Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Ultimate Talkie Edition Projekt
 

Known Problems:

• Sometimes, the wrong sample plays right after opening/closing Stan's coffin.
• The game may hang if trying to open the coffin after nailed shut.

Feel free to be a beta tester:

The Ultimate Talkie Edition Builder: MI2_Ultimate_Talkie_Edition_Builder_0.2.zip

F.A.Q.:

Q: What is the aim of this project?
A: The aim is to put the voices from the Special Edition into the original PC version of the game, like a classic talkie release (like DotT, Fate, etc.).

Q: Will you be able to make it so the music files can be replaced by the special edition versions?
A: No. This is impossible to do with SCUMM V5 as it is. This would require a complete rewrite of the music engine, which is not in the scope of this project.

Q: Are you including the narrator's lines?
A: The narrator will be available, but you can turn him off, if you don't like him.

Q: What help is needed?
A: Beta testing. Feel free to download, play and report any issues.

Q: Will this work for people who don't have the Special Edition?
A: No. You will need the Special Edition game in order to access the voice files. For legal reasons we cannot distribute the voice files (or any other game files).

Q: Will this work for people who don't have the DOS version?
A: Yes. There is a complete copy of the required game data files inside the SE files, which can be easily extracted.

Q: If I use the game files embedded in the Special Edition, will the SE bugs be present?
A: No. The bugs in the Special Edition Classic Mode come from the new interpreter, not the actual data files.

Q: Since it's for the DOS version, will it actually run in DOS?
A: You can play it on a DOS machine, with DOSBox or with ScummVM.

Q: Do you have any other features planned (like "fixing" the VGA version, etc.)?
A: Of course. Like it was done in the MI1 Ultimate Talkie Edition too. Fortunately, MI2 has much less bugs, though, since it wasn't ported so much.

Good news, LogicDeLuxe! : )

Good luck with this project too!

Thanks for the new thread and you guys did an awesome job on the MI1 version.

Great news, I was hoping you'd go on to do an MI2 Ultimate Talkie Edition. = )

If you're planning on fixing graphical issues like in the SoMI Ultimate Talkie Edition, I've got a couple here to watch out for:

-On Phatt Island, the creases in Guybrush's "WANTED" poster disappear once you've pasted Kate Capsize's brochure over it.

-Guybrush's shirt is dark grey while diving to the bottom of the ocean, rather than white like everywhere else.

My only question, which I kinda think I know the answer to, but I'll ask it anyway: will you be able to make it so the music files can be replaced by the special edition versions? (Meaning, obviously, the ones with live instruments, not the ones where the instruments are wrong for some reason.)

I knew this question would come up. FAQ updated.

Just to clarify, this is because the new music would be missing the iMUSE data present in the original MIDI music tracks, correct? MI1CD certainly supports playing CD audio tracks, but without any iMUSE data the music will be very broken.

It's not only the iMuse data. You also would need to play multiple tracks simultaneously, which is impossible with CD audio.

One issue which I'm curious to see if you can address - the Special Edition alters a few lines of dialogue; the "Nice <object name>" lines are replaced by various takes of Guybrush saying "Nice!", and the lines for when Guybrush inhales helium from the balloons have been altered (presumably for copyright reasons).

Obviously if you're using the Special Edition audio, the text will have to be made to match the audio unless you want unvoiced lines (unless, in the case of the helium balloon lines, the originals are there too - both exist with filenames listed in the speech document that lists which line is allocated to which filename, though as far as I could see the actual files for the unaltered versions of these lines didn't actually get compiled into the game).

My question is - is it possible to introduce a check to see which mode the game is in (i.e. Speech Only / Speech and Subtitles / Subtitles Only) within the SCUMM script, to tell the game to do one thing in one mode or another if in a different mode? If so, would you be able to implement checks for these instances of changed dialogue, so that if you're playing in Speech and Subtitles mode the subtitles would match the SE audio, but if you were in Subtitles Only mode you'd get the original dialogue? = ) Could be good for completists if doable. Personally, I'd be happy just to have the SE dialogue, but I know some people would prefer the original to be in there somewhere, even if only accessible with voices turned off.

I'll do it like I did with MI1. You can choose between keeping the original dialog or matching the voice acting just by pressing CTRL-q.
When keeping the original text, I still use the voice file if the difference is minor. For instance, "ghost busting stud" vs. "LeChuck busting stud".
For the helium lyrics (and looking into the mirror at Rum Rogers too), they are completely different. Those would be silent in original text mode.

For the "nice object", I use the existing samples, obviously. Some objects do have named samples. For the remaining, I think, I'll stay with one nice variation, as the others are of low quality.I'm not sure how the SE handles this. I got the samples sorted though. I've already got a working classic game. Now I have to write the installer, so it can be released.There is a system variable probably meant for this, but it doesn't seem to work in the interpreter version I use.
I don't need it anyways. Like I said, CTRL-q should do what you need here.

Ah, brilliant - should have known you'd have thought of this aspect already. Sounds like a good way of doing things, especially as it means it's consistent with how you've done the SoMI Ultimate Talkie Edition. = ) Shame about cutting the other "Nice" variations, though - the fact there were numerous takes of the line stopped it from getting annoying too fast, IMO. When you say lower quality, are some literally of a lower bitrate than others or something? = S

I'll be sure to give the game a thorough playthrough to check for bugs once the installer's released! = D

Sounds more like a combing issue to me. Like some last minute recordings at an inappropriate location. Something like that.
I kept variations where adequately available. You'll love begging for the bucket. :)

More importantly, the picture of him on the Wanted poster is an ugly 16-colour sprite rather than the 256-colour sprite seen elsewhere in MI2.

I thought that that was part of the joke, that the picture was outdated so they drew a moustache on for compromise.

These are results of late-stage graphical tweaks to the original MI2. At first Guybrush's wanted poster lacked creases even in its normal state. When the artists added dirt and creases to the poster, they forgot to do so for when the poster is partially covered by Kate's flyer.

Also, Guybrush's shirt was originally going to be a medium gray color (this can still be seen in screenshots from the very first slideshow demo). This was later changed, obviously, but for some reason the sprites of him diving down from the boat didn't get tweaked like the rest.

Are we sure its not that color because he's just wet?

That was my first thought too.
However, this is only during the diving sequence. It is white again when swimming around.
Also I took a look at the game resources, and it looks like a bug to me. While the game has colors 192 - 207 reserved for Guybrush so light effects can be applied without affecting background or other actors. This particular gray though is color 63.
Also the colors 192 - 207 are already adjusted to give him a wet look.

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/6...edmefor18y.png

How does that look?

Does this look right? Diving sequence video

Diving sequence video looks fine - didn't notice a difference in the shirt colour comparing the diving sequence with swimming around at the bottom, so I think that's pretty much fixed. = ) Good job, LogicDeluxe!

Here we go: http://www.mediafire.com/?mwedjj7it7x1q5y

monkey2.000 and monkey2.001 are not extracted automatically yet. Use Monkey Island Explorer to get those files.

v0.1 beta:
- Some typos fixed.
- When begging for the bucket, the man doesn't look like he's sleeping anymore.
- Polishing the pegleg has its own counter now. It is no longer possible to get enough for Kate's ship anymore.
- Bloody Lip music and laundry music do not start anymore while Largo's theme is still playing.
- At Stan's, the direction Guybrush is currently facing is taken into account now, so he doesn't point to nowhere when asking to see the coffin again or when leaving.
- Graphic glitch when offering something to Dread and then talking to him.
- Dialog option "You know, I used to go out with Governor Marley." at Dread's ship did not appear.
- Dialog options at the casino appear at the appropriate time now.
- Texts with broken lines fixed: Kate arriving at Phatt Island, Ralphie telling the winning number, and the library card for "Shiver Me Timbers".
- The gambler's club now tells the same number he told to Ralphie when asking before Ralphie played, to be consistent with his comment that he fixes only one number at a time.
- Water animation freezing on Dread's ship when looking at some inventory items.
- Lights did not flicker while Largo is at laundry.
- "Dem Bones" could hang after the first verse. That particular script I have completely rewritten. The script now is reliable in detecting slow graphics and knows wether the skeletons have enough time for another round before the next verse starts.
- Voodoo bag sound did not stop when cutscene is interrupted during shaking.
- Voodoo bag had no sound in chapter 4.
- "Pull rope" when already in inventory could cause various issues.
- Looking at Dread's map, Big Whoop map or Dem Bones lyrics at Rum Roger's could cause a script error.
- Dread brings you back to Scabb and leaves, once you got all map pieces. Script fixed.
- You don't get a library card in easy mode anymore, since it apparently wasn't considered in the scripts and really could break things.
- Color problem at Stan's.
- If you changed rooms too fast, Scabb music did not stop on Dread's ship.
- Guybrush's shirt color during the diving scene.

One bug right away in Woodtick: when the woodcutter says "Oh, shut up" to end the woodchuck discussion, he does so in Guybrush's voice rather than his own.

:D Nice gag with don't_readme.txt.

UPDATE: Just came across this really weird thing when I offered Captain Dread the monocle before ever speaking to him:
Guybrush: Would you like my monocle?
Dread: Thanks, mon. I've been looking for a new sailing necklace.
Guybrush: .........Hello?
Dread: Hello, mon!

As amusing as it was, I think in this particular instance the hellos should not be re-insterted. :p I would also suggest re-instating the "Nice!" variations (at least as an option, like with Spiffy's closeup) simply because the one chosen just isn't as funny to listen to as the others, regardless of quality. There are other voice clips with the same quality issues anyway (Such as "The one and only, sugarbear!" and especially "Now all I need are a few voodoo ingredients.")

UPDATE 2: For some reason the vocal sound effects (Largo screaming, Governor Phatt eating/burping) are missing. Presumably the intention was to replace them with sound effects from the special edition?

UPDATE 3: Hey, nice going with the Bone Song. :D But one problem - due to the timing of the voices, when LeChuck turns into Secret Guybrush it doesn't sync up with the music anymore. They somehow managed to avert this in the Special Edition (in fact it's basically the one part where they didn't horribly **** up the timing), so do you think it would be possible to delay the music a little?

Another dialogue flub to report from me. On Scabb Island's beach, Fink's lines during his song about Scabb are muddled. He sang the lines "and if you'll listen to me gab, I'll tell you why I admire it" and "Oh, the people aren't too friendy, and the weather's not the best" in the wrong order. This is a problem with both the speech and the subtitles.

I see. This only happens if you didn't talk to him before. It's the part of the script where he introduces himself. I guess, I should go right to "My name is Captain Dread" in this particular case then.I didn't to anything to those scripts yet. They were a mess to begin with and tent to fail. I'll see if I can fix that.
The cook and the bar keeper spit sample will only play in ScummVM and the DOS version plays FM sounds instead. This is intentional due to lacking sample polyphony, ie. those would interfere with the dialogs. (I did the same thing in MI1 on a few occasions.)I see. This only happens when your subtitles are slower then the vocals. It works perfect when turned to the max or turned off. I think, I can improve the subtitle timing here (just like I did with the songs).

This was intentional. The recording is very strange and somehow sounds horrible in the original order. Maybe it doesn't matter in the SE, since they didn't even bother to beat match the vocals here. But since I did, I noticed that it sounds much better that way. I got the suspicion, that the singer actually got the lines mixed up when he recorded them.

Excellent work with the credits. :D Dem Bones fits quite nicely over the voice credits, and I laughed when I was told to close ScummVM at the end. :p

I see your reasons, but doing this completely messes with the flow of the song and means the lyrics and rhyming patterns just don't work as they should. I'd honestly just return it to the original order, as I'd rather have the song make sense and sound a bit off for two lines than have it fit the tune at the expense of the structure of the song itself.

Besides, Fink's a pirate, not a singer - he knows piratey songs, but nobody said he had to be able to sing them well. ; )

Also:
If this is true and other lines exist with the same quality issues anyway, then I also am totally on-board for requesting the re-instatement of the other "Nice!" variations. = )

Finally, an animation bug I came across in Part II - when handing the Voodoo Lady Rapp Scallion's ashes for the Ash-2-Life™ mix, she briefly has two heads during the animation where she takes the ashes.

Am very much enjoying playing this with the voices - great work so far, LogicDeluxe! Will let you know any more bugs I find. = )

"re-instatement" isn't exactly the word I would use, as there never was any variations in the script.
Anyway, I just implemented them. There are 5 versions of "Nice." which are chosen randomly now. Will be in the next version.
I'll check this.

Having completed the game now, I haven't come across many dialogue bugs. A few instances exist where the dialogue doesn't match the audio due to changes made in the Special Edition (talking to the Antique Dealer about Visa, mentioning the Stretchy Strongman to LeChuck in the finale and a few others I forget right now), but as far as actual bugs that's about it aside from the instances I already mentioned.

...Except for one pretty major dialogue bug in Part III - When LeChuck is holding you in his torture chamber, when he says the line "You see that candle over there?", the audio cuts off after "You see that c-" and skips straight to the next line.

Love what you've done with the credits - did it take much effort and reworking to get the music to transition differently to include the bone song and campfire theme? By the way, I like the way it uses the version of the campfire theme from the beginning for the Ultimate Talkie Edition credits before transitioning to the correct whistle-only version for the "do something constructive" suggestions, but is it possible to make it change between the two happen closer to when the suggestions start popping up? At the moment it waits for the song to do a full loop, which means a lot of the suggestions still have the full version of the song playing over them.

Also, I loved the placeholder text in the Ultimate Talkie edition credits. XD Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet and all that... cracked me up when I noticed. I assume they'll be replace with names as more people test and submit suggestions, but it was awesome to see.

Excellent work so far, overall, anyway! = D

Not all SE changes have the "match voice" mode implemented yet. That's definitely on my list.

Here is a list of all dialog changes I encountered:
Hi. I'm Guybrush Threepwood, ghost-busting stud. = Hi. I'm Guybrush Threepwood, LeChuck-busting stud.
Did I mention that I'm Guybrush the ghost-busting stud? = Did I mention that I'm Guybrush the LeChuck-busting stud?
Do you take Visa? = Do you take credit?
visa visa visa = credit credit credit
What is this? Midget wrestling? = I'm not dressed for wrestling.
I went out for a smoke. = I went out for a swim.
I don't suppose it's a Nintendo™ game = I don't suppose it's a LucasArts™ game
"The Story of Jello" = `The Story of Jelly`
"Grammy Award Winners of the Renaissance" = `Great Rock Musicians of the Renaissance`
I feel pretty. = That's a nice looking beard.
Oh, so pretty. = One thing's for sure...
So pretty and witty and wise. = I am never shaving this off.
I'm selling these fine Corinthian leather jackets. = I'm selling these fine leather jackets.
Hey, it's Zonker Harris in a dress! = Hey, it's Kyle Katarn in a dress!
Macintosh Grey? = Macintosh Red?
Cool, a Chuck E. Cheese token! = Cool, an arcade token!
and of course all the "helium"-songs.

Oddly enough, "I feel pretty." exists as a recorded line, despite it isn't used in the SE. I kept it at the antique, but changed it to the replacement at Rum Roger's when in "match voice" mode.

Interesting thing about the "You know, this doll reminds me of the Stretchy Strongman I had as a kid." line. I didn't notice, because it's only the voice acting which was changed. The original line is still in the SE subtitle file.
Did you notice more lines not in the list above?The tweaking took some time (I added the end scene boot param for a reason). The entire cast is match to the beats.

Btw., I noticed something interesting during testing. When in PC speaker mode, there is a completely different medley during the end credits. It is somewhat longer than the AdLib and MT-32 versions. And it loops into the LeChuck theme at the end.
Well, the transition wouldn't work without the whistle over it, thus it only works at the beginning of the song. I could start the song from a later point instead of the beginning, but this would probably sound rather silly.
Of course. I needed something to test the formatting, and since there was no beta yet, there can't be any beta testers, right?

Governor Phatt's line ending with "You'll fall into the jello!" was replaced with "You'll fall into the jelly!"

And why on earth did they get rid of the line about smoking? Considering SoMI:SE actually SHOWED smoking with Captain Smirk, it's very odd that it was removed here.

Off the top of my head there's only one that I can remember right now, from Guybrush's mother in the ending scene:

You don't know what kinds of murderers and white slavers might be hanging around a place like this. = You don't know what kinds of murderers and ne'er do wells might be hanging around a place like this.

I'll make sure to switch to Speech and Subtitles mode for my next playthrough though - that'll make any dialogue changes that we haven't spotted yet a lot easier to catch. = )

When starting scummvm_fan_patched.exe I get an error saying that SDL.dll is missing. Copying the exe over to my regular ScummVM folder (which contains SDL.dll) I get a "Application couldn't be started correctly (0xc000007b)"-error.

I'm running Win7 64bit.

I'm almost certain one of the fisherman's lines about "my rod" was changed to "my fishing rod" due to the crude double entendre potential.

Is it by any chance a 64-bit version of ScummVM? Don't mix those.

You are right. Another change not present in the subtitle file.

Bingo, that was it. Thanks!

Another suggestion: Is it possible to add the ambience sounds of the SE? Maybe via theoretical CD audio tracks?

Also: In the SE some voice files are processed on the fly to add effects like reverb (i.e. Elaine and Guybrush in the opening scene). Is it possible to add this? I'm not sure what kind of command line tools allow to process audio files this way...

I'd like the ambience, but I'm not holding my breath for CD audio. :p It'd be brilliant to have, but would probably require building an entire new music system on top of the game, which only just barely worked in the Special Edition, with a lot of errors.

But hey, if it turns out to be do-able, I'm totally on board for it. :D Since this is an ongoing project, any errors can be found and repaired, and we can make it work perfectly.

This would have low priority. I might take a look at it later on.I use SoX in my batch processing, which is a very powerful command line tool.
This sure would require some work, as I have to find all samples which needs to be altered.
I might look into it.
It seems odd, that those particular scene has real time processing, while most samples have effects already added, like Rapp Scallion and Stan in the closed coffin. (Stan variations are not implemented yet)

I assume scenes with real-time processing (Underwater, Big Whoop Pit, Underground Tunnels etc.) are done that way because Guybrush can look at his inventory in these scenes (with the exception of the intro version of the Big Whoop pit, which was possibly just done for consistency with the later version). If the audio was pre-processed, you'd have to have variations of nearly every inventory item's audio descriptions (as well as other global dialogue such as "Nice." and "I can't move it." etc.) to match each location. If you didn't, you'd have the rather jarring effect of only some of what Guybrush says having the correct reverb. Wheras, for the coffin dialogues, only Rapp Scallion and Stan ever use the effect, so it can be pre-processed with no worry as it doesn't affect any global dialogue.

That's something to consider if you do attempt to implement this with pre-processed audio. If you could, it'd be totally awesome and greatly add to the atmosphere - indeed, I loved it in the SE. But you'd have to do something like add a check to see which room you're in to most of the global dialogue, and have different variations for rooms with different reverb effects. I'd imagine it'd probably be a LOT of work to implement.

GREAT to see you doing this with Monkey Island 2, you did a great job with the first one and I can't wait to see how this one ends up.

A couple of things you may be able to fix or be interested to know about:

In the SE's classic mode, Guybrush says "That is a nice looking beard" when he looks in the mirror in his inventory, but the subtitle says "I feel pretty", were you gonna change that to the "I feel pretty" voice-file for your version of the game?

There are only a few "Nice _____" that were actually recorded (Nice stick, Nice door, Nice window), maybe you could make it so that Guybrush says these for all doors, windows, and sticks with the default "Nice" line. For instance, Guybrush says "Nice stick" on the beach, but when he looks at it in his inventory, just "Nice." Plus there are a couple of doors where simply "Nice" is said. Maybe you could use the available recorded lines and use them whenever possible.

Sometimes when I entered the gambling alleyway on Phatt Island, the wheel-operator would be non-visible for a second, then show up as soon as he said his first line. This is probably because he shares another actor's actor number which is currently in another room, but maybe you could alter this code so that he shows up when GB enters the room, rather than the game calling him back into the room when he says his first line.

I'll post back when I think of more stuff to input.
Great job so far!
XD