Or some other access control. Maybe simply a case of the game being installed in Program Files and not running elevated?

No. It isn't. If it was an anti-virus issue then the files monkey2.bin as well as the contents of the !Temp folder would get quarantined regardless of if they were installed via the offline installer or through Galaxy. You can sometimes trick an anti-virus by using a launcher to download/install but once you go to run said game, it will just quarantine those files.

The issue is entirely that these files are not getting installed when you use the offline installer.


Also this isn't even a new problem. This post is from June 29, 2022 essentially cites the issue but for people that actively want to play the game via Galaxy.
https://www.gog.com/forum/monkey_island_series/cant_install_monkey_island_2/post26

In that case, they had to first install via the offline installer.... then "When Launching GOG afterward the files should be there in the installed list but you got to repair the install and it'll download an extra 336Mb." The post then mentions the patch loop that I experienced, but that they were eventually available to play via Galaxy.





Lift - I actually own the game in question on GOG. See attached image for proof.

The game is installable and playable if you use the route that I described above:
1. Install via offline installer.
2. Run Galaxy to pick up the files that didn't get installed: monkey2.bin in the main game directory plus the !Temp and its contents.

I've only tested as far as the main menu, but can confirm that it playable to the end after dinner. This is for the current offline installer version available on GOG. The file name is setup_monkey_island2_se_2.0.0.10.exe

I did an install on another computer that has never has never had any storefront launcher (GOG, Steam, Epic, other.) The only thing that is the same about these two computers is that they are both windows based and have AMD. One is Windows 10, and the other is Windows 11.

I installed the game to the default location of C:\GOG Games\ on this computer.
Both the file monkey2.bin and the !Temp folder are not present, and the game won't run.

I have attached a screen shot showing that the game was installed to the default location and that these files\folders are not present. This means that the installation for this game is DRMed in that you do need to use GOG Galaxy so that it can download the remaining files.


Seriously, the issue is that there's something wrong with the offline installer - either it's not installing all the files or the files are not present to install. Until GOG looks into it, GOG Galaxy is needed to complete installation.

Just to clarify:-

1. I install all my games under C:\Games to avoid any interference from 'protected Windows' folders for the many games that write 'locally' into their own install folder. I'm also using a 2TB SSD so the game isn't on a +3TB sized partition.

2. I tested it twice the first time "Skip" and the second time "Repair" for the 2008 Redist but it made no difference and worked both times. So probably not a bugged Redist.

3. I haven't had time to play it through fully, but both the game itself seems to work (New Game goes straight to the "talking to Elaine whilst clinging to the rope" cutscene). But so too does building a MI2 Talkie Edition from the installed SE version (original graphics + SE voice / soundtrack in a DOSBox / ScummVM compatible package) works fine, so the 'game content' is obviously present (probably entirely inside monkey.pak and under \audio and \ui).

4. I just zipped up the game folder (deliberately excluding the monkey2.bin file), unzipped it on a 2nd PC (that's never had either the game nor Galaxy installed but has got all the usual redists) and that worked fine, no apparent registry entries are needed (nor visible in the InnoScript .iss setup file).

They're not present on mine either yet the game works. According to PCGamingWiki, the monkey2.bin (in the game folder) is actually the save-game file, whilst the Settings get stored under "%APPDATA%\LucasArts\Monkey Island 2 Special Edition\Settings.ini". There's no "temp" folder at all. The monkey2.bin gets created by the game as an empty / zeroed file but after saving the game just after Chapter 1 starts, that file's timestamp and contents changed to include the save data. It's weird (by 2010 coding standards) that they'd put the save locally and call it a ".bin" whilst putting the settings.ini file separately in the user folder but it's also normal that it wouldn't be included anymore than a \save\.sav file would be for say Thief.

In fact I just deleted all the extraneous goggame*, webcache.zip, etc, Galaxy related bloat files then deleted the monkey2.bin, leaving just monkey2.exe, monkey2.pak and Monkey Island 2.lnk (the shortcut link) and the two audio & UI sub-folders, and it still works fine from an install folder that looks like this. Starting the game re-adds the monkey2.bin save file back, but there's nothing else, ie, no "temp" folder present or needed. I've no idea why the game (written in 2010) would be flaky enough to fail on a +3TB partition, normally you see that only in very old games assuming FAT 16 partitions, or mis-counting repoted Gigabytes / TeraBytes as "MegaBytes", etc, but it's rare.

All I can think of (besides making sure install partition is <3TB) is try installing the three required redists manually (DirectX, .NET 3.5 and VC Redist 2008) from here and see for yourself if they actually install or if Windows has bugged out and is silently refusing them, that could be messing something up.

Edit: Probably also worth double-checking that the installer is good. MD5 Checksum for "setup_monkey_island2_se_2.0.0.10.exe" should be : 20a0bc39dcf543856f0d463649c482c4

According to gogdb, the Galaxy version does not include monkey2.bin.

Thanks for the nice thorough testing. But may want to correct the second quoted post number :)
(About coding standards though, I'm so pissed that games keep putting stuff in user folder, not to mention appdata or whatever else, gah!)

OK. Thank you all for testing! So this is an error that only affects some installation, while other pure offline installations work fine and create the file in question, as intended. If GOG support has a good day and actually respond, they may be able to help. But it doesn't seem to be a case for this list at the moment.

Trust No One

This is a short point and click puzzle game that uses alternate reality game elements. In order to progress, you need to obtain various codes. Some of these codes you can't find in the game itself, nor are there any hints that would help you guess them. Instead, you need to go outside of the game to visit an actual website in your browser and write e-mails to an address to get them.

It's theoretically possible to bruteforce the codes, but it's unfeasible to do so, since most of them consist of four digits. This means that once the website and e-mail services shut down, you miss parts of the gameplay experience and practically need to rely on a walkthrough to complete it (the codes aren't randomized, they're the same for every playthrough).

Hm. Difficult case. The game will break at some point if the mail service stops. But is there a mechanism that checks ownership? Or can anyone send such a mail and get a reply? That would be DRM. If ownership isn't checked, then it isn't DRM, but still bad for the longevity of the game.

Can you PM me the email address and a code that you would send? Then I can test whether I get a valid reply even though I don't own the game.

I doubt that there is any ownership check done there, but it is a very likely (or really guaranteed) point of failure in the future, so it would make sense to include it as a honorary mention or something like that.

It breaks the "No online connection required to play." rule for one.
Also, great way to harvest e-mail addresses.

I would argue that this is DRM. But it's badly-designed/implemented DRM that is easy to circumvent.

The player is forced to have to obtain codes by e-mailing an address, in order to progress. That e-mail address is controlled by the developer. It is there for the sole reason to allow the developer to control the player's ability to progress through the game. If they shut off the server and stop responding to the e-mails, then the game will be effectively rendered broken and unplayable.

It is easily circumvented, since the codes are always the same, and can be posted online on e.g. a walkthrough guide. But that imo shouldn't affect it being considered DRM.

OK, I tested it with an email address, that has nothing to do with gaming. It works and I got the code. So there is no ownership check.

However, it is true that this mechanic limits the usability of the game in the future and is a guaranteed failure of a part of the game on pure offline systems. So I'll put a warning in the list.

I actually refunded the game because of this. I am still surprised that GOG even allows it in their catalogue. 90% of the gameplay (which also is extremely short anyway) depends on online connection.