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Maniac Mansion

aka: MM
Moby ID: 714 $5.99 $2.09 (Linux) on GOG.com $5.99 $2.09 (Macintosh) on GOG.com ...more
box cover
Released
September 1987 on Apple II
Credits
22 people
Releases by Date (by platform)
Publishers
Developers
Moby Score
7.7
#5,055 of 26.2K
Critics
82% (54)
Players
(288)
Review Ranking
Collected By
383 players
Genre
Adventure
Perspective
Side view
Visual
2D scrolling
Gameplay
Graphic adventure
Puzzle elements
Interface
Point and select
Narrative
Comedy
Apple II Specs
Business Model
Commercial
Media Type
5.25" Floppy Disk
Input Devices Supported/Optional
Keyboard
Number of Players Supported
1 Player
[ view all 48 specs ]
Buy on NES
$57.50 used, $1,839.40 new on eBay
Buy on Windows
$5.99 new on Steam
$2.09 new on GOG.com
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay, Amazon and GOG links (prices updated 3/24 2:42 PM )
Conversion (unofficial) Included in

Description official descriptions

The Edison mansion has always been a creepy old house on the edge of town. There have been rumors of strange experiments going on and of odd creatures living amongst the Edison family. There is even a story that a meteorite once crashed near the home nearly 20 years ago. More immediately, a girl named Sandy has gone missing from the local highschool and her boyfriend Dave swears that he saw Dr. Fred abducting her. Dave knows that he cannot do it alone and will need help from two other students if he has any hope of infiltrating the mansion and rescuing Sandy.

Players start by choosing two students to accompany Dave to the Edison mansion, and can then switch between these three characters at will. Most actions are carried out by selecting verbs on the screen and applying them to an object (such as "OPEN Door"). Each character maintains a separate personality and may have a different way to solve a problem from his classmates. Thus many of the puzzles can be overcome in different ways depending on the character being used. If any one of the kids are captured by the Edisons, they are thrown into the dungeon and must be rescued themselves by any character who still has their freedom.

GOG release includes both Original and Enhanced game versions.

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Credits (Apple II version)

22 People (20 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Produced by the
  • Lucasfilm Games Division
Created and Designed by
Programmed by
Graphic Art and Animation by
Sound Effects by
Original Music by
Apple Conversion Special Support by
Creative and Technical support by
Lucasfilm Games General Manager
Production and Marketing Management by
Administrative Support by
Lead Playtester
Special thanks to
  • The many other playtesters; especially Tom and Darrell
  • George Lucas
Box Cover Art by
Package and manual designed by
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 54 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 288 ratings with 16 reviews)

Ahhh, those were the days...

The Good
Aside from the unusual combination of characters that was akin to the classic bad B-film (from the musicians to the journalist to the techie to the surfer dude who did, well... no, I'm not going to spoil it :), it was also the first game that introduced me to the Lucasarts world and hooked me in straight.
The graphics, where everyone had big heads, and the people talked like it was out of a B-film (smileys all around). I enjoyed the clear-cut humor it gave me (not to mention the strange opening music and the many times I got to watch the mansion blow up in a five mile radius) and the odd combinations of things you could do. Even the fact that some of the ways you could die were incredible (toxic steam! AUUUUGH!) If you like a game that is based on movies that you have to stay up till five in the morning to watch, then by all means you'll enjoy this game at least for watching.

The Bad
Okay, I understand that back then mice were one of those rare devices, but mouse support would have been soooooo sweet, especially when avoiding all of those crazy Edison kinfolk. Aside from that, it had a high difficulty gradient; maybe it would be best if you watched this game rather than played it if you aren't accustomed to these sort of games.

One comment - DYING?? In a LUCASARTS game?????

The Bottom Line
Rough, but rewarding in the end. Always go for Bernard, baby!.

DOS · by Don Lee (8) · 2000

This game spawned a TV series.

The Good
Lucasfilm successfully brought the creativity & imagination from their movies & TV shows to gaming. Their game design was refreshing; no instant deaths just for looking around or experimenting, the game relies on storytelling, characters & plot to keep things moving. This is something other adventure game companies (cough Sierra cough) could have learned from. You play an American teenager whose girlfriend has been kidnapped by Dr. Fred. To save her, you & 2 friends must explore the titular Maniac Mansion. The puzzles & endings will be different depending on which 2 from the 6 possible friends you pick to accompany you. The graphics were top notch for the time & even hold up today, especially the enhanced or deluxe version. The music is great. This was the first game to use Lucasfilm's SCUMM system, a pioneer in the adventure game genre.

The Bad
Many of the command prompts were redundant, they could have all been combined into a single USE command. In fact, later versions did just that. While this is not the fault of Lucasfilm, the NES version was censored unnecessarily, which sadly ruined much of the fun for many console users. There can be extreme violence towards hamsters.

The Bottom Line
A great game with good replayabilty, Maniac Mansion is still a good time. Don't be a tuna head, just go play it.

DOS · by Grumpy Quebecker (1290) · 2023

Classic, fun, what more do you want?

The Good
This game has humour. Sure, it's bad, but that's what makes it so good. It's like a B movie, except you control it. The puzzles won't make your brain explode, and most people who don't like it haven't given it enough time, most haven't even completed it. The story is off the wall, think about it, a purple slimey meteor hypnotizing a family (all of them have the name "Ed" in their first names somewhere, cute), and having the "insane" Dr. Fred suck the brains out of teenagers one at a time. All the characters are different, save razor and syd, but you can do 100s of things in this game. The main plot of this game has countless sub plots, and depending on the characters you choose, the game will end differently EVERY TIME!

The Bad
The crappy reviews it got. This game is OLD! You can't compare a game like maniac mansion to quake! Boo to all you who voted low for this game (except Mat, he's ok). This game was made in 1988!!! Boo hoo, poor graphics. I'll tell you what, think back to 1988 (well, most of you quake players were in kindergarten). 16 colours was a big thing. Maybe it wasn't lifelike, but in 12 years, quake will seem pretty fake too.

The Bottom Line
This game is a must play for all people with an IQ above 09. It exercises your mind, and the puzzles actually use real life items, unlike half-life, which in my opinion had some of the worst puzzles I've ever had the misfortune of stumbling upon.

You are a band of teenagers, Dave, and two other friends, there is a choice of 7. Dave's Girlfriend Sandy has been kidnapped by Dr. Fred, who is going to suck her brains out. To get through this game, you have to solve puzzles galore, and puzzles is a good word because like a puzzle, all the pieces fit together in the end and you go "OH! I GET IT!" I'll just say that every move you make will affect you in the end.

If you like sci-fi/b side movies, and can keep an open mind, don't mind 1988 graphics, I would strongly suggest getting it.

DOS · by C W (5) · 2000

[ View all 16 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Famicom version -- new entry? Pseudo_Intellectual (67771) Jul 21, 2012

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Maniac Mansion appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Chuck the plant

In the mansion's library, there is an un-useable plant called "Chuck the Plant" The plant also appears in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in Henry's room, and Day of the Tentacle in the lobby.

Copy protection

The computer versions featured an humorous copy protection scheme. In a new game a player entered the house, walked upstairs and are confronted by a giant iron bolted door which opens after entering four correct symbols on the keypad as shown in "Nuke'm Alarms - Nukes Burglars in their tracks: Owner's Disarmament Quick Reference Guide" included with the game. The wrong answer proved fatal!

Day of the Tentacle

Maniac Mansion is included as a bonus game inside Day of the Tentacle (on Ed's computer).

Hamster in the microwave

Players can microwave the hamster in any of the computer releases (but not the European NES version), but they have to use a sick-minded character (such as Syd or Razor) when doing it. Showing the exploded hamster to Weird Ed will make him kill that character.

NES version

The game was ported not once, but twice, to the NES. One version was made in America, while another one was made by Jaleco in Japan. The two versions look very different. It was one of the very few NES games to be translated into Spanish.

Many things had to be censored/changed to comply with Nintendo's policies:

  • Some of the language was toned down, for example: "The meteor is going to be pissed" was changed to "The meteor is going to be mad."
  • The "KILL THRILL" arcade game was changed to "TUNA"
  • "For a good time EDNA 3444" was changed to "Call Edna 3444"

A complete list of changes and more info can be found at http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/maniac.html

In the European NES version, additionally the possibility to microwave the hamster was removed. In turn, at least in the German version, some linguistic points from the above list are closer to the original.

References

  • The name of Razor's punk band is "Razor and the Scummettes", a reference to the SCUMM graphical interface used by LucasArts adventures.
  • There is an X-Wing model in Ed's room.
  • The speakers in the green tentacle's room are "THX" sound speakers. THX is a high-quality sound technology developed by Lucasfilm.

Zak McKracken

Connections between Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken (based on Amiga version):

  • In the game room there's a Zak McKracken poster.
  • In Maniac Mansion there's a chainsaw that has no gas. In the game Zak McKracken there is a can of gas on Mars. The can reads, "For use with chainsaws only". When trying to pick it up the character says, "I don't need it. It's for a different game."
  • "Tuna head" is said in both games. One of the aliens in Zak McKracken is always saying, "Tum de dum." In Maniac Mansion when Weird Ed is walking through the kitchen to get his cheese he says, "Tum te dum."
  • It appears that Zak happens to be going out with Sandy from Maniac Mansion. In Zak McKracken, if players go away and come back home enough times and keep checking the answering machine they will soon get a message from Weird Ed from Maniac Mansion. He calls up about going to a monster truck show, and that he'll come by with Sandy at 6:00 in the Edsel.
  • In Zak McKracken, at the police station in Nepal: there is a wanted poster for the purple meteor.

Remake

The German LucasFan Games developed a freeware 256-colour remake called Maniac Mansion Deluxe.

TV series

The game spawned a comedy series on the Family Channel in the early 90's.

Awards

  • Commodore Format
    • April 1991 (Issue 7) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2013 – One of the "Ten Best C64 Games“
  • Happy Computer
    • Issue 01/1988 - Best Game Idea in 1987
  • Power Play
    • 1987 - #2 Best C64 Game '87

Information also contributed by Игги Друге, Der.Archivar, Garcia, Jason Harang, kelmer44, Hitman23, Ricky Derocher, Tiago Jacques, whatt, Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe.

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  • MobyGames ID: 714
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tony Van.

Amiga added by POMAH. Commodore 64 added by Rebound Boy. Linux, Windows, Macintosh added by Sciere. NES added by jeremy strope. Antstream added by lights out party. Atari ST, Apple II added by Servo.

Additional contributors: Jason Harang, Jeanne, tFX, Shoddyan, Sciere, Pseudo_Intellectual, Ricky Derocher, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger, Maniac Mansion Fan, Plok, Izmir Egal, Fred Zanfardino, Victor Vance, FatherJack, ZeTomes.

Game added January 10, 2000. Last modified January 31, 2025.