Although the gaming landscape has changed, there are still remakes of "Day of the Tentacle", and it's one of the few games that was published on Dos, Mac, Playstation, and Xbox. It was a pioneer in dialogues: on discs, the written dialogues and interaction options were funny and one-of-a-kind at the time, but when the CD-ROM version was published, the accompanying voice-overs set the benchmark!
Today you can find the remastered version on steam and several other platforms.
Day of the Tentacle takes place five years after the events of Maniac Mansion. The mad scientist Dr. Fred Edison has created two child-sized tentacles as pets, Purple Tentacle and Green Tentacle. Purple Tentacle drinks from the toxic waste of the Edison laboratory, causing a mutation that leads it to believe it can take over the world.
Dr. Fred locks up both tentacles. Green Tentacle, the companion of Purple Tentacle, asks his friends for help: physics geek Bernard, heavy metal roadie Hoagie, and medical student Laverne. However, Bernard accidentally frees both tentacles, allowing Purple Tentacle to escape. Dr. Fred plans to send the three friends 24 hours into the past using a time machine he has developed to prevent Purple Tentacle's mutation. However, the time travel fails, causing Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne to be separated. Hoagie lands 200 years in the past during the drafting of the United States Constitution, Laverne is sent 200 years into the future where the tentacles rule the world, while Bernard remains in the present.
The player can switch between the roles of Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne with the goal of bringing them back to the present and carrying out the original mission. The game's special appeal is the ability to use temporal paradoxes, as many actions in the past also affect the present and future. It is also possible to send objects directly through time, making the different timelines intertwined. It is interesting to note that, 200 years in the past, the Edison mansion is the site of the drafting of the American Constitution, and the player, in the role of Hoagie, can interact with the US Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington.
Picture: LucasArts
