Would you like a remake of Maniac Mansion?

[Babar]

I would really enjoy playing a MM remake using the newer SCUMM GUI, as I also remember how easy it was to miss stuff unless you clicked all over the screen with the annoying "what is" button. However, please make sure you know the original game through and through before making any remake, as there might be very obvious solutions that you missed and replaced with something much vaguer of your own design.

[DGMacphee]

1: It is the first SCUMM GUI game but because you couldn't use the mouse back in the late 80's/ early 90's which is pretty cumbersome especially to the ones who have only played the later SCUMM engine based games like Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle. Trust me, it took awhile for me before I got used to it but it felt somehow sluggish compaired with the SCUMM GUI you could use with the mouse. Also it's quite boring when you can't check a thing because there was no "Look at" commando or that you could talk to anyone (It makes more sense to talk to Green Tentacle or something because it can maybe give you clues to what to do better than just those comments.). I have tried "What is" commando but nothing happened, so that is better to change the old SCUMM GUI into the newer SCUMM GUI.

But... the original supports mouse already.

What's the point of remaking it for the purposes of mouse support when it already has mouse support?

See, the original KQ1 (and the Sierra remake) used a text interface.

Tierra remade it with a point-and-click interface -- similiar to KQ5.

2: You know about calling Nurse Edna puzzle? I have tried that one but every time I go inside the room with other kid she just catch you and that is a low point. I'm going to change that so that Edna will always be distracted when you sneak into her room while she's talking in the telephone. It's better that way.

I could always get throught the Nurse Edna puzzle without any problems.

3: I bet you haven't noticed those plot-holes in Maniac Mansion. At the beginning of the game you only see the text "20 years ago today", meteor crashes at the front yard and then the title comes before you see Dave and the other two kids at the front yard of the Mansion. I would make more sense if you made a longer cut-scene so you really see that Dr. Fred and the Edisons discovers the Purple Meteor, that he somehow controll Fred's mind into taking the meteor into the lab, that strange things happens in the mansion and finally 20 years later Dr. Fred kidnaps Sandy and take her to the lab. It's much better way to tell the story because it makes more sense. I played DoTT before MM and when I played MM some things confused me like that Dr. Fred is evil when he was just grumpy in DoTT. It would be better to know that the meteor is controlling Dr. Fred in the beginning rather than knowing at the end.

I think it's better without the explanations -- It's part of your job to piece the story together.

[Blackthorne]

Wow!  Such Controversy!  You'd think Janet Jackson just showed up, pulled out a titty and declared her intention to remake Maniac Mansion!

I loved Maniac Mansion, I've played it on every system, including NINTENDO!  It was fun.  I loved DOTT.  I looked like a fun, living comic book and was quirky.  Why not remake Maniac Mansion like DOTT?  No one is forcing ANYONE to play it.  If you want to play the original, PLAY IT.  If you want to work on a new one, Mats, do it!  Why not?  If you enjoy making it, and I'm SURE there are other's that would - and would gladly help, just do it.

These games are free.  No one is paying you to make them, or paying to play them.  If you think MM is fine the way it is, stay that way.  Don't tell someone they are wrong to remake it.  It's not like a remake replaces ANY kind of real version of a game anyway.

Bt

[Mats Berglinn]

Thanks Blackthorne for the great speech but I have decided to drop the project. However, only temporary. I have just done one game and it was only a pretty short game, so I'm going to finish those big games I have planned for a long time and maybe come back to MM remake when I've got enough experience to make such a huge complex game. The project is not down, it's put on ice.

You can lock this topic if you want to.

[jannar85]

Thanks Blackthorne for the great speech but I have decided to drop the project. However, only temporary. I have just done one game and it was only a pretty short game, so I'm going to finish those big games I have planned for a long time and maybe come back to MM remake when I've got enough experience to make such a huge complex game. The project is not down, it's put on ice.

What??? :o Oh well...  :'(
I want to... PLEI ITTTT

Nice of you to get your original projects back on track first though.
Can't wait for the DOTT rEmAKE

[rodekill]

You know, I always thought that SQ4 intro remake demo thing was a great demonstration of the capabilities of AGS at the time.
Stuff like that can go a long way to impressing non-believers.
Wasn't someone remaking the beginning of MI3 or something?

[snippy]

It would be kinda cool if you would make a remake of MM. The door can be already open and the hamster thing.... well do it like in the NES version. In the NES version if you try to put the hamster in the microwave with Syd or Razor, they say:" No way man! These things are loaded with cholesterol!".

[jannar85]

Wasn't someone remaking the beginning of MI3 or something?

Dark Stalkey.

[Babar]

Aww damn... you had got all my hopes up too. Too bad... I guess its all for the best though... maybe if you return to this idea someday.

Quote from: rodekill on Today at 01:42
Wasn't someone remaking the beginning of MI3 or something?


Dark Stalkey.

WHAT A DUCKING BRILLIANT IDEA!! Does that mean to remake MI3 in the style of MI1 and 2? Oh wait, no... it would still suck. The story would be the same, and if you changed it, it wouldn't be much of a remake.

[Erwin_Br]

One thing bothers me: Why do you ask about our opinion on something you want to make?

I mean, personally I develop my game because *I* like it. The game's going to be shaped to *my* ideas and will contain elements that *I* enjoy in adventure games. If other people happen to like my game also, then I'm a VERY, VERY happy man, but I don't let others decide about it's features.

That doesn't mean I don't take advice, though. I'm just kinda surprised that the response you got in this thread made you decide to drop the project.

--Erwin

[Mats Berglinn]

Actually I have already big projects to do so I will wait with the Maniac Mansion remake for the future. Besides I need to learn certain things before take on this BIG project. Like I said last time, it's not down forever it's just laid down for a uncertain amount of time.

Remake of MI3?!?  :o What are you, nuts? I think that MI3 is the best in the whole series so it's just too good to make a remake. The only thing that would convince me of making a remake is doing the game in 3D in cel-shading which is impossible to do with AGS, so no remaking of MI3 thanks. What will it be next time? A remake of MI4?

There wasn't any remake of DOTT and I'm not going to it do a remake of that either.

[MrColossal]

it wasn't a remake at all, DS wanted to prove to people that AGS was awesome [puh, who needs to prove that? DS that's who] so he was going to redo it in AGS to show that it was just as powerful as SCUMM at the time

and now we have obviously surpassed SCUMM in many many ways

[granted we surpassed SCUMM when AGS got a GUI]

[Radiant]

(in response to Snippy)

Did you know that Nintendo did a lot of censoring on Maniac Mansion? For instance the statue on the third floor was removed because they were bothered by the nudity... at that resolution, go figure. Also the medical poster in the second room, third floor was changed.

(in response to the thread in general)
I believe remake of Maniac Mansion is going to be very hard as it's a high standard you're going to have to live up to. However, I've always wondered - why aren't there more games that use the same basics? AFAIK MM is the only adventure game that has multiple persons moving through a house at real-time, three of which can be controlled by the player. This can make for great puzzles and interaction, and the only game I can think of that comes even close is Gobliins 2.

[MrColossal]

radiant: what about Zak McKrakken? you can control 4 people at a time in that game.

[Goldmund]

Strike Force Cobra - 1986

Playing with 4 characters, actions of others are very interdependent.

Enigma Force - 1986 as well


Both are adventure games, in both you control more than 1 (or 3) characters, who need to cooperate, and both appeared before MM (1987).


And don't forget Bureau13.

[Radiant]

MrColossal -> well, yes you do, but there aren't any puzzles in Zak that require multiple characters, except for those two rooms with multiple levers that have to be pulled at the same time. There are some things that provoke different responses from different characters (Zak: I think it's a brand of cigarette // Annie: it rather obviously says Jail) but that's not the same as simultaneity puzzles.

Goldmund -> interesing. I've heard of B13 but haven't played it, and the other two don't ring a bell. Is it possible to find them somewhere on the web or are they protected by copyright?

[AGA]

There are sort of. For instance when you get Annie to give the whiskey to the guard, then Zak to cut the fence, then Annie to perform the ritual. And on Mars when one girl will do something the other won't (like touch the broom alien, or enter the room with the big drop...)

[Radiant]

Well, you're kind of right, and Zak is a very good game in its own right. But Maniac is beyond very good, and the kid selection allows for great replay value.

[Timosity]

I just found this

http://www.geocities.com/mmremake2003/

and remembered this thread

It's in Spanish, so maybe Farlander or another Spanish AGSer, or someone who knows some spanish can fill us in.

The last update seems to be may last year so maybe it's not still happening but it looks good.

I think it's being made in AGAST

[AGA]

The magic of Babelfish.