How to play Haunted House online
- Move the eyes: arrow keys
- Light a match: Space bar (pressing it while a match is lit drops what you carry)
- Choose a game variation (1–9): F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Lightning on or off: F4 (the left difficulty switch)
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves, Alt + 0–9 loads
The goal of the game
The mansion belonged to a grumpy old man named Zachary Graves and has been locked since his death. Somewhere inside lie the three pieces of a magic urn, broken in an earthquake. You must find them and carry the whole urn back to the main entrance on the first floor.
The house has four floors of six rooms, joined by corridors and staircases, and each staircase only goes one way. The urn pieces are placed at random each game. You only see objects in the circle of light around a burning match, and the match goes out when a creature enters the room (the creature itself glows) or when the wind blows.
You pick things up by touching them, but you can hold only one object; touching another swaps them. The urn pieces join together and count as one object. There is also a scepter, which protects you from the creatures while you hold it, and in the harder games a master key for locked doors.
You have nine lives, and every touch from a creature costs one. There is no points total: the game counts the matches you used, and a low match count with many lives left is a good result. The game ends when you leave through the main entrance with the urn, or lose your last life.
The nine game variations
- Game 1: practice mode with lit walls, no doors, and one bat, one tarantula and the ghost.
- Game 2: the house is completely dark and has unlocked doors.
- Game 3: some doors are locked, but the key is in the first room.
- Game 4: the key is hidden somewhere different each time.
- Game 5: two extra tarantulas.
- Game 6: all five creatures follow you between rooms; only the ghost passes locked doors.
- Game 7: the bat can snatch what you carry and leave it in another room.
- Game 8: faster creatures, and the scepter no longer stops the ghost.
- Game 9: a different floor plan, and every creature can pass locked doors.
With the left difficulty switch on B, lightning flashes light the rooms now and then. On A you must feel your way by sound.
Tips
- Find the scepter first. Search the house with it, then swap it for the urn once you know where the pieces are.
- Note where things are. Remember the floor and room of each piece so you can collect them without extra matches.
- Listen. You hear yourself hit walls, doors open and close, and a rising or falling tune tells you whether a staircase goes up or down.
- Go around locked doors. Each floor has several staircases, so you can often avoid needing the key.
History
Haunted House came out in early 1982; its working titles included Mystery Mansion and Graves Manor. Reviewers praised its spooky atmosphere, though some found it hard. Later writers, Game Informer among them, called it an early survival horror game, although not every historian agrees. Atari has since remade it several times, including in 2010 and for the Atari 50 collection.
