Haunted House (Atari 2600)

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Description

Hidden throughout a haunted mansion are three pieces of a magical urn, and your goal is to enter the mansion and retrieve all three before you lose your nine lives! The game is played from an overhead point of view where you see only your eyeballs as you explore the four floors of the maze-like mansion. To make your mission even more difficult, there are various creatures wandering throughout. Tarantulas, giant vampire bats, and one fast moving ghost will all cause you to lose a life if encountered too closely. As a defense against the creatures, a magical scepter can be found in the mansion which will make you immune to its inhabitants.

The mansion contains many doors, some of which may be locked; to explore all the rooms, you will first need to find the master key which is hidden somewhere. The mansion is very dark, and you will not be able to see any of the objects in it (and in more difficult game variations, you can't see the walls either). To reveal objects and the mansion walls, you need to light one of your unlimited supply of matches which will light up a small area around you. Don't be surprised if a swift wind or passing creature blow out your match, though!

You are only allowed to carry one object at a time so you will need to create a strategy for exploring the mansion; to unlock a door or move a piece of the urn, you will need to put down the scepter. You win the game when all three pieces of the urn are assembled and you make it out of the mansion. The game keeps track of how many matches you have used on your mission, and the fewer matches the better the score.

Screenshots

Alternate Titles

• "Nightmare Manor" -- Original title
• "Casa Mal-Assombrada" -- Brazilian title

Part of the Following Group

• Theme: Haunted house

User Reviews

Possibly the scariest game on the Atari 2600 so far	*Katakis* (37741)
The Original Survival Horror Game.	Guy Chapman (1745)
A scary game for back then	Tiffany Morrison (2)

The Press Says

The Video Game Critic	Jul 17, 1999	B+	83
Digital Press - Classic Video Games	Sep 25, 2004	8 out of 10	80
Game Informer Magazine	Jun, 2005	7.75 out of 10	78
Retrogaming.it	Jul 18, 2008	7 out of 10	70
Game Freaks 365	Jul 04, 2009	6.6 out of 10	66
Tilt	Sep, 1982	3 out of 6	50

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Cover art!	2	DJP Mom (11120) Nov 13, 2007

Trivia

Music

The music played when the "eyes" escape the Haunted House is the theme from the television program The Twilight Zone.

Awards

• FLUX
  • Issue #4 - #68 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list

Information also contributed by Big John WV

Related Web Sites

• Video review of Halloween-themed games (WARNING: Language) (The Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe, reviews games with a Halloween theme, including Haunted House.)