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Aric Wilmunder gives purpose to the world, releases old LEC design documents 15 Mar, 2016 / 14 comments

That odd, faint sound you just heard? That would ATMachine's brain exploding.

LucasArts programmer of yore Aric Wilmunder has decided to make a very convincing argument for why he should be given Mojo's coveted Favorite Person Of All Time Award. From his web site:

Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Maniac Mansion, The Dig, Indy Iron Phoenix, the list goes on. I worked on all of these and had a suspicion that someday there would be interest in how these games were made. Years ago I visited the LucasArts facility in the San Francisco Presidio and brought along two grocery bags of design documents. I asked if they had an archivist and I was told that since I had kept these safe for over two decades, it was best if I just kept them together. I have met with the archivist at Stanford and these documents will either end up there or at a museum dedicated to preserving game design. Until then, I plan to release a few documents every month, and I am currently looking at using GitHub for archiving the SCUMM source code.

That's right. Aric is in the process of making design documents for several old LucasArts games going as far back as 1983 - including some unreleased ones like Forge and Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix - available on his web site. Go check out the ten he has already made public, and once they're all safely downloaded you're going to want to scroll down to see the remaining six he's about to share.

Then change your pants, which I'm sure are useless now.

Source: Aric's World

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14 Comments

  • Avatar
    Rum Rogers on 26 Mar, 2016, 09:49…
    Aric's just uploaded a 183-pages authentic SCUMM tutorial.
  • Avatar
    Kolzig on 23 Mar, 2016, 05:52…
    Holy moly this is amazing!

    Thank you Aric Wilmunder!
  • Avatar
    Scummbuddy on 22 Mar, 2016, 00:11…
    "I'm amazed we received this" is what I meant to say.
    Thank you no-edit Mojo! :D
  • Avatar
    Scummbuddy on 22 Mar, 2016, 00:10…
    What a wonderful gift of history to give to the players! I am amazed and rather amazed at this. Thank you Aric!
  • Avatar
    ThunderPeel2001 on 17 Mar, 2016, 14:17…
    More previews have been added....... but nothing from MI2 yet :(
  • Avatar
    ThunderPeel2001 on 15 Mar, 2016, 22:57…
    Oh man. I sincerely hope we get the rest of those documents...

    BTW it says:

    "THE PIRATE CURSE OF MONKEY ISLAND or Being a Proposal In Which We Make Amends for the Ending of Monkey Island 2".

  • Avatar
    MeddlingMonk on 15 Mar, 2016, 20:30…
    SCUMM source code? Say it with me George Takei's voice, "Oh, my!"
  • Avatar
    Rum Rogers on 15 Mar, 2016, 17:19…
    I think I just had a stroke.
    And shat my pants.
  • Avatar
    Utwarrior on 15 Mar, 2016, 15:34…
    In the remaining six we can read the title: "THE PIRATE CURSE OF MONKEY ISLAND or *** a *** In Which We Make *** for the Ending of Monkey Island 2".

    Anyone can help filling the ***?
  • Avatar
    Utwarrior on 15 Mar, 2016, 15:27…
    A lot of clues about the original "secret" of Monkey Island.

    "It is not a thing. It is a place. To be specific, it is a small opening in the earth.

    Deep in a cave near the center of Monkey Island is a crevice that glows red. Anyone peering in would feel the inmistakable rush of evil billowing upward. It is heat so intense that it overcomes your mind, drawing you deep into things better left unseen - undone. That crack decends to a place at the center of the earth, the name of which changes from religion to religion, from faith to faith. Most pirates call it Hell."

    Also, we can read a lot the words "dead" and "killing". Yeah, Ron originally wanted the series in a much darker way than it went - specially later with the cartoon-ish MI3.
  • Avatar
    ThunderPeel2001 on 15 Mar, 2016, 14:00…
    I hope we get to see the unreleased documents... This is WONDERFUL stuff. God bless you, Aric Wilmunder!
  • Avatar
    Jason on 15 Mar, 2016, 12:20…

    AlfredJ

    Can't see Indy & The Iron Phoenix in that list though.



    No, but since he took the time to include it in his preamble I'm hoping it makes the cut.
  • Avatar
    bordok on 15 Mar, 2016, 09:40…
    Thanks ATM :)
  • Avatar
    AlfredJ on 15 Mar, 2016, 08:33…
    It's a goddamn Mojo Miracle.

    Mutiny on Monkey Island? The Pirate Curse of Monkey Island? Forge?

    Can't see Indy & The Iron Phoenix in that list though.

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