This article is about the video game. For the television series, see Maniac Mansion (TV series).
1987 video game
Maniac Mansion
Ken Macklin's cover artwork depicts five of the playable characters: Syd, Dave, Bernard, Razor, and Jeff.
Developer(s)
Lucasfilm Games
Home computers Lucasfilm Games NES LucasArts[2] Realtime Associates[3]
Publisher(s)
Lucasfilm Games
Home computers Lucasfilm Games NES Jaleco
Designer(s)
Ron Gilbert Gary Winnick
Programmer(s)
Ron Gilbert David Fox Carl Mey
Artist(s)
Gary Winnick
Composer(s)
Chris Grigg David Lawrence
NES David Warhol George Sanger David Hayes Dave Govett Tsukasa Tawada (Famicom version)[4] Amiga Brian Hales
Engine
SCUMM
Platform(s)
Commodore 64, Apple II, MS-DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, NES, Macintosh
Release
October 5, 1987
Commodore 64 / Apple II October 5, 1987[1] DOS March 12, 1988 December 31, 1989 (enhanced version) NES
JP: June 23, 1988
NA: September 18, 1990
EU: October 22, 1992
Amiga / Atari ST July 26, 1989
Genre(s)
Graphic adventure
Mode(s)
Single-player
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Sandy Pantz from a mad scientist, whose mind has been enslaved by a sentient meteor. The player uses a point-and-click interface to guide Dave and two of his six playable friends through the scientist's mansion while solving puzzles and avoiding dangers. Gameplay is non-linear, and the game must be completed in different ways based on the player's choice of characters. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, Maniac Mansion was Lucasfilm Games' first self-published product.
The game was conceived in 1985 by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, who sought to tell a comedic story based on horror film and B-movie clichés. They mapped out the project as a paper-and-pencil game before coding commenced. While earlier adventure titles had relied on command lines, Gilbert disliked such systems, and he developed Maniac Mansion's simpler point-and-click interface as a replacement. To speed up production, he created a game engine called SCUMM, which was used in many later LucasArts titles. After its release, Maniac Mansion was ported to several platforms. A port for the Nintendo Entertainment System had to be reworked heavily, in response to Nintendo of America’s concerns that the game was inappropriate for children.[5]
Maniac Mansion was critically acclaimed: reviewers lauded its graphics, cutscenes, animation, and humor. Writer Orson Scott Card praised it as a step toward "computer games [becoming] a valid storytelling art". It influenced numerous graphic adventure titles, and its point-and-click interface became a standard feature in the genre. The game's success solidified Lucasfilm as a serious rival to adventure game studios such as Sierra On-Line. In 1990, Maniac Mansion was adapted into a three-season television series of the same name, written by Eugene Levy and starring Joe Flaherty. A sequel to the game, Day of the Tentacle, was released in 1993.
^"Retrodiary". Retro Gamer (120). Bournemouth, United Kingdom: Imagine Publishing: 13. September 2013.
^Crockford, Douglas. "The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion". Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved August 3, 2005.
^"Past Projects: Maniac Mansion". Realtime Associates. Archived from the original on February 7, 2011.
^Maniac Mansion (FC) Credits Screenshot - VGMPF
^"The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion". www.crockford.com. Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
ManiacMansion is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts...
Day of the Tentacle, also known as ManiacMansion II: Day of the Tentacle, is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is...
Script Creation Utility for ManiacMansion (SCUMM) is a video game engine developed at Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, to ease development on...
interfaces and technology, powered by SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for ManiacMansion). After 1997, these games transitioned into 3D graphics with the GrimE...
known for his work on several LucasArts adventure games, including ManiacMansion and the first two Monkey Island games. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN...
engine, after ManiacMansion. The project was led by David Fox, with Matthew Alan Kane as the co-designer and co-programmer. Like ManiacMansion, it was developed...
and became a Canadian citizen in 1998. Buza played Turner Edison on ManiacMansion for the entirety of its 1991–1993 run on YTV and The Family Channel...
film series, Serendipity, and other comedies. Levy was the creator of ManiacMansion, a television sitcom based on the LucasArts video game of the same name...
of adventure games based on its SCUMM engine in the 1990s, including ManiacMansion, the Monkey Island series, and several Indiana Jones titles. A number...
originally developed for ManiacMansion. The company had gradually modified the engine since its creation. For ManiacMansion, the developers hard coded...
game is a spiritual successor to Gilbert and Winnick's previous games ManiacMansion (1987) and The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), and is designed to be...
Script Creation Utility for ManiacMansion Virtual Machine (ScummVM) is a set of game engine recreations. Originally designed to play LucasArts adventure...
Jaleco USA, published a number of titles for the NES and SNES, including ManiacMansion, Pinball Quest and R-Type III. In 2014, Jaleco's parent company Game...
Murder in the First. She also played Tina Edison in the Canadian sitcom ManiacMansion (1990–1993) and Clare Arnold in the Fox teen drama series Beverly Hills...
Expurgation of ManiacMansion" to a video gaming bulletin board. The memoir documented his efforts to censor the computer game ManiacMansion to Nintendo's...
Murder, Wild Card, This Is Wonderland, Rabbit Fall, The Border, and ManiacMansion. Her production credits include Rabbit Fall, Moccasin Flats, and Empire...
teeth. From 1990–93, Flaherty starred in The Family Channel series, ManiacMansion. During 1997–1998, Flaherty starred in the television adaptation of...
best known as Casey Edison on the Lucasfilm science fiction satire ManiacMansion which ran from 1990 until 1993. Theaker was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan...
television shows such as Katts and Dog, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and ManiacMansion. His play "The Takeover Clause" was produced by Open Mind Productions...
wrote on Twitter that he was interested in buying the Monkey Island and ManiacMansion properties. Fans of the series launched an online petition asking Disney...
the Last Crusade: The Action Game and implement the NES version of ManiacMansion. Schafer and Grossman, along with two others, were taught by Ron Gilbert...
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