Transylvania

Hammer House

I’ve been a fan of this adventure game for years, even though I’ve never played it. I sound crazy, right? Visually, it has a blend of 8/16-bit styles I’ve always found curiously captivating (something you only get from early ST games). Plus, it reminds me of the adventures I played as a kid - The Hobbit and Twin Kingdom Valley. I know I'm bonkers, but I’ve always fancied having a go just to wander around its "spooky" locations.

Transylvania was originally developed by Antonio Antiochia in 1982 by Penguin Software for the Apple II. Our version was ported by Robert Hardy and released in the ST's infancy. Considering the ST was 0 years old, it still punched out classics like Ultima II, Megaroids, Mudpies, Time Bandit, and loads of adventures.

It feels weird to finally play something that’s been sitting on my bucket list for decades. I’m not expecting anything on the level of Magnetic Scrolls, but I’m still geekily excited to finally boot it up!

So, after that glimpse into my dark mind, let's crack on and take it for a playtest...

This is where the adventure begins, with nothing more to see than a stump!
However, for illogical reasons, you will return later for a knock or two...

This location leads in four directions, but not always in the way you imagine.
I only got to read the note here because of the dreaded Werewolf chasing me!

The Adventure Begins

Let's start with the (very) original tale: The Royal Court of Wallachia needs a champion (here we go again). The king’s in a panic because his daughter, Princess Sabrina, has gone missing. He’s calling for a hero to bring her back, but it means trekking deep into the creepy forests of Transylvania - a dark place, probably with many monsters. Still, for a hero like us, rescuing damsels in distress is just another day on the job!

There are two ways to control your adventure: you can type using two-word commands - "get item", "open object", "enter place", and the like. Sentences can increase in length and complexity, but I rarely found the need, if I'm honest. Optionally, you can use the mouse to list your inventory and explore using the compass directions. However, you aren't able to use the mouse to interact with items or objects in the main window. It's a bit strange to have mouse support, so I recommend sticking with the keyboard for everything.

A tree stump marks the beginning of our adventure and leads to the first location, which appears completely pointless. So, moving on, the next screen provides the first clue - a note briefly explaining that the princess dies at dawn. Yep, that’s all we get, and from here on out, we’re pretty much on our own. So, like any good adventurer, we start exploring, hoping to find more clues or anything useful along the way.

The woodland area isn't large and is made from select locations with a few notable spots to check out. You are likely to wander in circles, passing by the cabins, an old wagon, and a grave. The cabins have a piece of garlic, which could come in handy later. The wagon’s got a coffin on the back, but it’s nailed shut for some reason. And the grave, though drawn quite terribly, surely has some kind of dark purpose? Who knows...

Around this point, you might start noticing a Werewolf showing up every now and then. As you'd expect, this creature is fast, so you’ll need to react correctly with the next command. That means leg it out of there using one of the available exits. He will still follow in the background and will eventually catch up, so when that happens, just repeat the process. If I'm honest, he pops up way too often (which starts to get dead annoying), especially when you’ve got to keep going in and out of the same places to get something done.

A bit further on, we find a house. Inside, there is a loaf of bread and a gun! That’s when I thought I might be getting somewhere. Unfortunately, the gun’s not loaded. Nearby is a castle, with its one lone vampire; perhaps that garlic might come in handy? Be quick, as you only have a couple of moves before he sinks his teeth into your neck. It's now, things are coming into play nicely, but I need bullets for my gun!

Sadly, after wandering about like a fool and getting nowhere, I feel I've hit a dead end. On top of that, I wasn’t finding any useful items. I did come across a goblin with a key, but he wasn’t having any of it - and looked a bit freaky! Also, I wanted to get into that coffin on the wagon - not something I thought I would ever say. However, I couldn’t find anything to open it with. Later, I found a frog beside a lake and realised that was the way out (after rescuing the princess). If she's not with you, the King’s guard sends you straight back.

I had a great time getting this far, but I reached my natural end and failed to venture further. Plus, I was getting fed up with that Werewolf showing up, near enough, on every screen - I never did find a silver bullet to kill him!! Also, I didn't discover a way to open the coffin, which was curiously placed for an obvious reason. For a small adventure, there wasn’t much to work with. So... I gave up and ended it there. Gutted!

Or did I? Well, carry on scrolling after you've browsed these next screenshots...

I thought locations like this would have housed tools to logically solve puzzles.

Nope. And that damn Werewolf turned up AGAIN!

Oddly, I'm including this screenshot simply because I love the artwork.

At least the Werewolf stayed away long enough for me to capture it. There's a first!

GameFAQs

As you can imagine, I was pretty frustrated with my lack of progress. Getting into the castle felt like a big deal, and I thought I was on the verge of breaking the adventure's back. But the vampire shows no mercy, and he’s quick to dig his teeth into my neck. I also had this nagging feeling that I’d missed something obvious with that coffin on the wagon - why couldn't I open it (Grrr!!). And don’t get me started on the cabin with the deer's head - it drove me mad, no matter how many times I pushed, pulled, or kicked that stupid ornament!

So... I ended up going online and found a walkthrough (linked below). I don’t usually like doing that because it spoils the point of playing a game. But, in all honesty, I felt like I’d wasted enough time aimlessly wandering around an empty woodland that I originally imagined would be full of spooky creatures!

Their guide is pretty much spot-on for the ST version, and it solved the obvious and not-so-obvious puzzles I was struggling with. Honestly, some of the puzzles, I never would’ve figured out in a million years. For example, the cabin puzzle made absolutely no sense at all. Oh, and watch out for the eagle with its grabby claws!

I later discovered that the princess requires a potion to wake her, as she's spending the last moments of her life drugged up on Rohypnol. Once she’s awake, she follows you completely, so head to the lakeside boat to sail away. It’s a bit of a rubbish ending, but thanks to GameFAQs, I got to see it after all my anxiety.

It’s nice to finally finish a game, even if it was with a walkthrough!! Screenshot time...

Other than heading southward, I wonder what might have triggered that?
The game has many moments which made me smile.

Here is another - this room contains one item, garlic. I ate it here lol.

I'm sure you can guess the use inside the castle? Come on, sure you can!

The CryptO'pinion

It may sound like I didn't enjoy Transylvania, but I actually did! It’s a fun adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously, with intriguing puzzles that I really liked. And, considering it's an early game, it looks good with decent graphics that draw before your very eyes. Well, ignoring a few locations like the graveyard, which are terrible. I love this olde effect that's not nearly as slow as you initially dread. But, let's have a whinge...

Being called Transylvania, I expected lots of Hammer House of Horror cliches with bloody gore, corpses, and maybe a ghostly haunted house. But, nothing of the sort. Ignoring the Werewolf and the castle's Vampire, there's not much "horror". In fact, other surprising oddities don't fit the horror theme whatsoever - like a giant frog, a tormenting goblin, and (wait for it) aliens who appear in their spaceship. Quite bizarre!!

Plus, many locations are oddly designed, making mapping tricky since the game ignores its own paths. For example, if you walk south from the forest to the lakeside, you can’t go back north as the trail no longer exists! There are other examples which make no sense and spoil the experience somewhat.

Despite everything, the most annoying part of the whole adventure has to be the werewolf. It's a good feature, but he is constantly lurking, ready to pounce, far too often. That frequency needed lowering, as running away only prevented the inevitable for this never-ending chase. I needed to find a silver bullet for my gun!

Okay, I feel I should be a little lenient, as this was released the same year the ST was birthed! Sure, it has its faults, but it's an engaging adventure and not too large, so it's impossible to feel lost or easily bored. Sadly, I was disappointed by its so-called horror theme, but that didn't stop me from having fun killing the vampire. But I never did find a silver bullet - I would have loved to have blown away that damn Werewolf!!

Overall, I'm glad I finally got to play this anomaly after all this time! Even if it didn't quite live up to my expectations, I bet a younger me in 1985 would have loved it. Regardless, if you are after a bit of gore and fancy a decent horror-themed adventure, then check out Ooze, Uninvited, and The Curse of Rabenstein. Gratefully, I dedicate this review to my friend Carlos, who kindly bought me a few coffees recently! :-)

Transylvania is flawed but amusing for budding adventurers, so I'd rate this a surprisingly warm 69%.

• Atarimania has the official download & manual https://www.atarimania.com/transylvania.html
• 8BitChip has an excellent hard drive version https://atari.8bitchip.info/SCRSH/transylv.html
• I wouldn't recommend this! Until you're stuck https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/transylvania/
• Le Fétiche Micro has a fantastic walkthrough recording https://youtu.be/LeFeticheMicro

I thought I'd post one more screenshot of this damn Werewolf!

This is a puzzle I would NEVER have sussed out without the guide!

Snow White is finally awake and heading home to see her dad, the king.

Unfortunately, that didn't go down too well...

"After a precarious few minutes, the Journey goes smoothly. A somewhat tired and bewildered Princess Sabrina graciously thanks you as you return to her kingdom. The king is suitably impressed and asks that you be sent to deepest Africa to save his other daughter. That evening, you sneak out in peasant dress, plotting your rescue of Sabrina from the king's castle... Well Done!!! THE END."

The Errand Boy

YANASTG

Thanks to AtariMania, I got wind of a new game for the Atari ST by Dwalin. It was originally released last year for something called MS-DOS, whatever that might be. It's a short conversational adventure ported to DAAD for several home computers, one of which is our lovely Atari ST. The only computer that matters.

The Errand Boy is a graphical-style adventure and a prequel to Rudolphine Rur. It's not too dissimilar to what we've seen before with imagery and written text to describe our current location. We are Galdrin, who appears to be at odds with Mr Eldrad because he thinks of us as nothing more than errand boys. In a huff, we leave because that's no way to treat someone who's been in service for a thousand years, so he's gonna pay!

(Hang on, how old am I? Erm, am I even human? What's going on?)

We begin in a grungy room located somewhere in New York, near Central Park. The graphics are retro, using a digitised style that I really admire (these will look much better on the Atari STe compared to its older brother with fewer colours). Each room is detailed without large, overbearing paragraphs of text. Although some of its English has grammatical issues, nothing serious, and it certainly isn't going to spoil the fun.

The parser interaction is excellent, allowing exploration using the usual commands to look, examine, get, drop, open, etc. Including the usual compass directions to get around. Each command can be shortened: 'L' to look, 'X' to examine. In fact, examining everything is never a bad idea, nor is asking for help.

The characters you meet are few but full of... character! The butler appears to have spent his lifetime pottering about the house, so he is quite useless. Dorwinion isn't exactly a nice guy by the looks of it, but I liked Shadow's sense of humour. Oh, and there's a nasty cat. I don't like cats because they only use you for food! And then there's the gnome - what a crazy tale he represents, and he is nothing more than a lunatic. You'll see!

This may well be a short adventure, but it's full of curiosity, investigation and alternative humour. Yes, the story is insane, without any realism, and I loved that. Do not be too quick to dismiss this excellent adventure.

Let's take a much-needed break from the boring text for a screenshot...

In fact, I should listen to my own advice! Make sure you look under every stone.

A bit of background

As I enjoyed the adventure, I messaged Dwalin about it, the story, and how it came about...

"This is really a very short adventure, and that is why I chose it to be my first experience in translation. I am fond of text adventures since the 80s, where I played most of the commercially published adventures in Spain. I also had Gilsoft's PAWS, the program (or parser) that allowed you to create adventures for Spectrum, and I published a first homebrew adventure for that in 1993.

In Spain, fans of this type of game grouped together in various clubs, the most important of which one of them was CAAD, which published a bimonthly fanzine. Over time the clubs evolved into pages and internet forums, and the adventures of text as well, adapting to more modern computers. Contests were held on https://www.caad.es and players and adventure creators shared comments.

In 2005, using another adventure creation engine, Superglús, the evolution of the old PAWS, I published my second adventure: “The Adventures of Rudophine Rur”, and in 2015 using NgPAWS, another evolution of the engine. Rudolphine Rur tells the story of a little forest gnome who must enter the human world in search of his brother kidnapped by evil elves.

With the passage of time, the love for retrocomputing and old computers grew in Spain. I discovered this hobby in 2019. In Spain, the most important company that published text adventures in the 80s and 90s was AD Adventures. This company used as an adventure creation engine a parser called DAAD, also an evolution of the PAWS, but whose main feature was that it could port the games to most of the main systems of the time: Spectrum, Amstrad, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad PCW, PC MSDOS, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST.

Andrés Samudio, the director of Adventures AD released in 2014 the DAAD parser for use by the community of adventure creators. Until that moment DAAD had not been available to the general public, since it had been programmed exclusively for AD Adventures (it had a price of about € 12,000 in 1989!). The Spanish community of adventure creators began using DAAD to create cross-platform adventures for retro computers. In my case, I dedicated myself to porting my old Rudolphine Rur adventure to this system, and finally (2020) it was published (https://www.rudolphinerur.com) for most of the existing computers in the late 80s. I even published a small physical print run in cassette or floppy disk for Spectrum, Amstrad, MSX2 and Atari ST.

A year later I also wanted to try another parser, from the early 90s, SINTAC, another evolution of PAWS, which generated adventures for MSDOS. With him, I created a very short adventure, which I set in the same world as Rudolphine Rur: "The errand boy" being a prequel to it. The adventure was published in May 2021 in its PC version. Later I ended up porting it to DAAD so that I could release versions for Spectrum, Amstrad and MSX2.

Until now all my adventures were only available in Spanish. I considered that "The errand boy", being a short adventure, could be a good candidate to be translated into English. My level of English is not very good, and I have mainly used the google translator. So I hope native English people can forgive if they see something "weird". Finally, shortly after finishing the translation, I ended up porting the adventure also to Atari ST and well, that's the one you're playing :-) "

A fascinating read, which I hope you all enjoyed. I'm always impressed when a game like this appears on so many different platforms. My thanks to Dwalin for taking time out of his day to talk with me.

Okay, let's take another break from the reading for yet another screenshot...

I think Dorwinion deserves a slap for how he treats poor Galdrin!

The CryptO'pinion

It's always great to see new Atari ST games released. (Yet Another New Atari ST Game, just in case you wondered about the header above). This was a lot of fun to play; I loved its storytelling and really enjoyed playing through to the end. Okay, I wish it were a much bigger adventure, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Atari ST version of Rudolphone Rur will get translated into English, someday very soon.

You can download the ST disk image from Dwalin's website, AtariMania, or by clicking this link.

Make sure you examine everything and leave no stone unturned. Or book.

The descriptions aren't long-winded, yet provide all the details you require.

I guess that's one way to get his attention!

My gosh, there is so much information within this one screenshot! No spoilers!!

The style and unique storytelling are quite extraordinary.

Roll through this adventure as you would in real life.

I thought the later stages were too ambiguous at times. Maybe it's just me?

A small adventure that's big on content. I loved playing this!!

This last image is Rudolphine Rur running on the Atari ST (Spanish).

I'm hoping for the English version soon!

Tristam Island

Another Brand New Game?

Yep, that's right, and Tristam Island is a text adventure for lots of computers, including our Atari ST. It's been developed by Hugo Labrande and costs only a few quid (download link is below). That payment grants access to each and every download available, plus some hints & tips. Heck, there's even a free demo for those eager to evaluate it first.

The adventure begins having crash-landed, only to find ourselves stranded on the beach of a tropical island somewhere in the South Atlantic. Okay, my mind is picturing golden sands, blue skies, juicy coconuts, sexy female natives, and freshly running mineral water that's been magically enhanced with more than a dash of whiskey...

But enough of my silly dreaming! We actually begin hungry, tired and rather soggy. Later on, we realise that the island was once inhabited, which is unexpected, and now I can see an abandoned house up on the hill. Let's go!

I found ST High delivered the usual brilliantly crisp display and was my personal preference.

An ASCII Expedition!

General exploration is very easy using compass directions, of course. All locations offer a detailed description without being overbearing with tons of pointless text. Clues are subtle, as are solutions, so I often found myself backtracking when I realised I had foolishly bypassed something. Those muddy steps were a killer... try fishing without a flower!! O_o

This is a text adventure like the Infocom adventures and is using the Z-code Interpreter Program which is launched as a TTP program. Don't be scared, it can easily be installed as an application for z3 files. Actually, I'm grateful GEM wasn't used as that might have been sluggish wheras it feels fast in all three resolutions. The ST's Low Resolution felt too cramped but High is perfect, of course, you knew that!

The parser is excellent without any of the irritations I had with Ooze not too long ago. It's straightforward using commands like "n" to walk north, x to examine, l to look, I for inventory and so on. This is true for items & objects: pull rope, open compartment, get a fishing rod, smell flowers, etc/etc. The inventory functions are rather restrained, with only one pair of hands, so carrying multiple items or using large objects will require thought (very important).

Medium resolution works very well, but you might wanna change the colours first?

The CryptO'pinion?

Exploring remote islands is a pleasant surprise, but there are a few irritating niggles that hamper my progress. I found some of the puzzles quite bewildering and was baffled by oddities that made no logical sense, like struggling to make a hammock, and the fishing task is weird. Plus, the inventory is (initially) a pain in the bum (ouch!).

However, the story is interesting, and I was soon questioning everything like an insufferable Sherlock Holmes wannabe. Tristam Island will appeal to oldskool adventurers rather than the younger players and is nothing less than a charming and challenging adventure. So, if you haven't downloaded this new adventure, then I hope I've helped persuade you to give it a go. Personally, I hope and expect to lose many hours on this island over the coming Christmas holidays.

Whatever computer you use - this is a belting adventure and worth every penny - just make sure it's an Atari ST though or don't talk to me again! Downloads are available from the Tristam Island web page. A fantastic game!!

Yep, changing the default colours almost makes ST Low worth using, so I went a bit silly...

Ooze

Get ready to be scared stiff!!

I'm often a little sceptical of so-called horror games because they're never really gonna be that scary. In fact, the only game that has ever made me jump was the Jaguar's Alien vs Predator - it was late at night and I jumped out of my skin when an alien shrieked. Terrifying at 3am!! Anyhow, enough of my scooby-doo adventures.

I actually bought this game years ago, so figured it was about time I dusted it off and booted it up. This is an adventure developed by H. J. Braendle and Guido Henkel of Dragonware Games back in 1988. My box is quite battered with floppy disks that no longer work! But at least I have the manual, which is, for a number of reasons, most helpful.

Helpful because I'm not a massive fan of text adventures if I'm brutally honest. Though I have enjoyed a few over the years on both my ZX Spectrum and Atari ST. And, more recently, I bought a couple of crackers - Hibernated 1 and The Curse of Rabenstein, so I felt confident with Ooze to see what kind of horrific journey might be on offer.

Okay, let's begin with a screenshot from the beginning of our adventure, at Carfax Abbey...

We begin standing outside and looking at our inheritance. Oh, how I wish this were real life!!

I love cheeseburgers!

We play a character called Ham Burger and have inherited Carfax Abbey from our late uncle, Cheez Burger (these names are killing me). Yep, this sounds like a horrifying comedy? Anyhow, it appears he died under mysterious circumstances. So, rather than enjoying our wealthy new lifestyle, we instead investigate what's happened. Typical...!

From the start, the game dictates the expected creepy atmosphere. Upon arriving, we cautiously check out our new home. Thunder is rumbling, and an old signpost details the address, 666 Rue Morgue. Nervously walking up, we see the porch and an old rocking chair, but this ain't an ordinary chair because it's haunted. That's right! In fact, almost every room is haunted by something, so it's a good idea to take it slow and ponder the environment carefully. Very carefully.

Ooze has a good sense of humour. Wait too long, and a panicky message appears asking if you're still there. Don't leave me here alone, it whimpers lol. Just try sitting on the porch chair for an eye-opening experience that I did not expect. The characters are excellent, and I laughed when rescuing Marie: "Marie EnToilet"!! However, Murx is an oddity which made me chuckle and scratch my head. Oh, and when you die, the game pranks you - by banning you from the RAM!!

Oh yes, there are lots of silly pranks and fun places to explore, so let's see some more screenshots...

I cannot spoil what happened, but you can still get a glimpse of the humour!

You might not see it, but the text can be very vivid to portray the scene nicely.

More humour after a wrong decision. But look at those weird trophies. Nice graphics!

I'm rich and also haunted!

The world of Carfax Abbey is small but feels bigger because of the time spent at each location. It's tempting to rush off and explore, but that means you will miss everything important (as expected) and probably die. So be warned! Getting around is done using the expected compass directions (N/S/E/W) plus U/D for up/down. It's possible to 'sit down' or 'run south' to hastily exit. A handy command called 'exits' will inform you of all possible routes from your location.

Each area has a vivid description that is extremely long-winded, so it's possible to overlook something blatant, like the lance, which was totally infuriating. I know, I know, all adventures require that you read the room's description, but it's apparent that Ooze takes this to the extreme thanks to the amount of detail mixed with subtle hints. Thankfully, that feature can be changed by using the 'brief' command, which I did from the moment I entered the Abbey!

The parser is good, but I fear something was lost in translation (German roots). Simple commands are often confused by a pedantic requirement for correct input. Try unlocking a door, searching a trunk or switching on the lights. Well, light... Irritating!! Level 9 quality, this is not. Whatever you read in the description, examine that said object fully because nothing is obvious. Find the chalk if you can (agony that). Or suss out what you're supposed to do with the Parlour rope.

Surely you're interested in seeing more? I thought so, so let's view some more screenshots...

We're starting to get somewhere now, but then this happened... but then a "plopp". Hmm...

Some areas really do offer nothing valuable other than a lovely walk to the next room.

Oh my, things are hotting up in the bedroom!

An adventure with an atmosphere?

Visually, I loved how Ooze combined the two resolutions for great effect. Low is obviously used to display a range of gorgeous images, whilst the clarity of Medium is put to great use to read the text. This is superb and works well. Weirdly, not every room you visit appears to have its own separate image, which I found a little confusing at first.

Those with a crisp monochrome monitor will be happy to know Ooze works in high resolution. The text looks wonderful but the images... hmm... not so much. It's as if the low-res images have simply been converted on the fly, rather than drawn specifically for this particular display mode. Which is a shame.

The audio is superb with lots of samples for eerie creaks, footsteps, ghoulish screams and so on. However, the atmosphere is spoiled by the ST's keyboard clicks, which I didn't see any way to disable. It's no big deal, but I'd have preferred to disable them because they are a lot louder than the sampled sound effects. (and no, XControl did not work)

Looks great, sounds great. That can only mean one thing: more screenshots...

Sometimes the player can be too daft for his own good...

Think before you act, but whilst you're here, check out this artwork!

Sometimes the descriptions don't match the visuals, which is a tad annoying.

The CryptO'pinion?

Ooze is a great adventure and will undoubtedly appeal to those looking for something of a horror nature rather than a predictable fantasy theme. Sadly, I found the room descriptions overly long-winded and, at times, poorly translated into English. Also, basic exploration can sometimes be finicky - right from the moment you enter the Abbey (walking upstairs is quite the event). If ever there was an adventure that demanded you make a map, this is definitely it.

I found it impossible to explore upstairs otherwise. There ends my one and only hint!

This isn't something you can easily pick up, not without spending a lot of time. But, if you fancy a break from those fancy Magnetic Scrolls, then I am sure you will love this game, which is worth the effort. Ooze offers a sarcastic twist on the horror genre with neat puzzles. Plus, it has a fantastic sense of humour: give Marie a juicy kiss! Go on, do it... Brilliant!!

- Download the floppy disks -

A preview image from another game that was never released. What happened, I wonder?

The Curse of Rabenstein

Only the brave may enter...

Stefan Vogt, of Hibernated 1, has done it once again and released another brand new adventure game: The Curse of Rabenstein. This story has us travelling through the Black Forest on a cold and eerie night! Somehow, we managed to get ourselves lost, and the coachman looked very worried, so he stopped to rest the horses whilst trying to figure out his map. We get out to stretch our legs and notice faint lights shining from a distant village. Oddly, that place isn't on our map - or any map! Hmm, very strange, but I wonder if there's somebody there who might be willing to help?

I've spent a few hours over the weekend exploring the village of Rabenstein, which has a captivating storyline and is easy to get into. Unlike Hibernated, this is a graphical/text adventure with gorgeous retro artwork to help represent the current location. This adds another level to the creepy atmosphere, and I'm having a great weekend!

First, let's take a look at some early screenshots from my first attempts...

Has that coachman ever watched a movie? Look, I'll stay here, and YOU go to the village!

The village actually appears very nice with a pub, church, and stables. What more do you need?

Lovely, so let's go and explore a little more...

Erm, I don't think it's a good idea to wander around a cemetery at night - esp naked!! ;-)

Hay, Hay, we made it to the stables, which are just what we needed...

Explore the horror!

Heavily inspired by the Level 9 games, playing is familiar using a two-word parser that keeps things simple to look, examine, search, use, and so on. For example, "examine bed", "search hay", "get shovel", etc/etc. Also, shortcuts can be used, so X will examine something, N will walk you North, and so on. Yep, all easy and obviously very intuitive.

There is something uniquely riveting about Rabenstein's spooky theme, which captivates the imagination. In fact, I even had a pen and paper at the ready - but never used them, which is very odd for me!! Why? Well, the locations are few but crammed with information and details to help you out, so I feel novices (like me) will find Rabenstein a fantastic doorway into the genre. Stefan describes his game as more of a short novella, which I feel is not a bad thing whatsoever.

This is an exciting adventure to get stuck into. Don't believe me? Then check out these screenshots...

It's great to see that humour isn't lost amongst the "horror" theme of Rabenstein!

I knew it was a terrible idea to go into a cemetery at night!! What was I thinking?

Like an old Hammer House of Horror!!

So far, my journey is currently going very well: I have figured out how to stable my horses (yeah, I know), booked a room at the Inn and chatted to the local villagers - they seem nice but spooked! Later, I heard a terrifying scream coming from the graveyard - so I ran back to my room at the Inn only to hide under the bed covers all night! Yep, that's me!

However, things were very different the next morning: the village simply wasn't the same anymore - many years had passed, all the people had gone, and the forest was taking back the land. A tree had crushed the church, but it wasn't long before I started digging up a grave and fondling a dead corpse - not something I had ever thought about doing before. Hang on, I can see a Manor on the hill, so let's hope things get better after a good night's sleep. Hmm, I bet!

I'm a bit scared, so should I dare give you a glimpse of the Silent Hill horror...

Hmm, that InnKeeper was too good to be true. All I wanted was a good night's sleep!

What?!! Everything changed when I woke up!

The CryptO'pinion?

I think this adventure will appeal to both noobs and hardcore adventurers alike. The atmosphere is brilliant, and I love how things can change so swiftly - very Silent Hill-ish. Sure, the locations are few, but they are stuffed with clues that make you sit back and think. However, nothing is perfect, and I have quibbles: interaction with the villagers felt limited, and I also wish the idea of an alternate village had been used a lot more because it was brilliantly done.

I am really enjoying this adventure far more than I would have ever expected. It's like a Hammer House of Horror in both style and stereotypical content, plus the graphics are a massive bonus (I hope Stefan continues down this path in the future). A wonderful adventure, and now I am excited to see what freakish horrors await me in the Manor!!

[My current progress] I finally made it into the Manor, and there's a trail of blood. Oh, great!!

The Curse of Rabenstein is free to download!
* However, there is an option to donate a few quid *

I opted to purchase the boxed version with the goodies!!
I'm just like a (big) kid at Christmas :-)

Download | Donate | Buy the boxed release

Gaming like it's 1990 with a box stuffed full of quality goodies!