The Curse Of Monkey Island - Part 1

Welcome to the first of many installments of Gaming Walkthroughs with me, Jonathan Whitehead. For all those who don't know I am an avid gamer and lover of all games new and old. I have recently wanted to aid and assist all those who find it difficult to get through games because of a missing piece to the puzzle or a seemingly impossible to defeat boss. These walkthroughs are here to give you that help through the games you struggle with or are losing the plot over. Trust me, I've had several of those!

Without further ado, I present to you the first installment of the GuardianGamerOfTheGalaxy, the walkthrough for the retro, brilliant and timeless classic that is 'The Curse of Monkey Island'. A game brought to you by the expertise of CMI and Lucas Arts.

In this timeless classic, you play the wannabe swashbuckling, blood thirsty, cheesy love struck pirate Guybrush Threepwood. You enter the game floating away from Monkey Island towards Plunder Island in what looks almost like a floating bumper car. Guybrush is lost, and has almost given up hope of ever finding the love of his life, Elaine, again.

Game Difficulty Chosen: 'Mega-Monkey'

Deep In The Caribbean
Monkey Island

'Captain's Log: Guybrush Threepwood. Lost at sea for days now, I have no crew and no navigational instruments, no provisions except for a half eaten corn dog, and, unless I find water soon, I'm surely done for. Only the hope of finding my love, Elaine, keeps me going. My quest for the fabulous treasure called Big Whoop has left me in this sorry state. I thought it would bring me fame and glory. Instead, it delivered me into the clutches of my enemy, the zombie-pirate LeChuck. I had thwarted his evil plot to marry Elaine and he was after revenge... Really, really thirsty now. If only I could have a small drink of fresh water, I might have the strength to sail on'

*bottle of 'Monkey Spring Water' passes by the bottom of the screen*

'Oh, but I know there's nothing but ocean for miles and miles. If I could reach land, I might find water and some food. Fruit, maybe... *basket of fruit passes by*... something to fight off the scurvy and help me get my strength back. Mmmmmm... maybe some bananas... *bunches of bananas pass by*... Oh why do I torture myself like this? I might as well wish for some chicken and a big mug of grog for all the good it will do me...*you guessed it, a big keg of Grog with a chicken perching on top of it passes by*

'Oh, my sweet Elaine... am I cursed to starve here on this ocean... without seeing your face just one more time? Am I --'

We are hereby interrupted by cannon fire and a bay filled with ships on one side and a fort on the other. We have stumbled upon Plunder Island. *Cue a list of people who worked on the game*

After these credits are finished, we come across LeChuck, on the deck of his ship shouting 'Fire!' with a resulting 'Incoming! Aaaaaaah!' from a defender of the fort. Pffft. A puff of smoke engulfs the screen, only to be replaced by the figure of Elaine, Guybrush's love.

Elaine: 'How many times do I have to tell you, LeChuck? I just don't feel that way about you?'

Camera pans to Guybrush who looks somewhat confused by the whole situation.

Guybrush: 'Elaine!'

LeChuck: 'By my congealed blood, you'll learn to love me! Sail with me and I'll make ya queen of the dead!'

Elaine: 'I... I can't. I'm washing my hair tonight'

LeChuck: 'Blast be yer hair, woman! Can't you see that this salty old sea corpse pines for your every gentle caress?'

Elaine: 'You know... I don't think my father would approve of me dating the undead... And you're probably too nice a zombie-pirate for me anyway...

LeChuck: 'Daaaaaaargh!'

Elaine: (Sigh) 'Let's face it, LeChuck. You're an evil, foul-smelling, vile, codependent villain and that's just not what I'm looking for in a romantic relationship right now.'

LeChuck: 'What d'ya mean?' *knocks a skeleton head off one of his crew members - 'Ahhh! Ohhh!'*

Elaine: 'You're a blood-thirsty monster who's already kidnapped me once, tortured my friends... and taken from me the only man I ever loved: Guybrush Threepwood'

Guybrush gives a sigh of relief

Talking skeleton head: 'Ship Ahoy!'

LeChuck: 'Threepwood?!!!' *picks up cannon and sinks the floating bumper car and hooks him out of the water* 'Guybrush Threepwood! By my gangrenous gut, I don't know how you escaped my carnival of the damned, but you won't escape the taste of my blade! *Elaine shoots at LeChuck's ship* 'Ooooh. The lass has spirit! Eh. Throw him in the hold! I'll finish him after the battle *Guybrush gets thrown in the hold underneath the ship's deck, the undead sailors go down in their boats to cross the bay*... 'and prepare the flaming, voodoo cannon-ball!'

Part I: The Demise Of The Zombie Pirate LeChuck

Guybrush: 'I've got to get out of here and help Elaine. If I could only get through this door... then I could easily overpower the armed guards above... slip over the side and make for the shore...'

Wally: 'Quit your mumbling captive' *goes back to shooting cannon*

Now we have come out of the cutscenes and into the actual game! The game itself constitutes of a click and drag policy of 'use / examine / talk' trio of instructions for Guybrush to undertake. You hold down the left button on your mouse and drag the mouse over whichever action you want to have Guybrush do. You can also click, drag and combine items in your inventory (found clicking the right mouse button) - PS. at the start of the game, you only have two helium balloons in your inventory for some reason.

In the hold, you have Wally firing a cannon that never needs to be reloaded. There are cannonballs on the side and a ramrod on the wall. Pick up the ramrod and talk to Wally, or as he likes to be known, 'Bloodnose'. Before getting him to breakdown, you need to get the pirate literature off him. You need to do this after Guybrush realizes it is Wally.Convince him he is not a good pirate at all and should be ashamed of himself. Use phrases such as 'You don't scare me, you mangy pirate', 'Is that hook for real?', 'You're a failure of a pirate', 'You haven't got the guts', and 'Try it shrimpy'.

Wally: 'I'm gonna blast ya... I'm gonna... gonna... I can't do it, I just can't... You're right Mr. Wood. I'm not a pirate... I'm not even unpleasant'

Wally starts to cry. He throws away his fake hook. Pick this up and combine it with the ramrod collected from earlier. Use the cannon and shoot at the four boats in the water. Don't worry, they stay still so even a bad shot can sink them! *NB. When aiming, moving the mouse up pushes the cannon down, and moving the mouse down pushes the cannon aim up*

Get Guybrush to look out the window where the cannon is. You see a talking skull and what looks like a buoy with a bone through it. Use the ramrod-hook combo item to hook the buoy like item out of the water (it turns out to be an arm with a cutlass sword on the end of it). Talk to the talking skull (Murray) - 'the invincible, demonic skull'. Once you've finished talking to Murray, knock him off the wooden plank with the 'gaff' (ramrod-hook). Go back inside the hold. Wally is still crying. Get the cutlass out and cut the cannon restraining rope and then fire the cannon. *Cutscene to LeChuck holding the Voodoo cannonball showing how much destruction it will cause - 'That'll show her how much I truly care--'* Guybrush shoots the cannon, unbalancing LeChuck who ultimately drops the cannonball. The cannonball explodes and the ship is turned upside down. All that is left of LeChuck is his smoking hot boots.

Guybrush finds himself in the room next door to the hold he was being kept in. *No sign of Wally*

Pick up the bag of nickels on the floor and the diamond ring that is underneath it. Use the diamond ring to cut a hole in the porthole next to the champagne bottle. The water rises and Guybrush rises to the surface in a rubber flotation device.

*Cutscene*

Elaine: 'Guybrush! Is it really you?'

Guybrush: Umm... did you really mean what you said out there? That I was the only man you ever loved?'

Elaine: 'Uh... well... Yes, Guybrush, I guess I did'

Guybrush: 'Elaine, I'm a man of action. A swashbuckler. A rogue. A wanderer. A man who can hold his breath for ten minutes. I have no ties and no regrets. I sail with the wind and go wherever adventure takes me. But somehow, something always leads me...'

Elaine: 'Guybrush, stop babbling'

Guybrush: 'Elaine, will you marry me?'

Elaine: 'Oh, Guybrush!'

*Wally arrives onto the scene*

Guybrush: 'Wally! You're alive! Uh, but how did you survive the explosion?!!'

Wally: 'I was thrown clear. I'm just lucky I wasn't wearing my seat belt. Wow, Elaine! That's some ring!'

Elaine: 'Thank you Wally. It's an engagement ring from Guybrush'

Wally: 'Hey! That looks like that big diamond ring LeChuck had in his treasure hold. You know, the one with that ghastly, disfiguring voodoo curse on it. Well, I'm sure Guybrush wouldn't have given you THAT ring. Anyway, I gotta be going. I hear there's a tattoo removal place on this island that's freckle-safe. See ya at the wedding'

*Elaine curses Guybrush and tries to punch him but turns to gold*

End of Part I

Part II - The Curse Gets Worse

Pick up the loose ember on the path up to the broken bridge. Next to the entrance of the bridge is a secret button you can push to fire a cannon from inside the fort if you feel the urge to! Take the path down to the right, past the chicken and the voodoo markings towards the Swamp. You find Murray hanging on top of the gateway to the shipwrecked ship. Enter the ship. Purchase some gum (You'll have to use it in a little bit) with the bag of nickels. Don't pick up the paste and pins yet. Pull the long alligator tongue to talk to the voodoo lady Guybrush met on Melee Island. The voodoo lady asks where Guybrush hid the statue of Elaine. This is met with a face of surprise. He didn't hide her. He returns to the beach to find a ship sailing away and Elaine gone. The voodoo lady says the pirates in Danjer Cove are most likely the culprits and that to lift the curse, Guybrush would need to find a huge, uncursed ring of equal value on Blood Island. Three things are needed for the journey to Blood Island: A map, a seaworthy ship, and an experienced crew. The map can be found on the back of the sunbather down on the beach; a seaworthy ship is the one you find in Danjer Cove once you have gotten rid of the crew; and the experienced crew you will find in the Barbers shop in town after you have completed challenges for each of them. 

Enquire about the 'El Pollo Diablo' - the Giant Demon Chicken - something you will have to figuratively turn into later on in the game after trying to board the boat in Danjer Cove after sawing off the wooden plank. 

Go into the town on the left hand side. Talk to the boy (Kenny) selling lemonade. Buy a lemonade. You find he uses a literal 'bottomless' mug and Guybrush feels aggrieved. The mug you need to swap with this one can be found on the man sunbathing down on the beach. Walk towards the right. Pick up the sign next to the drain. Do not go into the restaurant next to where the flyer was found yet, not until you have a reservation slip. Enter the theatre (marked by the red arrow!) First examine the 'pirate coat' then pick up the dandruff / lice and open the pocket to find a glove. Pick up the wand and then use it on the hat - this results in you getting a ventriloquism book. Go onto the stage to the right and use this ventriloquism book on the main character, after talking to both him and his sidekick. 

Leave the theatre and go down to the barbers. Use the lice on the comb that the hairdresser puts down on the table. The chair is now free for you to sit in. Put the seat up a little bit and then kick off the paperweight. This will make Haggis leave the hairdressers to find another paperweight. In the time he is away, push the handle so the chair is at its optimum height and pick the scissors off the ceiling. Leave the hairdressers after finding what challenges each hairdresser sets you - Haggis (caber tossing), Cutthroat Bill (gold tooth), Edward van Halgen (Duel in pistols - but you choose the banjo).

Notes for Haggis duel: You need to get the bread knife to cut the legs on the wooden horse next to where you caber toss for the first time. This releases the keg down the hill and up against the wooden tree. Some alcohol pours out. Use the burning ember you picked up on the beach to light the liquid and blow up the barrel. This leads to the rubber tree falling down and you being able to use it in the caber toss to win. *NB. You only have to do this duel once no matter what difficulty you play the game on, so don't try getting the second rubber tree down.

Notes for van Halgen duel: Use the glove you found in the theatre and slap van Halgen. This sparks a sense of needing to settle this in a duel with him up where you caber toss against Haggis. Close one of the pistol cases and open the banjo case.

The chords change in every duel you play with him so just make a note of which notes he plays at the end of each section and write them down. If you play the normal game then you have to follow him twice. But if you go on the Mega Monkey difficulty, then you have to follow his playing 3 times (First time he plays 4 notes, Second time he plays 5 notes, and third time he plays 6 notes - all of which you have to match chord for chord, otherwise you'll have to start all over again)

After keeping up with him these two or three times, whichever difficulty you're playing on, he goes off on a solo performance which you cannot match. Go to open one of the pistol cases, pick up a pistol and shoot his banjo.

Notes for Cutthroat Bill: In the normal difficulty of the game, the jawbreaker (you need to give to the restaurant owner (Captain Blondebeard) so that he loses his gold tooth that you would give Bill to get him on your crew) would be found on the floor of the barber shop. After giving the jawbreaker to Captain Blondebeard, you would give him chewing gum and pop it with the pin you picked up from the voodoo lady's place in the swamp. The gold tooth would drop to the ground, and voila, you have your gold!

NB. this is different in the Mega Monkey difficulty. Bill is chewing on the jawbreaker you need, so you need to push him to make him start choking on the jawbreaker. Push him again so that he coughs up the jawbreaker. Pick up the jawbreaker and take it up to the restaurant. Give the Captain Blondebeard the jawbreaker, followed by a piece of gum. Pop the bubble with the pin and pick up the gold tooth. Chew some gum yourself. Put the gold tooth in the chewed gum. Inhale some helium from your remaining balloon by choosing the parrot icon when you have clicked on the balloon in your inventory. Chew the used gum with the gold tooth in. The gum should float away out of the window. Leave the restaurant and use the pie pan in the mudpuddle outside underneath the drain. You now have the gold tooth to give to Cutthroat Bill.

Go up to the gap where there are flowers guarding a route to another part of the island (in between the restaurant and Kenny selling the lemonade) and cut a pathway through to the otherside using the scissors you found in the barbers.

In the opening, whenever you try to pick up any items on the grass, you find yourself gobbled up by a snake. Pick up all the things you can find in the snake's body (the big bulge next to where you are standing). Mix the syrup and the solitary flower (ipeca) that you picked up from before and use it on the snakes head. He burps and spits you out into quicksand. Pick up a reed from your left hand side and a thorn from the thorny bush on Guybrush's right. Combine the 2 items to make a peashooter. Combine the balloons and the paperweight and then blow it in the direction of the chicken. Use the peashooter on the floating balloon and you will be able to lift yourself out of the quicksand.

You will then find yourself in Danjer Cove. The boat on the shore has a hole in it. Go back to the voodoo lady's shipwrecked home and pick up the paste and pin now. To fill the hole you need to use the biscuit cutter you got from the restaurant and go to where you did the caber toss with Haggis. There, you need to get the biscuit cutter and use it on the rubber tree to the right of the one you blew up. You will get a little stump of rubber. From there use the paste and combine the two items to form a rubber stopper which fits the gaping hole on the side of the boat.

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In the meantime, go into the restaurant that you passed before, as you now have the reservation slip you needed to get in. In the normal difficulty mode, the chicken on the table is down to the bone and the members card to get onto the beach is there. In the Mega Monkey difficulty mode, the chicken still has meat on it. Nonetheless push the dead patron sitting at the table over. He has a bread knife in his back so take that out. Pick up the biscuit cutter and the pan on the side, as well as the 'tasty buttered biscuit' in the tin. Eat the biscuit. You will find there are maggots in it. These will come up in your inventory box so use them on the chicken. They will chew the chicken down to the bone, relinquishing it of the beach club membership card. Pick up the card.

Head down to the beach and talk to the Cabana boy. Hand the membership card to him. If you walk on the beach, the sand is too hot to cross. Pick up 1 towel and soak it in the ice bucket water then whip the cabana boy with the wet towel So pick up 2 more towels off the stack. Dip them in the ice bucket as well. Pick up the oil from the side and go towards the beach. You have to walk across the beach to start with so that Guybrush knows it's too hot to walk across alone. Then lay the wet towels down one by one until you are fully across the beach and you meet the man sunbathing with a mug on his belly. Pick up the mug. Talk to the sunbather about Blood Island. You need to know who he is first from the actor in the theatre (the sunbather is his agent).

Once you have talked to the sunbather and found out he has the map of Blood Island tattooed on his back, go back to Kenny who sold you the 'bottomless mug' lemonade and swap jugs with the one picked up off the sunbather. Guybrush makes up a story about a three headed monkey so as to make Kenny look the other way. Pay for the lemonade and he then gives up his budding enterprise and leaves the jug which you fill up with the red dye. Go back down to the beach and put the bottemless mug on the sunbathers chest. Fill it up with the red dye and Guybrush exclaims to the man he is badly burnt. This leads to the sunbather turning around on his stomach. You now see the map on his back. Use the cooking oil to soak the map. The oil hardens and enables you to tear the map off his back.

*Cutscene

Meanwhile, off the coast of Plunder Island...

Sailor: 'Oh that musta been some battle! Let's pull up anchor and make for Skull Island. King Andre will pay through the nose for all this loot!'

Sailor 2: 'Wait a minute! There's something else. It's... uh... it's... uh... it's some kind of footwear... Hey! Those are nice boots! Aaaaah! But they're still hot! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.' *Ship goes up in flames and LeChuck comes back to life leaving the two sailors to become part of his undead crew*

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Head back to Danjer Cove. The boat has already been fixed with the paste and rubber combination. Get in the boat and row to the ship out in the bay. Cut the plank off with the serrated bread knife and climb on board. You are met by the First Mate, Mr Fossey. As the plank is cut off, you will have to be tarred and feathered. Go back to the restaurant and scare the manager. He thinks you're El Pollo Diablo. He hits you on the head with a frying pan and you end up back on board the Sea Cucumber with LeChimp and Mr Fossey. Use the ventriloquist book on LeChimp to get rid of Mr Fossey. Pick up the map of where Elaine is buried from the vase. Exit through the porthole window and out onto the plank of wood. You end up back on shore. Head back to the theatre. Go upstairs to where the controls for the lights are. Get the map out which you picked up on the ship and follow the instructions. NB. In the normal difficulty mode, all you need do is pull the lever and it comes up with the X marks the spot.

For those doing the Mega Monkey difficulty mode, then follow the instructions as listed below:

1) South East - bottom right button
2) North West - top left button
3) West - middle left button
4) South - bottom middle button
5) East - middle right button
6) Two paces North East - click top right button twice
7) East - middle right button
8) South West - bottom left button

X Marks the spot!

Cutscene to actor juggling knives. Whilst he is juggling the knives, put the chicken grease on the cannon balls (found to the left of the hallway on top of the worn travel trunk). He juggles these, loses control of them and both actors go flying off the stage after a plank of wood is upended by one of the cannonballs. Dig up Elaine using the spade to the next of Yorik's grave. Guybrush puts Elaine back on the Sea Cucumber, now deserted.

*Cutscene* - Meanwhile, off the coast of Plunder Island...

Sailor 1 - 'Nice boots huh?'
Sailor 2 - 'Sorry'
Sailor 1 - 'Hey! What d'ya know? I really AM big boned!'
Sailor 2 - 'Uh-oh. Quiet, here comes Captain LeChuck'
*LeChuck rises up the mast in a fire ball*
LeChuck - 'Avast thar, ye lubbers! Set sail for my stronghold on Monkey Island. I'll unleash my entire army of the undead. This time, Elain will be mine! Ah, Elaine! 'Twill be a sweet day in hell when ya feel the fiery breath of my kiss on yer lips, and become my undead bride. And I'll destroy any man who dares get in my way!! Sufferin' Sailors, 'tis good to be dead! Ha, Ha, Ha!'

Whichever way you go about completing each part of these missions, once you have dug up Elaine's statue from the theatre and convinced the three ex-pirates in the barbers shop that you have what it takes to be their captain, then you will be faced with the screen that says 'Please insert disk 2. Press button'

You have come to the end of Part 2 of The Curse of Monkey Island. The next blog will be to do with the following parts of the story and Guybrush's adventure to remove the curse from Elaine and go around Blood Island finding the ring that will do just that

Jonathan Whitehead