Topic: Maniac Mansion (Famicom)

[TerraEsperZ]

This will be a little distraction since I don't have much time to map this week, and since I heard that a very different version of Maniac Mansion had been release on the Famicom (Japanese NES) two years before our version, I just had to find it and map it. Maybe I'll do the PC version one day, like I thought about doing a few years back. That,  or maybe the Deluxe fan-made game with 256 colors instead of 16. Anyway.



I should be finished with this either tomorrow or the day after. If anyone isn't familiar with this older port of the game, it looks bad. *Really* bad. Most rooms are now contained in a single screen, and they are now pretty much featureless except for the larger furnitures and items. Walls are mostly barren, and all the characters look like dinky little playskool figures.



About a third of the game was mapped today, and in truth the biggest hurdle is in noting how each item is named in japanese so I can find them again to use them. Oh, and it took me about 15 minutes to figure out where all the action verbs were located now, since their number is intact but they all changed place in the interface. Everything else is just point and click, thankfully.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[Grizzly]

I am looking forward to a full map of this version of the game. It is funny that a completely different port was released in Japan. But I suppose you know the original game very well? I never finished it, sadly. And also didn't get that far. I might try again some day, though. And I still want to play through Zak McKracken and map it afterwards but I never find time to do it.

[TerraEsperZ]

Maniac Mansion was one of the first game I ever played on the NES way back when, and I was later lucky enough to have a friend who had the enhanced PC version (320 x 200 pixels in 16 colors). I especially liked it when Nintendo Power would gives tips to resolve many of the game's intricate puzzles such as the whole procedure to open the Inner Security door to Dr Fred's Lab.



As for this particular version, I've hit some kind of snag. You're supposed to break open Weird Ed's piggy bank and steal the two dimes inside in order to rotate the telescope twice, but after breaking it, there are no dimes in side!?



What the hell am I supposed to do? Oh, and the various combinations from PC/NES games don't work, and neither does 0000... Has anyone ever run into such a bug?



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[Dan]

I wish I could help you out here.  I've played Day of the Tentacle, and just about every other adventure game made, but not Maniac Mansion.  I've never really been able to get into it.  I am looking forward to your map though - I love seeing the old adventure games mapped out, because they are my favorite genre.

[TerraEsperZ]

I've solved the problem thankfully. The dime was there, but appeared as a single pixel and the controls of the Famicom version are a lot worse than those of the NES version. In short, that means I should be done with this tomorrow at worst.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[TerraEsperZ]

The map is essentially finished and in the final formatting stage, i.e. making up my mind on how to arrange the rooms for best readability. It should be done tomorrow (for real this time).



In the mean time, enjoy a collage of the game's various characters in their uglified Famicom format! Do note that I'm missing two, namely Chuck the Plant (who's absent from the library, unlike other versions of the game) and Wink Smiley (the dude interviewing the Purple Meteor in several endings):







---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[TerraEsperZ]

It's finally done. I'm not happy with the room arrangement, but the fact that many "hub" rooms are now a single screen long meant that I had to put connecting rooms both above and below them. To compensate for that, I put dotted lines to separate the various floors. Enjoy!









---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[Grizzly]

I like the map, it looks interesting. Now what is only missing is the PC version of the game so one could compare them all.

[TerraEsperZ]

I've started the "enhanced" EGA PC version, and it should be finished sometimes next week. I most likely won't be doing the fan-remake Deluxe edition, which is basically the enhanced EGA version for Windows with 256 colors background and a MIDI soundtrack, since it's not an official version.



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

I swear you people challenge me.  Sending me maps for obscure games, Japanese games, alternately named games, and here, a Japanese version that's considerably different.  



I guess I should either split that up, or combine the Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Genesis) and the beta version for consistency.  I'm leaning towards the latter.  Blaster Master and Shatterhand (both NES) have one area each that's different between versions, but that's nothing like a whole game that's the same but isn't.  Grrr!



I almost think I want to redesign the lame-o directory page to better indicate other versions.  Or actually learn how to make it a database-type thing instead of a strict listing.  That doesn't solve everything, but it could solve a lot.

[TerraEsperZ]

Oh crap! Reading this thread made me take a look at my map again and I realized that there's a blue square I forgot to remove next to the Laboratory that should have been the same color as the dark blue background.



Do you want me to send a corrected version?



---

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me