Elvira: Mistress Of The Dark 1&2 + Wax Works - Horror Amiga games PC portable [UPDATE]


A horror treat for everyone today, it's the horror adventure games series Elvira Mistress of the Dark 1/2 and Wax Works, both Amiga games made PC portable by The Company.pl. Three amazing adventure titles that scared the hell out of me as a child and hopefully will do the same to you as well!

Although all of these games are basically adventures they do have RPG elements which gives that extra involvement of you, the player in the game. The player can move forward and backward, or turn right, left or back by clicking on one of the arrows at certain areas of the screen depending on the game you play. You also have the option to go up or down if a set of stairs or ladder is available.  The Interface was also redesigned for Elvira 2 with much of the text replaced by icons and a better character information screen. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark was released in 1990 whereas Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus was released in 1992 both by Accolade.


Elvira 2

Rather than being truly 3D, the game simulates the player's view by using a large amount of 2D images which depict the rooms and corridors from various spots and angles; due to this, the player's freedom is somewhat limited - in many rooms, it's impossible to look to the side, for example. A magic system was also available and it was unique at the time as the player could cast magic spells using the items found around the studio.

The recipe for the spell indicated what sort of item would be required in order to cast it  and the player would have to come up with an item matching that description. So another extra added depth to the adventure, Elvira 2 also had some Dungeon Crawling involved especially in one such studio but even that was just as scary.


Elvira 2 did have the odd friendly character but most of the time anything you came across was very nasty and your death was very graphic, especially in Waxworks (1992) as that game was infamous for its still-startling depictions of gore (in 256 colors). Waxworks was unrelated to Elvira but did have the same type of Interface and game play.

Waxworks

As for the combat when you confront one of the evil characters, a special combat window appears, alternately displaying Lunge/Hack and Block/Parry. The intelligent combat interface requires you not only to select the proper attack or defence but also to time your defence correctly. There's going to be a lot of blood spilled here, usually it's yours. Also to note, it's a fight to the death and any magic must be ready before the attack begins. I believe the attack differs slightly from waxworks and Elvira 2 by the use of the attack icons.

Elvira 2

Remember to save often, pick as many items as you can up and always look for better weapons so if you can't kill an enemy to get any further in the game perhaps you have an item out of place or not the right weapon at hand. I won't spoil the story with any of the games listed but lets just say that in all three there is A LOT of evil involved, you will die and you will die a lot. There is a lot of gore and it's one of the scariest horror game series I have ever played. 

As for what systems the games appeared on, Elvira 1 for example appeared on the Amiga, Atari ST, C64 and MS-DOS. As a bonus this compilation pack also includes the game, A Personal Nightmare which was released in 1989, so a much older title with much older graphics


The PC Playable Horror Compilation Amiga game is downloadable on thecompany , and has been updated to v2.6, hence this article update!

This version (2.6) contains high quality filters for your PC and all you have to do is download, run the exe and press F12 in game for extra settings including those filters. The software is based on the original rom file and remade through an emulator in a single exe. You may get a Virus Warning through low quality virus checkers, it's a false positive!

Let me know if the game scared you enough, it did me when I played it

1 comment:

  1. They are my favorite games. I would play Elvira Trilogy on xboxlive I hope for Elvira
    's remake too.

    ReplyDelete

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