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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.
His name is RON Gilbert He also worked on most of the classic Lucas Arts graphic adventures like Monkey Island
Perhaps it's the class of people that worked on Maniac Mansion, or perhaps it was a different enough group than monkey's island. Hell it could just be the freedom they had to work on it.
Personally I'd like to think the later because there's just so many ways to "win" the game with so many different groups that I have to imagine it was hard but fun to develop and design, which produced a better relationship that the developers had with the product. But it could be any number of reasons.
There's a fan base for Monkey Island as well, but that game came later. For whatever reason, Maniac Mansion is the one that "clicked". Maybe it's the same for the developers.
See the "syd" in my username? Yeah, that's from Maniac Mansion. I've used it ever since.
Incidentally, I was only able to solve Maniac Mansion using one particular method with one set of people. (Very sadly, that didn't include Syd.) I've *always* wanted to go through the game to reach every possible ending. Is there a web site that charts out all the possible events that can occur with each set of characters, and all the possible end sequences?
Whenever I played a game after this where I could make personnel choices, or where the game was set up for me to interact and explore the environment, I always felt a little cheated if the game only had one way to solve a particular puzzle. ("Damn, I have to flip *that* switch? Why can't I instead use this chair to break through the glass?) Compares to the seemingly-endless combinations that could produce different results in Maniac Mansion, everything else seemed like it ran on rails...
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
One word:
Ding!
In my opinion, Maniac Mansion has the best music of any video game ever, I have it on a CD in my car that I listen to regularly. I think the only other game music that compares is from the Megaman games and possibly Duck Tales.
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.
Ron Gilbert made Monkey Island too, but Maniac Mansion was the first game to use the SCUMM system that the later games like Monkey Island, Loom, Zak McKraken etc. were based on. It was new and special at the time it was made, so that's the game people remember first. The Broken Sword games weren't made until years later when point 'n click was an established genre.
Found it! Apparently it's a glitch related to the cut scene that immediately precedes it.
Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
Because it was the first of its kind.
Sierra On-Line broke a lot of ground with the King's Quest games, but those early Sierra games required a combination of arrow keys and typed verb-noun phrases. Maniac Mansion was the first completely point-and-click adventure; all others, including Broken Sword and Monkey Island (another Ron Gilbert game, by the way) sprung from its fertile loins.
Incidentally, that's also why the subsequent LucasArts games run on an engine called SCUMM. It stands for "Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion."
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
I think this: http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/46872 2.html might be what you're looking for. I take no responsibility for your lack of productivity at work.
Personally, I always preferred Day of the Tentacle
If Bush wants to kill the terrorists, he should jump off a cliff.
Ceci n'est pas une sig.
SCUMM - Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion
This is why people care so much for it - It was the first to use the engine, which has gone on to be used in such games as you mention.
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
The fan remake Maniac Mansion Deluxe may be of interest to the Maniac Mansion fans here. Looks mostly like the PC version, but with more colourful graphics (partially influenced by the sequel, Day of the Tentacle) and added sound and music.