Maniac Mansion
Dec. 28th, 2025 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yamamanama81 days until the Vernal Equinox
I took over 700 screenshots and even though I giffed a lot of them, I'm still amazed this posted. And the result is this: a walkthrough of Maniac Mansion that may not be the most comprehensive out there but it does show off a hell of a lot.
Back before they were called LucasArts.
There was a tv show. I actually knew about the tv show before I knew about the game and when I saw the game, I was like “hey, is that based on the tv show I never watched.” I want to say it was on the same station as the Super Mario Bros Super Show but I can’t say for sure when it’s been this long.
And by loosely, I mean “there’s a Dr. Fred and he lives in a mansion and there’s a seckrit lab powered by a meteor that may or may not be purple but it’s very definitely non-sentient and isn’t turning Dr. Fred evil.” but everyone else is different. The children are Tina, Ike, and Turner.
They don’t even have the tentacles. I mean, it’s a Canadian sitcom and they probably don’t have the budget for that kind of stuff.
Dave has excellent theme music but is otherwise useless.
Alas, Sandy’s his girlfriend and that means we have to bring him along.
Bernard’s good with electronics. He’s also the protagonist of the sequel.
Wendy’s an aspiring writer. She’s not on the box art for the game so maybe she was added as an afterthought. Most of the characters have surnames (Bernard Bernoulli, Jeff Woodie, Michael F. Stoppe, Dave Miller) but Wendy is just Wendy. Further fuel.
I don’t know if you need to read this to send things through the mail but it doesn’t hurt.
Things like that only happen in adventure games.
I picked Wendy and Bernard because it’s the most convoluted and therefore best ending.
that sign can’t stop me because I can’t read!
What d’ya know, it’s locked. Let’s go home.
Wait, this is an adventure game. Pull the door mat to reveal a key.
Can’t do anything with that door.
If you push that right gargoyle on the stairs, the door opens for a moment. But if you try to run for it, it will slam shut before you make it.
if you map out the mansion, these windows look into the dining room.
If you map out the mansion, the staircase probably just leads to a second floor of the library where there’s a can of gas for the chainsaw, not that you can do anything with it because it’s a non-violent game.
Ah, Chuck the Plant. He doesn’t do anything. He shows up in other LucasArts games and even obliquely in other games, except the demo of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he is instead LeChuck the Plant.
Too bad Dave can’t even fix a phone.
This is fine. I forget how long Nurse Edna gazes transfixed at the light in the refrigerator for but whatever, we need to go down to the dungeon.
I’m sending Dave even though he has by far the best theme music. You know, because he’s useless.
See, there’s even a Seckrit Lab down here.
And a loose brick. If you push the brick, you can open the door long enough for another character who is standing near the door to escape. There was a skeleton but I think Nintendo objected to that.
I’m not just not using Bernard because his theme music isn’t as good as everyone else’s. Bernard can’t get past the Green Tentacle. Right now, you should station him near the entrance.
I’ll stick with the brain and kidney pie, thank you very much.
We can take the chainsaw but not the knives.
We’re going to take everything inside the refrigerator. Well, except the ketchup stains.
Did I ever tell the story about my mom buying a chicken for dinner but leaving it in the trunk of the car?
This is where the term cut-scene comes from. Because it would literally abruptly cut from the gameplay. Or if you’re perceptive and playing from a floppy disk on the original version, you’d hear the disk drive spin up right before.
I kind of think Dr. Fred sounds like Doofenschmirtz.
You should take this as a cue that Weird Ed is going to the kitchen to get some food. I think this happens at more or less the exact time you raid their refrigerator.
In fact, I think the whole family sounds like Doofenshmirtz.
Or maybe Urkel in his case.
I don’t know where they’re storing all this stuff.
If you try to pick up the developer, it crashes to the floor and pours through that grate. Good thing it’s not important.
Ed is the only character who closes the door behind him. Actually, I think he might be the only character who even leaves his room when he’s not taking you to the dungeon.
I think this might be important somehow.
Hint hint.
I assumed Dr. Fred was Dr. Fred Edison, MD and not Dr. Fred Edison, PhD.
I don’t know why I’m assuming that, probably because his wife is Nurse Edna. He could be a DVM who specializes in tentacles and/or sentient meteors (a very loose definition of animal).
That answers my question.
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.
Tuna Diver started life as Thrill Kill. Nintendo objected to this.
Muff Diver must’ve been them trolling since they changed it to Tuna Diver afterwards. Or maybe it’s like Battle Chess’s queen, who came with a pet duck in order to distract the executives away from her, uh, assets.
His favorite snack is wax fruit.
There’s an unofficial fan remake of the game in which Wendy’s also freaked out by the tentacle.
On the box art, the wallpaper is blue and there used to be a What Is command. No rom of this prerelease is known to exist. It’s just known from the back of the box.
The third floor has only the room with the stairs and this darkroom.
These rooms shouldn’t exist, or at least, they’d just be sort of cantilevered above the ground.
the numbers include 0525 and 1977 (the day Star Wars came out) 1138, and I have no idea what 3412 is.
In the prerelease version, this room was also blue.
Ron Gilbert is the designer of Maniac Mansion.
We’ll be needing that key.
Edna is Doofenshmirtz with a falsetto.
We’ll skip these doors for now. Going in either of them gets you taken down to the dungeon and that’s no good.
This room is a lot sparser in the official release.
The Hunk-O-Matic makes you strong.
If you switch to a new kid while using it, it will transfer that strength over to them. Great for speedrunning.
That’s right. 123 channels and all of them locked out.
I’m not sure I did that. Maybe he needs to pay Charon.
Useless but funny.
Weird Ed spends the game waiting for his package.
I didn’t actually mean to get caught.
But if you do get caught while inside the mansion, he forgets all about his package.
This is why I told you to station Bernard near the entrance. Neither Bernard nor Wendy are going to need the package but we’ll need those stamps.
but whatever, we had to go down there sooner or later for a few things.
Move those bushes out of the way.
With the strength given by the Hunk-o-Matic, this grate is nothing, I say, nothing!
Seriously, try to map out the Mansion. It’s like the Overlook Hotel, where rooms overlap and corridors loop back on one another.
The silver key you found in the basement unlocks the yellow door.
You also need super-strength to open that garage door.
Yes, I can see that.
The yellow key unlocks the trunk and starts the car.
it seems kind of paradoxical but you have to turn on the water valve to drain the pool and not turn it off.
Purple Tentacle is a stickler for energy conservation and will shut the lights off in the basement when he’s done in there.
You have five minutes to fill the pool again or else. Just get the radio (for batteries, if you care about using the flashlight) and the glowing key.
And Wendy can’t swim so get out of the pool.
Now we can turn the shower on.
Ted is pushed out of the way and we still can’t read it.
(1547, 2275, 3444, 5235, 7537. what these numbers mean i can not say)
Wendy can correct all the Meteor’s spelling and grammatical errors and plot holes.
The pool water is radioactive and if I learned one thing from B movies, it’s that radiation makes things grow to tremendous size.
using the paint remover on the orange blotch reveals a door.
This is Weird Lenny’s room and he’d thank you if you don’t tell anyone else how he lives. Now, you could have someone turn off the power via the circuit breakers in the basement and then fix the wires with the tools but there’s no point in doing that.
you can technically get eaten by the plant but you have to be in this room before you gave him the pepsi and that’s impossible. he’ll eat you and say YUM!!
Look through the telescope. Yay.
Make a save.
Put a dime in the coin slot and rotate the camera left to get this easter egg.
Then reload the game because that was a waste of a dime and you only have so many.
Since Weird Ed forgot all about the package earlier, we can still distract him with the doorbell. Otherwise, we’d have to lure him out by bringing someone in.
I think there’s a point at which Weird Ed stops paying attention to the doorbell.
The card key is behind the hamster. We also need some of Weird Ed’s spare change for the telescope.
Which I forgot to actually take for some reason.
Dr. Fred ignores you if he encounters you.
If you’re wondering what the door looks like from behind.
Now we can call Edna. They must have separate phone lines.
For whatever reason, Edna thinks it’s Dead Cousin Ted talking even though his mouth is all bandaged up.
This is the most annoying part of the game. If you had a big magnifier, like, say, a telescope, you could read those numbers but the painting is in the way so to read the numbers, you first have to move the painting, meaning you either have to distract Edna some more or you have to get out of the dungeon, schlep all the way back up to the telescope on the top floor.
the safe combos are 3621, 0120, 1230, 1029, and 4186.
And it’s always the last one you try.
She has different lines for girl characters.
This scene just shows up randomly.
Wendy does not approve of wanton cruelty to hamsters.
We’ll steam the envelope open so that we can reuse it.
Make sure you use sink water and not pool water.
This doesn’t happen immediately. But once it does. you get to spend the next five minutes bumbling around in the dark. Now, you could take advantage of this moment and go upstairs and fix the wiring but once again there’s no reason to do that.
And now we play the waiting game.
Waiting waiting waiting.
Eh, the Waiting Game sucks. Let’s go back to Maniac Mansion.
Have Bernard take a vacuum tube out of the downstairs old fashioned radio and bring it up to the shortwave radio.
Then use the number to contact the Meteor Police. And make sure the door is open. If you call three times without opening the door, they’ll shut the metaphorical door in your face.
If you don’t fix the wiring in the attic, the code for the inner door will be 0000. Otherwise, it will be 7572, 5858, 3301, or 8640, whatever Fred’s high score on Meteor Mess is.
I’m surprised 1936 doesn’t show up anywhere.
apparently you can’t save or load the game in the endgame sequence. hm. let me try that. Makes sense. You could softlock yourself.
the pepsi machine is a deliberate red herring. you’d get a number that you could try to input in the machine that wouldn’t work. but someone didn’t like it.
Don’t go in here without a radiation suit.
He may be a telepathic meteor but he isn’t stupid.
And this is what happens if we call the meteor police and give the contract to the meteor before they show up.
But wait, there’s more.
There are two more endings I can get with these two.
If you don’t call the meteor police and bring the contract, this happens. If Wendy’s dead, Sandy’s standing there instead.
If the meteor police arrive before you give him the publishing contract, this happens.
He drops a badge.
Purple Tentacle will switch sides.
He’s with me now.
Originally they wanted to use shit-head but even LucasArts objected to that.
that’s how it could have happened
Razor and Sid are basically the same thing with different music.
The creators’ original vision was for them to be young kids but someone’s like “no, it makes more sense for them to be teenagers.”
If Weird Ed doesn’t see you, he’ll say this and then close and lock the door behind him.
I basically spent this playthrough reading things I didn’t realize could be read.
I know I’ve found blank tapes behind things.
The gas specifically for chainsaws is in Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders but there is no chainsaw to be found.
Try using the stove and this happens.
If you try to get the gravy stain.
I forgot to gif this one.
You can record yourself playing piano on the blank tape.
And here I thought they reproduced by budding.
Loom is a Lucasarts game from 1990, and apparently that music is actually from Loom.
If you’re wondering, and I was, the broken record is merely called Sound Effects Record in the computer version.
If anyone else but Wendy uses the manuscript in the typewriter, this happens.
You stupid meteor.
It’s around this time where I tried reading the CD player and learning that everyone’s theme music has an official title and even a fake band to go with it.
And also you can’t read in the dark, silly.
And of course we got to go down to the dungeon.
But what if…
We’re already breaking and entering. Or even burgling.
Give the package to Weird Ed.
The batteries in the flashlight run out eventually. The new batteries that you find in the radio work forever.
I thought that was his hair. No, he’s wearing a beret to go with that whole military theme.
just don’t steal the hamster in his presence or Weird Ed will never forgive you. And that would ruin your no “new kid” command playthrough. And I’m going to let you on a little secret. It can’t be done because you start as Dave and Dave can’t win the game on his own. But if you had an exemption for changing to another character at the beginning of the game, well, it’s easy enough to get the dungeon key early on.
There’s no way to distract Edna so there’s no way to get the envelope. Well, I guess you could use the Freeze Edna glitch but you still need to distract Weird Ed so you can get the card key and still get the stamps on the package. And I believe the Freeze Edna Glitch requires switching at least temporarily.
And then i’m like, Bernard could do it with some precise timing to get the hamster and therefore card key but then I realized that Bernard can’t get past Green Tentacle on his own.
If you want the card key, you’re going to need someone else to go in and distract Ed.
The plans he wants ended up outside.
I don’t think you can expose the film to light in this version. Even if you’re in a dark room like the library, he won’t open it up.
Sometimes handing things to other characters gives you messages.
oh. it’s the developer that kills the plant. i thought it was the paint remover. if someone’s up there, they’re stuck forever.
Good thing this mansion has a convenient darkroom.
He says ten minutes but what he actually means is that he’ll show up once you open both doors.
Meanwhile, we sent Razor’s recording to Mark E. Teer.
We’re going to have Dave show this off to the Tentacle for one very specific reason.
Because now Dave’s dead.
If you die in certain ways, you can move around as a ghost. You lose anything you were carrying and you can’t interact with objects, so it’s kind of moot.
It doesn’t matter what kid enters the secret lab once you’ve befriended Ed.
But this time he can’t turn off the machine! And the self-destruct sequence is still running!
You can use that quarter for the machine if you want to. There’s no point.
Put the meteor in the trunk.
And he’s off to terrorize some other planet.
And this is why we had Dave take the fall for Razor’s mishap: because the ending scene only changes when Dave’s dead.
Here’s what you’re supposed to do.
Good job.
Read the card key.
It’s easy to trip up here. We want a contract for the Green Tentacle, not for ourself. So get that tape from the Tentacle.
And then, after going through all that bullshit with Nurse Edna (since we lack Bernard or Jeff, we can’t prank call her) and the envelope and the mail and all the waiting.
Ludicrous speed go!
And give THAT contract to the Tentacle and he’ll let you join his band.
They may say that when they take the Pepsi so either they don’t actually drink it or Dr. Fred, before he turned evil, invented the bottomless Pepsi can, which I can only assume taps into alternate universes, and I can also assume that the carnivorous plant in the den eats the entire can and that’s why he keeps burping forever.
Try starting the car and see what happens.
I hope you got the stuff first.
And when we’re ready.
Oh yeah, I launched the edsel by mistake. Whatever shall I do. Well, if this was the computer version, your only option is to turn the game off and restart.
also, the gate locks itself in the endgame sequence.
The developers of the Nintendo version added this solution.
if you killed the plant with the developer too, well, then, you’re just shit out of luck, aren’t ya?
for those of you who are wondering, and I certainly was, Nurse Edna doesn’t seem to realize what’s going on and should you waltz into her room wearing a radiation suit and holding a purple meteor, she will give the same spiel and send you to the dungeon.
Syd plays the same exact way as Razor.
Jeff has cool theme music but is otherwise useless. He can fix the phone but fixing the phone doesn’t get you an ending, it’s a means to an end and you can get the stuff in Edna’s room by just having her drag someone to the dungeon. Supposedly, he was meant to intuit the door combination by getting an electric shock. But that doesn’t solve the Purple Tentacle problem.
This is very much a 1950s transposed to the 1980s thing, from Dave’s leather jacket and cheerleader girlfriend to nuclear everything.
We’re not complaining.
This time, we won’t get the cheese.
I waited this long to get the Tentacle’s full speech because I kept running around grabbing objects and reading them.
Someone in Nintendo caught wind that they didn’t remove this in the American version (or first 30,000 copies or first 300,000 copies or something but nobody’s found an American rom or cartridge in which you can’t) so in Europe this happens instead.
Further research tells me that Maniac Mansion didn’t sell enough copies to justify a second pressing, but the first pressing consisted of some 250,000 units.
I thought it was only Nintendo of America that was infamous for their censorship policies. I mean, Europe had Terranigma. You can’t microwave a hamster in that game but there is a lot of religious imagery.
Exploded Hams. It’s an Albany expression.
Ah, Weird Ed, I hope you’re ready for an unforgettable luncheon.
You can read the tombstone even when you’re dead.
Huh, I think they all have different responses.
Uh oh! Sid really ticked off Weird Ed and Jeff is totally useless. Whatever shall we do?
We have no choice but to go down with the metaphorical ship!
1. Send someone in the pool and then refill it when they’re in there.
2. Microwave a jar of pool water
Steam! From the steamed hamsters we’re having!
To kill off all three characters, it’s surprisingly difficult, mostly because one of them has a pretty good chance of ending up in the dungeon and if they’re the only kid left alive and you don’t have the rusty key, they’re never getting out of the dungeon.
In the computer version, you could make a recording of the Tentacle Mating Calls and play it in Green Tentacle’s room and the screen would go dark. Obviously Nintendo was against that and that form of death isn’t even in the prototype.
Ways to blow up the mansion:
1. Fun fact: when I checked and realized I forgot to take a screenshot of it, I opened up the European version and was struggling to find it. Turns out they may have fixed that bug by then.
A book told me to input 9111. Another online guide said 0000. It really is just almost everything but it’s actually possible to use a hex viewer or just sheer luck to input some numbers. And if you pull it off successfully, guess what. Nothing happens.
it’s a holdover from the DOS version, in which you needed to enter a code from the Nuke’m Alarms booklet to unlock the door. Or you could read the warning as Bernard and he’d get cocky, try to hack the door, and blow up the mansion.
2. When a sign tells yo not to press that big red button
you must then press exactly that big red button.
3. Drain the pool. Ludicrous speed go!
4. Turn off the power to the mansion.
Then park yourself near the circuit breakers and the Purple Tentacle will capture you, throw you back in the dungeon, and forget what he’s doing.
Then engage Ludicrous speed.
I actually learned here that cutscenes can occur even when you’re in the middle of the getting captured cutscene.
It takes like five minutes of real time.
6. logically getting hit by the meteor’s radiation wave should only kill that one kid but i guess the game would softlock or something so I guess it blows up the mansion.
We can have some fun with Mark E. Teer as well. Warning: Doing this may render your game unwinnable depending on which characters you’re using.
Broken record.
Unedited manuscript.
Tentacle mating calls.
The vase breaks but the tv remains intact.
If we play them in the living room stereo, the chandelier shatters. There’s a rumor that you could have another kid stand at just the right pixel and they’d die.
Now we can reach that old rusty key.
It opens the dungeon door without someone else needing to push the brick. You know, just in case you want the everyone dies ending but already had someone in the dungeon. This tripped me up as a kid even with Nintendo Games Secrets because I had no idea how cassettes worked. They were kind of on their way out for listening purposes but there was no better way to get songs off the radio and make your own mixes for a while. And you never really need the key anyway.
I already put the manuscript in the envelope.
I had to load an earlier save to do this. This is what happens when you send a blank cassette tape.
Odds and sods, mostly from the European or prerelease version.
The Green Tentacle can’t drink the whole can so you have some left over for the plant.
If you give the hamster to Weird Ed, he’ll be your friend. He can’t do anything to help you unless he has his package and his developed plans.
In the European version, if you try to microwave the hamster as Razor or Syd, it doesn’t happen and you get this dialogue instead.
Here’s some beta version stuff.
The scumm u. banner was removed early on but the object is still there. Despite SCUMM being the name of the engine, Nintendo objected to it.
Wendy’s theme. Someone says that it’s actually in the key of C. You’ll have to take their word for it. I wouldn’t know a key signature if it bit me on the hey hey.
Bernard’s theme. He’d probably be in to Aphex Twin.
What is was supposed to display this message but that command is gone.
Whoa, spoilers much.
Looks like 9:00.
Here’s some stuff from the beta.
Obviously, Nintendo objects to even artistic nudity.
The statue is blocking that hidden panel so they must not’ve caught it.
If you read the statue, you get this message.
Translation: If found, send to the Louvre, postage paid.
Miss 21st Dynasty.
Boys got this message from Edna.
They objected to the sucked out part, not the pretty brains part.
The implication here being that Dr. Fred is now eating people to sustain himself.
I don't know. Either the heavy breathing implies something sexual or Nintendo just didn't want impressionable kids getting any ideas. But pretending to be your dead relative is perfecty okay.
burning question: what do you think the arcade games played like? In my headcanon, Meteor Mess is an Asteroids clone and Tuna Diver plays like Jaws for NES.
I took over 700 screenshots and even though I giffed a lot of them, I'm still amazed this posted. And the result is this: a walkthrough of Maniac Mansion that may not be the most comprehensive out there but it does show off a hell of a lot.
Back before they were called LucasArts.
There was a tv show. I actually knew about the tv show before I knew about the game and when I saw the game, I was like “hey, is that based on the tv show I never watched.” I want to say it was on the same station as the Super Mario Bros Super Show but I can’t say for sure when it’s been this long.
And by loosely, I mean “there’s a Dr. Fred and he lives in a mansion and there’s a seckrit lab powered by a meteor that may or may not be purple but it’s very definitely non-sentient and isn’t turning Dr. Fred evil.” but everyone else is different. The children are Tina, Ike, and Turner.
They don’t even have the tentacles. I mean, it’s a Canadian sitcom and they probably don’t have the budget for that kind of stuff.
Dave has excellent theme music but is otherwise useless.
Alas, Sandy’s his girlfriend and that means we have to bring him along.
Bernard’s good with electronics. He’s also the protagonist of the sequel.
Wendy’s an aspiring writer. She’s not on the box art for the game so maybe she was added as an afterthought. Most of the characters have surnames (Bernard Bernoulli, Jeff Woodie, Michael F. Stoppe, Dave Miller) but Wendy is just Wendy. Further fuel.
I don’t know if you need to read this to send things through the mail but it doesn’t hurt.
Things like that only happen in adventure games.
I picked Wendy and Bernard because it’s the most convoluted and therefore best ending.
that sign can’t stop me because I can’t read!
What d’ya know, it’s locked. Let’s go home.
Wait, this is an adventure game. Pull the door mat to reveal a key.
Can’t do anything with that door.
If you push that right gargoyle on the stairs, the door opens for a moment. But if you try to run for it, it will slam shut before you make it.
if you map out the mansion, these windows look into the dining room.
If you map out the mansion, the staircase probably just leads to a second floor of the library where there’s a can of gas for the chainsaw, not that you can do anything with it because it’s a non-violent game.
Ah, Chuck the Plant. He doesn’t do anything. He shows up in other LucasArts games and even obliquely in other games, except the demo of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he is instead LeChuck the Plant.
Too bad Dave can’t even fix a phone.
This is fine. I forget how long Nurse Edna gazes transfixed at the light in the refrigerator for but whatever, we need to go down to the dungeon.
I’m sending Dave even though he has by far the best theme music. You know, because he’s useless.
See, there’s even a Seckrit Lab down here.
And a loose brick. If you push the brick, you can open the door long enough for another character who is standing near the door to escape. There was a skeleton but I think Nintendo objected to that.
I’m not just not using Bernard because his theme music isn’t as good as everyone else’s. Bernard can’t get past the Green Tentacle. Right now, you should station him near the entrance.
I’ll stick with the brain and kidney pie, thank you very much.
We can take the chainsaw but not the knives.
We’re going to take everything inside the refrigerator. Well, except the ketchup stains.
Did I ever tell the story about my mom buying a chicken for dinner but leaving it in the trunk of the car?
This is where the term cut-scene comes from. Because it would literally abruptly cut from the gameplay. Or if you’re perceptive and playing from a floppy disk on the original version, you’d hear the disk drive spin up right before.
I kind of think Dr. Fred sounds like Doofenschmirtz.
You should take this as a cue that Weird Ed is going to the kitchen to get some food. I think this happens at more or less the exact time you raid their refrigerator.
In fact, I think the whole family sounds like Doofenshmirtz.
Or maybe Urkel in his case.
I don’t know where they’re storing all this stuff.
If you try to pick up the developer, it crashes to the floor and pours through that grate. Good thing it’s not important.
Ed is the only character who closes the door behind him. Actually, I think he might be the only character who even leaves his room when he’s not taking you to the dungeon.
I think this might be important somehow.
Hint hint.
I assumed Dr. Fred was Dr. Fred Edison, MD and not Dr. Fred Edison, PhD.
I don’t know why I’m assuming that, probably because his wife is Nurse Edna. He could be a DVM who specializes in tentacles and/or sentient meteors (a very loose definition of animal).
That answers my question.
It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times.
Tuna Diver started life as Thrill Kill. Nintendo objected to this.
Muff Diver must’ve been them trolling since they changed it to Tuna Diver afterwards. Or maybe it’s like Battle Chess’s queen, who came with a pet duck in order to distract the executives away from her, uh, assets.
His favorite snack is wax fruit.
There’s an unofficial fan remake of the game in which Wendy’s also freaked out by the tentacle.
On the box art, the wallpaper is blue and there used to be a What Is command. No rom of this prerelease is known to exist. It’s just known from the back of the box.
The third floor has only the room with the stairs and this darkroom.
These rooms shouldn’t exist, or at least, they’d just be sort of cantilevered above the ground.
the numbers include 0525 and 1977 (the day Star Wars came out) 1138, and I have no idea what 3412 is.
In the prerelease version, this room was also blue.
Ron Gilbert is the designer of Maniac Mansion.
We’ll be needing that key.
Edna is Doofenshmirtz with a falsetto.
We’ll skip these doors for now. Going in either of them gets you taken down to the dungeon and that’s no good.
This room is a lot sparser in the official release.
The Hunk-O-Matic makes you strong.
If you switch to a new kid while using it, it will transfer that strength over to them. Great for speedrunning.
That’s right. 123 channels and all of them locked out.
I’m not sure I did that. Maybe he needs to pay Charon.
Useless but funny.
Weird Ed spends the game waiting for his package.
I didn’t actually mean to get caught.
But if you do get caught while inside the mansion, he forgets all about his package.
This is why I told you to station Bernard near the entrance. Neither Bernard nor Wendy are going to need the package but we’ll need those stamps.
but whatever, we had to go down there sooner or later for a few things.
Move those bushes out of the way.
With the strength given by the Hunk-o-Matic, this grate is nothing, I say, nothing!
Seriously, try to map out the Mansion. It’s like the Overlook Hotel, where rooms overlap and corridors loop back on one another.
The silver key you found in the basement unlocks the yellow door.
You also need super-strength to open that garage door.
Yes, I can see that.
The yellow key unlocks the trunk and starts the car.
it seems kind of paradoxical but you have to turn on the water valve to drain the pool and not turn it off.
Purple Tentacle is a stickler for energy conservation and will shut the lights off in the basement when he’s done in there.
You have five minutes to fill the pool again or else. Just get the radio (for batteries, if you care about using the flashlight) and the glowing key.
And Wendy can’t swim so get out of the pool.
Now we can turn the shower on.
Ted is pushed out of the way and we still can’t read it.
(1547, 2275, 3444, 5235, 7537. what these numbers mean i can not say)
Wendy can correct all the Meteor’s spelling and grammatical errors and plot holes.
The pool water is radioactive and if I learned one thing from B movies, it’s that radiation makes things grow to tremendous size.
using the paint remover on the orange blotch reveals a door.
This is Weird Lenny’s room and he’d thank you if you don’t tell anyone else how he lives. Now, you could have someone turn off the power via the circuit breakers in the basement and then fix the wires with the tools but there’s no point in doing that.
you can technically get eaten by the plant but you have to be in this room before you gave him the pepsi and that’s impossible. he’ll eat you and say YUM!!
Look through the telescope. Yay.
Make a save.
Put a dime in the coin slot and rotate the camera left to get this easter egg.
Then reload the game because that was a waste of a dime and you only have so many.
Since Weird Ed forgot all about the package earlier, we can still distract him with the doorbell. Otherwise, we’d have to lure him out by bringing someone in.
I think there’s a point at which Weird Ed stops paying attention to the doorbell.
The card key is behind the hamster. We also need some of Weird Ed’s spare change for the telescope.
Which I forgot to actually take for some reason.
Dr. Fred ignores you if he encounters you.
If you’re wondering what the door looks like from behind.
Now we can call Edna. They must have separate phone lines.
For whatever reason, Edna thinks it’s Dead Cousin Ted talking even though his mouth is all bandaged up.
This is the most annoying part of the game. If you had a big magnifier, like, say, a telescope, you could read those numbers but the painting is in the way so to read the numbers, you first have to move the painting, meaning you either have to distract Edna some more or you have to get out of the dungeon, schlep all the way back up to the telescope on the top floor.
the safe combos are 3621, 0120, 1230, 1029, and 4186.
And it’s always the last one you try.
She has different lines for girl characters.
This scene just shows up randomly.
Wendy does not approve of wanton cruelty to hamsters.
We’ll steam the envelope open so that we can reuse it.
Make sure you use sink water and not pool water.
This doesn’t happen immediately. But once it does. you get to spend the next five minutes bumbling around in the dark. Now, you could take advantage of this moment and go upstairs and fix the wiring but once again there’s no reason to do that.
And now we play the waiting game.
Waiting waiting waiting.
Eh, the Waiting Game sucks. Let’s go back to Maniac Mansion.
Have Bernard take a vacuum tube out of the downstairs old fashioned radio and bring it up to the shortwave radio.
Then use the number to contact the Meteor Police. And make sure the door is open. If you call three times without opening the door, they’ll shut the metaphorical door in your face.
If you don’t fix the wiring in the attic, the code for the inner door will be 0000. Otherwise, it will be 7572, 5858, 3301, or 8640, whatever Fred’s high score on Meteor Mess is.
I’m surprised 1936 doesn’t show up anywhere.
apparently you can’t save or load the game in the endgame sequence. hm. let me try that. Makes sense. You could softlock yourself.
the pepsi machine is a deliberate red herring. you’d get a number that you could try to input in the machine that wouldn’t work. but someone didn’t like it.
Don’t go in here without a radiation suit.
He may be a telepathic meteor but he isn’t stupid.
And this is what happens if we call the meteor police and give the contract to the meteor before they show up.
But wait, there’s more.
There are two more endings I can get with these two.
If you don’t call the meteor police and bring the contract, this happens. If Wendy’s dead, Sandy’s standing there instead.
If the meteor police arrive before you give him the publishing contract, this happens.
He drops a badge.
Purple Tentacle will switch sides.
He’s with me now.
Originally they wanted to use shit-head but even LucasArts objected to that.
that’s how it could have happened
Razor and Sid are basically the same thing with different music.
The creators’ original vision was for them to be young kids but someone’s like “no, it makes more sense for them to be teenagers.”
If Weird Ed doesn’t see you, he’ll say this and then close and lock the door behind him.
I basically spent this playthrough reading things I didn’t realize could be read.
I know I’ve found blank tapes behind things.
The gas specifically for chainsaws is in Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders but there is no chainsaw to be found.
Try using the stove and this happens.
If you try to get the gravy stain.
I forgot to gif this one.
You can record yourself playing piano on the blank tape.
And here I thought they reproduced by budding.
Loom is a Lucasarts game from 1990, and apparently that music is actually from Loom.
If you’re wondering, and I was, the broken record is merely called Sound Effects Record in the computer version.
If anyone else but Wendy uses the manuscript in the typewriter, this happens.
You stupid meteor.
It’s around this time where I tried reading the CD player and learning that everyone’s theme music has an official title and even a fake band to go with it.
And also you can’t read in the dark, silly.
And of course we got to go down to the dungeon.
But what if…
We’re already breaking and entering. Or even burgling.
Give the package to Weird Ed.
The batteries in the flashlight run out eventually. The new batteries that you find in the radio work forever.
I thought that was his hair. No, he’s wearing a beret to go with that whole military theme.
just don’t steal the hamster in his presence or Weird Ed will never forgive you. And that would ruin your no “new kid” command playthrough. And I’m going to let you on a little secret. It can’t be done because you start as Dave and Dave can’t win the game on his own. But if you had an exemption for changing to another character at the beginning of the game, well, it’s easy enough to get the dungeon key early on.
There’s no way to distract Edna so there’s no way to get the envelope. Well, I guess you could use the Freeze Edna glitch but you still need to distract Weird Ed so you can get the card key and still get the stamps on the package. And I believe the Freeze Edna Glitch requires switching at least temporarily.
And then i’m like, Bernard could do it with some precise timing to get the hamster and therefore card key but then I realized that Bernard can’t get past Green Tentacle on his own.
If you want the card key, you’re going to need someone else to go in and distract Ed.
The plans he wants ended up outside.
I don’t think you can expose the film to light in this version. Even if you’re in a dark room like the library, he won’t open it up.
Sometimes handing things to other characters gives you messages.
oh. it’s the developer that kills the plant. i thought it was the paint remover. if someone’s up there, they’re stuck forever.
Good thing this mansion has a convenient darkroom.
He says ten minutes but what he actually means is that he’ll show up once you open both doors.
Meanwhile, we sent Razor’s recording to Mark E. Teer.
We’re going to have Dave show this off to the Tentacle for one very specific reason.
Because now Dave’s dead.
If you die in certain ways, you can move around as a ghost. You lose anything you were carrying and you can’t interact with objects, so it’s kind of moot.
It doesn’t matter what kid enters the secret lab once you’ve befriended Ed.
But this time he can’t turn off the machine! And the self-destruct sequence is still running!
You can use that quarter for the machine if you want to. There’s no point.
Put the meteor in the trunk.
And he’s off to terrorize some other planet.
And this is why we had Dave take the fall for Razor’s mishap: because the ending scene only changes when Dave’s dead.
Here’s what you’re supposed to do.
Good job.
Read the card key.
It’s easy to trip up here. We want a contract for the Green Tentacle, not for ourself. So get that tape from the Tentacle.
And then, after going through all that bullshit with Nurse Edna (since we lack Bernard or Jeff, we can’t prank call her) and the envelope and the mail and all the waiting.
Ludicrous speed go!
And give THAT contract to the Tentacle and he’ll let you join his band.
They may say that when they take the Pepsi so either they don’t actually drink it or Dr. Fred, before he turned evil, invented the bottomless Pepsi can, which I can only assume taps into alternate universes, and I can also assume that the carnivorous plant in the den eats the entire can and that’s why he keeps burping forever.
Try starting the car and see what happens.
I hope you got the stuff first.
And when we’re ready.
Oh yeah, I launched the edsel by mistake. Whatever shall I do. Well, if this was the computer version, your only option is to turn the game off and restart.
also, the gate locks itself in the endgame sequence.
The developers of the Nintendo version added this solution.
if you killed the plant with the developer too, well, then, you’re just shit out of luck, aren’t ya?
for those of you who are wondering, and I certainly was, Nurse Edna doesn’t seem to realize what’s going on and should you waltz into her room wearing a radiation suit and holding a purple meteor, she will give the same spiel and send you to the dungeon.
Syd plays the same exact way as Razor.
Jeff has cool theme music but is otherwise useless. He can fix the phone but fixing the phone doesn’t get you an ending, it’s a means to an end and you can get the stuff in Edna’s room by just having her drag someone to the dungeon. Supposedly, he was meant to intuit the door combination by getting an electric shock. But that doesn’t solve the Purple Tentacle problem.
This is very much a 1950s transposed to the 1980s thing, from Dave’s leather jacket and cheerleader girlfriend to nuclear everything.
We’re not complaining.
This time, we won’t get the cheese.
I waited this long to get the Tentacle’s full speech because I kept running around grabbing objects and reading them.
Someone in Nintendo caught wind that they didn’t remove this in the American version (or first 30,000 copies or first 300,000 copies or something but nobody’s found an American rom or cartridge in which you can’t) so in Europe this happens instead.
Further research tells me that Maniac Mansion didn’t sell enough copies to justify a second pressing, but the first pressing consisted of some 250,000 units.
I thought it was only Nintendo of America that was infamous for their censorship policies. I mean, Europe had Terranigma. You can’t microwave a hamster in that game but there is a lot of religious imagery.
Exploded Hams. It’s an Albany expression.
Ah, Weird Ed, I hope you’re ready for an unforgettable luncheon.
You can read the tombstone even when you’re dead.
Huh, I think they all have different responses.
Uh oh! Sid really ticked off Weird Ed and Jeff is totally useless. Whatever shall we do?
We have no choice but to go down with the metaphorical ship!
1. Send someone in the pool and then refill it when they’re in there.
2. Microwave a jar of pool water
Steam! From the steamed hamsters we’re having!
To kill off all three characters, it’s surprisingly difficult, mostly because one of them has a pretty good chance of ending up in the dungeon and if they’re the only kid left alive and you don’t have the rusty key, they’re never getting out of the dungeon.
In the computer version, you could make a recording of the Tentacle Mating Calls and play it in Green Tentacle’s room and the screen would go dark. Obviously Nintendo was against that and that form of death isn’t even in the prototype.
Ways to blow up the mansion:
1. Fun fact: when I checked and realized I forgot to take a screenshot of it, I opened up the European version and was struggling to find it. Turns out they may have fixed that bug by then.
A book told me to input 9111. Another online guide said 0000. It really is just almost everything but it’s actually possible to use a hex viewer or just sheer luck to input some numbers. And if you pull it off successfully, guess what. Nothing happens.
it’s a holdover from the DOS version, in which you needed to enter a code from the Nuke’m Alarms booklet to unlock the door. Or you could read the warning as Bernard and he’d get cocky, try to hack the door, and blow up the mansion.
2. When a sign tells yo not to press that big red button
you must then press exactly that big red button.
3. Drain the pool. Ludicrous speed go!
4. Turn off the power to the mansion.
Then park yourself near the circuit breakers and the Purple Tentacle will capture you, throw you back in the dungeon, and forget what he’s doing.
Then engage Ludicrous speed.
I actually learned here that cutscenes can occur even when you’re in the middle of the getting captured cutscene.
It takes like five minutes of real time.
6. logically getting hit by the meteor’s radiation wave should only kill that one kid but i guess the game would softlock or something so I guess it blows up the mansion.
We can have some fun with Mark E. Teer as well. Warning: Doing this may render your game unwinnable depending on which characters you’re using.
Broken record.
Unedited manuscript.
Tentacle mating calls.
The vase breaks but the tv remains intact.
If we play them in the living room stereo, the chandelier shatters. There’s a rumor that you could have another kid stand at just the right pixel and they’d die.
Now we can reach that old rusty key.
It opens the dungeon door without someone else needing to push the brick. You know, just in case you want the everyone dies ending but already had someone in the dungeon. This tripped me up as a kid even with Nintendo Games Secrets because I had no idea how cassettes worked. They were kind of on their way out for listening purposes but there was no better way to get songs off the radio and make your own mixes for a while. And you never really need the key anyway.
I already put the manuscript in the envelope.
I had to load an earlier save to do this. This is what happens when you send a blank cassette tape.
Odds and sods, mostly from the European or prerelease version.
The Green Tentacle can’t drink the whole can so you have some left over for the plant.
If you give the hamster to Weird Ed, he’ll be your friend. He can’t do anything to help you unless he has his package and his developed plans.
In the European version, if you try to microwave the hamster as Razor or Syd, it doesn’t happen and you get this dialogue instead.
Here’s some beta version stuff.
The scumm u. banner was removed early on but the object is still there. Despite SCUMM being the name of the engine, Nintendo objected to it.
Wendy’s theme. Someone says that it’s actually in the key of C. You’ll have to take their word for it. I wouldn’t know a key signature if it bit me on the hey hey.
Bernard’s theme. He’d probably be in to Aphex Twin.
What is was supposed to display this message but that command is gone.
Whoa, spoilers much.
Looks like 9:00.
Here’s some stuff from the beta.
Obviously, Nintendo objects to even artistic nudity.
The statue is blocking that hidden panel so they must not’ve caught it.
If you read the statue, you get this message.
Translation: If found, send to the Louvre, postage paid.
Miss 21st Dynasty.
Boys got this message from Edna.
They objected to the sucked out part, not the pretty brains part.
The implication here being that Dr. Fred is now eating people to sustain himself.
I don't know. Either the heavy breathing implies something sexual or Nintendo just didn't want impressionable kids getting any ideas. But pretending to be your dead relative is perfecty okay.
burning question: what do you think the arcade games played like? In my headcanon, Meteor Mess is an Asteroids clone and Tuna Diver plays like Jaws for NES.
