Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria

aka: Phantasm, Phantasmagoria, Phantasmagoria de Roberta Williams
Moby ID: 1164
Windows Specs
Buy on SEGA Saturn
$126.94 used on eBay
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$9.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

A writer named Adrienne Delaney has just moved into an old mansion with her photographer husband Donald. Shortly after moving in, Adrienne begins to experience horrifying nightmares and have odd encounters inside the creepy old abode. Furthermore, the house is having a severe effect on her husband, changing him for the worse. Adrienne must discover the secret of the house before the unknown force consumes her husband, and unravel the terrible events that have happened in the past.

Phantasmagoria is an adventure game that places heavy emphasis on full motion video for exposition and cutscenes at various junctures to advance the storyline. Adrienne is represented as a digitized character roaming around pre-rendered settings in the house. She inspects various rooms, finds items, adds them to her inventory, finds places to use the items, and triggers advancements in the plot.

Puzzle-solving element is present, though reduced compared to most other adventure games made by Sierra. There are seven chapters in the game, as well as a status screen that tracks the player's progress within the chapter. If the player happens to get stuck in the game, a talking skull icon who identifies himself as the hintkeeper can supply the player with hints on request. It is possible to start playing the game from any chapter.

Spellings

  • ファンタズム - Japanese spelling
  • 幽魂 1 - Taiwanese spelling
  • 로베르타 윌리엄즈의 판타스마고리아 - Korean spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

158 People (147 developers, 11 thanks) · View all

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Movie Sequences Scored By
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 66% (based on 32 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 118 ratings with 12 reviews)

Sierra opens the door of controversy

The Good
When people often think of Roberta Williams, they usually think of King's Quest, a series of adventure games established in the Eighties that had you doing such things as finding magic items, rescuing princesses, and dealing with evil wizards. What some people don't know is that Williams herself also developed non-KQ games, with some notable examples being The Colonel's Bequest, Mystery House, and Mixed-up Mother Goose. Her latest non-KQ title is Phantasmagoria, an interactive movie caught up in the same era where video game companies believed that they were the future of gaming.

Don Gordon (played by David Homb) is a magazine photographer who has an interest in 18th- and 19th-century architecture. His wife, Adrienne Delaney (Victoria Morsell), is a successful book writer who has started working on her new novel. When Don comes across a 19th-century dwelling on a remote island, he convinces Adrienne to buy it as it would be the perfect place to write her novel. But as soon as they take up residency, things take a turn for the worse. Adrienne finds out about the history of the mansion and discovers that its previous occupant was Zoltan “Carno” Carnovasch (Robert Miano), a magician who had a tragic past and was married five times to women who had either disappeared or died in grotesque ways. As the days go by, Adrienne realizes that she must confront Don in his psychotic state and deal with whatever is possessing him.

The front cover shows a grey image of a woman lying on a bed. When I saw the game in stores, I thought it was a bunch of ninjas doing something sinister. A look inside the box reveals seven black-covered CDs with a line of blood splattered across them and the number of the CD also written in blood. The front cover of the manual reflects the imagery on the box, and it covers installation and how to control the game, plus a very brief walkthrough at the end.

Phantasmagoria shares the same mechanics as King's Quest VII, with the game being split across multiple chapters. The player can select which one they want to start off with, but I don't recommend doing this as you will be playing the game out of sequence. The interface is the same, with one half the main screen, and the other reserved for your inventory, control panel, and the examine icons. New additions include the introduction of the hintkeeper and the ability to save your game at any point. The interface remains on the screen until the game's end credits are over.

Phantasmagoria was intended to be played by adults, and Sierra couldn't stress that enough. Two minutes in and there's a sex scene involving the main characters, as well as some nudity thrown in for good measure. During the game, I didn't have any problems watching short movies that had a decent amount of gore, but it was enough to cause controversy not just around the world, but in its home country. The introduction to chapter four features a rape scene, and the intensity of this scene made it uncomfortable to watch.

The opening menu features the same music as heard in the trailer for the game, and it sounds great. The choirs that can be heard also serve as incidental music for most of the movies featuring blood and gore. Each musical piece is unique to each chapter, and as you progress through the chapters, they get more intense. As far as I know, Phantasmagoria is the only Sierra interactive movie where you can choose what sound card you want to use for the game, not just Sound Blaster.

There are two highlights in this game. One of them is the story of how Carno became possessed, as told by an old man named Malcolm (Douglas Seale). The other is the “chase” sequence that occurs in the last chapter. I was impressed by Homb's performance that if Sierra's next Dr. Brain installment was an interactive movie, he would have made a perfect candidate. Also, the game records everything you do in this chapter and you can watch how you played it out. You could also have a little bit of fun with it. I got Adrienne to warm up before she makes her escape from Don.

The Bad
Before you start playing, you have to enter your name, and that name is used for just the one save slot. This means you cannot go back to an earlier point in the game where something is about to happen. I hate this mechanism, and I'm glad that it wasn't reintroduced to later Sierra games. Because of the way the interface is designed, you hardly could examine things and could only interact with them. (The exception is the portraits of Carno and his wives.) So basically you were guided through the game.

During the end credits, you hear a song called “Take a Stand” which is sung by Mark Seibert. I enjoyed listening to it, but it is inappropriate. It sounds like it was released in the Eighties, and it doesn't blend well with the game's theme

The Bottom Line
The concept for Phantasmagoria started in the late Eighties, but Roberta Williams waited a number of years for technology to catch up, and understandably so. Imagine what the game would look like if it was done in Sierra's old AGI engine. The game is a horror adventure game that generated a lot of controversy when it was released. The blood and gore wasn't actually real, and like a lot of Hollywood movies, many props and objects were put in good use to make us think it was.

Despite some problems with the game mechanics, the game is quite good, and it has a nice soundtrack filled with choirs that suit its intense scenes. I didn't have a problem with the 3D-rendered backgrounds, which was the norm for interactive movies back in the day. As I mentioned, I like the backstory involving Carno and his wives, and the aforementioned chase scene which was very well done and made Homb shine. Sierra released a sequel called A Puzzle of Flesh which has nothing to do with the original game and used actual locations around Seattle.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2017

A horror game or a horrible game?

The Good
Oh dear. I bought this on a whim because I wanted to see if this game really was as terrible as PC Gamer had made it out to be. It wasn't. It's worse.

What I liked about the game? Hmm. Well I have to say, I liked the nice heavy weight of the box due to the 7 CDs. And that's all I can think of.

The Bad
And while 7 CDs is kind of a good thing at first (it gives the impression of a long game), it was just ridiculous back then. Hell, a lot of games still don't use this much space.

But the 7 CDs themselves aren't the problem. It's the fact that Sierra chose to store the exact same data on all those 7 CDs with maybe a 10th of the CDs contained different data. Basically, it could easily have fit on 2 CDs if they made you install one CD to your hard drive.

The truth is that Phantasmagoria isn't a game. It's a poor excuse of a B-movie which lets you walk from one area to the other. There's hardly any puzzles at all! To call this an adventure game is a real joke.

Most "puzzles" consisted of you finding the next room you have to walk to. This means walking to every single room in the castle to find the one that will trigger the next movie clip.

The movies are so poorly done, with really awful special effects and horrible acting that it even becomes torture just to watch them.

Luckily, the game only takes an hour to complete or so. 7 CDs for a game which is only a fraction the length of classics like Monkey Island which easily take 10 times longer to complete! A disgrace!

The Bottom Line
Oh, it's easy to describe this game: it's a B-movie disguising itself as a game by making you walk from room to room to see the next piece of the dreadful story. It shouldn't be called a game at all. No, it was lesson to all developers. A lesson that taught them that lots of FMV doesn't make a good game. Games like Under A Killing Moon showed how it should be done, Phantasmagoria shows how NOT to do it.

DOS · by Icarus Lytton (19) · 2012

One of Sierras best and a great FMV!

The Good
Wow! This truly is a great game. It's about a woman named Adrienne Delaney (Victoria Morsell), who has moved into a big mansion, with her husband. What she doesn't know is that it is haunted. The game consists of 7 chapters (7 cd's) of pure horror. The game is very fun to play and the intense plot draws you in and you want to keep switching cd’s till you get to the horrifying 7th cd. Phantasmagoria has some intense scenes, but they are not as bad as some people say. Most of the gore you see is just really quick glimpses, but if that’s still too much for you there is a setting that blurs it all or you can just skip it by pressing ESC. If you are a Video gamer or you just like to watch movies you need to get this game.



The Bad
Well nothing's perfect. First off, the story is about 85% ripped off from Stanley Kubrick’s "The Shining". Also the acting is a bit poor and the puzzles are really easy. You can beat the game without seeing every plot turn, so you should explore everything in the game. Finally, if you just hate FMV games, this game won't change your views. FMV games are my hobby so I just naturally love this game.



The Bottom Line
For the 30 dollars it is going for now, you should definitely buy this game. If you like "The Shining", you should definitely look into this game.

Windows · by Alex Misiti (103) · 2007

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

Trivia

Absinthe

In the bar on the first floor there is a bottle of absinthe. As the game progresses, the bottle goes from full to nearly empty before it is removed from the bar altogether. Someone is drinking it.

Actors

Victoria Morsell, who plays Adrienne, and David Homb, who plays Don, started dating a week after they began filming together. The picture that sits on the night stand in the character's bedroom found a new home in the couple's living room after the game was finished.

Opening Theme

The opening theme for the game is called Consumite Furore, which translates to "Expend Your Rage," and was written by Mark Seibert based on an English text by Roberta Williams. The words in English and Latin are, respectively :

Come into this talisman || O Spirit of Darkness || Mighty Asteroth, I command you || And fill this stone with your rage || Fill it with your sulphurous powers|| Expend your angers on it || Those powers I will assume || I command you.

Venite in fascinum || O spiritus tenebrarum || Magne Asterothe, te iubeo || Et implete hunc lapidem vestro furore || Implete eum viribus sulfuratis vestris || Consumite eum iris vestris || Istas vires adsumem || Iubeo te.

Development

The game was finished by the latter part of 1994, and was ready for release, however Sierra chose to call back some of the cast and crew members for two additional sessions of filming. Filming initially took an additional month and, three months later, was resumed for another couple of weeks.

References

  • The original title for the game was going to be Scary Tales but the name was changed to its current title during production. There is a directory for temporary files that the game installs called SCARY in honor of the early title.
  • The office of Bob Thompkins, Adrianne's sleazy real estate agent, is decorated with posters of girls from another Sierra adventure game, Leisure Suit Larry 6.

Release(s)

  • Due to strict censorship policies, Phantasmagoria was banned in Australia.
  • The German version of the game was banned in Germany on March 31st, 1998.

Awards

  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1996 – Biggest Disappointment in 1995

Information also contributed by MrBucket, phlux, Straw Hubert and Zovni.

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.

SEGA Saturn added by roushimsx. Windows 3.x added by MAT. Macintosh added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, Ajan, roushimsx, formercontrib, ケヴィン, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Cantillon, lee jun ho, Patrick Bregger, Victor Vance, ZeTomes.

Game added March 27, 2000. Last modified February 21, 2024.