Spooktoberfest Day 6
by StickHead on 30/10/2010Upon regaining conciousness after a car accident, alarmed by the smell of petrol, you scramble free of the wreck just in time to escape the explosion. Assuming that your younger brother has gone to seek assistance at a nearby house, you follow his footsteps. Upon entering the house, your injuries and destroyed car become the least of your worries as strange happenings bring your safety, and that of your brother, into question.
Originally released in 1986 for the Mac, the following year saw Uninvited converted to the ST. Both the Macintosh and Atari ST were beneficiaries of new user-friendly windowed interfaces, and it was only natural that games would begin to take advantage of this. Uninvited was one of the first ST games to do so, its screen populated by windows, icons and drop-down menus through which the player interacts with the game.
The main windows are: the graphical view, where the player can see the environment, interacting with it using the verbs above and the text window where events are described to the player. Supporting these windows are the inventory window, where you can drag and drop items to and from the main view; an ingenious ‘exits’ window that represents the directions in which you can move and the ‘self’ button which enables the verbs and items to be enacted on your character.
This system is very intuitive and, despite the clunkiness inherent in the GEM user interface, works very well indeed for navigating your way around the mansion, utilising the many items found and actions possible. It reminded me of the Magnetic Scrolls interface as seen in Wonderland, though it pre-dates that by almost four years.
It’s a good job that the interface is so endearing (made more so thanks to an easily accessible save system – use it regularly) as progress in the game can only be achieved via trial-and-error; experimenting with different combinations of objects, actions, environments and characters yields satisfying successes as well as instant death. Though this could become frustrating, I found it also contributed to the game’s sense of hostility and claustrophobia.
Uninvited is an exceptionally characterful graphical adventure way ahead of its time. Observant players with an eye for detail will be rewarded with an immersive plot expertly told; directly through player interaction, and indirectly through diaries and other found objects and literature. If you want to give it a go, do remember to seek out the documentation, as the hints found within are an invaluable resource facilitating progression throughout the game.
Thanks to Atari Legend for the box scan.
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