A couple months after we first mentioned the "nearly complete" project here, Ernie 76 and the Vampyre Games Team have released a PC demo for their unauthorized 3D remake of LucasArts's classic adventure game Maniac Mansion.

To avoid licensing issues, the German group named their project Meteor Mess 3D (or MM3D) -- it kind of makes sense, what with a meteor playing a key role in the original game's story, but that title makes the game sound like some sort of Asteroids-type shooter. Also, I doubt that simple title change is enough to get the team out of any legal troubles.

Anyway, as the name suggests, the demo transforms the original 2D game's characters and mansion rooms into 3D. The graphics are a little rough and certainly not up to the standards of more professional productions, but one should keep in mind that the group started work on this project as a way to learn Gamestudio, the 3D authoring system tool used to create the game.

You can download Vampyre Games's Meteor Mess 3D demo, which includes both English (default) and German language support, from the team's Gamestudio forum thread. The game's final release is scheduled for this summer. I've included a recently uploaded video showing some gameplay portions (in German) after the break:

[Via Ernie]