Day of the tentacle
| Day of the tentacle | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio | LucasArts | ||
| Publisher |
 Softgold Heritage Software LucasArts 
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| Senior Developer | David Grossman, Tim Schafer | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1993 | ||
| platform | iOS , Mac OS , MS-DOS , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation Vita | ||
| Game engine | SCUMM | ||
| genre | Point-and-click adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Mouse , keyboard , gamepad | ||
| medium | CD , HD disk , download | ||
| language | German English | ||
| Age rating |
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Day of the Tentacle , or DOTT for short , is a point-and-click adventure published by LucasArts in 1993 . It is the successor to the well-known game Maniac Mansion in terms of content and plays five years after this using many of the characters known from the first part. The official German title is “Der Tag des Tentakels” , but this is rarely used by fans and in game magazines.
DOTT is the last LucasArts adventure game with an interface in which action verbs and inventory are permanently displayed at the bottom of the screen.
action
Day of the Tentacle begins five years after the events of Maniac Mansion . The mad scientist Dr. Fred Edison created two child-sized tentacles as pets, referred to in the game as purple tentacles and green tentacles . Crimson Tentacle drinks from the poisonous sewage from the Edison Laboratory, causing the tentacle to mutate. It grows miserable arms spontaneously, and it then thinks itself in a position to usurp world domination.
Therefore Purple tentacle righteous conspecific green tentacles asks his friends for help: the physics freak Bernard, the heavy metal - roadie Hoagie and Laverne medical student. However, Bernard accidentally frees not only the green tentacle, but also the purple tentacle, which can now escape. Edison ("Dr. Fred") now intends to send the three friends 24 hours into the past using a time machine he developed in order to prevent the mutation of the purple tentacle. The time travel fails, however, which separates Bernard, Hoagie and Laverne: Hoagie ends up 200 years in the past in the America of the constitution , Laverne ends up 200 years in the future, in which the tentacles rule the world, while Bernard remains in the present .
The player takes on the roles of Bernard, Hoagie and Laverne, freely changeable, with the aim of bringing them back into the present and also carrying out the original assignment.
The special attraction of the game is the possibility of using temporal paradoxes , since many actions in the past also affect the present and future. At the same time it is also possible to send objects directly through time so that the different timelines are always closely interwoven. Also interesting is the fact that 200 years in the past, the Edison-Villa is the place of writing of the US Constitution and the player in the role of Hoagie with the US founding fathers Benjamin Franklin , John Hancock , Thomas Jefferson and George Washington can interact .
Game principle and technology
Technically, the title is based on version 6 of LucasArts' own game engine SCUMM : the screen is divided into three parts: an area for action verbs, an inventory of the game character made up of icons and the game screen.
By ScummVM is Day of the Tentacle playable on other platforms.
Production notes
The game was released in 1993 for MS-DOS and Mac . In addition to the diskette version (8 diskettes), a CD-ROM version with digital voice output was also offered for both systems, which appeared parallel to the diskette version and was also synchronized in German for the first time for MS-DOS. No versions were offered for Amiga and FM Towns , as these systems were considered obsolete from the point of view of the developers at that time. According to Dave Grossman, it was originally planned for DOTT to be able to choose the team from up to six characters, as in Maniac Mansion. However, this was not implemented due to considerable problems during implementation. The predecessor Maniac Mansion can be played as a mini-game from DOTT on a computer .
In December 2014, Double Fine announced that it would work on a remaster of the game for Windows PCs, Mac, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on behalf of rights holder Disney. The remaster was first presented to the public in October 2015 and was released in March 2016. In July 2016, the game was also released for iOS devices.
In 2018, Return of the Tentacle - Prologue was released , a fan adventure that ties in with Day of the Tentacle .
reception
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From five aggregated ratings, Day of the Tentacle achieved a score of 93 on Metacritic. The game magazine ASM found that the game set standards for funny adventures and was also suitable for a younger target group. Only the waiting times when reloading the diskette version were criticized.
Reviews in gaming magazines
- PC Player 07/93 93%
- Power Play 07/93 90%
- Game One 07/08 place 1/20
In the MTV video game magazine Game One has DOTT frequently the first place of the best games of all time and is mentioned as the favorite game of the editors. It also often occupies places in the "Top 5" category in a wide variety of categories.
Awards from gaming magazines
- Particularly recommended , Power Play 07/93
- Game of the month , PC Games 07/93
Web links
- Product page for the remastered version on DoubleFine.com
- Day of the Tentacle at MobyGames (English)
- Day of the Tentacle at Tentakelvilla.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Message on 4Players.de. Retrieved December 7, 2014 .
- ↑ Hans Pieper: Update: From Double Fine: Day of the Tentacle Remastered comes; first screenshots published. In: Adventure-Treff . October 23, 2015, accessed August 15, 2019 .
- ↑ Message on heise.de. Retrieved March 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Message on heise.de. Retrieved July 16, 2016 .
- ↑ ReturnoftheTentacle.de: Home page. Retrieved October 4, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Klaus Trafford: The speaking tentacle . In: Current software market . May 1994, p. 90.
- ^ A b Metacritic.com: Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle. Retrieved April 4, 2017 .