Hello! Here's a perpetual work-in-progress page about digging into the Monkey Island 2 rolling demo until it cracks. Despite knowing next to nothing about proper coding, I've always found fun in snooping around in game files and seeing what it spits out, and though this demo's already been documented, I thought it'd be fun to throw down some of my own digging. That's not to say that this is new information! I know at least part of it has been said before, and it would be of no surprise to me if the rest of it has. This is more for fun. And though user khalek in this MixnMojo forum thread mentioned boot parameters that DO work, it seems that this information was left relatively unexplored-- at least publicly, as the general MixnMojo writeup makes no mention of it either. Download link to the demo can be found there, though, if you've any interest in poking around yourself.
The writing on this page assumes one of two things: you have at least a basic knowledge of ScummVM [simply how to use it will do fine] and that you have knowledge of Monkey2 itself-- though knowledge of part 1 alone will serve for the page in its current state. Additionally, it tries its best to not hover on information already covered by the previously mentioned MixnMojo writeup, and would really rather like to think that it deserves a point in uniqueness for it-- hence why things such as certain dialogue changes are not mentioned. But enough about that, here's the good stuff:
An attempt to play the demo 'natively' [being so in quotes due to it only being directly playable in ScummVM] will soon have you running into a big issue. Half the rooms are missing. Meaning you can only get two of the four ingredients needed for Largo's voodoo doll [three if you play on Easy], and can hardly move beyond there. Debug console lets you teleport between rooms as you please [so long as you choose one that still exists, of course], and while that's a fun bit of time to spend, it's still not the same as playing the game. But the fun part about this demo is the fact that it still accepts boot parameters. As likely expected, half+ of them result in crashes [missing resourses et al], but there are a few that do work. Here's what I've found to be the main notable ones, as taken from above link:
Easy Mode. Surprisingly [and yet not surprisingly at all] functional, this bad boy can get you about-as-far as you can get in non-easy mode, leaving it... basically useless. Though Largo's shirt is always there, albeit invisible [and turning into the bra when picked up] if booted normally, forcing it into Easy loads it all as it should.
Much like booting normally, all works fine... until you need to go to certain areas. At which point ScummVM whines that it can't find the backgrounds [and frankly I can't blame it], and boots you out. I personally don't have enough experience with Easy Mode to be able to rapid-fire pick up on things like dialogue changes, so it's to be assumed there's nothing interesting here. And if there IS anything interesting that I'm brushing right over then, well, I'll take that loss.
Sticks you outside Largo's room with the voodoo doll & pins. The demo forces you to get kicked out once by Largo before being able to stab the doll, while the final seems to do no such thing. Demo Largo also makes a point of turning to face you for his 'look out, world! the greatest pirate of all time will soon sail the seas again!' line, of which final-Largo does not share.
And while demo-Largo writes [says?] his name with an acute accent, that is a privilege that Guybrush does not grant him when he says it.
Largo's room, but with the mud bucket. Lets you see all those mud-dumping sprites in their full glory... kind of.
And upon Largo coming...
All works the same from there, sans the tiniest of dialogue tweaks-- Mad Marty referring to you as 'Mr. Largo' rather than 'Mr. LaGrande'. Returning to Largo's room to pick up the invisible shirt/bra from his bed allows you to carry two of them around-- surely that's information useful to someone.