There is no real dialogue in the game, at least not any instigated by players. There's no 'talk' option in the interface, so what few conversations that exist occur during cutscenes, usually between the occupants of the mansion. This means that the player characters have no dialogue, and no real personalities. All we ever really find out about them is their skills, and, through their reactions to certain situations, their fears. These fears present an occasional obstacle — for instance, one character might be afraid of the tentacles who live in the mansion, while others are content to approach them without fear. These reactions are few and far between, however, which leaves us with minimal characterisation for our protagonists. The mansion's occupants are better represented, with frequent cutscenes and their living conditions giving hints as to their personalities. Quite a few puzzles involve these characters' wants and needs, so working out what they like is necessary to succeed.

As the first game to use SCUMM, MM utilises the by-now-familiar verb selection interface, where a verb is selected from a choice of fifteen at the bottom of the screen, followed by an object chosen from somewhere in the current room or the character's inventory. In this original SCUMM version, the 'what is' verb must be selected before an object's title becomes visible. This makes identifying interactive items more laborious than in the later SCUMM games. Annoyingly, there is also no option to 'look at' or 'examine' hotspots, only 'read' them. So if something doesn't have any writing on it, you're out of luck, description-wise. There are a huge number of items to take and use, though, and many of the fifty or so objects are useless to each individual player character. You may very well end up only needing to use a third of your collected items to finish the game. This again goes to emphasise the variety of ways each task can be completed, with certain items being effectively interchangeable. During the game it can be necessary to swap items from playable character to playable character, and this is achieved by using the 'give' verb on a nearby teammate.

Being released in 1987 for now-antiquated platforms, some players might encounter difficulty playing MM on today's machines. Fear not, however, as Maniac Mansion can now be played on a number of platforms not originally supported (including Linux, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, PocketPC, PalmOS, AmigaOS, BeOS, OS/2, PSP, PS2, SymbianOS/EPOC and more). The game is also playable on more modern PCs that might not natively support such an old game by using the appropriately-titled ScummVM. Or in what is probably the best "easter egg" of all time, if you happen to have Day of the Tentacle, you can also play the full version of MM from inside the sequel by using the computer in Weird Ed's bedroom.

There are two main versions of Maniac Mansion for the PC, known as 'original' and 'enhanced'. The plot, puzzles and game content are identical in both, with only the presentation affected. The graphics in the enhanced version are more refined and crisp, with less blockiness. To further confuse matters, because of the differences in the various graphics adapters available to PC owners in the late '80s, there were also a number of sub-versions of the original and enhanced editions, with different resolutions and colour depths. The screenshots below compare two identical scenes from the enhanced and original versions in 16-colour, as well as a screen from the 4-colour and monochrome (Hercules) original forms. While the enhanced EGA graphics may be considered poor by today's standards, they are substantially better than the other versions.

All in all, Maniac Mansion was a fine way to help kickstart the point-and-click era back in the day. If you play adventure games more for the exploration than for complex story and characters, MM should definitely appeal to you, even today, though it hasn't stood the test of time as well as some games. Compared to later SCUMM adventures, it's been surpassed in almost every area — graphics, story, characterisation, even interface — but hey, trailblazers can't be expected to be perfect. Despite these weaknesses, it's still quite solid and enjoyable, and well worth playing, if largely for the historical relevance.