#Phantasmagoria files scummvm windows#

Phantasmagoria for Windows has been available for a year or so. Actors also stand out rather noticeably and jaggedly from the sets, but then, this is dated technology. The computer-generated sets and scenery are decidedly first-rate the acting, however, is not. Phantasmagoria cost roughly $4 million to produce, but it’s hard to see where the money went. (By the way, if you view the “headache” scene, you’ve lost more than your head, you’ve also lost the game.) There are also some rather sexy scenes that shouldn’t be viewed by young children, but they’re nothing that “N.Y.P.D. Unfortunately, the character dialog has a boomy, hollow quality.Īs for the special effects, it wasn’t until I got to the “splitting headache” conclusion that I understood the “censored” and “uncensored” options. The audio track is outstanding, including eerie organ music and all sorts of creepy sound effects. Phantasmagoria’s Hollywood roots are evident in the soundtrack and in the special effects. I really wanted to be able to direct Adrienne to a certain room without having to “walk” her there. The interface is easy to master, but makes for slow gameplay.

If you need to use the item later, simply click on it from within the ever-present object display.ĭirect Adrienne to different rooms by moving the cursor in the gen- eral direction you’d like her to go until the cursor turns into an arrow. Click on the object and Adrienne takes a closer look, perhaps stashing it in her pocket. You navigate throughout the house using a vaguely ankh-shaped cursor which turns red when you pass over something that can be examined or used. Phantasmagoria gameplay consists of directing Adrienne, clicking on an object and observing what she does with it and watching short QuickTime movies that signal the major plot advances. While Don is busy setting up his photo darkroom, the beautiful and fearless Adrienne is left to explore the mansion’s dank, dusty recesses. The game’s premise revolves around a successful photographer, Don, and his novelist wife, Adrienne, who purchase an old mansion on the outskirts of a quaint, New England village. Bookmark placement is especially crucial when, near the end of the game, a mistake can kill you. You can save your place in the story with a bookmark, though only one bookmark is allowed per individual game and it can’t be moved backward, so place it carefully. The game comes on seven CDs, each representing a different chapter. The characters are real actors but the scenes are computer generated.

Cat that jumps out and scares the beejesus out of the heroine, not to mention you? Whew. Nice-guy husband possessed by an evil spirit? Yup. Really huge, but mentally slow, handy man? Sure. Huge haunted house with lots of secret rooms? Got it. The game has all the elements of a Hollywood thriller, so much so that it’s practically a cliche. She will with the interactive horror movie, Phantasmagoria.

You silendy (or not so silently) scream, “Don’t go in there!” You are sitting in a dark theater, biting your fingernails, watching the movie’s heroine as she makes the biggest mistake of her suddenly shortened life.