playing Dracula (1986) (part 1)

in researching for my vampire-themed semester project from last year, i stumbled upon Dracula, a video game from 1986 for the Commodore 64. at the time, i had a first try at playing it, but died pretty early on and then got quite busy and trashed my laptop and generally just didn't come around to starting it up again. but today, Lilly Ashton's post about bad Atari 2600 games inspired me to give Dracula another go. so come and witness with me the horrors that our boy jonathan harker must endure.

 

1986's Dracula is a classic text-adventure game. ok, almost classic. there are like two beautiful images per chapter (or at least in chapter 1). and some music with those images. but otherwise it's text only and you do things via command. as i said, it's made for the Commodore 64, but you can still play it via an emulator like WinVICE (which i'm using) or even online via my beautiful wife, the Internet Archive [Part 1/Part 2/Part 3]. narratively, the game seems to be a relatively straight-forward adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula except just the section where harker is travelling to and subsequently imprisoned at dracula's castle. it's divided into three chapters: 1) The First Night, 2) The Arrival, and 3) The Hunt.

ok so. i download my Dracula D64 file (which is what commodore 64 emulators need, apparently) (got it from c64.com) and start my game. first thing i am greeted by a friendly message from a knight:

in which lancelot shout outs their supporters. yay software pirating!

playing a game like this when you're unfamiliar with the controls is rough. there are no cues. no information, nothing. you just straight up need to know what you need to do to navigate the program. games used to not give a fuck about accessability. anyway. i'm playing part 1, so i press 1 and land on the beautiful main menu screen. which isn't really much of a menu.

i do genuinely think this is so pretty. 8 bit is not a lot to work with.

i don't really know what to do. there just isn't any feedback here. you press buttons in hopes that they're what triggers the game to start and then you wait. this is what i did, and eventually, the actual gameplay did start.

harker's entrance monologue.

the red on black is thematically fitting but not very good for my eyes. and well. the type. i have a prof who would turn in his grave if he were dead. it's like. almost readable. legible but you have to strain quite a bit. well. like jonathan harker, we too will get through this night.

the first thing we as harker's commander get to do is try to leave for our hotel without paying the coachman, and then paying the coachman. this is where on my first run last year, i so hopelessly didn't know what command to type that i had to consult a playthrough. but today i remembered. pay the coachman. but this is what i mean when i say games used to be less accessible; you're expected to know what you can say that will produce an action, and especially with text-adventures, you just kind of have to figure out for yourself what you might be able to do. there are no hints. and maybe this is good for us, being forced to imagine and think. i guess it's just very different to the way videogames are constructed nowadays, so it takes a little getting used to.

anyway. after we pay the coachman, we enter the hotel, check in and have a hearty meal and, optionally, a drink (i had lamb stew and a sparkly water). then we find our room and head to bed. that night, harker is plagued by nightmares and visited by a horrible apparition, a decaying man with maggots crawling around on his face. this is illustrated with the first of the two images (and music sequences!) of the chapter:

cute!

when harker wakes up, there is a storm of flapping noise. this is where i know i need to close the window because last year, i died because i didn't (the birds that produce the flapping noise fly into the room and peck him to death). so i, wisely, close the window. the birds now fail at their bloody attempt to find a way into the room, and when, finally, they give up, harker goes back to bed and sleeps peacefully the rest of the night.

i wonder how much you can influence that night. because there is also a lamp in the room -- are harker's nightmares different if you light the lamp? does closing the window in the evening change anything? how much replay value has Dracula (1986)? who knows....

in the morning, harker wakes with fresh optimism. the day is nice. he isn't dead. he leaves the hotel, sits on a bench and waits for his coach (four times) as the day arrives. when the coach, sent by dracula himself, arrives, we must state our name. i'm not actually sure right now whether up until now jonathan harker has been introduced to us as such. i don't know if you can say something wrong here and if there are consequences if you do. i didn't think to try it, i just introduced myself as jonathan harker and watched (read) as my guy settled into the coach to be driven out towards the castle, pondering his night terrors.

an another beautiful image. a very cold-looking sunrise.

this is where part 1 ends. it does not have a very long playtime. i think that writing this post has probably taken longer than this one playthrough. but that's ok. not much space on a ROM cartridge.

this was fun. i am looking forward to playing part 2. now go forth and play an old game yourself. there are a gazillion just for the commodore 64. have fun :-)