IGDB / 192

Maniac Mansion

1987 87 / 100 Adventure Point-and-click

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 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 nonlinear, 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.

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Deep dive / Spielprofil

What it is about.

A structured look at the narrative, game feel, and traits that define this game.

Story & context

The game takes place in the mansion of the fictional Edison family: Dr. Fred, a mad scientist; Nurse Edna, his wife; and their son Weird Ed. Living with the Edisons are two large, disembodied tentacles, one purple and the other green. The intro sequence shows that a sentient meteor crashed near the mansion twenty years earlier; it brainwashed the Edisons and directed Dr. Fred to obtain human brains for use in experiments. The game begins as Dave Miller prepares to enter the mansion to rescue his girlfriend, Sandy Pantz, who had been kidnapped by Dr. Fred. With the exception of the green tentacle, the mansion's inhabitants are hostile, and will throw the player characters into the dungeon—or, in some situations, kill them—if they see them. When a character dies, the player must choose a replacement from the unselected characters; and the game ends if all characters are killed. Maniac Mansion has five possible endings, based on which characters are chosen, which survive, and what the characters accomplish.

ExperienceChoices MoodHorror GenreAdventure GenrePoint-and-click ThemeComedy ThemeFantasy ThemeHorror ThemeScience fiction Traitadapted to - tv show Traitaliens Traitanimal cruelty Traitanthropomorphism Traitarcade cabinet Traitcharacter select screen Traitdamsel in distress Traitdark humor Traitescaping imprisonment Traitfemale protagonist Traitgames advertising games Traithamster Traitkidnapping Traitliving inventory Traitmad scientist Traitmale protagonist Traitmind control Traitmultiple endings Traitmultiple protagonists Traitnon-linear storytelling Traitnudity Traiton-the-fly character switching Traitpepsi Traitphysical copy protection Traitpixel art Traitpoint of no return Traitrunning gag Traitscumm Traitscummvm compatible Traitsingle-player only Traittentacles Traitvending machine interaction Traitvideo game characters that play video games Traitvillain Traitviolent plants Traitworld domination

Media / Screenshots