Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle
Platforms:
IBM PC/Compatibles,
Macintosh
Genres
Overview
IBM VGA version of Day of the Tentacle
Story and Gameplay
The game begins in the Edison's backyard where Dr. Fred's Sludge-o-Matic machine is polluting a stream. Purple
Tentacle drinks some of the water and it immediately transforms him; He grows arms, becomes an evil genius,
and announces his intention to take over the world. To prevent this, Dr. Fred captures both the Purple and
Green tentacles and is going to destroy them; Bernard learns of this and sets the tentacles free.
Now that Purple Tentacle has escpaed, Dr. Fred devises a new plan of going back in time to the previous day
to turn off the Sludge-o-Matic and thus prevent the mutation from ever happening. Three friends, Bernard,
Hoagie, and Laverne, enter Dr. Fred's time machines (which are called Chron-o-Johns due to their resemblance
to portable toilets). However, Dr. Fred used cheap components so instead
of being sent to the previous day, Bernard stays in the current time, Hoagie ends up 200 years in the past, and Laverne
is sent 200 years into the future.
Similar to Maniac Mansion, players control three characters; in Day of the Tentacle the characters are always Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne (there is no option to select different characters). Players can switch between characters at any time and many of the games puzzles will require cooperation between multiple characters. Since each character is in the same place but during a different time, they can't interact directly. Instead, items can be transferred between characters by using the time machines or by leaving items hidden in the past to be found in the future. The game uses a point-and-click interface similar to the one found in Maniac Mansion; along the bottom of the screen are a list of verbs that can be clicked on to start a sentence. By clicking on the desired verb followed by an item or person, the requested action will be performed (such is walking to a location, talking to another character, picking up an item, and so on).
As a bonus, the original Maniac Mansion in its entirety can be found and played within the game on a computer resembling a Commodore 64.
Similar to Maniac Mansion, players control three characters; in Day of the Tentacle the characters are always Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne (there is no option to select different characters). Players can switch between characters at any time and many of the games puzzles will require cooperation between multiple characters. Since each character is in the same place but during a different time, they can't interact directly. Instead, items can be transferred between characters by using the time machines or by leaving items hidden in the past to be found in the future. The game uses a point-and-click interface similar to the one found in Maniac Mansion; along the bottom of the screen are a list of verbs that can be clicked on to start a sentence. By clicking on the desired verb followed by an item or person, the requested action will be performed (such is walking to a location, talking to another character, picking up an item, and so on).
As a bonus, the original Maniac Mansion in its entirety can be found and played within the game on a computer resembling a Commodore 64.