The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Latest News

Speaking of story documents and their ilk, we’ve added “The Pirates Curse of Monkey Island” to our database just for the fun of it.

(That’s all.)

First, you’ve probably already been notified, but in case you missed it—ReMI merchandise has shipped from Devolver.

And if you’re looking for some light reading (and viewing) material this weekend, you can’t go wrong with our ever-updating Monkey 2 article over at Mojo. The new section is called “In an Alternate Universe.” And for an amuse-bouche, check out this little video.

The Deleted LeChuck/Big Whoop Scene Voiced

Strangely, voices were recorded for the deleted LeChuck/Largo scene in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition. The scene doesn’t appear in that version of the game, either, but through the magic of reconstruction, here’s what it would have sounded like. (Video taken from VGHF’s fireside chat video.)
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That El Carlo was to be LeChuck’s Revenge’s antagonist and that Largo’s original name was “Lord Jack” is common knowledge by now, but have you ever read the full pitch for the Monkey Island sequel? If you haven’t—or even if you have, I suppose—this is as good time as any to read the game’s story document. A snippet:

“Nice to meet you,” said Guybrush, offering to shake hands. Lord Jack looked at Guybrush’s extended paw and said, “El Carlo was LeChuck’s brother.” The words “LeChuck’s Brother” echoed in Guybrush’s head. Lord Jack smiled and started to walk into the water towards his rowboat. “You’re a dead man Guybrush! El Carlo has been looking for his brother’s killer for many months, it looks like now we’ve found him. You should also know that of the two brothers, LeChuck was the nice one.”

Dramatic! Check it out, right now.

It would probably have made our lives easier had we been born two days later. Had that been the case, we could’ve posted about our birthday and Return to Monkey Island turning two and International Talk Like a Pirate Day in one fell swoop. But, whatever! Use a lot of pirate lingo today, and celebrate ReMI, a true stone-cold classic.

And, the bar will keep chugging along, not unlike the chef in ReMI.

The Chef Rebuilds the Scumm Bar

The Scumm Bar chef has a long list of improvements for his establishment, some more achievable than others.
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… that The SCUMM Bar turned twenty-eight years old today. Twenty. Eight. Good god, what the actual what? I feel like we should either celebrate or throw a wake or something, but who has the time? Let’s just cap it with this quote from Dave Grossman regarding the old pirate leaders in Return to Monkey Island:

RtMI, if you play the Writer’s Cut, includes a conversation on a streetcorner with the former pirate leaders, now deposed and replaced. Much of that is a direct commentary on my own experience during my last year at Telltale.

Wait, this turned into a wake, didn’t it?

Pirate Leaders of Low Moral Fiber

A common question we get is if this scene was cut from the game. It was not, but you need to enable Writers’ Cut in the game’s preference to see it.
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Fifteen years? That passed quickly, but here we are, and Tales of Monkey Island is, indeed, that old. Thus, we have republished our original reviews over at Mojo. More to come? Maybe! Probably!

And if you want more, jump in and read our Tales of Monkey Island game page.

One of the more common questions we see is an ask to put our excellent Soundtrack section onto YouTube. Wait no more, as today is that day. Introducing “Monkey Island Soundtracks,” probably the most imaginatively named playlist on the ‘tube. It is exactly what it says on the tin—soundtracks. Twelve of them, in fact. And more to come. To give you a bite-sized treat, here’s the Amiga version of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge…

… which, of course, any Amiga aficionado will know is a less-than-ideal soundtrack. (Four channels piping our stock samples, with most of the PC music missing. Super bummer.)

Let’s make it up to you with Zaarin’s MT-32 recording—proper-sounding Monkey Island 2.

The SCUMM Bar: We live to serve as long as it doesn’t inconvenience us.

I’m sure you have seen it by now, but in case you haven’t…

Early Secret of Monkey Island Concept Art

Or, Mutiny on Monkey Island even? In this early concept sketch from Gary Winnick we see who likely is Guybrush on the left and Governor Fat on the right. In the middle? Who knows—maybe an early, goofy LeChuck? Or, more likely, just a random pirate. Source: Heritage Auctions. Update! As posted by Sushi, the characters are indeed from Mutiny on Monkey Island: Captain Smear West, the lookout on Mêlée and Governor L. Fat.
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Talk about a blast from an alternate timeline. The little beauty is available from an auction house, so get your credit card ready.

Source: Mojo

Look, we get it. Convenience—it is a thing we want, and we should practice what we preach. Thus, we have added a feed for the trivia section. It is as straightforward as it gets, provided you use a feed reader (we’re partial to Feedbin). Just add scummbar.com, select “Trivia” (actually, select both feeds: you’ll get the latest news through our “regular” one), and boom… you’re good to go.

A small caveat: The trivia feed is not RSS, but rather JSON. To the best of my knowledge, all major feed readers support that format these days. For those who want a direct link, you can go straight to the feed.

And my apologies if all of this is meaningless. We’ll return to our regular schedule as soon as there’s anything to return with.

As any reader of Mojo knows—which you, of course, are—we’ve posted an article there called “ICYMI: Return to Monkey Island,” which is just that… an article covering some of the more esoteric Return to Monkey Island factoids. We’ve also updated the Cogg Island article with a new section named “Puzzling Puzzles.”

But, if you don’t want to go into the weeds, let’s just treat you to a couple of pieces of trivia right here because why the hell not?

Voting Time With Guybrush: A Collection

After successfully getting his Monkey Island vote through, Guybrush has an arsenal of other topics to put up for consideration.
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To keep with the LeShip theme:

LeChuck’s Inspirational Speeches: A Collection

If you keep double-ringing the LeShip bell, LeChuck will give a number of inspirational speeches. Enjoy them all here!
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And, for good measure:

Avast! The Fate of the Chandelier Pirate

The pirate swinging from the chandelier in The Secret of Monkey Island has met their untimely demise if the body outline in Return is anything to go by. Also, note the “welcome” mat—“avast” means “stop.” In other words, anything but welcoming.
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