Transylvania (video game)

Transylvania
Transylvania
	Commodore 64 cover art
Publisher(s)	Penguin Software
Designer(s)	Antonio Antiochia
Platform(s)	Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, Mac, Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, iOS
Release	Apple II, Atari 8-bit, C64; WW: 1982; Mac; WW: 1984; Amiga, ST, MS-DOS; WW: 1985;
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Transylvania is an adventure video game published by Penguin Software. It was released for the Apple II in 1982 followed by ports to the Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64. A Mac conversion was published in 1984, then versions for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS in 1985.

Plot

Transylvania is a game on which the player takes on a quest involving rescuing Princess Sabrina and must travel the countryside where a werewolf, a vampire, a prankster goblin, a witch, and an alien spaceship roam. The game gives the player a time limit (the player receives a note early in the game which reads, "Sabrina dies at dawn"), and the Princess is held in a coffin located in the castle tower.

Reception

Gregg Williams reviewed the game for Computer Gaming World, and stated that "I refer to the Atari 520 ST version of Polarware's Transylvania. The story line is fine, but the game makes almost no use of the ST's extra colors, resolution, or speed."^[1]

The first game in the Transylvania series was well received, appearing in the Billboard^[2] and Softalk best-sellers charts and in The Wall Street Journal^[3] in a list of best-selling software. The Mac version sold over 15,000 copies within two months of release in 1984, accounting for over a fifth of all Mac owners at the time.^[4]

It received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Computer Game Audio-Visual Effects" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.^[5] It is considered one of the best examples of the adventure game genre.^[6] ANALOG Computing disliked the Atari ST versions of the first and second games, stating that "There just wasn't much of a story line" and that the ideal player age was a young teenager, not an adult. Despite this, however, because of their low price and "excellent" production values, graphics, and parser, the magazine recommended the games for those seeking graphic adventures for the ST.^[7]

Reviews

Casus Belli #16 (Aug 1983)^[8]
Jeux & Stratégie HS #3^[9]
Review in Softalk
1984 Software Encyclopedia from Electronic Games
iOS version
Review in Page 6
Article in ST.Mac
Review in ST.Mac
Entry in The Book of Adventure Games
Review in Antic

Legacy

An iPhone version of Transylvania was released on October 30, 2009 under the name Transylvania Adventure with retro-styled graphics.^[10]

References

^ Williams, Gregg (May 1986). "Atari Playfield". Computer Gaming World. Vol. 1, no. 28. p. 28.
^ Billboard magazine, Oct. 13, 1984, p.27
^ Wall Street Journal, July 18, 1984, p.23
^ "Popular Computing". Popular Computing. Vol. 4, no. 1–4. McGraw-Hill. 1984. p. 29. I spoke to an exultant Mark Pelzarski, president of Penguin. "Transylvania on the Mac is now half our sales!" he said, citing over 15,000 copies sold in less than two months. Using Apple's then-current estimate of 70,000 Macs sold, that meant that over a fifth of all Macintosh owners had purchased the program.
^ Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (February 1984). "Arcade Alley: The 1984 Arcade Awards, Part II". Video. 7 (11). Reese Communications: 28–29. ISSN 0147-8907.
^ Maher, Jimmy. "Hall of Fame". The Digital Antiquarian. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
^ Panak, Steve (December 1986). "Panak Strikes". ANALOG Computing. p. 97. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
^ "Ludotique | Article | RPGGeek".
^ "Jeux & stratégie HS 3". 1986.
^ Transylvania Adventure by RetroVenture, LLC (iTunes preview)