Session 7-ish: I had a spare half hour before the Superbowl started so I gave it another shot and managed to figure out what to do next (before I saw the hint here even, although thanks for that). Briefly got stuck in... a single screen as the interface randomly started to play by different rules but after several minutes I found my way out. I don't think the "stuck" parts are particularly bad, the map layout just makes them worse. I did discover that if you click on a known location or screen border you move significantly faster which is an odd design choice but at least it is present in some form. Without knowing that getting to the upper part of the island was amazingly slow. Temperature: a bit warmer. I hope to be nearly done with part 3 and hence this overworld soon. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
Spoilers so avoid if you haven't beaten the game! Ok, I finished SOMI a few days ago, half-wrote up my thoughts, and never fully posted them, and lost what I had written in the process. Spending a few days away from the experience is probably better, anyhow. For the record, I own the Special Edition, but played through on SCUMMVM, as being able to speed up the game (for island navigation) and advance dialog. (As a sidenote, check out a Youtube video of the Amiga version - dialog seems faster.) Overall impression? It's a great game because of how well executed its dialog and story are. The balance of humor, self-satire, self-awareness, anachronism, etc. is flawless. The characters are great, as are the inventory, descriptions, and general scenarios. I feel like the puzzles in the game are decidedly lacking, as is the general structure. Part 1 is absolutely my favorite, though I enjoy Part 2's one (very short) puzzle. I dislike being wholly stuck in adventure games, preferring a few goals that I can work towards. Part 1's three quests does this nicely. Part 2 is about solving the list, so there's a bit of play there too. If I get stuck, I like to think I can still make progress, but when I hit a total wall, I get very frustrated. Part 3 is absolutely the worst in regards to this. There really aren't many concurrent puzzles, and constantly wandering from place to place takes absolutely forever. Re-exploring areas to see if you missed an item or trigger or puzzle is quite a hassle. The game has some excellent puzzles, I'll admit. Eating the cake to find the file is hilarious, though a bit obvious. I never had any issues with the plank or the chef (sorry guys!), the dueling is great, and I enjoy Part 2 as a whole. --- My Backloggery: http://backloggery.com/master_yogurt Classicgaming Steam Community: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Board204 |
Spoilers Continued!!! Some of the solutions were far too outside-the-box for me, however. Following the shopkeeper would never have occurred to me. It isn't very obvious that you're making progress when haggling with Stan, either (though having bought a car in my life would probably have made that puzzle easier.) Giving the monkey bananas has no discernible benefit until all five are given, which is really frustrating because I know I doubted whether I should give them at all after a few, though it's clear that the monkey should pull the totem pole. I started to become concerned that I'd be stuck here, and I think a bit of dialog (such as Look at Monkey has Guybrush observe "The little guy still looks hungry") would have helped tremendously. I also got very stuck in the labyrinth because I had the skull, which I thought was the head of the navigator, not realizing two disembodied heads would be present, so was unconcerned with the cannibals. The most unfair puzzle, though? Using the compass in LeChuck's cabin. Every other time that you try to "Use compass with x," the game has Guybrush observe where it's pointing, and disallows interaction between compass and inventory or world items. The cabin and key is the ONE instance where this changes. This inconsistency is really quite unfair, as I had already categorized the compass with the shirts - not something permitted for interaction, and thereby ruled out. I had to look up what to do - thinking I had missed a stick somewhere or something - and in doing so ruined the only true puzzle on the whole boat, and the last one in the game. You would expect the final puzzle in a game to be significant or climactic - but the boat really has nothing else to offer except extremely obvious solutions and one puzzle I'd classify as "bull****" for its inconsistency. Part 4 is basically a script, so as an adventure game, I think it falls flat. Not that the story or writing ever dip in quality - and that's SOMI's saving grace. In the end, I'd contend that this SOMI is like Psychonauts - another Schafer game - in that its strengths aren't in successfully executing its genre. It does many things well, but not perfectly. What it does do well is create an excellent story and world with some decent replay value (owing to the multiple dialog choices), with some of the most legitimately funny moments in gaming I've ever seen. Pick Up Idol and the file in the cake are just two highlights from many. As a suggestion for future game, may I suggest Eternal Daughter by Derek Yu? It's a freeware platformer/Metroidvania that I've been meaning to beat for years. --- My Backloggery: http://backloggery.com/master_yogurt Classicgaming Steam Community: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Board204 |
Session we'll call 8: I'm in a hurry so I'll keep this short. I made it to the point where the name of the name of the part makes sense. I got rather lost which I think was the point (it also bugged out on me once where it would not scroll any longer) and had to stop for the day. Temperature: I have to say heating up; it'd be criminal not to given the setting. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
I am loving reading these posts! One little thing it made me remember: I always loved that there are 2 slightly different solutions to the dam puzzle! --- How appropriate, you fight like a cow! |
Personal issue resolved and hopefully I can spend some time on this game later in the week and actually contribute. I'll look forward to reading some of these posts then. --- Shelfari - http://www.shelfari.com/o1514380917 Backloggery - http://backloggery.com/ilario7886 |
I finished the game about a week ago, and spend a few days mulling it over. Keep in mind that I played it on the DOS CD version, so dunno how much this applies across versions. I'll admit to being a bit nonplussed at first, through no fault of the game. I had just finished playing Deathspank, so when I saw that both were written by Ron Gilbert, I expected the writing to be similar. When it wasn't, I was surprised, but Monkey Island's script quickly grew on me; I came to enjoy it very much quickly. After playing through, I can honestly say that this is the liveliest game I've ever played. No characters just talk; they gesticulate, laugh, shift, shout, and occasionally wallop one another. The first location you enter, the Scumm Bar, is one of the most vivid locations I've encountered in a game. The talking heads (to steal a term from Fallout) are similarly expressive. The graphical style is similar (and extremely well-done - I'd forgotten how beautiful early 90's VGA looked), and the music, when present, adds to the Caribbean atmosphere. The aesthetics are fantastic; even without the great writing, it'd be worth playing for those alone. The main complaint I have about the game are the occasional hunt-the-pixel problems, which sometimes don't even make it clear there's a pixel to be hunted. I was stymied at one point because I didn't know to look for the Fort, and even when I did, it took me 20 minutes to find the damned thing. The plank puzzle was another instance of this. Some other parts that gave me grief involved objects that I thought were background decoration, like the Chef in the beginning and the skull much later on. I suspect much of this is my unfamiliarity with the genre. Overall, I'm glad I played this game. It's obvious why it's a classic of the genre, and of games in general. --- Official GameFAQs Gunther Hermann Fanboy "No. I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime" |
I've got a quick poll for everyone participating here, that I'd be interested in knowing. 1: Is this your first time playing the game, or is it a replay? 2: What version of the game are you playing (EGA version / VGA version / CD version / Special Edition) ? 3a: If it's Special Edition, how are you using Special Mode (always on / never on / about half and half / off for my first play through, on for my second / etc.) ? 4a: If it's Special Edition, what platform (Steam / XBLA / PSN / iOS) ? 4b: If it's not Special Edition, what emulator are you using (ScummVM / DOSBox / NTVDM / Fusion / no emulator, just a piece of junk computer that still runs DOS/Win9x) ? For me it's 1: Replay 2: Special Edition 3: Never 4a: Steam --- http://thecrankyhermit.wikispaces.com/ Year-by-year analysis of the finest gaming has to offer, and (eventually) more! |
Session 9: Still in part 3 although I assume I must be at the very end. Got stuck once when I couldn't figure out how to do what I knew had to be done (location location location) but it was nice to be in an singular area where one didn't have to walk across an entire island to get to the next relevant screen. Now to I assume start the final chapter. Temperature: Warmer. The game is much snappier when everything is near each other. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
1. First time 2. DOS CD 3a. n/a 4b. ScummVM on Ubuntu --- Official GameFAQs Gunther Hermann Fanboy "No. I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime" |
1) Second Time (I didn't beat it the first but was well over 75% done so I'll round up) 2) CD 3) N/A 4) ScummVM --- My Backloggery: http://backloggery.com/master_yogurt Classicgaming Steam Community: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Board204 |
1. First time playing 2. VGA 256 color floppy version 3. 4. ScummVM DS --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
I really gotta finish this playthrough, but I've been super busy as per my posts in SNG. Anyways... 1. Replay 2. DOS CD 4b. ScummVM (on a Mac, to be more specific) --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
1: First time 2: DOS CD 3: N/A 4: ScummVM (on XP) --- http://www.backloggery.com/mightycollector |
I've got some things to reply to, but in the meantime: 1: Replay 2: VGA disk 4b: ScummVM And also: 1: Replay (surprisingly) 2/4a: Special Edition, iOS 3a: Switching back and forth constantly to compare the room graphics, mostly playing in Special mode apart from when I need to do anything that requires a half-sodding-functional interface --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Darius, I didn't realize that Deathspank was written by Ron Gilbert! I enjoyed the demo of it a while ago, and had meant to download and play it at some point - another thing on the list of games that I've meant to get around to playing... Your mention of the liveliness of the game pretty much sums up my ongoing feud with the presentation of the Special Edition (and I had even felt that Monkey Island had felt quite plain in the mid-90s, compared to things like the Simon series) - the new graphics are all very well, but that intangible feeling's been taken out of it, with stiffer animations, or missing ones. Nobody has a talking animation even in the classic mode, and Stan's famous spaghetti-limbed gesticulation doesn't exist - occasionally you get a flash of the first frame of it, as if his nature is trying to break out of the confines of the remake, but it's as if there's a problem with some animation logic that makes everyone "stick" when they're talking. It's interesting how the interface was upgraded between the disk and CD versions of the game, especially in the choice of verbs. The removed ones were "Walk to" (which is the default anyway), and "Turn on" and "Turn off", which I can't recall ever using for anything even as a possible alternative to Use. It seemed that the earlier list of verbs was a holdover from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which also included "What is" - a specific mode that you had to be in to reveal things under the cursor, before they realized that it was better to have this behaviour always on. Even with that to help, it seems that pixel-hunting is the biggest problem in general, and I've got to agree with that... once you know the objects that you're meant to interact with, you forget how much trouble it was to find them the first time, and I found that having a simple way to reveal everything on the screen that you could interact with makes things a lot more pleasant. In fact, in the plain disk VGA version, I recall searching around Stan's for an object that I had missed, because if you swung the mouse around the screen, you would occasionally see a flash of "magnetic compass" under the cursor... a mistake and nothing more, but it made me paranoid that I had missed something obvious. Justin, I'm actually surprised that it let you go further in without the means to get yourself out... as the maze seems to be randomly generated from parts (quite impressively, it seems), I thought that you couldn't get out once you were inside! But then, up until this play-through I thought that the forest didn't have logic to its layout, either, and it turned out to be pretty simple - I hadn't realized that you could find the way to the Sword Master's entirely on your own. ilario, it's good to know things are all right - I should repeat Colin's post that it's fascinating to see other people's thoughts :) I think I vaguely recall an alternative solution to the dam, as well - something else that you could logically use... I can't recall what it was offhand, but it was nice that they thought of both ways. In general, despite it having come after Lucasarts' era where they had many puzzles with multiple solutions, I'm impressed by the number of little ones there are when you look closely. --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
Sessio... Oh, the game's over. That was rather sudden. Lukewarm final part there, all 3 or so minutes of it. Wong, you randomly get kicked back to the entrance in said section if you just wander off on your own. Final thoughts: I think Secret of Monkey Island is a fine game, even a good game. I also never felt like it was anything more than "warm" or in other words even in the neighborhood of greatness. I played Machinarium earlier this year, a recent point and click adventure game with a different focus than this game. While I would hesitate to call that game great either I did feel rather smitten with it. I never felt smitten with SOMI and for all the talk of the liveliness and writing I don't think any of it made much of an impression on me at all. It's mechanically fine, it wouldn't get me permanently stuck and the writing did add some flavor. It was worth a play through. I'll just have to remember that for whatever reason others will love games affiliated with Tim Schafer more than I ever will for reasons that will eternally elude me. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
1: Is this your first time playing the game, or is it a replay? Technically no. The first (and only) time I played this was over two decades ago in a friend's basement on his dad's Amiga. We loaded up a save file (which skipped insult sword fighting), freed the last crew member and ended chapter 1. So this was actually my first time beating the game. (Which surprisingly did not take very long.) 2: What version of the game are you playing? The CD version I suppose? The one that came bundled with CoMI on CD. Probably the DOS version actually. What emulator are you using? ScummVM runs it a lot faster than DOSbox. --- I am not the FOT! ~~the Zoq, the Fot & the Pik~~ |
I've always been fond of this moment in the game: Guybrush: So, tell me about Loom Cobb: You mean the latest masterpiece of fantasy storytelling from Lucasfilm's™ Brian Moriarty™? Why it's an extraordinary adventure with an interface of magic... ...stunning, high-resolution, 3D landscapes... ...sophisticated score and musical effects. Not to mention the detailed animation and special effects, elegant point 'n' click control of characters, objects, and magic spells. Beat the rush! Go out and buy Loom™ today! Guybrush: Gee, what an obvious sales pitch. Cobb: Sorry, but on some topics I just get carried away. |
As an aside, if anyone is interested in a very recent Tim Schaefer (one of the writers/designers of Monkey Island) adventure, Stacking (PSN/360) has been receiving glowing reviews. I haven't had the chance to play it yet, but it looks like an endearingly fun game - and you can adhere to Guybrush's sage wisdom from the ending of Monkey Island! --- Official GameFAQs Gunther Hermann Fanboy "No. I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime" |
Now that it seems like this is starting to slow down (not that anyone who is still playing or planning to should stop) is it perhaps time to start thinking about the next game in this endeavor? --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
Suggestions would be welcome :) I should mention that I actually liked Master Yogurt's idea of Eternal Daughter a lot, because it's something that everyone has access to, and a very significant game in the MMF community that I've somehow yet to get around to playing myself. --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |
I was going to suggest Fate of Atlantis or Day of the Tentacle as a way of seeing the evolution of the genre. Or Legend of Kyrandia 2, to see a non-Sierra, non-Lucas Arts adventure game. --- stop picking on balloon fight. - kuddy53 PSN: Cinder6 | My backlog: http://backloggery.com/cinder6 |
I'd rather not play Eternal Daughter. There's one horrible difficulty spike at a boss about a third of the way through that makes the game completely unenjoyable; even abusing a glitch, I couldn't beat said boss after three days of trying. If we're playing a Derek Yu game, I'd much rather play Spelunky. --- Official GameFAQs Gunther Hermann Fanboy "No. I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime" |
I'd rather not repeat genres in back to back games, although I'd have no problem revisiting it with either game down the road a bit. --- bah weep grah nah weep ni ni bon? up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start. |
1: Is this your first time playing the game, or is it a replay? First time. I'm actually coming back to it after having started a few months ago. Back in the 90s when I was into adventure games I played through MI2 along with most of the LucasArts point & click catalogue. But I never got around to the original, so decided to pick it up. I got through one of the challenges in part 1 and was working on the others, when other things came up. This topic finally gave me an excuse to go back and finish it. 2: What version of the game are you playing (EGA version / VGA version / CD version / Special Edition) ? CD Version. 4b:If it's not Special Edition, what emulator are you using (ScummVM / DOSBox / NTVDM / Fusion / no emulator, just a piece of junk computer that still runs DOS/Win9x) ? ScummVM Final thoughts: I think Secret of Monkey Island is a fine game, even a good game. I also never felt like it was anything more than "warm" or in other words even in the neighborhood of greatness. I played Machinarium earlier this year, a recent point and click adventure game with a different focus than this game. While I would hesitate to call that game great either I did feel rather smitten with it. I never felt smitten with SOMI and for all the talk of the liveliness and writing I don't think any of it made much of an impression on me at all. It's mechanically fine, it wouldn't get me permanently stuck and the writing did add some flavor. It was worth a play through. I'll just have to remember that for whatever reason others will love games affiliated with Tim Schafer more than I ever will for reasons that will eternally elude me. I think a lot of people would agree with you on that. This is an excellent game, no doubt, but I wouldn't call it one of the all-time greats for the adventure genre, or even for Schafer. More like a sign of the greatness that was to come. Monkey Island 2 has better writing, better artwork, puzzles that are harder but usually more intuitive, and it doesn't involve annoying pixel-hunts. And by far Schafer's best is Day of the Tentacle, which many people (myself concluded) consider the best adventure game of all time. If you play those games and still never feel nothing better than "warm"... well then, it's definitely safe to say you'll never be a big fan of his games. Although there are things I liked about this game. The game has a certain charm, and atmosphere, that I liked even more than the second one's. --- Brunch: It's not quite breakfast, it's not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. |
Now that it seems like this is starting to slow down (not that anyone who is still playing or planning to should stop) is it perhaps time to start thinking about the next game in this endeavor? My suggestion is that someone come forward with a game they really feel passionate and want to talk about, then post about it here and make sure that other people will be willing to play it, then create the topic themsleves. I think it would make things more interesting then just going "okay, so what next?" which I think will probably lead to a lot of middle-of-the-road games, that most of us have already played, being chosen. --- Brunch: It's not quite breakfast, it's not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. |
I suppose the trouble we're going to have is of finding worthwhile games that nobody (or few of us) have played, or that nobody had any difficulties with from previous plays that would discourage people from attempting them. That said, I almost think that Darius's point about Eternal Daughter almost even counts as a point in its favour, for seeing how many people run afoul of the said difficulty spike... I'd love to do more adventure games - Day of the Tentacle or Fate of Atlantis, as mentioned earlier - but putting some games of other genres between them, as Justin said. I'll think about it some more - for the moment, I don't want to move too quickly as a couple of people have said they're still playing (though again, this topic would remain open whichever way.) --- http://albion.bandcamp.com My music, or: power metal trapped in an Amiga http://davidn.livejournal.com My journal, or: British and trapped in America |