Old Schoold by Harri Kauhanen

The Secret of Monkey Island

Atari ST
Game

Point & Click games are my favorite genre, but I did not play The Secret on Monkey Island back in when it was released. Now that I have finally finished the game, I must admit I was expecting a bit more due to the cult status of this Ron Gilbert classic.

Auction details:

  • The Secret of Monkey Island – Atari ST, released 1990
  • 15 EUR (September 2009 / ebay.co.uk).
  • Badly worn out box – moisture bent surfaces, and split edges.
  • Manuals and copy-protection wheel included. One disk (out of 4) has a read error affecting gameplay in a couple of game sequences.

The Secret of Monkey Island game box on the condition sold in eBay auction.

Refurbishment:

  • Water, lot’s of weight and time to straighten the surfaces, plus ironing of cardboard and manuals.
  • Gluing of one corner and one edge.
  • Googling the disk images, and using the alternative disk when read error occurred.
  • The restoration was my first attempt to refurbish a retro game (and, of course, I had to pick the most worn out game box I had in my collection…)
  • Condition after the restoration is not great, but the surfaces are now much better (a subtle “convex” convex shape on the box instead of heavily “concave” surfaces).

Improved The Secret of Monkey Island game box condition after restoration.

Gameplay:

  • Never played this game as a kid, but certainly knew the reputation as one the best Lucasfilm Games.
  • Was expecting a bit more “hilarity” than it was, but the game had its moments.
  • Took me years (yes, years) to fully complete it. Solved most of the puzzles myself, but walk through references still needed at least dozen of times.

Tidbits:

  • Unlike most of the graphical adventures at the time, the game was designed so that the main character cannot die (except once you “almost” do with a parodied reference to Sierra games).
  • The chief designer, Ron Gilbert, worked with one of my all-time favorite adventure games Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade before Monkey Island development started. The game engine on both games is almost the same.

Happy end on The Secret of Monkey Island... The fireworks are beautifully reflecting on our heroes faces… in all the glory of 16 colors of Atari ST version (honestly, I think they did a bit lazy job converting the graphics to Atari ST).