The most beloved graphic adventure series of all time is celebrating a milestone. Monkey Island has turned 25 and we're marking the occasion by revisiting the first adventure of Guybrush Threepwood, complete with behind-the-scenes stories about its creation.
The Adventure Begins
Released in 1990 for the Amiga, MS-DOS, Atari ST and Macintosh, The Secret of Monkey Island introduced us to the golden age of pirates. The game opens with Guybrush Threepwood, a young man who dreams of becoming a pirate. To achieve his goal, he travels to Mêlée Island, a Caribbean isle where he must overcome daunting challenges: defeat Carla, the fencing master, through the art of insult; find buried treasure; and steal a statue from the mansion of Governor Elaine Marley, a beautiful woman with whom he falls in love.
Development and Remake
The game was conceived in 1988 by Ron Gilbert, a Lucasfilm employee, who designed it together with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. The Secret of Monkey Island became a hit thanks to its humor and gameplay, spawning a series of sequels. In 2009, LucasArts released a remake for PC, consoles and iOS devices with fully redrawn high-definition graphics, added voice acting for every character and dialogue line, and ambient sound effects to enrich the scenes.
Ron Gilbert's Anecdotes
At the beginning of September, Monkey Island turned 25, and designer Ron Gilbert used his blog to share some truly interesting stories about the game's development. One particularly curious tale concerns the release date. According to Gilbert, it's hard to know when The Secret of Monkey Island first appeared in stores. It could have been late September or early October. Remember, the game came on floppy disks, and testing methods required Gilbert and other employees to spend hours copying the game files so that testers could hunt for bugs.
Another anecdote involved the shipments intended for Europe. Since mailing took too long, the team went to the airport and begged random passengers heading to Europe to carry the floppy disks with them. Absolutely crazy, no doubt. But even so, the game made it to market, launching the Monkey Island saga, which many consider one of the greatest graphic adventures in history. And to celebrate, there's nothing better than revisiting the adventures of our friend Guybrush. Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!
