M A N I A C   M A N S I O N:   T H E   U N O F F I C I A L   G U I D E
By
Steve Novicki


This FAQ is a FAQ/Walkthrough written by me, Steve Novicki, who is the 
narrator of it. It covers every little detail of the awesome RPG Maniac 
Mansion. This FAQ is protected by the International Copyright Laws and 
is Copyright © March 18, 2000 – March 21, 2000 by Steve Novicki. This 
means that you cannot rip off (plagiarize) this FAQ without personal 
written consent from me, the owner/author, Steve Novicki. All rights 
reserved. The owner/author of this FAQ reserves the right to, at any 
time, make corrections or changes to this FAQ without notice. Any 
questions, comments, complaints, updates, glitches, or any bad things 
you discovered about this walkthrough can be e-mailed to 
[email protected], or if you have an AOL account, IM me, my screen name is 
Aristotle47. I normally check my e-mail two or three times a day and I 
will be glad to respond to anything you send me regarding this FAQ. 
Now, let's get to the walkthrough!

Your first screen is the select character screen. The players I 
normally use, unless I'm feeling adventurous, are Dave (of course), 
Michael, and Syd. Read on to understand why I chose these people. One 
reason, however, is that I love Dave's CD player music ?. 

Okay, the first game screen is that of which the three players are 
standing in the driveway of the mansion. Wouldn't it make sense to be 
able to open the front door to get inside? Go up to the doormat and 
Pull it. It should be pushed aside, revealing a scret key to the front 
door. Now just use that key in the right door, and walk on in!

The next order of business is to scare away Nurse Edna and get some 
food for the Green Tentacle (explained later). Go in the first door you 
see on your left when you walk in the door. It's a very good idea to 
take that flashlight sitting on the counter because you'll need it 
later, despite the fact that it has no batteries. Keep on going down 
the counter, but stop when you see the sink, or else be prepared to get 
the heck out of there quickly. As soon as Nurse Edna sees you, turn and 
run towards the door as fast as you can. Once outside in the hall, run 
out the front door. Now wait about one minute, if that, and head on 
back to the kitchen. Open the door and get all of the foods that you 
see in there, but leave some cheese for Weird Ed ?. It is crucial that 
you get the Pepsi.

The next task is to go upstairs and get past the Green Tentacle. The 
Green Tentacle is an alien living in the mansion who hates the Purple 
Tentacle. He won't let you pass until you feed him something and give 
him something to drink. Now you must go up the flight of stairs and 
enter the door to your left, you should be in an art room. Get the 
bottle of Paint Remover and the Bowl of Wax Fruit. Now exit the room 
and go through the Maximum Security Door. Keep going down the hall and 
go up the stairs at the end of the hall. When you are at the top, you 
will encounter the Green Tentacle! Give him the Wax Fruit and the Can 
of Pepsi you should have gotten previously and he will let you pass. 
That was just to clear the way for future purposes. 

A good idea would be to now get the Rusty Key that opens the dungeon 
door. This is located in the chandelier in the living room. The way to 
get this is simple; you make a tape recording of a sound so high that 
it shatters the glass, the windows, and the chandelier, causing it to 
drop to the floor and shatter. First, you need the Cassette Tape, which 
is located in the loose panel at the end of the library. Once this is 
in yoru possession, head up to the music room, which is located across 
from the art room where you previsouly got the wax fruit and paint 
remover. You also need the record with the recording of the high-
pitched sound, which is in the Green Tentacles' bedroom. This is 
located from Dr. Fred's bedroom, which is the first door on the upper 
hallway. Get it, and while you're at it, get the Yellow Key, which is 
hanging on the wall. Now head to the music room. Put the record in the 
record player and the cassette in the cassette recorder (get where this 
is going?). First, turn on the cassette recorder and then turn on the 
record player. Wait until the ceramic vase on the piano shatters and 
then turn both of them off, recorder then record player. Now that you 
have the cassette with the recording of the high-pitched sound on a 
cassette, go over to the living room with the chandelier in it. Open 
the cabinet and there should be an exposed tape player. Put the 
cassette tape with the high-pitched sound on it in the player and turn 
it on. The windows should shatter and then the chandelier should drop 
to the ground, revealing the Rusty Key. Get it, and you have gotten the 
way out of the dungeon now. If this doesn't work, you have probably 
gotten the wrong record and made a different recording. 

Now you must make friends with Weird Ed. Weird Ed's room is the third 
door from the left up on the highest level of the house. Making friends 
with Ed will not only guarantee you the fact that he will not throw you 
in the dungeon whenever he sees you, but he will help you later in the 
gamea. You must get Ed's package that comes outside and give it to him, 
and then get the roll of film and develop the plans for him. This is 
another reason why you brought Michael, because he is the only person 
who can develop film. Ed will in return help you in the game. 

First, you must position one of the people outside by the mailbox to 
ensure that you get the package before Ed does. I normally put Syd 
there because I hardly ever use him for anything. Now you have to just 
wait. The doorbell should ring pretty soon, so then quickly switch to 
Syd's screen. Have Syd pick up the package, and then wait about two 
minutes for Ed to return to his room, and then have Dave go downstairs 
to get the package from Syd. I always like to have Dave have everything 
in his inventory because he is the main person I play the game with. 

Now, with Dave, go on up to the top floor and go into Ed's room. His 
room is the third door from the left. Quickly give the package to him
before he captures you and throws you in the dungeon. He will thank 
you, and tell you that you have to get his film plans for him. This is 
a roll of film that is located on one of the front steps outside the 
house. This time, have Michael go down and get it. Then have him go up 
to the last door on the top floor, this is Dead Cousin Ted's room. Use 
the Hunk-O-Matic machine twice to acquire some muscles. Also, go into 
the door in Ted's room on the right of the screen, this is the 
bathroom. Go over to the sink and pick up the sponge, you will need it 
very soon. Before you leave the top floor, go over to the first door 
from the left, this is Dr. Fred's room (but Dr. Fred's never in his 
room, so there is no danger involved). Climb the ladder on the left 
wall and get the yellow keyy from the wall and the dime. Now have 
Michael go down to the front outside of the house and push the bushes 
away from the house. You have to break the bottle of developer and have 
it drip through the grating, so go into the pantry. This is located 
through the kitchen and dining room, a small room with a locked door on 
one side. Try to get some of the bottles on top of the shelves and one 
of them will break; this is the bottle of developer. If you try to get 
it from the floor, you can't, it went through the grating into the area 
below the house. This is what the grating outside is for. Now you have 
to have Michael go to the grating outside, on the left of the porch 
steps. He should have used the Hunk-O-Matic and gotten some muscles, so 
open the grate. Now climb through into the area below the house. Walk 
over until you find a puddle of a liquid on the floor, this is the 
developer you need. Have Michael use the sponge on the developer and 
soak the developer into the sponge. The thing to do now is to go up to 
the floor where the reen Tentacle was and develop the film. Go up to 
that level and enter the door in the back; this is the darkroom. Go 
over to the table and search around for a red light, now turn it on. 
You need to use the sponge on the developing tray and then use the film 
on the developing tray to develop the pictures. Since I haven't quite 
figured out how to do this yet, you may need to experiment with 
different ways to do this. In any case, once it's all developed, go up 
to Ed's room ad give the plans to him. He will thank you and tell you 
that it is time to save his father from the evil Meteor. But now you 
must get the key to go out to the pool. 

With Michael, go to the main hallway, that you are in when you first 
enter the house. Go over to the gargoyle on the right, on the knoolpost 
of the stairs. Push the irgh gargoyle, and the door with no handle 
should open. Now switch to Dave and go into the door, you should be in 
the basement. Once inside, search around for a light switch and turn in 
on. Go over to the very end of the room and you should see a silver key 
hanging on the wall near the circuit breakers. Get this and then get 
out of the room. Now go over to the pantry again, where you dropped the 
bottle of developer. This time get the glass jar from the shelves. Now 
go out into the pool area and fill the jar up with the radioactive 
water from the pool. 

With that done, you now need to play the video games! But there is no 
power to the room with the systems. You now need to restore the power 
to the video game room. Use Michael, since you will need someone who 
has used the Hunk-O-Matic machine. Go into the pantry, where you got 
the bottle of developer fluid. Now use the silver key to open the 
screen door. You should be out in the pool now. Open the gate and go 
into the driveway, and now open the garage door with your hulking 
muscles. Open the trunk using the yellow key you picked up earlier and 
get the box of tools. Leave the trunk open, trust me that you will need 
it open later in the game. Now leave the garage and go down to the 
bottom area of the house, where the developer fluid leaked through 
earlier. Before you do anything else, have Dave go outside to the lip 
of the pool. Now have Michael turn the valve on to let the water out of 
the pool. WARNING: If you leave the valve on for too long, the cooling 
rods will overheat, causing the house to blow up! 

Have Dave climb down into the pool. And whatever you do, DO NOT PUSH 
THE RED BUTTON, or at least save your game before you do so. Anyway, 
have Dave get the radio and glowing key from the bottom of the pool and 
then leave. Now switch back to Michael and have him turn the valve off 
before the rods overheat and melt down. 

Now that you have the radio in your possession, have Michael give 
everything he has to Dave, EVERYTHING. Get Dave to open the radio, get 
the batteries, and put them in the flashlight. This will be used later, 
and the batteries in the flashlight already are very weak. 

Now go up to the very top floor, and go down to the very right. There 
should be a single door, enter it and you're in the den. On the right 
wall there is a splotch of paint, use the paint remover on it to reveal 
a door. Enter it, and you will be in one of the two attics. Turn on the 
light directly above your head, and you will see some wiring in front 
of you that is broken. That wiring is what feeds the video games, and 
since it is broken, you cannot play the games. Makes sense, huh? Dave 
should have the tools in his inventory, if not have Michael give them 
to him. Now have Michael go down to the right gargoyle again, that 
opens the door. Push it and switch to Syd. Have Syd go into the 
basement and over to the circuit breakers. The next part must be done 
EXREMELY quickly, otherwise the house will blow up. Have Syd turn off 
the circuit breakers. Now quickly switch to Dave and have him turn on 
the flashlight with fresh batteries in it, use the tools on the broken 
wiring, and turn the flashlight off. Quickly switch to Syd again and 
have him turn the breakers back on again. If you're too slow, the 
Edisons will capture Syd and turn the power back on. If this happens, 
use the rusty key on the door near the circuit breakers in the basement 
and get Syd out. 

Okay, now that you have restored the power, you need a quarter to play 
the video games. This is located in a safe above Edna's room in an 
envelope. What you need to do is to find the combination to the safe. 
This is accomplished with a high-power telescope. The way to get there 
is through the hole in the ceiling above the plant in the den. You need 
to pour the radioactive water on it you got in the glass jar from the 
pool and then give it some Pepsi. But first, you need two dimes to 
operate the telescope. These are located in Ed's piggy bank. What I do 
to get the dimes is to wait, while Ed is your friend, in his room. When 
he turns to face the wall and look at his map, go to the piggy bak and 
open it. Now pick up the dimes from it. It's a good idea to also pick 
up the hamster and get the card key behind that, too. 

Now that you have the dimes, go over to the den and climb the plant 
into the planetarium. Turn on the light and go over to the control 
panel. Put the two dimes in the coin slot and press the Right button 
twice. The image of a four-digit number should appear, write that 
number down because that is the combination to the safe. Now go over to 
Nurse Edna's room. If you want to play honestly, have Michael or Syd go 
there and get caught by Edna. While she's busy taking care of one of 
them, have Dave go into her room, get the small key off the nightstand, 
and climb tha ladder. If you don't want anyone getting caught, go into 
her room and then IMMEDIATELY switch to another kid. Wait for about 
twenty (20) seconds and switch back to Dave in Edna's room. Edna will 
be frozen and you can move freely about her room. Now go up the ladder 
into the second attic and open the painting. It should reveal a safe. 
Now's the time to put that combination into use. Enter it nto the 
keypad and the safe should open. Pick up the envelope from inside it 
and get out of there. I always use the Freeze Edna trick for getting 
out. Now, time to play video games!!!!!! Go into the arcade room, which 
is located on the second floor hallway next to the flight of stairs 
that lead up to the Green Tentacle's floor. Turn on the Meteor Mess 
game and start playing. The high score value is the combination to the 
Inner Lab Door later on, so copy it down somewhere and keep it. Now 
that you have everything needed, it's time to go after the evil Meteor! 
Go down into the dungeon using the rusty key, and go all the way over 
to the left side of the dungeon to the door with the three padlocks. 
Use the glowing key on all three locks and then enter the combination 
you got from the Meteor Mess game on the inner door. Note that every 
new game you start, all of the combinations in it change. When you 
enter, you will be greeted by a very unfriendly Purple Tentacle, who is 
your enemy, but good ol' Weird Ed will come to your rescue and chase 
him away, provided that you have made friends with him, which you 
should have. Now enter the door on the right. Open thc locker and put 
on the radiation suit, if you don't the meteor will kill you with his 
evil radiation. Now use the card key on the door with the slot next to 
it, this is the door to the Meteor's room! Once inside it, pull the 
switch. Pick up the evil Meteor and open the door to the right. Stuff 
the evil Meteor in the Weird Edsel's (the car's) trunk, start the car 
with the yellow key, and congratulations, you've just beaten Maniac 
Manision, one of the first RPGs!!!!!!!!