Early in the PS4 generation, Tim Schafer’s Double Fine team did a sensational job of reviving a host of classic LucasArts games through a series of remasters including, Grim Fandango Remastered, Day Of The Tentacle Remastered, and Full Throttle Remastered. Now while that trickle of remasters has been halted for quite some time, it seems that another may be on the verge of some sort of revival – the beloved Maniac Mansion.
Craig Derrick, who was part of the team responsible for another recent revival, the acclaimed Return To Monkey Island with Ron Gilbert and Terrible Toybox has been quite vocal via Twitter in recent days, and he may have just outed the fact that Maniac Mansion is being worked on. Clearly, Derrick is about as subtle as a brick, because as well as expressing his sheer delight at the success of the game so far, he’s proceeded to tease the return of Maniac Mansion. “I’ll be standing by when it’s time to go BACK TO THE MANSION!” he said, and if that alone wasn’t enough, another tweet went down the same path, quoting a tweet that showed Maniac Mansion footage, saying “I know that I must… GO BACK TO THE MANSION!”
All we need at this point is for the tweets to be removed and/or for someone like Ron Gilbert to lean into the tweets to have all of the confirmation we need. Of course, there is nothing certain about this until a new game, or a remaster is officially announced.
Like many of the other classic LucasArts games that have been recently revived, Maniac Mansion is as retro as they come. An old press release outlines the key details from the game.
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure video game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It follows teenage protagonist Dave Miller as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend from a mad scientist, whose mind has been enslaved by a sentient meteor. The player uses a point-and-click interface to guide Dave and two of his six playable friends through the scientist’s mansion while solving puzzles and avoiding dangers. Gameplay is nonlinear, and the game must be completed in different ways based on the player’s choice of characters. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, Maniac Mansion was Lucasfilm Games’ first self-published product
An interesting aspect to the potential return of the Maniac Mansion IP will be around the way with which anyone chooses to represent a new entry in the modern day. Ron Gilbert himself opted to stop tweeting about Return To Monkey Island shortly after the game was revealed due to horrible comments made to him by players regarding the game’s visual style. Hopefully a new take on Maniac Mansion isn’t plagued by similar awful behaviour.
