Maniac Mansion

aka: MM
Moby ID: 714
Apple II Specs
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Description official descriptions

The Edison mansion has always been a creepy old house on the edge of town. There have been rumors of strange experiments going on and of odd creatures living amongst the Edison family. There is even a story that a meteorite once crashed near the home nearly 20 years ago. More immediately, a girl named Sandy has gone missing from the local highschool and her boyfriend Dave swears that he saw Dr. Fred abducting her. Dave knows that he cannot do it alone and will need help from two other students if he has any hope of infiltrating the mansion and rescuing Sandy.

Players start by choosing two students to accompany Dave to the Edison mansion, and can then switch between these three characters at will. Most actions are carried out by selecting verbs on the screen and applying them to an object (such as "OPEN Door"). Each character maintains a separate personality and may have a different way to solve a problem from his classmates. Thus many of the puzzles can be overcome in different ways depending on the character being used. If any one of the kids are captured by the Edisons, they are thrown into the dungeon and must be rescued themselves by any character who still has their freedom.

GOG release includes both Original and Enhanced game versions.

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Credits (Apple II version)

22 People (20 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Produced by the
  • Lucasfilm Games Division
Created and Designed by
Programmed by
Graphic Art and Animation by
Sound Effects by
Original Music by
Apple Conversion Special Support by
Creative and Technical support by
Lucasfilm Games General Manager
Production and Marketing Management by
Administrative Support by
Lead Playtester
Special thanks to
  • The many other playtesters; especially Tom and Darrell
  • George Lucas
Box Cover Art by
Package and manual designed by
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 53 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 282 ratings with 16 reviews)

A classic game, whose sequel I find a lot more appealing.

The Good
Maniac Mansion is a classic in all respects. I may not really like it, but I feel compelled to appreciate the amount of work which went into making a game to compete with adventure mammoth Sierra On-Line.

The graphics are decent, if nothing more. The story is interesting and well-implemented, the control system is intuitive and the scripting system is something of a legend - SCUMM has become the veritable core of all future LucasArts adventure games.

The Bad
It's boring! I don't know what it is that makes me twitch every time I play this game, but I never played it for more than 20 minutes, not to mention complete it. I don't know why, really don't, but this game bores the hell out of me. The graphics are minimalistic and the music/sound effects (or more precisely, lack thereof) don't add to the general atmosphere of the game. Also, from what I hear the game is extremely difficult - a couple of friends of mine told me it took them several weeks to complete it.

Either way, I prefer the amazing sequel The Day of the Tentacle every day of the week.

The Bottom Line
A classic game I don't really like, but can appreciate. Go play its sequel - you'll love it.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

New kind of game and one of the best point and click adventures

The Good
The teenage humour and the friendliness of the game. You can die, but not easily. The real challenge is the quirky problem solving. For this game, the point and click, verb choice system is at least as good as the popular text parser system. The original version's graphics seem quite simplistic, even for the time, but it's interesting having an adventure game where the average person is quite large/tall i.e Sierra's adventures had long had quite a small average person size. I thought that while the problems' solutions were far from obvious and obviously quite silly, it's fun solving them and you can laugh with the game. The game has multiple successful endings giving it replayability, but I think the game is fun to replay even when aiming for the same ending.

The Bad
I think there could have been a few more pointers to guide you through the game, there's one particular part that had me completely stuck and I was a little annoyed when I found out the solution and what we the gamers were expected to figure out on our own. The problem could be quite easily fixed though.

The Bottom Line
So it's a fairly early point and click game, coming after ICOM's MacVenture series and after some of the Japanese point and click or menu choice adventure games (e.g Enix), but I think it's up there with others by LucasArts e.g LOOM and the Monkey Island games.

DOS · by Andrew Fisher (697) · 2018

When This Games A Rockin Don't Come A Knockin

The Good
Maniac Mansion, was the first adventure game from LucasArts. As well as the first game to use the now infamous S.C.U.M.M. design. That would later be implemented by the Monkey Island series. The NES port is surprisingly an excellent port of the PC classic.

In Maniac Mansion, Daveā€™s girlfriend Sandy, is taken by the loony Dr. Fred. To be used in an experiment. ā€œWeird Fredā€, will take her brain! Dave and two of his friends of your choosing, must infiltrate the mansion and rescue Sandy.

Each of Daveā€™s friends has there own unique talents and abilities. Michael for instance, is the only one that can develop Weird Edā€™s secret spy film. While Wendy is the only one that can re-write the memoirs of the tentacle.

Depending on how you solve the puzzles will result in the various different endings. These add to the replay value of the game. And make Maniac Mansion, the only LucasArts adventure with multiple endings.

In the game you explore the house, collecting items, using them to solve problems, and avoiding being caught by the members of the house. Some items are implemented very well, while others tend to be more off-beat. The way Ed reacts to the doorbell ringing is genius.

The Graphics are good for a NES game. But compared to other versions of the game they are more of a mixed bag. The Commodore 64 version for example, features bigger more detailed sprites. But they tend to be less colorful. But overall they are good, practically considering the weakness of the NES.

The Music really shines here. All the kids and situations have a theme song. All of which are very catchy. I have not played this game in years, yet, I can remember the music as if it was yesterday. Why doesnā€™t all NES music sound this good?

There are very few sound effects to speak of. But the very few there are fit the context, and the game as well as possible.

The Bad
The controls suffer on the NES. A mouse would be ideal for a game like this. And of course there is not one for the NES. You can only save one game. In the Commodore 64 version you could not save at all, so I guess this is an improvement, yet more save slots would have been nice.

This version is pretty obsolete, with the LucasFan Games version. Which is freeware by the way. Thatā€™s the one I play when I have a hankering for some Maniacing.



The Bottom Line
Overall this is one of the best games of the NES. Despite the fact that the free remake is available. Try it if you are one of those types that must play every version of a game that you like.

NES · by MasterMegid (723) · 2006

[ View all 16 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Famicom version -- new entry? Pseudo_Intellectual (66274) Jul 21, 2012

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Maniac Mansion appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Chuck the plant

In the mansion's library, there is an un-useable plant called "Chuck the Plant" The plant also appears in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in Henry's room, and Day of the Tentacle in the lobby.

Copy protection

The computer versions featured an humorous copy protection scheme. In a new game a player entered the house, walked upstairs and are confronted by a giant iron bolted door which opens after entering four correct symbols on the keypad as shown in "Nuke'm Alarms - Nukes Burglars in their tracks: Owner's Disarmament Quick Reference Guide" included with the game. The wrong answer proved fatal!

Day of the Tentacle

Maniac Mansion is included as a bonus game inside Day of the Tentacle (on Ed's computer).

Hamster in the microwave

Players can microwave the hamster in any of the computer releases (but not the European NES version), but they have to use a sick-minded character (such as Syd or Razor) when doing it. Showing the exploded hamster to Weird Ed will make him kill that character.

NES version

The game was ported not once, but twice, to the NES. One version was made in America, while another one was made by Jaleco in Japan. The two versions look very different. It was one of the very few NES games to be translated into Spanish.

Many things had to be censored/changed to comply with Nintendo's policies: * Some of the language was toned down, for example: "The meteor is going to be pissed" was changed to "The meteor is going to be mad." * The "KILL THRILL" arcade game was changed to "TUNA" * "For a good time EDNA 3444" was changed to "Call Edna 3444"

A complete list of changes and more info can be found at http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/maniac.html

In the European NES version, additionally the possibility to microwave the hamster was removed. In turn, at least in the German version, some linguistic points from the above list are closer to the original.

References

  • The name of Razor's punk band is "Razor and the Scummettes", a reference to the SCUMM graphical interface used by LucasArts adventures.
  • There is an X-Wing model in Ed's room.
  • The speakers in the green tentacle's room are "THX" sound speakers. THX is a high-quality sound technology developed by Lucasfilm.

Zak McKracken

Connections between Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken (based on Amiga version): * In the game room there's a Zak McKracken poster. * In Maniac Mansion there's a chainsaw that has no gas. In the game Zak McKracken there is a can of gas on Mars. The can reads, "For use with chainsaws only". When trying to pick it up the character says, "I don't need it. It's for a different game." * "Tuna head" is said in both games. One of the aliens in Zak McKracken is always saying, "Tum de dum." In Maniac Mansion when Weird Ed is walking through the kitchen to get his cheese he says, "Tum te dum." * It appears that Zak happens to be going out with Sandy from Maniac Mansion. In Zak McKracken, if players go away and come back home enough times and keep checking the answering machine they will soon get a message from Weird Ed from Maniac Mansion. He calls up about going to a monster truck show, and that he'll come by with Sandy at 6:00 in the Edsel. * In Zak McKracken, at the police station in Nepal: there is a wanted poster for the purple meteor.

Remake

The German LucasFan Games developed a freeware 256-colour remake called Maniac Mansion Deluxe.

TV series

The game spawned a comedy series on the Family Channel in the early 90's.

Awards

  • Commodore Format
    • April 1991 (Issue 7) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2013 ā€“ One of the "Ten Best C64 Gamesā€œ
  • Happy Computer
    • Issue 01/1988 - Best Game Idea in 1987
  • Power Play
    • 1987 - #2 Best C64 Game '87

Information also contributed by Š˜Š³Š³Šø Š”Ń€ŃƒŠ³Šµ, Der.Archivar, Garcia, Jason Harang, kelmer44, Hitman23, Ricky Derocher, Tiago Jacques, whatt, Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe

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  • MobyGames ID: 714
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tony Van.

Amiga added by POMAH. Commodore 64 added by Rebound Boy. Windows, Macintosh, Linux added by Sciere. NES added by jeremy strope. Antstream added by lights out party. Apple II, Atari ST added by Servo.

Additional contributors: Jason Harang, Jeanne, tFX, Shoddyan, Sciere, Pseudo_Intellectual, Ricky Derocher, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger, Maniac Mansion Fan, Izmir Egal, Fred Zanfardino, Victor Vance, FatherJack, ZeTomes.

Game added January 10, 2000. Last modified February 27, 2024.