Hooray! I was super surprised and happy to see the portraits I made for the Limited Run Games Monkey Island Anthology book make it into the video! Keep up the amazing work!
Oh wow, those portraits are wonderful! That book is absolutely terrific, I wish it was still in print so more people could enjoy it. Thanks for commenting Julia!
@@NoclipDocs Thanks so much! I wish the book was still in print too -- Which made me even happier to see you showing them here! I'm glad to have more eyes on them. Maybe once I launch my game (The Crimson Diamond) I'll do more portrait commissions!
Seeing a Noclip documentary about Monkey Island on my feed made my week. I grew up with these games. They've helped shape my sense of humor, my appreciation for videogames as a storytelling medium, I learned English in order to understand and figure out their puzzles, and making a silly fansite for these games during the early days of the internet was the first step towards my eventual career. It's always nice to see the faces behind the curtain - especially when they radiate that passion and love for the thing they've created. Hearing Dominics voice as Guybrush over the years have always felt like catching up with an old friend. I hope we get more - but even if this is closing the book on Monkey Island, it's been a heck of a ride. Wonderful job on the video - as always!
My parents brought home The Secret of Monkey Island on CD-ROM in 1992, when I was 6 years old. I still remember that night vividly. I was in the middle of taking my bath when I could hear the opening music play, and I rushed out to my mom's computer to see what was going on. I was amazed at how gorgeous the game looked and sound, and it immediately became "my" game in the family - the one I imprinted on. Monkey Island had a huge influence on me. It probably helped me to finally learn how to read and write, and it was really formative on my developing imagination. I would write about it constantly at school. I was just a little kid, but Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Tim Schafer became these abstracted heroic figures to me for creating this weird, funny world. I've played all the Monkey Island games since, and for me, Return was a perfect reflection, if not conclusion, for that journey. Who could have figured that 30 years later they could still create something so emotionally resonant with me? What a triumph, honestly.
mine was that boxed set of 5 lucasarts adventure games it was like maniac mansion, zak, indy last crusade, loom, and secret of monkey island. on 3.5 inch disks
So much nostalgia. I’m 14 mins in and I am obsessed. So true about monkey island 3 when it came out. Took a minute to get used to the new graphics but once you did, it was like 1080 now days. This game was part of my childhood
Played 1&2 on my Amiga 500+. I was lucky back then, thanks to the A590 and two external drive (DF1 and DF2). Monkey Island 2 was on 12 freaking floppy, the 12th, if i remember well was for the saving the game. Monkey Island 3 was awesome too, played on my brand new PC back in 1998... Back then was unbelievable...
One of my fondest Monkey Island related memories is finishing the original game along with my cousin on my uncle's 286. It was 4 AM and after the credits rolled we got the "Turn your computer off and go to sleep!" message.
I think we all played that game well into the early hours of the morning. I was just 11 when I played it during the summer school break and I remember I was trembling with excitement middle of the night while playing. It was magical. It taught me a lot of english vocabulary too!
10:46 I remember seeing a preview of MI2 in a magazine and was blown away that the art included depth of field, with blurry foreground items. It’s quaint now but was impressive back then.
I was crying when I finished the game and I'm fighting welling up again now watching the end of this documentary. 😥 Thank you so, so much to everyone involved!
Thank you guys for making this Documentry. If the Dev's ever see this, thanks for creating the Monkey Island series. I've always loved the mystery behind Monkey Island and the comedy in it. I have a wee bit of hope that another Monkey Island will pop out of nowhere again... it will always be there even if it never comes to pass. Memories of a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle and the blabbering Murry xD fun times I'll never forget :D
God we are spoiled to have a channel like Noclip! It's absolutely fantastic. I sold Monkey Island to somebody in high school during my first year, which led me to meeting and forming my lifelong group of friends.... so I can say Monkey Island had a profound impact on my life!
I really liked Return to Monkey Island. This documentary just makes me appreciate it even more! I love that they didn't just make a Monkey Island for the sake of it, that they wanted to actually tell a story. Thanks to everyone involved with this!
1. Love how Noclip wrapped the whole documentary around memory bias. 2. I always want to become a video game designer after watching Noclip docus. Superb as always. Keep them coming!
@@aprilmae274You and me both. I made a cd copy of the second game soundtrack after I got a midi sound card; listening to that was my drug when things were difficult. Hope things are better for ya now.
My dad owned the original 2 games on CD-ROM that he got as a gift from my nearly departed uncle, we used to play the games when I was a kid and we both sucked at it, we were dumb as bricks so my dad and I got stuck on so many things, I remember feeling so smart when I realized that to get the code to the safe that the shopkeeper uses in the store, I just realized that I can film him entering the code on my phone and then just repeat that. 10-year old me had NEVER felt that smart before and I gloated about it to my dad for days. These games hold a very dear place in my heart and I am SO glad that you guys put out this documentary, it's so cool to watch interviews and hear stories of how these games came to be and how they designed them, seriously, I can't thank you enough! I'm sure that my uncle would be just as thrilled as I am if he was here.
I'm only three minutes in and I've already got goosebumps hearing that Monkey Island music as Part One of the doc starts. Thank you so much for this Danny and team! -Ryan
To this day Monkey Island saga is my top 1 game of all time, comfort game go to when I don't know what to play. Thanks to every single person that worked hard to make it happen and bring joy to my child, teenager and adult self over the decades!
Return to Monkey Island is a masterpiece. As someone who enjoyed every past Monkey Island game but felt the sequels never reached the level of the first 2 games, Return was everything (or even more than) I could've hoped for. And thank you so much for this beautiful documentary, Noclip; it was a true pleasure to watch!
I've only played the Curse of Monkey Island (the 3rd one) and yeah, its definitely a nostalgia trip, trying to solve things with my brother and having no idea what to do or where to go at some point, but still loving the art and music. Awesome video as always
Having been born in 92, I grew up playing these games. I forget which I played first but I owned the original four floppy discs and dial-a-pirate and all. SUCH great memories with the game and the friends I shared (and continue to share) with. Love it all, though I forget about the Telltale ones - those didn't hook me. Thank you for this fun trip, LucasArts (Ron/Tim and everyone) and those of you at NoClip and I suppose also Devolver.
My fave series. I don’t think it can be understated how much Dominic Armato’s voice work added to the character of Guybrush. He took a good protagonist and made him great!
Life-long gamer here. Not many of us were playing PC video games back in the early/mid 90s, before windows 95... but we're out there. For us, this franchise is more than legend. It's a part of us. Part of who we are. We incorporated elements of these games, and other Lucas Arts adventures... (Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, etc) into our lives and personas. We are all the products of our youth... and for some of us, these games were a gaint part of our youth... similar to the way sports, or music are for other people. I mean... just look at my avatar. I still consider the original computer games of this era to be a critical part of my life... so much so that as an adult, I can identify the elements of who I am there were at least partially defined by these experiences. I've actually been to Skywalker Ranch... where Lucas Arts was, during the heyday there. I have a family friend who's a producer at ILM. These games are more than games for me. They are like... narratives, by people I really respect. Much love for the people at Lucas Film in the 90s, and much love for Noclip for making this doc. Thank you! So great to see this story enshrined here with other great one of a kind game documentaries. So many people are Lucas Arts from this era still make games today... it's really inspiring! Double Fine is making games like Broken Age... but lets not forget those who haven't been as active... like Sean Clark. So many profoundly talented people.... really can't thank them enough for making such memorable games.
Man I still remember banging my head against the monitor with Curse of the monkey island. Never saw anything that looked like that, and it stayed with me for years. This was amazing. Thank you!
17:24 My only knowledge of John Drake comes from mentions at Giant Bomb, so when I heard his name come up, I was so happy to see the e3 footage of Giant bomb @Nite. I always appreciated how Alex often seems a little more asocial, yet he was the one in charge of lining up all the guests at e3, and he did an incredible job year after year. Shows how people can flex talents in unexpected ways.
Having played MI1 & 2 back in the early 90s, I have to say that the game was phenomenal. The story, the artwork and animation, the puzzles, the performances…all top tier. Thanks for letting me help!🙏🏽😏
Monkey Island is a magical series, and Return is an excellent love letter to... Not just the parts of it that Ron worked on, but all of it. That much is obvious from how it refused to outright invalidate the other games and actually implies they're all canon, how the trivia cards are packed with tidbits about every corner of the series, how the narrative of the game itself is a broader homage to stories and their value - not a screed about how The Canon must be a sacred idol frozen in time, but how narratives grow from being told and retold and passed down. It's a story for those who loved growing up with stories. In a way it calls back to the very heart of pirate culture, too. Piracy in real life wasn't this fun... But people love the idea of it, because the notion of pirate life is built on tall tales and larger-than-life reputations. Did Guybrush actually do all of those things? Did he do any of them, even? It doesn't matter, because it's still a riveting yarn, isn't it? That's the spirit of the age of sail, right there. Even now I can't pick a favorite game. Every one of them has something to love that it does better than the others, no matter their missteps. I bought the game on launch, and let me tell you, it was as fantastic a time as any to return to monke(y island).
What blew my mind learning about piratical history was that even during the golden age of piracy, there were pirates who mythologized _themselves_. They knew the power of great characters and great stories
GREAT channel and a wonderful documentary about one of my favorites, very well made. I'm a 1981 baby and remember when my dad bought LeChuck's Revenge, I make games and also make documentaries about the games I've made....so this is right up my street, I love documentaries.
There's nothing that makes videogames feel less cynical than hearing developers talk about making them and you can tell despite the herculean effort that they really love to do it. Thanks in no small part to the noclip team, you manage to find the heart and soul of the subject damn near every time.
I played & loved all the Lucasarts Classics back when they came out. I finished RETURN TO MONKEY ISLAND 3 hrs ago and came straight here to watch NOCLIPs take. Ron, Dave, all the team, the game was awesome. Expertly swerving away from all those nostalgia sequel pitfalls while hitting the highs. You got me good, right in the feels. Thank you SO much to all involved. It was great! Disney should get you guys to write Star Wars
I grew up in the video game business, with parents both working at Sierra for decades. They used to trade Sierra games amongst their friends working at other games companies, and I'll never forget when they brought home Loom and Monkey Island. It was just so much more rich in color compared to the typical Sierra titles I was used to, and when combined with unique humor; I was hooked. Monkey Island remains to this day as my favorite series.
Thank you for this beautiful journey. This was an extremely emotional documentary to watch, and I loved every single bit of it. I'm getting my Monkey Island themed tattoo soon. Thanks for being part of my life.
This was an excellent documentary and I really loved watching it, but there were several mistakes in the subtitles, apparently done by someone who didn't have enough context to know specific terms being used. Please correct this for our Deaf and Hard--of-Hearing friends! The biggest mistakes I spotted that changed the meanings: -Every instance of "omega" should be "Amiga" -"had a bad cartoon" should be "Hanna-Barbera cartoon" -"Tearaway: A Media Molecule" is written as if it's the full title of the game; it should be Tearaway /at/ Media Molecule, the company that made the game. -"69 version of a room" should be "16:9 version of a room" -"Bermuda" should be "Brrrmuda" -"Inuit and north people" should be "Inuit and Norse people" -when talking about Cogg Islang, "mist" should be "Myst", referring to the game. -ending says "no audio" and does not describe the credits song
Love for Ron to speak more on the innumerable points of social commentary in Monkey Islands. It was sort of almost post-modern. Critique of sales, marketing ? Capitalism ? There is something within MI that does not exist anywhere else! Something larger than life. Ron Gilbert is a bit of an enigma !
The Amiga 600 (as Amiga 500) was not capable of displaying 256 colors (at least in screenmodes that were meant for games). The Amiga 1200 with AGA chipset was, the 500/600 with its OCS/ECS chipset were limited to 16 or 32 colors. Great video, it is great you mention the amiga. It is very rare with these documentations and as they are very rare and reach a big new audience I would like them to be accurate. Keep up the good work!
I can only speak for myself, but it is powerfully linked to some of the happiest moments in my teenage- years and of course to the AMIGA, which itself went onto to radically alter my life trajectory. The AMIGA is the grounds upon which this industry was born and exploded. A generation of 90s teenagers suddenly found themselves obsessed with video and film production, audio, music, sampling, gaming, deluxe paint and sort of recast their bedrooms as personal studios. Usher in the birth of wide scale internet adoption, exiting the BBS phase of the modem. My first ever IRC text across the Internet was to a girl in the 'Caribbean Islands' - 1996 😂. ( Hello 'Shanna') Once in generation technologies and experiences. Incredibly powerful so much so that it has reshaped society. All of it began in the 1990s A period that is like the embryonic origin of what we see today!
The Amiga was the system that got me hooked on this franchise and it became my favourite gaming franchise plus LeChucks Revenge is my all time favourite game. Also the Amiga is my favourite computer ive ever used so both my gaming loves.
Thank you so much Noclip. For me, this came out of nowhere and inspired me a lot. As an avid reader of Ron's blog, I was surprised to hear his voice; It is like seeing your favorite hero on screen for the first time :^)
The Monkey Island guys were involved with "Rescue on Fractalus"? I had that on my Atari 65XE! It was awesome for the time, and quite possibly the first horror game I ever played - the shields down, listening to the footsteps of an approaching pilot, waiting for the knock on the airlock door - or the sudden jump scare as an alien reared up in front of the cockpit. That scared the hell out of me the first time it happened!
1:12:00 the reveal trailer made me very emotional. it felt like seeing an old friend that you thought was lost forever for decades and now he's standing right in front of you and all those good memories came back all at once
This deserves to be watched on a global scale! Amazing documentary for us fans of gaming and the phenomenon that is MONKEY ISLAND. Amazing work, well done to all involved! 🐒🏴☠
What a cool documentary. I learned something new and I'm sick a big Money Island fan. Grew up with the games in the 90s (even before I could read and made my parents read it out to me) and can still pay the walk-throughs in my head. They're so ingrained
I loved thimbleweed park because of the combination of a crazy story and classic pixelart in the monkey island 1 and 2 style. I hope we will see more games like Thimbleweed and the first 2 monkey island games.
I would say style of MI1. the sprites in MI2 are same style but the (scanned painted) backgrounds of MI2 is a totally different style. Many seems to forget that.
Literally ended watching this marvelous documentary in tears of both joy and sadness. Thank you, Noclip team, thank you Ron, thank you Dave, thank you the whole team involved in making every single title of Monkey Island. After finishing the video, I've checked if the The Mysteries of Monkey Island book is finally avaliable in English. And it was! Finally! It has released like a week ago. I've ordered it right away to pour a little more Monkey Island into myself. I hope I will enjay it as much as I enjoyed every bit of info on MI I've ever watched or read.
I cannot express the amount of thankfullness I owe to these people. Its been a journey that started when I was about ten and ended in the most elegant, funny and fullfiling way. A part of Guybrush will always be inside me, taking all the wrong decisions that prove to be the best ones. The inspiration that was inheritted through these games is one that developed my personality in a very big part. Thank you once more. Seems that Return to Monkey Island brought to the table such a new and fresh inspiring title in every way that that the original title did almost 30 years ago or so.
Really fun and interesting documentary, thank you! Monkey Island is a fundamental part of my childhood and it makes me happy that its legacy lives on. I’ve seen many people say that Return will be the last one, but I’m not so sure about that. We’ve been there, every MI after 2 was “the last one” so I’m positive we’ll see Guybrush again. Maybe by Ron’s hand, maybe someone else’s, but I’ll look forward to sailing the Caribbean seas with pockets full of ridiculous items one more time.
I hadnt played any monkey island game until last year and now ove played almost every game in the series and am in love its crazy how well even the originals hold up this many years later
Ever since I played Le Chuck's Revenge with my friend on his older brothers computer as a kid, I've loved these games. They're so funny. I still play through them every few years.
Thx a lot for this documentary. I've been addicted to Monkey Island since 1991, when i first played MI2 on a friends PC and it stuck with me ever since, dunno how often i played the first two games, and also the 3rd. Escape didn't get to me due to the horrible controls but i finished it once . Telltale's games also didn't find a way in to my heart. So imagine, how i felt, when Return was announced. I was looking forward to it a lot. But when i first saw the new design, i was skeptical, and i'm sorry to say, this stuck with me. I'm not blaming anyone, it is of course the progammers' decision how a game looks, but i guess i'm stuck with the first two games, that will always be "my" Monkey Islands. I really tried to love the new game, but especially due to the character models (the backgrounds are really beautiful) this game never had that special vibe to me. Also the repetitiveness in the latter part of the game really irritated me. Still, i'm very grateful to those people, they actually took another shot at this legendary series. And still i had a lot of fun with Return, but sadly the replayability is pretty low.
Honestly makes me a bit sad that Ron Gilbert never liked the art style of MI3. Curse was my intro to the series as a kid and I adore that aesthetic. Still loved the art direction of Return though and no matter what it looks like I’ll always take more Monkey Island
He doesn't like it because he didn't work on it. Curse is by far the best title in the series and an all time great game, and Return is a piece of crap. Draw the conclusions you need to.
I absolutely love these adventure games. I grew up with LucasArts and Monkey Island. I really wish more gamers these days were as excited to play these as I still am. Please make some more, Ron Gilbert! We love your adventure games!
Speaking of stories, I'd love to see you guys do a similar deep dive on SOMA. It's one of the most amazing stories ever told in gaming. It leaves you speechless at the end. I've been playing it every year ever since it came out in 2015.
I like Ron's taste in boardgames. Except Fog of Love, but that definitely "fits in" to that collection. He needs more though. I'm hoping he has a room full of them. I'm not sure how it's possible to own a kallax and only put 20 boardgames in it. I liked the ending of Return. The only bit I didn't like was the "retcon" at the start. I remember thinking at the time there were much cleverer ways to have gotten out of it, whilst still keeping it intact. But I guess in light of the ending it makes a bit more sense in that the kids are also mutating the story too.
I was just remembering monkey island and the love i had for the whole thing. Probably the game that got me started in gaming. Please give us another wonderful gift like it one more time. Im 60 and one more round would send me off lovely
The ending in Return to Monkey Island might have been controversial for some, and it was for me, but after I read the developer's letter after you beat the game it gave me so much more understanding it. Art truly is nothing without the artist.
I fell in love with Monkey Island back in the early days when we got a demo CD from a PC magazine with Curse of Monkey Island on it. I replayed that demo countless times.
Fantastic video, Monkey Island 3 was my first one and then I went back and played the old ones. I still adore the voice acting and art style of 3. That and Grim Fandango are simply the best.
Man, I loved everything about the original 2 monkey islands. The rest, I could take or leave, and the last one... I would really rather it didn't exist for how much I dislike the look of it, and the terribly disappointing ending. More so, the fact that it seemed to exist as a cynical statement on the industry and nostalgia etc, as opposed to just being a story in and of itself. But even with only 2 out of the 6 or so games being stellar, it somehow stands out as my favourite series ever. The emotional power of that MI1 intro music is unparalleled. Even if my negative view toward the last entry differs from the majority, I'm still stoked to see people enjoy it (and all the rest) Thank you for such a wonderful documentary!
I remember speedrunning Monkey Island 3 as a kid. I didn't even know what speedrunning was, but it was the only game we had (that I wasn't opposed to on principle, anyway; the others were all "educational"), and so I would sit down dutifully and see how far I could make it through in my single half hour or (later) hour of computer time for the day. Good memories.
I would love to see another Monkey Island game. I would pre-order it immediately. But if this is the last game, it is a great ending. It touched me in just the right way, having grown up with the series and loved it as much as I have.
Hooray! I was super surprised and happy to see the portraits I made for the Limited Run Games Monkey Island Anthology book make it into the video! Keep up the amazing work!
Oh wow, those portraits are wonderful! That book is absolutely terrific, I wish it was still in print so more people could enjoy it. Thanks for commenting Julia!
@@NoclipDocs Thanks so much! I wish the book was still in print too -- Which made me even happier to see you showing them here! I'm glad to have more eyes on them. Maybe once I launch my game (The Crimson Diamond) I'll do more portrait commissions!
Recognised your work immediately! And I've never seen the book 😮
@@mattsephton Ahh, thanks fantastic! It feels really good to know that even with that resolution and with default EGA, it can still be my style! :)
Those portraits are fantastic. I immediately wondered where they were from and who they were by - I'm so glad you commented here!
This is the second longest Monkey Island documentary I've ever seen
What's the longest one you've seen? 😜
@@danielalbu You'll need a map, ship, and a crew to find the answer to that.
@@danielalbuahoy‘s video on UA-cam
@@RexSonicThen you should really check my interviews with these people :) They're much longer than that...
@@RexSonic That one's shorter though
this series is gold. curse is a total masterpiece. return was great too. thanks ron, dave, tim and lucas arts! lots of creativity and soul.
It is!
Curse was epic
Seeing a Noclip documentary about Monkey Island on my feed made my week. I grew up with these games. They've helped shape my sense of humor, my appreciation for videogames as a storytelling medium, I learned English in order to understand and figure out their puzzles, and making a silly fansite for these games during the early days of the internet was the first step towards my eventual career. It's always nice to see the faces behind the curtain - especially when they radiate that passion and love for the thing they've created.
Hearing Dominics voice as Guybrush over the years have always felt like catching up with an old friend. I hope we get more - but even if this is closing the book on Monkey Island, it's been a heck of a ride.
Wonderful job on the video - as always!
My parents brought home The Secret of Monkey Island on CD-ROM in 1992, when I was 6 years old. I still remember that night vividly. I was in the middle of taking my bath when I could hear the opening music play, and I rushed out to my mom's computer to see what was going on. I was amazed at how gorgeous the game looked and sound, and it immediately became "my" game in the family - the one I imprinted on. Monkey Island had a huge influence on me. It probably helped me to finally learn how to read and write, and it was really formative on my developing imagination. I would write about it constantly at school. I was just a little kid, but Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Tim Schafer became these abstracted heroic figures to me for creating this weird, funny world. I've played all the Monkey Island games since, and for me, Return was a perfect reflection, if not conclusion, for that journey. Who could have figured that 30 years later they could still create something so emotionally resonant with me? What a triumph, honestly.
mine was that boxed set of 5 lucasarts adventure games it was like maniac mansion, zak, indy last crusade, loom, and secret of monkey island. on 3.5 inch disks
Monkey Island franchise was a great way to extend vocabulary when learning English. Played these games as a kid when English lessons had just started.
So much nostalgia. I’m 14 mins in and I am obsessed.
So true about monkey island 3 when it came out. Took a minute to get used to the new graphics but once you did, it was like 1080 now days.
This game was part of my childhood
Played 1&2 on my Amiga 500+. I was lucky back then, thanks to the A590 and two external drive (DF1 and DF2). Monkey Island 2 was on 12 freaking floppy, the 12th, if i remember well was for the saving the game. Monkey Island 3 was awesome too, played on my brand new PC back in 1998... Back then was unbelievable...
One of my fondest Monkey Island related memories is finishing the original game along with my cousin on my uncle's 286. It was 4 AM and after the credits rolled we got the "Turn your computer off and go to sleep!" message.
I think we all played that game well into the early hours of the morning. I was just 11 when I played it during the summer school break and I remember I was trembling with excitement middle of the night while playing. It was magical. It taught me a lot of english vocabulary too!
Wow did a 286 manage to move the characters the screen . I played it first on the Amiga 500 and that was slow enough lol
@@DEVILTAZ35 I played on a 286 too, monkey island 1 ran pretty smoothly on it, Monkey Island 2 was painfully slow.
@@DEVILTAZ35 Well, weren't most 286s running at more than 7MHz?
@@dallesamllhals9161Usually 8, 10 or 12 Mhz.
10:46 I remember seeing a preview of MI2 in a magazine and was blown away that the art included depth of field, with blurry foreground items. It’s quaint now but was impressive back then.
I was crying when I finished the game and I'm fighting welling up again now watching the end of this documentary. 😥 Thank you so, so much to everyone involved!
Thank you guys for making this Documentry.
If the Dev's ever see this, thanks for creating the Monkey Island series.
I've always loved the mystery behind Monkey Island and the comedy in it. I have a wee bit of hope that another Monkey Island will pop out of nowhere again... it will always be there even if it never comes to pass. Memories of a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle and the blabbering Murry xD fun times I'll never forget :D
The clock on ron was so good. Editors doing gods work there.
God we are spoiled to have a channel like Noclip! It's absolutely fantastic. I sold Monkey Island to somebody in high school during my first year, which led me to meeting and forming my lifelong group of friends.... so I can say Monkey Island had a profound impact on my life!
Sounds like the real treasure was the friends you made along the way...
I was lucky enough to run into Dom at a Walgreens a few months ago. He is such a lovely human being. Thanks for this gift of a documentary!
Love hearing every little scrap of info on the development of this wonderful series. Dave and Ron are great.
My favourite series of all time. There is nothing like it! Thank you to devs, thank you to Noclip! Eternaly grateful!
I appreciated Ron wearing a shirt reminiscent of Stan's jackets.
Dominic Armato was born to play Guybrush. Just perfect!
Didn't realize he's so fat irl. 🙂
It's so weird hearing the voice coming out of the wrong face! But he is a mighty voice actor.
never seen him before, but as soon as he started talking, immediate recognition
Would you like to know more? There is a nice Episode of the "Podcast My perfect console" with him.
I really liked Return to Monkey Island. This documentary just makes me appreciate it even more! I love that they didn't just make a Monkey Island for the sake of it, that they wanted to actually tell a story. Thanks to everyone involved with this!
I never knew why my mom named me Bobbin Threadbare until I played these games
1. Love how Noclip wrapped the whole documentary around memory bias.
2. I always want to become a video game designer after watching Noclip docus.
Superb as always. Keep them coming!
1.5 hours of monkey island documentary? Plug it straight into my veins!
THIS! Monkey Island Games got me through some BAD times-Monkey Island gave me a guiding light back, mentally. I will ALWAYS return to Monkey Island.
@@aprilmae274You and me both. I made a cd copy of the second game soundtrack after I got a midi sound card; listening to that was my drug when things were difficult. Hope things are better for ya now.
9:37 "Optional Easy Mode for beginners and magazine reviewers"
Even back then, they knew.
My dad owned the original 2 games on CD-ROM that he got as a gift from my nearly departed uncle, we used to play the games when I was a kid and we both sucked at it, we were dumb as bricks so my dad and I got stuck on so many things, I remember feeling so smart when I realized that to get the code to the safe that the shopkeeper uses in the store, I just realized that I can film him entering the code on my phone and then just repeat that. 10-year old me had NEVER felt that smart before and I gloated about it to my dad for days.
These games hold a very dear place in my heart and I am SO glad that you guys put out this documentary, it's so cool to watch interviews and hear stories of how these games came to be and how they designed them, seriously, I can't thank you enough!
I'm sure that my uncle would be just as thrilled as I am if he was here.
I'm only three minutes in and I've already got goosebumps hearing that Monkey Island music as Part One of the doc starts. Thank you so much for this Danny and team! -Ryan
To this day Monkey Island saga is my top 1 game of all time, comfort game go to when I don't know what to play. Thanks to every single person that worked hard to make it happen and bring joy to my child, teenager and adult self over the decades!
Return to Monkey Island is a masterpiece. As someone who enjoyed every past Monkey Island game but felt the sequels never reached the level of the first 2 games, Return was everything (or even more than) I could've hoped for. And thank you so much for this beautiful documentary, Noclip; it was a true pleasure to watch!
I've only played the Curse of Monkey Island (the 3rd one) and yeah, its definitely a nostalgia trip, trying to solve things with my brother and having no idea what to do or where to go at some point, but still loving the art and music. Awesome video as always
Having been born in 92, I grew up playing these games. I forget which I played first but I owned the original four floppy discs and dial-a-pirate and all. SUCH great memories with the game and the friends I shared (and continue to share) with. Love it all, though I forget about the Telltale ones - those didn't hook me. Thank you for this fun trip, LucasArts (Ron/Tim and everyone) and those of you at NoClip and I suppose also Devolver.
Just want to say I really appreciate the effort everyone put into the game, what an incredible series. Oh and the music is so good!
Fascinating to see how the game came to be and hearing the intentions behind the work, all organised and framed excellently. Great stuff!
My fave series. I don’t think it can be understated how much Dominic Armato’s voice work added to the character of Guybrush. He took a good protagonist and made him great!
Life-long gamer here. Not many of us were playing PC video games back in the early/mid 90s, before windows 95... but we're out there. For us, this franchise is more than legend. It's a part of us. Part of who we are. We incorporated elements of these games, and other Lucas Arts adventures... (Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, etc) into our lives and personas. We are all the products of our youth... and for some of us, these games were a gaint part of our youth... similar to the way sports, or music are for other people. I mean... just look at my avatar. I still consider the original computer games of this era to be a critical part of my life... so much so that as an adult, I can identify the elements of who I am there were at least partially defined by these experiences. I've actually been to Skywalker Ranch... where Lucas Arts was, during the heyday there. I have a family friend who's a producer at ILM. These games are more than games for me. They are like... narratives, by people I really respect. Much love for the people at Lucas Film in the 90s, and much love for Noclip for making this doc. Thank you! So great to see this story enshrined here with other great one of a kind game documentaries. So many people are Lucas Arts from this era still make games today... it's really inspiring! Double Fine is making games like Broken Age... but lets not forget those who haven't been as active... like Sean Clark. So many profoundly talented people.... really can't thank them enough for making such memorable games.
Here here, perfectly said!
Man I still remember banging my head against the monitor with Curse of the monkey island. Never saw anything that looked like that, and it stayed with me for years. This was amazing. Thank you!
17:24 My only knowledge of John Drake comes from mentions at Giant Bomb, so when I heard his name come up, I was so happy to see the e3 footage of Giant bomb @Nite. I always appreciated how Alex often seems a little more asocial, yet he was the one in charge of lining up all the guests at e3, and he did an incredible job year after year. Shows how people can flex talents in unexpected ways.
Having played MI1 & 2 back in the early 90s, I have to say that the game was phenomenal. The story, the artwork and animation, the puzzles, the performances…all top tier. Thanks for letting me help!🙏🏽😏
“I don’t like to make people cry”
-Lies from a co creator of the Monkey Wrench puzzle
Well, versus Sierra...😲
Imagine not playing the game in English. That was literally impossible without a guide.
Monkey Island is a magical series, and Return is an excellent love letter to... Not just the parts of it that Ron worked on, but all of it. That much is obvious from how it refused to outright invalidate the other games and actually implies they're all canon, how the trivia cards are packed with tidbits about every corner of the series, how the narrative of the game itself is a broader homage to stories and their value - not a screed about how The Canon must be a sacred idol frozen in time, but how narratives grow from being told and retold and passed down. It's a story for those who loved growing up with stories.
In a way it calls back to the very heart of pirate culture, too. Piracy in real life wasn't this fun... But people love the idea of it, because the notion of pirate life is built on tall tales and larger-than-life reputations. Did Guybrush actually do all of those things? Did he do any of them, even? It doesn't matter, because it's still a riveting yarn, isn't it? That's the spirit of the age of sail, right there.
Even now I can't pick a favorite game. Every one of them has something to love that it does better than the others, no matter their missteps. I bought the game on launch, and let me tell you, it was as fantastic a time as any to return to monke(y island).
Hey look, it's the exact stuff I talked about before I watched the video! Neat.
What blew my mind learning about piratical history was that even during the golden age of piracy, there were pirates who mythologized _themselves_. They knew the power of great characters and great stories
@@octochan Yup. When your reputation precedes you there's a lot you can get away with in that kind of life.
Best video game series of all time! Love the humor and heart in them. Always so clever as well. Thank you!
thank you so much for putting so much work into this, I really appreciate it
GREAT channel and a wonderful documentary about one of my favorites, very well made. I'm a 1981 baby and remember when my dad bought LeChuck's Revenge, I make games and also make documentaries about the games I've made....so this is right up my street, I love documentaries.
There's nothing that makes videogames feel less cynical than hearing developers talk about making them and you can tell despite the herculean effort that they really love to do it.
Thanks in no small part to the noclip team, you manage to find the heart and soul of the subject damn near every time.
I played & loved all the Lucasarts Classics back when they came out. I finished RETURN TO MONKEY ISLAND 3 hrs ago and came straight here to watch NOCLIPs take.
Ron, Dave, all the team, the game was awesome. Expertly swerving away from all those nostalgia sequel pitfalls while hitting the highs. You got me good, right in the feels.
Thank you SO much to all involved. It was great! Disney should get you guys to write Star Wars
I grew up in the video game business, with parents both working at Sierra for decades. They used to trade Sierra games amongst their friends working at other games companies, and I'll never forget when they brought home Loom and Monkey Island. It was just so much more rich in color compared to the typical Sierra titles I was used to, and when combined with unique humor; I was hooked. Monkey Island remains to this day as my favorite series.
Thank you for this beautiful journey. This was an extremely emotional documentary to watch, and I loved every single bit of it. I'm getting my Monkey Island themed tattoo soon. Thanks for being part of my life.
Love MI3 and MI5, but this one has been growing on me. Great doc as always!
This was an excellent documentary and I really loved watching it, but there were several mistakes in the subtitles, apparently done by someone who didn't have enough context to know specific terms being used. Please correct this for our Deaf and Hard--of-Hearing friends!
The biggest mistakes I spotted that changed the meanings:
-Every instance of "omega" should be "Amiga"
-"had a bad cartoon" should be "Hanna-Barbera cartoon"
-"Tearaway: A Media Molecule" is written as if it's the full title of the game; it should be Tearaway /at/ Media Molecule, the company that made the game.
-"69 version of a room" should be "16:9 version of a room"
-"Bermuda" should be "Brrrmuda"
-"Inuit and north people" should be "Inuit and Norse people"
-when talking about Cogg Islang, "mist" should be "Myst", referring to the game.
-ending says "no audio" and does not describe the credits song
Thank you so much for this man. SUCH a nostalgia hit from my formative Amiga 500 days. ALL THE FEELS!! ❤
Love for Ron to speak more on the innumerable points of social commentary in Monkey Islands. It was sort of almost post-modern. Critique of sales, marketing ? Capitalism ? There is something within MI that does not exist anywhere else! Something larger than life.
Ron Gilbert is a bit of an enigma !
The Amiga 600 (as Amiga 500) was not capable of displaying 256 colors (at least in screenmodes that were meant for games). The Amiga 1200 with AGA chipset was, the 500/600 with its OCS/ECS chipset were limited to 16 or 32 colors.
Great video, it is great you mention the amiga. It is very rare with these documentations and as they are very rare and reach a big new audience I would like them to be accurate. Keep up the good work!
I can only speak for myself, but it is powerfully linked to some of the happiest moments in my teenage- years and of course to the AMIGA, which itself went onto to radically alter my life trajectory. The AMIGA is the grounds upon which this industry was born and exploded. A generation of 90s teenagers suddenly found themselves obsessed with video and film production, audio, music, sampling, gaming, deluxe paint and sort of recast their bedrooms as personal studios.
Usher in the birth of wide scale internet adoption, exiting the BBS phase of the modem. My first ever IRC text across the Internet was to a girl in the 'Caribbean Islands' - 1996 😂. ( Hello 'Shanna')
Once in generation technologies and experiences. Incredibly powerful so much so that it has reshaped society.
All of it began in the 1990s A period that is like the embryonic origin of what we see today!
This series is so special to me from my childhood in the 90s, up until now, the humour the writing the music, everything it's so genius.
Thanks, great video, and absolutely *amazing* game. My gratitude to everyone involved in both!
This was great! Thank you for the documentary, it was a joy to watch. And it made want to re-play every game in the series, but especially the Return.
The Amiga was the system that got me hooked on this franchise and it became my favourite gaming franchise plus LeChucks Revenge is my all time favourite game.
Also the Amiga is my favourite computer ive ever used so both my gaming loves.
I thoroughly enjoyed this documentary. Such a great game series and the production quality and interviews of this video are a pleasure to watch.
Thank you so much Noclip. For me, this came out of nowhere and inspired me a lot. As an avid reader of Ron's blog, I was surprised to hear his voice; It is like seeing your favorite hero on screen for the first time :^)
The Monkey Island guys were involved with "Rescue on Fractalus"? I had that on my Atari 65XE! It was awesome for the time, and quite possibly the first horror game I ever played - the shields down, listening to the footsteps of an approaching pilot, waiting for the knock on the airlock door - or the sudden jump scare as an alien reared up in front of the cockpit. That scared the hell out of me the first time it happened!
This has been an amazing piece of documentation and history of videogames, thank you all for it!
1:12:00 the reveal trailer made me very emotional. it felt like seeing an old friend that you thought was lost forever for decades and now he's standing right in front of you and all those good memories came back all at once
I absolutely love everything about Ron Gilbert's demeanor and vibe.
Awesome doc (as always). I love all the stories and hearing from everyone on team
This deserves to be watched on a global scale! Amazing documentary for us fans of gaming and the phenomenon that is MONKEY ISLAND. Amazing work, well done to all involved! 🐒🏴☠
What a cool documentary. I learned something new and I'm sick a big Money Island fan. Grew up with the games in the 90s (even before I could read and made my parents read it out to me) and can still pay the walk-throughs in my head. They're so ingrained
I loved thimbleweed park because of the combination of a crazy story and classic pixelart in the monkey island 1 and 2 style. I hope we will see more games like Thimbleweed and the first 2 monkey island games.
I would say style of MI1. the sprites in MI2 are same style but the (scanned painted) backgrounds of MI2 is a totally different style. Many seems to forget that.
Additionally the heads' style was from Maniac Mansion.
@@jussikout1n i would say that thimbleweed really is exactly just maniac mansion style.
I grew up playing Curse in the 90s... loved this return to Guybrush's world!
Literally ended watching this marvelous documentary in tears of both joy and sadness. Thank you, Noclip team, thank you Ron, thank you Dave, thank you the whole team involved in making every single title of Monkey Island. After finishing the video, I've checked if the The Mysteries of Monkey Island book is finally avaliable in English. And it was! Finally! It has released like a week ago. I've ordered it right away to pour a little more Monkey Island into myself. I hope I will enjay it as much as I enjoyed every bit of info on MI I've ever watched or read.
i got used to the graphic switch from 2 to 3 and I got used to the new graphics within 10 minutes....great games, great memories
Thank you so much for this documentary! Completely unexpected and absolutely great!
I cannot express the amount of thankfullness I owe to these people. Its been a journey that started when I was about ten and ended in the most elegant, funny and fullfiling way. A part of Guybrush will always be inside me, taking all the wrong decisions that prove to be the best ones. The inspiration that was inheritted through these games is one that developed my personality in a very big part.
Thank you once more.
Seems that Return to Monkey Island brought to the table such a new and fresh inspiring title in every way that that the original title did almost 30 years ago or so.
Ohhh boy. My favourite game series, interviewed by the best video game documentarians. Congrats Danny 👏 👏 👏
Really fun and interesting documentary, thank you! Monkey Island is a fundamental part of my childhood and it makes me happy that its legacy lives on.
I’ve seen many people say that Return will be the last one, but I’m not so sure about that. We’ve been there, every MI after 2 was “the last one” so I’m positive we’ll see Guybrush again. Maybe by Ron’s hand, maybe someone else’s, but I’ll look forward to sailing the Caribbean seas with pockets full of ridiculous items one more time.
I hadnt played any monkey island game until last year and now ove played almost every game in the series and am in love its crazy how well even the originals hold up this many years later
It's always nice to get a comprehensive look behind the scenes on games that you love. Thank you Noclip and keep it up!! 🙏🙏
Refreshed UA-cam at just the right time.
This game is an all-timer, and this documentary is really well done. Thank you.
Loved this! Thank you for putting it together
Ever since I played Le Chuck's Revenge with my friend on his older brothers computer as a kid, I've loved these games. They're so funny. I still play through them every few years.
Props to the team for taking their vision and running with it.
Thx a lot for this documentary. I've been addicted to Monkey Island since 1991, when i first played MI2 on a friends PC and it stuck with me ever since, dunno how often i played the first two games, and also the 3rd. Escape didn't get to me due to the horrible controls but i finished it once . Telltale's games also didn't find a way in to my heart. So imagine, how i felt, when Return was announced. I was looking forward to it a lot. But when i first saw the new design, i was skeptical, and i'm sorry to say, this stuck with me. I'm not blaming anyone, it is of course the progammers' decision how a game looks, but i guess i'm stuck with the first two games, that will always be "my" Monkey Islands. I really tried to love the new game, but especially due to the character models (the backgrounds are really beautiful) this game never had that special vibe to me. Also the repetitiveness in the latter part of the game really irritated me. Still, i'm very grateful to those people, they actually took another shot at this legendary series. And still i had a lot of fun with Return, but sadly the replayability is pretty low.
Honestly makes me a bit sad that Ron Gilbert never liked the art style of MI3. Curse was my intro to the series as a kid and I adore that aesthetic. Still loved the art direction of Return though and no matter what it looks like I’ll always take more Monkey Island
He doesn't like it because he didn't work on it. Curse is by far the best title in the series and an all time great game, and Return is a piece of crap. Draw the conclusions you need to.
I absolutely love these adventure games. I grew up with LucasArts and Monkey Island. I really wish more gamers these days were as excited to play these as I still am. Please make some more, Ron Gilbert! We love your adventure games!
This is beautiful. Thank you so much Noclip for making this documentary and thank you Ron + team for all the fun ❤
Speaking of stories, I'd love to see you guys do a similar deep dive on SOMA. It's one of the most amazing stories ever told in gaming. It leaves you speechless at the end. I've been playing it every year ever since it came out in 2015.
I like Ron's taste in boardgames. Except Fog of Love, but that definitely "fits in" to that collection. He needs more though. I'm hoping he has a room full of them. I'm not sure how it's possible to own a kallax and only put 20 boardgames in it.
I liked the ending of Return. The only bit I didn't like was the "retcon" at the start. I remember thinking at the time there were much cleverer ways to have gotten out of it, whilst still keeping it intact. But I guess in light of the ending it makes a bit more sense in that the kids are also mutating the story too.
Really loved the new Monkey Island. It was a perfect blend of homage to the original without some of the 90’s classic puzzle logic.
I was just remembering monkey island and the love i had for the whole thing. Probably the game that got me started in gaming. Please give us another wonderful gift like it one more time. Im 60 and one more round would send me off lovely
The secret of Monkey Island is the love that went into it. Hope we get more from a combo of Gilbert/Grossman in the future.
The ending in Return to Monkey Island might have been controversial for some, and it was for me, but after I read the developer's letter after you beat the game it gave me so much more understanding it. Art truly is nothing without the artist.
Beautiful third act. Thanks Ron, Dave and all involved in making it happen.
I fell in love with Monkey Island back in the early days when we got a demo CD from a PC magazine with Curse of Monkey Island on it. I replayed that demo countless times.
thank you for filming this documentary!! you made my day and sooo interesting info
Fantastic video, Monkey Island 3 was my first one and then I went back and played the old ones. I still adore the voice acting and art style of 3. That and Grim Fandango are simply the best.
Man, I loved everything about the original 2 monkey islands. The rest, I could take or leave, and the last one... I would really rather it didn't exist for how much I dislike the look of it, and the terribly disappointing ending. More so, the fact that it seemed to exist as a cynical statement on the industry and nostalgia etc, as opposed to just being a story in and of itself.
But even with only 2 out of the 6 or so games being stellar, it somehow stands out as my favourite series ever. The emotional power of that MI1 intro music is unparalleled.
Even if my negative view toward the last entry differs from the majority, I'm still stoked to see people enjoy it (and all the rest)
Thank you for such a wonderful documentary!
I remember speedrunning Monkey Island 3 as a kid. I didn't even know what speedrunning was, but it was the only game we had (that I wasn't opposed to on principle, anyway; the others were all "educational"), and so I would sit down dutifully and see how far I could make it through in my single half hour or (later) hour of computer time for the day. Good memories.
Why there is not even small cameo of Tim Schafer on this documentary?
I would love to see another Monkey Island game. I would pre-order it immediately. But if this is the last game, it is a great ending. It touched me in just the right way, having grown up with the series and loved it as much as I have.
The Monkey Island series is my favorite adventure series. I know Ron didnt make Curse, but thats my favorite for sure.
I love that they went with the windows 8 metro ui style for this game! Truly a timeless aesthetic