Bram Stoker's Dracula (Mega-CD)
From Sega Retro
- For other games with the same name, see Bram Stoker's Dracula.
| Bram Stoker's Dracula | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| System(s): Sega Mega-CD | |||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Sony Imagesoft | |||||||||||||||
| Developer: Psygnosis | |||||||||||||||
| Distributor: Tec Toy (BR) | |||||||||||||||
| Licensor: Columbia Pictures | |||||||||||||||
| Genre: Action | |||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | |||||||||||||||
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Bram Stoker's Dracula is a Sega Mega-CD full-motion video action platform game developed by Psygnosis and published by Sony Imagesoft. Based on the 1992 horror film Bram Stoker's Dracula, it was released exclusively in the United States in November 1993[1] and is most notable for representing its stage backgrounds with a stream of pre-rendered, scrolling full-motion video and for its Mortal Kombat-like digitized character sprites.
Contents
Story
Dracula has cast a curse on Mina Murray. Jonathan Harker must journey to Castle Dracula and drive a stake through the heart of its vampire lord to save her from an eternal fate as a vampiress.
Gameplay
The game is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up played as Jonathan Harker. Harker can move around with 
and 
and duck with 
. The screen follows him as he moves right but cannot scroll back left. He can jump straight into the air with 
alone or forward a set distance when coupled with or . His motion cannot be controlled while in midair.
Harker can punch and kick enemies. Punches are performed with 
; he can punch while crouching with + and do a two-hit combo punch by pressing twice in quick succession. He does a low kick with and a high kick with + (or + if facing toward the left). He can also do a jumping kick with 
+, which can be used to attack enemies coming from above, and a roundhouse kick with +.
Harker has a health bar that goes down whenever he takes damage from an enemy. His health is carried over to the next stage. If he loses all of his health, he loses a life, though the player can revive him immediately and in place by pressing START if there are extra lives remaining. If the player runs out of lives, the game ends, though it can be continued from the beginning of the stage if there are continues remaining. The game has no password or save system.
Stages are largely linear and involve progressing to the end and beating up enemies along the way. There are occasionally small platforming challenges, such as chasms that must be jumped across or flying objects that must be avoided. Some stages feature branching paths. For example, the player can avoid the library section in the second stage by pressing 
while walking under a silver orb, which causes the view to pivot to another path. Most of the stages end in a fight with Dracula, who takes various forms.
Items
Items sometimes drop from the sky as a reward for defeating a string of enemies. Walk over to collect.
| Harker | |
|---|---|
| Gives the player an extra life. | |
| Book | |
| Gives the player an extra continue. | |
| Chalice | |
| Fully replenishes Harker's health. | |
| Garlic | |
| Grants Harker temporarily invulnerability. |
Stages
| Journey to Castle Dracula | |
|---|---|
| The Search for Dracula | |
| Into the Dungeons | |
| The Grounds of Hillingham House | |
| Arrival at Carfax Abbey | |
| The Chase to the Castle | |
This stage is played on horseback and departs from the others in both gameplay and art style. In the first segment, use and to dodge stalactites, stalagmites, and bats in the cave. In the second segment, Harker is pursuing Dracula.  speeds up, jumps, and fires a gun.
| |
| The Final Confrontation | |
Versions
There are two versions of this game. The first version was released as a stand alone title, while the second version came as part of the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein / Bram Stoker's Dracula bundle. Content-wise, these versions are identical; however, the bundled version seems to be much less prone to in-game freezing, a serious problem in an over hour-long game lacking a save feature. A planned European version[3] failed to see release.
Production credits
- Producer: Rich Robinson
- Assistant Producer: Nathan Rose
- Olaf Olafsson
- Lester Greenman
- Peter Dille
- Jeff Benjamin
- Lester Borden
- Susan Christison
- Cathy Vivaro
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Fred Fuchs
- Roman Coppola
- Producer: Nik Wild
- Third Party Liason: Ian Grieve
- Programming Team: Paul Frewin, Gavin Dodd, David Berrisford, Dominic Mallinson, Stuart Sargaison, Chris Wylie
- Art Team Leader: Neil Thompson
- 3D Modelling: Neil Thompson, Lee Carus-Westcott
- Bitmap Graphics: Lee Carus-Westcott, Mike Waterworth, Chris Moore, Neal Sutton, Neil Thompson, Louise Smith
- Music and Effects Coordination: Phil Morris
- CD Music: Steve Hilliker
- Sampling and SFX: Mike Clarke, Tim Wright
- Original Visual Concept: Jim Bowers, Neil Thompson
- Original Document: Nik Wild
- Original Game Design: Tony Parkes
- Costumes: Nicky Carus-Wescott
- Characters:
- Van Hesling: Jeff Bramfitt
- Harker: Lee Carus-Westcott
- Dracula: Lee Carus-Westcott
- Brides: Nicky Carus-Westcott
- Renfield: Neil Thompson
- Programming: David Berrisford, Michael Anthony, Mark Andrew Kelly
- Artwork: Lee Carus-Westcott, Lousie Smith, Graham Potts
- In Game Music: Mike Clarke
- Design and Gameplay Direction: Hammer and Tongs
Magazine articles
- Main article: Bram Stoker's Dracula (Mega-CD)/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
Physical scans
| Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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53 |
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| Based on 14 reviews | |
| Mega-CD, US |
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  Cover
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 Disc  Manual  Reg Card |
| Mega-CD, BR |
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   Cover
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Disc |
Technical information
- Main article: Bram Stoker's Dracula (Mega-CD)/Technical information.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 GamePro, "November 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 213
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 GamePro, "February 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 78
- ↑ Sega Pro, "Xmas Special 1993" (UK; 1993-12-02), page 100
- ↑ File:Bram Stoker's Dracula MCD credits.pdf
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "January 1994" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 46
- ↑ Mega, "December 1993" (UK; 1993-11-18), page 59
- ↑ Mega, "July 1993" (UK; 1993-06-17), page 40
- ↑ Mega Action, "January 1994" (UK; 1993-12-30), page 44
- ↑ Mega Force, "Janvier 1994" (FR; 1994-01-08), page 100
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "August 1993" (UK; 1993-06-30), page 80
- ↑ Sega Power, "December 1993" (UK; 1993-11-xx), page 84
- ↑ Sega Power, "July 1993" (UK; 1993-06-03), page 48
- ↑ Sega Pro, "March 1994" (UK; 1994-01-27), page 42
- ↑ Sega Zone, "December 1993" (UK; 1993-11-25), page 62
- ↑ Todo Sega, "Enero 1994" (ES; 199x-xx-xx), page 72
- ↑ Video Games, "3/94" (DE; 1994-02-23), page 73
- ↑ VideoGames, "April 1994" (US; 1994-0x-xx), page 82
| Bram Stoker's Dracula (Mega-CD) | |
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