Uninvited (computer game)
| Uninvited | |
|---|---|
| Studio | ICOM simulations |
| Publisher |
 Mindscape Kemco (NES version) |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1986 (Macintosh) 1987 (Amiga, Atari, Apple IIgs, DOS) 1988 (C64) 1991 (NES) 1993 (Windows) 2002 (Windows Mobile) |
| platform | Apple Macintosh , Apple IIgs , Atari ST , C64 , Amiga , DOS , NES , Windows 3.x , Windows Mobile |
| Game engine | MacVenture |
| genre | Point-and-click adventure |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | Mouse & keyboard , gamepad |
| medium | 3.5 " floppy disks or cartridge |
| language | English |
Uninvited is a computer game developed in 1986 by ICOM Simulations for the Apple Macintosh and later ported to other systems. The game is the second in a series of four adventures based on the MacVenture engine.
action
The plot of the point-and-click adventure takes place in a remote haunted house in Scotland . On a night street near the house, a strange figure suddenly blocks the road. The player character tries to evade with his car, but skids. The control by the player begins when the character regains consciousness. A younger brother (an older sister in the NES version) seems to have disappeared from the badly damaged vehicle, which goes up in flames within a short time. In order to find the brother and get help, there is no choice but to go to the big old mansion in front of which the accident occurred.
The house extends over two floors and a tower. The individual rooms can be explored by the player in a largely freely selectable order. Most of the furnishings appear to be from the early 20th century, but some rooms are more modern and suggest that they were occupied by a younger person. There are four other places to discover in the backyard: an observatory, a greenhouse and a small chapel with a path leading out to the cemetery. As a rule, at the time these venues were discovered, it was already possible to determine that the dead are not resting in the cemetery here, but can be found everywhere in the house. In the course of the game it turns out that the house was inhabited by a magician with numerous apprentices. The most gifted of them, Dracan, let the dark forces trick him into killing everyone else by magic. The dead apprentices now haunt the property as shadows or undead .
The player's task is to solve puzzles, to gradually make all the initially inaccessible or locked rooms of the game accessible by collecting and using various objects and to rescue the missing brother. As with all games created using the MacVenture engine, there is a time limit for doing this. Evil is gaining more and more influence and ultimately transforms the player into an undead if he exceeds the time limit.
Game principle and technology
Uninvited is a point-and-click adventure . Similar to the working screen of the then current Apple Macintosh, the screen is divided into several windows, one of which shows the game environment as a partially animated still image, another the objects that the player is carrying. With the help of a button with verbs and the window with game graphics and inventory, the player can give his character simple commands; the combination of the verb "operate" (for example: use ) with a key in the inventory and a door in the game graphics causes the character to unlock the door with the key. The player can examine and pick up objects, apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs . The results of his actions and the more detailed description of the game environment and the game happening are in text form in a separate window. In a few situations, text must be entered using the keyboard. As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked.
Development history
The first adventure on the MacVenture Engine, Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True , was successful and received many positive reactions to the newly introduced point-and-click technology, with which an adventure could be controlled with a game controller without any text input .
The game was ported by its American developer to numerous other systems in the following years, including as a console version for the NES . It appeared for the Apple Macintosh with black and white graphics and still without sound. Later ports not only improved the graphics and added sound, but also revised the story itself , especially for the NES . In addition to details such as the above-mentioned change of the missing person's sex and additional text information that should make solving the puzzles easier, the biggest change is that there is no mandatory time limit on the NES. A deadline starts running when you pick up the ruby in the bedroom. But it can be broken off again if you put it back. The player therefore has the choice to forego this game element.
At the time of publication for the NES, Nintendo of America had very strict content guidelines that were perceived by many developers as censorship. Some changes to the NES version were also made with this in mind. The pentagrams shown in other versions were changed to stars, one cross was replaced by a chalice and another cross was removed from the background graphic without replacement. The address of the manor, "Master Crowley, 666 Blackwell Road, Loch Ness, Scotland" has been shortened to "Master Crowley". It was overlooked that the allusion to the English occultist Aleister Crowley is still recognizable. In the NES version, when the player turns on the phonograph in the game room, the theme tune can be heard from Shadowgate , another MacVenture game released for NES.
In January 2015, the company Zojoi, which was founded in 2012 by former ICOM employees, published a version of the game on the Steam platform that contains the original graphics, but can run on modern hardware.
reception
Data Welt magazine praised the Amiga version for its user-friendliness, good graphics and atmospheric sound. The game is even better than Déjà Vu. The US magazine Computer Gaming World described the graphics of the Amiga version as "halfway detailed" and the background sound as "pleasant". Reviewer Roy Wagner praised the game concept as innovative and entertaining and only criticized a lack of adaptation to the latest version of the Amiga operating system, which led to unnecessary loading times. The Dragon magazine judged "a truly horrifying adventure game and mystery that'll leave you shivering in the dark"
From a player's point of view, the puzzles don't always seem logical as the story is largely based on magic. Since the plot of the game is not linear, the end of the game seems more or less abrupt.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Roy Wagner: Uninvited. A Guided Tour of a Macabre Mansion . In: Computer Gaming World . No. 39, p. 40. (PDF, 23 MB)
- ↑ Steven A. Schwartz and Janet Schwartz, "The Parent's Guide to Video Games" in "Prima Lifestyles", 1994 (see Nintendo of America's Video Game Content Guidelines on filibustercartoons.com)
- ↑ Thomas Tai in Data Welt, July / August 1987, pp. 174-175.
- ↑ Hartley and Pattie Lesser, "The Role of Computers" in The Dragon No. 116, Dec. 1986, pp. 69-76
