The International House of Mojo

Oh yeah what happened to the SCRAMM url...Your site says it doesn't exist..did you take it off or something..i really wanna learn that language

Oh yeah just read the conversation of you guys and ROn gilbert...The thing he was saying that guybrush and lechuck are brothers in one sence but on the other they are not....Took me 1 second to figrue that out...They are brothers coz they are created from the same programmer..but they are not brothers in the story line...not saying my theory is right but i think so

I think its great that Ron? want to do HIS MI3. He should go back to LucasArts? if he really wants to do it. In fact I think someone should do a Maniac Mansion 3? and the whole storyline involves someone else from the original Maniac Mansion? (not Bernard) going back to Freds mansion to save the world somehow (Its just an idea). I havent played MI4? either unfortunatley {:?(

i like both cmi and emi....Altough the ending of cmi was very disappoint...le chuck being buried under snow...erm..wasn't funny and was kinda illogical..the dude was made of fire...EMI was funny..the monkey combat thing made me laugh alot...altough theese 2 games are not that connected with the first 2...Different jokes/puns and the a big gap between MI2 and 3...But all of em where good..the sorta crappy graphics in MI 1 and 2 made the game really funny..the animations turned out great..donno why not coz on how old they are..but they where perfect...i prefer MI3 and 4 with those graphics..but that's just me..Anyho awaiting Mi3a or if Ron doesn't get the legal rights i await MI5 from lucas arts

I prefer the retro gfx than the 3d on MI4, it could have been ok but I think that the 2d scrolling thing suited the game better.

I'd like to see ron gilbert's MI3 [if he made it] on the MI1/2 [original engine] engine. Then it would feel even more like a proper part in the series.

hmm .... real nice to see an interview with ron gilbert himself !!!! but ive got a question .... if ron wants to make an mi3a , whats the problem ??? does lucasarts not want him back or has he not asked or what ???? 'cause i think it would be REAL cool to see what would happen !!!

so does any1 kno what the deal is ?!?!?

Could be millions of reasons. Legal, marketing, professional, personal, corporate, financial, scheduling... I could go on.

couldn't he just be the developer, and they be the publisher with no real say in how the game goes? I mean, it just being Ron's 3rd Monkey Island game would drive up sales.

I don't know if it would drive up sales. My concern would be that your average gamer would have no idea why there is a 2nd third game in the series, and why the story went backwards. And does the average gamer know who Ron Gilbert is? I'm not sure.

this thingy below is for mr. trapezoid continuing the discussion from the bottom of the page... my mistake

... you're right when you say it's all subjective. If you ask me it's damn NOT funny :) don't get me wrong if i want power ranger style robots i go and watch power rangers. (but i'd rather go and watch Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla) i don't want that in Monkey Island. ... it seems there are different reasons for why people like us like the Monkey Island games ... obviously you liked them for other reasons than me so you can go play EMI and say "hell, that's funny" and i can't because the things i liked about the original games were not only not included but they also spat on them (they did something completely not the same ... on purpose). the only thing i don't understand is: what is the thing that connects the first three games and emi for you? (not the moody carribbean art style that's for sure) except for ending and beginning (honeymoon) and the main characters who changed a lot by the way but maybe you don't see a direct connection aswell and you just like the game itself. that's ok, too :)

BTW when someone comes now and tells me "woa captn matt K.... but there's no connection between mi2 and cmi, aswell" i can just say it's perfectly done AND if you really see a break in style of humor etc. then the only connection that's left is that all three games are brilliant monkey island games.

"There was a gag with Wally being eaten by a shark. I don't remember all the details except it was pure genius. Or at least it seemed that way at two in the morning."

The gag in (some) detail was that after the explosion at LeChuck's castle, we would find Wally alone in the middle of the sea on a raft, looking for his monocle and finally dropping into the sea. Dunno about the shark idea. Ron (or someone else of the MI2 team) told this in some ancient gaming magazine.

"A hilarious episodic adventure game for adults that finally drives a stake though the heart of Quake."

And the ultimate irony is that the game will be made using an adventure infused John Carmack engine!!!!! (He is also pretty humble for someone who has made popular stuff.)

No, I kid, I kid. But it would be funny. Especially if it really was something amazing. :D

It'd be great to see what Ron was planning for MI3. It'd probably be a lot better (even thouggh CMI was great too)!

so the task would not be to replace but to ADD something to the MI saga. Between 2 and 3.

DAARGH noone should question the brilliant work of mr. Ackley and his crew! Or he/she/it'll be cursed and dumped into the sea.

Nope

REPLACE

... bad taste. really bad taste.

"Monkey Island 3a: The Secret Reveled or your Money Back" Awww... I like that money back guarantee, if only....

I forgot about this.

I love that site. It still cracks me up. It's like the Andy Kauffman Foreign Man of the Monkey Island community.

And this screenshot is brilliant.

I confooze. What's the joke?

Ah, me maximize and then me turn off them stretch image and me see. The XP suckes.

ouch

why is Clint Eastwood bashing America? I don't like that site.

I heard that site was a joke. Also its the "source" of the Ron Gilbert is Dead rumor

What are you talking about? That site's the best ever! Apart from Mojo, of course.

We all know Moop's the brains of the operation. Dreadly's just along for the ride. That big purple wookiee is the mastermind.

Great interview, but shouldn't MAPSO be credited also? He did write most of the Monkey Island questions after all.

He did? I wasn't aware... of course I haven't even looked at these questions in a long time. Anyway, yes, credit to MAPSO.

We'll forgive you just this once then. ? ?

"Amazed that anyone still cares? Yes."

Come on... People like Ron Gilbert (or "you" if you're Ron Gilbert :) are a rare breed. He should stop being amazed. *insert wait for it, now joke*

Big Whoop!! Big Whoop!

Well.... Ron Gilbert has finally appeared from the darkness with his new kids company.

You know, I think I once told Ron Gilbert (back in like 98 when I found his e-mail) about TDI (treasure of drunk island, dummies :P) and I may have told something about it to Dave Grossman as well (I bug him with e-mails about visiting The Mansion :). Then they come up with "The Treasure on Bing Bong Island". You do the math :P

In other news, netmonkey is working on an adventure game. It'll be for teens (tobacco, alcohol, some adult language) and it'll be free!

Yeah, EMI was too whacky to be Monkey Island. I liked it as an adventure game, though.

when will the first previews or screenshots or concepts be revealed? i'm really curious.

right, the general adventure game stuff was not emi's problem. the MI stuff was the problem.

Hopefully by the end of this summer (august-september)

Not every MI game has to be the same. EMI was a silly, completely non-serious satire, maybe MI5 will be something completely different.
Considering how much internet opinions affected EMI, it probably will.

you're right...

but the first three Monkey Island games were really funny (i hope i got that right :)) so why should anyone make a satire on something that is satirical itself??

it's like that movie with emilio estevez that spoofs lethal weapon. it's useless. it's like stemmle and clark just had a quick view on the first games and thought "what if we made a MI Game that is funny..." ...seems humour is not their special ability...

...although i had to laugh sometimes while playing emi, too ... but not often enough. ah yes and at the ending i was crying but not because it was so emotional :)

Well, it's all subjective. Personally I thought EMI was very funny, just in a different way. Definately different enough to turn quite a few people off.

like with Jar-Jar and his lack of appearance in the second movie

coool interview thanks! note: he likes CMI but wants to make a game that is located between MI 2 and CMI because he had some things in mind that have to placed there... cool idea.

that would seperate it perfectly from the not very monkeyislandish MI4.


("hey i've got an idea... let's just make a game where the monkey island feeling goes to hell and where we can ignore/demolish everything built up in the Monkey Island series" - from the memoirs of LucasArts "the EMI years")

hmmm... i don't remember those memoirs...

mat you are mean i loved EMI

great interview and i think the MI3a would be awsome

that's not mean ... it would be mean to say "everyone who likes emi is stupid"... but i never said that. although some people react like i said that when they read this opinion. well.
... maybe it was a little bit rough what i wrote, but i'd do it again. :)

Not that you can't have an opinion, but most of the aspects of EMI that you disliked are a result of the similar ranking-down that CMI got on the internet when it was released. Most CMI bashers complained that it was a rehash of the first two games, LucasArts kept that in mind when they were deciding on the style of humor and plot for EMI. By the time it came out, nearly all of CMI's critics vanished.

forgot what i wrote below ... i got you wrong mr. trapezoid! sorry. (english second language)

i guess you're right and i can't understand those who don't like cmi.

but when i played CMI then i loved it. so you can't say it's the SAME kind of ranking down ... I just don't like EMI because i think it's really bad (bad backgrounds, bad plot)... it's not because there was another crew making this game or because it's 3d or because i wanted to a have a triolgy or just because it's new. i don't think it's monkeyislandish enough to get a place on the same shelf the other games are standing on, that's all. just because the brilliant CMI was criticised years ago without any intelligent reason you can't just say that my opinion concerning EMI is just the same "phenomenon" for the next game. that's not a clever theory. if you don't like MI 5 you would have to say that for yourself, too... and if you think it's not possible for you not to like a game that has "MI" in its title then THAT is your problem.

I still don't like CMI being monkey island 3. I think it would have been great as a completely separate game, not involving the MI characters, but as MI3, I didn't like it at all. It just didn't seem to continue on from MI2.

I'm not sure the "seperate game" thing would work since a lot of the funniest stuff from that game was references to the earlier games.

i think it connected the games just perfectly...
LeChuck wanted to keep Guybrush in his Carnival of the DAMNED ... but somehow he could escape ... via scooter and find's himself without crew and navigational instruments on the sea. he drifts over to Plunder to find LeChuck bombing Elaine's fortress. (He thought he was save because his arch enemy Guybrush was hypnotized/transformed and trapped on Monkey Island.) Guybrush carries even two ballons from MI2... the helium works the same way. And Wally was recruited by LeChuck (after he was left behind in LeChuck's fortress) because he's just a little cartographer... poor Wally.
i see no problem... well done.

Matt: Bollox

CMI does not link up with MI2 very well at all, but if you forget that simple fact, you still have a very good game on your hands.

EMI just completely wrecked the storyline, the action parts frustrating and the puzzles either easy or illogical, although the humour was still there.

And FYI he doesn't want to make a game for between MI2 & CMI - he wants to make his own version of MI3, ignoring the most recent two.

Scabb: SuperMegaEMIBollox

i just listed facts - but i guess you don't know that facts can't be nonsense. the question was how CMI continues the storyline... that's what you just called Bollox. It's true. It's right. It's waterproof.

(your reply was nonsense)

and FYI ... you BELIEVE and HOPE and WISH he wants to replace the game ... so don't do like you know exactly what Mr. Gilbert wants (he just said is going to call it 3b nothing more) Even Ron Gilbert is wrong if he wants to replace CMI. That's my fact for you. PS Please don't reply to my comments if you just have Bollox. It makes me tired to read things that are just unfriendly... so if you have an own opinion, then write it, but if you just want to say "I'm better. My views are more correct." then please don't start a discussion with me.

3a that is...

Elaine would have never married Guybrush. Her attitude and entire personality changed completely from MI2 to CMI.

if it's just that it can't be that bad :) ... you're just jealous :)

Great interview.
I'd give my arm and a leg to play Ron Gilbert's new adventure game for non-children.

Whoo, cool. I'm a little surprised that he still hasn't played EMI. Then again, I'd be hesitant too if I were Mr. Gilbert.

Agreed.. And with the whole HT Marley thing... And the Giant Monkey Robot, that was wrong... If I were Ron I'd go to LEC track down Sean and Mike and bash them over the head with a bat while screeming "What have you done to my game?!?! What have you done?!?! You murderers, you killed my game!" A little too drastic? Maybe... Maybe not... And I loved EMI too, look at me love it *hugs PC box and PS2 case*. But I'd still bash 'em over the head. If I were Ron.. ;)

Perhaps... I think Sean and Mike just went crazy with the game, didn't care much about contradictions, and didn't pretend to. Which I think makes it sort of funny. Part of the humor is imagining Ron playing the game and going, "What the HELL?!"

but wouldn't that just work if the first three games hadn't already been the funniest game ever?

... now it's "look we're funnier". there's no need for that. a satire on satire is a bad satire because you just have to mock about stuff that takes itself too serious... and monkey island didn't.

I think the fans' concern about the series' continuity was one thing that took itself too seriously. People think that the secret is that the entire series is a dreamworld, or that Monkey Island is the gateway into hell, and then EMI comes along and presents the "real" secret-- a gigantic, Power Rangers style robot monkey! That's damn funny if you ask me.