Maniac Mansion - Lucasfilm RRP œ24.99
  (Animated graphic adventure with "point-click" text input)

The sign on the college notice board said it all. Amongst the
pieces of paper advertising a local pizza shack, giving the
answers to next week's geology test and cut-outs from Edna
Dearest's agony column, was a sheet of paper put up by Dave.

    I need your help! Sandy's been kidnapped by Dr Fred -
    meet me at the driveway to Maniac Mansion, we've
    got to save her.                           Dave.

Who could refuse to help? Luckily, Dave (who is Sandy's
boyfriend) has several good friends to choose between - there are
Razor the lead singer in a punk band, Bernard the president of
the physics club (but a bit of a geek (?)), Jeff the surf king
and three others. Dave will go along, of course, but two others
can accompany him and you'll find that the game will play
slightly differently according to which ones you pick as each
character has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. So, for
instance, while Bernard will deal with electronic apparatus, the
others will say they don't understand it.

Maniac Mansion is an unfriendly place to visit, so it's
surprising there are so many possible volunteers! From the sign
outside warning that trespassers will be horribly mutilated, to
the chainsaw hanging conveniently among the kitchen equipment and
the disgusting pools of sticky red fluid seeping from under the
door of the refrigerator - oh, it's ok, ignore that last one,
there are some broken ketchup bottles inside the fridge! - the
atmosphere is unwelcoming to say the least.

And this is before you meet the inhabitants of the house. There's
Dr Fred the crazy scientist who has captured poor Sandy, his
nympho wife Nurse Edna, their strange son Weird Ed (and his
hamster), not to mention the rather peculiar plant life which
roams (yes, I said roams) the house. Perhaps it's all connected
with a strange meteor that landed near the mansion twenty years
ago today....

Of course, you're a trespasser so you'll have to bear in mind
that if any of these characters should catch you in their house,
you stand a good chance of being incarcerated in the dungeon and
from the look of the skeleton chained up there, some people NEVER
get out again.

This is the basic story of Maniac Mansion, another in the line of
excellent games from Lucasfilm and using the same system as Zak
McKracken and Indiana Jones. No typing is required, all character
movement uses point-and-click with the mouse and available
commands are listed at the bottom of the screen. These include
PUSH, GIVE, PICK UP, USE, FIX and WHAT IS and are used in tandem
with a click on the main graphic to select a visible object or by
clicking on an item in the character's inventory.

Another of the commands is NEW KID. This is used to switch from
one character to another and you will find you use this command a
lot as several problems require two characters to work together.


The graphics are similar to the other games too, taking up the
top section of the screen and they are very cartoonish in
quality. I felt they weren't quite as good as the ones in Zak (I
haven't played Indy so can't comment on that) as the kids seemed
a bit misshapen with rather over-sized heads (perhaps they've
done too much studying?) and a rather funny, rubber-legged walk,
especially when negotiating stairs. Zak suffered a bit from that
too but it seems more obvious in this game.

The game itself is great fun with plenty of places to explore and
an inordinate number of objects to collect. There is a lot of
humour in the game too, from Ed, Edna and Fred who star in the
cut-scenes which crop up at regular intervals while you play.

There are several clues to help you with certain problems in the
game. Some are given during the cut-scenes, others are found by
reading the messages on the college notice board mentioned
earlier, which is similar to the newspaper in the packaging in
Zak and is provided as a large poster in the package.

Sound effects are minimal but effective, from the chirruping of
crickets before the meteor lands to the ticking of the
grandfather clock in the entrance hall of the mansion and the
thud as a door opens or closes.

My main moan is the copy protection. Whereas in the C64 version
an open stair led up to the upper landing (I am told), in the ST
version this has been replaced by a security door with a keypad.
Using the keypad prompts you to input a certain series of symbols
from a booklet provided. Get the code wrong and a siren goes off
and - kaboom!! - the mansion, its contents, a large area of the
surrounding countryside (and you) are destroyed in a nuclear
blast. The codes have to be read through a sheet of red
transparent film. That in itself is no great problem but what
they fail to mention is that the colours on the pad are reversed!
I nuked the house several times before I realised what was
happening.

But, once you're prepared for that, Maniac Mansion is a really
good adventure to try. Lucasfilm seem to have found a winning
formula and are sticking to it - who can blame them? I'm eagerly
awaiting their next game "Loom" which will also use this system
and is designed by one of my heroes, Brian Moriarty. I doubt
that I'll be disappointed.

                                                Sue