''Theme Park Mystery'' is an

adventure video 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-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

developed by

Brian Howarth Brian Howarth is a British video game designer and computer programmer. He wrote many interactive fiction computer games in the early 1980s in a series called ''Mysterious Adventures''. He was born in Blackpool in 1953. After leaving school he ...

and Taeman Irmak released in 1990, 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 ...

published by

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

. It was also released to the

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 ...

later in 1990. The game features themes and activities surrounding a haunted and gruesome

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

Gameplay

The player is tasked with journeying through 4 worlds, whilst collecting keys, potions and other ingredients to solve the cause of the players uncles'

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...

. The player has recently inherited a new property, a Magic Canyon Theme Park. The park has become abandoned, and infested with enemies from ghouls to apes. Starting at a Zoltan Wishing Machine, the player continues through four zones of the theme park - Dragonland, Dreamland, Futureland and Yesterdayland. Hidden within these levels are a total of eight

boss fight In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...

with Demons, each of which require being brought back to the Zoltan machine. Each of the four worlds has its own

gimmick A gimmick is a novel device or idea designed primarily to attract attention or increase appeal, often with little intrinsic value. When applied to retail marketing, it is a unique or quirky feature designed to make a product or service "stand ou ...

and control scheme. Yesterdayland is the game's hub world, where the player can access the other worlds and the rest of the game via monorail. Dragonland has the game play as side-scrolling

platformer A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

, Dreamworld is set inside a

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

, on a

chess board A chessboard is a used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During play, the b ...

and Futureland is an on rails shooter; where the player is firing bullets atop a

rollercoaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

. Aside from Yesterdayland, the remaining worlds can be visited in any order.

Development

Theme Park Mystery was created by British development company ''Joined Up Writing Software'', a group made up of

and Taeman Irmak. The development company would only ever go onto create this one game, with Howarth moving shortly after to the United States. He would continue to work on games working for CinemaWare; USA until the company dissolved the following year. Howarth would spend time working on this game, whilst he was also working for CinemaWare. Irmak created the artwork, whilst Howarth programmed the game. The game was developed with a historical feel to the Theme Park, with the game's manual documenting the history of some theme park

attractions Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism m ...

such as

bumper cars Bumper cars or dodgems are the generic names for a type of flat amusement ride consisting of multiple small electrically powered cars which draw power from the floor and/or ceiling, and which are turned on and off remotely by an operator. Bumpe ...

and

fortune-telling Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical w ...

; as well as an A to Z of

Divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

Reception

Reviews for the game were generally high, with ''

Computer and 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 ...

'' gaming newspaper giving the game 85%; claiming that there was "only one way to sum up Theme Park Mystery - Surreal." and that the game had great graphics, and "equally impressive sound effects". ''

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 ''Vic ...

'' rated the game 86% and praised the game as "highly playable". ''

The Games Machine ''The Games Machine'' is a video game magazine that was published from 1987 until 1990 in the United Kingdom by Newsfield, which also published ''CRASH'', ''Zzap!64'', ''Amtix!'' and other magazines. History The magazine ran head to head with ...

'' also rated the game well at 81%, complaining that the "gameplay as a whole is on the tough side". However, publications such as ''

Amiga Computing ''Amiga Computing'' was a monthly computer magazine of a serious nature, published by Europress and IDG in both the UK and USA. A total of 117 issues came out. The games section was called Gamer, although later ''Amiga Action'' was incorporated i ...

'' were not as pleased with the game, and Amiga Joker had lower reviews of 73% & 74% respectively. ''Amiga Computing'' were especially down on the game, saying the graphics were "gob smackingly mediocre", but were also "unusual and interesting". Allen Greenberg reviewed the game for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'', and stated that "The conclusion this reviewer must reach is that this one really isn't a very exciting piece of entertainment. For now, you-know-who with the mouse ears has nothing to worry about."

References

External links

* {{moby game, id=/theme-park-mystery, name=''Theme Park Mystery'' 1990 video games Adventure games Amiga games Atari ST games DOS games Image Works games Konami games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games set in amusement parks