Leaderboard

New insult sword fighting is going to be intense.

Like when link opens a chest without shoes? 😅🥰

https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1558126253328125952?s=21&t=zM1aeizHL8dxMJRw1jbGWg We’re gonna have #monkeyislandmonday and tuesday? 😍

Yes, I do remember Guybrush being uncharacteristically horny in that game, especially for being a married man

https://www.eurogamer.net/the-secret-of-monkey-island-saw-25-of-its-dialogue-cut-before-release Interesting, didn’t know that! But funny as at my last playthroughs I really enjoyed the dialogues in MI1 and 2 (snappy and always funny/interesting!) and on the other hand felt that many of the dialogues in CMI and EMI were too long and sometimes a bit boring. Found myself several times just skipping the lines…

I hear 25% of the games original dialog is down there...

Called it 😎

I can see why it was removed, though. It doesn't make sense when running the game from CD. (Multi-CD games were still a few years away, I believe?) But I agree it's a shame. Particularly since both MI2 and MI3 make references to that stump joke. It is still in the VGA floppy version, though.

EGA has its plus sides, definitely. And I appreciate things about the close-up pictures like Estevan's tragic face and Carla's hair continuity, and how Purcell made them resemble PotC animatronic guys. The loss of the stump joke is a historic tragedy. A lot of bugs in VGA are ridiculous. But I still love the VGA closeup art more, and the inventory icons. The VGA sprites link me visually to the MI2 sprites for Elaine, Voodoo Lady, Stan, and dream Guybrush. And even though Stan's ship theme is hated by most of you... when I play through EGA again and get to it, I might just play the music on my phone. That being said, the thread was made to praise EGA's strengths over what VGA lost. I just had to contribute anyway!

REMI is going to let Guybrush drop several f-bombs.

Weren't there a bunch of sexy baritone @Dmnkly lines in EMI? Rated M for M-eow.

I'm going to repeat what I've been fixated on this year: haggling against Stan is so much more amazing than I ever knew while growing up. If you're getting the Sea Monkey for 5000 with no extras, then you're letting Stan win. Get those Porthole Defoggers at least; you pay for them anyway! Speedrun All Swag: Walk away twice, offer 2000, offer 5000 twice Speedrun Don't Walk Away: Reject 5 extras (technically only the 4 after defoggers matter), offer 2000, offer 5000. Best Value: 3000, porthole defoggers, another extra of your choice (get the elevator; it sounds expensive!) Ultimate Talkie Edition: Get to hear Stan say his "two thousand LOUSY pieces of eight" line

I’ve noticed sometimes in conversation that there’s confusion, which I share in, about how many distinct versions of Maniac Mansion there are, partially because of the way they’ve come to be labeled. Specifically, you’ll often see the computer versions bisected into “v1” and “v2”. When people use those terms, they tend to be talking about the two main graphic representations of the game, also commonly referred to as “original” and “enhanced” (and sometimes, “low-resolution” vs. “high-resolution”). Despite the implication, there are in fact more than two versions of the game, even if you limit the scope to computer releases. I thought I’d try to lay them all out. The impetus for digging into this was really for me to get a handle on the release history of Maniac Mansion myself, but why not destroy other people’s time by sharing what I’ve learned? A bit of housekeeping: The packaging images are taken from The LucasArts Museum, where you can find photos of virtually every printing, inside and out. Screenshots come from MobyGames. Grab a can of Pepsi and some wax fruit and let’s begin… Release #1 The original release of Maniac Mansion was published for the Commodore 64 and Apple II in the fall of 1987. Nailing down exact release dates for older games can be tricky, but it seems it was a simultaneous release for both platforms in October. Here’s the front/back of the C64 box: And below are some screenshots from the C64 version. The Apple II presentation is a bit jankier, but they fundamentally have same graphics. Amusing trivia about the packaging: The spiel on the back of the box caused a bit of a ruckus due to its use of the word “lust” in that list of nouns on the right. Apparently, a parent shopping at Toys R Us noticed it, dropped dramatically upon their fainting chair, and complained to management about the obscenity that had been unleashed unto children. The retailer banned the product from their shelves, and thus marketing cleaned up their act for all subsequent releases. Release #2 A couple of months later, in early 1988, the game was ported to IBM PCs (and since MS-DOS was the operating system, this is interchangeably referred to as a DOS port) as well as re-released on the Commodore 64. Here’s the front/back packaging of this release: Note that the back is redesigned. In terms of graphics, this release is nearly identical to the first release, and thus falls under the umbrella of the “v1” designation. Notably, the logo has been re-imagined into its more familiar “meteor tails” design, as you can see on the box along with a new tagline. The logo change is reflected in-game, on the character selection screen and opening sequence: There are other, more subtle visual differences compared to the original C64 version, but logo aside, screenshots from this release are virtually identical to the first release. On the audio side, the game is a bit quieter than the 1987 version, which had constant crickets in exteriors as well as a sound effect for the characters walking. Maybe these ever-present sounds were deemed annoying? Who knows. Also, when I look at a playthrough of the original C64 version, I find that the characters walk at a decent clip and the cursor movements are silky-smooth, whereas this DOS version was always painfully slow in that regard. I think ScummVM “fixes” the walk speed, but if you play this version authentically (either on an actual DOS machine or via emulator like DREAMM or DOSBox) you’ll experience the choppiness I’m talking about. Finally, the IBM version of this release introduced the “Nuke’em Alarms” copy protection, which C64 and Apple II versions never had. Instead, the door ahead of you upon reaching the second floor landing is just a regular door. Release #3 Finally, in 1989, the game was released yet again, this time with enhanced graphics (which is what people tend to mean when they talk about “v2”). In addition to being a re-release for IBM and Apple II, the game was further ported to Amiga and Atari ST with this version. Here is the front/back of the packaging, which features the familiar marble border typical of Lucasfilm Games titles from this period. Notice the studio came up with yet a third tagline, and gave Ron and Gary movie-director-style named credits that the studio came to take pride in. Note also that the rear packaging also has an all-new design, featuring an amazing oil painting of the Edison Family portrait by Steve Purcell. (I’ll also point out, since it’s sometimes misattributed, that Purcell is not responsible for the cover art for Maniac Mansion – that credit goes to Ken Macklin.) Here are a few screenshots from this version, which is probably the most familiar one in the PC realm: Note when comparing the graphics that this isn’t an EGA vs. VGA situation like with Indy 3, Loom and Monkey 1. The “enhanced” version of Maniac Mansion is characterized by higher resolution compared to the original, which allowed things to be rendered in a bit more detail. Noteworthy about this version is that the Edisons are depicted as having green skin. The Nintendo port carried on that idea, while Day of the Tentacle opted to revert the family to flesh color. As the credits on these old games aren’t great, I am not sure who drew the enhanced graphics – perhaps it was Gary Winnick himself? Later in 1989, this exact same version of the game was reprinted in a budget release for IBM – same box, but with less paraphernalia inside (no dormitory bulletin board poster!), a single 3.5” diskette (IBM customers got both a 3.5” and a 5.25” in the preceding package) and cheaper printing choices for the manual(s) and diskette label. There were a couple of other games that received this kind of budget reprinting that year, including Indy 3. You can compare the contents of the full-bodied version here with the cheapo version here. The "enhanced" version of the game is also what was found in the Classic Adventures pack (a compilation of the first five SCUMM games) in 1992. However, the version included as an Easter Egg in Day of the Tentacle (1993) was the “original graphics” DOS version (1988). In Day of the Tentacle Remastered, they decided to make the game-within-a-game the “enhanced” version instead. Today, When you buy Maniac Mansion standalone from Steam or GOG, it’ll launch by default as the “enhanced graphics” version (which by now has come to specifically mean the 1989 DOS port), but if you back out of the game to the ScummVM launcher, you’ll find that you have the data files for the “original graphics” version (which by now has come to specifically mean the 1988 DOS port) as well. Unfortunately, as with all the SCUMM games offered on digital storefronts that come bundled with ScummVM, you don’t get the native interpreter. The Console Ports The first console release was for the Famicom (the Japanese equivalent of the NES) in 1988. Its development outsourced to Jaleco (which also published it), it’s a version of the game notorious for its general weirdness. Perhaps that weirdness is why, when LucasArts decided to make an NES version in 1990, they opted to start over with their own 8-bit attempt rather than simply translating this release. While Jaleco remained the publisher of this port, it was developed by Realtime Associates in collaboration with LucasArts itself, and thus was a much better adaptation, censorship courtesy of a flexing Nintendo of America aside. Trivia: Dave Grossman, Tim Schafer, and Jennifer Sward all served as “object taggers” on this port during their SCUMMlette days – it may be the first credited role for all three of them. On the mythbusting front: You might have heard that Nintendo discovered the infamous hamster-nuking feature after the fact and forced its removal, thus making the pre-crackdown cartridges rare. This is only partially true. Nintendo did in fact discover the feature only after the game shipped in America, did in fact pitch a fit, and did in fact order that all subsequent printings remove it. However, the game didn’t sell well enough in the U.S. to justify a second printing (though the initial printing was a large one, I think of a quarter of a million units), so the removal only got applied to the international releases. Therefore, all U.S. copies have the feature, and all non-U.S. copies do not. The hamster-nuking cartridges are not rare, merely regional. Maniac Mansion Deluxe This is the fan-made VGA makeover that was released in 2004. It also removes some dead-ends that plagued the original game and adds a lot of observational dialog. (As the original game had a “Read” verb instead of “Look at”, there was unfortunately barely any incidental dialog.) I point this version out because the 256-color treatment is so tastefully done (and looking very Thimbleweek Park-esque indeed) that it’s sometimes mistaken for official. But the “enhanced graphics” release from 1989 is the last version of Maniac Mansion officially produced. At least, until they let Ron loose on a special edition…

Yes, in eleven days. Not sure what to expect. If there's a new trailer at gamescom, there's going to be a release date, because you can only do so many trailers. I also don't know what these gamescom openings usually entail (I've been in the physical vicinity of gamescom once in my life, and it was to meet Mark Darin, and I never ventured there ever again). Actual gameplay, just a quick ten minute sequence from the beginning part, would make sense to me. I'm sure Ron would love to finally show off the UI, verbs and inventory. It would be nice to have a little time with that, but I just don't know whether gamescom opening night is the thing to give Ron the time. Concerning the Monkey Island Mondays though, I think Monday they're finally giving us Elaine and the next Monday they're giving us nothing, or just a peek at the gamescom stuff.

But hey, if you're not playing Bernard? It's nice to have the phone puzzle to replace "get caught by Edna then sneak someone else through then get caught by Edna again".

Perhaps it's a new trailer, or exclusive reveal like new platforms/release date Oh, Randy. He and my adolescent self had our disagreements, I admit. And some of that was just me being a teenage fanboy of the stuff I liked, I think. But it is pretty funny to read that now. I agree with some of what he's saying there, these days, but he did have a certain way of putting it, didn't he? (The 'Rugrats Crowd?')

My line wasn't from Escape ... 🦊

You would be correct that @Trapezoid made the music and by all likelihood forgot his password here and is now @Trapezzoid https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/401/

Was it supposed to be a hint that you could find the flowers in the forest?

How about the "It's impolite to stare at a woman's chest" line? 😄

Curse of Monkey Island Remastered updates the verb coin with a "kick" verb. Using "kick" on anything causes Guybrush to injure himself, holding the damaged leg while hopping on the other for a short animation.

Grog and the pirate life. I knew it'd get Guybrush in trouble one day! 😄

Are you sure you don’t mean Full Throttle’s verb coin?

Investigating the floppy VGA/CD releases a bit more, it looks like the original VGA releases were the only ones (besides the excellent Ultimate Talkie Edition) fixing the Jolly Roger continuity error in Part 2! You know, that part: The first time you see the Sea Monkey, it should be there, but once you're err… done cooking or quitting your crew, it shouldn't be visible anymore, since you must have picked it at this point (unless I'm messing something obvious…). This continuity error fix appears to have been lost when they ported the game to SCUMM v5, though (i.e. the releases with the new verbs and inventory). The Special Edition didn't fix this either. So, I'm working on bringing this original fix back to all the other releases within ScummVM (here's the code if you're curious), but this means that I must play Part 2 in all the different 6 game releases I have here! And yeah, you can tell ScummVM not to enable these enhancements if you prefer the original behavior, don't worry. EDIT: Ha! And it looks like only some versions of the VGA floppy release had that fix… My French VGA floppy version still has the buggy script.