Episode 98 - Maniac Apartment - Hoagie's Cousin

[Blackmonkey]

The Monkey Island World is proud to announce the release of

Maniac Mansion Mania - Episode 98
Maniac Apartment - Hoagie's Cousin

Story:
Reuben, der Cousin von Hoagie ist Pizzalieferant in Jeffs Pizzeria und muss zur Arbeit. Leider hat Candy die Apartment Tür zugesperrt, als sie zum einkaufen gegangen ist. Und natürlich hat Reuben keinen Schlüssel, weil er ihn aus dem Fenster geworfen hat..... Es hilft alles nichts wir müssen ihm helfen!


Author: Viktor Höchtl
Additional AGS programming: utdefault (Monkey Island World)
Additional graphics: utdefault (Monkey Island World), Tütensuppe (Maniac Mansion Mania forum)
Italian translation: Giocherellone, utdefault (Monkey Island World)
German translation: Kinkilla (Maniac Mansion Mania forum)
Spanish translation: Cireja (AbandonSocios forum)
Betatest: utdefault (Monkey Island World)
Thanks to: Paul Giaccone (AGS forum) for the help with slang.

Maniac Apartment is the second "international" Maniac Mansion Mania episode, after 'Britney's Escape'. This episode, in fact, was born as a "stand-alone" fangame too before becoming part of the MMM series.

Reuben is Hoagie's cousin, and is late for work. He's in a hurry, but he's locked in his own house!

'Maniac Apartment - Hoagie's Cousin' originally was born as a stand-alone fangame, outside the German community, under the name of Maniac Apartment.
Some time ago the MIWF (Italy) released a revised version of it, including a few fixes.
Today, thanks to the collaboration between the author (Slovenia), the MIWF (Italy) and the MMM forum (Germany) the game can be included in the Maniac Mansion Mania continuity.

In this game:

• two characters, Reuben and his sister Candy, are introduced in the MMM series; both of them are Hoagie's cousins!
• Reuben and Candy are in Day of the Tentacle style graphics!

... in addition, there are a couple of easter eggs (one of them really difficult to find)!

To play the game in fullscreen mode try one of following in Winsetup:

• Direct3D 9 Driver, Native game resolution Mode, Max round multiplier Scaling, Nearest-neighbour Filter;
• DirectDraw 5 Driver, Native game resolution Mode, Max round multiplier Scaling, Nearest-neighbour Filter;
• Desktop resolution Mode, check Dowgrade 32-bit graphics to 16 bit in Advanced tab;

The game can be downloaded here (well, you probably already knew that, right?  ), while the source can be found here.

With the consent of the author, and thanks to the support of the MMM host, MIWF Italia makes the game source code available and freely usable, so that anyone can make any improvements where deemed necessary.

Any new versions of the episode will be hosted on the MMM forum.

The graphics of characters and locations are also available, to be freely used for future episodes by other authors.

Advices, questions and opinions, for improvements or anything else, should be discussed on MMM forum or MIWF forum, in case additional information are needed.

Have fun, everybody!

[Bòógieman]

cool, I did not see that comming 
can't wait to find the spare time to play this 

[Mister L]

Wow, looks really cool. 
Hope I can play it soon. 

[Kiwa]

Hi and thanks for this new episode. I played it and i want to give you my feedback. Because my english language skills are low i hope you can understand me. If not then tell it. Then i post it agein in german language and hope that someone translate it.

Now back to the feedback:
This is a very small episode like the first ones ever been created. Thats not bad, it's a classic episode in the MMM-Universe. The graphics are good, made in the DOTT-Stil. And there are some animations too. Thats good. The Story is very small and the puzzels are easy to solve. But there is a logical mystake in the epi. Why can't Reuben open the door direct with the tampon? If you put it into the key hole then it destroys the door. At minimum there must be an statement from Reuben why does that not work.
The second problem in the game is that you can solve the puzzels without there understandig. You don't need to read the books but you can creat the magnet. You don't need to try to catch the hinge/fishing rod to create the modified cutter. Thats not good, at this point the game needs more details.
The easteregg with Razor in the shower was great. An the idea with speakers in shape of an tentacle are realy nice. The possibility to change and to stop the music ist very good. I like those features. Conclusion:
A very small but funny epi with the possibility to make it a bit better (without logical mystakes). I cant't give you points because you forgot to create a survey in your first post. Thanks for having fun. #and i hope my englih is readable# 

[Bissiger Witzbold]

The easteregg with Razor in the shower was great.

Den gelben Haaren nach zu urteilen sollte das wohl Sandy sein (das Aussehen passt zumindest zum NotM-Trailer).

Die Grafiken sind recht hübsch und die Rätsel sind okay. Allerdings ist die Folge ziemlich kurz. Wenn man denkt man hätte die Einleitung hinter sich und die Folge würde nun richtig anfangen, ist sie auch schon zu Ende. Es geht wirklich nur darum aus dem Apartment rauszukommen. Fühlt sich an wie eine Einraumepisode mit drei Räumen.

Und die Auftritte der MM-Figuren wirken auf mich auch wie nachträglich reingebastelt, damit die Folge noch irgendwie den MMM-Regeln entspricht. Insbesondere Marks Auftritt war doch sehr sonderbar (und den Sinn der Aktion verstehe ich auch nicht).

Insgesamt sind nette Ansätze in der Folge, da hätte man aber deutlich mehr draus machen können.

[Kiwa]

Den gelben Haaren nach zu urteilen sollte das wohl Sandy sein (das Aussehen passt zumindest zum NotM-Trailer).

Kann natürlich auch Sandy gewesen sein aber nach dem was Reuben sagt hatte ich eher an Razor gedacht. Und die Haarfarbe zu wechseln ist ja nun wirklich kein Problem.

Bei den anderen Sachen fand ich eben auch das es konstruiert wirkte, z.B. gab es keine Erklärung dafür warum Reuben am Vortag seine Schlüssel aus dem Fenster geworfen hat. Und sie dort auch hat liegen lassen, das ist sehr erklärungsbedürftig finde ich. Die Anzahl an Aktionen liegt wohl zwischen 15 und 20, hatte grob mitgezählt. Ich hatte schon den Verdacht das es eher eine MMMMM-Epi ist. Ich meine die dürfen höchstens 10 Aktionen haben, oder? Dazu stand mal was irgendwo auf der MMM-Homepage oder im Forum, habs aber nicht mehr gefunden.

Es ist wohl die kleinste Epi seit vielen vielen Jahren.

@Blackmonkey
Can you tell us why this epi is so short? You only need 15 or 16 actions to finish the epi. There exists another project called MMMMM (= Maniac Mansion Mania Mini Masterpieces). The rule says if your game has maximal 10 actions then it is not a regular epi but a MMMMM-Epi. Therefore your epi is long enough but anyway very small. And waht i want to konow is why does Reuben throw the key through the window. There is no explanation in the game.

[Kinkilla]

Uuh... ?!
What is the problem with short games, Kiwa?
This can't be a MMMMM game, because it is OVER 10 actions. So I don't understand why you start talking about MMMMM.

Das mit den Haarefaerben halte ich fuer eine Person wie Razor fuer sehr unwahrscheinlich, ich denke jedenfalls, dass es in dieser Situation egal wahr wer in seinem Tagtraum unter der Dusche war.

Tipp fuer deine Englischkuenste: Die Kurzform "epi" ist im internationalen nicht so geläufig.

And of course I am very happy to see this game finally on the MMM Forum. It was a long way until the project was finished.

[Kiwa]

Uuh... ?!
What is the problem with short games, Kiwa?
This can't be a MMMMM game, because it is OVER 10 actions. So I don't understand why you start talking about MMMMM.

This must be a misunderstanding. I don't have any problems with short games. I started talking about MMMMM because the game remind me to MMMMM. That's it. The game is short but funny, I told that in my post too. And I told that the game is long enough to be a normal game.

@Blackmonkey
Kinkilla told me that the word "epi" is not commonly used for a game. We use the word "epi" as a short form for episode. Thanks at Kinkilla for the information.

[Bòógieman]

I finally found the time to play this 
it is a nice short episode catching the spirit of the early days of MMM 
I like it, keep on the good work 

[Cmdr]

A very nice Episode with great graphics! 

But I also have to join Kiwa's opinion that's a bit too short. I like short episodes, but 1 or 2 additonal puzzles would have been nice.

[Blackmonkey]

Can you tell us why this epi is so short? You only need 15 or 16 actions to finish the epi.

The episode is basically identical to its "stand-alone" version (Maniac Apartment). Our intent was just to adapt it to the MMM continuity.
The only differences, as for the plot, are Reuben being late for work (in the original game he was just stuck in his house) and him working with Jeff (we needed a MM character's appearance).

And waht i want to konow is why does Reuben throw the key through the window. There is no explanation in the game.

I don't know... maybe he was drunk  This could be the subject for another episodes: Hoagie's Cousin - The Prequel 

[Giocherellone]

Hi everybody!

I think this is part of the strangeness of the character!

A guy who launches his own house keys out the window, who tries to open the door of the house to warheads, which takes an electrocution to magnetize a hook...

Well: I think he is someone who tends to complicate simple things (at least)!
It would never have occurred to him to open the door of the house with the tampon!

And maybe it is right here the sympathy and potential of the character, especially thinking with my imagination to all the upcoming episodes where he could participate (and combine so much messes)!

What do you think about? ;-)