The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar: Latest News

Well, tease might be a better word, but regardless, it looks like The Curse of Monkey Island leads are up to something:

A surprise post today! My design partner of “The Curse of Monkey Island” Larry Ahern and I have been developing a new comedy narrative adventure. Our development team is ready to roll, and we’d love to meet with potential publishing partners. Hit me up if you’d like to talk!

Seeing it doesn’t have a publisher yet, I wouldn’t expect an imminent release, but still… Fun times ahead!

… and its title is Death by Scrolling.

According to the grumpy blog, the game is the previously-abandoned A Little Something skinned with the now-abandoned RPGTBD (abandoned for now, that is). I don’t entirely understand what the actual game “is,” but it sure looks pretty and is scheduled for a 2025 release.

Go read Ron’s blog for more.

I’m almost certain you’ve already heard that Disney+’s newest Star War – Skeleton Crew – is inspired by Monkey Island, and yay to that. I haven’t actually watched the show, but it must be kind of “a big deal,” seeing a) StarWars.com has a a story about it and, b) Steve Purcell created a poster for it:

The final piece is as much an homage to the stories that inspired Watts and Ford as it is a love letter to Purcell’s own contributions to animation and illustration. “We were both huge fans of his work on those games and Sam & Max comics and on,” Ford says. “Copying his art was how I learned how to draw hands. It was a thrill just getting to talk to Steve on the phone, let alone get him to create original art of our characters! They all look so right in his art style, I think, because he was such an early inspiration for us. His sense of humor really made a strong impression on us and we hope it comes through!”

Go read and/or just admire the poster.

Some may remember our “ICYMI: Return to Monkey Island” article where we featured some of the more esoteric trivia from the sixth Monkey Island game. Due to (more or less) popular demand, it now has a follow-up: “ICYMI: The Secret of Monkey Island.” I’d tell you what it’s all about, but frankly, I’m tired, and I’m sure you’ve already figured it out. Read!

We might as well stumble out of the year in some sort of style: Introducing “Monkey Island Frantic” a screenshot-recognition game that is just that. Frantic. The concept, though, is simple:

1. Pieces of a screenshot from a Monkey Island game will rapidly appear on the screen.
2. Type in your best guess (or use the auto-complete function) of what location the scene is from in the text field.
3. Click “Guess” to submit your answer.
4. You have unlimited guesses because that’s how gosh darn generous we are!

You score on guesses, not time. Taking a few seconds to get a clearer overview will make the game a lot easier.

“Frantic” is in beta phases, so feel free to post bugs, inputs, scores, etc. on the forums.

Looking for some other Monkey Island-related timewasters? There’s always our Return to Monkey Island trivia game, and, of course, Mojole. Don’t say we never do anything for you!

The thing about a 28-year-old website is that things often get lost in the shuffle. Like fonts, for example, which, as it turns out, we had three different pages of. Each containing different fonts. Whoops! So, what better time to fix it: Introducing an overhauled Fonts section. Some fan-made, some official – fonts for the whole family.

And that’s it, what else do you want from me, sheesh!

Four consecutive posts dedicated to The Booze of Monkey Island? We see no reason to apologize. (C’mon, fight us!)

After chatting with the good people at BeanAdventureAgency, we came to a cross-brand promotional agreement where we are hosting the game’s official soundtrack for your listening pleasure. Hey, it’s how we roll. Fifteen tracks from the imitable Andrea “AndywinXp” Boscarino, the tracks are longer than how they appear in-game – always a bonus! Find the soundtrack on YouTube…

… or download the MP3s from our music section.

PS: I don’t know what cross-brand promotional agreement is, but I see it talked about a lot.

Frankly, today is not a particularly good day for any empathetic human being, but still… The best way I can think of to deal with the nonsense we saw here in the US last night is to dive into creativity of any sort. It’s a good initial step to avoid an onset of apathy.

All is to say, our renowned walkthrough editor, Huz, has put together a walkthrough for The Booze of Monkey Island. The fan game may be short on locations, but those puzzles are tricky – we don’t blame you for needing some help. (Though, as Huz states, blindly following the walkthrough will bypass a lot of the dialogue, so keep that in mind.)

People are loving themselves some fan gaming these days, and who are we not to milk join in on the phenomenon? Thus, we have added a small resource page for The Booze of Monkey Island, with some screenshots and a no-commentary walkthrough for those who are into those kinds of things.

Changing gears: Those who can’t get enough of us – presumably all of you – should check out the newly relaunched The Adventurer, the Mojo Network newsletter. In fact, if you haven’t subscribed, you’re definitely not one of the cool kids. And you want to be cool, don’t you?

And that’d be all.

… -themed fan game. That’s right; it’s like it’s 1999 all over again – Monkey Island fan games are apparently part of the ongoing Y2K retro trend.

For its price – gratis – The Booze of Monkey Island is well worth a download. It both looks and sounds good, and revisiting Booty Island is fun. Apparently, it’s also in a form of “early access,” so improvements are coming. Download the short fan game from BeanAdventureAgency’s Ichio page for Mac, PC, and Linux.