LeChuck

Background

Ron Gilbert's two main inspirations for the story were Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Tim Powers' book On Stranger Tides. The book was the inspiration for the story and characters, while the ride was the inspiration for the ambiance. Gilbert said in an interview that:

[the POTC Ride] keeps you moving through the adventure but I've always wished I could get off and wander around, learn more about the characters, and find a way onto those pirate ships. So with The Secret of Monkey Island I wanted to create a game that had the same flavor, but where you could step off the boat and enter that whole storybook world.

Media

Games

The series debuted in 1990 with The Secret of Monkey Island on the Amiga, MS-DOS, Atari ST and Macintosh platforms; the game was later ported to FM Towns and Mega-CD (1993). A remake version with updated graphics and new voiceovers was released for PlayStation Network, PC Windows, Xbox Live Arcade and OS X. An iPhone version was also released on July 23, 2009.

The game starts off with the main character Guybrush Threepwood stating "I want to be a pirate!" To do so, he must prove himself to three old pirate captains. During the perilous pirate trials, he meets the beautiful governor Elaine Marley, with whom he falls in love, unaware that the ghost pirate LeChuck also has his eyes on her. When Elaine is kidnapped, Guybrush procures crew and ship to track LeChuck down, defeat him and rescue his love.

The second game, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge from 1991, was available for fewer platforms; it was only released for PC MS-DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, and later for FM Towns. A Special Edition version, in a similar style as The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, was released in July 2010 for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

As Guybrush, with a treasure chest in hand, and Elaine hang onto ropes in a void, he tells her the story of the game. He has decided to find the greatest of all treasures, that of Big Whoop. Unwittingly he helps revive LeChuck, who is now in zombie form. Guybrush is eventually captured by his nemesis, but escapes with help from Wally and finds the treasure only to find himself dangling from a rope, as depicted at the beginning of the game. As Guybrush concludes his story, his rope breaks and he finds himself facing LeChuck, whom he finally defeats using voodoo. The surrealistic ending is open to a number of interpretations. In the manual of The Curse of Monkey Island, it is stated that Guybrush falls victim to a hex implemented by LeChuck.

The Curse of Monkey Island, the third in the series, was released exclusively for Microsoft Windows on PC in 1997, after a 6-year hiatus. The Curse of Monkey Island was released at the height of some of the biggest technological advancements in the gaming industry—digital audio, CD-ROM technology, and improved graphics.

Monkey Island I and II were originally released on floppy disks with text dialogue only. Entire conversations between characters would appear as written text, or as captions above their heads.

Cancelled film

Shortly after Pixar, a spinout from Lucasfilm, found success with the first Toy Story film in 1995, there had been a push across Hollywood for more digitally animated films. Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), in the midst of transitioning from practical to digital effects, offered its services for producing these films to other studios. One of the first projects they tried to work on was with Universal Pictures to revive the Universal Classic Monsters line with a film called Frankenstein and the Wolfman. While several scripts and preliminary art was produced for this film, shake-ups at Universal due to the financial failure of Babe: Pig in the City led to changes in leadership for the film and ultimately its cancellation.

David Carson, who had been set to direct Frankenstein and the Wolfman but left after the Universal shake-up, came back to ILM with the idea of an animated film based on the first Monkey Island game around 2000. With initial support from ILM, Carson worked an initial script with Corey Rosen and Scott Leberecht as to pitch the idea to Amblin Entertainment, the production company owned by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had told Carson that he had previously told George Lucas that he should have made a Monkey Island movie years before, and other meetings with Amblin went well to proceed to further screenwriting work. The rest of ILM's story department was brought in to help write, including Steve Purcell, but this team worked separately from the writers that were developing the actual games, creating a disconnect between story the film was going with and the narrative already established in the video game series. As they continued to work out the screenplay, the direction of the film continued to veer further from the video game series, including at one point where Spielberg had suggested the game be about the monkeys on Monkey Island instead of the pirates. According to Carson, the lack of a creative direction at this point led to the film being shelved at ILM.

Details about the film were first revealed publicly in 2011 as part of the Monkey Island Special Edition Collection which included some of the film's concept art, storyboards, and scripts.

It had been rumored that Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio had been involved in the writing of the Monkey Island script which they subsequently used as the basis for the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. Both Elliott and Rossio had been to ILM and were shown parts of the Monkey Island script, around the same time they were working on their script for Pirates. When Pirates was released, many fans of the Monkey Island series made comparisons of parts of the film to the games, and when news of the cancelled film first arose in 2011, the potential connection of Elliott and Rossio to the Monkey Island script started. Both Carson and Rossio stated that many of the tropes in both Monkey Island and Pirates are based on the classic pirate movies and that there was no direct reuse of the cancelled Monkey Island film in Pirates.

The "Secret" of Monkey Island

None of the first five games explicitly reveal the "Secret of Monkey Island". The team behind Escape from Monkey Island attempted to resolve the issue by showing that the Giant Monkey Head was actually the control room of a Giant Monkey Robot. The cut-scene in which the revelation was made is called "The Real Secret of Monkey Island".

Gilbert stated that he never told anyone what the true secret of Monkey Island is. In a 2004 interview, Gilbert stated that when the game was originally conceived, it was considered "too big", so they split it into three parts. He added that he "knows what the third [part] is" and "how the story's supposed to end", indicating that he had a definite concept of the “secret” and a conclusive third game.

The true nature of the secret is the main focus of Return to Monkey Island, with several characters competing amongst themselves in a race to discover "the Secret". The game's conclusion reveals the secret to be a novelty T-shirt earned as a prize at a pirate-themed amusement park, which has acted as the setting for all of Guybrush Threepwood’s previous adventures. Threepwood, as the game's narrator, is intentionally ambiguous as to whether this is the actual secret, even suggesting that the secret means different things to different people, and putting forth the notion that the story of the journey (and the joy of speculating about the secret with others) is more valuable than the reward itself.

After the release of Return to Monkey Island, Gilbert stated in an interview that the true secret (as conceived during development of the first installment of the series) is that Guybrush was, in fact, inside of a pirate-themed amusement park the entire time.

Fan games

Fate of Monkey Island

Fate of Monkey Island (FOMI) is a video fangame series based on the Monkey Island series. It was developed and released in free download format by Scurvyliver Entertainment for Microsoft Windows and was created with Klik & Play. The series' name is a reference to Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. The first game was released in 1999, and the second one in 2000. However, the last chapter of the second game was never released because Scurvyliver Entertainment received a cease and desist letter from LucasArts. In December 2024, the games were streamed online on YouTube.

The games revolve around Squinky, a simple monkey from Monkey Island. In the first game, which takes place at the same time as Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Squinky finds out that the zombie pirate LeChuck is enslaving monkeys to build his Carnival of the Damned, and sets out to free his kin. At the end of the game, the monkeys leave Monkey Island on a ship called Sea Cucumber, tying into that ship's role in The Curse of Monkey Island. In the second game, which takes part between The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island, Squinky and his friends settle down on Kaos Island, where a new monkey leader called LePhatt has emerged. LePhatt promises to bring the monkeys back home to Monkey Island, but Squinky finds out that he's actually working for LeChuck's henchman Largo LaGrande, and intends to once again enslave them. Squinky goes on a journey to Monkey Island to liberate the monkeys.

The games received modest praise from critics. A review by Adventure Classic Gaming said: "Do not expect a great work of art. It is all programmed and designed by a single person who goes by the alias Scurvyliver. Still, this does not mean the game is not fun. It is one of the few games which combines the action and adventure genres well". The International House of Mojo described FOMI as "the criterion example of fan games, mostly based on the following unique features: it got finished". The magazine PC Gamer pointed out, however, that "accolades from Monkey Island fans show just how popular and professional it was. Comments include: "You took the best adventure ever made and gave it a new life". "I get a bit depressed waiting for the next Monkey Island game to come out but FOMI really helps". And, rather ironically: "I think your games are great to play and LucasArts should be talking to you."

Monkey Island's creator Ron Gilbert stated in an interview in regards to the series's cancellation: "I like fan-fiction, to a point. And if it was up to me, I'd try to allow it as much as I could while still protecting my trademarks and copyrights".

Night of the Hermit

Night of the Hermit (NOTH) is a video fangame based on the Monkey Island series. It was developed and released in free download format by the Israeli developer Roy Lazarovich for Microsoft Windows and was created with Adventure Game Studio. As of 2005, the game received more than 24000 downloads.

The story revolves around Herman Toothrot, an eccentric hermit who lives on Monkey Island, who is a side character in the original Monkey Island series. The game begins with Herman receiving a message in a bottle that his grandfather died and left him a mansion on the Badger Island. However, upon arriving on the island, he finds out that the mansion has already been made into a motel called Crippled Badger Motel. Now it is up to Herman to reclaim what's rightfully his. Lazarovich said:

Herman seemed like a very interesting character to me. I thought it would be fun to get into his shoes. I figured he was getting kind of lonely on the island and would probably appreciate a change of scenery. I do not think my game is anywhere near the original games, and I never tried to shoot for that. It is simply a game made by a fan for the fans.

A review by Home of the Underdogs gave the game 7.64 out of 10, praising the game's storyline and music, but criticizing the graphics and overly complicated puzzles.

Download Night of the Hermit

The Devil's Triangle

The Devil's Triangle is a Klik & Play fan game by Chris Ushko aka Datadog (also known for working on Space Quest: Vohaul Strikes Back and The Silver Lining), based on Ushko's eponymous fanfic.

It takes place in-between The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and begins with Guybrush stranded on Keelhaul Island in search of the Big Whoop treasure. He meets Captain Walker who is in possession of a Big Whoop map, according to which the treasure is in the Bermuda Triangle. Soon after that, Walker is killed by the menacing pirate Sharkjaw and his crew of rat pirates, and Guybrush teams up with Walker's daughter Jan to defeat Sharkjaw and find Big Whoop.

Adventure Archiv gave The Devil's Triangle 70 out of 100, appreciating the game's comedy aspect and graphics.

Download The Devil's Triangle

The original fanfic

The Treasure of Drunk Island

The Treasure of Drunk Island is a 1999 video game developed by Edmundo Ruiz-Ghanem (also known as Netmonkey) with the use of Klik & Play. Though formally an original work, it's strongly inspired by the Monkey Island universe.

The story revolves around William "Willy" Alexander who has been fascinated by the legend of the treasure of Drunk Island since his childhood. After losing his job, he discovers a treasure map in his office, and decides (along with his brother Danny) to fulfill his dream and find the treasure. In order to do this, he needs to open a portal to teleport from his home Polar Island to the Drunk Island.

A review by Home of the Underdogs gave the game a 7 out of 10, praising the plot and graphics, but criticizing the lack of object descriptions and hotspots. Gaming website Acid-Play gave the game a 65 out of 100.

Download The Treasure of Drunk Island

The Mistery of Maniac Island

The Mistery of Maniac Island is a series of Italian fan games made in Klik & Play by Danilo Lapegna (also known as Voodoomaster).

The story takes place during the events of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, but shown from the perspective of the villain, zombie pirate LeChuck. The first game begins with LeChuck resurrected as a zombie - however, the resurrection spell goes awry, and LeChuck is warned that he will die in four days unless he locates an incredibly potent source of magical power located on Maniac Island. LeChuck also encounters a powerful adversary: an evil zombie doppelganger of Guybrush. In the second game Maniac Island 2: Il sogno di un pirata (The Dream of a Pirate), LeChuck, together with another pirate Finklemann, searches for a magic mirror to conquer Elaine's love; he also gets to visit the Edisons' mansion from Day of the Tentacle. Finally, in the third game Maniac Island 3: L'ultima avventura di LeChuck (The Last Adventure of LeChuck), LeChuck dies for the second time during the explosion of his fortress, and ends up in the afterlife.

The games were covered by the Italian gaming magazine The Games Machine.

Download The Mistery of Maniac Island

Download Maniac Island 2: Il sogno di un pirata

Download Maniac Island 3: L'ultima avventura di LeChuck

Maniac Island Trading Card Game

Al Gurbish in... Nick it & Run!!!

Al Gurbish in... Nick it & Run!!! is a 2003 video game, made with Adventure Game Studio by the Australian developer Pedro Scribe (AussieSoft).

It revolves around Al Gurbish, the worst agent in the Secret Service of the City of Thathurst. Al Gurbish is given an assignment to steal "The Stan's", the most prestigious award in the world of adventure gaming (named after the character Stan in Monkey Island), in order to prevent it from being stolen by criminals.

An Adventure Gamers review by Dave Gilbert praised the game for its similarity to classic LucasArts titles. Gilbert said: "If one were to box up Nick It & Run, slap on a LucasArts logo, send it back in time to 1992 and put it on an department store shelf, it would be perfectly at home. I can't think of any higher praise than that". A review by Abandonware gave the game a 4.5 out of 5, praising the graphics and puzzles, although noting some bugs.

Download Al Gurbish in... Nick it & Run!!!

The Amulet of Monkey Island

The Amulet of Monkey Island (El Amuleto de Monkey Island) was a Spanish Monkey Island fan project by Guido Sirna and his company Metamorfo Entertainment. In 2008, it was cancelled because the company received a cease and desist letter from Telltale Games, who were at that moment working on Tales of Monkey Island.

The game would begin with Guybrush's ship Smelly Chimpanzee attacked by pirates, and Guybrush ending up shipwrecked on an island. Once there, he would start a journey to discover the real Secret of Monkey Island.

Archived website

Trailer

An overview by Guido Sirna

The Booze of Monkey Island

The Booze of Monkey Island is a video fangame based on the Monkey Island series. It was developed by Bean Adventure Agency and released in free download format.

The story revolves around Guybrush Threepwood - stranded on Booty Island - who must convince Kate Capsize, Wally B. Feed and William the Swiss to enter the pub of Ignatius Cheese. Ignatius Cheese will then help Guybrush with repairing last one's ship so Guybrush can rescue Elaine out of the hands of LeChuck.

Official website