Monkey Island: Special Edition Released

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:57:00 +0100

Just a quick non-Coldfusion related post about the release of the classic point and click adventure game by LucasArts - Monkey Island.

Nineteen years after release the guys at LucasArts have taken the original game - keeping the exact same engine - and given it a visual and audiotory overhaul. They have redone all of the graphics (painstakingly redrawn by hand), updated the musical score and added a complete vocal track - using the voice actor from later Monkey games to play Guybrush again.

The results are frankly mind blowing. The graphics look fantastic and really give new life to this amazing example of the point and click adventure genre. I always longed to have Monkey Island as a 'talkie' but never thought it would happen. With this update I finally get to hear what all these awesome characters sound like and the results are brilliant.

I have only played it for a few minutes but got a huge buzz as soon as the opening titles appeared in glorious HD. I will be playing it on my 50inch plasma at 1080p resolution (1920x1080) and have to say it looks stunning.

It's being sold through Steam for the bargain price of £6.99 in the UK and $9.99 in the US.

It's a meaty 2.5gb or so download but the whole process is made nice and simple via Steam - I'm very impressed with the whole delivery mechanism I must say.

The game is available on PC via Steam direct download or on the XBox 360 via the Xbox Market Place,

You can get the PC version from here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/

Details about the Xbox 360 version here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/s/secretofmonkeyislandxbla/

Being able to play this again brings back some awesome memories of the first day I got my Amiga A500+ in 1990. Once I started playing I couldn't stop until it was completed.

I now just hope that it sells in bucket loads and convinces LucasArts to give the same treatment to Monkey Island 2: Le Chucks Revenge.

Here's some shot's of the game on my TV: (click for a larger view)

UPDATE: You might not have realised yet but if you press F10 (on the PC version) at any time the game will revert back to the original look exactly - complete with actions panel at the bottom of the screen. It also removes the vocal track and goes back to the original music. Awesome to see the difference.

James Allen's Coldfusion and Internet Technology Blog - Gaming

Monkey Island: Special Edition Released