With Day of the Tentacle: Cron-O-binetti, time travel and mutant tentacles our weekly column continues # fridaynostalgia dedicated to retrogaming. Here is our story of one of the funniest and wackiest video games ever thought. A graphic adventure in pure Lucas style, where humor and nonsense are the masters.
If you missed the previous articles dedicated to the retrogaming you can easily find them all at this link. You will find Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Winning Eleven and many other goodies collected just for you!
Day of the Tentacle: Cron-O-binetti, time travel and mutant tentacles
There was a time, now very remote, in which to be a nerd it was a real misfortune. Nerds were social outcasts, nerds constantly mocked and misunderstood. The entry of the word nerd into the collective imagination is not well defined, but, in the eyes of all, the nerd has always been the classic loser high school student, with a skinny and sickly physique, short-sighted and therefore equipped with thick glasses. He is often unable to relate to others in social conventions. Passionate about mathematics and physics, chess player and not very used to sports.
On TV and in the media, nerds have been cleared by films such as: "The revenge of the nerds"(1984) or from TV series such as:"Big Bang Theory”Who helped overturn the stereotype of the classic loser, bringing Sheldon Cooper geniuses to the fore. For all videogames lovers, however, the first nerd proper was Bernard Bernoulli. Protagonist of M before and of "Day of the Tentacle" then. An iconic character, one of the fundamental ingredients of one of the greatest successes of the Lucas house.
Unmistakable Lucas style
What could happen if a sentient tenacle, the result of the experiment of a quite mad scientist, mutated after ingesting polluted water? But it is obvious, it would give way to the conquest of the earth and the submission of the entire human race, in a dystopian and disturbing future. How do you stop the evil purple tentacle from its mad plans to conquer the world? Equally obvious, relying on the king of nerds Bernard, to his metalhead friend hoagie and the wacky medical student Laverne. With the use of time travel and a huge amount of lateral thinking. Very lateral.
These are the premises of one of the most famous LucasArts adventures. Our three heroes, using the cron-o-binetto, a particular time machine in the shape of a toilet, try to go back a day, by turning off the machine that generates pollution and saving the world. Unfortunately the prof. Fred is not rich enough to afford one real diamond and the copy he uses ends up sending Hoagie back to two hundred years, at the time of the declaration of independence, in the presence of personalities of the caliber of George Washington e Benjamin Franklin. Laverne, on the other hand, ends 200 years in the future, in full dictatorship of the tentacles that have managed to enslave mankind. Bernard, on the other hand, remained in the present. The three friends will have to cooperate and help each other to be able to return all to the present and defeat the Purple tentacle.
An adventure between irony and genius
The real touch of class of this Lucas adventure is precisely in the time lag between the three protagonists that forces us to make extensive use of "lateral thinking". For example, to have vinegar in the present, it will be enough to hide some wine in the cellar in the past, then waiting for the two hundred years to transform it into vinegar. Likewise, to get the hamster in Laverne in the future, just put it in the icebox in a sort of do-it-yourself hibernation (complete with warnings not to do it to the hamster at home). A series of found always on the razor's edge between genius and total idiocy. All enriched by the usual self-referential found of Lucas, from the helmet of Stormtrooper of star wars to the rabbit Max, Via Guybrush Threepwood.
In the game we will have to deal with many historical characters such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and Betsy Ross and their descendants who may be met in the future. On a beautiful sunny day we will have to help Benjamin Franklin to complete the famous kite and lightning experiment. Too bad that, in fact, there is a magnificent sun. At the time, when the WelcomeGaming.com guides did not exist yet, only after many hours of tests and counter-tests did I come to understand that to make it rain it was necessary wash the carriage in the square. Obviously, when you wash your car, it always rains, and even in the game, washing the carriage made the sky cloud over so you could continue the story. Genius or madness? Simply Lucas.
Characters outside the lines
If the story of “Day of the Tentacle” was absolutely brilliant, like the puzzles and the various logical steps to be solved, no less was the charisma of the unlikely characters. From the two tentacles, Green and Purple, the first good and shy, the second evil but stupid (before drinking from the polluted source), passing by Professor Fred Edison, mad scientist with his head perpetually in the clouds. The apex, however, was touched with the three protagonists. Bernard the nerd, intelligent but not very sporty, quite distracted and bungling. Laverne the completely wacky medical student, from motion animations to scruffy clothing and hair. In the end hoagie the metalhead, with long hair and a metal t-shirt, always imperturbable even when surfing on a toilet while walking through time.
A perfect mix of idiocy, messes, brilliant ideas and quotes, made even more exciting by one writing absolutely prefect, both in the dialogues and in the plots of an abundantly surreal plot. A game capable of marking an era and more than a generation of gamers. Maybe not with the same iconic ability to create a true cult phenomenon, as it was for Monkey Island, but able to establish itself in the collective imagination among the most played and loved graphic adventures of all time. Even without becoming a true pop phenomenon, Day of the Tentacle remained in the hearts of all of us.
Some curiosities
The events of "Day of the Tentacle" take place seven years after what was told in the magnificent M. Inside the mansion, more precisely in Ed Edison's room, it is possible to play the first chapter using the personal computer that is there. In 2016 the Double Fine Productions produces a remastered version of “Day of the Tentacle” for PC, Mac, PS4 and Vita. If you want to platinum this game, you will have to play the first Maniac Mansion until you put the poor hamster in the microwave, see him explode (sic) and earn the "Chef" trophy.
Day of the Tentacle was also the last Lucas graphic adventure to use the interface SCUMM, with a third of the screen occupied by the stock list and inventory. In the next game, Sam & Max Hit the Road verbs were replaced by scrolling icons. Although there were still three characters, like its predecessor, in this game it was no longer possible to lose our protagonists. In fact, they cannot die or be imprisoned as it happened in Maniac Mansion. This is because there was a change in the philosophy of LucasArts, dictated by Ron Gilbert that the game shouldn't have punished players for simply exploring the game environment.
Day of the Tentacle is one of the most beautiful graphic adventures ever conceived, either for the innovative cartoon style, or for the wacky and nerdy characters, or for the riddles always on the edge of irony and absurdity. A game so successful that it is still fun to play after over twenty years.
