The Secret of Monkey Island... Deleted Scenes!

[ThunderPeel2001]

Real deleted/extended scenes from the original Secret of Monkey Island as written by Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert.

Yes, I'm not joking.

Weep with joy.

Now I want to see the stuff they deleted from MI2.

[Kolzig]

That was some really awesome dialogue.

It would've been interesting to see the looting scene in the final game, but SoMI is perfect already so I'm not that sad to not see that stuff in the game.

Anyway cool discovery by the special edition team!

[syntheticgerbil]

Ahaha, I love the option where you can get Meathook to go loot the town with you.

Some of this maybe I wouldn't have wanted in, but it wasn't meant to be so, yep. Glad the Special Edition team didn't decide to add it in, although I'm betting maybe they would be too lazy either way to go through something like that.

[BigJKO]

..although I'm betting maybe they would be too lazy either way to go through something like that.

Oh, come on. LucasArts may have gone down the shitter as a whole, the Special Edition wasn't as good as it should've been, but you can't really say the team is lazy. For all you know they did their absolute best, within the time and money constraints given to them.

[syntheticgerbil]

Nope I can say it. It's my opinion the team was lazy and I have no respect for some of the amateur mistakes that were made, so of course I'm making childish digs as an aside on a forum. I'm also sure Lucasarts had more than enough time and money, so I don't need to hear apologies for them. Even if they did their absolute best, it really was not good enough and quality control was absolutely out the window. You don't get an A for effort.

Also it probably would have helped if they had not farmed a majority of the artwork out to Singapore, no doubt to get cheap with it.

Edited November 10, 2009 by syntheticgerbil

[twmac]

Out of professional curiosity what did you think was lacking in terms of quality?

Are we talking buggy messes that should have been reported by the QA team or are we talking about a graphical style/audio style you didn't like? Maybe the new interface?

[syntheticgerbil]

Mostly graphics but somewhat buggy messes as well. I'm less bothered by the audio than some.

I should probably not talk about this any further, as I'm just going to fill pages up with bile.

And I want someone to answer JohnnyW's question about the Spiffy the Dog graphic in the comments sections from Thunderpeel's (who is Johnny) link. I hope someone looks into the Monkey Island 2 source as well someday.

[BigJKO]

I'm also sure Lucasarts had more than enough time and money, so I don't need to hear apologies for them.

I'm also sure LucasArts has enough time and money. The Special Edition team, however? Not so sure and don't know why you're so sure. Did you read some memo about the development that I didn't?

Anyways, it's your opinion. It just sounded kind of shitty, the team saying "We didn't uncomment a couple of sections of hidden scenes, because we respect the fact that they were never meant to be there anyway," and you immediately calling it out as "lazy".

[syntheticgerbil]

I'm also sure LucasArts has enough time and money. The Special Edition team, however? Not so sure and don't know why you're so sure. Did you read some memo about the development that I didn't?

Either way, the "time and money" excuse is a cop out. Anything creative always has time and money problems holding them back. It's the job of the team to make quality work within the constraints of time and money.

The game has two paid art directors credited. What possible time and money constraints could prevent them from having an artist doing something so simple as resaving their backgrounds without the orginal layers they were drawing over intact? How does this error and many other amateur mistakes like it go under two guys who are supposed to be constantly QCing all of the final art according to their job title?

I'd love to hear how money and time prevented them from doing that exactly. Until someone wants to interview or speak honestly about the sub-par art in the game along with the simple mistakes, I'm going to assume the laziness that I see reflected within the finished product. Sorry if that's harsh. Some people would rather not be presumptuous on why someone stinks at their job, but I myself have no qualms doing so (at least on an internet forum).

Anyways, it's your opinion. It just sounded kind of shitty, the team saying "We didn't uncomment a couple of sections of hidden scenes, because we respect the fact that they were never meant to be there anyway," and you immediately calling it out as "lazy".

That was just a dig making fun of their concept of respect for Monkey Island.

[twmac]

Ah well, if it was art direction then I don't really have anything to say about that. I actually have a lot of respect for the team that put out Monkey Island from a technical perspective. Getting out am XLA title can be a tremendous pain in the arse and the iPhone apps were still in their infancy.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I personally found the Special Edition to be appalling in many ways, although I'm not sure it has anything to do with laziness, but probably more to do with lack of time/money. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't think for a second that the team behind the SE said, "Yes! This is the version we've wanted all these years!". Unfortunately it seems that somewhere along the way they started trying to guess what "the fans" wanted... (a "hip" Guybrush?)

The interface should be given the gaming equivalent of a Razzie (what was wrong with CMI's interface?). The voices were often ridiculously absurd. The tieing of the dialogue to the lines of text being displayed was a massive mistake, too. The dialogue. Sounds. Like. This. There were bits of artwork that were literally unfinished. They left the "10 O'Clock" bug in... *sigh*

Still, it was a great idea to tie it to the original Scumm Engine (apart from the dialogue, which they should have set to a higher speed by default) and I'm glad it exists... I'm just too much of a fanboi to enjoy it, I guess.

[syntheticgerbil]

Still, it was a great idea to tie it to the original Scumm Engine (apart from the dialogue, which they should have set to a higher speed by default) and I'm glad it exists... I'm just too much of a fanboi to enjoy it, I guess.

I'm glad it eventually ended up in letting us peer into some of the original deleted scenes and dialogue, even if they aren't much and are just a page of text. I sort of wish he would update his blog post put in Ron's reasons for cutting that stuff as well, if just for a sort of running commentary.

The release of this extra dialogue makes me hope for more rumored "deleted scenes," lost artwork or animation, and ideas from other LucasArts games to appear in public. It's nice to know that at least one person at LucasArts knows that fans are clamoring for it (The Rogue Book was just not enough!). I guess I'm getting really ahead of myself, but I already find it fascinating to browse through ATM Machine's site. The more content for him to update with, the better.

[SoulChicken]

You had me at "Does our ship have a pool?"

Thanks a lot for this it was awesome!

[BigJKO]

I'd love to hear how money and time prevented them from doing that exactly. Until someone wants to interview or speak honestly about the sub-par art in the game along with the simple mistakes, I'm going to assume the laziness that I see reflected within the finished product. Sorry if that's harsh. Some people would rather not be presumptuous on why someone stinks at their job, but I myself have no qualms doing so (at least on an internet forum).

Fair enough. I guess I've just worked on too many productions myself where time and money was short and it ended up being something I was proud of, yet not the best thing possible, with a lot of oversights. Working on a tight schedule means you'll make mistakes and still work 24 hours a day..