''Scooby-Doo'' (also known as ''Scooby-Doo in the Castle Mystery'') is a video game based on the television franchise of the same name. The game was developed in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

Gargoyle Games Gargoyle Games was a British software company founded in 1983 by Roy Carter and Greg Follis in order to publish their first game, ''Ad Astra''. They generally specialized in games for the ZX Spectrum even though the company was originally named wi ...

for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...

, Commodore 64, and

Commodore Plus/4 The Commodore Plus/4 is a home computer released by Commodore International in 1984. The "Plus/4" name refers to the four-application ROM resident office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, database, and graphing); it was billed as "the produ ...

Original concept

A much-hyped game, Elite first started advertising this from around Autumn 1985. The advert billed the game as "the first ever computer cartoon". Issue 21 of Crash carried a full preview of the game. The game was to feature all the characters from the cartoon and was set in a Scottish castle owned by Shaggy's auntie. The castle is haunted and Scooby and the gang have 48 hours to solve the mystery. The game is said to "feature seven or eight action sequences which are separated by descriptive scenes in which characters in the game interact by meeting together and having a chat..." The original concept was scrapped as the Spectrum was not capable of handling such an ambitious project with

Sinclair User ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was pub ...

reporting: "while the graphics in the game ... are supposedly unbelievable the game is a shambles. Lack of memory has been blamed for the failure to release the game". Gargolyle Games were then contracted by Elite to produce a less-ambitious version.

Reception

Reviewing the Spectrum version, the critics of ''Crash'' praised that the game is addictive, well-animated, and "extremely playable", though one of them remarked that the simplistic gameplay's lack of challenge made it wear thin before long.

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History T ...

rated the game with a score 9/10.

References

External links

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''Scooby Doo''
review at ''CRASH'' {{Scooby-Doo 1986 video games Amstrad CPC games Commodore 16 and Plus/4 games Commodore 64 games Gargoyle Games games Single-player video games Video games based on Scooby-Doo Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in castles ZX Spectrum games