Monkey Island 2 Special Edition - imuse comparison

[CptSpauIding]

I prefer the original version personally

[fotakatos]

I'm wondering what fucktards disliked this video.

[godzil42]

I love the dialog at 5:15 :D

[fourbarposer]

Thanks for going the effort to do this comparison, some people just can't appreciate the hard work the original developers put in to making all that special stuff that probably is still unique to these original versions.

I'm doing a game music project and was specifically interested in whether the special edition still had imuse, since they could certainly reproduce it without midi by using internal multitrack audio mixing of several instrument layers.

[Muffinfordinner]

Oh my god they completely fucked it up.

[kvector]

5:16 :P

-Ahem...

-Yeah?

-How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

-A woodchuck could chuck no amount of wood since a woodchuck can't chuck wood.

-But if a woodchuck could chuck and would chuck some amount of wood, what amount of wood could a woodchuck chuck?

-Even if a woodchuck could chuck, and even if a woodchuck would chuck wood, should a woodchuck chuck wood?

-A woodchuck should chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood, as long as a woodchuck would chuck wood.

[kvector]

4:46

"I really need it. -No.

I really really need it. -No.

I really desperately need it. -No.

It's a matter of life and death. -No.

If you don't give it to me I'll never speak to you again. -No.

I'll be your best friend. -No.

I'll be your best friend forever and ever. -No.

Aw, come on, be a pal. -Oh... all right."

[kvector]

4:12 :D

"It's just a bucket. -Hey, leave that alone.

Do you think you could let me have this bucket? -No.

Please? -No.

Pretty please? -No.

Pretty pretty please? -No.

Pretty please with sugar on top? -No.

Pretty please with sugar and a cherry? -No.

Pretty please with sugar, nuts, and a cherry? -No.

Pretty please with sugar, nuts, a cherry, and a chocolate sprinkles? -No."

[Nardril]

Just played the test version (and had to download a little update) seems like they fixed the issue!

[pmosullivan]

whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!

there has not been much effort put into this as much as the original. the old version had so many diffrent changes , I could walk back and forth between 2 scenes all night and be supprised every time.

...well I did smoke alot of grass then,

old one is still better

[RG7621]

360 version sucks :(

[chupetin33]

Pretty pretty please? NO I really really need it NO! Be a pal ohhh ok!! LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!

[anss321]

I knew LucasArts games the game had "imuse" but I never realized it did anything. I will have to try the original now.

[niaj4]

@anss321 It is actually so immersive that you hardly notice its presence ; I only did on my most recent playthroughs ! I think imuse is what makes original music transitions instead of simple fadeouts. A fine example of that is when you're at the marsh in front of Lady Voodoo's house and you hear the theme ; when you enter the coffin/boat, the drums will join in ! Also, depending on how fast you skip dialogue with Largo, his theme will always have a proper ending. That kind of thing.

[internetakias1]

where is ps3 classic edition?

[maroom1]

From best to worse

PC > PS3 > >>>>> Xbox 360

[internetakias1]

@maroom1

becuase in the xbox 360 version the forgot to add the imuse file as I have heard

[zummone]

... on the fly thus it sounds mostly wrong. To reply some users, MT-32 it's THE synthesizer, AdLib doesn't do anything the MT-32 already better does (mixing waves with PCM), apart from having more and different waveforms, but I strongly like that one too, one thing for having really fancy music, other thing is that when downgrading, they refined the cues to sound more cool. In fact my dream would have been switching between MT-32, AdLib and PC Speaker, or combing the first two.

[zummone]

Okay now listen: I like MI2 in every version for it to be heard, and I even bought an MT-32 years ago, so I can tell the classic version doesn't sound ANYTHING like the true game. Because it used System Exclusive messages sent directly to the mt-32 to make transitions, create new instruments (like Reggaebass sounding crap on SE) and turning instruments on and off. At LucasArts they got lazy and decided to play the raw undefined midis, so for most they had to guess what instruments to put...

[Variasam2]

Although the pieces of music themselves are very good, they've completely and utterly ruined the fluidity of the transitions between areas... This, coupled with the lack of dancing monkeys at the beginning of this game, has convinced me that I shouldn't bother with this game. :(

[vilinder]

Why there isn't iPhone version at all?

[eyeball226]

Argh, the MT-32 music sounds horrible. Give me Adlib any day.

[DJordydj]

I guess that PS3 version gets better with iMuse

[Kooptroopa]

Thank you for posting this! I bought the 360 version (as I wanted the goofy achievements and had the live points to spare) and found the sound implementation to be horrible.

Tell me - On the PC version during the "reconciliation" conversation with Elaine, do they add the sappy romance music that jumps off key when you say something wrong? The 360 version has complete silence during this scene, which sounds really off-putting and out of place.

Considering purchasing the PC version now.

[FluffyQuack]

@Kooptroopa I can't remember specifically when I completed that scene. But I've got all the music extracted from the PC version, and I notice there's one main theme for that scene with about 33 short snippets of music which I assume is for the reactions. So it looks like they made the music for that scene properly.

That scene is entirely silent in the 360 version? Now that's a bummer.

[PObserver]

@Kooptroopa PC version doesn't have this problem. You bought a PC game for the 360 LOL.

[Kooptroopa]

@PObserver You commented on a 5 month old post that has since been made redundant as I got the PC version a week later for $5, even came with the first SE game for free LOL.

[PObserver]

@Kooptroopa Still, I don't know why someone would ever go through a console to play a PC game... that's as daft as getting The Orange Box for the PS3.

[DarkComet666]

@effthedodgers Ah, youtube comments. Truly in a class of their own.

[NeilCicierega]

"Which means if you want to listen to how the music is meant to be heard, you'll need a real MT-32 compatible sound card." -- Dude, you misspelled Adlib.

[FluffyQuack]

@NeilCicierega Oh dear god no. Adlib is a disgrace compared to the music they made for the MT-32.

[NeilCicierega]

@FluffyQuack MT-32 and Adlib both are abrasive and outdated now, but Adlib has much more retro charm. While MT-32 is just a collection of 128 sampled instruments, Adlib's an actual synthesizer-- every instrument in every song is uniquely modeled. It has chiptune chic value, versus MT-32 which just makes everything sound like karaoke.

[FluffyQuack]

@NeilCicierega The important thing is that the music was made specifically for the MT-32 and it has many sounds and features Adlib doesn't get close to, so the general midi and Adlib versions sounds much much worse.

[NeilCicierega]

@FluffyQuack Pshh. Features, right, like reverb, more reverb, and considerably more reverb. MT-32 is a good-but-not-great approximation of real instruments, which puts it squarely in the Uncanny Valley of sound. Sir I will take this fight all the way to the bloody end.

[FluffyQuack]

@NeilCicierega I don't think this fight can go very long. If you compare the Adlib or Midi versions with the MT-32 version, you'll hear lots of instruments which are even wrong. Woodtick is the best example.

[NeilCicierega]

@FluffyQuack How do you declare an Adlib instrument "wrong"? With FM synthesis you can make an approximation of an instrument at the most, but for the most part it's kind of its own thing. I think it has a ton more character.

[FluffyQuack]

@NeilCicierega "Wrong" as it's not how it's intended to sound. Take the main instrument of the main theme in Woodtick as example. I don't know the word for it in English, but you can easily hear what kind of instrument it is supposed to be in the MT-32 version (and in the special edition for that matter). It sounds like different instruments altogether in the other versions.

[NeilCicierega]

@FluffyQuack That's not a bad thing. 8-bit music doesn't sound like real instruments at all, but it's still great. My point is that I think it holds up better today, because it doesn't try (and therefore fail) to emulate real instruments.

[FluffyQuack]

@NeilCicierega I'm not saying all Adlib music is bad (as a random example, I love SID music from the C64, which is pretty darn ancient by today's standards). It's just as simple as that the composers for MI2 specifically made the music for the MT-32, and then ported over the music for other sound cards. And if you compare them side by side, I personally think it's pretty clear which one sounds better.

[Sahkolihaa]

@NeilCicierega Wrong. The MT-32 uses Linear Arithmetic synthesis, the same as the high end Roland D-50 and D-10 which only uses small samples for the attack of the instruments. This made the MT-32 highly programmable, and the later versions such as the CM-32L and the sound card version, the LAPC-I, even better (they had various software bugs fixed).

[eyeball226]

@NeilCicierega

This.

[CommanderZx2]

Quite a nice effect when it works properly, but I can tell why they didn't feel like attempting it again far too much effort for something most people wouldn't even notice.

[jacobnoergaard]

The iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad version seems to implement iMuse pretty good.

[JoeMudd123]

Sounds like they pretty much nailed it. :D It sounds awful on the Xbox with no iMuse whatsoever.

[lordkhan]

@JoeMudd123 Thou insane

[yoyole123]

Really nice work!

[schneider8281]

very boring like resident evil 5

[NEGAtivism2]

Lol at the Failbox360.