The Curse of Monkey Island

Windows, Mac1997

  1. JP—
  2. NA1997
  3. EU1997
  4. RU—

The Curse of Monkey Island was released under the same title everywhere. Today it is sold on Steam and GOG for Windows and macOS (US$6.99), fully voiced in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

The Curse of Monkey Island is the third Monkey Island game. LucasArts developed and published it for Windows on 11 November 1997 in North America and on 14 November 1997 in the UK. Larry Ahern and Jonathan Ackley directed and designed it, since Ron Gilbert had left the series after Monkey Island 2. The game was announced at ECTS in September 1996, and the talking skull Murray got a bigger role after testers liked him.

It was the twelfth and last LucasArts game on the SCUMM engine and the first Monkey Island on CD-ROM, which made room for a full score, animated cutscenes and voice acting: Dominic Armato voiced Guybrush Threepwood and Earl Boen voiced LeChuck. The old verb menu gave way to a pop-up action menu and an inventory chest modeled on Full Throttle (1995).

In March 2018 the game was re-released for Windows and, for the first time, macOS.1

Names and releases

RegionTitle on the boxPlatformDatePublisherSrc
NA The Curse of Monkey IslandGOG gives 31 October 1997 as the release date. Windows Nov 11, 1997 LucasArts 1
EU The Curse of Monkey IslandUK date. Windows Nov 14, 1997 LucasArts 1
WW The Curse of Monkey Island Mac Mar 22, 2018 Disney 1
WW The Curse of Monkey IslandRe-release, together with the first macOS version. Windows Mar 22, 2018 Disney 1

Box art by region

  • The Curse of Monkey Island box art, North America release
    NA The Curse of Monkey Island

Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: Wikipedia.

Version differences

  • ContentNon-English versions

    Localized versions leave out a shipboard singing sequence because it depends on English rhymes.1

  • DifficultyAll versions

    Players choose between a normal mode and "Mega-Monkey" mode, which adds more puzzles.1

Translations

  • German Official

    LucasArtsWindows · Steam and GOG releasesReleased

    German is listed with full audio and text on Steam and GOG.2

  • Spanish Official

    LucasArtsWindows · Steam and GOG releasesReleased

    Spanish is listed with full audio and text on Steam and GOG.2

  • French Official

    LucasArtsWindows · Steam and GOG releasesReleased

    French is listed with full audio and text on Steam and GOG.2

  • Italian Official

    LucasArtsWindows · Steam and GOG releasesReleased

    Italian is listed with full audio and text on Steam and GOG.2

Where to play legally today

  • GOG Purchase

    The Curse of Monkey Island

    Windows and macOS; runs through ScummVM

    Checked: 2026-10-133gog.com

  • Steam Purchase

    The Curse of Monkey Island

    Windows and Mac

    Checked: 2026-10-132store.steampowered.com

How to run it today

Buy the game on GOG or Steam; the GOG edition runs through ScummVM on current Windows and macOS. If you own the original 1997 CDs, ScummVM rates its support for the game as "Excellent".

4

Best version

The Steam and GOG editions are the easy legal choice: they run on current Windows and macOS and keep all five fully voiced languages.3

Reception

Metacritic gives it 89/100, and Computer Gaming World, GameSpot and PC Gamer US named it the best adventure game of 1997. US sales reached 52,049 copies by the end of 1997, and in Germany it earned a V.U.D. Gold award in August 1998 for at least 100,000 units.1

In lists

Sources

  1. 1en.wikipedia.org
  2. 2store.steampowered.com
  3. 3gog.com
  4. 4scummvm.org
  5. 5store.steampowered.com
  6. 6scummvm.org

Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13

Spotted a mistake? Write to atlas@old-games.net.