Retrospective: Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle

The writing is also absolutely fantastic throughout. Day of the Tentacle is so refreshing, at no point attempting anything bordering on pathos, never reaching to make a serious point, only ever wanting to be funny and silly. It seems this takes far more bravery from a writing team than any amount of allegory on any topic.

Everything from horror shooters to alien world RTS games seem to try to mirror a modern world situation, say something about the human condition, or reflect classic literature. And let me stress: that's fantastic. Done well it's a special treat. But to be pure comedy, to be a cartoon for the sake of being a cartoon, funny because you want to make people laugh - it's as if there's something wrong with that. Something unacceptable. "Yes, sure, it's funny, but what's its deeper purpose?"

This was a story written by a LucasArts dream team, Ron Gilbert, David Grossman, Tim Schafer, and Gary Winnick. (Winnick more traditionally worked on the art in LucasArts games, but was co-creator and designer on Maniac Mansion along with Ron Gilbert.) Schafer's tone is very apparent throughout, and the dialogue is often blisteringly funny. My favourite line: "Well, you know what they say: If you want to save the world you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs."

Not a thing about this has aged despite being a frightening 17 years old. That's the magic of cartoons. Play it in a small enough window and it looks pristine. Play it full screen and the jaggedy edges are just the art style.

The SCUMM engine at this point was at its peak, letting you choose verbs from the bottom of the screen, but at the same time having smart default options on the right mouse button. Rarely do you have to build a sentence from all three parts (GIVE the EXPLODING CIGAR to GEORGE WASHINGTON) but most usually in just a couple of clicks (EXPLODING CIGAR on GEORGE WASHINGTON). The music is still absolutely fantastic, and the puzzles stand up completely.

The only problem, perhaps, is the lack of patience in the modern player. As a lot of people commented on the Zak McKracken retro article, adventure games used to take a few weeks to complete. You'd get stuck, walk away for that day, and come back to it the next. You'd maybe not progress, but you'd explore everywhere, in all three time zones, and try so many things.

I'm not sure how I possessed the tolerance for this. It's that way I would have found the keys on the back of the door in the sleeping man's room, and thus given them to the car thief, getting me the crowbar for the coins. Without that extraordinary, super-human patience I found myself this week on GameFAQs to get those keys. Things have changed. I've changed. I'm more disappointing now.

Day of the Tentacle isn't. It's damned funny. The writing, the puzzles, and oh! The voice acting! Good heavens, if you bought this on floppy disc you missed out so terribly. The three major protagonists are wonderfully acted, Laverne's "Hey there mister tentacle guy," being a pleasure to hear each time. Every other character is similarly brilliant, the car thief's Jack Nicholson drawl, Ben Franklin's crazy boffin accent, and my favourite, the future's purple doctor tentacle who sounds eerily like Willie Rushton.

This is a treat. If you've never played it, gosh, you lucky thing. My playthrough was haunted by every previous journey in years past, solving puzzles before they were presented simply because I knew that chattering teeth were needed to get the fire lit. If you have played it, I challenge you to watch the opening titles and not want to play the whole thing through again. Look at those colours, that design, the bird's cough. The moment the arms pop through. How can you resist?

Definitely one of the best games there is, and what a pleasure to learn it resists the passing of time. Possibly thanks to a battery-powered toilet.