The Secret of Monkey Island

The Secret of Monkey Island is a graphical point and click adventure game released in 1990 by LucasArts (then known as LucasFilm Games). Deep in the Caribbean, the inexperienced and naive Guybrush Threepwood sets out on a quest to become a pirate, encountering romance, adventure, comedy, pirate ghosts and, um... monkeys.

The game has gone down in history as one of the greatest ever made, and remains a glorious achievement of the point-and-click era. It marked the beginning of the golden age of adventure games, which would all but die out by the end of the 1990s as the PlayStation helped usher in the era of 3D gaming.

It is famous for its humour, characters and plot. It is a great starting point for newbie adventurers as the control interface is extremely user-friendly, the puzzles are not too challenging and it is impossible to die (almost) or lock yourself out of being able to complete the game. To date, three sequels have been created.

Based on the SCUMM game engine and originally released for the PC, Atari ST and Amiga in 16-colour EGA, it's been updated over the years with improved graphics and sound. Arguably the most famous version is the 256 Color VGA for DOS released in 1991. In 1992, LucasArts released a CD-ROM version of the title with CD Audio music to accompany the gameplay. The game is now playable on Windows XP with ScummVM which improves the graphics even further.