Halloween Themed Games

[Gunstar]

20 hours ago, snicklin said:

Do NOT play Domain of the Undead. You have been warned!

But it's a perfect "trick" for "trick or treat" to get people to play it by listing it! As I recall it has similar control/game-play issues to Green Beret...

Edited October 31, 2019 by Gunstar

[Schlortt]

Not Halloween themed but the final screen of Bruce Lee is the scariest looking thing I have seen on the Atari.  Also, play Rescue on Fractalus for the first time.  

[thank you]

On 10/30/2019 at 12:13 AM, adam242 said:

The Witching Hour was a nice BASIC type-in back in the day. Couldn't find a dump of it.

"H6" basic listing and bootable atr.

 

witching.atr WITCHING.BAS

[ballyalley]

2 minutes ago, thank you said:

"H6" basic listing and bootable atr.

 

witching.atr 90.02 kB · 1 download WITCHING.BAS 5.96 kB · 1 download

 

Did you type this in or did you find it someplace?

 

Adam

[ballyalley]

Here's picture from The Witching Hour from Compute!

 

 

I've also reconstructed the documentation from the magazine's pdf:

 

The Witching Hour
By Brian Flynn
Compute!, October 1985

 

This game of skill and foresight is ideal for a bleak, stormy October night. Originally programmed for the IBM PC with color/graphics adapter and PCjr, versions have been added for the Commodore 64, expanded VIC-20, Atari 400/800, XL, and XE, T1-99/4A, and Apple Il-series computers. The Commodore 64 and Atari versions require a joystick.

 

When autumn winds send a shiv er down your spine and the witching hour draws near, there's no better entertainment than a good computer game. "The Witching Hour" is an absorbing contest of strategy based on Alquerque, a board game played in ancient Egypt and still popular in Spain today. Type in and save The Witching Hour, referring to the listing for your computer.

Since every version is similar, read the general game rules be low, then check the specific notes for your computer before running the program.

 

The Witching Hour pits broomstick-straddling witches against ethereal ghosts and is played on a board of 25 squares with 12 pieces to a side. After choosing sides, you attempt to take your opponent's players by jumping over them. You can move vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. However, certain diagonal moves are illegal (the lines between squares show where you can go) and only one square is vacant when the game begins.

Jumping an opposing player's piece removes that piece from the board. If no capture is possible, you may move any piece to an adjacent empty square. You may not pass up a capture-- if it's possible to jump an opponent, you must always do so-- and if the first capture puts you in position to make another, you must jump again (except in the Apple version). The computer won't let you make illegal moves.

 

Play ends when all the pieces from one side have been removed from the board. You can play against a friend or measure your skills against the computer (the IBM and TI versions also let you watch the computer play itself). Like other contests of strategy, The Witching Hour is simple to learn, but a challenge to master, and can be played at many different levels. Hint: It's sometimes smart to sacrifice a play er to draw the opponent into a dangerous position.

 

Commodore 64 And VIC- 20

 

Both Commodore versions of The Witching Hour offer a one- or two player option when the game be gins. The 64 version is played with a joystick. Plug the joystick into port 1 if you are playing alone (of course, two joysticks are needed for the two-player version). The colored box indicates which square you are on. Use the joystick to position the box on the piece you wish to move, then press the fire button: The box will change color. Now move the box to the square where you want the piece to go, and press the button again. If the move is legal, the piece appears in the new square (if not, you get to try again).

 

Atari Version

 

The Atari game requires a joystick (a pair for the two-player game) and is played like the Commodore 64 version. The joystick controls a colored box. Move the box over the piece you want to move, then press the fire button. After the box changes color, move it to the square where you want to put the piece, then press the button again. Player/ missile graphics are used to form the witch and ghost figures, and a short machine language routine moves them quickly around the screen.

 

[thank you]

9 minutes ago, ballyalley said:

Did you type this in or did you find it someplace?

typed it in, just like old times.  turns out i'm a lot better at it now.

[ballyalley]

Just now, thank you said:

typed it in, just like old times.  turns out i'm a lot better at it now.

 

Wow, that's a lot of work!  I'll play with with my friend next week (I'll just pretend I'm playing for next year's Halloween!).

 

Adam

[+therealbountybob]

Hey that's great to find a new game, thank you thank you (and bally) I'll add it into the current HSC Halloween Round along with Phantom and Action Quest

[Gunstar]

I actually have this magazine with The Witching Hour. I haven't gotten it out to look at it yet, and I didn't even remember it from the picture posted, but once I started reading what the game is about above, suddenly images started bubbling up from my distant memory of this game's graphics and the grid of boxes with witch on broom, icons, etc. and me way back then carefully studying the screen shots from all the versions, and wishing the Atari version used higher res graphics like a couple of the other versions, and then thinking "thank god it at least looks better than the Vic-20 version!" 

 

EDIT: Wow, that's hilarious, I didn't even see the screen shots posted in the reply just above the one of the game description until after I posted this reply! My memory remembered 90% of it, just not the diagonal line segments between the boxes!

Edited November 7, 2019 by Gunstar