Have you forgotten about Monkey Island? We are sure not. Because neither do his fans. The popular video game of the 90s - the one with which many of us would still cry with emotion - has resurrected in the middle of 2018.
If you remember, Monkey Island tells the story of the unfortunate Guybrush Threepwood , a man who wanted to become the most feared pirate in the Caribbean. The title was and still is (nostalgia aside) absolutely great. During the five games, created by LucasFilm, the gamers of that time enjoyed their adventures and misadventures, their crazy ideas and their dialogues full of double meanings.
The creators of LucasArts were the same ones who, in addition, delighted us with other titles of which we also became pro fans. Do you remember Grim Faandango? Sam and Max? Or the legendary and surreal Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle?
But in 2012 it was all over: Disney bought LucasFilm, LucasArts father. But they didn't pay much attention to him either. The factory was not very interested in the video game sector, so in the end, in 2016 they announced that they were abandoning internal production, throwing away (forever?) The hopes of those who were waiting for new deliveries of Monkey Island.
Ron Gilbert, a longtime video game personality and co-founder, by the way, of Monkey Island, made that very clear to Disney. He did it through Twitter, to officially announce that he wanted to buy the rights to Maniac Mansion and Monkey Island. He was willing to pay hard cash for them.
Dear @Disney, now that you're not making games, please sell me my Monkey Island and Mansion Mansion IP. I'll pay real actual money for them.
- Ron Gilbert (@grumpygamer) May 23, 2016
And what has happened since then? Well, on the part of Disney, nothing. The company has not wanted to demonstrate in any case. But fans of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion have backed Ron Gilbert's request , practically begging Disney to please sell his rights to the video games.
So much so that, although Gilbert wrote that message on Twitter on March 23, 2016, the petition was officially submitted on Change.org by fans of this video game a year ago. And in recent months it has received a significant boost. Of the 15,000 signatures required, today no more and no less than 12,000 have already been sent .
Monkey Island continues to thrill
Disney may not think so, but Monkey Island still has a legion of loyal fans. There are those who do not trust the effects that this request may have, in the sense that Disney decides to sell the rights to Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion to Ron Gilbert . However, the fact that the petition has been positioned in a privileged way in Hacker News has caused the petition to add acolytes.
They say that in this way, at least, Disney will realize that there is life after Monkey Island. And that there are still people - even for the nostalgia factor - who remain interested in a video game that marked a whole generation.
There is not much hope. In fact, one of the most common Disney strategies is to accumulate licenses, just in case . The problem is that many of these products still generate emotions among those who once enjoyed the original projects.
For some users, as they explain it on Twitter, Monkey Island is a broken toy that remains locked in the Disney drawer . And that, as with Iron Man, he may one day be resurrected, depending on whether the company believes he can start making money with him.