The Castles of Dr. Creep
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The Castles of Dr. Creep is a computer game for the Commodore 64, written by Ed Hobbs and published by Brøderbund in the 1980s.
The Castles of Dr. Creep is a platform game with a heavy puzzle element in the game. The game's setting is influenced by classic horror movies such as Frankenstein or Dracula. The game takes place in twelve medieval castles owned by the eponymous Dr. Creep, and the player's task is to escape from each castle. One or two-player game is possible, allowing collaborative gaming for solving the puzzles.
When the game starts, the player can select from any of the twelve castles, which have medieval-style names such as Sylvania, Carpathia, Callanwolde, or Lovecraft, or a tutorial castle. The player then starts from a specific room inside the castle, and must use his wits and skill to traverse through a vast network of interconnected rooms to find the exit.
The rooms consist of platforms on various levels, connected by ladders and sliding poles. Doors lead from one room to another. Some doors are locked, and the player must find a key to be able to go through them. Most doors are not locked but may be opened by a doorbell. However, in some cases, the doorbell is only on one "side" of the door (i.e. in one connecting room but not the other), and sometimes the doorbell is difficult to reach.
A central aspect of the game is the imaginative use of various contraptions and devices in the rooms. Conveyor belts, force fields, and laser guns hinder the player's progress. In some places he must avoid, trap, or kill mummies and Frankenstein monsters. Teleport devices are often required to navigate through a room.
Unlike normal platform games, the player in The Castles of Dr. Creep can have an unlimited amount of lives. If the player dies, he re-enters the castle at the "start" door. The game constantly keeps track of how much time has passed, and when the player manages to escape the castle, the time taken is recorded into the Hall of Fame, but only if the unlimited lives option is turned off (in this case there are three lives). Also, on the original Commodore 64 platform, saving and re-loading a game would disqualify a player for the Hall of Fame.
An unauthorized spin-off, named "Dungeons of Dr. Creep," was released in 1985, made by a band of crackers known as Star Frontiers. The game was the result of a reverse engineering of the file format, and became an immediate hit among gamers.
[edit] Trivia
The names of the castles are diverse. Lovecraft was most likely named after the author H.P. Lovecraft. Romania is named after Romania, the country that Transylvania is now a part of. Teasdale, Freedonia, and Sylvania may have been taken from Duck Soup, a Marx Brothers film. Here is the full list of castle names: Alternation, Baskerville, Callanwolde, Carpathia, Doublecross, Freedonia, Lovecraft, Parthenia, Rittenhouse, Romania, Sylvania, Tannenbaum, Teasdale, Tutorial.
