The BBC and Master Computer Public Domain Library

SPOOKSVILLE

Professional, Originally Released On Cassette Only

Game Type          : Arcade Adventure In Traditional Style

Author             :

Standalone Release(s)   : 1989: SPOOKSVILLE, Blue Ribbon, £2.99

Compilation Release(s) : None

Stated compatibility    : Electron/BBC Dual Version

Actual compatibility    : Electron, BBC B, B+, Master 128

Supplier            : BLUE RIBBON, CDS House, Beckett Road, DONCASTER DN2 4AD

Disc compatibility     : CDFS E00, DFS E00

Instructions

"Spooksville is no ordinary town! For it boasts all manner of creepy crawly, ghoulish inhabitants. Do you have the courage to go where no man has been before? Do you dare to enter Spooksville? Your goal is to collect the Spellbook that is hidden deep within Spooksville. Only a super adventurer like you has the ability and strength to traverse numerous soul destroying paths, which will uncover many dangers!"

Many centuries ago, an all-powerful Spellbook was stolen from the Great Magician. This Spellbook was taken by Count Dracula, in the form of a bat, right from under the Great Magician's nose. Since then it has laid deep in the darkness of Spooksville, the notorious town where all manner of hostile beings roam!

The Spellbook's magic spells can only be used every five hundred years and time is slipping away. It is only weeks before this time arrives. Someone has to enter Spooksville and retrieve the Spellbook before it is put to terrifying use! Who could that be? Could it be you?

Gaston the Intrepid is your name - adventurer extraordinaire. The mission to Spooksville is seen as just another death defying assignment into the unknown. But to Gaston, this means excitement, thrills and death to the fiends.

The Spellbook presently lies somewhere within the Spooksville sanctuary, and guess who is there? Your old fiend Dracula. But he's only one freak that you will encounter on your journey. Frankenstein and many others are out to prevent you accomplishing your mission.

You must use your powers of discernment to decide who or what is there to help or hinder your journey into Spooksville. You, Gaston the Intrepid, have those powers...Good Luck!

Although there are many things within Spooksville with the sole aim of killing you, there are also items, sometimes hidden or just laying about, that can help you achieve your goal. Beware! If any of the 'Big Monsters' come into contact with you, it will be instant curtains!

You will have to climb ladders, ropes, enter dark, forbidding rooms, but somewhere there is help at hand. There's gold to help you bribe your way, lamps to help you light your way and swords to help you fight your way to the Spellbook.

However, there are two items that must be collected and held on to if you are to achieve your objective; the ring and the scroll. The ring is hidden in the Crypt but as to where the scroll is, that's anyone's guess. Happy hunting!

On the BBC version, Spooksville is accompanied by an eerie throbbing just like your heart-beat...or perhaps it IS your heart-beat.

Features

5 Crosses      Drop in room with five pillars

1 Holy Water   Drop on grave on island - kills ghoul

1 Rope         Extends rope in Frankenstein's lair

1 Barrel       Get out of well in Frankenstein's lair

1 Lamp         Lights up grave yard

1 Stake        Kills Dracula

2 Gold Bars    Pays for boatman

1 Fireball     Kills Frankenstein

1 Sword        Kills Cannibal

1 Rod          Produces bridge in right room

Game Controls

Z - Left,   X - Right,   : - Up,   / - Down,   <RETURN> - Jump

<SHIFT> - Fire,   <SPACE> - Fires at objects in particular locations and can

                            also be used to pick up and drop

S - Sound,   Q - Quiet,   P - Pause,   O - Continue

Instructions' Source   : SPOOKSVILLE (Atlantis) Back and Inner Inlay

Review (Electron User) - "Haunting Entertainment"

In SPOOKSVILLE, you play the part of Gaston the Intrepid who is trying to find a spellbook stolen from a great magician many centuries ago by Count Dracula.

The spells can only be used every 500 years, and that time is just about due. The book is hidden in the town of Spooksville - so in you, Gaston, jolly well go to face Frankenstein, Dracula and sundry other horrors.

This torrid scenario paves the way for another arcade adventure game in the style of that old favourite CITADEL. The graphics and sound are also closely based on the older game.

Gaston can travel left and right, as well as up and down ropes and ladders. From time to time objects found may help solve the game. For example, the stake will kill Dracula and the barrel will enable Gaston to escape from Frankenstein's lair. Other objects include crosses, holy water, rope, a lamp, gold bars, fireballs, a rod and a sword.

A fairly comprehensive "what does what" list is given in the instructions. Essential to success are the ring - hidden in the crypt - and the scroll, one of the few items whose location and purpose is not revealed before you start.

Old time CITADEL players will remember the ghostly cloaked figures which needed a magic spell fired between the eyes to remove them from screen. SPOOKSVILLE has these, or similar figures, in abundance.

In fact, there is one in every room except the starting screen and all need to be shot smartly in order to survive. A strange feature of your weapon is that you must be moving when you fire it.

Its range is short so don't fire till you see the red of their eyes. Tall monsters can't be destroyed by the standard technique - it is essential to find the correct object to dispose of them.

This is yet another budget game which has not been written well on the Electron. if you can imagine playing CITADEL with your feet stuck in syrup then that's what you've got here. Mind you, things are changed out of all recognition if you own a SLOGGER Turbo Board. Then the game is almost too fast, but certainly playable.

I would strongly commend the original CITADEL as a far more interesting game, but if you've completed that, SPOOKSVILLE will do at a pinch.

Rog Frost

* * * Second Opinion * * * (Electron User)

This is another spin-off based on the highly successful CITADEL. While not quite matching up to the original, it is nevertheless very enjoyable. If you like this sort of game then at only £2.99, it represents a bargain and will provide many hours of entertainment.

Roland Waddilove

Sound ........................... 7

Graphics ........................ 5

Playability ..................... 6

Value for money ................. 7

Overall ......................... 7

ELECTRON USER 6.11