Hi, I'm new here and don't go much on forums at all so I hope that this has been put in the right section. My problem is that I recently purchased the proper version of 'the curse of monkey island' for my kids and I can't seem to get it to run properly for them. The game starts and I talk to a short pirate and obtain his hook. After that the blonde guy speaks and then he keeps repeatedly saying the same line as though it is skipping. I have uninstalled the game and then reinstalled it hoping it will work again for them but the problem persists. I have checked the game discs for scratches and don't find any. Can anyone possibly tell me if this thing is common or if others have experienced the same thing and the best way to fix it.

I'm not very technically minded when it comes to things regarding game files so can an explanation be written simply.

I know that there are also programs like phantom cd or virtual cd that allow you to load the originals and play the game off the HDD rather than from disc. Would this help at all or is it something related to the computer itself.

I'm running the game under xp home edition, 520mb ram, geforce 4 card, pentium 4 3.06mhz computer.

Could someone also tell me how to save the game as I haven't been able to play for a period longer than 5 minutes before the skipping of speech starts and have to exit back to desktop.

Thanking for any help offered in advance.

Firstly, pressing F1 goes to the ingame menue where you can save and load and so on. Also, try either pressing the period button on the keyboard, or clickng both mouse keys at once (left and right if you have 3 buttons on your mouse.) to skip past the dialogue.

If this doesn't work, then go to this website (just click it)

http://quick.mixnmojo.com)

And download a file called Scummvm Quick and Easy.

This is a small (very small) program and is very widely used so don't worry about it messing up your system or anything.

The file is here

http://quick.mixnmojo.com/files/ScummVMQuickAndEasy1.3.5.zip) (just click and it should download)

Extract the files adn then double click on the file called ScummVM Q+E.

Click on the button marked Daily Build and it'll download other files that are needed to make this work.

Then, just click on the drop down box with the list of games and find yours (Monkey Island 3 (CMI))

select a graphics filter (I suggest High quiality x2) and sound mode PC speaker
forget about language and infact the rest. find the destination path (the path of the installed game files) and then click on run and it should work.

If you don't want to do this every time, before running, make a shortcut so you can just double click on that. if it doen't work, play around with the settings on this program and it should help.

Neil
;)

Thanks heaps..its appreciated. Maybe the game will now work for them. Is this thing pretty common for 'curse'???

On newer windows systems it's almost a garunteed problem.

Sorry about the delay in replying to your post. I downloaded the scummvm thing but when trying to get it to work windonws xp home ed. wouldn't let me open it and get the daily build thing. It just gave me the small windows error screen saying do you want to send a report to microsoft.. Any ideas on how to bypass this.....thanks.

This has never happened befoe as far as I know. Best thing to do would be to download it again, it may have been something to do with the download. It's a pretty simple program and is built to be run on XP (that being it's main objective of making old dos games work in XP).

Hope this helps.

Guys, I was looking over one of them old pc game cd's that you get with computer magazines and located a program called Abandon Loader 0.8 Beta version which got the game working fine. I expected it to at least trip up once and start repeating the speech or stalling but it hasn't happened. It can be obtained from the following site as a reference for others:

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/zeroone/)


The kids are happy that the game is now working and thanks heaps for your advice along the way. I have downloaded a wlakthrough for the game so that they aren't kept waiting for too long (given their young ages) and are stumbling over what letters to use to get him to talk and pick things up etc. I've managed to get to where I escape from the boat and then got back on the island. I am suppose to go to the theater backstage door, get the dandruff from the pirate coat and find out that it's actually lice, also get the glove from the coat. I can't find the theatre and nearly all the doors around the theatre (or what I think is one) is locked. I try and get him to pick the lock using a pin but he won't do it....any suggestions. Thanx.

There's a small door on the left side of the building, it's never locked or anything, you just walk in.

It is locked sometimes. Please note that nothing will open yet until you talk to the voodoo lady in the swamp. Then everything will be open.

ok thanks, will go back to the swamp and try to find this mysterious voodoo woman. Ain't sure how I could have missed her but I guess she's still there..lol.

Hey guys, after the post about searching for the voodoo lady my kids and I went on a quest to find her in the swamp area. She wasn't there so we started the game again and got to the same point only not to find her. The doors are still locked so need a bit of help here to find her whereabouts so as to move forward in the game....thanks heaps..

In the swamp you need to go into the big ship (you have to stop and talk to Murray first). At that point you need to experiment with the scenery a bit. Maybe give some of it a pull. Maybe some of it that's red and hanging.



Only read this next part if you want the full solution, I can't remember how to make the spoiler tags unfortunately...


Just pull the tongue hanging out of the alligators mouth and she will appear.

Thanks heaps for that as I have gone and clicked on all different parts of the swamp and all it does it take me to the front of the ship. I've even tried using a combination of the stuff in the inventory ie; pins etc to see if it helps. I will go and grab the tongue because every time I have gone out of the swamp and back in hoping she'd appear it didn't work.....sorry for being a pain..

It's no problem, we're always happy to help a new fan get intot he series.

So is the entire game based upon grabbing and pulling at everything to make things happen. I gather that pulling the tongue of the blow up alligator thing is only one example. It must be then that I keep overlooking the obvious hey..

It seems that youse know the series pretty well. Have you played it repeatedly or don't often get back to the earlier versions????

Most of us pretty much know all Monkey island games inside out, so if there are any troubles, just ask.

And it's not always pulling or pushing things. Basically it's mostly logic, just think things through and it should come to you.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend. The game is just heaps different to the racing simulation games I usually play. The closest I have ever come to playing a game remotely similar to this was Quake 1 & 2.

Way you say remotely, you must mean it in the most wide ranging version of the definition. But hey if you like this, we'd be happy to recommend some more of the same genre to you. It's quite an exciting world.

I meant remotely as in that the concept of this game is like nothing I've ver taken a look at before. If it wasn't for the young kids liking the introduction and pics on the cover I probably would not have gotten it. But seeming they have enjoyed doing it so far why stop a good thing hey??? It is quite interesting although very different. I remember years back seeing a trailer for a game called broken sword (or that is what I think it was called) which kinda looked similar to this game.

Broken Sword? Puh!

Yeah, I guess it's similar... a bit. One big differenece being...


...it's about ten thousand times better.

Okay, so not tenn thousand, but it is most probably one of the best of this type of genre about, if you like The Curse of Monkey island, buy this, along with it's two sequels (although don't buy it for the kids, the first scene starts with a guy dieing in an explosion, and then it just get's better).

And yeah, quake isn't much like these types of games, but whatever. Enjoy the game!

I know that Quake comes nowhere near this but I have never done animation based gaming before. I find that curse is more of an adventure than an actual game...nonetheless a popular game in its own right.

What would you suggest as another game along the same line for my kids as having someone just blow up in the beginning of a game don't send the right message...

Wow. It's quite amazing, but I can't think of a good adventure game that is suitable for kids. The closest you'll come to is 'Sam and Max Hit the Road' but that incorporates quite a lot of violence in it (but it's performed by a hyperkinetic rabbity thing so I don't know if it counts)

I guess the first two monkey island's if you can find them anywhere.

There are a lot of great older LucasArts adventure games that kids should enjoy, though they're a bit less forgiving. Here's a list that you may want to look into:

Maniac Mansion
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Loom
Monkey Island series
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Day of the Tentacle
Sam & Max Hit the Road (demented humor)
Full Throttle (kinda violent)
The Dig


I'm surprised you mention Sam & Max, Joshi, because it's probably one of the more "adult" games in LucasArts' adventure library.

I'd go for Day of the Tentacle. It's probably the most child friendly of the whole bunch. But it also has some of the most out there puzzle solutions.

Thanks Guys for the suggestions as it is always good to have knowledge of games of a similar genre. My kids seem to be enjoying monkey island 3 so far and maybe we'll try and get the earlier ones as suggested....if they can be easily found.

So whats day of the tenticle about anyways...for curiosity sake.

The only thing about the early Monkey Island games is there is no voice, so if your kids are yougn they may have problems keeping up with the dialouge.

Day of the Tentacle (http://www.adventuregamers.com/display.php?id=186&p=21)

ok...hmmm.. that's strange I thought that the earlier two would have dialogue as well rather than caption. Nevertheless, you still reckon they are worth looking for or should I try and get them the ones that foolowed curse??????/

There is as yet only one that followed curse, and it wasn't that good, but for kids, it may be just what they were looking for.

I suppose Sam and Max was a bit too adult for them, but the rest of them are so old that they're just too hard to get now. Pity.

I'd suggest you go to http://www.lucasarts.com/companystore/)

There is a thing called "The Adventure Pack" containing Day of the Tentacle , Sam & Max Hit the Road, and a game called Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis for sale for 30 USD.

That's probably the best you can get nowadays.

P.S. I have Sam & Max quoted in my signature, so maybe that can help you decide whether or not you want it for your children.

Guys, gotta say that it is a shame that such games aren't really available now. With my kids being 4 and 2 I really wanna avoid one's like that max and sam. Maybe I should do a generalised game search on the net but ain't too sure what to use as a search...any suggestions??

Guys, gotta admit I find it a shame that there ain't more games out there like this one (Curse) and thanks for letting us know about max and sam but seeming my little ones are 4 and 2 I rather look for an alternative..

Get Escape from Monkey Island, it's the sequal, it's not as good, but for kids at the age of 2 and 4 they won't notice the HUGE GAPING PLOTHOLES that drive the rest of us insane.

Thanks for the suggestion...will keep a look out for it. By the way, what are the major potholes that you have found with the game???

Nothing you'll notice as much, you'll need to have played the first two games to find how the fourth game doesn't quite fit, but I've got a feeling your kids will love it (it's not as good as curse, but they'll like it anyway)

Hopefully I'll still be able to find it somewhere local as ain't really trusting of sites like e-bay where the potential of being ripped off is big. Maybe search for it with Kazza lite?????/

Hey, hey, hey, don't even talk about game piracy around here, it'll get you banned pretty quickly.

You can buy it off the officical LucasArts website (http://www.lucasarts.com)

It's safe to order from there. They're trustworthy. Unless you give them an adventure game license.

Sorry about the mention of warez as gathered e-bay would probably be the only way of getting it......anyways, whats an adventures licensce????????

It's just the license to make sequals to their other games. It was just a refernece of my continued anger over the cancellation of Sam and Max 2.

Originally posted by NFS_Rogue
Sorry about the delay in replying to your post. I downloaded the scummvm thing but when trying to get it to work windonws xp home ed. wouldn't let me open it and get the daily build thing. It just gave me the small windows error screen saying do you want to send a report to microsoft.. Any ideas on how to bypass this.....thanks.

I know this is an old post, but do you have Windows ZIP.

That might have been the problem.

Amazon.com is a good bet, but Monkey island 4 is still selling so I would guess it would be in a local computergame store somewhere.

And yeah, not only is downloading the game extremely illegal and frowned upon by us, but it's also very illogical considering the size of it, you'd be waiting for it's download for a good 3 or 4 hours on the best connection.

Just buy it, it won't cost much now since it came out in 2000.

Wow, it doesn;t feel like it's been 4 years.

@Joshi, over here people just leave the internet connected overnite and pause it in the morning or leave it going for a couple of days straight. Nonetheless, I will look for it at a local game shop as suggested because as said earlier am skeptical of thins like ebay.

@Dr Edison 007, at the time I wasn't using WinZip on my pc but rather was using the latest version of WinRaR as many of the files I downloaded for NFS Underground were in this format. I thought that it would basically operate the same. When I couldn't get the scummvm thing to work I looked around and came across the abandon_loader 0.8 which I still use with a number of old games and they all seem to work fine when I couldn't get them to go before..

@Skinkie, what reason have they given for cancelling the Sam and Max 2 game. Too violent???

Sam n Max 2 was cancelled because there apparently isn't a market for that kind of game anymore.

It was kinda violent, but I doubt it was intended for little children and it wouldn't have been cancelled because of that.

I guess its kinda funny how everything seems to end up that way nowadays where the game once was fun but loses all credibility it held because it is looked upon as a 'kids' game. With the sort of violence that you talk of it obviously wasn't intended for kids?? Anyways, when I have done a generalised search for games on yahoo its funny to see the list of one's on sites that I use to play when younger and how much they differ from the modern genre of games today.

Originally posted by NFS_Rogue
I guess its kinda funny how everything seems to end up that way nowadays where the game once was fun but loses all credibility it held because it is looked upon as a 'kids' game. With the sort of violence that you talk of it obviously wasn't intended for kids?? Anyways, when I have done a generalised search for games on yahoo its funny to see the list of one's on sites that I use to play when younger and how much they differ from the modern genre of games today.

It was actually nothnig to do with the violence or it being for kids. It was mainly about that fact that LucasArts (developers of Sam n Max, and evidentally the developers of The Curse of Monkey Island) didn't think games like sam n Max (and when i say games like sam n max, I mean adventure games, like Monkey island) would make money anymore. they're more interested in high violence content and anything to do with Star wars.

Unfortunate, but true. Sam n Max 2 would have been a great game as well.

I guess then that they are more interested in making the games that don't require a lot of strategy and thinking. The degree of interaction in Curse is what made it more interesting but at the same time different. As for Star Wars, the games literally sux. So much for anything that ain't blood thirsty..

I feel the need to unlease my geekdom.

Not all the Star Wars games suck. In fact quite a few are rather good. Knights of the Old Republic and Jedi Academy are two recent examples of excellent games in the Star Wars universe. The problem is that the market is flooded with them. No longer do they always feel compelled to crank out the best games possible (like previously X-Wing series, Rogue Squadron) instead they just rely on the franchise to sell the games for them. Especially when Episode I came out and a whole series of bad games based around the movie were hastily cranked out.


End geek stuff.

Those games do TOO suck! The only one which doesn't is Galactic Battlegrounds which happens to be my favorite Star Wars game followed by the Super Star Wars trilogy.

I can feel this turning into one big argument, so I won't contribute 9yeah, I know, me!)

Of course I will say, there are possibly a few SW games that are good, just not as good as good classic LA adventure games.