Still don't know what the chainsaw is for... :P Welcome to Season 8 of Ancient DOS Games! Kicking things off this year, Gemini is taking a look back at Maniac Mansion, one of the first inventory-based adventure games to rival what Sierra was doing with their adventure titles, originally released by Lucasfilm Games in 1987 for the C64 and Apple ][, with the original DOS port following in 1988, and an enhanced DOS port following in 1989. The thing which made this game unique was its ability to select different characters to bring with you into the mansion in order to bring about different potential endings, thus once you know the basics of how to win there's a lot of different ways to approach things. However, the game is short and if you DON'T know how to complete a run, entering a unwinnable state can happen far too easily and it doesn't help that it can glitch out too. ------------------------------------------ Additional Information and Corrections: * If you'd like to acquire the game from GOG, follow this link: https://www.gog.com/en/game/maniac_mansion * Or, if you'd prefer to get it on Steam, follow this link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/529890/Maniac_Mansion/ * So it turns out you CAN beat the copy included with DotT. Part of the reason I didn't think you'd be able to is because normally there's a giant security door in the mansion which serves as the game's copy protection, whereby if you fail to input the right code the whole house goes up in a giant mushroom cloud. However, double-checking this with the copy included with DotT, that copy has been hacked to FORCE that door open. Heck, if you try to close it, it just stays open! :o * One minor "correction" is that I think if you miss intercepting the package you might still enter an unwinnable state if you're relying on Michael's skills to clear the game, however, I'm not actually 100% certain on this, since normally giving the package to Weird Ed makes him your friend, but I think doing the same with the hamster also achieves this, but I don't know if this triggers a particular thing to happen or not which is normally triggered by giving him the package. I'll update this if/when I get more conclusive info on this particular set of circumstances. ------------------------------------------ Pixelmusement Website: https://www.pixelships.com ADG on Pixelmusement: https://www.pixelships.com/adg Alphabetical Index of ADG Episodes: https://www.pixelships.com/adg/index2.html Kris' Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/kasick @ pixelmusement.com on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/pixelmusement.com ------------------------------------------ Chapters: 00:00 Title and Intro 05:44 Game Stats 11:19 Gameplay 22:02 Overall 22:55 DOSBox Configuration 24:18 Credits