Up Next: Maniac Mansion

As we announced in our initial episode, your homework for episode one is to play Maniac Mansion.

LucasArt’s 1987 Maniac Mansion was a first in a number of categories. The first SCUMM game (you can guess what the final two M’s stand for). The first game to be published by Lucasfilm Games (soon to become LucasArts). The first true LucasArts point-and-click adventure.

These LucasArts adventures are the reason we started this podcast. Games like Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, and the Monkey Island series shaped our childhoods. Their humor molded our own twisted vision of the world. Their puzzles encouraged us to think outside the box and become bricoleurs, people who change the world with what’s at hand. Their gameplay taught us that everyone has unique abilities. Even tuna heads like Bernard.

And it all started in one creepy mansion, “Twenty-years ago today…”

Links

In-browser playable version: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Maniac_Mansion_1987 (not for mobile devices)

ScummVM (a modern engine if you happen to have the old game files): http://scummvm.org/

Windows version of Maniac Mansion Delux: https://archive.org/details/Maniac_Mansion_Deluxe

Complete game play through (with commentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7oUArcVis0