[kjjcarpenter]

I'm pretty sure the original vision wasn't our current version of Munch with some quirky additions. The entire engine was completely different, as I understand it. The whole action/adventure game came into effect after the move to Microsoft, once they had a firm deadline. They essentially had to streamline everything.

It's like the original version of "Jaws 2". The first idea for the sequel didn't even have a shark. It was a socio-political drama about Amity Island in the wake of the events of the first movie, and the story would have seen the town struggling to survive and mobsters coming to collect the mayor's proliferating debts. The studio didn't like the idea, so they threw a shark in and essentially told a watered-down version of the first movie. Whether it would have been a better movie if there was no shark is, of course, debatable, but it most certainly would have been something entirely different.

I see Munch the same way, although I might be totally wrong. I know what you're saying though vlam, it might not necessarily have been 'fun' in the eyes of the greater public, but I guess we'll never really know.

EDIT: Just read Design Diary 01/18/01 by Paul O'Connor, which pretty much confirms what I said. Thanks, Xavier. Very enlightening stuff.