Dracula's Chateau

created and published by EAG in 2003-06-04, running on Apple II E

type: adventure
perspective: other
player options: single player

game engine: Eamon Engine
languages: eng

Personal review

[The following text is copyrighted by Eamon Adventurer's Guild Online and presented here word-for-word thanks to their generous terms]
#245 - Dracula's Chateau by Paul Braun

Reviewed by Tom Zuchowski

MAIN PGM Version: 4 Extra Commands: READ, DIG, SHOOT, HOLD, OPEN, UNLOCK Deleted Commands: None, no SAVE Special Features: None Playing Time: 2 hours Reviewer Rating: 6.0

Description: after a rather silly introduction, you find yourself in the basement of Dracula's chateau, and you will be facing many classic movie monsters. Along the way you'll find several artifacts that will help you de-fend yourself.

Comment: this is a very old Eamon that dates from the early days, but it has many excellent additions and specials. It is very large with 99 rooms, but the mapping is very straightforward except for two locked door puzzles. Because of the large size of the map and low con-tent in spots, it would be an ordinary and even some-what tedious "kill’n’loot" scenario except that there are enough specials and cool effects to keep you interested and having fun. If you can keep your map straight, the difficulty is no more than (5).

Some of the puzzles and events here are obscure enough that it surely rates a few hints:

Nearly all of the monsters have random friendliness, and you can’t tell friend or foe from the descriptions. Any time you encounter someone new, try going in the direction you just came from before you do anything else. If the stranger is an enemy, you will be prevented from leaving the room because there is unfriendliness about.

Eventually you may run into a bad guy named Belg. You'll quickly find that he is far stronger than you in battle. Do not cheat your way to a win. He is supposed to defeat you. You won't really die, and a special effect will be triggered.

The POWER spell has several additions that mainly have to do with enhancing your personal abilities, but it is not required at any point in the adventure. There is a bug somewhere in the program that "resurrects" Belg if the spell's resurrection routine is triggered. This is pretty much a disaster for you if it occurs in any room but the room you meet Belg in. Therefore, it might be best to leave the POWER spell alone.

Dracula's flaming sword, Goldenwrath, is a very heavy weapon when it is not flaming, but it is weightless when it is aflame. You can relight Goldenwrath by saying FLAME ON.

I'll save you a lot of time and trouble by telling you that there is only one place worth digging, and that is on the beach by the rocks. There is no shovel. When asked if you want to dig with your hands, answer YES.

I didn't have too much trouble killing Dracula with Fresh Sam's Crystal Sword, but if you are finding him too much to deal with, there is an artifact that will make him flee from the room if you hold it up to him.

The glass wall is passable with the right magical help.

There is only one movie monster that can be killed by a silver bullet, and you only have one bullet, so don't waste it.

That pretty well sums it up. Have fun!