MANIAC MANSION Typed in by THE TWINS of TRILOGY. Edited by PARASITE. THERE ARE WEIRD PEOPLE LIVING IN MANIAC MANSION Dr.Fred, a care professional whose hobbies would make a sailor blush; Weird Ed, a teenage commando with a hamster fetish; and then there's Dead Cousin Ted, and the Tentacle, and somebody- or something else... And what's a sweet young cheerleader named Sandy doing in Dr.Fred's basement? YOUR GOAL is to direct a team of three local college students (including Sandy's boyfriend Dave) through the mansion to rescue Sandy. As you explore, you'll meet all the strange inhabitants of the mansion, and you'll discover Dr.Fred's ambition to control the world-one teenager at a time. You'll find that each of the seven teenagers you can choose from has special skills, talents, and weaknesses. And each of the crazy occupants of the mansion has goals and desires that can help or hinder your team, depending on how you handle them. The story-and your approach to rescuing Sandy-will be different depending on which kids you choose and how you interact with the people and things inside the mansion itself. Each of the possible stories in Maniac Mansion is really a large, complex puzzle made up of scores of smaller puzzles. From time to time, movie-like "cut-scenes" reveal clues about the story and what's going on elsewhere. As you discover the smaller puzzles that make up each story line, you'll find that most will have to be solved in a certain order. There are always several ways to get something done-but of course, there is always a best way. Good luck! PLAYING THE GAME The first thing you will see after booting is the title screen with pictures of the seven kids from which you can choose your team. TO SELECT YOUR TEAM, use your mouse, joystick or keyboard to move the cursor over the kids' portraits and click on one that interests you . You will see a short biography of that kid at the top of the screen. Dave (Sandy's boyfriend) will always be on your team, soyou can select two other kids. The first two portraits you click on will be highlighted with a white border, like Dave's. The white border means that the character in the portrait is selected for your team. If you'd like to change your selection, just click again on the picture of the kid you don't want. The border will diappear and you can select another one. You can win the game with any team, but the story line and many of the puzzles you need to solve will be different for each combination. When you have completed your selection, click on "Start" to begin the game. After the title sequences, you will see your team standing in the driveway next to the mansion. When they all turn and face you, you will be directing the actions of Dave (you can switch control to a "new kid" if you'd like). 1) THE MESSAGE LINE is the line at the very top of the screen. Words spoken by any of the characters appear on this line, as well as game- related messages (for example, "PUT IN SIDE ONE AND PRESS ENTER"). 2) THE ANIMATION WINDOW is the largest part of the screen where the animated world of the mansion is displayed. It shows the "camera's eye view" of the room that the currently active character is in. 3) THE SENTENCE LINE is directly below the Animation Window. You use this line to construct sentences that tell the characters what to do. A sentence consists of a verb (action word) and one or two nouns (objects). An example of a sentence that you might construct on the Sentence Line is "Unlock door with key." Connecting words like "with" will be put in automatically by the program. 4) VERBS must be selected from the groups of words in the columns below the Sentence Line. You will always be able to see all the verbs used in the game - they will not change as the game progresses. To select a verb, position the cursor over the word and click. 5) THE INVENTORY is the area below the Verbs. Each character on your team has his or her own inventory. It is empty at the beginning of the game; the name of an object is added to a character's inventory when the character picks the objects up during game play. There is no limit to the number of objects a character can carry. When there are more than four items in an Inventory, an arrow icon appears in the middle of the list. Use it to scroll the list down or up. NOUNS (Objects) can be selected in two ways. You may select a noun by placing the cursor over an object in the Animation Window and clicking. Most objects in the enviroment, and all objects that are usable in the game, have names. If an object has a name, it will appear on the Sentence Line when you click on it. You may also select nouns by clicking on words in the Inventory. TO MOVE A CHARACTER AROUND, select "Walk to" from the Verbs by positioning your cursor over it and clicking. Then move your cursor into the Animation Window, point it where you want the character to go, and click. If you point to an open door and click, the character will walk through it. Notice that "Walk to" appears automatically on the Sentence Line after a sentence has been executed - this is because moving around is what your characters will be doing most often. TO TELL A KID TO CARRY OUT THE DIRECTIONS YOU'VE PUT ON THE SENTENCE LINE, either double-click on the final word selected, or click once on the Sentence Line itself. If nothing happens, double check the way you constructed the sentence. TO REPLACE A NOUN OR VERB ON THE SENTENCE LINE without reconstructing the entire sentence, simply click on the replacement word. It will appear in the right place in the sentence. "CUT-SCENES" ARE SHORT, ANIMATED SEQUENCES - like scenes from a movie- which can provide clues and information about the characters. When you are viewing a cut-scene, you do not direct the action so the text below the Animation Window disappears. KEYBOARD COMMANDS All of the verbs used in the game can also be selected by using keyboard commands. Each key corresponds to one verb. Pressing the appropriate key once is equivalent to moving the cursor over the verb and pushing the button; pressing the key twice is the same as double- clicking on it. The keys are mapped according to the layout of verbs on the screen. Q - Push W - Open E - Walk to R - Newkid T - Turn on A - Pull S - Close D - Pick up F - Unlock G - Turn off Z - Give X - Read C - What is V - Use B - Fix You can also select inventory items from the keyboard. On the screen, you can see four items at a time in the inventory list. Use the following keys: U - Scroll list up I - Upper left item O - Upper right item J - Scroll list down K - Lower left item L - Lower right item THINGS TO TRY READ THE SIGN ON THE FENCE. Select "Read" from the verbs and then click on the sign, creating the sentence, "Read sign." Click again to execute the sentence. Dave will walk over to the sign and will tell you what it says via the Message Line. DIRECT DAVE TO WALK TO THE MANSION by moving the cursor to the left edge of the screen and clicking. Have him continue walking to the left until he's in front of the mansion. TO GET INTO THE MANSION, try the sentence, "Unlock door with key." FIRST, select "Unlock" by moving your cursor over the door in the Animation Window and clicking once. "Unlock door with" now appears on the Sentence Line. THIRD, place your cursor over "key" in the Inventory list below the Verbs. By double-clicking on "key" you can complete the sentence and execute it at the same time. What, no key? Now, where would someone hide a key? SPECIAL VERBS AND FUNCTION KEYS TO SWITCH CONTROL FROM ONE CHARACTER TO ANOTHER, select the verb "New Kid." The names of the three kids on your team will appear on the Sentence Line. Place the cursor over the name of the new kid you want to control and click once. As a short-cut, you can use function keys to change kids, F1, F2 and F3 coorespond to the three kids on your team. The keys are in the same order that the kids' names appear on the Sentence Line when you select "New Kid." TO FIND OUT WHAT IS IN A ROOM, select the "What is" verb and move the cursor around the room. When the name of something appears on the Sentence Line, you'll know that it is an "active object and you might want to use it in the game. TO SAVE YOUR PROGRESS IN A GAME, so that you can turn the computer off and start again in the same place, use the "save" feature. "Save" will not work during cut-scenes. You can "save" up to ten games on a floppy disk or your hard disk, depending on how much free disk space there is. Previously saved games will have an asterisk next to them, for example: Game B. Simply press the Save/Load Game function key (F5) and follow the on-screen instructions. You may only save games on your Maniac Mansion Disk 1. If you installed Maniac Mansion on a hard disk, the saved games will be stored in the Maniac drawer. TO LOAD A GAME YOU HAVE SAVED, use the Save/Load Game function key (F5) anytime after Maniac Mansion has been loaded. You can do this during the opening sequence, but not during other cut-scenes. Follow the directions on the save-load menu. TO BYPASS A CUT-SCENE, use the right mouse button or the ESC key. After you've played Maniac Mansion several times, you may want to use this function to skip over scenes that you have seen before. To bypass the title sequence, press ESC instead of clicking on "Start." TO RESTART THE GAME from the beginning, press the F8 key. TO PAUSE THE GAME, press the space bar. Press it again to resume play. The game will automatically pause if you make no input for five minutes, and you will need to press the space bar to continue playing. THE CURSOR WILL CHANGE when the disk is being accessed or the game is paused; a picture of a snail replaces the cursor during these times. TO ADJUST THE SPEED OF THE MESSAGE LINE to suit your reading speed, press the < key to make the messages stay up longer or the > key to make them stay up for a shorter period of time. TO END THE GAME, press CTRL-C. FUNCTION AND COMMAND KEYS Switching Characters: Dave F1 Second Kid F2 Third Kid F3 Save or Load a Game F5 Bypass a Cut-Scene Esc or right mouse button Restart a Game F8 Pause Game Space Bar Message Line Speed: Faster > Slower < End a Game Ctrl-C End.