Playthrough - The Secret of Monkey Island PC 16-Color Version Tandy/Adlib Real Hardware 60fps
0Here is a complete playthrough of one of the most groundbreaking computer adventure games of all time, The Secret of Monkey Island. I am playing this on my Tandy 1000 TL and its built-in 16 color Tandy Graphics Adapter. The Tandy TL runs a 80286 at 8MHz, so there is some slowdown but it should not be too bad. If the game detects that it is being run on a system slower than this, it will cut out a lot of animation to reduce the slowdown.
The Secret of Monkey Island was released in September 1990 and until December of 1990, only the 16-color version was available. It supports CGA 4-color graphics, Hercules monochrome graphics and Tandy/EGA 16-color graphics modes. The 256-color version brought touched-up background and character graphics. The portraits were completely redone, but on floppy disk the inventory was still text-based.
I used the floppy version to give people a launch day example of how the game could have played. The Tandy 1000 TL was a very popular computer and released in 1988. Several people would have played this game on it.
The Secret of Monkey Island supports the popular sound devices of its day, PC Speaker, Tandy Sound, Game Blaster, Adlib and Roland MT-32. Even though the musical capabilities of the MT-32 far outshine the sound chips, the Adlib sound option is the best option for this game. The 16-color version came on eight 5.25" DD 360KB floppies or four 3.5" DD 720KB floppies and there was no room for the MT-32 music data. To play your MT-32, you had to send away for a patch disk with $10.00. The 256-color Version always had the MT-32 patches on its disks, but it usually came on HD disks.
More importantly, the MT-32 sound driver in this game only produces audio for music playback. Sound effects are silent on the MT-32. There are a few scenes in this game (Sword Training with Captain Smirk, Hook's Isle, Part Two) which rely on sound effects and those scenes are silent on the MT-32. The PC Speaker and Tandy Sound drivers do not play all the music pieces in the game.
I captured this video using my Datapath VisionRGB E1s with a digital RGBI to analog RGB converter. This does add some video noise to certain areas of solid color. I captured it in 320x200 and then upscaled it in VirtuaDub to 1600x1200 for the proper 4:3 aspsect ratio.
For the first eighteen minutes of this video there will be some erratic mouse movements until I tried using a rubber mouse pad. Then things play a lot more smoothly.
I used a crack to get past the copy protection screen, which requires a codewheel. The copy protection screen only allows number input via the number row on the keyboard, it will not recognize the numeric keypad.
Other things to note :
3:48 You can complete the three trials in any order, a refreshing bit of non-linearity.
6:50 The pirate portraits have more animation in the 16-color version than the 256-color or CD-ROM versions.
8:57 This pirate is Cob from Loom making a cameo. His inclusion may seem strange when the game was remade in 2009 as the Special Edition.
11:16 The dog originally had a portrait too, you can see it on the back of the original game boxes but it was probably cut from the game for space reasons.
15:37 The music abruptly stops at this insult, giving some dramatic tension followed by a comedic aftermath.
19:57 I finally use the keyboard to activate commands to get the herring before the seagull.
20:20 Charles Atlas was one of the first bodybuilders to become famous back in the 1930s.
37:42 Only in the 16-color version does the background behind the SCUMM Bar change. When you begin the game the sun is setting, but when you return after entering the town for a while, the sun is gone.
38:19 The forest maze can be mapped, but the game allows you to get through it easily via puzzle solving.
1:02:50 The troll is a George Lucas cameo.
1:12:40 To defeat the Sword Master, you must build up your repertoire of witty replies by challenging a pirate to duels, learning a new insult, trying it on a pirate and hope he replies correctly.
1:37:25 The game is on autopilot until Guybrush reappears in the main parlor.
1:47:53 This is the only instance where you can die in this game and will have to restore a save game. Guybrush can hold his breath for 10 minutes before he dies.
2:06:09 The stump joke was removed from the CD-ROM version of the game.
2:11:05 No matter what order you complete the Three Trials in, you cannot drink grog with the pirate leaders.
2:54:55 You have to keep talking Stan out of the extras for him to agree to sell you the ship for your letter of credit.
3:08:28 The game will not become unwinnable because you are missing an inventory item you can no longer get.
3:43:00 A dig at Sierra if ever there was one!
3:43:33 If you use the rock to destroy the ship, later events and the ending will be changed slightly. If you don't, you don't rescue Toothrot.
4:17:06 This maze is random and unbeatable without the head.
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