Day of the Tentacle

Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (DoTT) is a graphical adventure game, originally released in 1993, and published by LucasArts. It is the eighth game to use the SCUMM engine. The game was released simultaneously on floppy disk and CD-ROM, with the CD-ROM version featuring a full voiceover soundtrack. Day of the Tentacle was designed by Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer.

Gameplay

Day of the Tentacle follows the point-and-click two-dimensional adventure game formula, first established by the original Maniac Mansion. Players direct the controllable characters around the game world by clicking with the computer mouse. To interact with the game world, players choose from a set of commands arrayed on the screen and then on an object in the world. This was the last SCUMM game to use the original interface of having the bottom half of the screen being taken up by a verb selection and inventory; starting with the next game to use the SCUMM engine, Sam and Max Hit the Road, the engine was modified to scroll through a more concise list of verbs with the right mouse button and having the inventory on a separate screen. This formula carried on to later games in the franchise, such as The Dig, Full Throttle and The Curse of Monkey Island. In Day of the Tentacle, the player can switch between any one of the three playable characters at any time, though two of the characters must first be unlocked by the completion of certain puzzles. The three protagonists can also share inventory items amongst themselves (at least, those items that can be stowed in a toilet), a feature that plays into many of the game's puzzles.

In Maniac Mansion, the playable characters can be killed by various sequences of events. LucasArts adopted a different philosophy towards its adventure games in 1990, beginning with The Secret of Monkey Island. Their philosophy was that the game should not punish the player for exploring the game world. Accordingly, in most of the adventure games released by LucasArts after Monkey Island, including Day of the Tentacle, the player character(s) cannot die.

Story

Day of the Tentacle begins five years after the events in Maniac Mansion. Of the seven playable characters in the first game, only Bernard Bernoulli, a stereotypical nerd character, makes a return appearance. This time, Bernard has a starring role, as he leads his two house mates, Hoagie and Laverne, back to the Mansion. One of Dr. Fred Edison's two creations, the Purple Tentacle, drinks industrial waste from the Mansion, growing two stubby appendages for arms and an appetite for global domination. Bernard and friends plan to travel back in time, using Dr. Fred's Port-a-Potty-turned-time machines (dubbed "Chron-o-John"s), to turn off the toxic waste producing machine therefore stopping Purple from drinking the toxic waste in the first place.

Unfortunately, the cheap imitation diamond in Dr. Fred's time machine fails, leaving Hoagie 200 years in the past (where he can meet such famous historical figures as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin), Laverne 200 years in the future (where Purple Tentacle's dreams for domination have come true) and Bernard still in the present. Bernard, has to find a non-imitation diamond in order to make the time machine functional once more, and Hoagie and Laverne both have to get back to their time machines and connect them to a power source, in order to team up again and finally defeat Purple Tentacle. The game uses the three time streams effectively, with several puzzles depending on actions in one era affecting the other eras and the characters sometimes having to exchange items from different time periods.

The game has several puzzles that require the player to perform actions in the past that affect the future. For example, a vacuum cleaner advertisement flyer can be inserted into the suggestion box for the American constitution; consequently a clause is added to the constitution that every American should have a vacuum cleaner in their basement. And consequently, in the future when vacuum cleaners have actually been invented, you can find one and use it.

Historical interaction

One of the unique aspects of Day of the Tentacle's plot is that it gives the game player the opportunity to interact with several important historical figures from colonial America, namely George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and Betsy Ross. Their personality traits are exaggerated for comic effect. Their descendants (or at least characters that resemble them) can be seen in the other ages. Harold, seemingly a descendant of Washington, appears as a transvestite in a future beauty contest organized by the Tentacles. An apparent descendant of Ben Franklin makes an appearance as a novelty toy salesman.

Some of the more entertaining puzzles of the game involve these characters. In one sequence, Hoagie must give an exploding cigar to Washington in order to replace his famous false teeth with chattering novelty mechanical dentures, while in another he gives a drawing of a tentacle to Ross, who sews it into the American flag. By painting the fruits of a kumquat tree red, the player forces Washington to chop down the created "cherry" tree, also a myth concerning Washington's youth.

Reactions

Adventuregamers.com included the game as #1 on their 20 Greatest Adventure Games of All Time List. They also reviewed it with a score of 5 out of 5, being one of only three other games to receive on their website.

IGN deemed it number 60 on their top 100 games list.

Trivia

Bernard appears three times in Sam & Max Hit the Road behind the counter of Snucky's. Each of the three are subtly different in appearance.
The original Maniac Mansion game can be played on a computer inside the Day of the Tentacle game.

Sequels

There have been a few fan groups in Germany who have started developing fan-games, but as of 2006, none of them are complete. As of this time, LucasArts seems to be very unreceptive to the idea of making any more adventure games or allowing others to commercially develop their old licenses.

External links

Maniac Zombies
Day After the Day of the Tentacle (a webcomic)
Day After the Day of the Tentacle (Spanish translation)
MobyGames' entry for Day of the Tentacle
Netjak Review of Day of The Tentacle
Day of the Tentacle 2 - a German sequel game fan project
IGN's Top 100 Games as of 2005 - Day of the Tentacle gets #60
Day of the Tentacle in gamespot's greatest games of all time

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