Vampire
Vampire, originaly known as 'Phantomas 2' on the Spectrum by 'Emilio Salgueiro' in 1986 published by Dinamic Software. C64 conversion by Adrian Sheppard and published by Codemasters in 1987.
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Player's Review
Historical Background. The year 2987... Brok the Brave found himself on the high- security planet Hawkland. His life had turned into a daily routine of synthetic drugs and psychological sessions to change his behaviour and destroy his instinct of independence. When all was lost for him, hope sprang up: an emissary from the planets of Sol 1 proposed the greatest challenge of his life: to liberate the planet Earth and its space stations from Dracula and his vampires, who were subjecting the people to a lethal nightmare.
The Plot. In order to destroy Count Dracula, Brok the Brave must descend into the suffocating atmosphere of terror which envelops his castle. He must struggle against all the traps and enemies he finds on his trail, never wavering, without a look behind or the doubt that could cost him his life. The castle has two parts: the underground, full of dangers and traps and the surface, where nothing is easy.
To successfully complete the mission Brok must follow the advice of the prophetic poem found in the book of wisdom:
To destroy the hellish beast whose black teeth absorb all blood You must descend to where no light will reach And find the keys which open all doors, Open the shuttered windows and when the rays of sunlight flood the rooms find those magic objects which will destroy the vampire of darkness: Two crossed sticks, the symbol of the power of white magic over black; Thor's weapon, symbol of the power which metes out just vengeance; A pin-sharp stake, symbol of the end of immortality for a vampire."
A blatant conversion of the spectrum game keeping all the same in game assets but it does play ok at least with responsive control. You have a long and short jump and need to navigate 99 screens to find items and use in the appropriate place. There will be some backtracking. There are problems with collision detection so you don't want to be close to any falling spikes or rocks as that's an instant life lost. You don't collect extra lives as such but there is more energy in the form of food items which are scattered throughout the levels. Collecting more than you need loops the energy bar gaining a life and you can only hold up to nine even though it shows two digits. You don't start with much energy so your have to be really careful right from the start.
The difficulty curve in this game is huge and can be quite frustrating. Many enemies are directly in your path where you need to be and while most can be avoided, many are backed up by arrow fire so something is going to get you like it or not. You have to pick the least dangerous route. Quite often just entering a room you can be directly in the line of fire or energy beam. This not good gameplay. Care must be taken with food management as you will potentially be backtracking through the whole house
Overall, this is familiar territory for the adventurer playing this style of game but it is one that will test your resolve as it is not just frustrating but can be brutally difficult especially when starting out figuring it all out. I had this game on one of the Quattro compilation tapes and while it is one of the better presented games, it's difficulty put me right off playing it.
The Plot. In order to destroy Count Dracula, Brok the Brave must descend into the suffocating atmosphere of terror which envelops his castle. He must struggle against all the traps and enemies he finds on his trail, never wavering, without a look behind or the doubt that could cost him his life. The castle has two parts: the underground, full of dangers and traps and the surface, where nothing is easy.
To successfully complete the mission Brok must follow the advice of the prophetic poem found in the book of wisdom:
To destroy the hellish beast whose black teeth absorb all blood You must descend to where no light will reach And find the keys which open all doors, Open the shuttered windows and when the rays of sunlight flood the rooms find those magic objects which will destroy the vampire of darkness: Two crossed sticks, the symbol of the power of white magic over black; Thor's weapon, symbol of the power which metes out just vengeance; A pin-sharp stake, symbol of the end of immortality for a vampire."
A blatant conversion of the spectrum game keeping all the same in game assets but it does play ok at least with responsive control. You have a long and short jump and need to navigate 99 screens to find items and use in the appropriate place. There will be some backtracking. There are problems with collision detection so you don't want to be close to any falling spikes or rocks as that's an instant life lost. You don't collect extra lives as such but there is more energy in the form of food items which are scattered throughout the levels. Collecting more than you need loops the energy bar gaining a life and you can only hold up to nine even though it shows two digits. You don't start with much energy so your have to be really careful right from the start.
The difficulty curve in this game is huge and can be quite frustrating. Many enemies are directly in your path where you need to be and while most can be avoided, many are backed up by arrow fire so something is going to get you like it or not. You have to pick the least dangerous route. Quite often just entering a room you can be directly in the line of fire or energy beam. This not good gameplay. Care must be taken with food management as you will potentially be backtracking through the whole house
Overall, this is familiar territory for the adventurer playing this style of game but it is one that will test your resolve as it is not just frustrating but can be brutally difficult especially when starting out figuring it all out. I had this game on one of the Quattro compilation tapes and while it is one of the better presented games, it's difficulty put me right off playing it.
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