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Fan-made Maniac Mansion 256 Color Remake 232

xDCDx writes "LucasFan Games have just released an impressive 256 color remake of Maniac Mansion. There is a sequel to Zak McKracken available too. Their website is scarce in details, but the games speak for themselves. It seems the perfect timing for this release, now that LucasArts is obsessed with killing the graphical adventure genre. (If only Ron Gilbert would buy Monkey Island rights and made Monkey Island 3a: The Real Story...)"
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Fan-made Maniac Mansion 256 Color Remake

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  • get it off p2p (Score:5, Informative)

    by brejc8 ( 223089 ) * on Monday June 07, 2004 @07:56AM (#9355507) Homepage Journal
    There is an 8 minute wait to download the game from the severs provided but you can instead get it from your favorite p2p. I found mine on edonkey (mld) just search for "mmdsetup.exe" for Maniac Mansion and "fanadv_zak2.exe" for Zak McKracken. About 16 sources of each.
    • Re:get it off p2p (Score:4, Informative)

      by frs_rbl ( 615298 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:13AM (#9355611) Journal

      Fine fine, let me just add a "special" present to the versions of mmdsetup.exe and fanadv_zak2.exe I'm just sharing off my kazaa...

      Obviously the point is, besides md5 checksums, do people really verify the integrity of (not pirated) binary files they download from p2p?

      • Re:get it off p2p (Score:4, Insightful)

        by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <revaaron@hotmail. c o m> on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:44AM (#9355817) Homepage
        Obviously the point is, besides md5 checksums, do people really verify the integrity of (not pirated) binary files they download from p2p?

        Do people really verify the integrity of *any binary file* they've downloaded, no matter how? Even with MD5? Most people do not, including slashdotters. p2p or otherwise.
      • Re:get it off p2p (Score:3, Informative)

        by Robmonster ( 158873 )
        I dont know about other P2P networks, but Emule/Donkey will detect your altered version as a completely different file, and so will not make it available to those downloading the original.

        It will see that the filehas h is different.

        However, if they happen to think yours is the original file from a search (rather than a confirmed ed2k link from the main website) then there is nothing stopping them from becoming infected.
      • If more people would start posting magnet links to their files, then you wouldn't have to.. The magnet link contains the MD5 (or whatever it is) checksum and that gets passed right to your P2P program. It can also contain HTTP sources to allow the P2P app to download from your website or several websites while simultaneously checking the P2P networks for sources as well.

        Oh, and don't use Kazaa. Not only is it the main network getting checked by the **AA, but the fact of the matter is that Kazaa doesn't ver
        • If more people would start posting magnet links to their files, then you wouldn't have to.. The magnet link contains the MD5 (or whatever it is) checksum and that gets passed right to your P2P program.

          It's a SHA-1 checksum (which is even more secure than MD5), but you get the checksum for the file, even if it's a trojaned one. The only way to verify is to compare checksums with the file from the original site.
  • A Hint (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07, 2004 @07:57AM (#9355512)
    Here's a hint: the front door key is under the doormat. It took me almost an hour to figure that out the first time around (but then I was only 7 years old).

    Also, watch out if you empty the pool ;)

    This game seriously freaked me out as a kid.
    • Re:A Hint (Score:5, Funny)

      by Eclypser ( 618863 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:27AM (#9355699)
      Dammit, why didn't I look there. I thought the game was so dumb because you couldn't even get in the house. Live and learn I guess.

      Man, I wish I was kidding about never getting in the house.
    • Re:A Hint (Score:5, Funny)

      by nkh ( 750837 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:56AM (#9355895) Journal
      I peed my pants the first time Nurse Edna chased me in the kitchen.
      • Re:A Hint (Score:2, Funny)

        by cuzality ( 696718 )
        [Mod parent funny.]

        Dude, I get a chill *now* thinking about it...

        It's been so long I don't remember why, but you *had* to go in there for something, and it was always freaky! I can remember clicking the move button in the opposite direction over and over like it would make the kid move faster...
        • It's been so long I don't remember why, but you *had* to go in there for something, and it was always freaky! I can remember clicking the move button in the opposite direction over and over like it would make the kid move faster...

          Patience, young Jedi.

          Leave the kitchen well alone to begin with, and explore the rest of the house. Nurse Edna will leave the kitchen after a while and stay in her room for the rest of the game. By the time you've got to the point where you need to feed Green, she'll probably

    • Re:A Hint (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07, 2004 @09:52AM (#9356312)
      Here's a hint: the front door key is under the doormat. It took me almost an hour to figure that out the first time around (but then I was only 7 years old).

      Ha, it's great; I read your comment, downloaded the game, and the very first thing I did was I accidentally right-click on one of the characters when I meant to left click. It caused the other character to start talking to him. She asked him, "So how do we get into the mansion?" And he said, "We can look for a key ... under the doormat."

      Bet you wish you'd done that when you were seven. :-D
  • Woo and yay (Score:5, Interesting)

    by oberondarksoul ( 723118 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @07:59AM (#9355519) Homepage
    Perhaps fan-inspired efforts like this will convince Lucasarts to resume development of the cancelled Sam & Max sequel they were making? Apart from Monkey Island, Lucasarts appear not to care for the genre they brought so much to in the early Nineties.
    • Re:Woo and yay (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Xpilot ( 117961 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:15AM (#9355631) Homepage
      Apart from Monkey Island, Lucasarts appear not to care for the genre they brought so much to in the early Nineties.

      Not just Lucasarts. It seems *nobody* cares about adventures anymore. Because it's just more profitable to make yet-another-3d-first-person-shooter-this-time-with -prettier-graphics!
      • KOTOR == adventure (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:57AM (#9355904)
        > > Apart from Monkey Island, Lucasarts appear not to care for the genre they brought so much to in the early Nineties.
        >
        > Not just Lucasarts. It seems *nobody* cares about adventures anymore. Because it's just more profitable to make yet-another-3d-first-person-shooter-this-time-with -prettier-graphics!

        Huh? LucasArts?

        Killing off Sam and Max was teh suck, but have you played KOTOR?

        Look beyond the 3D (it's purty!) and the fact that it has character stats/abilities a'la D20-based RPG. When I finished KOTOR, I didn't remember a damn thing about any of my characters' stats or class. For an RPG, that's unusual.

        But I do remember spending a lot of time navigating dialog trees where my choices had a greater effect on my character's development than anything I chopped up for XP. I also remember a game salted liberally with math and logic puzzles, none of which would have been out of place in an Infocom title, and I remember a story featuring character development of the player, evolving relationships between the player and the NPCs, and considerable exposition of the history of the early SW universe.

        It's ironic - George Lucas can't make a good movie to save his life. And yet, if you took a LucasArts/BioWare game, recorded it all the way through, edited out about 2/3 of the combat and "walking around town" between quests, you'd have about 2 hours of video that would better Star Wars movie than either of Episodes I or II. Go figure.

        KOTOR, at least for me, was a work of interactive fiction, not an RPG. (A feature, not a bug!)

      • Re:Woo and yay (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ctellefsen ( 625088 )
        Luckily, there are still adventure games being made.

        Funcom [funcom.com] is currently making the adventure game Dreamfall [dreamfall.com], which is the sequel to The Longest Journey [longestjourney.com].

      • Re:Woo and yay (Score:2, Interesting)

        by The Hobo ( 783784 )
        I agree, we need more of the good-old-fashioned text adventures, games like Rogue, the old Scott Adams adventures, and even ones with graphics like Hugo, while cheezy, were still pretty fun to play and figure out..

        Here's a link to some of the old text-based adventure games:

        http://ww1.freearcade.com/textadventures.html [freearcade.com]
      • Not just Lucasarts. It seems *nobody* cares about adventures anymore.

        I care about adventures.

        • Re:Woo and yay (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @12:02PM (#9357548)
          I do, too. I show that by going to the store and *buying* adventure games when they come out.

          The problem with these people who run around screaming "the adventure genre is dead!" is that I would wager none of them own a copy of The Longest Journey, or Syberia, or Syberia II, or Crystal Key or any of the adventure games that have come out in the last 5 years.

          You know why companies don't make as many adventure games as they used to? Because people like the ones complaining about it here don't go to the store and buy them when they come out! Why would anyone make a game nobody buys?

          Anyway, the sooner these complainers figure out that adventure games are still *there* and go buy them instead of making up crap about none of them existing anymore, we'll all be better off.
      • No, No, No!!! (Score:5, Informative)

        by tabacco ( 145317 ) * on Monday June 07, 2004 @12:23PM (#9357743)
        Doesn't anyone read my sig? :)

        There are usually a dozen or so adventures in development at any given time. Just because you don't buy them doesn't mean they don't exist. A few of them suck outright (usually the MYST clones), but there are a lot of great ones. Click through to Adventure Gamers [adventuregamers.com] and have a look at games like Dreamfall [adventuregamers.com], Fahrenheit [adventuregamers.com], and The Westerner [adventuregamers.com] among others. The adventure genre is not dead by quite a ways. It's just moved to Europe :)
    • More likely it will just inspire them to file a lawsuit against LucasFanGames. It didn't even take actual copyright violation for them to threaten the makers of ScummVM.

      LucasArts management is far too arrogant to admit that they made a mistake with the cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
  • Sweet :) (Score:2, Interesting)

    Damn u - I submitted this 3 weeks ago! Anyway - more to the point it's a pretty sweet conversion, works pefectly with win2K and brings backk all those memories of SCUM on the A500 :D
  • by Killjoy_NL ( 719667 ) <slashdot@@@remco...palli...nl> on Monday June 07, 2004 @07:59AM (#9355523)
    Putting the hamster in the microwave, pure genius.

    I can't hear a microwave go ping without thinking about that part of Maniac Mansion :)
    • I can't hear a microwave go ping without thinking about that part of Maniac Mansion :)

      Oh, God... I hear it in my dreams to this day!

      • The one thing that I've never forgotten was from one of the sequences at the beginning of the game where Nurse Edna says, "What's your point, Ed?"

        I'll say it every once in a while to someone, unforunately no one else makes the connection.

    • Egg go SPLORTCH! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Zawash ( 147532 )
      I keep thinking of the egg in the airplane microwave from Zak McKracken. The only way to get the oxygen tank (last bin, remember) was to egg the microwave.
      ..I've always wanted to test it myself, but I've heard enough horror stories of egg being found in the most obscure corners of the kitchen for weeks after such incidents.. :-D
      • by Anonymous Coward

        ..I've always wanted to test it myself, but I've heard enough horror stories of egg being found in the most obscure corners of the kitchen for weeks after such incidents.. :-D

        As a kid I placed an egg in the microwave under an a very heavy pyrex dish (ya gotta be able to see it ya know), and it slammed that pyrex into the top of the microwave and indeed did coat the interior of the oven with partially cooked egg carnage. What suprised me the most was the force of the explosion.

        Then again, I've heard sto

      • by nkh ( 750837 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:59AM (#9355927) Journal
        My dad tried it one month ago. I told him that I saw the same thing in Zak McKracken and he shouldn't do it.
        His answer was: Pfff stupid video games.
        I hope that taught him a lesson...
  • by Lispy ( 136512 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:00AM (#9355527) Homepage
    Looks like the will have to cancel their 256color version of Indy: The fate of atlantis [tentakelvilla.de].

    Now that it has been discovered [slashdot.org]...
  • by WegianWarrior ( 649800 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:00AM (#9355528) Journal

    I loved that game when I was younger... played it on my trusty old (even if it was newer back then ;) ) Commodore 64 until I could walk thru it with my eyes shut. Played it again when Day of the Tentacle came out.. in cause you havn't found it, the entire MM was included as an easteregg.

    Good memories... this will definitly be downloaded once I get home from work today!

  • No SCUMM engine? (Score:3, Informative)

    by AndyS ( 655 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:00AM (#9355529)
    Hrm, whatever they're using to host the file doesn't seem to like me...

    Not only that, but it looks Windows only (not using the *actual* scumm engine, but a free thing that's similarish)
  • Does this work with ScummVM? Or is it made in an entirely different engine?
  • Remakes (Score:5, Informative)

    by kaos.geo ( 587126 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:05AM (#9355564)
    If you start looking for remakes, you will find out one of the most active "scenes" is the Sinclair Spectrum games remakes. Check out www.remakes.org
  • by Anonymous Coward
    also have some remakes of older games, in this case the first two in Sierra's venerable King's Quest series. You can check them out at http://www.agdinteractive.com/
  • by zonix ( 592337 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:09AM (#9355587) Journal

    I played Maniac Mansion on my old pc back in the good ol' 80's. I remember it as being the absolute most difficult adventure game to complete. Did anyone succeed?

    I've been thinking about playing the original again with the help of the DosBox project. I just completed Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry: Enhanced. Pretty cool! Nothing beats nostalgia!

    I miss the 80's.

    z
    • by meringuoid ( 568297 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:17AM (#9355641)
      I played Maniac Mansion on my old pc back in the good ol' 80's. I remember it as being the absolute most difficult adventure game to complete. Did anyone succeed?

      Yep. Finished the NES version, though, which was a bit censored for content. Then went back and did it every way - launch the Meteor in the Weird Edsel, summon the Meteor Police, get the Meteor a book publishing deal... Then I looked for all the ways to blow up the house, and all the different ways of getting the Edisons to murder the kids.

      Remember, Maniac Mansion was back before adventure game designers saw the light and took out all the ways you could get into a no-win situation and not realise it for weeks... Accidentally wasted the paint remover, or the developer fluid? Too bad - you can't win. The nice thing about later games like Day of the Tentacle was that you could play as you saw fit, and know that no matter how badly you treated the NPCs you could _never_ get into an unwinnable position.

  • Best. Game. Ever. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by L3WKW4RM ( 228924 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:16AM (#9355638) Homepage

    The NES version of Maniac Mansion is to this day my favorite game ever. I discover new things about it still after all these years.

    It was actually a very interesting ordeal for the development team to get the game approved by Nintendo, The Expurgation of Maniac Mansion for the NES [crockford.com] gives some insight into how bland they required their games to be in those days.

    The sequel, Day of the Tentacle [adventuregamers.com], for PC was great as well. It's a shame that this game genre has died out.

    • The genre has not died out; its just not very commercial these days.

      Plenty of fan-games of all kinds including remakes.

      AGS (Adventure Game Studio) as used be these folks seems to be used to generate the best of the genre these days.

      Sam
    • It's a shame that this game genre has died out.

      Totally agree here. This game, and X-COM UFO defense are my 2 most favorite games of all time. True, it is a shame that this genre died out (or at least appeared to). Probably the biggest reason is that games of this nature gain nothing by the use of "STATE OF THE ART, 3D TECHONOLOGY!", which game developers have been using as their major selling point. Sure the game sucks to play, but look how realistic the blood splatters out of the Zorg soldiers!

      Plus,
    • The NES version was butchered.

      The Commodore64 version was the way to go!
      Hint: The mad scientist, nurse Edna, etc. don't really have blue skin.
  • 1) The chainsaw. It was always out of gas... how could you fuel it?

    2) The developer fluid. If you put it in the jar, and then microwaved it, it turned brown. Presumably this did something, but I never found out what.

    • by Zawash ( 147532 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:27AM (#9355701)
      The chainsaw could be fueled by the Chainsaw Fuel container found in Zak McKracken, which was useless without the Chainsaw, which only was found in Maniac Mansion.
      ..So: It's only a cross-game joke. ;)

      By the way, I'm selling these fine leather jackets..

      Cheers!

      Zawash.
  • by MemoryDragon ( 544441 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:28AM (#9355708)
    dont bother downloading it. The game uses AGS, and this one is ported to linux, but it relies on a plugin written in C++, which cannot be ported, since the Linux AGS version does not support plugins.
    • by L3WKW4RM ( 228924 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:42AM (#9355800) Homepage
      I just installed and ran it with CrossOver Office. It's not perfect (the resolution is a bit skewed, I had to manually switch X11 screen resolutions with CTRL-ALT-+, and had to use my windowmanager to get the mouse cursor out of the game and back to doing *real* work), but it's playable.

      I have not tried Wine proper, or dosemu.
  • I spent months playing this game, trying to find every secret, trying to find all the different diologs. I remember I spent 2 weeks trying to find the 2nd ending, I never found it or found out if it was just a myth. Something dealing with the purple tentical that ties to stop you, somehow you could befriend him, and something happenes.....

    O well, cant wait to download it.
    • Re:Great Game (Score:5, Informative)

      by meringuoid ( 568297 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:57AM (#9355908)
      I remember I spent 2 weeks trying to find the 2nd ending, I never found it or found out if it was just a myth.

      There were several ways to win.

      1) Summon the Meteor Police. Involves fixing the big radio using the vacuum tube from the one in the lounge. They arrive, and if you've opened the lab doors they'll storm right past Purple and Dr Fred, and arrest the Meteor. Then you just have to go in yourself and switch off the Meteor's mind control machine to release Dr Fred.

      2) Dispose of the Meteor yourself. Persuade either Green or Weird Ed to help you beat Purple, then go into the Meteor's lair, take it and launch it into space in the trunk of the Weird Edsel.

      Both (1) and (2) get much the same ending sequence: don't be a tuna head.

      3) Get the Meteor a publishing deal. Have Wendy improve the Meteor's manuscript using the typewriter, and send it off. Get past Purple (with either Weird Ed or Green's help) and go into the Meteor's lair. Give the Meteor the contract, and he realises he doesn't have to be evil any more. This gets a really cool ending where the Meteor's on the sofa in some TV interview show.

      4) Nuke the house. Several ways to do this: draining the pool, for instance, and letting the reactor overheat, or pressing the Red Button (which is marked 'Do Not Press - Under Any Circumstances)

      5) Get all the kids killed. Weird Ed will kill you if you mutilate his hamster, Green will kill you if you get a publishing contract for either yourself or the Meteor, radioactive steam will kill you if you microwave water from the pool, and if you refill the pool while someone's in it they drown.

      • Re:Great Game (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Dimensio ( 311070 )
        Get the Meteor a publishing deal. Have Wendy improve the Meteor's manuscript using the typewriter, and send it off. Get past Purple (with either Weird Ed or Green's help) and go into the Meteor's lair. Give the Meteor the contract, and he realises he doesn't have to be evil any more. This gets a really cool ending where the Meteor's on the sofa in some TV interview show.

        3a) Call the meteor police JUST before giving the contract to the Meteor.

        "I don't care if you've reformed. You're still coming with me!
      • 3) Get the Meteor a publishing deal. Have Wendy improve the Meteor's manuscript using the typewriter, and send it off. Get past Purple (with either Weird Ed or Green's help) and go into the Meteor's lair. Give the Meteor the contract, and he realises he doesn't have to be evil any more. This gets a really cool ending where the Meteor's on the sofa in some TV interview show.

        This is my all time favorite ending of any video game ever. I love it so much it's my sig...

        Ah, Maniac Mansion was such a great gam

  • by isolationism ( 782170 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:45AM (#9355823) Homepage
    ... But how will we ever make a sequel to Grim Fandango? By today's standards the engine is unremarkable. A remake could have more detailed graphics with the scenes rendered realtime; the characters were designed for very low-polycount rendering already.

    What really set Grim Fandango apart was the writing, and the audio. The music and the voice acting were second to none. Without them the game loses its character.

    In any event, the remakes likely won't get much further without having to start lifting audio, too -- I'm fairly certain LucasArts started doing that not long after Maniac Mansion 2...

  • Nostalgia (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Angry Black Man ( 533969 ) <`vverysmartman' `at' `hotmail.com'> on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:55AM (#9355891) Homepage
    Playing all of those old LucasArts puzzle games was my first PC gaming experience. And they were awesome.

    I hope this fan site will remake more classics like Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle, etc. etc. but those mihgt be under more strict copyrights I guess.
  • Help Request (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Doomrat ( 615771 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @08:56AM (#9355899) Homepage
    I'm doing a remake of the crap-classic Camelot Warriors [worldofspectrum.org], but I am incompetent when it comes to art [waz6.net] as this prototype for the knight shows (I gave up when I got as far as the arms). If anybody can draw, please help.
  • by Talonius ( 97106 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @09:15AM (#9356036)
    The New Adventures of Zak McKracken [schkerke.com]
    Maniac Mansion Deluxe [schkerke.com]

    There's also a FreeCache mirror somewhere in the article, if you want to use that instead.
  • Pfft (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pommaq ( 527441 ) <.es.yarps. .ta. .neraffarts.> on Monday June 07, 2004 @09:53AM (#9356323) Homepage
    Hey, what was wrong with Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island? IMO that was a superb game, the absolute pinnacle of the series, even if Ron Gilbert wasn't involved. Great dialogue, excellent art, and both music and sound were to die for (the pirate song still cracks me up, I even have it on mp3). Don't touch MI3!

    The fourth game, however, was... meh. The whole game just felt tired and strained, and the 3d look wasn't as vibrant and expressive (MI3 had only 256 colors and STILL manages to come out on top). They should pick up where part 3 left off, and in the same style.
    • Personally I think MI2 was the best in the series. I enjoyed MI3 a great deal, I think the voice acting was spot on. I like all the barber songs and the "Theres a Monkey In My Pocket" song :)

      However, I found myself getting rather bored with MI4. I just dont think it made the transition to 3D very well. The voice acting was just as good but it just looked....wrong. I dont think there were any sequences that gained anything from being in 3D. At least, none that I saw as I gave up quite early on.

      I also foun
  • i love this game (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07, 2004 @10:04AM (#9356417)
    This and Zak McKracken are two of my favorite games of all time. They don't make any good adventures anymore and it's a shame. These games showed how much fun you could have without 3d graphics, multiplayer, or even 256 colors.

    They were fully immersive in that you could roam around and complete the game the way you wanted to. In fact, Maniac Mansion had 5 different ways to complete the game if I recall.

    The game world itself wasn't incredibly complex but it gave the illusion that it was complete. And when you found something new, it was interesting (draining the pool, the observatory, edna's bedroom). Unlike like these 3d adventure games on N64 or gamecube where you just roam around and find mini puzzles. The world was more cohesive. So you felt like you had many options at your disposal and that made for a great adventure.

  • by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @10:58AM (#9356903) Homepage Journal
    I can't enter the site. I'm not Spanish, British, or German. :(
    • Nevermind! After a few hours of studying the page, I tried my Maniac Mansion technique of randomly clicking in places. Figured out how to enter! Now if I only I could find a Spanish dictionary...
  • OK with LucasArts? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by DrCode ( 95839 ) on Monday June 07, 2004 @11:27AM (#9357191)
    I looked throught the LucasFan site, and couldn't find anything about the legal issues. Wouldn't LucasArts have a valid complaint about them distributing a game that they have the rights to?

Someday somebody has got to decide whether the typewriter is the machine, or the person who operates it.

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