https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/190184138776/yodaprod-elvira-mistress-of-the-dark-accolade
Those that like horror and/or role-playing games might have missed this one when it first came out. It is one of the rarest of all times of games. It’s a game based on a movie, developed by a virtually unknown company (only one title before this one) that got excellent reviews and was actually a decent game.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark was released in 1990 for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and MS-DOS. It was a horror themed adventure/role-playing game featuring Elvira herself. The game loosely follows the plot of the movie by the same name. Elvira has been taken prisoner to be used as a sacrifice to help resurrect her ancient evil ancestor Emelda. You must help Elvira get her powers back and defeat Emelda’s minions.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark combines point and click adventure elements with first person shooter elements. The first person shooter elements are reminiscent of games like Eye of the Beholder. Most of the navigation and puzzle solving throughout the game is done via point and click but battles against a opponents switch to the first person view.
Elvira even won Computer Gaming World’s role playing game of the year award. I don’t know if I would go that far but it is a decent game which is unusual for games based on movies. The graphics are excellent and it is difficult enough to offer a challenge without being overly frustrating.
While I am a Commodore 64 fan, if you want to play this one you probably want to do it on an Amiga, PC or Atari ST. Don’t get me wrong, the Commodore 64 version is good also and was well received. However, in a graphics oriented game like this, it’s just not going to beat the other options. I’m not aware of this one being re-released so you’ll have to track down an original or an emulator image.
There is also one direct sequel, Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus, which was released two years later for all of the same platforms. Interestingly, these games were based on AberMUD which was the first open source MUD and started life in 1987. Waxworks is another game that came along a little later that was sort of a spiritual successor. It’s probably also worth playing if you like the Elvira games.
Images above are from the Atari ST version of the game.
