Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Return to Monkey Island coming 2022

G

GrumpyCoder

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 15, 2016
2,072
2,650
Wow... I didn't see this one coming... not in a million years, but yet here we are:


https://returntomonkeyisland.com/

Ron Gilbert always said he's not going to reveal the real secret of Money Island after MI2, when everything fell apart. Later he claimed there never was a secret, it's something he never wrote. Then he said he's never going to make another MI game unless he owns the franchise.

I can't find words to describe my feelings for this. 32 years after I walked into a local computer store and bought the original Monkey Island game for PC, which got me totally hooked and 31 years after MI2, we're getting a direct sequel to MI2 which ignores all the other games in between.

Excuse me please, gotta go, cry tears of joy (not kidding).
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: addamas, profH, awsom82 and 10 others
G

GrumpyCoder

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 15, 2016
2,072
2,650
They've had a great run back then...
  • 1987: Maniac Mansion
  • 1988: Zak McKracken
  • 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
  • 1990: Monkey Island
  • 1991: Monkey Island 2
  • 1992: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
  • 1993: Day of the Tentacle
Those were the big ones, at least for me. Day of the Tentacle should have been darker in my opinion, it felt more like a comedy adventure when Maniac Mansion had mystery/horror vibes.

The Dig (1995?) was also very enjoyable, the rest didn't do that much for me (I'm only counting point & click adventures here, they had many other fantastic games).
 
  • Like
Reactions: grad and russell_314
Washac

Washac

macrumors 68030
Jul 2, 2006
2,516
130
Such a shame how it looks, if that little trailer is a taste of what is to come., just looks like any other indie game out there, it has lost all of its charm that these games had back in the day, sad sad sad sad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bodie CI5
G

GrumpyCoder

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 15, 2016
2,072
2,650
Washac said:
Such a shame how it looks, if that little trailer is a taste of what is to come., just looks like any other indie game out there, it has lost all of its charm that these games had back in the day, sad sad sad sad.
Click to expand...
Have to disagree, but that's all subjective. I guess you mean the modern look, more drawn graphics than pixel style? Would you have liked it better if it looked like Thimbleweed Park? (Ron Gilbert's last point & click adventure)

I think the thing is this... back in the 80/90s we didn't have better computers. It all started with the C64 and things moved on to the VGA PC era, from 320x200 with 16 colors to 640x480 with 256 colors. If we had todays computers back then, MI and Maniac Mansion would have always looked like this modern style. Similar to the original Star Wars movies and the prequels. The originals were technically limited, the prequels were not.

A similar evolution happened with the Special Edition games that were released back in 2009.

Also, Disney... so many artists available to draw things.

But there are rumors about a "nostalgic" mode which has old-style graphics. Time will tell.

I'm wondering much more about Murray... why is he in the trailer? If this is a direct sequel to MI2, then we never had Murray because he was introduced in MI3. So a reintroduction? Or is he dropped into the water to symbolize the direct sequel, that everything after MI2 never happened?
 
  • Like
Reactions: EmotionalSnow and Bodie CI5
Washac

Washac

macrumors 68030
Jul 2, 2006
2,516
130
"But there are rumors about a "nostalgic" mode which has old-style graphics. Time will tell."

This sounds interesting.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Bodie CI5
Bodie CI5

Bodie CI5

macrumors 6502
Apr 22, 2014
255
144
Washac said:
Such a shame how it looks, if that little trailer is a taste of what is to come., just looks like any other indie game out there, it has lost all of its charm that these games had back in the day, sad sad sad sad.
Click to expand...
I’m exceedingly happy that there is a return, to re-live the Amiga thing (for example), but I do agree that the graphics artwork direction is not something I’m entirely agreeable with. I, along with my brother, am a huge fan of the C64 version of Pirates! but the PC re-release many years later looked too much like the Civ 6 character cartoony graphics. I really don’t like that at all. (Yep, I know it’s subjective)
 
  • Like
Reactions: grad and Washac
garnerx

garnerx

macrumors 6502a
Nov 9, 2012
623
382
I hope he's getting Tim Schafer involved. Ron Gilbert didn't write the orginal game on his own, and his output since the LucasArts days has been patchy.
 
G

GrumpyCoder

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 15, 2016
2,072
2,650
garnerx said:
I hope he's getting Tim Schafer involved. Ron Gilbert didn't write the orginal game on his own, and his output since the LucasArts days has been patchy.
Click to expand...
I don't think Schafer is involved, he's not said anything so far and seems to be rather busy at Doublefine. But Dave Grossman is back who wrote the original with Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer.

Many others seem to be back as suggested by Denny Delk (who also voiced Murray):
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1511044526508593153

Edit: As far as Ron Gilbert goes, I have to agree. Average stuff after LucasArts/LucasFilm Games until Thimbleweed Park.
 
skaertus

skaertus

macrumors 601
Feb 23, 2009
4,232
1,380
Brazil
garnerx said:
I hope he's getting Tim Schafer involved. Ron Gilbert didn't write the orginal game on his own, and his output since the LucasArts days has been patchy.
Click to expand...
I am not familiar with Ron Gilbert's work after Lucas Arts. He founded Humongous Entertainment, which was dedicated to making games for children. The company was successful, but it was not the genre I was interested in.

I played Thimbleed Park recently and it really impressed me as it was perhaps the best adventure game I have played since the good old days of Lucas Arts. Ron Gilbert definitely knows how to make adventure games.

The Monkey Island series is my all-time favorite adventure game franchise. No contest. And the two first games have an extra sauce that I could not find in later entries. Much of that spirit was present in Thimbleed Park, so I suppose might be Ron Gilbert's personal touch.

2022 is shaping up to be the best year ever in video game releases, even better than 2013. First, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge will be released to revive the gone days of good TMNT beat-em-ups. And now a new Monkey Island game! Wow!
 
Fred Zed

Fred Zed

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2019
5,055
5,956
Florida Unfortunately
That game back in the day was legendary. I have very fond memories of playing it on my dads 386DX/25 PC and sound blaster 16 audio card. But then again, there were many great games back then by publishers like Lucasarts and Origin, Sierra etc.
One of my all time faves was also, Wing Commander. Still have the original audio CD that was given as a gift during launch day.
Yep, the days of browsing games in a physical brick and mortar computer game store, those were the times alright.
 
garnerx

garnerx

macrumors 6502a
Nov 9, 2012
623
382
skaertus said:
I played Thimbleed Park recently and it really impressed me as it was perhaps the best adventure game I have played since the good old days of Lucas Arts. Ron Gilbert definitely knows how to make adventure games.
Click to expand...
I played that a couple of years ago when it appeared on Game Pass, but I didn't get very far. I think the nature of this sort of game, with puzzles that are frequently unsignposted or obscure for comedy reasons, makes them a love/hate sort of thing.

For example, Day of the Tentacle. I spent many hours playing that on somebody's computer while supposedly going round to feed their dog while they were on holiday, and loved it until I got to a puzzle about a bowling ball. That was it, in the pre-internet days, end of game for me, I got no further. Reading a guide more recently, apparently that was the final scene in the game!
 
G

GrumpyCoder

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 15, 2016
2,072
2,650
skaertus said:
I played Thimbleed Park recently and it really impressed me as it was perhaps the best adventure game I have played since the good old days of Lucas Arts. Ron Gilbert definitely knows how to make adventure games.
Click to expand...
That's the thing he's really good at, point and click adventures. It changed Sierra games as well.
skaertus said:
2022 is shaping up to be the best year ever in video game releases, even better than 2013. First, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge will be released to revive the gone days of good TMNT beat-em-ups. And now a new Monkey Island game! Wow!
Click to expand...
Also Max Payne remakes. Not sure if these will be out this year though.
skaertus said:
I have not heard about this. Where does this come from?
Click to expand...
Read it either on his blog or somewhere on twitter. It's a rumour, nothing more. That being said, Ron Gilbert confirmed on twitter that MI3 is still canon and Murray is in the game, which leaves the question of how Return to MI fits into the series.
garnerx said:
For example, Day of the Tentacle. I spent many hours playing that on somebody's computer while supposedly going round to feed their dog while they were on holiday, and loved it until I got to a puzzle about a bowling ball. That was it, in the pre-internet days, end of game for me, I got no further. Reading a guide more recently, apparently that was the final scene in the game!
Click to expand...
Day of the Tentacle never really matched the other games, at least for me. The puzzles were also a little odd, I have to agree on this. However, the older games were not so much different when it came to puzzles. We played Maniac Mansion a lot back in the day and it took us a really long time to play through it, leave alone all characters and endings. By that time, Zak McKracken was out already. Those games were made to take a long time to complete. They sure are different from todays Tomb Raider, Assassins Creed, etc. games were you sit down and play through in 10 to 20 hours or so.

And even if we had no internet as we know it today back then, we had mailboxes and CompuServe, where many rumours started. There must have been thousands of hints posted on how to get the fuel for the chainsaw in Maniac Mansion. Good old times.
 
E

EdgarMonkey

macrumors newbie
May 24, 2022
1
0
Search on YouTube “Return to Monkey Island Demake”

I have also another videos from Curse of Monkey Island in pixel art.
 
U

upthetoffees

macrumors regular
Jun 4, 2012
194
342
Release date announced as being next month. No OSX, what to do, wonder if it will be on Geforce NOW. Otherwise I will have to buy/make a small pc.
 
N

Nugat Trailers

macrumors 6502
Dec 23, 2021
267
459
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: russell_314 and upthetoffees
dmr727

dmr727

macrumors G4
Dec 29, 2007
10,435
5,195
NYC
Huntn said:
So gaming will turn you to the dark side. This was me 25 years ago. I like the MacOS, but could not remain solely in it’s gaming straight jacket. :)
Click to expand...

So true! And after the PC you start thinking, "Man, it'd be cool to do some light gaming on the road - something beyond what I can get on iOS. Maybe a Switch would be a good idea?" Or these days: "My Switch is great but with a Steam Deck I can carry almost my entire library!" :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: Huntn
Huntn

Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,539
26,655
The Misty Mountains
dmr727 said:
So true! And after the PC you start thinking, "Man, it'd be cool to do some light gaming on the road - something beyond what I can get on iOS. Maybe a Switch would be a good idea?" Or these days: "My Switch is great but with a Steam Deck I can carry almost my entire library!" :p
Click to expand...
I need to check out the Steam Deck. Will it play something like Cyberpunk 2077? ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: dmr727
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom