Haunted House Remix is a remake of the original game (c)1979 by Device
Oriented Games and edited by Radio Shack for the TRS-80 model I and Model III
computers originally intended for an Amiga retro-computing remake competition.
I choose it as an original copy of the game, which consisted in a leaflet and
a cassette case inside a ziploc bag, was recently added to my personal text
adventure collection through an ebay auction.
I strongly recommend playing the original game whenever possible and get the
direct experience of how things that would be considered unacceptable
limitations nowadays were actually enjoyable and fun in the context of
early 8-bit home computer machines. Images of the game are easy to spot at
TRS-80 software archives and they work like a charm under both Windows and
Amiga TRS-80 emulators.
A complete dossier about the game, including full solution, can be found at
the following website, whose information was extensively consulted during
the making of this remix:
:
Haunted House Remix was written with AMOS Professional in a 68030
accelerated Amiga 1200. Music was created with Open Modplug Tracker under
Windows. Sound samples were converted to Amiga IFF format with Goldwave.
Pictures were adapted to Amiga using Personal Paint. AmiTRS80 emulator was
extensively used to check the behaviour of the original game while softly
multitasking with AMOS Pro.
Enhancements and differences from the original game
Introduction text, originally printed in the manual, appears as an initial
message.
An initial and ending screen with a picture of the front and back cover of
the TRS-80 game on the Amiga 1200 used to write this remake.
An optional graphic to display along the text which is a scan of the
original cover (and has some hardly noticable random lighting effect).
Optional sound thundering effect.
Optional background music.
Optional automap feature.
Other than that the game pretended to be a plain port of the late 70's work
as close to the original as possible. It's not totally identical as it
happened that the game engine used (just ripped from my last Amiga text
adventure attempt) could not be downgraded to work the same way, so the
parser can handle words like "IT" and "ALL" when the first Haunted House,
meant to work in a 4 Kb machine, could not.
Basic usage
If you are not used to text adventure gaming I suggest taking a look into the
wikipedia entry for "Interactive Fiction" for a detailed tour through the
medium and its History.
As most classic text adventure games Haunted House Remix will accept simple
two-words commands. Some usual examples are:
GO direction: direction can be any cardinal point or its abreviation. Valid
directions are N,S,E,W,NE,NW,SE,SW,UP,DOWN,IN,OUT. Commands as GO NORTH,
NORTH, or just N are valid.
LOOK: provides a genaral description of current location. Abreviation L
also works.
EXAMINE object: returns a description of specified object. Abreviation EX
is accepted.
INVENTORY or I: list currently carried objects, if any.
SAVE, LOAD (or RESTORE): for saving and restoring your current game.
TAKE, GET, DROP, LEAVE: getting or dropping items.
Some Haunted House Remix specific coomamds are:
GRAPHICS on/off: shows/hide the drawing.
SOUNDS on/off: turns on/off sound effect.
MUSIC on/off: turns on/off background music.
EXITS on/off: turns on/off automatic visible exits listing (which were not
present in the original). In both modes the "EXITS" command will show them
anyway.
MAZE on/off: off by default. If turned on, the game won't inform when
trying to go through a blocked direction, just redefining current location
instead. In the original this caused a very disorienting maze effect.
MAP on/off: allows (or deactivates) automapping. If turned on the command
"MAP" will display a map with visited locations on current floor.
Exits listing, maze mode off and automap make the game extremely easy
compared to its classic form, so true hardcore adventurers will enjoy
disabling them!
CAPITALIZE on/off: all text in capitals, just like an authentical TRS-80
thing!
DEFAULT: turns every option to modern style.
Requirements
The game has been succesfully executed om a kickstart 3.1 68030 based Amiga
1200, an unexpanded Amiga 600 and an emulated 512 Kb Amiga 500 with WinUAE.
Version history
0.99 May 13th 2010:
First Public release!
Distribution Licence
"Haunted House Remix" is freeware, so it's freely distributable as long as
no modifications are made to its files without tha author's permission.
Images
Original copy of the game. The game emulated under AmiTRS80. Screenshot from the remix.