Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion

The third Nancy Drew game is one of the most famous and popular games in the series. It also released in the same year that Huw Miller was born, so that's pretty cool!

Game Description

Discover who — or what — is behind the mysterious accidents in a house full of secrets!
Nancy Drew is invited, by a friend, to San Francisco to assist in the renovation of a Victorian mansion. But there are other uninvited guests, visitors from the past–spirits who want the place all to themselves. Nancy suspects that there is another force at work: greed. In a house full of trap doors and secret tunnels, breaking glass and suspicious fires, one misstep and Nancy won’t stand a ghost of a chance in Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion!

Game Information

Available on: Windows 95/98/ME/2000 Professional/XP/Vista/7/8/10
ESRB: E for Everyone
PC Release Date: November 24, 2000
Release MSRP: $24.95 USD
Current MSRP: $9.99 USD
Number of Discs: 1
Game Abbreviation: MHM
Game Color Code: 2167A2
Inspired by/Based on: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Digest Paperback #122: The Message in a Haunted Mansion

Game Specs

PC System Requirements:

166 MHz or greater Pentium or equivalent class CPU
16 MB of RAM
135MB or more of hard drive space
16-bit DirectX 7.0 compatible graphics video card
16-bit DirectX 7.0 compatible sound card
8x CD-ROM drive
Mouse and Speakers

Fun Facts:

This game introduced cover artist Mark Tolleshaug as he began designing the cover art for the games starting with Message in a Haunted Mansion, redoing Secrets Can Kill and Stay Tuned for Danger, and continuing until Midnight in Salem.
This game featured only two different game modes instead of three.
This is one of the most popular Nancy Drew PC games as many fans were introduced to the series with this game. It was also the game that put HeR Interactive on the map as they started receiving a lot more press for this game. One of their biggest reviews came from The New York Times.
This was the first ‘scary’ game in the series.
Scott Carty started voicing characters for the Nancy Drew series with this game with his first character being Charlie Murphy. He would go on to officially be the voice for Ned Nickerson (Nancy’s boyfriend) and play other minor characters in the series such as Sherman Trout and Henry Daddle.
The strategy guide that HeR interactive wrote for this game makes Message in a Haunted Mansion the earliest game to have a strategy guide written by HeR Interactive instead of Dreamcatcher.
This was the first game to be ported to another system/console: Gameboy Advance. It released a year after the PC version.
The game logo that appears when you first load up Message in a Haunted Mansion is a picture of the haunted mansion in black and white. The original house it was based off of was the Parrott-Camp-Soucy House in Newnan, Georgia. HeR took an image of the house and altered it to become the house you see in the beginning of the game.
There is an alternate ending for this game in the game files that can only be accessed via the secret developer menu.
Years ago, this game had an online interactive demo. It contained information about the game as well as a very short teaser trailer.
By 2006, this game had sold over 300000 copies and made $5.5 million in just the United States.
Some of the scary sounds that can be heard throughout the mansion such as a male cackle, or the voice saying "I see you!" were actually performed by Robert Riedl (past Executive Producer) and Megan Gaiser (past CEO). Other sounds were sourced from external places, but some were recorded internally at HeR Interactive.
Kevin Manthei, the musical composer for this game, wrote the game's soundtrack in one day. Manthei felt he would like to try and challenge himself, and sure enough he managed to get 10 tracks completed. He never told the old HeR Interactive leadership about it.

Image Gallery
Characters
Walkthrough
Soundtrack
Extra

Image Gallery

Characters

Abby Sideris

She met Rose Green in River Heights during a stint directing a school play and together they purchased the Victorian mansion. Abby has a fascination for the supernatural and believes the mansion is truly haunted. Is she trying to turn her beliefs into reality?

Charlie Murphy

Charlie is working on the house renovations and secretly lives in the mansion’s hidden room. Affable, adorable, endearing and sincerely nice, is Charlie causing the delay in renovations so it will extend his job and free-of-charge stay?

Louis Chandler

An antique dealer and Victorian era expert, Louis has agreed to consult with Rose on decoration in return for access to her library. However, he doesn’t seem to know as much as he says he does, so could he be causing the distractions?

Rose Green

A retired teacher who invested all of her savings into the Victorian mansion to convert it into a bed-and-breakfast. Is Rose starting to have second thoughts about the wisdom of her investments given the delayed schedule in renovating the house? Find out in this amazing adventure game!

Phone Contacts

Emily Foxworth

Bess Marvin and George Fayne

Hannah Gruen

Walkthrough

You can watch the full video walkthrough for Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion on YouTube!

Episode 1 - Abby, Rose, and Nancy's Room

Episode 2 - Talking and Exploring

Episode 3 - Louis, the Seance, Saloon, and Attic

Episode 4 - Night, Dumbwaiter, and Passages

Episode 5 - Talking and Snooping

Episode 6 - Charlie's Room, Louis's Stuff

Episode 7 - The Fire!

Episode 8 - Talking and the Safe

Episode 9 - The End

Awards

Parents’ Choice, 2001 Software Gold Award
Parent’s Guide to Children’s Media, 2001 Outstanding Achievement in Computer Programs
Children’s Software Revue, 2001 All Star Software Award
Family Life Magazine, “Favorite Software,” May 2001
Amazon.com, Best Software of 2000
Choosing Children’s Software, Best Girls’ Software