Maniac Mansion 1 walkthrough

Maniac Mansion 1 walkthrough:

Your first screen is the select character screen. The players I normally use, unless I'm feeling adventurous, are Dave (of course), Michael, and Syd. Read on to understand why I chose these people. One reason, however, is that I love Dave's CD player music.

Okay, the first game screen is that of which the three players are standing in the driveway of the mansion. Wouldn't it make sense to be able to open the front door to get inside? Go up to the doormat and Pull it. It should be pushed aside, revealing a secret key to the front door. Now just use that key in the right door, and walk on in!

The next order of business is to scare away Nurse Edna and get some food for the Green Tentacle (explained later). Go in the first door you see on your left when you walk in the door. It's a very good idea to take that flashlight sitting on the counter because you'll need it later, despite the fact that it has no batteries. Keep on going down the counter, but stop when you see the sink, or else be prepared to get the heck out of there quickly. As soon as Nurse Edna sees you, turn and run towards the door as fast as you can. Once outside in the hall, run out the front door. Now wait about one minute, if that, and head on back to the kitchen. Open the door and get all of the foods that you see in there, but leave some cheese for Weird Ed. It is crucial that you get the Pepsi.

The next task is to go upstairs and get past the Green Tentacle. The Green Tentacle is an alien living in the mansion who hates the Purple Tentacle. He won't let you pass until you feed him something and give him something to drink. Now you must go up the flight of stairs and enter the door to your left, you should be in an art room. Get the bottle of Paint Remover and the Bowl of Wax Fruit. Now exit the room and go through the Maximum Security Door. Keep going down the hall and go up the stairs at the end of the hall. When you are at the top, you will encounter the Green Tentacle! Give him the Wax Fruit and the Can of Pepsi you should have gotten previously and he will let you pass. That was just to clear the way for future purposes.

A good idea would be to now get the Rusty Key that opens the dungeon door. This is located in the chandelier in the living room. The way to get this is simple; you make a tape recording of a sound so high that it shatters the glass, the windows, and the chandelier... causing it to drop to the floor and shatter. First, you need the Cassette Tape, which is located in the loose panel at the end of the library. Once this is in your possession, head up to the music room, which is located across from the art room where you previously got the wax fruit and paint remover. You also need the record with the recording of the high-pitched sound, which is in the Green Tentacle's bedroom. This is located from Dr. Fred's bedroom, which is the first door on the upper hallway. Get it, and while you're at it, get the Yellow Key which is hanging on the wall.

Now head to the music room. Put the record in the record player and the cassette in the cassette recorder (get where this is going?). First, turn on the cassette recorder and then turn on the record player. Wait until the ceramic vase on the piano shatters and then turn both of them off... recorder, then record player. Now that you have the cassette with the recording of the high-pitched sound on a cassette, go over to the living room with the chandelier in it. Open the cabinet and there should be an exposed tape player. Put the cassette tape with the high-pitched sound on it in the player and turn it on. The windows should shatter and then the chandelier should drop to the ground, revealing the Rusty Key. Get it, and you have gotten the way out of the dungeon now. If this doesn't work, you have probably gotten the wrong record and made a different recording.

Now you must make friends with Weird Ed. Weird Ed's room is the third door from the left up on the highest level of the house. Making friends with Ed will not only guarantee you the fact that he will not throw you in the dungeon whenever he sees you, but that he will help you later in the game. You must get Ed's package that comes outside and give it to him, and then get the roll of film and develop the plans for him. This is another reason why you brought Michael, because he is the only person who can develop film. Ed will in return help you in the game.

First, you must position one of the people outside by the mailbox to ensure that you get the package before Ed does. I normally put Syd there because I hardly ever use him for anything. Now you have to just wait. The doorbell should ring pretty soon, so then quickly switch to Syd's screen. Have Syd pick up the package, and then wait about two minutes for Ed to return to his room, and then have Dave go downstairs to get the package from Syd. I always like to have Dave have everything in his inventory because he is the main person I play the game with.

Now, with Dave, go on up to the top floor and go into Ed's room. His room is the third door from the left. Quickly give the package to him before he captures you and throws you in the dungeon. He will thank you, and tell you that you have to get his film plans for him. This is a roll of film that is located on one of the front steps outside the house. This time, have Michael go down and get it. Then have him go up to the last door on the top floor: this is Dead Cousin Ted's room. Use the Hunk-O-Matic machine twice to acquire some muscles. Also, go into the door in Ted's room on the right of the screen... this is the bathroom. Go over to the sink and pick up the sponge... you will need it very soon. Before you leave the top floor, go over to the first door from the left... this is Dr. Fred's room (but Dr. Fred's never in his room, so there is no danger involved). Climb the ladder on the left wall and get the yellow key from the wall, and the dime. Now have Michael go down to the front outside of the house and push the bushes away from the house.

You have to break the bottle of developer and have it drip through the grating, so go into the pantry. This is located through the kitchen and dining room, a small room with a locked door on one side. Try to get some of the bottles on top of the shelves and one of them will break; this is the bottle of developer. If you try to get it from the floor, you can't... it went through the grating into the area below the house. This is what the grating outside is for. Now you have to have Michael go to the grating outside, on the left of the porch steps. He should have used the Hunk-O-Matic and gotten some muscles, so open the grate. Now climb through into the area below the house. Walk over until you find a puddle of liquid on the floor... this is the developer you need. Have Michael use the sponge on the developer and soak the developer into the sponge.

The thing to do now is to go up to the floor where the Green Tentacle was and develop the film. Go up to that level and enter the door in the back; this is the darkroom. Go over to the table and search around for a red light... now turn it on. You need to use the sponge on the developing tray and then use the film on the developing tray to develop the pictures. Since I haven't quite figured out how to do this yet, you may need to experiment with different ways to do this. In any case, once it's all developed, go up to Ed's room and give the plans to him. He will thank you and tell you that it is time to save his father from the evil Meteor. But now you must get the key to go out to the pool.

With Michael, go to the main hallway that you are in when you first enter the house. Go over to the gargoyle on the right, on the newel post of the stairs. Push the right gargoyle, and the door with no handle should open. Now switch to Dave and go into the door... you should be in the basement. Once inside, search around for a light switch and turn it on. Go over to the very end of the room and you should see a silver key hanging on the wall near the circuit breakers. Get this and then get out of the room. Now go over to the pantry again, where you dropped the bottle of developer. This time get the glass jar from the shelves. Now go out into the pool area and fill the jar up with the radioactive water from the pool.

With that done, you now need to play the video games! But there is no power to the room with the systems. You now need to restore the power to the video game room. Use Michael, since you will need someone who has used the Hunk-O-Matic machine. Go into the pantry, where you got the bottle of developer fluid. Now use the silver key to open the screen door. You should be out in the pool now. Open the gate and go into the driveway, and now open the garage door with your hulking muscles. Open the trunk using the yellow key you picked up earlier and get the box of tools. Leave the trunk open, trust me that you will need it open later in the game. Now leave the garage and go down to the bottom area of the house, where the developer fluid leaked through earlier. Before you do anything else, have Dave go outside to the lip of the pool. Now have Michael turn the valve on to let the water out of the pool. WARNING: If you leave the valve on for too long, the cooling rods will overheat, causing the house to blow up!

Have Dave climb down into the pool. And whatever you do, DO NOT PUSH THE RED BUTTON, or at least save your game before you do so. Anyway, have Dave get the radio and glowing key from the bottom of the pool and then leave. Now switch back to Michael and have him turn the valve off before the rods overheat and melt down.

Now that you have the radio in your possession, have Michael give
everything he has to Dave... EVERYTHING. Get Dave to open the radio, get the batteries, and put them in the flashlight. This will be used later, and the batteries in the flashlight already are very weak.

Now go up to the very top floor, and go down to the very right. There should be a single door.. enter through it, and you're in the den. On the right wall, there is a splotch of paint... use the paint remover on it to reveal a door. Enter through it, and you will be in one of the two attics. Turn on the light directly above your head, and you will see some wiring in front of you that is broken. That wiring is what feeds the video games, and since it is broken, you cannot play the games. Makes sense, huh? Dave should have the tools in his inventory... if not, have Michael give them to him. Now have Michael go down to the right gargoyle again, that opens the door. Push it and switch to Syd. Have Syd go into the basement and over to the circuit breakers. The next part must be done EXTREMELY quickly, otherwise the house will blow up. Have Syd turn off the circuit breakers. Now quickly switch to Dave and have him turn on the flashlight with fresh batteries in it, use the tools on the broken wiring, and turn the flashlight off. Quickly switch to Syd again and have him turn the breakers back on again. If you're too slow, the Edisons will capture Syd and turn the power back on. If this happens, use the rusty key on the door near the circuit breakers in the basement and get Syd out.

Okay, now that you have restored the power, you need a quarter to play the video games. This is located in a safe above Edna's room in an envelope. What you need to do is to find the combination to the safe. This is accomplished with a high-power telescope. The way to get there is through the hole in the ceiling above the plant in the den. You need to pour the radioactive water on it that you got in the glass jar from the pool and then give it some Pepsi. But first, you need two dimes to operate the telescope. These are located in Ed's piggy bank. What I do to get the dimes is to wait in his room, while Ed is your friend. When he turns to face the wall and look at his map, go to the piggy bank and open it. Now pick up the dimes from it. It's a good idea to also pick up the hamster and get the card key behind that, too.

Now that you have the dimes, go over to the den and climb the plant into the planetarium. Turn on the light and go over to the control panel. Put the two dimes in the coin slot and press the Right button twice. The image of a four-digit number should appear: write that number down because that is the combination to the safe. Now go over to Nurse Edna's room. If you want to play honestly, have Michael or Syd go there and get caught by Edna. While she's busy taking care of one of them, have Dave go into her room, get the small key off the nightstand, and climb the ladder. If you don't want anyone getting caught, go into her room and then IMMEDIATELY switch to another kid. Wait for about twenty seconds and switch back to Dave in Edna's room. Edna will be frozen and you can move freely about her room. Now go up the ladder into the second attic and open the painting. It should reveal a safe. Now's the time to put that combination into use. Enter it into the keypad, and the safe should open. Pick up the envelope from inside it and get out of there. I always use the Freeze Edna trick for getting out. Now, time to play video games!

Go into the arcade room, which is located on the second floor hallway next to the flight of stairs that lead up to the Green Tentacle's floor. Turn on the Meteor Mess game and start playing. The high score value is the combination to the Inner Lab Door later on, so copy it down somewhere and keep it. Now that you have everything needed, it's time to go after the evil Meteor! Go down into the dungeon using the rusty key, and go all the way over to the left side of the dungeon to the door with the three padlocks. Use the glowing key on all three locks and then enter the combination you got from the Meteor Mess game on the inner door. Note that in every new game you start, all of the combinations in it change.

When you enter, you will be greeted by a very unfriendly Purple Tentacle, who is your enemy, but good ol' Weird Ed will come to your rescue and chase him away... provided that you have made friends with him, which you should have. Now enter the door on the right. Open the locker and put on the radiation suit. If you don't, the meteor will kill you with his evil radiation. Now use the card key on the door with the slot next to it... this is the door to the Meteor's room! Once inside it, pull the switch. Pick up the evil Meteor and open the door to the right. Stuff the evil Meteor in the Weird Edsel's (the car's) trunk, and start the car with the yellow key. Congratulations! You've just beaten Maniac Mansion, one of the first RPGs!