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The Secret of Monkey Island

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original Monkey Island. For the 2009 remaster, see The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.

The Secret of Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island cover
Developers
Lucasfilm Games
Engines
SCUMM
Release dates
DOS October 15, 1990
Mac OS (Classic) October 15, 1990
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Controls Point and select
Genres Adventure
Themes Comedy, Piracy
Series Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island on HowLongToBeat
The Secret of Monkey Island on IGDB
The Secret of Monkey Island guide on StrategyWiki
The Secret of Monkey Island on MobyGames
The Secret of Monkey Island on Wikipedia
Monkey Island
The Secret of Monkey Island 1990
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge 1991
The Curse of Monkey Island 1997
Escape from Monkey Island 2000
Tales of Monkey Island 2009
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition 2009
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge 2010
Return to Monkey Island 2022

Key points

Special Edition includes a "classic mode" that closely resembles the original. The original game's data files can be extracted and used with ScummVM.
Can be run under ScummVM.

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Prompts for answers from manual, code wheel, etc.
DRM-free
"Dial-A-Pirate" code wheel for early diskette versions.
Later diskette versions, and the CD-ROM edition is DRM free.
DOS
Mac OS
This game is not available digitally.

Demo

A demo can be downloaded here and played using DOSBox. It has different puzzles and dialogue compared to the full version.

Version differences

Apart from the Demo version, there have been three DOS releases of this game with different video and audio options.

EGA version

This version shipped on diskette, and offers support for

  • Video : Hercules, CGA, Tandy, MCGA, EGA and VGA graphics.
  • Audio : PC Speaker, Tandy, Game Blaster and Adlib sound.
Despite it offering options for MCGA and VGA, it only supports up to 16 colours.
To minimise the number of disks needed for distribution, this version lacked Roland MT-32 support. Roland MT-32 support is available as a separate free download.

VGA256 version

This version shipped on diskette, and offers support for

  • Video : EGA, MCGA and VGA graphics. EGA will be in 16 colours, while MCGA and VGA are in 256 colours.
  • Audio: PC Speaker, Tandy, Game Blaster, Adlib and Roland MT-32 sound.

CD-ROM Enhanced version

This version, shipped on CD-ROM, and offers support for

  • Video : EGA, MCGA and VGA graphics. EGA will be in 16 colours, while MCGA and VGA are in 256 colours.
  • Audio: PC Speaker, Adlib, Sound Blaster and Roland MT-32 sound.

In addition the CD-ROM has 24 digital audio tracks sampled from a MT-32 for background music during the game.

It uses the updated game engine from Monkey Island 2, and uses icons for inventory instead of text.

Essential improvements

Compatibility on modern systems

The classic version can be played on modern systems using DOSBox or ScummVM.

Sound Blaster 486 patch

If the game is running via ScummVM, this patch is irrelevant

A patch[1] is available to solve problems with Sound Blaster and 486 or faster computers for the VGA256 edition of the game. The patch is available simply as MONKEY.EXE, and replaces the MONKEY.EXE that came with the game.

Before replacing your MONKEY.EXE, check your existing interpreter version by running MONKEY ?. The replacement interpreter is version 5.0.18. If your existing interpreter version is newer, don't replace it.
This update does NOT add a Sound Blaster audio option. Like interpreter version before it, Sound Blaster cards will use the Adlib option with this interpreter.
Patch Name: 486 Upgrade

Platform: PC

Format: Floppy Disk

Size: 99 KB

Min. Requirements: N/A

Posted: 5/90

Installation: This update will prompt you for the location of the 
game (where to install the patch), so have this information available 
before double-clicking on the update file. 

    WINDOWS 95
 
    Double-click on the "monkey.exe" file to begin the installation. 

    DOS 
    In this example, we have Monkey Island installed on our "C" drive and in the "Monkey" directory. Type "monkey.exe c:\Monkey" and hit the ENTER key. Before the decompression process can begin, you will receive a prompt that states "Unzip file? [Y|N]", hit the "Y" key to continue.

CORRECTS: This is a replacement executable file which will cure sound problems or a lock-up when using a Sound Blaster card with a 486 or faster computers. Symptoms include the error message 'Run time error R6003 - integer divide by zero' when attempting to start the game, or a scratchy/staticy sound. 

NOTES: This update will only work with the 256 color VGA version of the game. Check the name of the game directory on your hard drive, it should read MONKEY.VGA or look at the game disks, the labels should be green and say 256 VGA. 

IMPORTANT: If you are using the PC Gamer version of Monkey Island 1: The Secret of Monkey Island or Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, please do not install this update. A special version of the 486 Fix was added to the PC Gamer version of these games. If you install this update with the PC Gamer version of these game, copy protection will be added to the game making it unplayable. If you install this update by mistake, please delete the game and reinstall a new version from PC Gamer.

File: MONKEY.EXE (LucasArt FTP Site)

Roland MT-32 patch

A patch[2] was made available for adding Roland MT-32 support to the EGA diskette versions of the game that lacked the support. The patch is available as a self-extracting ZIP file named MONKEYUP.EXE that extracts to DISK09.LEC.

After the update, running MONKEY ? will not show a Roland option. Despite this, starting the game with MONKEY R will attempt to use the Roland MT-32.
Patch Name: Roland Upgrade

Platform: PC

Format: Floppy Disk

Size: 84 KB

Min. Requirements: Roland Sound Card

Posted: 5/90

Installation: This update will prompt you for the location of the game (where to install the patch), so have this information available before double-clicking on the update file. 

    WINDOWS 95

    Double-click on the "monkeyup.exe" file to begin the installation. 

    DOS
    In this example, we have Monkey Island installed on our "C" drive and in the "Monkey" directory. Type "monkeyup.exe c:\Monkey" and hit the ENTER key. Before the decompression process can begin, you will receive a prompt that states "Unzip file? [Y|N]", hit the "Y" key to continue 

CORRECTS: This update adds support for Roland sound cards to the floppy disk version of the game. 

NOTES: To play, simply change to the game directory on your hard drive (i.e., C:\MONKEY), then type "MONKEY R" and press ENTER to launch the game.

Ultimate Talkie Edition

Uses the 2009 "Special Edition" version to create a fan patched[3] version that adds bug fixes and speech. And unlike the Special Edition version, can be run from ScummVM, DOS or DOSBox.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

MONKEY.EXE options - EGA edition
MONKEY.EXE options - EGA edition
MONKEY.EXE options - VGA edition
MONKEY.EXE options - VGA edition
MONKEY.EXE options - CD-ROM Enhanced Version
MONKEY.EXE options - CD-ROM Enhanced Version
The game auto detects the hardware on each startup. There is no configuration file.
It is possible to override the detection by specifying options behind MONKEY.EXE

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVEGAME.*
Mac OS (Classic)

Save game cloud syncing

No save game cloud syncing information; you can edit this page to add it.

Video

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio
CD-ROM rerelease only, all other releases use MIDI or the sound card's synthesis capabilities.
General MIDI audio
Supports Roland MT-32-compatible MIDI. Use ScummVM to use the MT-32 without losing the digital Ad Lib sound effects.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
Retail version.
German
Retail version.
Greek
Fan translation. Download here.
Italian
Retail version.
Polish
Fan translation, download.
Russian
Fan translation, download.
Spanish
Retail version.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes Hercules, CGA, MCGA, EGA, Tandy/PCjr, VGA Supported video modes depend on edition

System requirements

DOS
Minimum[4] Recommended
Operating system (OS) 3.1
Processor (CPU) Intel 8088
Intel 8086
System memory (RAM) 640 kB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) Hercules, CGA, MCGA, EGA, Tandy/PCjr
The CD-ROM release requires an Intel 286 CPU.
Mac OS
Minimum[5] Recommended
Operating system (OS) 6.0.7
Processor (CPU) Motorola 68020
System memory (RAM) 2 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)


References

  1. Lucasfilm game patches - last accessed on 2020-06-26
  2. Lucasfilm game patches - last accessed on 2020-06-26
  3. Monkey Island 1 Ultimate Talkie Edition Builders - last accessed on 2020-06-28
  4. The Secret of Monkey Island for DOS (1990) Tech Info - MobyGames - last accessed on 2020-04-04
  5. The Secret of Monkey Island for Macintosh (1992) Tech Info - MobyGames - last accessed on 2020-04-04