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Modern Maniac Mansion

Posted by Zonk on from the purple-tentacle-for-teh-win! dept.

Wired.com is reporting on a Modern remake of classic adventure game Maniac Mansion. From the article: "The new game is almost identical to the original, except for the graphics and sound. Like the original, it has seven characters you can assemble in groups of three to play the game, and the puzzle-filled adventure has eight different solutions, which vary based on which characters you choose."

33 comments

  1. Long wire? by KDR_11k · · Score: 2

    This isn't exactly news. It's as if someone published an article proclaiming "did you know that George W. Bush is the current president of the United States?".

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    1. Re:Long wire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      They express concern about legal action from Lucasarts - like that'd ever happen! It'd be like Paramount sueing Trekkies for writing Star Trek fan-fiction..

      (Yes I play old Sierra + Lucasarts games. Don't do the modern thing, sorry).

  2. Dupe from June by crazyaxemaniac · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/07/ 1015212&tid=202&tid=156&tid=10

    1. Re:Dupe from June by nocomment · · Score: 2, Informative

      your url is busted, try this one.

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  3. Adventure games were fun by vasqzr · · Score: 4, Informative


    Typing got cumbersome sometimes, but the later games where you could point/click were a great improvement.

    Police Quest? Gold Rush?

    Check out the older stuff here:

    http://www.if-legends.org/~adventure/Sierra_On-Lin e,_Inc.html

    Even independent games like Hugo were a ton of fun.

    1. Re:Adventure games were fun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gah. Both of those games were anything but fun. They were both excruciatingly hard, which made them frustrating and annoying, but certainly not entertaining. Police Quest required you to do stupid shit like walk around your car and check the tires every time you enter, otherwise you die. Gold Rush required that you collected all sorts of stupid items and play perfectly, otherwise you die or get stuck much later in the game. None of the things required were obvious. Hell in Gold Rush you could get game over from walking on the grass that has a "do not walk on grass" sign on it. Without a guidebook the games were impossible and even with a guidebook they were annoyingly difficult.

  4. Old news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Slashdot - posting yesterdays news three weeks from now! This friggin' article was published a WEEK ago! And, if you ever visit Home of the Underdogs, you would have known about this a LONG time ago!

    1. Re:Old news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yet you have nothing better to do than to comment on the story

  5. Link to the game by funny-jack · · Score: 3, Informative

    In spite of the fact that this is a dupe, you could at least provide a link to the actual game website.

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  6. If this is going to be like leisure larry... by AzraelKans · · Score: -1

    Let me save you some money DONT bother, unless this guys are actually thinking on a REMAKE of the original instead of a long arcade/platform/mini game session with name recognition, this game will be a waste of time not even a nude patch would save.

    Lets face it, adventure games are pretty much dead, (unless you are able to play the retro versions in emulators) broken sword didnt had good sales, syberia didnt either not even CSI had good luck, FPS,RPG's, Sports (racing and included), Action and MiniGame (party and music) titles pretty much dominate the entire market.

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    1. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by space_jake · · Score: 0

      I agree with you I pronounced the genre dead when Blizzard cancelled the Warcraft Adventure game they were working on. If Blizzard can't make a game fun and exciting I don't think there are any that can.

    2. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by MemoryDragon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Syberia sold enough to justify a sequel. Same goes for Tony Tough, Wanted and Runaway also a sequel to the Longest Journey is in the works. They are by no means megasellers, but it seems like they make their mones if you can limit production costs.

    3. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by AzraelKans · · Score: 0

      Er? are you the same one who mod me down? I mean what the...? you cant mod someone down just because you dont agree with his point of view. And you are not supposed to be able to mod AND post...

      Anyway I did made a mistake I meant: syberia 2 didnt had good sales, syberia is a somehow old game that was launched when these games were still slightly popular. (unless you talking about CYBERIA? with a "c" which is an even older game which also had a sequel?)

      And how can I explain this ? I said : "these generes are top sellers and CURRENTLY dominate the market" then you said "game X did sold although it wasnt a top seller and didnt dominate the market"? let me get a stop watch to see how much time it takes to find a critical flaw in that statement.

      Dont Drink and Mod.

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    4. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by MemoryDragon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ahem Syberia came out 2003, Syberia 2 came out 2004 and the reason why part two did not sell too well was because it simply was not good.

      Adventure games are not top sellers (The longes journes sold to my knowledge around 300.000 worldwide) but they still have their nieche market. They currently are done mostly by smaller studios who dont go after a million copies sold. Some of those studios are only 2-3 people and the games can be produced rather cheaply, due to the fact that the tools have become very good and very cheap.

      So for those small teams, the still existing core market of around 30.000 - 300.000 copies worldwide seems to be enough to make a living.

      Of course you wont see any adventure games anymore done by Lucasarts or done by Blizzard you cannot simply sell a million copies of such a game anymore and those companies never even touch an idea without having a remote chance of reaching that, but the adventure game genre is very vivid, with more games being released 2004 than the years before, they have found their audience and their audience is very happy that so many of them come out again.

      The adventure game scene currently pretty much resembles the golden era of pc gaming around the early nineties, many small development studios, no real megasellers but lots of quality titles and developers who operate on a shoestring budget but can make a living out of it most times if the quality is right.

    5. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by MemoryDragon · · Score: 5, Informative
      Ah yes commercial pure adventure games with good to excellent production values released this year:
      • Syberia 2 (although the game is supposed to stink the production value is good)
      • Broken Sword 3
      • Dark Fall Lights Out
      • Tony Tough
      • Wanted a wild west adventure
      • Clever & Smart
      • Dark Mirror (Excellent, highly recommendable)
      • A Bad Mojo Remake
      • A Rerendered Runaway
      • Sherlock Holmes, the case of the Silver Earring
      • URU
      • Myst4
      • Return To Mysterious Island
      • Curse of Blackmoor Manor
      • Aura
      • Legacy: Dark Shadows
      • The Moment of Silence


      And from the Freeware side of things probably around 10-20 others many based on AGS (I am not even counting the text adventures in here) some of them with very good production values.

      Almost twice as many releases than in 2003 sounds like a dead genre to me. Adventure games are as dead as BSD.
    6. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by KarzonSkyefyre · · Score: 1

      Let me save you some money DONT bother, unless this guys are actually thinking on a REMAKE of the original instead of a long arcade/platform/mini game session with name recognition, this game will be a waste of time not even a nude patch would save. Seeing as how (1) it's free and (2) even the news blurb says "Modern remake of classic" and "almost identical to the original" I don't see what's being said here.

    7. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by Meagermanx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yup, in a commercial sense, Adventure games are dead. In a freeware sense, however, it has never been easier to create your own adventure games. Sure, there may be another old-school, official Monkey Island, or King's Quest, but independent developers are churning out more high-quality AGS titles than ever, most of them completely free.

      Check out www.gamehippo.com and www.the-underdogs.org (as mentioned before me) and download some of the excellent titles.

    8. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by AzraelKans · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yup, in a commercial sense, Adventure games are dead. In a freeware sense, however, it has never been easier to create your own adventure games. Sure, there may be another old-school, official Monkey Island, or King's Quest, but independent developers are churning out more high-quality AGS titles than ever, most of them completely free.

      THANK YOU! finally someone who got the point of the post!

      Magna cum laude 3d was a waste of time, Im not even going to argue there, go to gameranking or rent it if you dont believe me, the jokes werent that funny and most of them were too juvenile, crude and oftenly involved potty jokes (press Y to fart ! amazing!) the history was.. well there wasnt actually an history you just tried to get laid with girl A get her interested eventually get rejected by an idiotic reason (who the fuck come with the idea of a jew cowgirl?) do the same with girl B repeating ad nauseum. And the mini games, seriously I can do better games in flash and they are far more interesting. I dont know about you but my copy is back at the e-shop by now.

      If you are interested to see what Larry was actually like go and look up Larry VGA and Larry 1-6 not only they are quite funny most puzzles are mind challenging as well believe it or not!

      Favorite quote from Larry 3: Passionate Paty in pursuit of the pulsating pectorals. (try to say that really fast twice in a row) when Paty locks herself of her apartment completely naked: "I never felt so EMBAREASSED!" (I still use that one in special ocassions)

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    9. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by Vampyre_Dark · · Score: 1

      There is one playable right in the browser called A Case Of The Crabs

      http://www.otterarchives.com/bountygame.html

    10. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by MemoryDragon · · Score: 1

      The problem with the new Larry as far as I can judge the demo. The old one done by Al Lowe was a very good comedy, the new one is not very good humorwise...

    11. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by MemoryDragon · · Score: 1

      Yes.. I know that one, fun game, and good production quality.

    12. Re:If this is going to be like leisure larry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Almost twice as many releases than in 2003 sounds like a dead genre to me.

      17 releases in one year, every single one of them financial failures, == dead genre.

      Adventure games are as dead as BSD.

      BSD serves a useful purpose and has a unique niche to live in. Adventure games aren't popular anymore because every single aspect of their simplistic game design has been incorporated into the genres that superceded them. There is nothing unique or valuable about them. "Half Life 2" has just as many adventure-game elements as any of the flops on your list.

      Welcome to 2005. Make this the year you finally leave the 80s behind. Buy a 3D game! You just might like it.

  7. Leisure Suit larry isn't the original but... by ShawnMcCool42 · · Score: 2

    It's still a good game. There may not be a huge amount of depth, but its purpose is comedy. You're supposed to have a chuckle and I think it delivers.

    Contexts people contexts.

  8. Who cares? by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 1

    Lucasarts released Maniac Mansion and The Adventures of Zack McCracken as free downloads. What do I need a remake for?

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    1. Re:Who cares? by harrkev · · Score: 1

      Links, please!

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    2. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What are you talking about? Please provide the link, and just because some abandonwarze site claims such doesn't make it so.

  9. hmm by fredopalus · · Score: 1

    Watch that button in the pool.
    Wait, you knew about that?!

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    1. Re:hmm by clu76 · · Score: 1

      Don't be a tuna head.

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  10. Free downloads? Where? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Lucasarts released Maniac Mansion and The Adventures of Zack McCracken as free downloads.

    This is the first I've heard of it. I did a quick Google search, but couldn't find anything that even remotely suggested Lucas Arts had done so. If this is true, could you provide a link?

  11. great game by NothingButAJoke · · Score: 1

    mm was a great game. it's a long time ago since i played it the last time, so i gotta play it again :)

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  12. This rocked on the NES. by agtorange · · Score: 1

    I loved this game back on the NES, It was always funny just to mess around there was so many easter eggs in this game and hidden jokes.

  13. Ugly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Am I the only one who thinks the graphhics are worse (much worse) than the original?

    The game itself is one of my favorites.

    This seems like a step backward for the game. If they make a flash version i'll be impressed.

  14. I like it by betterpc · · Score: 1

    I wish more adventure games would look like this one. I like 2D pixel graphic.