You must escape Dracula's sinister castle, find the dark one and drive a stake through his heart. To escape, you must explore the castle and learn its secrets. If you fail, you will join Dracula's brides for dinner, and guess who's the main course! Dracula - The Undead is a video game released in 1991 for the Atari Lynx handheld system. The game is loosely based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula and features Bram Stoker in the story as the narrator.
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Interesting retelling of the Dracula novel in a point and click style handheld affair.
Sadly this is marred by poor controls on the handheld, making it frustrating and sluggish. Those that get past the control issues will find an ok game.
Sadly this is marred by poor controls on the handheld, making it frustrating and sluggish. Those that get past the control issues will find an ok game.
Playing Through My Evercade Collection Part 13: Atari Lynx Collection 1
A little bit of a surprise for this one, a point and click on the Lynx isn't something you'd ever expect. Style-wise this game actually is almost completely on point with cutscenes, a striking art style, some suitably creepy music and a generally interesting sense of exploration like all good point and clicks should have. All of this absolutely leads to a surprisingly creepy little game that plays wonderfully off the original source material.
That said, the game isn't without issue, while stylistically the game strikes, the controls really do get some getting used to where even just picking up basic items can be a chore. Even with that gotten used to, the other issue is the game is just very very short and the story just 'stops' suddenly. I get why, the graphics and music used pretty much ensures a short playtime, but the sudden nature of the ending does take the wind out of everything somewhat.
P.S: This game absolutely benefits from being on the Evercade. While the game originally had no save feature, meaning you had to get through the entire game in one run, this isnt an issue now with save states. Woo.
A little bit of a surprise for this one, a point and click on the Lynx isn't something you'd ever expect. Style-wise this game actually is almost completely on point with cutscenes, a striking art style, some suitably creepy music and a generally interesting sense of exploration like all good point and clicks should have. All of this absolutely leads to a surprisingly creepy little game that plays wonderfully off the original source material.
That said, the game isn't without issue, while stylistically the game strikes, the controls really do get some getting used to where even just picking up basic items can be a chore. Even with that gotten used to, the other issue is the game is just very very short and the story just 'stops' suddenly. I get why, the graphics and music used pretty much ensures a short playtime, but the sudden nature of the ending does take the wind out of everything somewhat.
P.S: This game absolutely benefits from being on the Evercade. While the game originally had no save feature, meaning you had to get through the entire game in one run, this isnt an issue now with save states. Woo.
"Leave me to do my dark bidding on the internet!"
-Dracula (Dracula, 1931)
I just beat arguably the most influential video game of all time (Colossal Cave Adventure) after roughly 10 years of off-and-on attempts to finish it. I wanted to write a big essay about its importance but ultimately I drew blanks. I also just woke up and decided to play this random ass Atari Lynx game called Dracula: The Undead. Wow! Holy banger alert, Batman!
I don't know what it says about me that I can play Colossal Cave Adventure and then some random tie-in handheld game 5 people played, but feel a much greater reaction to the latter. Except that if I was born in like 1970, I guess I'd be the same person lmao. I feel like a living embodiment of this Hideo Kojima pic rn https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175402241981681726/55hjrsa2pyt21.jpg
So yeah, what made Dracula: The Undead so special? How about the fact it's a 1991 game. For the Atari fucking Lynx. That uses sprites to create illusions of depth and pre-rendered graphics to create a convincing sense of 3D space. It being a 1991 game means it is (AFAIK) the first horror game and the first point and click on a handheld system. In fact, this game even predates Alone in the Dark and has a less cumbersome UI. That's actually insane.
Not only that, but the puzzles are genuinely pretty intuitive? I just booted it up on a whim and finished it in under an hour. The player goes through events like climbing a window from the outside to open new shortcuts for example. The player needs to dim the lantern to not be detected, and if the player fucks up there is a unique game over message for each death to provide hints on how to progress. The QOL is surprisingly nice.
It's also one of the very first games I can think of which lets the player straightup skip cutscenes. This definitely helps the player to regain their footing after a game over. Needing to restart an adventure game from the beginning sounds like a chore on paper, but with the game being maybe 20 minutes in real time if one skips cutscenes, and even shorter with emulator speedups, it's actually not a big deal at all. In fact it's rather refreshing to have a point n click like this that encourages swift routing and so quickly provides a dopamine hit when I manage to regain my progress in the time it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn.
And oh boy you better get that popcorn ready, because this game has the greatest cutscenes of all time. Bram Stoker appears in this game as a pre-rendered character who tells the player about how video games didn't exist in the 1890s. Not to mention the main character of the game runs away from 3 hot vampire chicks on the basis he fears getting vampire cooties (he just like me for fr???)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401045531295784/image.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401045850066994/image.png
One may notice from the screencaps, this game is actually quite atmospheric and soulful in its approach to capturing the old monster movie charm. The entire game is in sepia tone and it really fits. Even the blocky as hell faces didn't take away my immersion, it's actually stunning how charming the attempt at creating the illusion of 3D depth was. Even despite Jonathan's face looking like a before picture
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401316005191750/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401316403642419/image.png
Speaking of Jonathan, there were inklings about him being a bit of a dweeb for a hero in a game like this. He even comments on how much he hates performing actions like window climbing that would be expected of a point and click character; it's really quite interesting to see a character like this. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401520150360134/image.png
I really want to rate it higher. This game feels like it was tailor made for me. But at the same time, I can't do it in good conscious. It really needed to be something like 2-3 times as long, perhaps with checkpoints or game saves. Using the notebook for the good ending could be a bit more intuitive and may or may not necessitate a replay with a guide depending on one's playstyle. I also thought it could use more pieces of music despite how chilling its few pieces of music were. The last improvement I can think of would be a hotkey button for when a spot in the game only had 1 potential action. If all of that was implemented, it would kind of be a masterpiece?
But still, it's almost certainly the best Atari Lynx game by far. A strong 7.5/10 from me for sure at least. I strongly rec this game to anybody like me who loves those early 1900s monster flicks. It's just too charming of a point n click and it's very short and sweet. And it even has a Dracula based on Bela Lugosi's appearance!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bb/48/b8/bb48b800f2dbfdce55fbdf00b28ba568.png
-Dracula (Dracula, 1931)
I just beat arguably the most influential video game of all time (Colossal Cave Adventure) after roughly 10 years of off-and-on attempts to finish it. I wanted to write a big essay about its importance but ultimately I drew blanks. I also just woke up and decided to play this random ass Atari Lynx game called Dracula: The Undead. Wow! Holy banger alert, Batman!
I don't know what it says about me that I can play Colossal Cave Adventure and then some random tie-in handheld game 5 people played, but feel a much greater reaction to the latter. Except that if I was born in like 1970, I guess I'd be the same person lmao. I feel like a living embodiment of this Hideo Kojima pic rn https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175402241981681726/55hjrsa2pyt21.jpg
So yeah, what made Dracula: The Undead so special? How about the fact it's a 1991 game. For the Atari fucking Lynx. That uses sprites to create illusions of depth and pre-rendered graphics to create a convincing sense of 3D space. It being a 1991 game means it is (AFAIK) the first horror game and the first point and click on a handheld system. In fact, this game even predates Alone in the Dark and has a less cumbersome UI. That's actually insane.
Not only that, but the puzzles are genuinely pretty intuitive? I just booted it up on a whim and finished it in under an hour. The player goes through events like climbing a window from the outside to open new shortcuts for example. The player needs to dim the lantern to not be detected, and if the player fucks up there is a unique game over message for each death to provide hints on how to progress. The QOL is surprisingly nice.
It's also one of the very first games I can think of which lets the player straightup skip cutscenes. This definitely helps the player to regain their footing after a game over. Needing to restart an adventure game from the beginning sounds like a chore on paper, but with the game being maybe 20 minutes in real time if one skips cutscenes, and even shorter with emulator speedups, it's actually not a big deal at all. In fact it's rather refreshing to have a point n click like this that encourages swift routing and so quickly provides a dopamine hit when I manage to regain my progress in the time it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn.
And oh boy you better get that popcorn ready, because this game has the greatest cutscenes of all time. Bram Stoker appears in this game as a pre-rendered character who tells the player about how video games didn't exist in the 1890s. Not to mention the main character of the game runs away from 3 hot vampire chicks on the basis he fears getting vampire cooties (he just like me for fr???)
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401045531295784/image.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401045850066994/image.png
One may notice from the screencaps, this game is actually quite atmospheric and soulful in its approach to capturing the old monster movie charm. The entire game is in sepia tone and it really fits. Even the blocky as hell faces didn't take away my immersion, it's actually stunning how charming the attempt at creating the illusion of 3D depth was. Even despite Jonathan's face looking like a before picture
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401316005191750/image.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401316403642419/image.png
Speaking of Jonathan, there were inklings about him being a bit of a dweeb for a hero in a game like this. He even comments on how much he hates performing actions like window climbing that would be expected of a point and click character; it's really quite interesting to see a character like this. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1156847687476457492/1175401520150360134/image.png
I really want to rate it higher. This game feels like it was tailor made for me. But at the same time, I can't do it in good conscious. It really needed to be something like 2-3 times as long, perhaps with checkpoints or game saves. Using the notebook for the good ending could be a bit more intuitive and may or may not necessitate a replay with a guide depending on one's playstyle. I also thought it could use more pieces of music despite how chilling its few pieces of music were. The last improvement I can think of would be a hotkey button for when a spot in the game only had 1 potential action. If all of that was implemented, it would kind of be a masterpiece?
But still, it's almost certainly the best Atari Lynx game by far. A strong 7.5/10 from me for sure at least. I strongly rec this game to anybody like me who loves those early 1900s monster flicks. It's just too charming of a point n click and it's very short and sweet. And it even has a Dracula based on Bela Lugosi's appearance!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bb/48/b8/bb48b800f2dbfdce55fbdf00b28ba568.png