Castle of Terror is an interactive fiction game with graphics released for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum by Melbourne House in 1984.
| Castle of Terror | |
|---|---|
 C64 cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Beam Software |
| Publisher(s) | Melbourne House |
| Programmer(s) | Peter Falconer[1] |
| Artist(s) | Greg Holland[1] |
| Writer(s) | Grahame Willis[1] |
| Composer(s) | Neil Brennan[1] |
| Platform(s) | Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum |
| Release | 1984 |
| Genre(s) | Graphic adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Gameplay
editThe player is given a quest by an old man at the local tavern to rescue his daughter from the clutches of the local Count (a vampire), who resides in the nearby castle. Throughout the game, the player gathers items, which can then be manipulated to solve various puzzles. The text based interface, coupled with a visual display of the player's location, is similar in style to the Commodore 64 version of The Hobbit.
Reception
editThe game received notoriety amongst gamers as being impossible to fully complete, namely due to there being no known way to kill the count or achieve a full score of 290 out of 290. Grahame Willis, author of the game, has since revealed that it is not possible to kill the count and that messages suggesting so were placed in the game intentionally to frustrate players.[2]
At the time of its release, it received mixed reviews. Your Commodore praised the game, describing its graphics as "very good" and its playability as "user friendly".[3] Your Computer criticized the game, marking it as "fuzzy" to play.[4] It got a 67% rating from Zzap!64.[5] [6]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Adventure Review Section". Commodore User. No. 18. Commodore International. p. 24. ISSN 0265-721X.
- ^ ":: CASA :: Grahame Willis".
- ^ D.I.W. (April 1985). "Software Review: Castle of Terror". Your Commodore. No. 7.
- ^ Lee Paddon (February 1985). "Software Shortlist: Castle of Terror". Your Computer. No. 2.
- ^ "Castle of Terror Review (part 1)". Zzap!64 (1): 72. May 1985. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- ^ "Castle of Terror Review (part 2)". Zzap!64 (1): 73. May 1985. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
External links
edit- Castle of Terror at Gamebase 64
- Castle of Terror at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
- C64 version at the Internet Archive