AGttA: Cranston Manor (1981)

I sincerely attempted to play High-Res Adventure #2 (Wizard and the Princess/Adventure in Serenia), which introduced color graphics to adventure games. I understand there are many people who love this game and consider it a classic. But it is a game that opens with a maze of near-identical desert-with-cactus-and-rock screens, every one of which contained a scorpion that instantly killed me whenever I did something, so I decided to invest my time elsewhere. (The graphics are a step up from Mystery House, though.)

( high-res cactus ACTION )

So I moved on to the third entry in the series, also in glorious Apple II color...


Title: Cranston Manor (aka High-Res Adventure #3)
Year: 1981
Developer: On-Line Systems
Availability: Abandonware. (Not a legal term, just refers to games that are no longer made, sold, or supported, but the copyright holder hasn't officially released them as freeware.) You can play it in your browser.

Ken Williams' design partner on Cranston Manor was Harold DeWitz, who doesn't seem to have done any game development since then, which is too bad, because this is quite a nice, charming, medium-difficulty game. No murder mystery in this mansion; instead you're just here for some good old fasioned looting. You break in and find a bunch of treasures, and if you find them all and make it out, you win. Unlike Wizard and the Princess, the focus is more on exploration and puzzles than on things that randomly kill you. I only found two ways to die, and no ways to arrive at a point where you can't continue.

It does suffer a little from the Mystery House issue of confusing graphics, but Cranston Manor is more diligent about telling you when you are not facing north, which makes a big difference. The graphics themselves are simple, but competently drawn. At this point graphics have definitely reached a point where they add to the game rather than detract from it.

( In which On-Line Systems hires an artist who has heard of vanishing points )

AGttA: Cranston Manor (1981)

I sincerely attempted to play High-Res Adventure #2 (Wizard and the Princess/Adventure in Serenia), which introduced color graphics to adventure games. I understand there are many people who love this game and consider it a classic. But it is a game that opens with a maze of near-identical desert-with-cactus-and-rock screens, every one of which contained a scorpion that instantly killed me whenever I did something, so I decided to invest my time elsewhere. (The graphics are a step up from Mystery House, though.)

( high-res cactus ACTION )

So I moved on to the third entry in the series, also in glorious Apple II color...


Title: Cranston Manor (aka High-Res Adventure #3)
Year: 1981
Developer: On-Line Systems
Availability: Abandonware. (Not a legal term, just refers to games that are no longer made, sold, or supported, but the copyright holder hasn't officially released them as freeware.) You can play it in your browser.

Ken Williams' design partner on Cranston Manor was Harold DeWitz, who doesn't seem to have done any game development since then, which is too bad, because this is quite a nice, charming, medium-difficulty game. No murder mystery in this mansion; instead you're just here for some good old fasioned looting. You break in and find a bunch of treasures, and if you find them all and make it out, you win. Unlike Wizard and the Princess, the focus is more on exploration and puzzles than on things that randomly kill you. I only found two ways to die, and no ways to arrive at a point where you can't continue.

It does suffer a little from the Mystery House issue of confusing graphics, but Cranston Manor is more diligent about telling you when you are not facing north, which makes a big difference. The graphics themselves are simple, but competently drawn. At this point graphics have definitely reached a point where they add to the game rather than detract from it.

( In which On-Line Systems hires an artist who has heard of vanishing points )