The Secret Of Monkey Island (partially found cut content of PC adventure game; 1990)

Original cover art of the game.

Status: Partially found

The Secret of Monkey Island is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games (later known as Lucas Arts) and released in 1990.

The game gained popularity as one of the most beloved adventure games of all time, for its sense of adventure, its humor and the charm of its anachronism-laden Pirates of the Caribbean-like universe (it was inspired by the Disney ride).

Plot

The plot is set in the old Carribean, on Mêlée Island, and centers on young Guybrush Threepwood who wishes to become a pirate. In order to be accepted as such by the pirate community, he must pass three trials testing his fighting skill, stealing skill and treasure-hunting skill. In the process, he falls in love with the female governor of the island, Elaine Marley. However, an evil undead pirate captain, LeChuck, sees Guybrush as a hazard to his dastardly plans and attempts to have him killed, after what he kidnaps Elaine, bringing her to his lair on the dangerous Monkey Island. Guybrush then needs to gather a crew and a ship to go rescue her.

Cut content

Head developer Ron Gilbert has written on his "grumpygamer" blog that several pieces of content were cut before the final product was officialized (as he says, "Never be afraid to cut").

Close-up of Spiffy the dog; this close-up is absent from the final product.

Among other elements, that cut content includes:

• The grog-vending machine was supposed to have its "Grog" font looking much more like the Coca-Cola logo, in keeping with the Coca-Cola parody. However, due to fears of possible copyright infringements, the logo's design had to be changed.
• When Guybrush breaks inside the rooms at Governor Marley's mansion, the sequence where he faces a rhinoceros, a yak and other dangers were meant to be seen and interacted with the player in control as normal. However, the authors thought it would be funnier if unseen and shown going automatically.
• When Guybrush and his crew are at sea on the Sea Monkey, there was meant to be an overhead action sequence where the ship would engage in a cannon fight with an attacking enemy pirate ship. That idea would later be used for the third Monkey Island game, Curse of Monkey Island (although with an easy setting for winning fights almost immediately).
• A lot of the dialogue has been cut. Some of it has since been made available on the Internet.
• When Guybrush asks Meathook to join his crew, he will accept if Guybrush proves his bravery by touching a "beast" that he hides behind a huge door. Originally, Meathook would have made Guybrush go through three trials to prove his bravery before he'd join his crew. It has been speculated a lot that the tunnel at the end of his cave would have been used for one of those deleted trials; Guybrush can go walk in the tunnel during the "touch-the-beast" trial, but then Meathook will mock him for running away.
• Some characters Guybrush meets at the first chapter have full-screen close-ups during conversations with them. One included Spiffy the dog at the SCUMM bar, but it was deleted in the final product (in the game, Spiffy is still holding a bone in its mouth while barking). When the game was originally released, the back of the box included screenshots of the game, including one of Spiffy's close-up.
• When Guybrush arrives near the Giant Monkey Head territory, there was originally a cutscene where some natives of the cannibal tribe would be shown using the cotton bud key to open the Head and enter in it.
• Guybrush would have to defeat some ghost pirates on LeChuck's ship by throwing the cannonball (described as having three holes in it) or the navigator's head at them like a bowling ball, knocking them down. This idea would later be used for Day of The Tentacle, of the same company.
• LeChuck's ghost ship was meant to transform Transformers-like into a giant humanoid robot. That idea would inspire the finale of Escape from Monkey Island.

Status

Some of these materials have been released during the 2020 event with Ron Gilbert hosted by the Video Game History foundation.

Gallery

Unused "Trail" room (the pathway to the cannibal village)

Cut scene in which the cannibals open and enter the monkey head

Cut animations of random pirates entering Scumm Bar

Unused fire animation from the intro

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  Governor Fat (early design for the governor of Melee Island, before Elaine was introduced)

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  A pirate engaging in "drunk insult sword fighting" (an alternate version of the "insult swordfighting" used in the final game, in which each insult was to have an alternate "drunk" version)

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  Unused fighting animations for Fester Shinetop

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  Left: an old sprite of Guybrush; right: the final sprite

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  An early version of Elaine

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  Layla Thomas from the unreleased spy game Top Secret (her sprite was found in the SOMI source code)

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  Sam from Sam & Max Hit the Road

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  Max from Sam & Max Hit the Road

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  Early close-up of Elaine

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  Early close-up of Captain Smirk

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  The Melee Island troll bridge was originally intended to be a booby trap

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  Unused jumping animation for the insult sword fighting sequences

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  Early concept art for the Governor's mansion

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  Early version of the title screen

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  Items labeled "salt-shaker", "pepper-shaker", and "giant-spoon" (left), "village-drum" (middle)

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  Early version of the Scumm bar kitchen

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  Early version of the Melee Island lookout post

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  Early version of the ending scene animation, in which Guybrush turns his head to Elaine

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  A cannibal drowning in quicksand

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  The Idol of Many Hands room in the Governor's mansion (the one that was to have a yak with wax lips, a rhinoceros, and other surprises)

External Links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_Monkey_Island
• The secrets of Monkey Island's source code