Transylvania (video game)

Transylvania is an adventure video game published by Penguin Software. It was released for the Apple II in 1982 followed by ports to the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64. A Macintosh conversion was published in 1984, then versions for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS in 1985.

Transylvania
Commodore 64 cover art
Publisher(s)Penguin Software
Designer(s)Antonio Antiochia
Platform(s)Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, iOS
ReleaseApple, II Atari 8-bit, C64
  • WW: 1982
Macintosh
  • WW: 1984
Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS
  • WW: 1985
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Plot

The player is on a quest to rescue Princess Sabrina from a countryside roamed by a werewolf, a vampire, a prankster goblin, a witch, and an alien spaceship. The game has a time limit (dictated to the player by a note encountered early on that reads, "Sabrina dies at dawn"), as the Princess is trapped in a coffin in the castle tower.

Reception

Gregg Williams reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World, and stated that "I refer to the Atari 520 ST version of Polarware's Transylvania. The story line is fine, but the game makes almost no use of the ST's extra colors, resolution, or speed."[1]

The first game in the Transylvania series was well received, appearing in the Billboard[2] and Softalk best-sellers charts and in The Wall Street Journal[3] in a list of best-selling software. It received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Computer Game Audio-Visual Effects" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.[4] It is considered one of the best examples of the adventure game genre.[5] ANALOG Computing disliked the Atari ST versions of the first and second games, stating that "There just wasn't much of a story line" and that the ideal player age was a young teenager, not an adult. Despite this, however, because of their low price and "excellent" production values, graphics, and parser, the magazine recommended the games for those seeking graphic adventures for the ST.[6]

Reviews

Legacy

An iPhone version of Transylvania was released on October 30, 2009 under the name Transylvania Adventure with retro-styled graphics.[8]

References
  1. Williams, Gregg (May 1986). "Atari Playfield". Computer Gaming World. 1 (28): 28.
  2. Billboard magazine, Oct. 13, 1984, p.27
  3. Wall Street Journal, July 18, 1984, p.23
  4. Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (February 1984). "Arcade Alley: The 1984 Arcade Awards, Part II". Video. Reese Communications. 7 (11): 28–29. ISSN 0147-8907.
  5. Maher, Jimmy. "Hall of Fame". The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  6. Panak, Steve (December 1986). "Panak Strikes". ANALOG Computing. p. 97. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  7. https://rpggeek.com/rpgissuearticle/141980/ludotique
  8. Transylvania Adventure by RetroVenture, LLC (iTunes preview)
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