La Abadía del Crimen
La abadía del crimen | |
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Developer(s) | Opera Soft |
Publisher(s) | Opera Soft |
Designer(s) | Paco Menéndez |
Artist(s) | Juan Delcán |
Platform(s) | Amstrad CPC, MSX, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum |
Release | 1987 |
Genre(s) | Adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
La abadía del crimen (The Abbey of Crime) is a video game written by Paco Menéndez with graphics made by Juan Delcán and published in 1987 by Opera Soft. It was conceived as a version of Umberto Eco's 1980 book The Name of the Rose. Paco Menéndez and Opera Soft were unable to secure the rights for the name, so the game was released as La abadía del crimen. "The Abbey of Crime" was the working title of the novel The Name of the Rose.[1]
This game is an adventure with isometric graphics. A Franciscan friar, William of Occam (William of Baskerville in the book) and his young novice Adso have to discover the perpetrator of a series of murders in a medieval Italian abbey.
Gameplay[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f6/La_Abadia_del_Crimen_Guillermo_Adso_y_el_Abad.jpg/220px-La_Abadia_del_Crimen_Guillermo_Adso_y_el_Abad.jpg)
The player controls the movement of the friar Fra William (mistakenly described as a monk on the user's manual). The player also has the possibility of controlling the movement of the novice Adso within the same screen in which Fra William is. If the key for controlling the novice is not pressed, he follows Fra William most of the time. The game features other characters representing the monks of the abbey who behave according to programmed artificial intelligence to move throughout the mapping of the abbey and show a series of dialogs shown by written text which is moved along the lower part of the screen.
An extensive mapping of the abbey is represented in a large series of screens with 3D isometric graphics. A series of objects has to be collected in order to successfully complete the game. The action occurs in seven days subdivided in different Canonical hours. The time (day + current hour) is indicated at the bottom left of the screen.
The game starts with the abbot welcoming Fra William and explaining that a monk has disappeared. He also explains to Fra William that he is obligated to obey the orders of the abbot and the rules of the monastery, attend religious services and meals and stay in his cell at night while the research of the crimes is pursued. During the game, the novice Adso would remind players when they have to attend offices and meals, and players can just follow him if they forget the way to the church or the refectory.
If the player disobeys any orders, or are late for services or meals, then their obsequium level, indicated on the bottom right-hand-side of the screen, will drop (obsequium is Latin for subservience or obedience). If the player's obsequium level drops to zero, the abbot will not tolerate their disrespect any longer, and the player is asked to leave the abbey, while missing a prayer office or being caught wandering around at night results in immediate expulsion - both mean that the game is over.
Ports[]
The game was originally developed for the Amstrad CPC 6128 8-bit platform and ported to other systems: ZX Spectrum, MSX, and MS-DOS. The Amstrad CPC 464 version was different from the 6128 original, since several rooms and decoration were removed to fit the game on the 64K of the 464.
The only ZX Spectrum version is for the 128 platform.
Features[]
The music played in the game corresponds to the Minuet in G major and the sonata for flute BWV 1033 by Bach, and Crystal Palace from Gwendal. The original PC version also featured "Ave Maria" from Schubert, in a short chorus recording that played through the speaker when the player went to the church.
There is also a form of copy protection: if an illegal copy of the game was detected, then once the player entered the church, instead of "Ave Maria" playing, a voice would cry "¡Pirata!" (Spanish for "pirate") ten times in descending tones before the game crashed.
Reception[]
The game had a modest commercial success and was never officially released outside of Spain, a country where it came to achieve a cult following.[2] The game is considered one of the perfect ten games for the Spectrum 128 according to Retro Gamer.[3]
Legacy[]
Patches[]
- Microsoft Windows version from the original MS-DOS version with 256 coloir graphics and translations [4]
- MSX2 version from the original MSX version adding a 16-color palette and load/save from the disk [5]
- Amstrad PCW version from the original Amstrad CPC version [6]
Remakes[]
- Game Boy Advance version [7]
- J2ME commercial version
- A complete disassembly of the original Z80 code for the Amstrad CPC and a rewrite of it in C++ was made by Manuel Abadia (Vigasoco project [8])
- There is a Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) port of Vigasoco that runs on Linux-x86, Linux-PowerPC (PS3), PS2, Windows XP, Mac OS X, Dreamcast, Google Native Client and WebAssembly[9]
- Vigasoco translated to Java and GWT. Runs on web browsers [11]
- Several ports based on disassembly of the original
- Java version [15]
- The Abbey of Crime Extensum, extended J2SE edition, available for free on Steam[16]
See also[]
- Golden era of Spanish software
References[]
- ^ Postscript to The Name of the Rose, 1984, Umberto Eco.
- ^ Hernández, Álvaro (May 11, 2017). "Treinta años de 'La abadía del crimen', el Quijote de los videojuegos en España". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Diario de Prensa Digital S.L. Archived from the original on 2020-06-10. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
- ^ Spectrum 128 perfect ten games. Retro Gamer 48, pages 64 and 65
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "La Abadía del Crimen - Remake MSX2".
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-04-24. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ http://www.emulatronia.com/parcial/P_A_C_O.zip
- ^ "Vigasoco". Archived from the original on 2007-06-26. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
- ^ "VigasocoSDL". Archived from the original on 2014-10-24. Retrieved 2013-12-05.
- ^ "Abbey". GitHub. 20 September 2021.
- ^ "La abadía del crimen". GitHub. 4 August 2021.
- ^ "Abadia_iOS". GitHub. 4 August 2021.
- ^ "AbadiaVb". GitHub. 4 August 2021.
- ^ "Abadia.net". GitHub. 4 August 2021.
- ^ "La Abadía del Crimen". Archived from the original on 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-04-05. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links[]
- La abadía del crimen at Spectrum Computing
- Remake for PC (in Spanish)
- 1987 video games
- Action-adventure games
- Amstrad CPC games
- Amstrad PCW games
- Browser games
- DOS games
- Europe-exclusive video games
- Game Boy Advance games
- Video games with isometric graphics
- MSX games
- MSX2 games
- Video games based on novels
- ZX Spectrum games
- Video games developed in Spain
- Windows games
- Linux games
- Video games set in the Middle Ages
- Video games set in the 14th century
- Video games set in Europe
- Video games set in Italy
- Works set in monasteries
- Single-player video games
- The Name of the Rose