Mr. Eight-Three-One | The Secret of Monkey Island (EGA 16-color) Walkthrough @MrEightThreeOne | Uploaded 7 years ago | Updated 9 hours ago
If you want to play this game yourself, an updated version is available on GOG and Steam. Check it out here:
gog.com/game/the_secret_of_monkey_island_special_edition
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/The_Secret_of_Monkey_Island_Special_Edition
Better believe it. It's a walkthrough of one of the original Ron Gilbert creations. If Maniac Mansion was the one that started it all, this is the one that perfected it. If Ron Gilbert's name doesn't ring any bells, he was one of the co-founders for none other than Humongous Entertainment. Years before that though, he was changing the world of adventure games. And this is a beloved classic that almost every 90s PC gaming enthusiast knows about.
So, why did I make this? For whatever reason, the original EGA version is incredibly under-represented on YouTube. Well...I guess it's not that surprising, there seems to be an idea that the VGA version is objectively superior...which I guess I can understand, but the EGA version doesn't deserve to be completely glossed over either. Just because the graphics have fewer colors doesn't mean this version is worth writing off.
In fact, I'd argue the absence of colors makes this version even MORE impressive in many places. You have to understand, most EGA games looked incredibly ugly; but here, they went all-out trying to make it look as nice as they possibly could. This is seriously a marvel of pushing something to its very limits, and LucasArts (or LucasFilm Games as they were called back then) deserves some pretty serious applause for it.
Compared to future versions, there's a few major changes...aesthetically the game has more of a cartoonish look and feel to it where other versions try to look a bit more realistic. For more "practical" changes, the most known one is the sunset over Melee Island which doesn't exist in any other version (and is a full moon at all times too, rather than starting out with the sun setting and then having it gone). The Charles Atlas joke in the Voodoo Lady's building was also removed in later versions due to trademark issues, and of course the famous stump joke is present here, but that one at least stayed for the VGA version before getting axed in the CD release. Oh yeah, the one last change that tends to get glossed over is that Guybrush and Elaine have a lighting effect going on in the game's ending (with the fireworks "reflecting" off of them) that isn't in any other version. Oh yeah, and you can't hit the period key to terminate a single line of dialogue. That takes a lot of getting used to.
As for the actual walkthrough...believe it or not, I started this in NOVEMBER 2015. That would probably give this walkthrough the record as "spent the longest time unfinished." I recorded all the way up to the Sword Master, and then just stopped and forgot about it.
The walkthrough went okay...I had to use a guide for most of it since I couldn't remember most of the puzzle solutions for some reason. I failed the Sword Master the first time (which I edited out the majority of), and the only other major hiccup I think I made was messing up the ghost pirate ship segment a bit. Otherwise I think things mostly went okay.
On the topic of finding this version...I'll just admit it, I don't actually own physical copy of this version. I normally am extremely strict about finding a legal copy before I make a video of a game, but I made an exception here for a few reasons.
1. Finding this version secondhand is a trial and a half. By virtue of being a major cult classic, being a version that only had a very short production run (less than a year, I believe), and the fragile nature of the floppy disk format, secondhand copies of the EGA version are EXPENSIVE; often it can cost more than a hundred dollars. I do NOT have that kind of money to throw away on a game.
2. I have already bought the Special Edition on Steam, and I don't feel as morally unjustified if I've already legally paid for the only version that's available for purchase. On top of that, I also have a secondhand copy of the CD release of this game too.
3. As I indirectly stated above, this version is not legally available anywhere. It's not included with any of the modern re-releases, it's not put on any archive, it's nowhere to be found. If it ever does become legally available for purchase or gets included in any modern release though, I will pay for it in a heartbeat.
So yeah, I stepped over a few rules to find this version, but hopefully there's some understanding as to why I did. For the record, I do NOT condone piracy of games; I am all for supporting developers. It's how they make a living after all, so if you want to play this game yourself, I HIGHLY recommend you buy it off GOG or Steam.
Enjoy the walkthrough! I believe this is the first full uncommentated playthrough of this version of the game on YouTube, so that's a nice plus!
Monkey Island is (C) LucasArts/Disney, all rights reserved.
If you want to play this game yourself, an updated version is available on GOG and Steam. Check it out here:
gog.com/game/the_secret_of_monkey_island_special_edition
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/The_Secret_of_Monkey_Island_Special_Edition
Better believe it. It's a walkthrough of one of the original Ron Gilbert creations. If Maniac Mansion was the one that started it all, this is the one that perfected it. If Ron Gilbert's name doesn't ring any bells, he was one of the co-founders for none other than Humongous Entertainment. Years before that though, he was changing the world of adventure games. And this is a beloved classic that almost every 90s PC gaming enthusiast knows about.
So, why did I make this? For whatever reason, the original EGA version is incredibly under-represented on YouTube. Well...I guess it's not that surprising, there seems to be an idea that the VGA version is objectively superior...which I guess I can understand, but the EGA version doesn't deserve to be completely glossed over either. Just because the graphics have fewer colors doesn't mean this version is worth writing off.
In fact, I'd argue the absence of colors makes this version even MORE impressive in many places. You have to understand, most EGA games looked incredibly ugly; but here, they went all-out trying to make it look as nice as they possibly could. This is seriously a marvel of pushing something to its very limits, and LucasArts (or LucasFilm Games as they were called back then) deserves some pretty serious applause for it.
Compared to future versions, there's a few major changes...aesthetically the game has more of a cartoonish look and feel to it where other versions try to look a bit more realistic. For more "practical" changes, the most known one is the sunset over Melee Island which doesn't exist in any other version (and is a full moon at all times too, rather than starting out with the sun setting and then having it gone). The Charles Atlas joke in the Voodoo Lady's building was also removed in later versions due to trademark issues, and of course the famous stump joke is present here, but that one at least stayed for the VGA version before getting axed in the CD release. Oh yeah, the one last change that tends to get glossed over is that Guybrush and Elaine have a lighting effect going on in the game's ending (with the fireworks "reflecting" off of them) that isn't in any other version. Oh yeah, and you can't hit the period key to terminate a single line of dialogue. That takes a lot of getting used to.
As for the actual walkthrough...believe it or not, I started this in NOVEMBER 2015. That would probably give this walkthrough the record as "spent the longest time unfinished." I recorded all the way up to the Sword Master, and then just stopped and forgot about it.
The walkthrough went okay...I had to use a guide for most of it since I couldn't remember most of the puzzle solutions for some reason. I failed the Sword Master the first time (which I edited out the majority of), and the only other major hiccup I think I made was messing up the ghost pirate ship segment a bit. Otherwise I think things mostly went okay.
On the topic of finding this version...I'll just admit it, I don't actually own physical copy of this version. I normally am extremely strict about finding a legal copy before I make a video of a game, but I made an exception here for a few reasons.
1. Finding this version secondhand is a trial and a half. By virtue of being a major cult classic, being a version that only had a very short production run (less than a year, I believe), and the fragile nature of the floppy disk format, secondhand copies of the EGA version are EXPENSIVE; often it can cost more than a hundred dollars. I do NOT have that kind of money to throw away on a game.
2. I have already bought the Special Edition on Steam, and I don't feel as morally unjustified if I've already legally paid for the only version that's available for purchase. On top of that, I also have a secondhand copy of the CD release of this game too.
3. As I indirectly stated above, this version is not legally available anywhere. It's not included with any of the modern re-releases, it's not put on any archive, it's nowhere to be found. If it ever does become legally available for purchase or gets included in any modern release though, I will pay for it in a heartbeat.
So yeah, I stepped over a few rules to find this version, but hopefully there's some understanding as to why I did. For the record, I do NOT condone piracy of games; I am all for supporting developers. It's how they make a living after all, so if you want to play this game yourself, I HIGHLY recommend you buy it off GOG or Steam.
Enjoy the walkthrough! I believe this is the first full uncommentated playthrough of this version of the game on YouTube, so that's a nice plus!
Monkey Island is (C) LucasArts/Disney, all rights reserved.
