Software:Crypt of the Undead

Short description: 1979 video game

Crypt of the Undead
Developer(s)	Liberty Systems
Publisher(s)	Automated Simulations
Programmer(s)	John Bell (Atari 8-bit) Steve Fisher (Apple II)
Platform(s)	Atari 8-bit, Apple II
Release	1982
Genre(s)	Adventure, role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Crypt of the Undead is an adventure game with some role-playing elements published by Automated Simulations in 1982 for the Apple II and the Atari 8-bit computers. It was sold as The Crypt in some markets.

Description

The player awakes in a cemetery and must escape within 12 hours in game time, or die and become a "resident".

The game is controlled completely via a joystick. The player must collect gold (to increase power), bagels (health), and keys to escape. The cemetery is divided into four areas: Strawberry Fields, Forest Lawns, Peacock Park, and the Field of Martyrs. The areas are connected by various pathways.

Each area is inhabited by one monster: Jim the Zombie, Chet the Vampire, Marc the Werewolf, and Susan the Headless Woman. These must be defeated in order to complete the area. The areas contain various buildings, each which only can be unlocked by keys found within the game.

The game is viewed from a top-down perspective and scrolls in all four directions. The Apple II features a combination of primitive line graphics and text prose, while the Atari version uses a custom character set for its graphics.

Development

This game and three others were developed for video game publisher Crystalware. Crystalware went out of business before they could be published, so Epyx picked them up and published them simultaneously. The other three games were King Arthur's Heir, The Nightmare, and Escape from Vulcan's Isle.

The Atari version was developed in Atari BASIC.

Reception

Softline magazine panned the three other games, but praised this one, noting its interesting puzzles that require the players to "pay close attention to the various messages". It also praised some of its music in the boot sequence and one of its mazes. Phil Gershon of Electronic Fun with Computers & Games called it "a delightful diversion" and also said, "the graphics inside and outside the buildings are equally spectacular and the game itself shows lots of imagination and thought".

Softline noted, however, that the game re-uses one of the mazes from Vulcan's Isle and notes a technical glitch. Some copies of the game came with a write-protected tab on the floppy disk. They noted it needed to be removed in order to finish the game.

The Book of Atari Software 1983 said the graphics get repetitive after a while and that it didn't require any skill. After a while, the player learns how to beat all the opponents and it can be beat purely through persistence. They praised the instruction booklet, however. They also noted the disk write-protect error that Softline did.

Gershon noted that "the game is exactly the same each time it’s played. The layout of the cemetery, the insides of buildings, the location of keys and secret clues are identical from session to session." He concluded while fun the first time, its entertainment value decreases with each playthrough.

External links

• MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers". This approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months. The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing. A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school. Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information. In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount. This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign. A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art). Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel, and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million. The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager. Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface. This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue. Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.

On February 13, 2025, Freyholtz stepped down as the site lead to move onto new projects, leaving operations to Tracy Poff, a veteran coder on the site, and Atari staff.

See also

• IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions