About the Book
Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 211. Chapters: Maniac Mansion, Street Fighter II, The Secret of Monkey Island, Elite (video game), Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Dragon's Lair, SimCity, Lemmings (video game), Another World (video game), Robotron: 2084, King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne, Joust (video game), OutRun, Silicon Dreams, Fun School, Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator, Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax, Loom (video game), Marble Madness, NetHack, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human, Dungeon Master (video game), Football Manager (1982 series), Double Dragon, R-Type, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Cannon Fodder (video game), Lode Runner, Mercenary (video game), Gauntlet (1985 video game), MegaTraveller 1: The Zhodani Conspiracy, Battlezone (1980 video game), Planetfall, A Mind Forever Voyaging, Civilization (video game), Strider (arcade game), Prince of Persia (1989 video game), The Bard's Tale (1985 video game), Legend (1992 video game), Space Gun (video game), Zork, Road Rash, Alternate Reality (series), Formula One Grand Prix (video game), Classic Empire (video game), Altered Beast, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Star Raiders, List of Atari ST games, Chessmaster, Street Fighter (video game), Lure of the Temptress, Seymour Goes to Hollywood, The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants, Karateka (video game), Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja, Wonder Boy (video game), Boulder Dash, The Last Ninja, Carrier Command, Starflight, Shinobi (video game), U.N. Squadron, Frontier: Elite II, Rogue (video game), SunDog: Frozen Legacy, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Golden Axe. Excerpt: Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. Initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II, it was Lucasfilm's foray into video game publishing. The game follows teenager Dave Miller as he ventures into a mansion and attempts to rescue his girlfriend from an evil mad scientist, whose family has been controlled by a sentient meteor that crashed near the mansion 20 years earlier. The player uses a point-and-click interface to guide Dave and two of his friends through the mansion while avoiding its dangerous inhabitants and solving puzzles. The game was conceived in 1985 by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick. They based the story on horror film and B movie cliches with humorous elements, and they based the game's characters on people they knew and characters from movies, comics, and horror magazines. The developers based the mansion's design on the Main House at Skywalker Ranch, outlining the map and pathways prior to programming. The interface came from the designers' desire to improve on contemporary text parser-based graphical adventure games seen in earlier adventure titles. To reduce the effort required for creating the game, Gilbert implemented a game engine called SCUMM, which would be re-used for many other LucasArts titles. The game was ported to several other platforms; the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version had to be considerably modified to follow Nintendo of America's content policies, which barred material deemed inappropriate for children. Regarded as a seminal adventure title, Maniac Mansion was critically acclaimed; reviewers lauded its graphics, cutscenes, animation, and humor. Reviewers and other developers have considered its point-and-click interface revolutionary; the system has led competitors to adopt similar interfaces. The game influenced numerous other titles, has been placed in several "hall of fame" lists, and has led fans to create remakes with enhanced visuals. A TV series, written
