The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Easter Eggs, Trivia, and Secrets

Cogg aside, one other island was cut from the original design: Mire Island, which Dave Grossman described as “basically a trash dump.” The team’s favorite puzzles from that location would later be incorporated into Terror Island. If “Mire Island” sounds familiar, it’s because Elaine mentions it in her last line to Guybrush: “I found the lost map to the treasure of Mire Island. It's going to be a fun adventure.” Souce: Returning to Monkey Island - Noclip Documentary.

According to Dave Grossman, the end goal of Cogg Island’s puzzle chain was to find Locke Smith’s mother’s golden key. Mother Smith had, apparently, been one of the island’s designers. Cogg was originally located on the south-east part of the map. Source: Returning to Monkey Island - Noclip Documentary.

Peter McConnell’s iconic underwater themes are “reagge pirate” versions of “Hullabaloo Belay.” McConnell talks at length about it and other inspirations in a GDC talk.

The Brrr Muda ice castle owes quite a bit to the Bugs Bunny cartoon, “What’s Opera, Doc?” First, climbing the mountain is nigh identical to Elmer Fudd doing the same in the animated short. And both prominently feature Wagner’s “Tannhäuser.” In his GDC talk, Peter McConnell points to the Bugs/Fudd version as his main source of inspiration. Source: GDC.

Clint Bajakian’s gambling/casino theme is a 4/4 variation on the “O du lieber Augustin” waltz. For those who enjoy deep-level speculation: Monkey Island 2 was, at some point, supposed to have a Booty Island treasure hunt – it was even referenced by Augustus DeWaat: “Well, some people got carried away… some graves got dug up… horrible business.” What’s the connection? Well, the waltz was inspired by Marx Augustin, who was accidentally thrown into a mass grave – more on Wikipedia. Graves? Augustin? Augustus? Coincidence? Probably, but the mind wanders.

Michael Land’s LeChuck’s theme has similarities with “Grim Grinning Ghosts (The Screaming Song).” That melody is from Disneyland’s “Haunted Mansion,” an attraction that can be found next to “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Worth noting that LeChuck wants to build a “Screaming Chair” in Monkey Island 2.

One caveat: In a YouTube interview on “Tech Talk with Daniel Albu,” Land said the following: “I was in my office which is a studio, sort of semi-studio, thinking to myself, 'Okay, now I have to write the LeChuck theme, I don't know what I'm going to do.' And so I was like, I have no idea. So I just was like, 'But first I got to go take a pee.' So I went out to the bathroom and I'm standing at the urinal, and while I'm taking a pee at the urinal, the theme literally just popped into my head.”

Michael Land’s cemetery theme is built around a slowed-down version of the “Grim Grinning Ghosts” intro. That melody is from Disneyland’s “Haunted Mansion,” an attraction that can be found next to “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Clint Bajakian’s Rum Rogers, Jr. theme prominently quotes the 1800s sea shanty, “Blow the Man Down.” It’s a fitting tune – the original uses “blow” as slang for knocking someone down, which is exactly what Guybrush needs to do, albeit with booze and not fists. Source: Wikipedia.

An early version of Curse used sprites from The Dig and Full Throttle as placeholders. Source: PC Gamer, Volume 4, Number 7

The statue in the crypt is appropriately shocked at Minnie Goodsoup and Charles DeGoulash’s kiss. Notice how its face changes. Source: SushiStrikesBack.

Here’s a screen you likely have not seen in your playthroughs – if you start The Secret of Monkey Island in Amiga Workbench with not enough memory, you’ll get two error screens. The second one will tell you to go see a dealer for a RAM upgrade.

The Curse of Monkey Island was originally titled The Pirate Curse of Monkey Island – its design differed quite a bit from the final game. You can read more about that in the pitch document. The image above shows the original puzzle flow between the various locations.

The “Visit Fabulous Hook Isle” was created by Tim Schafer himself, who expected it’d be replaced in the final game:

I drew that sign as temp art, assuming a real artist would replace it. I think they left it in to punish me. Look, it’s not easy to draw a cursive F with a mouse in Enhanced Deluxe Paint II. I think Steve Purcell added the shading on “restrooms” and “souvenirs.” And then was like, “That’s it. I can’t look at this anymore. It’s done!”