Maniac Mansion

Hint Book

de Jok Church, Ron Gilbert, Doug Glen, Brenda Laurel, John Sinclair

This is a hint book/strategy guide for the video game "Maniac Mansion", it features a listing of all the items in the game, and what can be done with them, a diagram map showing the connections of the rooms within the mansion, solutions to all the puzzles, and a story formatted walkthrough by the games main character Dave Miller. The guide features text only, with a exception of the diagram map, that has red boarders around the names of each room. The first section of the book has blue text, with answers covered in red text that says "ManiacMansion-ManiacManasion" repeated over the solution. To read the answer the user must use a special red see-through plastic strip, that comes with the book. The final section of the book is a story written in the first person, in 28 "scenes". The story of the game is that a metorite crashes near a Mansion, that is inhabeted by stramnge characters similar to 'The Addamas Family'. The father of the house a mad scientist named Dr. Fred Edison, then kidnaps a local cheerleader named Sandy. The girl's boyfirend Dave, then sets out to get her back, along with the help of his friends. Of his six firends, he is only able to take two of them with him. The player then finds out that the meteor is evil, and has brainwashed Dr. Fred. The game, and several of its characters, were later featured in a Canadian television series called "Maniac Mansion", from 1990-1993. One of the writers of this 'Hint Book', Jok Church, would later go on to create his own mad scientist character named Beakman, for a comic strip, "You Can with Beakman", and subsequently for a television series "Beakman's World", which was on television at the same time as the "Maniac Mansion" television series. The book was purchased through a mail order form that was inside the games packaging. It originally sold for $7.95, and was item number "HB-LF1-Book". It was also available through the Lucasfilm/Lucas Arts mail order products, such as their "The Adventurer" magazine. It was later re-published for the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System {NES} in 1990.