The Monkey Island series began with The Secret of Monkey Island, which was created by Ron Gilbert and published by LucasArts back in 1990. The series has become a much-beloved franchise with fans of point-and-click titles and is considered to be one of the best that the genre has to offer.The series has grown quite large, with big names such as Tim Schafer and Telltale Games getting involved over the years. Whether you're a long-time fan of the series or just a casual player, you might be surprised by some of the things you didn't know about the franchise.Updated July 30, 2022 by Ryan Bamsey: To the surprise of pretty much everyone, Monkey Island has been revived to great applause, with a new game being released this year! This is sure to bring new life to the series and prompt many a replay of the old games. We've taken another look at this list and added some more trivia.
12 Lying Covers
The Monkey Island games' covers make the series look a lot more action-packed than it actually is - we play these games because they're calming, hilarious adventure games, not sword-swinging romps around the Caribbean. The covers feature Guybrush cutting through Monkey Island's undergrowth with companions, confronting LeChuck, and then being tortured by the undead pirate on the deck of a ship.
None of this happens. Guybrush ends up exploring Monkey Island alone, the golden statue of Elaine is never propped up on a ship's crow's nest, and the voodoo toll torture actually happens in an underground tunnel.
11 Stan's Magic Jacket
Stan is known for two things: being a shady businessman and his magical plaid jacket that seems to be a portal into some sort of plaid dimension. When he moves, the plaid on his jacket doesn't - you just see a different part of a screen-spanning plaid parallax.
This was initially used as a shortcut in the first games, due to technological limitations (who wants to animate plaid, of all things?) but was kept as one of Stan's quirks in the next games. It just wouldn't be Stan without a terribly ugly, physics-defying jacket.
10 Inspiration
Ron Gilbert has explained that he drew much of his inspiration for the Monkey Island series from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride, as well as the On Stranger Tides novel by Tim Powers. Interestingly, the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise based on the ride would later adopt the On Stranger Tides name for its fourth movie.
References to both Disney and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride are made throughout the series, with the most noticeable elements being the dog with the key that guards the prison cell and the tunnels beneath Dinky Island that resemble the tunnels that Disney employees use to move around the parks quickly.
9 Early Ideas
The original working title of the first game was "Mutiny on Monkey Island," and Gilbert originally wanted the player to be able to choose between a male or female protagonist. This idea was later scrapped due to disk size constraints, as it would mean double the animations than having just one protagonist would need.
From the very beginning, Gilbert wanted to ensure that the player would have everything they needed to progress, unlike some older point and click titles, where players could find themselves stuck in unwinnable situations as they hadn't picked up all the necessary items.
8 Near-Miss Murray
Murray is a talking skull that first appeared in The Curse of Monkey Island. He was originally one of LeChuck's undead crew but lost the rest of his body when Guybrush blew him up with a cannon, and it's possible to then knock him into the water.
Murray is a firm fan favorite and went on to appear in both sequels. Interestingly, Murray was initially planned to only feature in the very first part of the game, meaning players would have missed out on the rest of his hilarious appearances. Fortunately, test audiences absolutely adored him, so his part was greatly increased, and went on to make appearances in every game from then on.
7 The Myth Of Guybrush's Name
The protagonist of the series is Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate... well, at least he aims to be a mighty pirate. It's a common factoid (read: not a fact, but commonly reported as such) spread on the internet that Guybrush's name emerged in serendipity when the placeholder name 'Guy' was paired with the filename extension '.brush.'
Ron Gilbert has since denied those rumors, stating that Guybrush's name was chosen with purpose.
6 Point and Click Cameos
The Monkey Island series is full of pop culture references, especially relating to LucasArts and Lucasfilm titles, and even has a George Lucas cameo in The Secret of Monkey Island (he's the man inside the troll costume).
Throughout the games, you can often find cameos or references to other LucasArts point and click games, with Sam and Max elements appearing frequently, Loom and Day of the Tentacle also received some nods. One particular example is that Manny from Grim Fandango makes an appearance in The Curse of Monkey Island. When Guybrush knocks over the silent patron in the chicken restaurant, it is revealed to be Manny!
5 The Bar That Changes Name
In the very first game, The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush visits the Scumm Bar. This bar was named after the SCUMM game engine in which the game was built. This engine was created for Gilbert's other IP, Maniac Mansion, and as such, "SCUMM" stands for "Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion."
In the fourth title, Escape from Monkey Island, the Scumm Bar features again, only then it's been renamed to the Lua Bar, as the game was created with the GrimE engine using Lua scripting language.
4 George Lucas Said that Guybrush was "Bland"
George Lucas got to have a peek at Monkey Island when it was in its early stages, and despite liking what he saw about the game overall, he reportedly told Tim Schafer that Guybrush Threepwood was a "bland, generic character."
It was George Lucas that recommended that Guybrush should be turned into a funnier character, a trait that undoubtedly contributed to the massive success of the series and certainly made Guybrush one of the most memorable gaming characters ever.
3 Chester the Hint Line Guy
In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, players can interact with a telephone in the forest on Dinky Island. The helpline employee, Chester, is based on an actual employee in the LucasArts office called Chester, who manned the real helpline.
You can also ask about the stump joke from the previous game, where Guybrush noticed a stump and claimed it lead to caverns below, before prompting players to insert fictitious game disks. The joke was lost on many players who flooded the LucasArts helpline with calls as to where to get the disks.
2 Ron's Return to Monkey island
Although Ron Gilbert left the development team after Monkey Island 2, he unofficially helped the team brainstorm the plot for the fifth Monkey Island adventure, Tales of Monkey Island, a five-part episodic series from Telltale.
Gilbert was not credited by his real name, but was instead referred to as "Visiting Professor of Monkeyology" in the credits. Regardless, this makes Tales of Monkey Island the first Monkey Island he had helped create since Monkey Island 2. Additionally, in the Voodoo Lady's shack, you can find a shrine to "Nor Treblig," which is "Ron Gilbert" backward.
1 The Secret Remains
The actual "secret" of Monkey Island has never been revealed, though it definitely does exist. The creator of the series, Ron Gilbert, originally envisioned the games as a trilogy and planned to reveal the secret in the third and final game.
Luckily for us, that 'third and final game' is now going to be released, and the secret is revealed to us.
Initially, Gilbert left after the second game, and though the fourth title, Escape from Monkey Island, has a revelation — it was not the one Gilbert planned.