It’s a rare treat to get a new text adventure released all across 8-bit and 16-bit systems, especially one so beautifully illustrated. The Curse of Rabenstein comes with original graphics by Dylan Barry a.k.a. Dylan Burytheaded a.k.a. railslave (Amstrad CPC version) and converted to all other systems by the game’s main author Stefan Vogt (Amiga, Atari ST, DOS, ZX Spectrum/Next, Commodore 64/Plus/4). Yes, the team went true old-school and ported the game across main 80s/90s systems (at least the ones we had in Europe), adapting the art to each machine’s (often severe) limitations.
Chunky Amstrad CPC pixels on bottom (2:1 pixel aspect ratio), Amiga/ST/Dos conversion to squares above.
Gameplay itself is very enjoyable and I was able to get through it without hints in about an hour or two (just read the instructions to learn about the EXAMINE and SEARCH commands which carry you through most roadblocks). The atmosphere follows a colorfully moody medieval setting and progression towards the end will reward you with a spooky narrative and 20 beautiful location illustrations.
Commodore 64′s subdued palette lands an especially fitting version to the game’s graphics.
Physical releases of The Curse of Rabenstein are available from poly.play (around $30 for an actual box with many goodies inside, available per system) or you can get the digital versions from itch.io (pay what you want, even free). Time to fire up those emulators!
