Maniac Mansion was a special adventure that introduced a new way to interact with the environment. It was famous for its humor, the choice of characters and storyline. I remember that I had so much fun playing it with a friend on my good old C-64 exploring every inch of the game. Well, Lucasarts decided to make money with the Star Wars franchise instead of making great games which is rather unfortunate for fans of classic Lucasarts adventures.
Some fans decided to create their own versions of Lucasarts games and Maniac Mansion is surely one of the games with the most fan based add-ons and remakes ever. First there is Maniac Mansion Deluxe, a faithful copy to the original Maniac Mansion game with improved graphics and a interface that reminds me of Day of the Tentacle, the successor of Maniac Mansion. The goal in Maniac Mansion is to create a team of three students – out of seven available ones – and rescue Sandy who was kidnapped by the evil Dr.Fred.
Each student has certain advantages but also disadvantages which may aid or hinder you in some puzzles throughout the game. You interact by using the words in the lower half of the screen with items that are visible on the screen. A simple example would be to click on open and the on the door to open the door.
The most used command for a item will always be available on right-click. For the door it would be open, or close if it is open. You can switch characters by clicking on their icons or pressing F1-F3. F5 loads or saves a game, F8 restarts the game, ESC stops sequences and ALT-X closes the game.
Just a great remake would not be enough of course for a Maniac Mansion overkill. The website Maniac Mansion Mania has a list of fan made Maniac Mansion games that all use the look and feel of the original.
The games are categorized in seasons and episodes. Season one for instance contains ten episodes. All can be played without additional files. Most games are unfortunately available in German only but some have been translated to English and other languages as well.
It seems that some fans are currently translating all episodes into English to make those games available to a worldwide audience. Four of the ten episodes of season one have been translated into English by now. Take a look at all seasons and episodes of Maniac Mansion or the international ones only.
The website offers a creators pack as well, you may download it and create your own episodes using the interface and characters known from Maniac Mansion.
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Hehe, I remember playing this game a while back. Never got quite as addicted to it though… I wish I had come across this before the new funky graphics-heavy games came into play, because at the back of my mind I still feel the graphics are too pixelated sometimes for me to enjoy it fully. :)