''Personal Nightmare'' is a horror

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

developed and published by Horror Soft for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

and

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

in 1989. It was released digitally by

Adventure Soft Adventure Soft, previously Horror Soft, was a British video game developer established by Mike Woodroffe, first as an importer and reseller of Adventure International games. The firm operates out of Sutton Coldfield, and is best known for the ' ...

on July 2, 2009 on

GOG.com GOG.com (formerly Good Old Games) is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through it ...

Plot

The game focuses on a town where

The Devil Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood ...

has invaded and the

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

has four days to eliminate all possessed citizens (led by a

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

and a

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

) and finally purge the evil by defeating the Devil himself before he can take over.

Gameplay

The game makes use of a combination of text-based commands, clickable verbal commands and clickable objects to progress. A compass indicates which directions the player can travel. Much of the game's movement and actions are

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

based so there is a day and night cycle. The player's

inventory Inventory (American English) or stock (British English) refers to the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation. Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying the shap ...

can be viewed in the respective menu. There are many encounters that can kill the player (ideally at night time) unless the player performs a proper action to avoid them. Newer versions of the game omitted the encounters where the players gets garroted. The player loses the game if four days pass and all the required possessed citizens have not been killed and the devil has not been repelled.

Reception

''Personal Nightmare'' was generally well-received, including the ratings of 87% by ''

Zzap! ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

'' (Amiga), 84% by ''

Computer + Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website w ...

'' (Amiga and Atari ST), 74% by ''

CU Amiga ''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vi ...

'' (Amiga) and 7/10 by '' Datormagazin'' (Amiga).

References

External links

''Personal Nightmare''
at Atari Mania
''Personal Nightmare''
at Lemon Amiga
''Personal Nightmare''
at the Hall of Light {{Adventure Soft 1989 video games Adventure games Amiga games Atari ST games DOS games English-language-only video games Games commercially released with DOSBox Horror video games ScummVM-supported games Single-player video games Fiction about the Devil Video games about vampires Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games about witchcraft Adventure Soft games