The Atari Lynx was a groundbreaking handheld console, as it was the first color handheld console ever made. Unfortunately it was not a great success but it was neither a footnote as 71 games were officially released during lifetime (1989-1995). One of its more unique games was Dracula the Undead, something of an adventure game retelling of the first few chapters of Bram Stoker's original novel, Dracula. Ever since I acquired a Lynx I was so entranced by the game that I felt compelled to beat it without the assistance of a walkthrough. Having accomplished that feat, I feel like this underappreciated game deserves a special review.
 |
| Author as narrator |
Dracula the Undead was developed by Hand Made Software and released on the Atari Lynx as a 256KiB cartridge in 1992. The game is a console-exclusive, although there was a port planned to the Jaguar CD (more on that later). The game is similar to an adventure game with actions being selected by a menu and inventory items being used to solve puzzles and make progress in the game. You play as Jonathan Harker from the novel. The game covers much of the same ground as chapters two through four in the original novel, in a rather loose fashion. Harker begins the game in Castle Dracula and at first he must explore the castle to uncover the mysteries surrounding Dracula and then must find a way to escape the castle. Bram Stoker appears as an in-game narrator at several points.
The interface is a bit clunky, as it is with most computer adventure games adapted to console. The interface is always on the screen and gives commands on one side of a list and objects on the other side of the list. King's Quest for the Sega Master System has a similar interface. You control Harker directly with the D-pad, and moving him to objects of interest allows him to interact with them. The B button switches between walking mode and interface mode and the A button executes commands. Sometimes you have to be in a very particular spot to interact and the original screens do not make finding those spots any easier.
 |
| Beginning the Game |
There are nine commands and some of them look like they have identical functions but "Examine" performs one function and "Look" performs another. The game will usually separate objects on screen and objects in inventory when selecting command-object combinations. The interface becomes confusing once you find an inventory item and want to look at a room object with the same name. Moving into another room will require moving your character to one of the screen's edges much of the time but the game sometimes does not give you any idea that there is another room you can move into.
The graphics are pretty unique. The Lynx supports 12-bit (4,096) colors, but you would not know it for this game because it is bathed in sepia tones (with some yellow and red-toned screens). This is an artistic choice and quite a brilliant one at that. The novel Dracula was set in the late 19th century, so the sepia tone reminiscent of some old photographs and silent films is a great choice for the game. The Lynx's sprite scaling abilities are used to make Jonathan's character appear larger and smaller as he walks across a screen. Jonathan can walk in front of or behind objects, lending the game a nice 3-D-like effect. The flickering light from the lantern is a nice graphical effect. There are some neat pixel dissolve effects that transition between certain scenes. Closeups of various characters have some nice detail. The title screen uses Christopher Lee's likeness, even with a native graphical resolution of 160x102 those aquiline features and that menacing stare are unmistakable.
 |
| Jekyll and Hyde |
The game's atmosphere is really enhanced by the background music. The title screen music plays for several minutes if you let it play without pressing a button. The main game theme plays constantly and adds to the sense of dread. It only stops playing when you have to climb the castle walls, which has a theme of its own. You will be hearing the castle wall theme often. A short dirge will play if you are unlucky and die. You can press Option 2 to turn off the music but the sound effects will still play. The sound effects are a bit sparse but what is present, cocks crowing, doors creaking open, screaming and thunder claps are excellent. The game succeeds in creating a sense of dread with rather limited resources.
The puzzles are refreshingly logical for an adventure game of this period. Keys open doors, the lantern lights up dark areas, twine can be tied to a hook to make a fishing line and so on. The game throws very few extraneous items or red herrings at you. The game is pretty merciful on you as there are only a few ways to die or to put the game into an unwinnable state. However if you are unfortunate to encounter one of those situations, you will have to restart the game from the beginning. No commercial Lynx title supported save games except via passwords, and this game is so short that it has none.
 |
| Dialog Selection and Castle Wall Climbing |
The game has arguably two tedious sections, the castle wall climbing and the catacombs. The castle wall requires you to figure out the correct path to get from one window to another and there is little in the way to guide you to the correct path. No path between windows on each level is straight, you will have to move up and down as well as across to scale the wall. Fortunately you cannot die on this screen but as it takes what seems like forever to ger across the wall and you have to do it multiple times, this screen really breaks up the pace of the game.
The catacombs are a maze which must be explored with the lantern turned on. The catacombs are not very large and there are many empty screens. Mapping the catacombs is not as straightforward as it may first seem, some screens will reorient you and going back may not always return you to the previous screen. Jonathan's rather slow walking speed really becomes noticeable in this section. Fortunately the catacombs are not randomized on playthroughs, once you know where to go you will not be spending much time in them.
 |
| In the Catacombs |
Mazes (Hello Infocom!) and tricky navigation areas (Looking at you Sierra!) are a staple of vintage adventure gaming. Unwinnable states were also common in adventure games into the 1990s, even LucasArts had a few. They are often put into a game to artificially extend its length. This game in particular relies on them to pad out the length, but once you know the catacombs and how to avoid the unwinnable states the wall climbing is still unavoidable. There is one door which would have been a welcome shortcut but it becomes locked when you find out you can use it, requiring another wall climb.
The unfortunate short length (after you figure out the wall climbing and map the catacombs) makes the game feel like a homebrew game, a one-trick pony show that is over as quickly as it began. But it did not have to be this way. Depending on the source, this game was originally intended to ship on a 512KiB cartridge but the penny-pinching Tramiel-led Atari Corp. limited the game to 256KiB. Supposedly a prototype with the full game exists. An interview with one of the developers states that only 10% of the game that was designed and implemented (encompassing the full novel) made it into the final Lynx cartridge and that the company was developing an enhanced and expanded version for the Atari Jaguar CD before Atari Corp. went bankrupt.
 |
| What did I do wrong this time? |
Because the complex adventure gaming engine had to remain in place, a lot of content was cut. There are many doors in the castle you cannot enter. The wall climbing section allows you to access the windows on a lower level of the castle but you cannot enter any of them. There is a plot hole created at one point due to what appears to be cut content. It is clear that the designers read those parts of the original novel on which the game was based and could have told a much larger story had they the opportunity.
What remains is an appetizer for a main course which was never delivered. In this sense Dracula is like many other commercial Lynx games that were released in flawed or seemingly incomplete states. It seems that many Lynx developers either never mastered the hardware or the controls and gameplay which other, mainly Japanese and some British, 8-bit console titles had evolved. They were not helped by a lack of enthusiasm and commitment from the top for consoles. The launch game, Chips Challenge feels like one of the few fully-realized among the game's commercial titles.
 |
| Get Out! |
Regardless of its flaws, Dracula the Undead remains a unique game. "Pure" adventure games were very uncommon on handheld systems outside of Japan. For other 8-bit handheld systems beyond the Lynx I can only find a few Game Boy Color games which qualify. The atmosphere that the game presents is incredible and worth picking up and playing for that alone. The original cartridge can be had for around $20 and if you want to play it on a more modern handheld, it will work well with an Analogue Pocket and the Lynx adapter (all screenshots in this were taken with Pocket's screenshot function). The Evercade Atari Lynx Collection 1 also includes the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment