The Curse of Monkey Island

1001 Video Games

The Curse of Monkey Island appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cancelled movie

There used to be a department somewhere within Industrial Light and Magic, that was tasked with writing screenplays for animated films based on Lucasfilm's intellectual property from other media. One such screenplay was a Monkey Island movie, entitled The Curse of Monkey Island, likely loosely based on the game of the same name. In the big reorganization of Lucasfilm that occurred a couple of years ago the department was killed and the movie (still in pre-production) with it.

Cut content

• A love song called "Plank of Love" was planned to be in the game but was never recorded. A stanza from the song, written by Chuck Jordan:

Elaine: "Oh, how I love you Guybrush."

Elaine: "Not even your corny jokes'll..."

Elaine: "Make me wish that I was not your bride..."

Elaine: "When you carry me 'cross your fo'c'sle!" * In a PC Gamer sneak preview of the game, the designers admitted that Gary Coleman's character, Kenny Falmouth, was supposed to answer "What-chu talkin' about, Guybrush?" to a certain question, but they decided to remove the line since they didn't want to risk offending the former star of Diff'rent Strokes.

Development

LucasArts initially designed longer end scenes for the game but due to budget and time restrains were forced to drop those plans.

Development tools

The Curse of Monkey Island used 3 engines: SCUMM (the last LucasArts game to use it), INSANE and iMUSE.

Fingers

You can notice how all the characters in the game have only four fingers on each of their hands. Hard to notice when you're too busy finishing the story, but you can check the end credits. You'll be able to see that quite clear.

Gags

• When Van Helgen is doing his guitar riff, Guybrush will pull out a lighter if you don't move him for about a minute.
• On the in-game menu there's a button which appears as disabled and it says "Enable 3D acceleration", but when you get over it with a mouse, it says "No, really, there's no 3D acceleration in this game."

German version

The German version of the game changed the character Rottingham into "Röchelieu" (an obvious pun referring to the cardinal Richelieu, the French politician of the 17th century), and he talks with French accent. Another slight change concerned Palido Domingo, which is a parody of the famous singer Placido Domingo. In the German version it was changed into "Blasido". Why is it funny and why did they change it? Because "blas" means "pale" in German! This way, the joke is even funnier, since the name "Blasido" is more similar to "Placido" than "Palido". Other changes: the character Minestrone is called "Meistersuppe", which is "master soup", and Haggis talks with a broad Frisian accent instead of the original Scotch.

A sequence missing in the European versions of the game is the shanty Guybrush's crew sings in chapter three: A Pirate I was meant to be. For reasons not yet known, the song was cut from non-English versions of the game: in an interview from 2021 designer Larry Ahern says he was not even aware of the song being cut and does not remember ever being asked about it, so he assumes it was probably a decision made by the localization team alone.

Macintosh

Although no Mac version of the game was released, it is possible to play on Mac OS X using ScummVM and the game files from the PC CDs.

Murray

Murray, the demonic skeleton, was only planned to be near LeChuck's ship in the original script. But thanks to loads of positive feedback on the Curse of Monkey Island demo and some initiative of the programmers, the character was added to four other locations in the game in the last few months of development. Murray even has to be used as an inventory item to solve a puzzle at one point.

References

• In The Curse of Monkey Island there's a place where you can enter the 'forest' screen from original The Secret of Monkey Island. You can only see your new Guybrush head, lurking like from some hole in a tree-stump. From another place, the dying scene under water can be visited. More information about both easter eggs can be found in the tips & tricks section.
• When you enter the dialogue with LeChuck in part V of the game, Guybrush threatens LeChuck that should he kill Guybrush, there will be no more sequels and LeChuck's name will be forgotten, just like Bobbin Threadbare's. Bobbin Threadbare, of course, is the name of the main character in Loom, and thanks to the low sales of the game, there never was a sequel.
• The dead guy at Blondebeard's restaurant is none other than Manny Calavera - the main character from Grim Fandango.

References to the game

The Curse of Monkey Island was parodied in an episode of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVD of issue 02/2007.

Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert, designer of the original two games of the series, said that the game was done well considering the tough job they had, but his biggest complaint was that Elaine fell in love with Guybrush. Gilbert says that Elaine thinks of Guybrush as more of a brother, and she would never do something like that.

Time

• The church clock tower on Plunder Island always shows exact time in reality, Guybrush will tell you exactly what time is it.
• Ask Palido Domingo about how long he's been staying at the beach. The answer it will depend on the date set on your computer clock.

Translation

Puerto Pollo, one of the main areas in the game, means Port Chicken in Spanish.

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • March 1998 (Issue #164) – Adventure Game of the Year
• PC Player (Germany)
  • Issue 01/1999 - Best Adventure in 1998

Information also contributed by Adam Schoales, Daniel Albu, Emepol; Gothicgene, James1, Jason Harang, Little Yoda; Marek, MAT, MDMaster, Scott Monster, Tom Murphy, Unicorn Lynx, Zack Green, and Zovni