Gaming Remembrance #8 - The secret of Monkey Island & Monkey Island 2

Introduction: The Secret of Monkey Island is a 1990 point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It takes place in a fantastical version of the Caribbean during the age of piracy. The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwood: A young man who dreams of becoming a pirate and explores fictional islands while solving puzzles.

The game was conceived in 1988 by Lucasfilm employee Ron Gilbert, who designed it with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert's frustrations with contemporary adventure titles led him to make the player character's death impossible, which meant that gameplay focused the game on exploration. The atmosphere was based on that of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride. The Secret of Monkey Island was the fifth game built with the SCUMM engine, which was heavily modified to include a more user-friendly interface.

Critics praised The Secret of Monkey Island for its humor, audiovisuals, and gameplay. The game spawned a number of sequels, collectively known as the Monkey Island series. Gilbert, Schafer and Grossman also led the development of the sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.LucasArts released a remake of the original in 2009, which was also well received by the gaming press.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound system.

The game's story centers on the wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood. After defeating ghost pirate LeChuck in The Secret of Monkey Island, little is known of what happened between Guybrush Threepwood and Elaine Marley. The sequel involves Guybrush's attempts to both find the mysterious treasure, Big Whoop, and win back Elaine's love.

The development team for the game was largely the same as for the first game in the series. The project was led by Ron Gilbert, and he was once more joined by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman.

These 2 ripper games are just so good, I just couldn't decide which one was better so I selected both of them. I played both when they were released on the amiga and they were just so fun to play. Both of them made you feel like you were apart of the game, inside the game. The story, characters, theme and environments were just so out of this world at the time.
It took me some time to finish Monkey Island 2, to this day I still have not finished Monkey Island 1. I always seem to get near the end and never finish it over the years. I may have to fix this problem soon!
Over the year I have still played the games here and there and they are still lots of fun and enjoyable. One of the best adventures game series ever made.