The International House of Mojo

Back in 2003, some brainy LucasForums dwellers made a startling discovery: The Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge demo included a bunch of unseen/cut stuff. Dialogue, screens, and, perhaps most importantly, music. Many discoveries were made in the thread, mainly by ATMachine and Benzo. Here is the article I wrote in 2003 that sums up most of the more important findings, updated for 2023. Unsurprisingly, some of the assumptions made in 2003 were, for the lack of a better term, wrong. Included at the bottom are the MIDIs, now converted to MP3s.

First and foremost: You can make the rolling demo playable by pressing the Escape key in ScummVM or using DREAMM’s debug mode. Grab the demo from here. More technical details can be found in the aforementioned link.

Now, for the meat of it all:

Scabb Island

No less than four changes were made to the map. First of all, Scabb was actually known as Scab in the demo. The lights around Bart & Fink are a bit brighter, the Voodoo Lady’s swamp isn’t very swampy, and Captain Dread’s hang-out wasn’t sunk quite as far down in the sea. A little lake with a waterfall was also removed in the final version.

Woodtick Exterior

The shovel on the "No Trezer Huntin’" sign is notably smaller in the demo, and the ship in the foreground is even more of a wreck than in the final version. There’s also a slight change in the dialogue with Largo LaGrande (here called LaGrandе́ with an acute)—instead of saying, I don’t pay for nothing, I’m a pirate, Guybrush now says, Move it, or I cuts my way through. The outcome is the same. Two other minor visual differences: The posting outside Bloody Lip is removed, and the crate next to the Men of Low Moral Fiber is slightly turned.

The Bloody Lip Bar and Grill

The conversation with the Barkeep has been altered quite a bit in the final version. Wanna see my scar? was changed to either I single-handedly destroyed a Tyrannous Dictator or I once saved a whole race of people from sure death. The conversation that follows goes like this:

The second change is in the How’s business conversation, which is cut short. There’s no mention of a voodoo doll of Largo and the Barkeep just says I keep getting robbed followed by Speak of the devil as Largo enters.

The only visual differences are the piano which only has a placeholder image, and the knife and some plates in the kitchen.

Wally’s Place

A small change in the dialogue—Guybrush can now answer I think it was named by a four-year-old boy to what he knows of Big Whoop.

Woodsmith’s Place

A fish above the door and a small picture frame are the only additions. We now know the interaction option with the fish was removed by Ron himself, who made the object untouchable in code. Finally, the actual graphic was removed. Learned scholars assume this was because it could be misconstrued as a solution for the angler puzzle.

Swamp Rot Inn

A candle and a small key can be seen in the reception area. Largo’s room contains a different toupee.

Bart & Fink’s Area

The stick you can pick up is slightly larger. Bart & Fink aren’t properly colored.

Rapp Scallion’s Crypt

The coffins have different inscriptions, all of which obviously are placeholders:

Ville de la Booty

When trying to enter the antique shop, Guybrush will say I can’t go in that door in this version. Dread’s ship is placed differently. The Spitmaster is known as Referee.

Booty Island Map

The Big Tree is not yet drawn, which is pointed neatly out by a helpful Big but Undrawn Tree text. Dread’s ship is now shown in all its purple glory, and a pond and waterfall can be seen on the map. The walk path in the final game still takes the pond into consideration, even though it’s not visually represented.

Stan’s Previously Used Coffins

Very different from the final version. Darker and moodier, and a lot of footprints.

The Library

One notable book was left out of the final game: Dancing Skeletons and Other Hallucinations. It read: Usually, dreaming of dancing skeletons is linked to premonitions of future events...

The Guard Kiosk

The LeChuck costume now has a green hat instead of black. Also, the infamous Penis envy line is an available answer to the question of why Elaine would lie about killing LeChuck.

Phatt Island Exterior

Blackbeard’s poster is shamefully missing, and textures haven’t been added to Guybrush’s wanted poster.

Music!

Telarium, of HighLand fame, took the time to rip out three cues from the demo. Here they are in MP3 and original MIDI format. Additional tracks provided by Zaarin in OGG format.

• MonkeyIsland2DemoMP3s.zip From scummbar.com
• EvenMoreOGGs.zip From scummbar.com
• mi2demo.zip From scummbar.com

• Remi