• Platform: Macintosh
• Release Date: 1995

Game Description

Based on the Arcade game of the same name, Catacombs allows the player to control one of four characters, specifically, an Elf, Magician, Fighter or a Valkyrie. Players must roam the board, fighting monsters and destroying monster generators, collecting treasure and discovering the exit to the next level.

A variety of treasures can help them along the way, including keys to open doors, potions which destroy monsters and scrolls that can cause shots to deflect, prevent damage to your character, give you super shots, make you invisible and so on.

Players can either fight their way to the exit or simply not fire a shot for 200 turns at which point the game automatically goes to the next level. Unlike the original arcade game, Catacombs contains only five types of monsters: ghosts, trolls, demons, slimes and scorpions. There is also a figure of death that simply does 200 points of damage to the player and then disappears. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

Difficult gameplay makes this game more of a torture than a delight. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Production Credits

Created by: Glenn Seeman ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

Catacombs is similar to the multi-player Arcade game Gauntlet, in which players could choose to play as any one of four adventurers: Elf, Magician, Warrior or Valkyrie. Players would wander the catacombs, picking up keys, potions and treasure and use them to fight against the monsters inhabiting the labyrinth.

In this Macintosh shareware version, the types of monsters are limited to five: ghosts, demons, trolls, scorpions and slimes, but death also makes an appearance. Death only appears on the lower levels and, unlike other monsters who deal only a few points of damage to your character with a successful hit, deals 200 points of damage and fades. Needless to say, this can be deadly. In addition, the player takes damage every turn he or she is not fighting.

To regain health points, players must find and eat either the plates of food or drink the bottles of cider scattered throughout the levels. Both restore 200 health points but the cider bottle can be destroyed by players' shots while the food plate cannot. Other items encountered include treasure chests that add points to your score, potions that can destroy the monsters on the screen and is the only item that can eliminate death, scrolls and several bad items. A few of these nasty surprises appear along the way with items that can injure or poison (looks like a bottle of cider with skulls and crossbones on it) you as well.



Players also have to contend with monster generators that are colored-coded to correspond to the various monsters. Unlike the Arcade version, there is no difference in the monster generator to show how many hits it will take to destroy each type and the number of hits required for destruction does vary.

There are four possible sets of catacombs, each designed the same but with the levels skewed, so that in one the exit might be to the north, while in the next the same exit from the same level is in the south, east or north. Each catacomb has its own high score list. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

Very cartoony but similar to the original game, only simpler. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

A bit more digitized but very similar to the original game. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

To win, you are going to have to play over and over again. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

Explains the game in a fair amount of detail and contains illustrations of the various goodies and bad items. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

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