Maniac Mansion - Manual

HERE 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

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Typed by THE TWINS of TRILOGY. Edited by PARASITE.