Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Haunted Castle

Description

A man armed with a whip ventures through Transylvania to rescue his new bride from the clutches of evil Count Dracula. The levels scroll in all directions and storybook and mythical monsters attack the player along the way. Mini-bosses and bosses provide major encumbrances.

Haunted Castle was produced by Konami in 1988.

Konami released 434 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1978. Konami was based in Japan.

Other machines made by Konami during the time period Haunted Castle was produced include: Hyper Crash, Vs. Top Gun, Typhoon, Trick Trap, Track & Field (PlayChoice), '88 Games, Akumajou Dracula, Chequered Flag, Contra (PlayChoice), and Crazy Cop

Specs

Name	Haunted Castle
Developer	Konami (Japan)
Year	1988
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	8089
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Fighting
Fighting Style	Scrolling Fighter
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color
Conversion Class	JAMMA
Dipswitch Settings	Haunted Castle Dipswitch Settings (user contributed)
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls	Joystick: 8-way Buttons: 2 - Whip/WeaponJump
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard
Control Panel	Haunted Castle Control Panel Image

Game Introduction

A vampire hunter supposeddly Simon Belmont of the Belmont clan is about to get married. Unfortunaley, Count Dracula has kipnapped Simon's bride and now she is being forced to marry Dracula instead. Simon must reach Dracula's castle to rescue his bride before the unholy wedding begins.

Game Play

Like Konami's CastleVania series, the player controls a character -- presumably Simon Belmont -- who moves through the various stages and fights characters from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century monster stories. The most difficult title Konami ever designed in the CastleVania series. The game continues are limited and the stages require extreme mastery in order to progress.

Haunted Castle KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.12 (3 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.07

Overall Like	4.00
Fun (Social)	3.00
Fun (Solo)	4.50
Collector Desire	4.00

Technical Rating: 4.25

Gameplay	4.50
Graphics	4.00
Originality	4.50
Sound/Music	4.00

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

When fighting Frankensteins Monster, try moving in close to him and allow him to hit you towards him. Some times you will land in a spot where the monster can no longer hit your character.PThere is a random and rare powerup in the game that extends your life bar, making the game much easier. The howto of obtaining this powerup is easy do nothing Just hope that you are lucky enough that the CPU grants you this extra energy this could actually be a bug.

Images

Trivia

If the CastleVania series was a comic book, then this is the movie based on it. Coming out two years after the NES original, this game has similar gameplay to that of the original but with new items. Many sources might tell you that IHaunted CastleI is not part of the CastleVania series, but this is not the case at all.PThe Japanese version of IHaunted CastleI was called IAkumajou DraculaI, which is the name of the Japanese CastleVania series. The main character does not have any name, but it is believed to be Simon Belmont of the original CastleVania.

Cabinet Information

The side art shows a skeleton standing in a graveyard with a castle in the distance. The control panel overlay is primarily blue and black and shows a close up of a castle.

Miscellaneous

COPY OF IAkumajou DraculaI

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Haunted Castle Census

There are 15,275 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,671 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,969 machines (6,998 unique titles).

Common - There are 31 known instances of this machine owned by Haunted Castle collectors who are active members. Of these, 2 of them are original dedicated machines. 8 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 21 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There is one active VAPS member with a Haunted Castle machine for sale. There are 4 active VAPS members with a Haunted Castle circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - There are 5 active VAPS members currently looking for Haunted Castle. There are 4 active VAPS members looking for Haunted Castle boards sets.

This game ranks a 9 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 13 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Manuals

Operators Manual - Haunted Castle Manual — **Operators Manual**
(5 pages, 964 kB File)

Instruction Manual - Haunted Castle Manual — **Instruction Manual**
(23 pages, 2.6 MB File)

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