Look behind you, it's a three-headed monkey!

[Fred N]

Or to put it another way: wow.

I've read rumours about an upcoming remake, a "special edition", of The Secret of Monkey Island for Xbox Live Arcade (also for PC it, it turns out) but I sure as hell didn't expect the new series from Telltale
I've got a complaint though: Guybrush's new look and haircut in the special edition. Yuck.

http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland

http://www.lucasarts.com/games/monkeyisland/

Be sure to check out the video at Lucasarts, behind the scenes and interviews with Ron Gilbert, Dominic Armato and Adam Bormann (of GK3 fame) for instance.

[Fred N]

And this is an interesting read too (if you like Monkey Island, that is):
Ron Gilbert's thoughts on the new games, and lots of info about the original game
http://grumpygamer.com/8280380

[Geron]

Agreeing on the Special Edition look.

But my goodness, it's the return of a Classic! Who knows, we might yet get to see a new Gabriel Knight!

[Dianne]

Looks very interesting, and brings back memories. Like...YIKES, that was way long ago that I played it. Well, I did play at least 2 of them but don't remember how many there were and where the 2 that I played fell into the sequence...

Wow nostalgia...

[Fred N]

Look behind you, it's a three-headed monkey! turned into Look in front of you, it's an obsolete computer that can't play your new Monkey Island game!

I downloaded the special edition of "The Secret of Monkey Island" (made by LucasArts) from Steam, but alas (not "avast" ), apparently my PC is equipped with an AMD CPU that doesn't meet the minimum hardware requirements (the game's more tolerant towards slower Intel CPU:s if I understood and remember correctly). I might have read the hardware requirements before I installed it, but I simply didn't pay much attention to them. Heck, since it can run (although not so recent) games like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, I didn't expect this revamped adventure game would be the final nail in the coffin
Oh well. It was only a few months ago that I replayed the original VGA version of The Secret of Monkey Island (before I even knew the special edition was in the works) so it wasn't as if I wanted to play the special edition right away anyways. But still, I'm not planning on upgrading anytime soon, so it sucks that I can't see what the game looks like yet

"The Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" (made by Telltale) however is playable even on my obsolete PC... I've only played the intro, but I liked how it started

[Geron]

*hands a medal and a cup to Fred for holding up the Adventure Gamer tradition on GKA*

And hey, upgrading is not THAT expensive anymore nowadays...at least not as expensive as it was in the days when your current PC was brand-new, I bet. I mean, I managed to save my way to a new PC that can play the newer games in 3 months last year. For 399 €, I'm pretty happy with my little desktop, even if it keeps giving me some hiccups now and then...but that's basically a PC's prerogative ever since Windows 3.1

[Dianne]

Oh my...Adventure Gamer...I haven't even thought of that web site in years! Does it still exist???

I stopped playing games when it turned out my new computer had the wrong graphics card for playing several of the newer games. Gosh that was so long ago now I don't even remember which games they were...just that I wasn't pleased.

So... to Fred for still playing...

BTW...I'm in the same boat with an old computer now (mine is at least 5 yrs old and I'm suspecting it may be 6 years) and if it didn't play games back when it was new it sure as heck won't play any of them now...

[Fred N]

Originally Posted by Geron

*hands a medal and a cup to Fred for holding up the Adventure Gamer tradition on GKA*

Originally Posted by Dianne

So... to Fred for still playing...

Lol, I don't think anyone's ever praised me for that before (comments like "won't you ever grow up?" or "get a life, nerd!" is more common)
Though I hope I'm not the only one here who still plays adventure games now and then?
Admittedly, one's spare time is very limited, and you always feel that you'd want to spend more time on one hobby or another. From the "read any good books lately?"-thread it's apparent that many of you read a lot more books than I do, although that's a habit that I spend more time on during summer vacations and such.

Not sure if upgrading my desktop or buying a powerful laptop is what I'd like to to next, I'll think about it

Dianne, if you want to and if you have time for it, I'm sure there are a lot of really good older games (like the older LucasArts/Monkey Island games with ScummVM - or why not GK1?!) that probably works on your PC And probably lots of somewhat newer games, too.

http://www.adventuregamers.com is still live and kicking

[Geron]

Well...yeah, I still have Longest Journey: Dreamfall installed on my PC, but..uhm...still haven't gotten to try it out.

Also, I'm waiting for the Dungeon Siege adaption of Ultima 6 to finally be done. Not 100% an adventure game, more a mix between Fantasy RPG, Action, and Adventure, but VERY entertaining none the less.

[Dianne]

Longest Journey 2...that's the one that wouldn't run with my graphics card (pretty sure)...I gave to to my sister for Christmas...her PC wouldn't run it so she gave it back and I couldn't get it to run either...

All my adventure games are still packed in boxes somewhere. I can't see myself having free time to start a game for at least another year!!!

And yes, I'm one of those reading people which I can do quietly and not disturb Rick at night while still being next to him either watching TV or sleeping.

[myeerah]

I couldn't run Dreamfall with my graphics card, either. *sigh*

And I finished a book last night that I'd been reading in between other books for several weeks now. I'll post about it momentarily.

[Fred N]

Gee, this place is lively! (I'm not really following the principle "let he who is without sin throw the first rock" now since, for one thing, I'm usually only slightly more talkative and social than an asocial seashell, but what the heck, it's only Christmas once, so here's another exception )

I've finally played *takes a deep breath* Telltale's "The Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1: The launch of the Screaming Narwhal" from start to end, and I can somewhat surprised say that I was, uh, positively surprised by it and it receives: ....

*drumroll*

FRED N's Seal of Approval™

(which I know means a lot more to you than some Gamespot or Adventure Gamers award/review ever will. Right? )

Of the previous Monkey Island games I really like the first 3:
-The Secret of Monkey Island
-Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
-The Curse of Monkey Island. Despite the art style - especially the characters - suddenly became more cartoonish, but Bill Tiller's artwork was and still is wonderful and it's a great game except for the rushed sucky ending. I guess they must have spent the budget on the rest of the game. Or maybe I just say that because I read it here.

and I really loathe the fourth game
-Escape from Monkey Island
It is ->IMO<- hardly worth mentioning, except for going on and on and on about how much I dislike it. It's unfunny. Yuck. It has some OK passages, but as a whole: yuck. I mostly have bad memories from it And yet for some reason, it wasn't that long ago I downloaded the PS2 version Oh well, what do I know... some people collect garbage cans

It was with mixed feelings I read the news that Telltale was working on a series of Monkey Island episodes, because
a) Mike Stemmle, one of the project leaders of Escape from Monkey Island, was one of the people working on it
b) I've played several of Telltale's games; Bone episode 1+2, Sam & Max Season 1 and all but the last episode of Season 2, and I have to say that although the Sam & Max games are perhaps getting somewhat better for each episode, they feel a bit...cheap. Cheap as in "low production values", not so impressive graphics and most of the times far from rotfl-hilarious. They're not bad, a lot of the dialogue and jokes make me chuckle or laugh, but I doubt they'll ever be considered as classics, as with the original "Sam & Max Hit the Road". It's not easy to make great sequels to a great classic, that's for sure.
(I wasn't that fond of "Hit the road" when I first played it, but now 10-15 years later there's this little thing called nostalgia - and voila, it's a classic)

But with Episode 1 of "Tales of Monkey Island" they've made a game that's at least (once again, IMO) much better than "Escape from Monkey Island"

I think there's a free demo of the game, yes there is, so if you're not too busy to play silly computer games (a demo of an episodic game should be pretty short though), you could download it from here and try it out.

Oh, one complaint though... the controls are clunky. It's point-and-click when you interact with objects, but it's drag-and-click when it comes to moving Guybrush Threepwood around the screen (or, which I preferred, you can move him around with the W, A, S, D keys)
Edit: when I wrote drag-and-click I actually meant click-and-drag. What's the difference between point-and-click and drag-and-click...?

Although I've purchased all episodes of "Tales..." I think I'll hold off with playing the next episode until the complete season DVD is available. Or I should at least finish Sam & Max season 2 first.

Sorry about the long post, but on some topics I just get carried away.

[Ellen]

Sometimes (shutting off all other nasty consequenses) I wish I'd break a leg or something, just the once. So I'd have the best excuus to do nothing but Play Games and watch a;; movies/TV series I still got waiting here for me!

IOW: I'm jealous at you Fred