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Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

Amiga game review, ADF downloads, screenshots, ratings and insights
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (Elvira) is a game of inches. Go six inches forward, 5 inches back, over and over until you finally earn that ultimate reward.

Get your mind out of the gutter, camel breath!

I’m talking about the incredibly gorgeous, gruesome and mind-bendingly difficult horror adventure game released in 1990 for Amiga based on the macabre TV personality with legendary cleavage.

Elvira is an interesting game with a convoluted and murky history. It was made by Horror Soft in the UK, not the US where she (Cassandra Peterson) hails from and earned her fame. Peterson's character was barely known in the EU at the time except potentially with some of the goth and heavy metal peeps moshing in the UK.

There was an Elvira movie in 1988 that was distributed worldwide but only in limited release in the EU and mainly in video rental stores from what I can tell, if at all. Based on anecdotal polls I’ve taken, most folks outside North America were seeing Elvira for the first time when they saw her image on the game box at computer stores. So the big box release was a sort of "WTF" moment for lads across the pond, granted many still stopped in their tracks to look at the box a little more closely while making sure their mothers weren't watching.

So this game was created in England, is based on a niche US character, and was published by Accolade in the US as well. Regardless, it looked and ran beautifully on my NTSC hardware and for what it's worth my original copy is a North American print.

This being a game about Elvira in any form or fashion is kind of weird other than the obvious fact that sex sells. I'll be honest - I'm old enough and lucky enough to have grown up watching her every week on TV. But Horror Soft seems to have taken the basic premise of her 1988 movie, and her image, and used that as the creative framework in a hand-wavy sort of way to help sell more product.

In the movie Elvira inherits an old mansion in New England and a black magic cookbook, while in the game it's a castle in England (OK, sure). In the movie she battles her evil uncle, and in the game it’s her evil ancient ancestor Lady Emelda. All we know is Elvira’s trapped in the castle and has hired us to rid the place of Emelda’s minions and ultimately Emelda herself. I guess it's better than a lot of stories for games (I'm looking at you, Dungeon Master) but it's still pretty thin.

Right off the bat, though, the graphics in this game are freaking gorgeous. They are entirely hand-drawn pixel art and are just exquisite. The game also features excellent sound effects and some really weird, moody (if a bit janky) music. It never really grows old, either, and does change from time to time depending on your location in the game.

The game world occurs entirely around, inside and underneath the castle. We get all up inside that business. The variety of environments is impressive, too.

Movements are based on a typical grid format, although sometimes the view can take a little getting used to. For example, sometimes you might be walking down a hallway and in the viewport a door might cover half your screen. On the other hand, these visual oddities can help you gain your bearings as you learn the game’s maps.

When I first sat down to this game I thought what I was looking at was a dungeon crawler. The game has many of the user interface affordances we’re used to seeing, particularly the mouse-driven arrows for movement and grid-based maps.

But the game is far less of a dungeon crawler and more a puzzle-laden adventure with action elements. In fact, the game was (somehow) built on top of a modified MUD engine! And the puzzles are more akin to old-school Infocom text adventures where you feel the need to pick up a bazillion items you find along the way and attempt to use them in any combination possible out of pure desperation. Thankfully, most of the puzzles in this game are surprisingly logical. Most. And you never seem to get penalized for carrying too much stuff. But since you don’t know what you don’t know, you pretty much become a pack mule carrying the equivalent of a Walmart around in your pockets.

Part of the game’s charm and legendary status is from the death scenes. You are expected to die in this game - a LOT - and there are several ghastly scenes of your demise which are somewhat of a visual reward for when you fail. And you are going to fail many, many times. In fact I died so many times in this game I became completely paranoid about my Game Saves, and would literally save before I opened every single door. If something bad happened I would restart the game. I did this countless times.

Also, later in the game it became apparent to me that I’d made mistakes so egregious I had to restart the game from earlier saves, thus losing several days worth of progress. I did this painful backtracking on at least two separate occasions. It made me briefly rage at the game, but when I finally got past a puzzle the love would rush right back in.


Tech, and Paper

I played this game on an early model 16Mhz NTSC Amiga 3000 running OS 1.3 off the hard drive. I can’t fathom playing this game from floppy disks as it seems like it would want to load constantly. I’ve heard the C64 version’s disk access is so plentiful and slow it’s pretty awful. Also, installing the game to hard drive was an unexpected challenge, but once I got that behind me it ran smoothly as you would expect. It still boggles my mind how Wild West hard drive installations were for so many games back in the day.

I have an original boxed copy of Elvira and the spell book is probably one of the most annoying I’ve ever used. It employs a form of xerox-copy protection in the print, so in order to read the spell ingredients one needs to mix, you have to use a red transparent slip of plastic that reveals the words for you (thanks for the inspiration, Lucasfilm, you jerks). It’s extremely hard to read even when using the decoder, and I found using the spell book a total pain in the ass.

I also have an original clue book for this game that uses the same awful protection scheme - practically penalizing the people who bought the game and clue book legally. I barely touched it as I found it more annoying than just dying in the game a zillion times.

Combat

One of the most challenging and baffling parts of this game is the combat system.

When you face a foe several variables come into play. And when you first start playing this game, none of them are particularly obvious and the process can feel utterly random and brutal.

At a high level, enemies will attack you either on the left side of the screen or the right. When they attack, you are to either block (left) or parry (right). If you time it correctly you block their attacks and then immediately counter attack. And if your Dexterity is high enough (e.g. above 30 or so) you can quickly thrust and hack your enemy until they are either dead or they block you instead. If they do block your attack, you go through these motions all over again.

And blocking their attacks, especially at first, feels almost random. There are some very fast and subtle visual cues you can watch for to gauge your defenses, but at the end of the day if your Dexterity score gets too low you might as well start over. I didn’t discover this gem of wisdom until I’d been playing (and dying pretty regularly) for the first few days. Over time I did get better. But I still got into the habit of saving my game before each fight and reloading if my stats got knocked down too far.

Items

Almost everything you see in Elvira can be picked up and taken to a ridiculous degree, and it’s extremely hard to know what to take and what to leave behind. Ultimately, I wound up carrying page after page of inventory only to find out there were probably less than 20 things I ever really used. But there’s just no way to really know as you’re going through this game what’s important and what’s not. I became a certified hoarder in this game.

The vast majority of items in the game are plants you collect in the outdoor gardens which can be later mixed into potions and spells. Some of these plants are represented on-screen literally as a single f’ing pixel! I’m looking at you, clover. But there are also several items you’ll come across that you will have to use in very specific locations in order to progress in the game. In a couple of instances, finding those items - and using them - is insanely hard to figure out. Skip the next three paragraphs and jump straight to "Magic" if you want to avoid a spoiler where I explain one such puzzle.

…SPOILER BEGIN (warning!)

At one point in the game you confront a knight on top of the castle walls. The game tells you close combat looks to be impossible, which is a hint to use something besides your sword to kill him. Maybe a powerful spell? Maybe the crossbow? It took me a while (after being killed over and over) to realize I needed to use the crossbow but I had no bolts! I’d used them all. I had to leave and walk all the way back outside the castle to a place I’d done some target practice near the beginning of the game. Lo and behold I had some bolts stuck in a target sitting there waiting for me (thank goodness!).

Once I got the spare bolts I ran back to the top of the castle. (Then I saved, of course.) I killed the knight with a single shot and he fell over the wall! That’s odd, right? Welp, he died, I won, and I thought that was it.

Fast forward after several days/weeks of playing and I eventually found myself swimming through secret passages under the castle and ultimately wound up outside in the moat. With very few visual cues, I completely lucked into finding the knight at the bottom of the moat. There, in his scabbard, was one of the six keys I needed in order to beat the game! Of course, finding the way back into the castle (under water, where you can drown) was maddening and took me forever as everything looked identical and I had no idea where I was. But I eventually found my way back inside. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t have nearly this much white hair before I started playing the game.

SPOILER END…

Magic

I think if I were to play this game repeatedly and get really good at it, magic might not even be necessary. For all of the things you pick up and put into your inventory, a shockingly small amount of spells can actually be created. Many spells require items you might never find (I'm just sayin'). And others simply only have enough ingredients for one or two batches, and that’s it.

For example, at the beginning of the game Elivira gives you a healing potion (or cake - it's something edible) that you can use three times. You’re only able to make that same healing potion yourself, I think, once more after you find all of the proper ingredients throughout the castle and gardens. The same seemed to hold true to a dexterity boosting potion, which I was only able to make one of and use 3 times. Infuriatingly, the Dexterity boost only gave me a couple of points from each sip, making it almost useless. The healing potion, in my experience, is the single most important spell in the game. Use it sparingly. And if your Dexterity dips below 30, use it to bump it back up or your fights will suuuuck. And you’ll die.

I only used one single offensive spell in the game and it was one given to me by Elvira. I had to use it in the hedge maze against these strange goblin/gremlin looking creatures.

Atmosphere and Final Thoughts

The game’s atmosphere is awesome. When you don’t know what you’re doing or where you’re going, the game really does create a sensational sense of dread and fear as death is hiding around virtually every corner. And the really weird schizophrenic music is so unique and disconcerting, it’s excellent.

Also, at least in the manuals, I could absolutely hear the voice of Cassandra Peterson in her hilarious valley girl voice in my mind. The writing is spot on.

But the game isn’t perfect. It has a seriously high learning curve - the kind that made me walk away from it multiple times before going all-in. And Elvira feels like she was sort of out of place in the game. Like, they tried *really hard* to integrate her into it, but her being there feels kind of random. They could have swapped her out with pretty much anyone - real or fictional - and it would have probably worked just the same (and been just as fun and looked just as great).

On top of that, Elvira was known for being the host of really old, really cheesy throw-away ‘B’ movies. If anything this game seemed to be at a far higher quality than her shows ever could have dreamed of, which was a bit jarring. And there was a complete lack of humor in the game unless Elvira was talking, which she only did two or three times. Humor and sex are nearly the entire gag, and there’s almost none to be found in this game. It’s like Horror Soft took all of their artistic efforts and pushed them into the graphics and adventure game, then slapped Elvira on top at the end.

But overall the game is pretty fantastic once you work through the kinks in the combat system. Just be prepared to die. A lot. (And even backtrack multiple times.) At least enjoy the fabulous graphics when you get your throat torn out or see your head head bobbing in a cauldron. I know I did.
4.8
4 total votes

Screenshots

Comments

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Shot97

Sun Nov 03, 2019 11:18 pm

This review receives the official Shot97 Seal of Approval. -haha- Inside joke with Intric8, and for anyone who had Nintendo consoles growing up. I remember the box from back in the day and that's about it. My dad, despite eating up the RPGs and liking Elvira himself, never got this one. But I remember him catching me looking at the box on the store rack, poking me in the arm and going "Hey! What do you think you're looking at? Let me see that!" lol - And proceeding to ogle it himself. Poked around in it in my emulation days. Seemed to have been one of the RPGs Amiga peeps pointed to at the time. Didn't make me want to dive in then, and the combat was just... Well it did not call out to me let's say. This review, despite being critical of the game in spots, and seemingly deserving so, this does make me want to dive in. Seems like one where even if you don't like it, you'll like it... Something there will grab you, if only by the pair. :D I've had it on my list for a long time, and there it will probably remain for the near future, but it itches thanks to the coverage here. So many nice CRT pics! Beyond the game, makes me long for those childhood days, beyond ecstatic to finally have my very own television in my room... Black and white? Who cares! Hand dialing that knob on the VHF dial to the "U" indicating UHF, now over an inch to that dial just went on and on... Click click click... Well, more like clickityclickclickclick all the way to one end... Fast motions until you "felt" you were nearing one of your regular stations slowing down until there... Move rabbit ears, mess with dial some more.... Maybe even move the entire TV closer to the window... There you would find Elviria, feels like the independent little stations... Sometimes I got lucky and even picked her up twice on a late night repeat out of a station from Toledo...Or maybe Flint... Way beyond the limit of most TVs, but those black and white ones seemed extra capable of grabbing on those perfectly clear nights. Four balambamamas to choose from... Can't say I remember a single movie she ever featured, but her? Unforgettable. And learning more about her these days, like how she owns the rights to her own character... Just amazing to look at the cunning and power of that woman in quite an unfair and nasty television environment at the time. Still ever the intelligent smart ass she ever was, seemingly ageless. Must have put a time stop spell on us, where we age but she does not! Enjoyed the review!
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Dasfaust

Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:35 am

Excellent review! I played this game for months before figuring out how to beat it, would be fun to play again at some point in the future.
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Gernot66

Thu Nov 10, 2022 4:04 am

Your character in any role playing game is exchangeable and well the whole turd could be reduced to a pure text adventure. A Dot is enough to identify "me" but that isn't much pleasing, isn't it? To be honest i don't know the game neither the show or the movie (i live behind the moon), to be honest i don't know much or i didn't knew much. Even the gameplay is repetive for all role playing, more or less. Pick up items, solve riddles perhaps do some fighting and based on your experience your chances to win will grow. My personal favorite isn't an Amiga game, it's "Tower of Doom" for the Intellivision, intentionally it would have been a AD&D game named "Tower of Mystery" but Mattel cancelled the licensing because of the cost (for a shitty label). "Mystery" left unfinished by its developer and it was finished later by INTV as "Tower of Doom". In general the games don't differ and well they don't differ to most which followed and they don't differ much to a text role playing. Since Daniel the dev had a love for text adventures he liked to have a "graphical text adventure" so to say the birth of a genre. There is a difference to most other, you start with a baby character, totally unformed with no special capabilities, a blank character just like in a text adventure. What will become of you depends only on your play, if you are good in trading you will become a trader if you prefere to cut off heads you will become a warrior. I studied that broken game hard and i even played it through thanks to MAME because it lets me save the game and strangewisely some dead ends in the game vanish when you reload it. One root for the problem is the undefinied character, it's something you would like but complicates all for a procedural generated game, the first step to make it to a working game was to give it fixed character you select at start, to sad because i like the idea of a blank character. I said it's generated, completely maybe this was a fault of him but hey for doing the first steps in a direction the result is amazing. Just because you said "the character of a role playing game is exchangeable" of course it is. Story, well for such an old (and also undocumented) game you have to imagine an own story, even this is secondary it's a role playing. In short as more as you procedural generate in such a game as more dead ends it will have there is no getting around that. Thus most role playing uses it sparse up to not at all and will be a boring game when played for the second time since you know how to win the game. As it looks to me "Elvira" leaks of this, i assume that once you know how to use a certain item this will stay for any time you start the game. And that's the point "Tower" completely differs to most, "you have no idea" what was useful in your last play can mean instant dead in the next play, yes this is a root for a load of dead ends but it's just great to have no idea - i like that. Very few things like your sword have repeatingly the same effect and some things you can use on your weapon won't change as well, that is in example a mortar with let's say black magic, because if you pick up this mortar and carry it with you it slowly sucks life out of you (quite slow so you won't notice that at first), it has only a use if used on your sword and only in the room you found it. It is at all hard to win even "Tower of Doom" since the fact that you won't know the effect of most items stays, in degrees you can have easy to hard gameplay. But since "Mystery" leaks of any documentation you have to find out all yourself even if a lot won't help you in the next play, but at least in the same play a green bottle with an unknown liquid inside has the same effect on you "tastes like spinach" or "arghhh", that's another point i liked much, no spoilers or in other terms no help at all. Dan was sleek, as a played it through in the by him meant way i encountered that the final, the real mystery starts when you mastered the tower. A bunch of numbers will be handed out to you, these numbers reflect the last floor you played if entered at start of the game you will be exactly at start of the last floor with exactly the same power and character. The mystery which started here for me is to find out what aritmethics he used on them, as very first "how to step another floor back?". That's to me the absolute top of a roleplaying when you mastered it it has only begun but to be honest i gave it up after a while to figure out how to reconstruct levels (but i might pick it up again). You have become a true victim of the tower and are now forever lost in it (procedural generation). Haven't had this dudes the right intention? Not only to play a game but to force the player to get more interest in how such a game works. In a later interview he said "my intentional idea was to use the players name as magic number" (more or less). Yes that would be easy possible. However as it looks i will try out "Elvira" it really has an appeal and that's not her boops. All in all i like the genre of roleplaying it's just many are boring repetive just guess of the to me lame final fantasy, and in spite of that the game is repetive you can buy (yeah buy buy buy) a step by step solution for them it's all just about the money and no longer about the fun within, because if played the repetive same game once you will lose interest in it and... ...buy the next release even if that is more or less identical because it's build on the same engine and as faster as you played it through (with the help of a bought step by step solution) as sooner you will buy the next release (har har). Things which have made even my stepson angry, he loved to play "Zelda" for the SNES and obviousely when the N64 was released (was it the N64?) he liked to have "Zelda" for it - but what a disappointment he played the game through in a single weekend, $70 for 3 days of fun and after that the game isn't interesting to play since it is exactly the same role playing. Experiences of a nine year old boy :) and i was giggeling because i knew it in advance. "Tower" you would have bought once and played it a hundred times (and a felt hundred times before you mastered the tower for the first time), not very lucrative but a whole lot of fun. And well might be you became good as a warrior and master it anytime, let's see if that works as a trader or magician - honestly i'm not and i can't imagine myself how to win the game as trader, because until the monsters don't like the items i like to trade... no wonder who will have interest in a pair of stinking old boots, but i guess the game is that open that if you raised your power as a trader you can trade the old boots to anyone but first you have to come to this point and avoid any slaughtering (i assume the first time you use your sword you will lose the path for a trader, at any point in the game because from the on the monsters will attack you). Magic isn't easy to use it is what is most unpredictable and mostly you will harm yourself when you use magic, i think that's a clever thought. Thus yes take your sword and cut off heads that's the agressive but safe way (poor creatures, guess that they are all under a spell and must have been like you but are lost in the tower, imagine your own story i said). To return to the top of my comment you can reduce it to a text adventure and it will be still fun to play, "Midnight Blue International" did this with "The hunt for Wumpus" it's a text role playing for the Inty about most commented "a text adventure for a console which had it's capabilities in graphics?" Why not i like the game, but i like as well "Robot loves kitten" which isn't a real game at all. But well this robot here truely loves the kitten, as less you force it as sooner you win, that's the magic within procedural generation. Let's end with a well know statement: "Rand = 4 #this number was evaluated by fair dice rolling" ahh yes and bring the tongue oin cheek humor back into games...

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