Maniac Mansion

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Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion Logo.png
Studio Lucasfilm Games
Publisher worldLucasfilm Games Softgold Jaleco Heritage Software
GermanyGermany
JapanJapan
SpainSpain
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1987
platform Amiga , Apple II , Atari ST , C64 , DOS , NES
Game engine SCUMM
genre Point-and-click adventure
Game mode Single player
control Keyboard , mouse or joystick
medium Floppy disk , NES module
language German, English, French, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, French
Age rating
USK released from 12
PEGI recommended for ages 12 and up

Maniac Mansion is a 1987 published point-and-click adventure by Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts ), which was developed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick . With its then innovative operating concept, Maniac Mansion is an important milestone in the genre.

action

Sandy, the friend of Dave, one of the game heroes, is from Dr. Fred was kidnapped who wants to use them for scientific experiments. Since the doctor and his family are under the influence of radiation from a meteor, they have developed strange habits and behaviors - making the rescue difficult.

The player takes on the roles of Dave and two friends of your choice in the opening credits who break into the house to save Sandy. Depending on the composition of the team, there are different approaches to the solution. The three player-controlled characters must work together to free Sandy and Dr. Stop fred.

Characters

At the beginning, the player decides from a selection of six characters which two of them will accompany Dave into the house. The characters available are Syd, Michael, Wendy, Bernard, Razor and Jeff. Syd and Razor are musicians who, with the help of a piano, can help save Sandy during the game. Michael is a photographer, Wendy wants to be a writer, and Bernard is president of a physics club. These three can also contribute to the rescue with their skills. Jeff alone, who " usually hangs out on the beach and goes by the name of 'Surfer Dude' ", can repair the phone like Bernard, but has no special skills in solving the game.

Game principle and technology

Technically, the title is based on the first version of LucasArts' SCUMM language. The screen is divided into three parts, an area for action verbs, an inventory of the character and the game screen, which takes up the largest part of the picture above.

With Maniac Mansion , Lucasfilm Games did not create the first mouse-controlled point-and-click adventure (as is often mistakenly assumed), but with its new, intuitive operating concept, it finally helped the point-and-click adventure break through.

Production notes

In this game the foundations for many running gags of the following games were laid. The lack of chainsaw fuel, which is picked up in Zak McKracken and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge , is legendary in gaming circles . Even Chuck the plant made her debut in this game.

There are a total of five possible solutions, depending on the choice of characters:

  1. Notify the space police (Bernard removes the radio tube and places it on the base of the radio)
  2. Sign a record deal (Razor or Syd record their piano playing on a cassette and send it to the publisher)
  3. Win the son Ed as a friend (Michael hands Ed the package and develops the pictures of Ed's plans from the photo roll)
  4. Sign a book deal (Wendy revises the manuscript and sends it to the publisher)
  5. Carry the meteor into space by rocket car (all characters put on the protective suit and ship the meteor to the Weird Edsel)

The game also contains a small reference to the Rescue on Fractalus game, which was still developed by LucasArts at the time . Looking through the telescope in the house, a green fractulan appears on another planet.

Maniac Mansion has the largest number of red pegs of all LucasArts Adventures , which is partly due to the fact that various objects can only be used meaningfully with other, unused team members.

Maniac Mansion served as a loose background for the television series of the same name , which aired in Canada and the United States between 1990 and 1993 . A German broadcast under the title Das Tollhaus took place in 1991/92 on Tele 5 and in 1995 on Kabel1 .

The main house of Skywalker Ranch , the then headquarters of Lucasfilm Games, inspired the developers of Maniac Mansion to design the building in which Maniac Mansion is set.

Ports

The game originally appeared in 1987 for the Commodore 64 . This was followed by porting for the Apple II and the MS-DOS operating system with EGA graphics. Technically improved versions for Amiga , Atari ST and a renewed "Enhanced Version" for MS-DOS appeared later . In 1990 a port for the game console NES followed , which was adapted both graphically and in terms of operation. This version was censored at the request of the manufacturer Nintendo : depictions of violence, sexual innuendos and swear words were removed. This also affected the German version, which, however, was less alienated in terms of language.

The follow-up title Day of the Tentacle , published in 1993, was included with Maniac Mansion as an Easter Egg in the "Enhanced Version", but could only be started within the game by using a computer there. However, a programming error meant that Maniac Mansion could not be solved with all characters. If Day of the Tentacle is run with ScummVM , the error does not occur because the programmers corrected it.

There is an updated fan version of Maniac Mansion Deluxe in VGA graphics from 2004.

reception

reviews
publication Rating
Zzap! 64 93%
Meta-ratings
GameRankings 83%

Maniac Mansion received positive reviews in the trade press almost consistently. From 3 aggregated ratings in the context of retrospective tests, the game achieved a score of 83% on GameRankings .

Reviews in gaming magazines

Awards from gaming magazines

“It's not very gentle in this game (I almost said film), but there should be a film-like atmosphere, which is underlined by the recordings mentioned above. Besides, this idea is so original! MANIAC MANSION should be one of the best programs of this year (if not this decade). "

- Manfred Kleimann : Current software market

“This is software that shows what capable programmers can do: complex, user-friendly and extremely entertaining. […] As for the graphics, it may be said that the Commodore does not use it technically (no soft scrolling, few colors). The funny drawings easily comfort you. "

- Boris Schneider : Happy Computer

The trade magazine Adventure Gamers placed Maniac Mansion at number 72 in its list of Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games in 2011 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edge editorial team: The Making Of: Maniac Mansion ( English ) In: Edge magazine . Future, plc. August 6, 2010. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved on November 1, 2011.
  2. ↑ Daniel G. Strüber, Thomas Hog, Marcus Baeumer: Maniac Mansion - The Complete complete solution. Retrieved November 19, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Das Tollhaus ( Maniac Mansion ) at Wishlist.de
  4. ↑ Differences between the C64 and the censored NES version . In: Schnittberichte.com .
  5. ↑ Differences between the German and US NES versions at Schnittberichte.com
  6. ↑ Maniac Mansion Deluxe , chip.de
  7. ↑ Maniac Mansion Deluxe: New version for download , pcwelt.de, July 1, 2004
  8. ↑ Maniac Mansion Deluxe: Fan-Remake of the adventure classic , golem.de, June 7, 2004
  9. ↑ Maniac Mansion . In: Zzap! 64 . No. 32, December 1987, p. 12.
  10. ↑ a b GameRankings.com: Maniac Mansion. Retrieved September 18, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Max Magenauer: Maniac Mansion . In: Amiga Joker . kultboy.de. February 1, 1990. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
  12. ↑ Manfred Kleimann: Crazy Times. In: Aktueller Software Markt , November 1987 edition. November 1, 1987, accessed on October 3, 2013 .
  13. ^ Boris Schneider : Maniac Mansion. In: Happy Computer , special issue 21. Retrieved October 3, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games. In: AdventureGamers.com. Retrieved April 18, 2016 .