Andrew Newton is back with another annual list of spooky 8-bit retro game recommendations for Halloween…
Halloween is here again, bringing with it the knocks on doors, shaving foam sprayed over door cams and five-foot-tall children shouting trick or treat through your letter box. Well, why not ignore the door and try some classic spooky (and not so spooky) 8-bit games? There’s all manner of spooky gems to find from the early days of gaming, and below are five of those games.
Frightmare – Cascade Games 1988 – Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
The scary eyes on the cover were enough to scare anyone. Like a cat who has been on the razz all night!
Frightmares dwell at the back of the subconscious; hundreds of primordial creatures wait for you to go to sleep and then slowly creep forward. At least that’s the gist of the blurb on the inlay. In short, Frightmare is a platformer where you jump from platform to platform, avoiding (or shooting) a variety of monsters to collect objects and survive long enough to wake up.
Our tired little fella goes to sleep at midnight and needs to survive long enough to wake up at 8, but that’s easier said than done. Players will need to dodge the various enemies and make it to the next screen to advance time by just a mere 6 minutes. Although just passing the time isn’t enough, there’s also the secondary objective of advancing to the highest stages of the dream state, which is shown at the top of the screen. It starts with a simple ‘Bad Dream’ and progresses to a ‘Nefarious Frightmare’. But how to increase this, I hear you ask? Simple, use one of the many weapons dotted around the place to kill the various monsters.
Our little chap (top left) needs to get past 3 ghosts and 2 demons if he wants to get the white pot and escape. – ZX Spectrum
There are several different weapons to use against the monsters; these include Holy Water, a Crucifix, Clocks (slows enemies down), a regular Pistol (needs bullets), and a special Silver revolver for the ultimate bad guy, Satan. There’s also a range of different types of creatures to avoid, ranging from disembodied hands and zombies to demons that rise out of the ground, even Satan makes an appearance.
Frightmare isn’t going to scare the socks off you like Dead Space, but it is a decent enough platformer. The chaps at C&VG thought it was worth a 8/10 in C&VG.
Nosferatu the Vampyre – Piranha 1986 – Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Nosferatu the Vampyre is an isometric 3D game that takes players into the world of Dracula. The infamous Count has decided to move from his chilly castle into a mansion in the town of Wismar, and it’s from here that the story starts. The game features three sections, with the first being the retrieval of the deeds to the mansion from the count. Taking the role of Jonathan Harker, players will need to roam the castle to discover the deeds, whilst avoiding the myriad of hounds, rats and spiders that serve under the Count.
In the second section, Dracula has moved to Wismar anyway and has started to convert the townsfolk into vampires. Players take the roles of Jonathan Harker, Lucy Harker and Van Helsing, who must fend off the rats and townsfolk to protect Lucy. How powerful the Count is depends on whether you managed to get the deeds back. Finally, as Lucy, players must find a way to lock up Jonathan and Van Helsing and lure Dracula to her house where she can kill him when the Sun rises.
Despite some of the questionable colours used on screens in the Spectrum version, this is a really good game. The movement isn’t too slow, there’s no collision detection with enemies that you could class as unfair, and picking up items is quick and easy. It’s challenging enough to keep you going but not too difficult that it will cause you to give up.
I love a good isometric 3D game and Nosferatu the Vampyre is a good isometric 3D game (though not as good as Head over Heels). It managed a Crash Smash with 91% and Zzap 64 gave it 88%.
Go To Hell – Triple Six 1985 – ZX Spectrum
Go To Hell is a maze game with a moral…of sorts. In it, your character has told someone close to them to go to Hell, and that is exactly what has happened. Now, filled with regret, our unhappy chappy goes to Hell to save them. It’s up to players to dive into Hell and rescue their friend by exploring a massive maze made up of 50 screens to find seven crucifix before seeking out the Devil, who happens to have a very strong resemblance to Alice Cooper on the cover of his album Alice Cooper Goes to Hell.
The Devil is Alice Cooper but I expected him to be a bit more red in the face. – ZX Spectrum
Developer John George Jones was great at putting unsettling imagery into his games, especially with his 1987 title Soft and Cuddly (see our previous Halloween special here). Go To Hell features plenty of disturbing images, with skulls, demons with pitchforks, disembodied eyes and acts of torture, and that’s just the background. In fact, there’s one screen where a human head is squashed between two spikey objects causing it to distort and burst, it’s all quite gory.
Beware of the demonic crocodile and the demons with their nasty little pitchforks. – ZX Spectrum
Enemies that will remove player’s health are varied and on the whole less scary than the background, unless you hate spiders. These enemies have the ability to just pass through the scenery, but fortunately, players have a never-ending supply of small crucifix that they can throw to kill them.
Go To Hell was a decent enough maze crawler, if you could stand the disturbing images. Crash certainly enjoyed it by awarding it 70%, while Sinclair User gave it a 3/5. Remember kids, never tell someone to go to Hell!
The Munsters – Again Again Software/ Alternative Software 1989 – Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Dos, MSX, ZX Spectrum
Lily, the attractive vamp wife of Herman, takes on 3 ghouls in the bedroom! – Amstrad CPC
Based on the classic comedy TV series of the family of monsters, The Munsters is an arcade adventure that will have players finding a way to save the whole family, after evil forces kidnapped Marilyn (the normal human niece). Depending on the stage of the game, players will either you play as mum Lily, dad Herman (a Frankenstein’s Monster), Grandpa (a full on vampire with a love of science), or Spot the Dragon (lived under the stairs in the series) depending on what stage of the game you’re on.
Starting as Lily, players must wander around the house shooting various ghouls and ghosts, then it’s on to Grandpa, then Herman until he finds Eddie. After this there’s a bit of scrolling fun as Spot, protecting the family as they drive to free Marilyn. Once they arrive at the evil kidnappers house it’s back to Herman and more flicking through screens.
Spot the Dragon takes on a giant witch as Grandpa drives the ‘Munster Koach’. – Amiga
The best thing about The Munsters are the lovely big graphics, you know exactly who is who and the zombies in the graveyard are excellently drawn. It’s just such a shame that the game is mediocre. From what I could see, only the Spectrum version came out with decent scores (Crash gave it 71%). Commodore 64 and Amiga reviewers were much less generous with the game not even reaching 45%.
Chiller – Mastertronic 1984 – Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
With a little bit of a hint from the main screen (above) and the game’s cover, Chiller‘s story takes inspiration from the music video for Thriller by old Michael Jackson, but without the perfect dance routine by zombies or the song (more on that in a bit). In this platforming adventure, our little character (lets call him MJ) is taking a leisurely drive with his girlfriend at night when all of a sudden she is whisked away by evil forces living in the nearby mansion.
It’s up to players to guide little MJ through a spooky forest, a creepy cinema, a ghastly ghetto and ghostly graveyard before getting to the mansion. Through each area players will need to collect crosses so they progress to the next stage, and mushrooms to replenish our hero’s health. Old MJ has only one life and near enough everything that moves is there solely to drain your health away.
Little MJ has made it to the mansion, now all he needs to do is climb on the roof, jump up a few trees and then make it all the way back! – Commodore 64
So, you’ve taken all that time and effort to get all the way through very repetitive tasks to get to the mansion only for the developer to throw in a horrible twist. Instead of the happy ending we so desperately needed, we are told we have to escape together, controlling both characters through each area and have to collect the crosses all over again.
Back to the Thriller song, originally, the game was made with the actual tune of Thriller but during the reproduction process, Mastertronic became rightly worried by possible legal problems so asked for it to be removed. However, some with the original music made it out to the public and it still roams the wild to this day. If you want to hear what it sounds like then the website Games that Weren’t has included it on a .TAP file.
Chiller, despite a few minor flaws wasn’t a bad game, but the fact it was only £1.99 made it a great little bargain. It scored fairly well in Commodore reviews, not so much in Crash magazine for the Spectrum.
All the spiders and spooks to get past to get the crosses. Makes you wonder if it would be easier to just get a new girlfriend. – Amstrad CPC464
Hopefully, by the time you’ve finished playing these gems all the Halloween excitement will be over with for another year. All you have to put up with is all those spooks and ghouls and freaky fools that are lurking behind you wanting to have the next go on Go To Hell. Until next time, cheery-bye!
SEE ALSO: Spooky 8-Bit Horror Games To Play This Halloween
What retro game will you be dusting off this Halloween? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Andrew Newton
