Zeusthecat

The Big LucasArts Playthrough

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I honestly don't think there are any items you can waste and never use again, right guys? Possibly there's some way you can waste something and never get it back but I might be getting it mixed up with Zak McCracken.

 

Definitely getting anyone captured is not going to get you stuck, because I think at some points you have to be captured no matter what. You just have to know how to escape every time.

 

Also isn't there a special ending if you manage to kill Dave at the last minute but then beat the game anyway?

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I played some more today and made a little more progress.

 

I finally found the loose brick in the dungeon and was able to get Wendy out of there. From what I can tell, Bernard will have to stay in there until I find some keys for those two padlocks or something because it doesn't look like the door stays open long enough for him to push the brick and run out. Once Wendy was freed I got another key which opened the door to the pool and garage. I'm thinking I might be able to use the chainsaw I found on the tree out there once I find some gas for it. Other than that I'm not sure how to open the garage or get the stuff in the pool (unless there is a way to drain the pool and use the ladder to climb into it).

 

I also discovered that I could put the old batteries in the flashlight so I assume at some point I will need to use that in a dark room. Or maybe there is some mechanic behind me flipping the circuit breakers and killing the power in the house where the flashlight comes into play. From there, I started going back through the rooms to try to figure out what to do next. I saw a key in a chandelier which I can't reach yet, a depressed tentacle (maybe I should give him that tentacle food), and a television that gives me an address to mail stories to (maybe I can find a stamp and mail the manuscript to that location using the mailbox out front). I also noticed you can pull one of the gargoyle heads to open the door to the dungeon.

 

Now that I know I can escape the dungeon I'll also try running into those other rooms that have Edison family members in them to see if I can get any items. I also need to figure out what I am supposed to do with that record player and recorder. I've already recorded a tape with the old record and regular record but it didn't seem to do anything special when I brought it back to the tape player to play it. Then there's always more pixel hunting I guess, which I'm not too fond of as a puzzle mechanic unless it is an actual distinct item that can be seen in the environment.

 

As I was writing this I saw your post syntheticgerbil. I'm pretty sure I'm SOL if I use the paint remover in the wrong place. Dave made a comment when I used it about how I wasted it on something useless so I'm pretty sure that that's the game telling me that I'm screwed. I also managed to blow up the house already and kill everyone but it was no big deal with my constant saving. It's also worth mentioning that I'm keeping a list of all the items I've obtained and I'm taking notes whenever I figure out the use of an item or if there is some possible clue in a line of dialog (such as the address from the news on the tv). My notes so far are "key stuck in chandelier", "I used the weight machine", "pulling gargoyle head opens dungeon area", and "222 skyscraper way, I need a stamp though".

 

Edit: I am a chronic re-writer of sentences so these posts take much longer to write than (or is it 'then'?) they should.

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Yeah, you can waste a lot of items, but there are also a lot of red herrings. 

 

I will tell you something important, except for Dave each character has a skill, except for Dave, which means each character has it's own way of beating the game and some rooms are useless if you don't have a certain character. 

 

As for time limits, the package can be ignored if you have the right characters, or you could just leave a character outside until it's there. As for the other time limits, the game directly tells you about them in their own way.

 

You can only die by ignoring these time limits or in mostly obvious ways, but you can still win as long as you have a character left. As for wasted items, yes, the pain thinner is one of them, while game warns you when you messed up, it sometimes does not when some items "run out".

 

I'll give you some hints in spoilers for your notes. 

 

Hmm, that address is for a publisher and Wendy is a writer...

So doors are too heavy for weakling teenagers, good thing you buffed one up!

What shatters glass?

You can distract some of the Edisons or get them out of their room, one should be obvious, the other involves a mummy.

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I honestly don't think there are any items you can waste and never use again, right guys? Possibly there's some way you can waste something and never get it back but I might be getting it mixed up with Zak McCracken.

 

A few.

 

The paint remover, as has already been cited.  Cruel bit of design there.  

 

In the original game, your character rips the envelope if he tries to open it, rendering it useless for mailing, though that doesn't necessarily leave you with a fail state.  (In the NES version, the character will say, "A quarter slipped out of the envelope," so the envelope will stay preserved for when you go on to steam it open.)

 

There is also an incredibly obscure way to lose the developer fluid soaked up by the sponge, so obscure that I doubt anyone ever fell victim to it: by using it on the man-eating plant - also killing the plant.

 

The meteor police will refuse to come again if you stand them up three times.  Again, depending on your situation, this doesn't necessarily fuck you over.

 

It's the dead-ends in this game that are problematic, not the death scenarios, which are fairly reasonable and foreshadowed to the point of being downright groundbreaking in a genre where it was not uncommon for you to instantly die by walking off the wrong side of the screen or something.  Most of the deaths are basically humorous "rewards" for deliberately trying something stupid, though whether that's fair in a game where you pretty much have to try everything with everything is debatable.  I'm even more unsure of what to think of the bizarre Tentacle Mating Calls death scenario.

 

Zeusthecat, saving often and in multiple slots as you're already doing is pretty much the most effective hedge.

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This isn't a hint, Zeus don't read this until you're finished with both Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken, assuming you're playing both.

I'm thinking I might be able to use the chainsaw I found on the tree out there once I find some gas for it. 

 

I don't know much about Maniac Mansion or Zak McKracken, but I do know about this!  I laughed so hard when I read this.  If only he knew...

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I played a little more last night and got the small key from the nurse Edison lady's room. I also got the hamster from the other guy by using Bernard as bait to get him to leave the room to lock Bernard up and then quickly sneaking in with Dave. I thought I remembered someone saying something about putting a hamster in a microwave in this game so that was the first thing I tried and that didn't seem to work. And as far as the paint remover goes, I found the paint spot and used the remover to uncover that hidden door where I found a room with some exposed wire. Not sure what to do from there.

 

So I think I've officially got all of the obvious stuff out of every room I can reach right now and need to do some thinking/pixel hunting to progress further. I'll toil for a little while and probably click the spoilers Tanukitsune provided before too long. Overall my impressions of this game so far are pretty good. It is definitely lacking the polish of the Monkey Island games but it is pretty respectable, especially for a game coming out of the 80's where difficulty levels were notoriously high.

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The reason you've heard about microwaving the hamster is because Nintendo's desire to have it removed gave it a certain infamy.  It's not a puzzle solution, though - just something random that you can do if you have Syd or Razor on your team. You get killed if you show the results to Weird Ed.

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Ah, gotcha. Thanks for clarifying, it was really bothering me that I couldn't microwave that little bastard.

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I'm not even going to but a spoiler on this one... how much have you explored of the outside of the mansion?

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I've explored the whole front area and saw the mailbox that I could open and raise the flag along with the bush that I could remove from the grate. I also saw the pool area and garage.

 

With the mailbox, I assume I will be able to mail something out at some point. Not sure about what I can do with the grate or how to open the garage. And I'm thinking I might be able to use my chainsaw on the tree near the pool (not sure what that would get me but it seems like an obvious place to use it).

 

I plan to play some more tonight and will probably start using those hints if I don't make any more progress after an hour or so. I like the game so far but I don't feel nearly as compelled to try to solve everything on my own.

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Okay, here's the real spoiler you need right now.

 

A character must use the Hunk-O-Matic machine twice for it to be effective.

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The reason you've heard about microwaving the hamster is because Nintendo's desire to have it removed gave it a certain infamy.  It's not a puzzle solution, though - just something random that you can do if you have Syd or Razor on your team. You get killed if you show the results to Weird Ed.

 

Actually, Nintendo either didn't care about or didn't notice the hamster. They mostly complained about the vaguely sexual stuff.

 

It's an interesting read.

 

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They did raise a stink, but only after the fact.  Hamster in the microwave was to be removed from all subsequent printings.  Since there was only one printing in North America, all US cartridges have the feature (a prevailing misconception is that it's some kind of rarity), but the PAL version has it removed.  The character will instead say something humorous when you try to use the hamster with the microwave.

 

Crockford's article is pretty famous, and as he states the graphical stuff in the submitted prototype that Nintendo demanded removed was nonetheless featured in the game's Nintendo Power preview.  A ROM of that prototype is floating around the internet, by the way, for the curious.

 

I also own some other magazine preview that must have been provided assets taken from an even earlier version of the port, because a screenshot of the arcade room features "KILL THRILL."  In his article Crockford indicates that this would have been self-censored to "TUNA DIVER" before they even submitted it to Nintendo.

 

EDIT: I had forgotten that I had actually uploaded scans of these previews to Mojo among other miscellaneous magazine clippings.  They were originally from my ancient Maniac Mansion fan site.  http://mixnmojo.com/media/galleries/Maniac-Mansion-Press'>Check 'em out.

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Update from last night:

 

I went back through the rooms to search more thoroughly and found a few more things that I had missed before. I found a sponge in the bathroom, a key card in the room with the hamster, and dimes in the piggy bank. I also messed around more with the tape recording and found that when I played the recording from the 'record' downstairs the chandelier shattered and I was able to get the rusty key. I also tried giving that tape to the depressed tentacle and he promptly raped me to death. If I didn't know any better I would think my last sentence was a joke but he seriously said something about that music being mating music, rushed me, and then I had a tombstone outside of the house. Fucking weird.

 

I used the sponge with one of the water faucets and eventually found that I could put the water in the developer tray in the dark room. I'm not sure if water is supposed to go there or something else but I bet I will need to develop a picture at some point. I also tried using the sponge in various slime puddles but had no luck. 

 

As far as the keys and key card goes, I have no idea what they are for. I have several keys now and none of them seem to work on any of the locked doors, drawers, or cabinets. Maybe there's another area in the house I haven't reached yet?

 

I am also thinking the dimes I found will be used on the arcades once I can get power to them. I am hoping that fixing the exposed wire in the attic room will do the trick but I'm not sure yet how I might do that.

 

I made enough progress last night that I'm still not quite ready to use hints, although I did click on the spoiler for items you can use early that make the game un-winnable. Thanks again for that!

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I also tried giving that tape to the depressed tentacle and he promptly raped me to death. If I didn't know any better I would think my last sentence was a joke but he seriously said something about that music being mating music, rushed me, and then I had a tombstone outside of the house. Fucking weird.

 

This forum has contained good posts and bad posts.  This is a great post.

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I used the sponge with one of the water faucets and eventually found that I could put the water in the developer tray in the dark room. I'm not sure if water is supposed to go there or something else but I bet I will need to develop a picture at some point. I also tried using the sponge in various slime puddles but had no luck. 

 

As far as the keys and key card goes, I have no idea what they are for. I have several keys now and none of them seem to work on any of the locked doors, drawers, or cabinets. Maybe there's another area in the house I haven't reached yet?

 

I am also thinking the dimes I found will be used on the arcades once I can get power to them. I am hoping that fixing the exposed wire in the attic room will do the trick but I'm not sure yet how I might do that. 

 

I love thoughts like this.  They reveal how adventure games turn us into kleptomaniac horders, picking up every possible thing on the off chance it might be useful later.  I also love the blind puzzle solving that goes on.  Working a few steps into a puzzle solution even though you have no idea what problem you're trying to solve, doing certain actions for no reason other than the fact that the game allows you to do it, or seeing something that could happen if you had the right item without any indication that such an item exists.  Makes me wish I could erase my memories and play these games for the first time again.  I envy you Zeus.

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I love thoughts like this.  They reveal how adventure games turn us into kleptomaniac horders, picking up every possible thing on the off chance it might be useful later.  I also love the blind puzzle solving that goes on.  Working a few steps into a puzzle solution even though you have no idea what problem you're trying to solve, doing certain actions for no reason other than the fact that the game allows you to do it, or seeing something that could happen if you had the right item without any indication that such an item exists.  Makes me wish I could erase my memories and play these games for the first time again.  I envy you Zeus.

 

I feel very lucky to be playing these for the first time at my current age. If I had played these as a kid I might not fully appreciate how special that first time through one of these games is and just taken the experience for granted. I think that is partly why I am putting so much effort into solving the puzzles without using a guide. Those little bursts of glee when you finally solve a piece of the puzzle make everything worth it and would probably never be experienced again on subsequent playthroughs. I am having a blast with these games and being able to share this experience with others makes it even better. It will be a sad day when I reach the end of my journey.

 

Another thing I am starting to realize is that the process of blind puzzle solving (as you put it) in these games is starting to impact the way I think about problems in real life. It isn't really a significant impact but I have noticed now when I am troubleshooting a problem with our software at work, the way I organize my thoughts and eliminate possible causes is just slightly different. Likewise, the way I troubleshoot problems at work has had an influence on the way I approach puzzles in this game. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like these games are tangibly improving my thought process when working through a puzzle, that is until you have to hypnotize a monkey to use him as a wrench.

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I made a bit more progress last night.

 

After looking around for awhile longer I finally went outside with Dave and tried opening the garage door. To my surprise it opened. I had kind of dismissed it before as another locked door that I didn't have a key for but after thinking about it some more I vaguely remember the game telling me the door was too heavy or something. So I bet I was able to open it because I lifted those weights with Dave. That's kind of fucking cool.

 

Once in the garage I was able to use one of my keys to unlock the trunk of the car and get the tools. I also got the faucet handle for the shower upstairs. From there it didn't take me too long to figure out that Bernard could fix the phone with the tools and that I could call Edna's room from that phone using the phone number written on the wall behind the shower. I'm not sure where it goes from here though. Edna answered the phone but nothing seems to happen from there. I also tried the number on the wanted poster thinking maybe I could get the police to stop by or something but nothing happened when I called that number.

 

So now I have a chainsaw with no gas, a flashlight with dead batteries (i used up the old batteries pretty quickly), a sponge, a couple more unused keys, a key card, a hamster, and a bunch of other seemingly useless stuff and items that have already been used. My thought process right now is that I need to figure out how to fix the wires to bring electricity to the arcade room and use my dimes on an arcade for some reason. I also think I can fix those stairs that are out of order but I don't think I have what I need yet to fix it.

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Keep thinking about the Edna angle now that you have the phone repaired.

 

As for the batteries, they may be used up forever. I don't know if they are exactly needed, but I think otherwise you have to pixel hunt in the dark, which is bad design.

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Where did you get the batteries? Is this the only set you have? I could swear there was two?

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Keep thinking about the Edna angle now that you have the phone repaired.

 

Thanks. I will ponder.

 

 

Where did you get the batteries? Is this the only set you have? I could swear there was two?

 

I got some 'old batteries' right after getting into the mansion. Don't remember where exactly but they went dead pretty quickly after turning on the flashlight. Maybe there are some more batteries but I haven't found them yet. Something else to ponder.

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As for the batteries, they may be used up forever. I don't know if they are exactly needed, but I think otherwise you have to pixel hunt in the dark, which is bad design.

 

No, he's not screwed.  The old batteries are deliberately useless, and the new ones are needed.

Edited by Udvarnoky

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