Haunted House by Atari

 To celebrate Atari releasing its fifth incarnation of Haunted House today on Steam (and pretty much every other platform under the sun), I thought I'd take it back to the original 1982 version I played on the Atari 2600.

You can't talk about Haunted House without talking about the box art. How great is this? Back in the day, this is what sold you on the game inside. The box art went a long way helping your imagination connect with what you actually saw on screen.

 

Here's a clip from the back of the box with a screenshot. If you're not someone that grew up with Atari, you can see what I mean about the box art selling the actual game.

In the game you (a pair of eyes) are exploring the four story mansion of the deceased Zachary Graves to assemble the three pieces of a magical urn and bring it outside the house. While searching the floors of the house, you have to avoid tarantulas, bats, and maybe even the ghost of old man Graves himself. If any of them touch you, you'll be scared to death! Good thing you have 9 lives.

To make things more difficult, the unattended mansion has no power so you'll need to light a match to see any objects on the floor or even the walls on higher difficulties. If a creature enters the same room as you, your match will go out. Other useful items you might find include a magic scepter, that prevents you from being scared to death, and a master key for any locked doors. Furthermore, you can only carry one abject at a time.

I remember this being one of my favorite games at the time. Having watched game play footage for research, I almost wonder why I enjoyed it. But I think it's safe to say there was nothing like it at the time and it was somewhat similar to Adventure, another all time favorite game.

I've checked out all the incarnations of the game as they've been released and am pretty excited for the newest one to see what they do with it. You can play it the original 2600 version over on Retrogames. If you scroll just below the play area, there's a link to the manual which might be helpful if you've never ventured into Graves Manor before.

Here's a good video on the history of the game.

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