After several hours playing Maniac Mansion (Enhanced version), and wondering why the big secured door was already opened, why using Edna's phone number on the radio calls the meteor police, and why I could put any number on Edna's safe to open it, etc... I've just realised that I was actually playing a cracked version.

I can understand copy protection being removed on games that are sold here, but in this one, removing the copy protection also means breaking the experience of the game...

And the irony is, I can't even find a non-cracked version on abandonware sites, either because they only have the cracked version, or they don't have the game because it is sold on websites like GOG...

So, what do I have to do to play this game in its original (but enhanced) version??

UPDATE: with various tests with various versions of the game, I must specify some things. The secured door with a code panel will always be opened at least in the Enhanced version of the game, wherever you find the files for it, because it is due to ScummVM's default copy protection bypass option (that can be turned off in ScummVM's configuration file).

With the rest of the codes, phone numbers, radio numbers... it seems that the GOG version of the game is, more precisely, a "trainer" version, in which you can use any random number and everything will work as if you had find the right numbers. Which is very wrong because it kills the discovery of the game for a new player, and it even makes the game very confusing if you don't why it does that.

What I did: as most people know, Maniac Mansion is playable inside its sequel "Day of the Tentacle" by using a computer found in the mansion. So, I extracted files from "Day of the Tentacle Remastered" (using Doublefine Explorer fan tool), picked out the files in the "MANIAC" folder and loaded them in ScummVM which recognized them. And I've finally be able to play the game at last...

GOG: please update the game files (at least for the Mac version, which is the only one I've tried).

Thank you, that's a great idea!
I bought the game during Spring-Sale and was really disappointed when I found out, the game had all passcodes disabled.

You're very welcome. ;)

Out of curiosity, which OS version of the game had this issue for you: Mac, PC or Linux?
I'm just wondering if all releases have the same game files.

It was the PC-Version, but only the Enhanced Version. The Original seems to be ok.
I tried it with Bernard and the radio to call the Meteor Police.
In the Enhanced Version every code works, in the original one only the code from the Wanted Poster.

Looks like the data files were actually altered - this happens even in ScummVM. Did GOG or Disney not have an unaltered copy of Maniac v2? If so, there's an unchanged copy of the game in DOTT Remastered.

I independently stumbled over this myself earlier today. It looks like 00.LFL and 43.LFL have been altered. The 00.LFL change may be unrelated (ScummVM seems to skip that part of the file when it's read, but don't quote me on that), but the one in 43.LFL is probably crucial.

It's a one-byte change which, if I understand it correctly, affects the script that handles keypads in the game. (Since I've never actually played through it, I only know of the security door and nurse Edna's safe.) In the original file, it waits for you to input four numbers. If any of them is incorrect, it sets a variable to indicate that you failed.

In the cracked version, if you enter the fourth digit incorrectly it clears the variable to indicate that you succeeded. Presumably, that means that if you get the fourth digit correct, you have to also get the first three correct or you'll fail. In which case, it's not even a particularly good crack.

I reported the issue to GOG, but when I saw this thread and how long it has been known, I don't know how hopeful I should be that it will be fixed. (I also reported it to Disney App and Games support, since I assume the Steam version is also affected.)

Edit: I've pushed a fix to ScummVM that should restore the intended behavior. Of course, it's not in any stable release of ScummVM yet so you would need a nightly build to test it. If anyone's curious about the details, they're here: https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/07617f8c5f7b136fb0b873b52e5199654af9ec9c

It turns out that you can extract the .lfl files from the DOTT Remastered's tenta.cle file using the Double Fine Explorer: https://quickandeasysoftware.net/software/doublefine-explorer

Those files are identical to the files I got off my old floppies, so they should run fine in ScummVM.

Is it just easier to play this via Day of the Tentacle? I don't remember why I bought this to be honest...

You would have to either extract the files to play with ScummVM or play Day of the Tentacle until you reach the computer where you can play Maniac Mansion. So, while both are easy to do, it should be easier to simply install the standalone version.

The problem with the standalone version is that the game is cracked and wherever you find a puzzle involving a numeric combination, you can input any number and it will be correct.

From my research, the same can be said of Maniac Mansion within Day of the Tentacle Remastered.

The one included in DOTT seems to have worked well for the original poster, though he played it on Mac, not sure if that's why it worked for him. I haven't tried it myself, so I can't tell for sure.

My favorite version is the original, the one that looks like the C64, and that one works fine, if you don't mind the older graphics. In case you haven't tried it, It's included with the enhanced version, and GOG installs both, but if you use the offline installer (not sure how it is with Galaxy), it won't create a desktop icon for it, you have to look for it from the start menu or the game's folder.

There's an easy way to test: Send a kid to nurse Edna's room and try opening her safe. If just about any combination works (the cracked version still requires you to either get it right, or to get the last digit wrong), it's cracked. If only the correct combination works, it's not.

I don't have the remastered Day of the Tentacle on GOG, but the Steam version isn't cracked. The standalone versions (except the older, lower resolution one) on GOG and Steam (last time I checked) were both cracked. ScummVM 2.5.0 and later tries to uncrack it, because apparently Disney just can't be arsed to.

(The security door is open in all versions since the copy protection codes aren't included with the game, but as far as I know that didn't take any changes to the game's data files.)

If anyone is interested, someone in a group I'm in posted this.

https://archive.org/details/maniac-mansion-gog-fix

This is a patch to restore the GOG release of Maniac Mansion to it's original state. The GOG release of the game is for some reason cracked to bypass the copy protection, but this crack also breaks any puzzle involving a keypad, of which there are several.

This patch will remove that bypass, allowing the game to be experienced as originally intended. Instructions included in zip.

This patch is also necessary for the Amazon Prime Gaming release and probably the Steam release as well.

That's my patch! I was just here to post it, hahaha. Hope you get some use out of it.