This is my SCUMM | Maniac Mansion

THIS IS MY

Maniac Mansion

Year: 1989 (third release)
Country: United States
Format: 3.5″ / 5.25″
Box condition: VG

What’s in my box:
3 floppies , codes viewer , Nuke’m Alarms , manual

TRIVIA

- Technical specs according to the label: IBM^®. PC, XT, AT, PS/2™, TANDY^®. VGA, EGA, CGA, MCGA & Hercules. Joystick or mouse optional. 3.5″ and 5.25″ disks enclosed. 384K RAM.


	IBM DOS v2 "Enhanced version"

- My box is actually the third release from 1989. It differs from the first and second release mainly regarding the back covers:

First release from 1987¹
(here Apple II, also available for C64)

Second release from 1988¹
(here for C64, also available for IBM DOS v1 and Apple II)

- Because it featured the word “Lust” the original box got banned from Toys R Us which resulted in the redesign (my box).²


	A story of "Lust"

- The very same box came out for Atari ST, Amiga, Apple II (with different spec labels).

- The first box to get the famous “swirl paint” background.

- The logo on this box is the second version:

1987, 1988

1989

- The box features the company’s new simplified logo for the very first time (it is also the first self-published game by Lucasfilm Games):


	Logo from 1982–1987³	Logo in 1987 (until 1991)³

- The game's cover art was drawn by Ken Macklin. Here is what he remembers:

When Gary [Winnick] and Ron Gilbert began developing Maniac Mansion I knew all about it because I saw Gary frequently though I was working on other games and projects at the time. I had seen his sketches and many screenshots for about a year before he asked me to do the cover which was later in the development. [...] Gary had some ideas and provided me with character sketches. I remember we were looking at movie posters we liked at the time for inspiration. I did several roughs but we hit on the composition we liked pretty quickly. I was working in acrylic and gouache on illustration board then and all my illustration was done in my small bedroom home studio.

The painting took about three days to complete, I remember Gary and Ron coming over to my house one night because Ron wanted to see the painting in progress. The original art was about 16x24 inches and remained property of Lucasfilm.⁴

- The mansion on the front (and in the game) was inspired by George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, where Lucasfilm Games was housed and the game was developed.⁵


	Main House at Skywalker Ranch⁶

- The mansion on the front cover does not seem to have a porch (the in-game mansion has one).

- The giant head in the sky is supposedly Dr. Fred like early cover art sketches suggest (although it’s highly inconsistent with the art on the back cover and in-game):


	Early box art concept by Gary Winnick⁷

- The front cover depicts five of the seven playable characters: Syd, Dave, Bernard, Razor, and Jeff with Michael (the only non-Caucasian...) and Wendy (a woman...) prominently missing (reason unknown).

Another early concept art by Gary Winnick⁷ with all seven playable characters including Wendy and white Michael

- Dave was loosely modeled after Ron Gilbert, especially the character's mode of dress.⁵


	The Maniac Mansion team back in the day (from left to right): Carl Mey, Ron Gilbert, David Fox, Gary Winnick⁷		Brad as Dave imagined by Len Peralta⁸

- Dave wears a Lucasfilm Games t-shirt:


	Lucasfilm Games tee

- The background for the back cover is a full-size fake hallway set built only for this purpose. The costs for a small model hallway were estimated higher.⁹

- Steve Purcell is responsible for the portrait of the Edison family on the back cover. He painted it in oils over one weekend, inspired by the haunted mansion portraits at Disneyland.⁹ Purcell keeps the original painting framed in his house!¹⁰


	Steve Purcell holding the original painting¹¹

- The family portrait on the box features five members: Dr. Fred, Ed, and Edna plus the man-eating plant and Green Tentacle (close to invisible on my box, too dark). The in-game version, however, only four (with Man-eating plant missing). Completely out of the picture: Purple Tentacle and Dead cousin Ted.

			The awesome in-game portrait (plant room)
	The original portrait for the box art¹²

- The skin color of all three human Edisons is "perfectly normal" on the box family portrait. In-game though it’s cyan (IBM DOS v2 and Amiga; third release only). No explanation for this is given in the game.

- “IBM screens shown”, according to the box. It surely looks like the “Enhanced version” (DOS v2), although the colors are a bit off. Let's have a closer look in form of GIFs:


	Screenshot 1: Bernard checking out radioactive slime in the cellar		Screenshot 2: Razor locked up in the dungeon		Screenshot 3: Razor meeting Green in the hallway of the second floor

- It is impossible to recreate the third screenshot of the box in the game.


	Screenshot 3 (box)		Screenshot 3 (in-game)

When you get to this point in the game, Green is standing further to the right. And there is no way of pushing him to the left. On top of this, he speaks in a “green” instead of a "yellow voice". So maybe screen 3 on the box is from a beta DOS version of the game?

- “Just point ‘n’ click… no typing ever!” is indicating that typing, a then-common input method in adventure games, is not required in this game. Ever! As a matter of fact, Maniac Mansion introduced the verb-object interface, designed to eradicate the frustrating command-line guessing game.

- Ed’s hamster seemingly likes to hang out with the mouse gang of the mansion (underneath the third screenshot).

Ed's hamster

HOME

References:
(1) https://www.mobygames.com/game/maniac-mansion/cover-art. 2020/01/14.
(2) https://youtu.be/WD64ExGHBWE?t=2050, https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/909984277588148224. 2020/01/02.
(3) https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/LucasArts. 2020/01/02.
(4) http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/ken-macklin-the-cover-art-for-maniac-mansion/. 2020/01/02.
(5) https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/123780/GDC_2011_Ron_Gilberts_Odd_Collection_Of_Maniac_Mansion_Memories.php. 2020/01/02.
(6) https://www.planete-starwars.com/actualites/autre-28-minutes-de-rogue-one-diffusees-au-skywalker-ranch-n17292.html. 2020/01/02.
(7) https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/27496/page4. 2020/01/15.
(8) http://geekaweek.net/2012/05/legends-of-videogames-ron-gilbert/. 2020/01/15.
(9) Retro Gamer. No. 116. 2013. P. 30.
(10) https://mixnmojo.com/features/sitefeatures/LucasArts-Secret-History-Maniac-Mansion/3. 2020/01/13.
(11) https://mixnmojo.com/media/galleries/Maniac-Mansion-Concept-Art. 2020/01/13.
(12) http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/06/maniac_mansions_edison_family.php. 2020/01/15.
(13) https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Maniac_Mansion#Higher_quality_graphics_in_V2_.22enhanced.22_version_.28ScummVM.29. 2020/01/16.