Continuing down the list. Next up is a portion of my life when I learned 3 things.
1. I didn't really like Sega Genesis
2. I really loved Adventure Games
3. Sometimes you have to remember the good times.

7. Maniac Mansion and My Cousins

After owning the SNES for a couple of years, and getting a Genesis, my brother and I made the decision to take our NES up to our grandparent's house in Northern Michigan, or as we just referred to it Up North. We figured, we've got the two newest systems, we don't need the NES. Sadly I just ended up not really being a fan of my new system. I like the Genesis, and it has some great games, its just I was SNES for life. After 3 years of ownership, 7 games compared to my 45 for SNES, and even owning a 32X, I gave the Genesis to my next door neighbors before I moved from Michigan to Illinois.


Surprisingly enough I didn't have a problem with the 32X, Doom, Virtua Racing, and Star Wars Arcade were all enjoyable to pick up and play.

Looking back I wish I kept the NES around because it limited being able to play it to two-three weeks a year. Every summer and winter, my family, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, all of that, would go up to our Grandparent's house in Northern Michigan, to spend some time together. During summer we'd go out on the dock or in the boat to fish, water skiing if people were brave enough, tubing if they weren't, swimming at any opportunity, off-roading on four wheelers, target practice with BB guns, and big family meals. Winter, similar plans, ice fishing, sledding, playing hockey, off-roading, and the family dinners. But what to do if there's bad weather, or if you just want a break inside? TV reception was crappy, and while they had a VCR the local stores didn't have much in the way of movie rentals. Thus the NES became our entertainment. My brother, myself, and four of my cousins would play on a good old piece of shit TV, complete with rabbit ears, a nob to pull out to turn it on, and clicking dials to change the channel.


Add an antenna on top, and you get the idea.

Anything and everything we owned was fair game, from the pieces of crap I talked about earlier, to classics like the Mario series and Mega Man 2. There were however two games that we played the most, one was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, which I'll be discussing later, the other was Maniac Mansion. My brother and I first played it with my cousins one Easter at their house. It fascinated both of us, it was unlike any game we'd ever seen, and rightfully so. Moving a cursor around with a joystick, ordering things to be opened, used, and picked up, it was confusing. Yet it was so much fun, strange characters, single actions that had repercussions, and we played until we had to leave. Our cousins must have known our enjoyment because for Christmas that year they got us our own copy. My brother and I played together, and separately, but never had much luck in the game. It wasn't until it was Up North and playing with our cousins that we got in depth into the game. At first we'd just pick whoever looked cool, usually Razor and Jeff (the worst character in the game).


Going down the line, Syd meh I'd rather use Razor, Dave mandatory and only good for pushing the loose brick, Bernard is a Badass he can do everything but befriend tentacles, Razor had better music than Syd, and Fucking Jeff.

It took time to learn that there's reasons behind why you pick each character, and that Dave was useless. With our minds working as one we made continual progress each summer and winter. We found the the in game jokes, like the security keypad that blows up the mansion, making the hamster explode in the microwave, and found the greatest Edison ever Dead Cousin Ted. We eventually could make it to the Meteor with ease, but it wasn't until a stroke of luck let us to beat the game. Normally we'd let the car in the garage fly off into space, one time we just forgot to do it, and at the end stuck the meteor in the trunk and did it. We beat the game, and our quest had ended. A year later I found a Lucas Arts game compilation with Maniac Mansion 2: Day of the Tentacle, I loved the first one and so I picked it up. Also in the pack was Sam and Max: Hit the Road, and my true love for adventure games began. Bernard said it best in Day of the Tentacle "Sometimes I do stupid stuff, and I don't even know why. As if my body were being controlled by some demented, sadistic puppet-master." I love being that puppet master dammit.


A few from my collection, Sam and Max Hit the Road will always be king, and Leisure Suit Larry will always be the King's sleazy brother.

Playing through them I realized all the intricacies and bizarre problem solving I never understood in Maniac Mansion. Adventure games quickly became one of my favorite game genres, and I'm happy for their current return. In life, it helped me with problem solving sure enough, and lets me remember the better times. One of my cousins, Adam the only son of the family, passed away last year of a drug overdose. I couldn't bring myself to go to the funeral. My bipolar was at its worst, I was at a point where any small thing could cause me to break down, and I wasn't well enough to handle the whole extended family. Whenever I think about him now, I have to think of the fun we had, otherwise its too painful. Thankfully with the revival of Adventure Games, I can think of all the good times we had playing Maniac Mansion.


Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, Point and Click Therapy




And now a bit of an end note, I'm happy people are actually reading and enjoying these. Comments, feedback, ideas, whatever, everything is appreciated. While there are six more installments in this series I thought I might let readers have a say in what comes after these. I've got two ideas currently, Why I Enjoy Grinding, a simple bit about one of the most hated aspects of RPGs that I enjoy (in most circumstances). The other is, A Look at The Super Smash Brothers, a look into professional wrestling's only 8-bit Tag Team, with moves such as The Dig Dug Driver, The Final Smash, and Pac-Man Fever.