The thing I always wonder is how testing/QA worked back in the days for cartridge/disk games. I mean, there've been a few quirks here and there but no game I can recall ever became unplayable — As opposed to nowadays where you can't even launch something before applying 50GBs of fixes.
Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
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Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#12I'm still not willing to accept that it's all the imagination of a child running wild at a theme park.
While MI2s ending gives this impression, MI was planned as a triology, where in MI3 the secret of monkey island should be revealed. (Un)fortunately Ron Gilbert left after MI2 and took the secret with him, never to be revealed.
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#13I remember my brother playing (and me dicking around a bit with) Zack McKracken first and then Monkey Island. It's always the sword fighting part I remember the most. It's a pity I don't have time for anything anymore, I would love to revisit them some time.
I loved Maniac Mansion,Day of the Tentacle and Zack McKracken. A modern game that may be comparable is "Trover saves the Universe" by Justin Roiland, probably best played on the Oculus Quest. I haven't had that much fun playing a video game for a few years.
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#14I was just the right age when ‘Monkey Island’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis’ appeared in my life. That kind of in-world puzzle solving seems absent from a lot of what I see my early-teenage nieces/nephews (choose to) play now.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is the true 4th Indiana Jones movie in my book. And yes, I'll die on that hill.
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#15Just curious: How would I go about playing Monkey Island today? I know DOSBox comes to mind?
But, is there an official port, like the "remastered" versions of Final Fantasy that are in the Play store?
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#16Just curious: How would I go about playing Monkey Island today? I know DOSBox comes to mind? But, is there an official port, like the "remastered" versions of Final Fantasy that are in the Play store?
Check out gog.com
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#17Oh sweet memories. I did not play the game, my daughter did. But I absolutely loved the music and still have it in my playlist.
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#18Just curious: How would I go about playing Monkey Island today? I know DOSBox comes to mind? But, is there an official port, like the "remastered" versions of Final Fantasy that are in the Play store?
Steam [0] and GOG [1], at least, have Monkey Island 1 & 2 special editions. Looks like GOG has them 65% off right now too.
[0] https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/6588/Monkey_Island_Col...
[1] https://www.gog.com/game/the_secret_of_monkey_island_special...
[1] https://www.gog.com/game/monkey_island_2_special_edition_lec...
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#19Wow this really brings back memories! If Ron Gilbert is reading this, thanks for all your hard work on this game. This game was definitely one of the highlights of my childhood. As to what makes the game great, I think it's the perfect combination of humor, pirates, and difficulty level that feels just right for a kid in the early 90s. It also has an amazing soundtrack. Look! A three headed monkey!
> difficulty level that feels just right for a kid in the early 90s.
You must've been a clever kid and/or I'm a bit dense :) When I played most of the Monkey Island games as a teenager / young adult there were definitely several times when I had to resort to GameFAQs.
Re: Thirty years ago today I made the final gold masters for Monkey Island
#20The thing I always wonder is how testing/QA worked back in the days for cartridge/disk games. I mean, there've been a few quirks here and there but no game I can recall ever became unplayable — As opposed to nowadays where you can't even launch something before applying 50GBs of fixes.
Though there were more overall platforms back then, the hardware for any given platform was a lot more uniform than any modern PC. OSs barely did anything where they existed at all, which also helped. Finally, codebases were a lot smaller and everything was single-threaded so there was generally just less to go wrong.