Plot
Characters
There are two options available to play as, the Girl or the Boy.Ghost Manor HTMStages
The game consists of five stages: In Stage 1 (the Graveyard) the player must guide their character around and touch Bones or the Rainbow Ghost a set number of times. In order for the contact to count, the contact must be made on a gravestone and while the player is moving. Each contact that meets these criteria awards the player a single Spear. The number of Spears that can be awarded depends on the difficulty setting of the game. In Stage 2 (the Gate), the player must use the Spears to shoot down Spooks. When all seven Spooks are shot down, the player must use one final spear to shoot the Chopping Mummy. During this time, the Chopping Mummy will chop at the player in an attempt to touch the character with his blade and end the game. The Chopping Mummy does chop to a rhythm. Learning this rhythm enables players to avoid the Mummy's blade entirely with some practice. It is possible to run out of Spears. If that happens, the player cannot defeat any more Spooks or the Chopping Mummy, and the game will run until either the Chopping Mummy's blade comes in contact with the character or the player resets their console. Stages 3 and 4 are nearly identical, but change the layouts and colors change. The player must move their character to the staircase in Stage 3, and then from one staircase to the other in Stage 4. Touching any of the stationary walls may stun the character. The character can press up against the trailing side of the moving walls to earn extra points, however, touching the leading side of a moving wall will end the game. Players may search the coffins in these stages by touching them from the correct side. A tone is played for each successful search. One coffin in each stage contains a Cross, which is used to repel Dracula in the final stage of the game. If the character has a Lamp, the playfield will be illuminated the entire time the character is in either stage 3 or 4. If the character does not have a Lamp, the playfield will only be illuminated for brief periods when lightning strikes near Ghost Manor. Stage 5 (the Prison), is where the final battle takes placeplayers must guide their character underneath Dracula and press the red button on their Joystick to force Dracula upward into one of the cells at the top of the screen. Players cannot force Dracula to move any direction other than up, however when Dracula is not being repelled he will follow the character left or right. To successfully restrain Dracula, players must use their character to bait him into moving underneath a cell, then press the button to force him upward into that cell. Repelling Dracula requires the character to have at least one Cross. Each Cross only lasts a few seconds, so players must keep the battle as short as possible. As soon as Dracula is restrained in either cell, the character's friend is released and will follow the character to the stairwell. Once both the character and their friend reach the stairwell, the player wins the game. When the game is over, the Boy and Girl are both displayed in the Graveyard holding hands. If the rescue was not successful, both characters will sink into the ground along with the tombstones and Ghost Manor itself. The tune " Taps" plays during this ending. If the rescue was successful, the characters will remain standing in the Graveyard while everything else sinks. A "happy melody" plays for this ending. After a few minutes the game will restart automatically unless the power is turned off.Gameplay
Items
Most of the items in Ghost Manor help the character out, but one will end the game. *Hourglass: Counts down with the game timer. If the character cannot rescue their friend within four minutes, the game is lost. *Spears: Used to shoot down Spooks at the Gate, also used to kill the Chopping Mummy. Only one spear is needed for each kill. Spear tokens appear to the left of the hourglass to indicate how many Spears have been collected, and a counter on the lower left indicates the exact number of Spears remaining. *Lamp: Only present in the easy and medium difficulty settings. Used to light the interior of Ghost Manor. Without it, the player must rely onScoring
Although winning or losing Ghost Manor depends on rescuing the character's friend, the game does keep score. *10 points are awarded along with each Spear in the Graveyard. *Spooks are worth varying numbers of points. **The lower Scorpion is worth 800 points, and the upper Scorpion is worth 300 points. **The lower Skull is worth 700 points, and the upper skull is worth 600 points. **The lowest Bat is worth 500 points, the middle Bat is worth 200 points, and the highest Bat is worth 0 points. **The Chopping Mummy is worth 1100 points. *Touching the trailing side of the moving walls awards points while contact is maintained. *Searching coffins awards points as follows, even if no Cross is found. The number ranges from 100 to 10,000 points depending on how far away the moving wall is and which direction it is moving. Generally the closer the wall when it's moving toward the player, the more points are awarded.Difficulty settings
Difficulty settings in Ghost Manor affect how fast enemy characters move and whether or not the Lamp is available for use. At higher difficulties, fewer spears are awarded by Bones and/or the Rainbow Ghost. Each difficulty level is set as follows: *Easy: Set both switches to the B position. *Medium: Set the Left Difficulty switch to B and the right difficulty switch to A. *Hard: Set the Left Difficulty switch to A and the right difficulty switch to B. *Hardest: Set both switches to the A position. Note that on Sears Tele Games consoles that the Difficulty Switches are called "Skill" switches. Expert is the same as the A position, and Novice is the same as B position. Further, on the Atari 7800, the difficulty switches are located on the front of the console between the controller ports. Slide the switch to the left for B position and to the right for A position.Ambience
Unlike most games of its time, the game employs unconnected random sound effects at different volume levels for ambience. There are 4 sound effects played: a bird, an owl, a creaking door, and lightning strikes. Furthermore, depending on which stage you are on, some sounds may be louder and others may be quieter. In the graveyard, sounds of the owl and lightning are the only infrequently heard sounds. Outside of the mansion, the (particularly active) owl, bird, and lightning can all be heard. Inside the mansion, on the ground floor all sound effects can be heard. On the second floor the bird is a little muted, and on the roof the bird is louder and the creaking door is slowed and muted.Development
''Ghost Manor'' was originally intended to be released for the Atari 2600,See also
* '' Artillery Duel'' * '' Chuck Norris Superkicks''References
{{Dracula 1983 video games Action video games Atari 2600 games Cancelled Commodore 64 games VIC-20 games Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender