Maniac Mansion (Commodore 64)

Maniac Mansion is the second graphic-adventure game published by Lucasfilm Games (later known as LucasArts), and the first they published themselves.

The original Commodore 64 version has some differences from the later more famous DOS releases.

Sub-Page#

Prerelease Info

Unused Death#

Watch on YouTubeBy using debug to enter the observatory before performing the actions to reach there normally, the player can trigger a normally unused death upon leaving. They will disappear and the plant will shout "YUM!!", resulting in a death. It is unknown why this was made inaccessible through normal means. Unlike the later DOS versions, this can be done regardless if the plant is grown or not.

Version Differences#

Character Select Screen#

The in-game character select screen in the C64 version has a different title logo than the later DOS versions.

Jeff's portrait here was also changed. In the original C64 version he has a neutral expression by default, and smiles when you click on him. In DOS V1 he's always smiling, which matches how his in-game sprite is always smiling in both versions.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Michael's Outfit#

In the C64 version, Michael's shirt and shoes are the same reddish-pink color as the skin tone of other characters. In the DOS V1 version, his shirt and shoes are dark purple.

This is because multicolor sprites on the Commodore 64 can only have four colors, along with several caveats: one color has to be set aside for transparency if needed, and two of the other three colors have to be shared by all sprites, with only one color able to be set individually. In Michael's case, his darker skin tone takes up the individual color slot, so the skin-tone color for other characters needs to be used elsewhere in his design.

DOS didn't have the same restrictions on the number of colors for sprites as the C64 did, so the conversion allowed an opportunity to improve his character design a bit. The dark purple color used on Michael's DOS sprite isn't the same as the bright purple used for the Sentence Line and inventory text in the GUI. This illustrates another difference between the Commodore 64 and DOS EGA palettes, since the standard C64 palette for multicolor graphics only has one purple hue.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

GUI Design#

The verbs are arranged differently in the Commodore 64 original; "New Kid" has the K capitalized, and is above the "Unlock" verb rather than beneath it.

The precise horizontal and vertical alignment of the GUI verbs and Sentence Line was changed slightly for the DOS version as well.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

The game cursor always appears behind character sprites, even when interacting with another character (such as giving an object to one of the other kids). In the DOS version it appears in front of everything else on the screen, including sprites.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

When selecting characters, the three options appear on the Sentence Line. In later versions the verbs disappear and the three characters' names appear instead.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Dialog Text#

Only one line of dialogue text is featured in the original C64 version. Later version expanded this to two lines.

Ellipses in the text font on Commodore 64 have dots only one pixel wide, to save space. In the DOS V1 port the ellipses have dots two pixels wide.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Some text colors were changed in later versions for readability. For example, in the C64 version, Bernard's dialogue text is light gray. Perhaps to help with readability in the DOS EGA palette, the DOS V1 version changes his text color to white.

Likewise, Michael's text color on C64 is a reddish-brown, distinct from his skin tone, but in the DOS V1 version it's pink.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Commodore 64	DOS V1

And the text color for the man-eating plant in the upstairs den is blue on C64, but a more appropriately plant-y green in DOS V1.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

The text color when using the keypads on the safe, telephone, and inner door to Dr. Fred's lab is blue on C64, but dark gray on DOS V1. The C64 version also only displays one number at a time as you enter them, and the numbers disappear after a few moments; on DOS V1 the numbers all appear in order and remain present as you enter them in sequence.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Backwards Tentacles#

In the C64 version, Green and Purple Tentacle's sprites for standing still and walking around generally have them oriented so their suckers and upper tip face away from the direction they're really looking towards. In the DOS version, this was changed so their suckers and tip point towards the direction they're facing.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Palette Differences#

Several backgrounds in the C64 version use a reddish-brown color not present in the DOS EGA palette. These include the music room, the arcade room, the upstairs attic room with a safe, and the view through the telescope. For the DOS V1 port, this hue in backgrounds was generally changed to pink.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

In the case of the music room, this resulted in the walls and floor being the same color, where previously they had been separate colors.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Another issue involved the gray hues used in the backgrounds, since the C64 had three gray hues and DOS EGA only had two. The designers were generally careful on the C64 version to use only two gray colors per background, but which two were used varied from room to room. The DOS V1 version wasn't always faithful to the relative brightness of the C64 gray hues. Several rooms with light gray areas on C64 had them converted to dark gray on DOS V1 instead.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

In some areas, such as the top of the swimming pool, Dr. Fred's Zom-B-Matic room, and the Meteor Chamber, the hues were inverted, so that dark gray areas on C64 used the lighter DOS EGA gray instead, and vice versa.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Copy Protection#

The C64 version uses disk-based copy protection; later versions switched to an in-game password system, tied to a "Nuke'm Alarms" booklet that came in the game box. Thus, in the C64 release the "steel security door" on the second floor of the Mansion is absent, with just a simple wooden door there instead.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Commodore 64	DOS V1

The back of the door also looks like a regular door. The DOS V1 version didn't change the appearance of the back side, but did add a keypad to disarm the security system.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Using the Flashlight#

In the C64 version, when using the flashlight in a dark room, the current player characters' sprites go from a dark-gray outline to being partially highlighted, with areas in their individual sprite color remaining visible. Later versions changed this so they either remained as a simple dark-gray outline or became fully visible.

The lit area of the flashlight "beam" around the pointer cursor also has hard rectangular edges, where later versions used rounded corners.

Commodore 64	DOS V1	DOS V2

Commodore 64	DOS V1	DOS V2

The Schwartz, er, Edison Family#

In the Commodore 64 and DOS V1 versions, Dr. Fred, Nurse Edna, and Weird Ed's surnames on the Meteor Mess high score chart begin with the letter S. This is because in Ron Gilbert's original design proposal, their surname was "Schwartz" rather than Edison.

The DOS V2 version, and the Amiga and Atari ST ports, changed the initials on the Meteor Mess high score list to have an E for "Edison" instead. Gary Winnick has mentioned that the Edison name was apparently suggested by the writers of the Maniac Mansion TV show.

Commodore 64	DOS V1	DOS V2

Dr. Fred's Zombies#

Using the "what is" verb in Dr. Fred's lab in the finale reveals two objects that were removed from later versions, because they don't have corresponding visual data: a "girl zombie" and "boy zombie".

Sandy in the Meteor Chamber#

Trying to "give" an object to the Meteor in its inner sanctum, clicking on the wrong area of screen near the Meteor results in "Sandy" hotspot appearing on the Sentence Line. Apparently an early idea was for Sandy to be found here in the Meteor's lair, instead of being shown hooked up to Dr. Fred's machine in the previous room.

The SCUMM interpreter has special hotspots coded for certain verbs, including "Give". Apparently Sandy's hotspot was incompletely erased from the scene.

This quirk is present when using the original interpreter or a C64 emulator, but may not be replicable in ScummVM's virtual-machine environment.

The DOS V1 version incompletely removed the hotspot, resulting in a glitched character appearing on the Sentence Line when you click there.

A Messier Meteor#

In the ending where you give a publishing contract to the Meteor, in the DOS V1 version the Meteor turns to face the player character, which he doesn't do in the C64 version.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Additionally, whenever the Meteor talks in the DOS V1 version, he emits a new puddle of purple slime on the ground, which he doesn't do on C64.

The Meteor's position "sitting" on the chair on the talk show set was changed too.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Commodore 64	DOS V1

In the ending where the Meteor becomes famous but is arrested by the Meteor Police anyway, in the C64 version, the Meteor and the Meteor Policeman who arrests him teleport away together. Due to a bug in the DOS V1 port, only the Meteor Policeman disappears, leaving the Meteor behind. (This bug was fixed in the DOS V2 version by having the Meteor teleport away separately right afterwards.)

And when the Meteor Policeman arrives in the TV studio, in the C64 version he teleports in facing rightwards. In DOS V1 he teleports in facing forward, and then turns to the right to walk towards the Meteor.

Other Minor Differences#

Sometimes the "game paused" text changes color in the C64 version. An example of this appears on first starting up the game. If you pause the game on the character selection screen or during the intro, the "game paused" text will be blue rather than purple. This was changed in later versions.

Additionally, a hole in the ground that appears where the meteor lands after falling to earth was added to the intro in the DOS V1 version.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

On C64, the flickering cursor pulses back and forth between white, light gray, medium gray, and dark gray. On DOS V1, it uses only the two hues of gray that are available there.

You can move the cursor around while the game is paused on C64, which you can't do in the DOS versions.

Unlike in other versions, the grandfather clock's pendulum in the mansion hallway is not animated.

When entering a room, character sprites always face forward on C64. In the DOS V1 version, they face the direction they took to enter: usually left or right, but sometimes backwards, as when climbing a ladder.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

In the telescope room, the walkbox around the entry hatch on C64 has characters approach it from the back. DOS V1 changed it so that characters approach the hatch from the front. However, the direction they face as they descend the ladder was not changed accordingly, resulting in a slight graphical bug.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

Commodore 64	DOS V1

The hatch above the man-eating plant has a misleading label on C64: the plant and hatch are both called "Man-eating plant" (with some errant capitalization). In DOS V1 the hatch was fixed to say "Hatch", still with the odd capitalization.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

The plant itself has three hotspots on C64: it has the regular hotspots "Man-eating plant" and "pot for plant" for most verbs, and a special hotspot called "Plant" for the "Give" verb. All three hotspots work for using items with the plant. In DOS V1, the special "Plant" hotspot when using the "Give" verb was removed.

When Purple Tentacle apprehends a character in the vestibule to Dr. Fred's laboratory, his line in later versions "Dr. Fred isn't paying me for nothing!" is absent.

The Pepsi machine in Dr. Fred's lab has some red coloration on C64 that disappears in the initial DOS release.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

In the ending where Dr. Fred, Dave, and Sandy appear on the Mansion front porch, Dr. Fred tells Dave "Don't be a smart ass!" Later versions replaced this with "Don't be a tuna head!", reprising an insult from the game's intro.

Commodore 64	DOS V1

References#