EN ROUTE TO THE CARIBBEAN · SINCE 1999
A summer in front of the Amiga 500
My first encounter with Monkey Island dates back to when I was in middle school. I played it as soon as it arrived on the Amiga 500, together with a friend of mine, and we were amazed. The attention to detail, the graphics that seemed crazy to us and the wonderful music made each screen something to stop, look at and listen to.
It seemed like a game out of time: a novelty from the future, the maximum expression of what the technology of the time could offer. That summer the mornings became a great exploration of the game. It is one of the memories from which my passion for this saga was born.
April Fool's Day by K
Another memory is linked to waiting for the second chapter. Before it came out, the video game magazine K published a memorable April Fool's joke: a story in which Monkey Island and Star Wars mixed and, among the various commands, Guybrush could even use the Force!
I remember a joke done very well, so much so that I still have that issue of the magazine. After a few months, the real Monkey Island 2 arrived and, for me, it managed to rewrite the history of video games once again.
A passion, since 1999
From that passion, the Monkey Island Site was born on 11 March 1999: a place to celebrate an adventure which, for many of us, did not end with the credits. Guybrush, the islands, the insult duels and the music of the Caribbean had left something that deserved a place to meet again.
The site grew around this idea: collecting information, images, solutions and curiosities, but also giving space to people. Drawings, stories, contributions and exchanges between enthusiasts have accompanied the pages dedicated to games, transforming a collection into a small crew.
Preserve the thrill of adventure
In the text with which I presented the site I spoke of the desire to keep alive the memory of a game capable of providing hours of lightheartedness. The spirit remains the same: not just remembering a technology or a season of video games, but rediscovering the pleasure of fantasizing, exploring and being surprised.
Monkey Island combines comedy, atmosphere and inventions that work together. Music also participates in the story: the iMUSE system, introduced in LeChuck's Revenge, is one of the examples of this attention to the relationship between what happens and what we listen to.
The site diary
Visit the original robe preserved in Museo1999 →. The copy contains updates up to February 1, 2008.
- March 11, 1999 — The Monkey Island Site is born.
- 1999–2007 — Reports, recognitions and meetings with other web realities appear in the diary. The documented stages are collected on the awards page.
- July 28, 2015 — It is the update date reported by the version currently preserved in the Museo2015, entirely in Italian.
- The new course — The site is renewed for different screens, with more organized contents and dedicated access to the Museum of Historical Editions.
A new port, the same route
The museum preserves the site in its historical guise. The new Monkey Island Site starts again from its contents to make them more readable, complete the saga's paths and welcome new creations. The goal is to keep together the memory of the first trip and the curiosity for those that have yet to begin.
Happy sailing, buccaneers!
Acknowledgments and reports → · The crew's banners →
The crew's meetings
Forums, chats and virtual postcards also tell the story of how the web was lived. Their pages explain the status of the services, without reactivating the old tools.