Copyright: 1981
Release Date: March 1982
Developer: Atari Inc.
Publisher: Atari Inc.
Deisgner: James Andreasen
Code: CX2654
Description
Below you find other two images related to the game: the back of the box and the label of the cartridge itself.
We read from the back of the box
You are stumbling around in a dark and dusty haunted mansion. To escape, find the pieced of the magc urn. You’ll encounter giant hairy tarantulas, vampire bats and a menacin ghost. Can you find the urn and escape the mansione before you get “scared to death”?
Here’s a commercial (an horrible commercial) for the game, back in 1982
Sources
The release date is cited as “estimated” in 1981 Atari Catalog as you can see from the images below.
Haunted House is also cited in The Red Hot New Cartridges of 1982 in Atari Game Program Cartridge Release Schedule, retailed at the price of 26.95$.
The February release date seems to be confirmed by Issue #5 of A.N.A.L.O.G. Computer Magazine…
…And defintely confirmed by Atari Age 1982 retrospective.
Ports and legacy
Doesn’t appear that Haunted House has ever been ported to other consoles or home computers. There were other Hounted House in the 80s but are completely different games: for example there’s a 1979 Haunted House for Apple II which is a text adventure and a 1983 Haunted House for C64 that can be remotely related to our game.
However there were two sequels, better yet a sequel and a remake: an out of time homebrew Atari 5200 game released in 2002, named Haunted House II 3D and the 2004 remake for Windows Haunted House.
This month we also celebrate the 35th anniversary of the game, released in March 1982 for Atari 2600.
This was named as the first survival horror video game, aeons before Resident Evil, but do not expect anything like the Capcom title. Obviously.
This is a scrolling game set inside a…haunted house and the action take plase in the night, lit only by a small match that guides the protagonist through the different rooms.
Have you played Haunted House today?
This box art looks like a dog’s face! I wasn’t aware of this game. But then there were so many games back in that era.
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Actually yes, it’s a bit misleading! 😀
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Oh this game brings back memories! I remember how you were just a pair of eyes wandering around in the dark lol.
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