If the above image brings a smile to your face, chances are you are a fan of Ron Gilbert's work.  Creator of the popular Monkey Island series, Maniac Mansion game, as well as the original Sam and Max;  Ron Gilbert is credited in over 25 popular video game titles.  He's even credited in the very co-op friendly Diablo II.  

Ron is currently a creative director at Hothead Games, but is taking a bit of a vacation this fall to deliver the keynote address at the Penny-Arcade Expo.

Read The Full Article: Ron Gilbert to Keynote PAX 2009

Ah monkey island good times good times.

I can't wait for the remake to hit XBL.

Now there's a game I just never took an interest in. Maybe the trial version will give me a new impression...

that's what i was thinking too. i never got into it back in the day but with everyone so excited about it, i might have to give it a try.

When I first played it my brother had bought the Lucas Arts collection which contained, Dark Forces, Afterlife (fun game), Full Throttle (awesome game) and I think all the Monkey Island games.

Monkey Island was so strange at first to me, I had played Quest for Glory so I was no stranger to the system but man it was confusing figuring out what to do.

I never played Monkey Island, but I have been hearing a lot of good things about it lately. It sounds like its a lot of fun.

I'd never played, so got it on Live and am quite enjoying it. Some of the puzzles are a little bit hard... and I'm sorry, but the seagull and the fish puzzle was completely unfair.

Took me forever to figure that out, actually found it out by mistake.

Ha, that's the one puzzle that I had to use the built in hint thingy for.

Didn't make it to the Keynote but I heard it was pretty awesome.

My older brother tells me that him and I used to play this when I was super little, but I can't quite remember... at all. Maybe I'll have to pick it up and see if I remember anything. I DO remember Maniac Mansion, and that was my favorite NES game of ALL TIME :]

Sam & Max was my first introduction to Ron Gilbert's games. I definitely need to check out Monkey Island though...

I hear good things about this.

I saw a guy on XBox live whos avatar was holding a chicken pully. I know that is in monkey island, but I have no idea what the context of it is.

Is there any recording available for those of us who weren't lucky enough to attend PAX? I'm pretty happy that Ron Gilbert is back in the spotlight these days.

Made it to the keynote, he spoke alot about how he got interested in developing games, how he got into it, and how he got his lead designer spot.

Heretic: the video went up on gametrailers pretty fast last year, check there for user uploads if anything else.