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program seems to have a rather larger vocabulary than
Time Search, although the same points apply about
presentation. Nevertheless, the location descriptions
were considerably more elaborate, though from time to
time they served only to underline the limitations of
the program.
For
example, one room features nothing save a grand piano,
but unfortunately the program doesn't understand 'play'
or even 'piano'. I suppose one could argue that tinkling
the ivories in a vampire's castle is a little risky,
but it would have been nice to hear a little night music.
A
rather Basic display from
Duckworth's Castle Dracula
The
atmosphere in Castle Dracula was certainly a
little more gripping than some of Duckworth's other
releases and some of the puzzles are really quite tricky.
I wasn't too keen on the jokey humour that ran throughout
the text, as the player is asked to wait for just 'a
tickey poo' and the game responds to some of your inputs
with 'Okey dokey'.
As befits games programmed using the techniques from
the Exploring Adventure series (a fact you are carefully
reminded of on the intro screen of each game), both
these adventures are written in Basic, but I could have
done with less jokes and more pokes, especially to the
sound chip. If you're going to have graphics, why not
have a little sound? Even a creaking door would be better
than nothing.
Castle
Dracula belongs to a well-worn tradition, but if
you fancy staking a vampire, my advice would be to fork
out an extra £2.00 for Melbourne House's Castle of
Terror. Not a game that the White Wizard can recommend.
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