Proto:Maniac Mansion (NES, USA)

The prototype of the American Maniac Mansion is nearly identical to the final, except for some elements that were subsequently removed or altered at Nintendo of America's request.

"Disco Sucks" Poster


If you read the poster, you get this message: Disco Sucks!... ...Amen!

Statue


The plaque reads:

Title Screen
In the final, the blood was modified a bit so the TM symbol could fit, and the logo changed from brown to red. The logo on the character select screen still has the brown palette, though.

Ed and Edna Cutscene
The line "He hasn't eaten in 5 years" was changed in the final to "He hasn't slept in 5 years".

ED: Daddy's been acting very strange with this secret project... EDNA: YEAH, SO!!! ED: Well, Mommy, I'm worried! He hasn't eaten in 5 years... EDNA: YEAH, SO!!! ED: ...and he carries those bodies to the basement at night. EDNA: WHAT'S YOUR POINT ED?! I'M A VERY BUSY LADY! ED: Never mind.

On Douglas Crockford's website, Crockford explains that this change was a request from Nintendo: What was Nintendo's problem with the dialogue? Was it the brutal exposition of parental neglect in the disintegration of an American family? More likely, we thought they had a problem with the dead bodies in the basement...In fact, Nintendo's interpretation of the speech was that Dr. Fred was a cannibal, that he was eating the bodies. That was never our intention, so we changed Ed's speech to "He hasn't slept in 5 years," which helps to explain why Dr. Fred is never seen in his bedroom.

Dr. Fred and Sandy Cutscene
This piece of dialogue is used during a cutscene between Dr. Fred and Sandy:

DR. FRED: Well, my dear. Hope you're having fun! Within minutes it'll all be over. You'll be hooked up to my machine getting your pretty brains sucked out.

Nintendo, according to Crockford, thought "getting your pretty brains sucked out" was too graphic for the younger audience and suggested changing it to "getting your pretty brains removed".

Phone Conversations with Edna
In the final, when you call Edna she assumes she's talking to her dead cousin Ted when in reality she's having a conversation with herself. In the prototype, there is some humorous dialogue where she assumes it's a prank call:

There doesn't appear to be anything in the early text that Nintendo of America would be unhappy with. Perhaps the developers wanted to elaborate more on the mental instability of the Edisons and give more insight on cousin Ted.

Edna's Lines
The lines that Edna says when she puts you in the prison were changed. They were obviously deemed too sexual by Nintendo's standards. The lines depend on the gender of the character that was caught:

Boy
Interestingly, the final is the only one to have two variants if the character is caught; these are shown at random.

Ending


In the prototype's credits, there are two places where "SCUMM" (an acronym for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) is referenced. According to Crockford, Nintendo was worried what players might think when they see the word NES with a word that looks like scum, so he took out the mentions of SCUMM.