''La Abadía del Crimen'' (''The Abbey of Crime'') is a video game written by
Paco Menéndez with graphics made by Juan Delcán and published in 1987 by
Opera Soft. It was conceived as a version of
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...
's 1980 book ''
The Name of the Rose
''The Name of the Rose'' ( ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical fiction, historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, ...
''.
Paco Menéndez and
Opera Soft were unable to secure the rights for the name, so the game was released as ''La abadía del crimen''. "The Abbey of the Crime" was the
working title
A working title is a preliminary name for a product or project. The usage is especially common in film and TV, gaming, music and publishing. It is often styled in trade publications as (wt) and is synonymous with production title and tentative ...
of the novel ''The Name of the Rose''.
This game is an adventure with
isometric graphics. A Franciscan friar,
William of Occam (
William of Baskerville in the book) and his young novice Adso have to discover the perpetrator of a series of murders in a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
Italian
abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
.
Gameplay
The player controls the movement of the
friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders in the Catholic Church. There are also friars outside of the Catholic Church, such as within the Anglican Communion. The term, first used in the 12th or 13th century, distinguishes the mendi ...
Fra William (mistakenly described as a
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
in the user manual). The player also has the possibility of controlling the movement of the novice Adso within the same screen in which Fra William is. If the key for controlling the novice is not pressed, he follows Fra William most of the time. The game features other characters representing the monks of the abbey who behave according to programmed artificial intelligence to move throughout the mapping of the abbey and show a series of dialogs shown by written text which is moved along the lower part of the screen.
An extensive mapping of the abbey is represented in a large series of screens with 3D
isometric graphics. A series of objects has to be collected in order to successfully complete the game. The action occurs in seven days subdivided in different
Canonical hours
In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of Fixed prayer times#Christianity, fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or sel ...
. The time (day + current hour) is indicated at the bottom left of the screen.
The game starts with the
abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...
welcoming Fra William and explaining that a monk has disappeared. He also explains to Fra William that he is obligated to obey the orders of the abbot and the rules of the monastery, attend
religious services and meals and stay in his
cell at night while the research of the crimes is pursued. During the game, the novice Adso would remind players when they have to attend
offices
An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...
and meals, and players can just follow him if they forget the way to the church or the
refectory
A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monastery, monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminary, seminaries. The name ...
.
If the player disobeys any orders, or is late for services or meals, then their ''obsequium'' level, indicated on the bottom right-hand-side of the screen, will drop (''obsequium'' is Latin for ''subservience'' or ''obedience''). If the player's ''obsequium'' level drops to zero, the abbot will not tolerate their disrespect any longer, and the player is asked to leave the abbey, while missing a prayer office or being caught wandering around at night results in immediate expulsion - both mean that the
game is over.
Ports
The game was originally developed for the
Amstrad CPC 6128 8-bit platform and ported to other systems:
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...
,
MSX
MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...
, 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 op ...
. The
Amstrad CPC 464 version was different from the 6128 original, since several rooms and decoration were removed to fit the game on the 64K of the 464.
The only
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...
version is for the 128 platform.
Features
The music played in the game corresponds to the ''
Minuet in G major'' and the
sonata for flute BWV 1033 by
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...
, and ''Crystal Palace'' from Gwendal. The original PC version also featured "
Ave Maria
The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (from its first words in Latin), also known as the Angelic or Angelical Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical pa ...
" from
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...
, in a short chorus recording that played through the speaker when the player went to the church.
There is also a form of
copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media.
Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...
: if an illegal copy of the game was detected, then once the player entered the church, instead of "Ave Maria" playing, a voice would cry "''¡Pirata!''" (Spanish for "pirate") ten times in descending tones before the game crashed.
Reception
The game had a modest commercial success and was never officially released outside of Spain, a country where it came to achieve a
cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...
.
The game is considered one of the perfect ten games for the Spectrum 128 according to ''
Retro Gamer
''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering Retrogaming, retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' ...
''.
The game was referenced on a Spanish postal stamp.
Legacy
Port
*
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
version from the original MS-DOS version with 256 colour graphics and translations.
*
MSX2 version from the original
MSX
MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corpo ...
version adding a 16-colour palette and load/save from the disk.
*
Amstrad PCW
The Amstrad PCW series is a range of personal computers produced by United Kingdom, British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider Computer Division, Schn ...
version from the original
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 ZX Spec ...
version.
Remakes
*
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
version
*
J2ME commercial version
* A complete disassembly of the original
Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be software-compatible with the Intel 8080, offering a compelling altern ...
code for the
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 ZX Spec ...
and a rewrite of it in
C++ was made by Manuel Abadia (Vigasoco project).
** There is a
Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) port of Vigasoco that runs on
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
-
x86
x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...
,
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
-
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
(
PS3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...
),
PS2,
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...
,
Mac OS X
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
,
Dreamcast
The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...
,
Google Native Client
Google Native Client (NaCl) is a discontinued sandboxing technology for running either a subset of Intel x86, ARM, or MIPS native code, or a portable executable, in a sandbox. It allows safely running native code from a web browser, independ ...
and
WebAssembly
WebAssembly (Wasm) defines a portable binary-code format and a corresponding text format for executable programs as well as software interfaces for facilitating communication between such programs and their host environment.
The main goal of ...
.
*** VigasocoSDL patches to run on RG350 (Anbernic), and
Android.
** Vigasoco is translated to Java and GWT and runs on web browsers.
** Several ports were based on disassembly of the original.
*** Swift version to run on iOS devices.
*** Visual Basic (unfinished)
*** VB.net
*
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
version
* ''The Abbey of Crime Extensum'', extended
J2SE edition, available for free on
Steam
Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
.
See also
*
Golden era of Spanish software
References
External links
''La abadía del crimen''at Spectrum Computing
Remake for PC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abadia del crimen, La
1987 video games
Action-adventure games
Amstrad CPC games
Amstrad PCW games
Browser games
DOS games
Europe-exclusive video games
Game Boy Advance games
Linux games
MSX games
MSX2 games
The Name of the Rose
Opera Soft games
Single-player video games
Video games based on novels
Video games developed in Spain
Video games set in Europe
Video games set in Italy
Video games set in monasteries
Video games set in the 14th century
Video games set in the Middle Ages
Video games with isometric graphics
Windows games
ZX Spectrum games