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A Bit About Making Maniac Mansion
Over at the Grumpy Gamer site, Rob Gilbert is reminiscing a bit about the making of Maniac Mansion, prompted by a YouTube video depicting a 9 minute speed run for the game. "I found it fascinating to watch this video. It's was like thumbing through an old family album of childhood photos. Memories long forgotten are jarred to the surface by the smallest of details. An old and forgotten toy. The front grill of your fathers car. Things you could never have remembered if you tried become so clear they could have happened yesterday. I'd see little things like Dave hitting the edge of the porch, turning around, then walking forward and then continuing on his way. I remember this from development. It was a weird bug having to do with the walk-boxes that told the character where they could walk. I knew how to fix it, but it would have broken oh-so-many of other things. It always drove me crazy that he did that." Many thanks to Mr. Gilbert for his work on the game; Bernard's Theme still pops into my head every once in a while for no particular reason.
What is it about Maniac mansion that so many people remember stuff from? We never hear this kind of thing about Broken Sword or Monkey island, so why does this one game seem to have talkative developers?
I like muppets.
I think it has to do with the numeber of platforms it was available on, including consoles such as NES.
Frankly, I think that Loom is a real masterpiece, and nobody really played it all that much.