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So, your company has transferred you to their Transylvanian
office and you' re looking for a place to live? Something
private, spacious and with a view? Well we have just
the thing for you: welcome to The Castles of Doctor
Creep!
This
is quite an old game but a new import from Ariolasoft.
The scenario has the hero desperately trying to escape
from Doctor Creep's Castles after being trapped within.
The castle rooms take the now familiar platform format,
garnished with a variety of ghoulish nasties. To move
between platforms you are supplied with ladders and
sliding poles. The latter are one way so it's well worth
looking before you leap, as it's very easy to become
trapped.
Included
in the package is a tutorial. The computer displays
all the possible nasties you're likely to encounter
and includes instructions on ttie best way of tackling
them. Make a mistake after the computer has told you,
and you are demoted back to the beginning of the tutorial.
Each
castle needs to be loaded from cassette using a similar
method to that of one of Ariolasoft's previous releases,
Loderunner. When you have loaded the main program
only the tutorial is present and the 13 different castles
are held separately on the flip side. The castles all
together make up a total of 200 rooms.
When
starting, the map screen is displayed with an arrow
pointing at the exit you are facing. Press fire and
you travel through the passage at which the arrow points.
At first the map only contains the screen you're set
to move into, but as you explore the castle the map
screen expands. Each room has several exits, colour
coded in accordance to the map and the room to which
it leads.
[This
screenshot was not in the original review]
Nasties
to look out for are Frankenstein's Monsters and Mummies.
Both have different abilities and react and attack in
different ways to your intrusion into their home. Walking
past a mummy's sarcophagus causes him to awaken, whereupon
he tries his best to catch you. His best isn't that
good though, because he can't slide sown poles or climb
ladders, making mummy dodging quite easy. Much more
deadly is Frankenstein's Monster who can negotiate
poles and ladders, the only way of unbolting him is
to catch him under a lightning machine when you can
throw the switch and it's goodbye Monster!
Other
features include keys, trapdoors and teleportation booths,
the latter allowing movement between various locations
in a room. A room containing one also has a number of
different coloured globes dotted about the screen. If
you enter the booth and move the joystick down, the
colour of the transporter changes. Press fire and you
teleport to the globe of the same colour as the booth.
The trapdoors are operated by levers placed about the
room. Trouble is, the mummies and Monsters can also
operate the levers, which can make things that bit more
awkward, and you may well find yourself plummeting to
a grisly death through a mummy-operated trap door.
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