Title: Maniac Mansion
Publisher: Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArts)
Year: 1987/1988
Design: Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick
Story/Dialogue: Gary Winnick, Ron Gilbert and David Fox
Platform(s): Commodore 64, Amiga, PC, NES, Apple II
The Commodore 64 version was developed at Lucasfilm Games by:
Programming: Carl Mey, Ron Gilbert and David Fox
Graphics: Gary Winnick
Music: Chris Grigg and David Lawrence
Sound: Chris Grigg
The Amiga version was developed at Lucasfilm Games by:
Programming: Aric Wilmunder and Ron Gilbert
Graphics: Gary Winnick
Music: Chris Grigg and David Lawrence
Sound: Brian Hales
The PC version was developed at Lucasfilm Games by:
Graphics: Gary Winnick
Music: Chris Grigg and David Lawrence
Sound: David Hayes and David Warhol
The NES version was converted at Jaleco in 1990, where Douglas Crockford, among others, worked on it. I have been unable to locate more specific details about the Apple II version.
Description: Maniac Mansion was a revolution in adventure games. It was the first to feature the SCUMM interface (SCUMM actually means Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion). In it, you control Dave, who wants to rescue his girlfriend Sandy. She has been taken captive by the mad professor Dr. Fred, who was brainwashed by an evil meteor. They aim to implant the meteor in Sandy's head, which is illegal of course, and hence the Meteor Police is after them. The game takes place in and around the mansion, where Dr. Fred, Nurse Edna, Weird Ed and the green and purple tentacles wander about.
Before the game starts, you get to pick two among 7 other characters to add to the pre-selected Dave. Then, while playing the game, you switch between the 3 characters under your control, and depending who they are, the game is different each time. If there is a drawback, it's that it can be very hard for inexperienced gamers to play it, as many of the puzzles are difficult or even weird.
Even though it was one of the very earliest of the graphical adventure-games, it is among the most interactive. There are at least a couple hundred objects that can be manipulated (again depending on your choice in characters).
The game was followed by Day of the Tentacle in 1992, but neither of the original designers worked on it, as they had left LucasArts at this point.
Various Trivia:
- There was a TV-show created after the game, although the plots and concepts were changed significantly.
- The Nintendo version had large parts of its dialogue rewritten to comply with Nintendo's guidelines (no killing, no obscenity, etc).
- The entire game is available on a computer in Day of the Tentacle.
Sources: Google, the C64 and Amiga versions of the game, MobyGames.com, "The Untold story of Maniac Mansion" in Wired 1.04
Audited September 17, 2002