My journeys to Monkey island

Date: 2009-07-27 20:36:17 Created: 2009-07-27 16:26:21

Once upon a time, I was ten years old. Amiga computers were the cool things (some will say they still are) and Lucasfilm games released the Secret of Monkey island. A game I, for one reason or another, decided to like before I even got to play it for the first time.

I think the very first time I played (and certainly the first time I got to spend any real amount of time with) the game was when I slept at a friends house. We stayed up much later than we were used to, getting lost in the forests of Mêlée island and generally not getting the clues and puns.

While I had been introduced to adventure-type games before, somewhere around Monkey island my English abilities and adventure game interfaces started to make such games actually playable for me. I look back and feel Monkey island got me into adventure games properly, and that it set a bar for how adventure games should be designed and play. I saved up and bought Monkey island II with my own money (and got the most floppy-disk-filled box I will ever own), and the theme song will forever be close to my heart (and vocal chords, whenever I feel like humming something).

It was with a good deal of happines that I read of Lucasarts releasing the special edition of the original Monkey island for the Xbox 360. But as I am not a box owner, the real thrill came when I casually glanced at the top list of Iphone applications and noticed the game was available there too. There, just for me, with updated artwork, re-orchestrated score and voice acting, all just a few clicks away. It was a given purchase, especially as the asking price was so reasonable. I purchased it right there, on the train, and actually got the 300-something megabytes downloaded once I reached a stable wireless network.

If Lucasarts goes on like this I will end up having plenty of games in my phone all of a sudden ...