Articles

LucasArts' Secret History Part One 30 Jan, 2008, 17:03 / 17 comments

By Jason


Pardon the mess... it's all those brain donors.

If you were to click here or look over to the right you will see the thing we at Mojo have been dying to show you for about a month now - some awesome art by Dan Lee! While that in itself is really enough to cover us for any new content for at least a year or so, we decided to make an article to go along with the art - the promised Maniac Mansion extravaganza that kicks off Mojo's new articles series, "LucasArts' Secret History."

The article contains a brand-spanking new review for the game, as well as some hopefully time-wasting bonus material we were able to scrounge up. Hope you guys like it! And remember, we'll be doing this for every LucasArts adventure game down the line on a (probably) monthly basis. Think of it as episodic articles - we're just like Telltale, only more furry and less 3D.

Next month we'll be doing Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, and like last time I encourage all of you to prepare by playing the game again, or for the first time. C'mon, you get to shred a goldfish in a garbage disposal. What kind of fool wouldn't want to play a game that let's you do that?
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17 Comments

  • neon_git on 30 Jan, 2008, 23:05…
    Superb. This is real top notch, professional quality stuff. I'd love to see these articles collected and published - it would look great on my coffee table.

    I cannot wait for the follow up articles.
  • elTee on 30 Jan, 2008, 13:34…
    That's some great work there guys. And what a great title for the series! Please digg this article and help us start the fight that LucasArts themselves should be fighting. And should have been for pretty much this entire century so far.

    Hell, they shouldn't even have to fight ?
  • Marek on 30 Jan, 2008, 11:18…
    I didn't think I could still get excited by retrospective LucasArts articles, but I totally just did. Great work!

    Uncomfortable admission: I have never played Maniac Mansion beyond the first few screens. When I first played it I couldn't even get into the house. I tried things like breaking the windows or using the chimney but never thought of looking under the doormat. I stopped playing MM and discovered MI, which I played from start to finish. Many years later I gave Maniac Mansion another chance, and got a little further, but got pretty stuck after an hour or-so.

    Still, it's pretty clear that under the hood Maniac Mansion had some pretty awesome stuff going on. Its design was probably ahead of its time.
  • McScurvy on 30 Jan, 2008, 06:16…
    Great article, Maniac Mansion has been my favorite game ever since I first played it on the NES all the way back there, in the past. To me, everything about the game is just perfect, well, almost.

    What was the point of having both Syd and Razor in the game? The only difference between them was that one peed standing up and was there suppose to be something else done with Jeff? The poster that came with the game had a story about him being electrocuted and spouting off winning Lotto numbers so I tried for the longest to electrocute him thinking it would do something.

    Anyway, like I said up there, great article and I?m looking forward to the rest. Will the console games made by Lucasarts be given this treatment as well? Because I think we could all learn a thing or two about what it means to live and love from Big Sky Trooper or Zombies Ate My Neighbors.
  • The Tingler on 30 Jan, 2008, 12:33…
    We'll be focusing on the adventure games for this run of Secret History, but after Escape From Monkey Island we're planning on going back and looking at the other almost-forgotten non-Star Wars gems in LucasArts' catalogue.

    Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Outlaws, Afterlife, etc. will all hopefully be looked at.
  • manny_c44 on 30 Jan, 2008, 03:13…
    Truly exhaustive! I can't wait for the rest of the series (especially because I never played these early games).
  • noah on 29 Jan, 2008, 22:42…
    Such a classic, awesome game. Also my favorite NES title, which subsequently led me to the bright new world of PC gaming. Because of Maniac Mansion, I hand-wrote a letter (remember those?) to Lucasfilm asking how I could purchase the game on a PC. A few weeks later, the first issue of The Adventurer arrived!

    God this article was awesome. I even learned some details I newer knew about the game. For instance, I never thought to try offing the plant with developer fluid, or feeding the meteor to him!

    I also had made high quality .mp3s of the NES rom music from the game. It didn't even occur to me to post them here for the article. Kudos to those who did!
  • noah on 29 Jan, 2008, 22:43…
    also:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_the_plant
  • Udvarnoky on 29 Jan, 2008, 22:12…
    Gahhh. It seems like an older version of the article with part of the review missing and all of the spelling errors I corrected returning. I'll fix it when I get a chance.
  • Gabez on 29 Jan, 2008, 22:15…
    Oh whoops... that was my fault. I'm so sorry!

    Did you have the files backed up?

    Oh boy is my face red.
  • Gabez on 29 Jan, 2008, 22:18…
    And page four is your version, at least.
  • Udvarnoky on 29 Jan, 2008, 22:21…
    It'll be easy enough to fix, I just can't do it 'til I'm home.

    Heh!
  • The Tingler on 29 Jan, 2008, 21:43…
    Excellent! Now that I've finally read it, I love it! Damn, we've got a lot to live up to with the next lot now!
  • bgbennyboy on 29 Jan, 2008, 21:16…
    That was an excellent article. Great stuff.
  • clone2727 on 29 Jan, 2008, 20:50…
    Awesome! My thoughts on the game even got in :P
  • MrSneeze on 29 Jan, 2008, 20:32…
    Brilliant article. Well done!
  • Remi O on 29 Jan, 2008, 20:19…
    Well color me impressed.