Haunted House

The Good
One of the classic Atari 2600 games, Haunted House could actually be SCARY with its continual feeling of being hunted and surprise encounters. The dark graphics with their limited range of view kept players stepping carefully through the four-story mansion, and running blindly in the darkness when the ghost started hunting you down. One of the biggest draws was the sound. It was a very ambient game, with footsteps in the hallways, and wind and thunder adding much of the tension to approaching creatures. The louder things got, the closer a bat and spider could be. Escape the house with the urn, and players would hear a rendition of the "Twilight Zone" theme.

The Bad
While the ghost and other creatures could pop out of anywhere, which kept things continually on the move. However, there were times where an enemy would pop out of nowhere and kill the player seconds after already doing so, which led to some frustrations. It wasn't overly common, but it would happen.

The Bottom Line
Haunted House is a four-story romp through an old mansion filled with ghosts, bats, and spiders. Players had to hunt down the missing pieces of an urn while stumbling through the darkness, and trying to deal with locked doors. Players could defend themself with an old scepter (against the ghost), but were otherwise defenseless. One of the few solid adventure titles for the Atari 2600, it reminds a lot of the classic gameplay found in "Adventure". It's a classic game by any means, with some genuine "jump" moments, and one of the deeper titles for the system.

The Good
I just read a 2-page article in the first issue of "Atari Age", about a family who decides to live in a haunted house and its occupants are killed one by one. This article promoted Atari's new game Haunted House, but the information in it has nothing to do with what happens in gameplay. As one of the few Atari 2600 games that I have played, it contains the one thing that I like - exploration.

The objective of Haunted House is simple. The player (portrayed as a pair of eyes) is trapped inside a four-story and cannot escape until he manages to collect the three missing pieces of an urn. Lurking around the mansion are a variety of creatures (vampire bat, tarantula, and ghost) that they need to avoid. The rooms are too dark to see anything, but the player has a flashlight in which they can use to search them and get the pieces he needs.

One of the animations that I like involve the player's eyes. Just before you start the game, you can wiggle the joystick to move the eyes around. Not only that, but your eyes move around when you get hit by a creature, as if the player is under a dizzy spell. Even though they are crudely drawn, the creatures are well animated. I like how each floor is color-coded so that you can tell which one you are on. I like how the ghost is faster than the creatures when it chases you around the room.

The sound effects make the game atmospheric. If you only hear the sound of your footsteps and the thunder claps, just go you will hear more and more of them as you try out the different variations. In all of the variations, for example, footsteps are heard as you move your eyes around the rooms and hunder claps are heard occasionally. But in the second (and most harder) ones, you hear doors opening and closing as well as other things.

Being an Atari 2600 game, I managed to complete Haunted House in less than ten minutes. However, since there are nine variations of the game, I had a go at the second one, which is a lot difficult. The game is totally dark and you can't see the walls, not even the creatures that are in a different room; you never know what's going on in each room you visit. Many times I was unfortunate enough to go from one room to the next, only to have a creature take away one of my lives as I entered, but that is suspense for you.

Those that don't think that Haunted House is scary should switch the light off and play the game in total darkness, and at the second variation. There is nothing more exciting than moving between rooms only to be intercepted by a ghost. Also, I'm pretty sure that lightning will make players jump in their seats.

The Bad
I think the game should have been harder, with a few more variations added to the mix. One of these new variations could have included a time limit, meaning that you have to find the urn pieces within a certain time or you lose the game. Also on higher variations, more than one of the same creature could have been added.

The Bottom Line
In Haunted House, the player has to navigate a four-story mansion collecting the pieces of an urn while avoiding creatures that patrol the rooms. The game has some nice animations, particularly for the player's eyes. Futuremore, the sound effects provide the game with atmosphere. The game is more scarier if you play it in total darkness.

The Good
For one of the first “scary” games, it’s still quite a lot of fun. The ghosts and other creatures look good for Atari, and I will never not find the player character being a pair of eyes that roll around amusing. The goal of the game is to collect 3 pieces of an urn and return to the entrance. Sound simple? Well that’s because it is. You can light matches by hitting the button, which is required to be able to see the items. Half the time I pick up a piece of the urn without even realizing, so I’m not sure how required it really is. There are multiple floors of the mansion, each with their own aggressive solid-color background. Once you get all the pieces and descend the stairs to the exit, you win.

The Bad
And when you win, it takes about two minutes. That’s really one of the main problems of the game nowadays. It is pitifully short. Now personally I do enjoy that, but if you were to buy a boxed copy or something along those lines it’s a little overpriced. I do understand that most all Atari games can be beaten in less than five minutes, but Adventure still took me about 10 mins on my very first play through, and that was with the manual. Also the main appeal of this game, it being scary, doesn’t really hold up nowadays. Even back then it doesn’t seem like it’d be that scary, but I wasn’t there so there’s no way for me to tell.

The Bottom Line
Overall, a short little Atari game, that doesn’t really keep its main appeal in the modern age.

The Good
I liked the creepy creatures that come after you out of nowhere. You try to run-to get away-but they come at you so fast. And when they catch you, you are doomed! The audio was great for this time period.

The Bad
I think I enjoyed everything about this game for the time.

The Bottom Line
You are a blob running through the darkness, trying to escape evil creatures that will get you. You run down corridors, and into dead ends. You must find the exit to the next level or the monsters will attack!