101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVil Manor is a point-and-click adventure game based on the 1961 Disney animated film—or, in actuality, the 1996 live-action remake, but using the 1961 film's art style—released by Disney Interactive in May 1997.
You are Patches, one of the 99 Dalmatian puppies taken to the titular mansion by Cruella De Vil's henchmen, Horace and Jasper. You, along with one of Pongo's puppies, Whizzer, have just escaped from being locked inside the house's library by said Mooks, like the other puppies, and now it's up to the two of you to find a way out and back to London.
The game is shot in prerendered CG, with hand-drawn cels of the characters moving about them. In an interesting twist, the perspective of each still shot of the mansion is shown at a very low camera angle called "Puppyvision", in reference to what a dog would see if they actually were in the house.
101 Dalmatians: Escape from DeVil Manor provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Cruella's car in the late-game cutscenes. Especially noticeable since Horace and Jasper's truck is hand-drawn.
- Adaptation Distillation: While it's based on the 1996 live-action film, the designs of the characters, including Cruella, Horace, and Jasper, are all taken from the 1961 animated adaptation.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Patches has white ears rather than black.
- Adaptation Name Change: Much like in the Original Novel, Live Action Film, and animated series, Roger's last name (given in the newspapers) in the game is "Dearly" rather than "Radcliffe".
- Adaptational Nationality: Inverted for Roger. In the film the game is based on, he is an American living in London, while here he is back to being an Englishman much like in the original novel and the 1961 film.
- Air-Vent Passageway: How you escape the game room. Much easier since you and Whizzer are puppies. At least, until the Baduns take notice after three escapes.
- Big "NO!": Cruella De Vil drops one when a barrel of TNT flies toward her, and again when it blasts her into a nearby junkyard, where the police are waiting to arrest her.
- Brick Joke: In the kitchen, Patches can eat a sandwich lying around. If you alert Horace and then hide later, he'll notice that said sandwich is missing, revealing that it belonged to him the whole time.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: If an object in the house is hand-drawn, it's bound to be interactive in some form.
- Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: Whizzer will often tell you to keep moving if you keep clicking on something.
- Covers Always Lie: The box art and manual imply that you'll be leading the entire pack of puppies out of the mansion at some point. Instead, Patches and Whizzer are the only ones to escape the house, and at the end, Roger and Anita buy the mansion and move into it.
- Dartboard of Hate: Discussed when Patches examines a dartboard. He wishes there was a photo of Cruella on it, dead center.
- Developer's Foresight: At certain points, the game can tell if you've done something.
- In the kitchen, if you have already gotten to the top of the drawers to the dumbwaiter and eaten the sandwich, Horace will comment on it if you hide from the Baduns in that room.
- If you found the chest combination in the Nanny's bedroom, then Whizzer will suggest that Patches use it. If not, then he suggests that they search the manor for the combination.
- When the pups exit the attic through the roof, Horace ends up tripping on some marbles that were tossed out of the chest while it was being moved. How he enters the attic varies depending on if the hatch is opened before hand or not. If it wasn't, then Horace will open the hatch himself.
- Disconnected Side Area: The attic of the mansion, since the hatch to it is shut from inside, and the top of the dumbwaiter shaft is blocked by a rake. The only way in is by traversing a section of rooftop from Cruella's old room, and climbing a wooden mesh to an open window.
- Dumbwaiter Ride: Patches and Whizzer can ride a dumbwaiter to every floor of the mansion, and it can be a handy escape route from Horace, if he's in the kitchen.
- Expy: Patches is this to Patch from the original 1961 movie, with his main differences being that both of his ears are white instead of one white and one black, he has a black patch on each eye instead of just one (hence the plural in his name), and he's one of the adopted eighty-four rather than one of the original fifteen. Patch otherwise doesn't exist in the 1996 movie continuity (though a puppy resembling him appears on the movie's poster).
- Happily Adopted: In this version of the story, Patches is a pup from a pet shelter rather than Pongo and Perdita's original 15 puppies. By the end of the game, he is inducted into the family by Roger.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: There is no way to lose the minecart sequence, since if you miss two times, the third barrel will automatically hit Cruella.
- Hint System: Often, Whizzer can chime in for tips if you click on him.
- Hope Spot: When the puppies first notice the front door of the house. They think it's a way out, up until finding it's too big to open.
- It Only Works Once: Whizzer states that even the Baduns aren't foolish enough to fall for the armor trap twice, so you can't lure them into it by barking again. If you do lure them up by clicking over the stairwell and click on the suit however, you can use it again. They won't be lured up by your barking again, but they will come up if they see you.
- Knight's Armor Hideout: Patches can weaponize this by hiding in a suit of armor that's holding a mace. If the Baduns are alerted, Patches can smack them with the mace and send them tumbling back down the stairs.
- Locked Door: Justified, since Patches and Whizzer are dogs in a human-scale house.
- Long Song, Short Scene: The seventh internally listed track plays while Patches and Whizzer escape from the Manor just before the minecart ride. The scene can vary as 10 seconds to just 3 seconds for this 2 minute track.
- Malevolent Architecture: Parts of the house's décor and even the furnace in the basement look designed to be menacing. Patches and Whizzer chalk it up to Cruella's twisted design sense. This can also be chalked up as the game being made by Roger in-universe, making Cruella as Obviously Evil as possible.
- Multiple Endings: There are two ways to leave the mansion.
- The most common ending involves exploring the whole house and making it up to the roof, then out through a drain pipe.
- The other exit is revealed if you happen to be thrown into the game room for the fourth time, which, after setting up a trap, results in busting down a wall with Horace's enormous girth.
- Mythology Gag: Whizzer comments on the guitar in the attic saying that his human (Roger) used to play music before he became a computer game programmer. This is a reference to how Roger was a songwriter in the 1961 film and changed to a game programmer in the 1996 film.
- Named by the Adaptation: Anita's maiden name is given in the newspapers as Campbell-Green.
- Open-Door Opening: The main menu is placed over the mansion's front door, and starting a new game opens it.
- Press X to Get Captured: Clicking on Patches prompts him to bark twice, and doing so three times in succession, or messing with loud objects alerts Horace and/or Jasper. If they catch you, they lock you into the house's game room, but there is a way out of it. There are a couple of points where you have to make Patches bark to lure them into some form of booby trap.
- Rollercoaster Mine: The finale of the game involves Patches and Whizzer riding a cart down a mine tunnel full of explosives, while pursued by Cruella's car. It ends when Patches tosses a lit barrel of TNT in her direction.
- Slasher Smile: Jasper does if he catches you.
- Shout-Out: If Jasper catches you.
Jasper: "Heeeere's Jasper!"
- Spinning Newspaper: Seen in the intro, to establish the events of the film.
- Spooky Painting: The mansion has several kinds of messed up artwork in every room, including a few that depict Cruella's history.
- Spooky Silent Library: Not so silent when tons of whimpering puppies are inside, but the mansion's library still looks pretty spooky.
- Taxidermy Terror: The game room is packed wall to wall with animal heads of all kinds, much of which disturb Patches and Whizzer. And a portrait of a hunter at the back is implied to be the person who inspired Cruella to get into furs. If that wasn't enough, there's also an enormous stuffed bear in the house's foyer, where the game starts. For even more of this, check Young Cruella's Bedroom: The white Siberian tiger, Sue Ling mentioned in the newspapers is here, now just a throwrug with her head nearby.
- Villain Ball: Horace and Jasper aren't the brightest bulbs in the shed to begin with, but the game would end a lot sooner if they opted to throw the puppies into the library where all the others were, something they can easily do by just throwing them in from the overlook. While this might be excusable the first time they got caught, they still throw them into the game room the second to fourth times too.
That's my brother!
