Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How long was The Secret of Monkey Island in production?
The Secret of Monkey Island ultimately cost $200,000 to produce, and was developed over nine months.[33]
Critics praised The Secret of Monkey Island for its humor, audiovisuals, and gameplay. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series. Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman also led the development of the sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.[5] LucasArts released a remake of the original in 2009, which was also well received by the gaming press.
The game was later re-released on a CD-ROM compilation of "Monkey Island" games, bundled with "The Secret of Monkey Island" and "Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge" called the "Monkey Island Bounty Pack".
The game was released on floppy disks for the PC (with VGA graphics), Macintosh and Amiga (with standard 32-color graphics) in 1991, and was later included on a CD-ROM compilation of "Monkey Island" games called "The Monkey Island Bounty Pack". Plans to release "Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge" for the Sega CD were scrapped after the Sega CD edition of "The Secret of Monkey Island" did not sell well. In 1994, the game was released on the FM Towns, the last title LucasArts ever published on that system. The game's graphic interface was later adapted for the CD-ROM release of "The Secret of Monkey Island".
Dominic Armato, the voice actor of Guybrush from "The Curse of Monkey Island" onward, reprises his role as that character. LucasArts encouraged Telltale to retain as much of the original cast as possible—particularly Armato, who was described by LucasArts' David Collins as "the ultimate "Monkey Island" fanboy". Armato enjoyed his opportunity to voice Guybrush again; he had believed that the series would never be continued, due to the length of time since "Escape from Monkey Island"s release. Armato voiced the character in both "Tales of Monkey Island" and the special edition of "The Secret of Monkey Island"; in the former game, he attempted to make Guybrush sound more mature and experienced than his younger incarnation in the latter. Because of Armato's understanding of the character, the voice directors gave him considerable flexibility in his performance.
The development on "Monkey Island 2" began a month after "The Secret of Monkey Island" went to manufacturing without the knowledge of how well the first game did commercially. The project leader and designer was Ron Gilbert. The development team for the game was largely the same as for "The Secret of Monkey Island", and Gilbert was once more joined by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert parted ways with LucasArts after "Monkey Island 2", while Grossman went on to co-design "Day of the Tentacle" with Schafer. Schafer's future projects for LucasArts included "Full Throttle" and "Grim Fandango".
Players assume the role of pirate Guybrush Threepwood, who—while attempting to destroy his nemesis, the undead pirate LeChuck—accidentally releases a voodoo pox across the Gulf of Melange. With the assistance of his wife, Elaine, Guybrush seeks out a cure. The game was conceived in late 2008, due to renewed interest in adventure game development within LucasArts. It was developed concurrently with LucasArts' special edition of the 1990 title "The Secret of Monkey Island"; LucasArts oversaw production of "Tales of Monkey Island", and ensured that it matched the remake in certain areas, such as art direction. Production began in early 2009; franchise creator Ron Gilbert was involved in project planning, while development was led by Dave Grossman, who co-designed the first two "Monkey Island" games. The game's music was composed by Michael Land, and the core cast of "The Curse of Monkey Island" reprised their voice roles.
Guybrush also encounters the governor and is instantly smitten, and she soon reciprocates. However, as he completes the tasks set for him, the island is raided by LeChuck and his undead crew, who abduct Elaine and then retreat to their secret hideout on Monkey Island.[10] Guybrush takes it upon himself to rescue her, buying a ship and hiring Carla, Otis, and Meathook as crew before setting sail for the fabled island. When Guybrush reaches Monkey Island, he discovers a village of cannibals in a dispute with Herman Toothrot, a ragged castaway marooned there. He settles their quarrel, and then recovers a magical "voodoo root" from LeChuck's ship for the cannibals, who provide him with a seltzer bottle of "voodoo root elixir" that can destroy ghosts.[10]
Gilbert stated that he never told anyone what the true secret of Monkey Island is. Gilbert stated in a 2004 interview that when the game was originally conceived it was considered "too big", so they split it into three parts. He added that he "knows what the third [part] is" and "how the story's supposed to end," indicating that he had a definite concept of the secret and a conclusive third game.
The team behind "Escape from Monkey Island" attempted to resolve the issue by showing that the Giant Monkey Head was actually the control room of a Giant Monkey Robot. The cut-scene in which the revelation was made is called "The Real Secret of Monkey Island".
Elaine is usually depicted as a beautiful woman with long red hair and with green eyes. She wears a variety of pirate clothing consistent with the game's Golden Age of Piracy setting; her outfit usually consists of pantaloons, a blouse worn under a lightweight tunic, a sash, boots and a headscarf. Elaine usually wears gold earrings, though by "Tales of Monkey Island", she wears her diamond engagement ring as an earring until Chapter 2. Her appearances in "The Secret of Monkey Island" and "" are in the form of pixel art, with appearances slightly differing between the EGA, Amiga and VGA versions of the games. By "The Curse of Monkey Island", Elaine is rendered in a cartoon art style by LucasArts artists Larry Ahern and Bill Tiller, although the character's choice of clothing remains consistent. "Escape from Monkey Island" translated Ahern and Tiller's depiction into 3D graphics, while the later special editions and "Tales of Monkey Island" produced a more stylized art form for the character. While under LeChuck's influence as his demon bride in "Tales of Monkey Island", Elaine is dressed in a Gothic wedding dress and a tiara, her eyes are pupiless and her skin is given a green hue.
Armato debuted as Guybrush Threepwood in "The Curse of Monkey Island", released in 1997. He returned for its 2000 sequel "Escape from Monkey Island". After 9 years, he reprised his role as Guybrush Threepwood again in the newest, 2009 episodic title of the series, "Tales of Monkey Island", developed by Telltale Games, as well as voicing the character in the remakes of the first two original games, "The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition", and "". With the release of the second remake, Armato has now provided voice work for a version of every "Monkey Island" game.
Aside from providing the "Monkey Island" license to Telltale, LucasArts' role in the game's development involved collaboration and approval of the game's script, character concept art and puzzle design. As the remake of "The Secret of Monkey Island" had begun development before "Tales of Monkey Island", LucasArts shared their art style guide with Telltale, so that the two products' art direction would be similar. In particular, LucasArts wished that the character of Guybrush would be comparable to the appearance of the character in the special edition. LucasArts largely based their vision for Guybrush's new visuals in "Tales of Monkey Island" on how the character appeared in "The Curse of Monkey Island", integrating various aspects from "LeChuck's Revenge" that commonly resonated through fan art, such as the character's blue coat and beard, in addition to using their own stylized art direction. Telltale concept artist Ryan Jones worked closely with LucasArts' Jeff Sengalli on developing the appearance of Guybrush and other characters, Sengalli providing feedback and refinement in such areas as character silhouettes, facial features and clothing. Vanaman noted that LucasArts was open to Telltale's creative direction for the game, and did not "put their foot down" over any aspects of their vision.
On American TV Alexandra made appearances on "Party of Five", "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" and "The Bernie Mac Show". She's performed voices for radio commercials & animated features such as "The Wild Thornberries". She is the voice of Elaine Marley in "The Curse of Monkey Island", "Tales of Monkey Island" and the special editions of "The Secret of Monkey Island" and "".
The Secret of Monkey Island (alternatively known as Monkey Island I) is a point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fantastic version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwood, a young man who dreams of becoming a pirate and explores fictional islands while solving puzzles.
The main setting of the "Monkey Island" games is the "Tri-Island Area", a fictional archipelago in the Caribbean. Since the first game in the series, "The Secret of Monkey Island", three of the games have visited the eponymous island of Monkey Island, while all have introduced their own set of islands to explore. "Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge" features four new islands, but does not return to Monkey Island until the final cutscene. "The Curse of Monkey Island" introduces three, and "Escape from Monkey Island", which revisits some of the older islands, features three new islands as well. As such, the "Tri-Island area" actually comprises a total of 13 visitable islands. "Tales of Monkey Island" takes place in a new area of the Caribbean called the "Gulf of Melange".
Gilbert created a scripting language that was named after the project it had been written for, the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion, better known as SCUMM. The technology was used in all subsequent LucasArts adventure games, with the exception of "Grim Fandango" and "Escape From Monkey Island". Despite being an internal production tool, the SCUMM acronym became well known to gamers since a location in "The Secret of Monkey Island", the SCUMM Bar, was named after it.
As with Telltale's other products, "Tales of Monkey Island" was developed and released in five episodic segments; Grossman explained that Telltale prefers to tell stories this way, rather than as continuous narratives that are too long for people to play comfortably. However, unlike their previous games, each episode is not a standalone tale; it is a single chapter in a larger plot. This allowed Telltale to advance the story like that of a television series, in which character relationships develop in the minds of the audience over several months. Each episode is designed to be gratifying on its own, with a satisfying conclusion; however, it then provides a cliffhanger to "tantalize the player a little more". According to Grossman, "Tales of Monkey Island" is set after an "imaginary" "Monkey Island 5", which he views as "a blockbuster, epic 40-hour gigantic experience like the earlier games". Its story would have followed Guybrush's actions in the time between "Escape from Monkey Island" and "Tales of Monkey Island"; the beginning of "Tales of Monkey Island" would have marked its conclusion. Grossman maintained that both the story and gameplay of "Tales of Monkey Island" were designed to be accessible for newcomers to the series, and commented that "knowledge of the characters and their history will add a nostalgic layer to the sly references, but is by no means necessary".
The Curse of Monkey Island is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the third game in the "Monkey Island" series. It was released in and followed the successful games "The Secret of Monkey Island" and "". The game is the twelfth and last LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine, which was extensively upgraded for its last outing before being replaced by the GrimE engine for the next game in the series, "Escape from Monkey Island". "The Curse of Monkey Island" is the first "Monkey Island" game to include voice acting, and has a more cartoon-ish graphic style than the earlier games.
None of the games explicitly reveal the "Secret of Monkey Island" (although creator Ron Gilbert has stated that the secret was not revealed in any of the games, and that the true secret would be revealed if he got to work on the fifth entry in the series). LeChuck himself, when asked in the second and third games, refuses to answer the question; Guybrush can eventually prod LeChuck to confess that he does not know what the secret is.
LeChuck is introduced in "The Secret of Monkey Island" as a ghost pirate captain of a ship of undead pirates. Prior to the events of the game, LeChuck had been in a brief but unsuccessful relationship with Elaine Marley, the governor of Mêlée Island. After Elaine spurns his advances, LeChuck makes an effort to impress the governor by sailing off in pursuit of the secret of Monkey Island. The exhibition ultimately costs LeChuck his life, but he returns as a ghost and begins to terrorise the Caribbean, operating out of Monkey Island. Having scared most of the pirates in the Caribbean into staying in port, LeChuck begins to plan kidnapping Elaine and forcing her to marry him. Upon learning of Guybrush Threepwood, a new pirate-in-training on Mêlée Island who could cause problems to his plan, LeChuck travels to Mêlée Island to personally dispose of Guybrush, disguising himself as the island's sheriff. LeChuck confronts Guybrush, ties him to a weight and pushes him into the harbour waters. Leaving Guybrush for dead, LeChuck and his crew raid the island and kidnap Elaine, taking her to their Monkey Island hideout. Guybrush survives, however, and having become smitten by the governor himself, mounts a rescue mission to Monkey Island. Guybrush is unable to reach Elaine in time, as LeChuck's ship returns to Mêlée Island for the wedding. Nevertheless, Guybrush gatecrashes the wedding, intent on killing LeChuck using an anti-ghost potion based on a voodoo root, only to find that Elaine had the same plan in mind. Infuriated, LeChuck attacks Guybrush, but his spirit form is destroyed when he is sprayed with root beer.
The Secret of Monkey Island has featured regularly in lists of "top" games, such as Computer Gaming World's Hall of Fame[57] and IGN's Video Game Hall of Fame.[58] In 1991, PC Format placed The Secret of Monkey Island on its list of the 50 best computer games of all time, calling it "genuinely funny".[59] In 1996, Computer Gaming World ranked it as the 19th best game of all time, writing, "Who could ever forget the insult-driven duel system or the identity of the mysterious Swordmaster?".[60] In 2004, readers of Retro Gamer voted it as the 33rd top retro game.[61] IGN named The Secret of Monkey Island one of the ten best LucasArts adventure games in 2009,[62] and ranked the Xbox Live Arcade version as the 20th best title of all time for that platform in 2010.[63] In 2017, The Secret of Monkey Island ranked 78th in the "Scientifically Proven Best Video Games of All Time," a statistical meta-analysis compiled by Warp Zoned of 44 "top games" lists published between 1995 and 2016.[64]
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (also known simply as Monkey Island 2) is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the "Monkey Island" series, following "The Secret of Monkey Island", and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound system.
The LucasArts Archives are a series of CD-ROM personal computer game re-releases and compilations from publisher LucasArts.Later games published under the "LucasArts Archives" brand were budget-priced reissues of individual games, with the exception of "Monkey Island Archives", which was a compilation of "The Secret of Monkey Island", "", and "The Curse of Monkey Island", released with "The Curse of Monkey Island"'s box art.
The Secret of Monkey Island received positive reviews from critics. According to Gilbert, it "sold well" but was "never a big hit"[52]. Grossman later summarized that the game's sales were "north of 100,000, far south of 1 million".[53] According to Next Generation, The Secret of Monkey Island was a "relatively minor hit" in the United States, but the game and its sequel became "blockbusters on the PC and the Amiga throughout Europe."[54]