Back To The Mansion! Meteor Mess 3D

Here's news of a cute little project - a German amateur team, Vampyre Games, are recreating Maniac Mansion in 3D. Called Meteor Mess 3D, presumably in an attempt to confuse LucasArts' lawyers, they're using the self-made Gamestudio Adventure System to rebuild the game in all three dimensions. The project's been running since 2008, and should be released this year. And there's already a demo.

It's clearly a little primitive-looking, but that bendy leg walk animation is not the final version. If they can pull this off - Maniac Mansion (a game I was certain was called Manic Mansion for the first 20 years of my life) was a really complicated game, with multiple possible characters and a number of endings - it'll be really lovely. They say they've already made some key fixes, such as removing the paint can dead end that ruined the original game for many, and have made the Edison family more able to move about the mansion and thus catch the characters.

It's currently being voiced in German, but the team are looking for ways to get a native English-speaking cast for an international version. And don't worry that the credits of the demo are in German, it kicks into English once you start.

It's definitely one to keep an eye on, and hopefully something that won't be snuffed out by needless possessiveness over a 23 year old game. And big thanks to William for pointing this one out. Here's a rather uneventful video of the beginning: