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

Another (very) early piece of The Secret of Monkey Island concept art, courtesy of Gary Winnick. Source: Heritage Auctions.

Guybrush famously tells us you should never pay more than $20 for a computer game. Earlier in the game, though, the suggested limit is $60.

In both “The Secret of Monkey Island” and “Return to Monkey Island,” you can press the Escape or skip key to get an alternate “Loom” sales pitch from Cobb.

The Secret of Monkey Island demo is very different from what you see in the final game. Here is a full playthrough—no commentary—showing off the many differences.

You can rootbeer Bob by making the threat followed by “I think I’ll sap you anyway.” Additionally, this changes up your subsequent dialogue with Herman.

The EGA version of the first Monkey Island game differs from the other versions in one major way—color palette aside: At the beginning of the game, you can see the sunset from the Mêlée docks. Later in the game, the sun will have set.

In The Secret of Monkey Island you can board LeChuck’s ship without wearing the voodoo necklace and get a set of dialogue options with Bob. Also, the “lido deck” is a cruise ship’s pool area.

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.

You can either leave with your crew or—if you sink the Sea Monkey—Herman Toothrot. Bob tags along, too, provided you don't root beer him first.

Slower EGA machines would remove animations (and music) so that the PC could run the game. Witness the subdued Scumm Bar.

A magazine clipping showing an alternate angle for the Mêlée lookout point. Artist Mark Ferrari explains: Oh, there were some nifty BGs left lying on the cutting room floor – as always - before it was over, including one scene looking straight down over a cliff edge down a long zig zag wooden cliff face staircase at the pirate village at the cliff's base. Alas, we illustrators are born to kill half our children for 'de man'.

Arby’s, have you no shame? And, how do we know they ripped off The SCUMM Bar? Simple: See how Stan seemingly is smoking a cigar? Well, an early SCUMM Bar staff member created an animation of Stan—check it out—by painstakingly taking screenshots of each of the used ship salesman’s frame, cropped him out, and assembled the pieces into a GIF animation. The one problem: He thought Stan was smoking a cigar when what he saw was actually part of the background. Hey, at least Arby’s made their own version.

While doing one of his weekly dives into the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition resource files, Grim Fandango Network’s CEO stumbled upon an alternate Mêlée dock. Note how it feels slightly more like the original game—left is what shipped, right is what’s in the resource files.

In the Passport to Adventure EGA demo, you find that the status is actually gone-but-not-forgotten bodybuilder Charles Atlas. That reference was removed after a cease and desist letter. Additionally, you can transform into Indy.

Two spots that are unreachable in the final game can be experienced in the EGA Passport to Adventure demo. True EGA aficionados will also notice the tiny sprite is the original red sash from an early version of the game.

In the monkey1.info file on the Amiga, you can read the following: Secret of Monkey Icon by Aaron Muszalski....G; with no help from anybody ever! (Especially not Ron Gilbert.) except: Bret Barrett (Hair,logo tweaks)....*; Ben Emmerich (Drapes... and my dishes!)....'; Thanks all! Enjoy the game. Peace......;.....; P.S. I love you Annabelle! This is based on an LEC in-joke started by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman taking credit for work without including Gilbert. In disc01.lec you can also read Tried to complete trial twice. THIS IS BAD! Tried to complete invalid trial: THIS IS BAD!

Go wandering underneath the Monkey Head, and Guybrush can interact with many of the oddities below. After a while, he even changes his mind about some of them.

In The Secret of Monkey Island, it’s fairly apparent that there is a picture of the Pillsbury Doughboy in the Scumm Bar kitchen. In Return to Monkey Island, you can steal the painting—of a rather bad boy-looking Doughboy—after you give the Chef the cookbook. Later, the Chef will tell you the picture is of his father. Which puts forth the question: Is the Chef actually Pillsbury Doughboy’s son?

Many remember seeing the in-game close-up of Spiffy in the Scumm Bar. In reality, that close-up was not in the game but was rather shown on the back of some boxes (e.g. The White Label version). In the Special Edition, a newly drawn close-up did appear.

Not just a random advertisement scheme. Cobb was a character in Loom, sans disguise.

“ELAINE! Stop the wedding!” is an homage to “The Graduate”—too, Elaine was named after the female protagonist in that film.

The Secret of Monkey Island sprung from an earlier game concept, Mutiny on Monkey Island. You can read the pitch here:

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An early version of Elaine Marley. Credit: Video Game History Foundation—go there for the full animation and the backstory.

Early in conceptualizing the game, there were talks of fighting drunk swordfighter and Fester Shinetop himself. Credit: Video Game History Foundation—go there for the full animation and the backstory.

In an early version of The Secret of Monkey Island, Mêlée Island was governered by one Governor Fat. This did, of course, change, and the character instead appeared as Governor Phatt in LeChuck’s Revenge. Credit: Video Game History Foundation—go there for the full animation and the backstory.

If you wander around Mêlée Forest, you’ll find remnants of both unlucky campers and exotic vegetation. Here is a supercut.

This is a Tim Schafer line about a fancy ship at Stan’s used shipyard. But it references an actual elevator in the 'main house' at Skywalker Ranch which we occasionally got to ride in when we worked up there. It did smell vaguely like wine. Source: Dave Grossman.

In the VGA-CD version Guybrush tells us he is saved by a “Rubber tree!” In the VGA-floppy version it’s a “Rubber tree.” (That’s right, this is the level we’ve reached.)

An oldie but a goldie! Walk out on the cliff’s edge, and Guybrush will fall to his death… This refers to the frequent deaths in Sierra adventure games, down to the identical save dialogue box.

Keep sending the Shopkeeper away while you carry the stolen sword and shovel in your inventory, and you’ll get multiple different dialogues.

If you choose to ignore Fester Shinetop’s "pssssssst" and go see Otis, the dialogue will change fairly significantly.

Sort of! Bonus: “Lemonhead” is a classic 'merican candy.

There is an oft-forgotten optional scene in “The Secret of Monkey Island,” which ties in with a discovery in “Return to Monkey Island.”

If you Look At Spiffy in the SCUMM Bar, Guybrush will comment that the portrait in the Governor’s mansion shows him. Otherwise, he’ll comment on the man’s hat.

The yellow flowers are known as Caniche Endormi—French for Sleeping Poodle. A good hint on how to deal with the Governor’s piranha poodles.

The Secret of Monkey Island stump joke returns in The Curse of Monkey Island.

Try to pick up the sea water on Blood Island in The Curse of Monkey Island 25 times, and Guybrush will finally wander into the ocean, finding his former self.

Guybrush can escape multiple times from the Monkey Island cannibals -- this despite their many attempts to strengthen the locks.

In the disk version of MI1 you could look the stump, and Guybrush would try to squeeze in there. A message would come up asking for an absurd amount of disks, all of which didn't exist. Word has it that the LEC hintline was swamped with queries about this.

The original closeup of Elaine Marley was supposedly based on Avril Harrison, an artist who was working for LucasFilm Games at the time.

From Ronzo's blog: During the early days of Monkey Island I didn't have a name for Guybrush. We just called him the 'guy'. When Steve Purcell was doing concepts for 'the guy' he was doing them in dpaint. In dpaint you could select a section of the screen called a 'brush' and save it out. It was these files I got from Steve. I saw the file names so many times that the name 'guybrush' stuck. (Incidentally, Tim Schafer wanted to name the character Hank Plank. Source: Tim's tweets.)

Threepwood was decided in a company contest. The name comes from the book The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood (US title). Threepwood is also rumoured to be the name of Dave Grossman's character in RPGs.

Code still exists in the SCUMM files to have random pirates coming in and out of the SCUMM bar, and walk to and from the entrance to Low Street. Here this code has been restored. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

An unused fireplace animation from the title screen of The Secret of Monkey Island, restored using the game's original development tools, SCUMM and BYLE. The timing is a best guess, as is the cloud placement - it had to be moved down a few pixels to avoid a clipping error with the animation. Additionally, the music timing may be inaccurate, as it is a recording inserted into the video. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

This unused and never-finished cutscene would have showed the player how to use the cotton swab key to gain entrance to the Monkey Head. The cannibals - who are uniquely colored here - were meant to have unique animations, including the actual use of the key. These animations were likely not created before this scene was cut from the game. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

This is an entire room that was cut from The Secret of Monkey Island! The art and code survived in the game's source code repository, and was re-assembled and placed back into the game by us, using the original development tools. Courtesy of The Video Game History Foundation.

Hang out for a minute underwater, and you'll overhear a dubious conversation. And after ten minutes? Time to order a hint book.

In The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush can use grog for more than just saving Otis. As the Hollywood screenwriting book says: Save the Rat!

Press Ctrl+W anywhere in The Secret of Monkey Island to win the game. You will be sent straight to a custom credit screen!

Guybrush can see all manners of things when spying on Monkey Island.

The Sierra-mocking easter egg in The Secret of Monkey Island is referred to in Return to Monkey Island. Witness the change.

Did you know Stan's theme and the SCUMM Bar theme in the Monkey Island games are based on pre-existing compositions? Witness Go Tell Aunt Rhody and O Good Ale Thou Art My Darling. One or more tune has appeared in every game.

Have you ever wondered why Guybrush has a red pixel on him on The Secret of Monkey Island map? The original design of the character wore a red sash, and the tiny character on the map never got updated!

They may not have appeared IN the game, but the three pirates from Steve Purcell's The Secret of Monkey Island cover show up in Return to Monkey Island. Props to Rex Crowle and team for even including the semi-hidden Purcell signature.