Transylvania III

Transylvania III was released towards to the end of the IIGS being a mainstream machine and even for the IIGS, a text graphic adventure was somewhat uncommon at that time. It must have been one of the last such games ever, also being released for the PC in the same year.

The two prequels of the Transylvania trilogy do not appear on the IIGS, at least, not in the form of 16-bit versions, but rather 8-bit versions for the Apple II+, IIe and IIc. The last of the trilogy involved, again, a vampire and your quest to destroy it.

However in this game, there is a twist: you are already dead, drowned after your ship sunk in a storm. The Grim Reaper has put your death on suspension, pending cancellation, if you can complete your quest in defeating this annoying vampire for him, a creature who doesn't play by Death's rules, given that he's undead and continually seems to out welcome his stay in the land of the living.

Text-graphic adventure simply means there are graphics as well as text that paint a picture of your current location so that you may act accordingly. Input your commands to the parser to carry out your actions. Unlike other IIGS text-graphic adventures such as Tass Times in Tonetown or Dream Zone, Transylvania III does not use a point and click interface to help input shortcuts into the parser. A little more typing won't kill you. If you don't type in the wrong commands that is.

I haven't come close to playing Transylvania III to the end. I found the answers to solutions somewhat obscure, and it features annoying real-time puzzles, that seem to plague all adventure games in someway or another. This game may well be for the more hearty adventurer.

The game is nicely presented, which loads quickly (from ProDOS 1.1.1. no less!) which includes looping sound even as the IIGS accesses the drive, which is a fairly uncommon trick for commercial games. The graphics are very nicely drawn and sharp. There are some nice complimenting sound effects along the way. An enjoyable adventurous romp in prose!