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Dark Chambers was originally designed in 1983 and called “Dandy” but was released on both the 2600 and 7800 with the name Dark Chambers. This game is actually a predecessor to Atari’s arcade hit Gauntlet and shares many commonalities with that game. In Dark Chambers the player plays the role of an elf (two elves in the two-player simultaneous game) who is traversing this underground world in search for treasure. A total of 26 different chambers (marked with letters A-Z) are found in this underworld. Survive them all, only to start again at a higher difficulty level. Within these chambers there are various creatures who will do all they can to stop the elf from garnering treasures: zombies, skeletons, wraiths, wizards, and grim reapers. Zombies are the weakest enemy and explode when you attack them. Grim reapers are the most powerful. All the monsters transform into a lesser monster until they are destroyed as zombies. Spawners are spread through the chambers from which the monsters appear. Destroy these to stop the monsters from appearing. You also must avoid deadly poison that drain your energy. Not everything is bad, though. There are power ups in the form of guns, daggers, and shields to help you in your adventure. Dark Chambers boasts really nice graphics on the 7800 with plenty of enemies, nicely rendered mazes, and bright colours. Though there is a beautiful title screen with some eerie music, there is no in-game music and sounds are minimal. The one real issue with Dark Chambers is that the gameplay is slow. Things do get more crowded in the upper levels, however. Any fan of Gauntlet should enjoy this game. I know I do. Overall a good title for the system.

Featuring “Granpa” (Munster), Midnight Mutants is an exclusive title for the 7800. Though the Munsters are not mentioned, it is quite clear who Granpa is from the box cover and within the game. In the year 1747, Dr. Evil was captured by Johnathon Harkman, a witchfinder. As Dr. Evil was tied to the stake, he swore that Harkman would pay. Move to Halloween night, 1992. Jimmy is visiting Granpa in preparation to celebrate his most favourite holiday. Granpa seems a bit agitated but take Jimmy to buy a pumpkin for the celebration. While at the pumpkin patch, there is an explosion and suddenly a man is standing in the middle of the patch. That man is none other than Dr. Evil! Glowing with blue flames, Dr. Evil recognized Granpa as the great-great grandson of the withfinder and trapped him in a cage made of pumpkins. Jimmy tried to help him but he realized there was only one way he could. He had to find Dr. Evil and destroy him! Midnight Mutants is truly an amazing game on the 7800. It is and adventure-type game that requires that the player find specific objects in order to achieve the task of destroying Dr. Evil. Jimmy must travel around town looking for these items while avoiding the various ghouls and creatures. Granpa can help Jimmy through a telepathic connection and gives him clues. Visually the game is excellent and the gameplay involves exploration and strategy. There are some shortcuts to help you get around faster. The game does not have a save function, unfortunately. This would have been a nice feature because this is a large game. Really an excellent title for the 7800 and a great one to play for Halloween!

Pac-Jason brings together two bad guys of terror and pits them against each other. It is Freddy vs. Jason in this Nightmare on Atari Street! As the title of the game implies, Pac-Jason is a hack of the arcade classic Pac-Man. The player takes control of Jason as he gobbles up drops of blood spread through the nightmarish mazes that Freddy made to torture Jason. Because this is Freddy’s creation, Freddy has split himself into four (each Freddy has a nickname - Ned, Bob, Jeff, and Gambler). If any of these Freddys touch Jason, it’s game up for Jason. Of course, Jason can turn the tables on the Freddys by gobbling one of the large blood drops at the corners of the mazes. This makes the Freddys vulnerable for several seconds so that Jason may vanquish them. Unfortunately, this is Freddy’s world, so he just regenerates the vanquished copies of himself so they can keep on chasing Jason. Despite this being a hack of Pac-Man, this is not a game to underestimate as it is quite difficult to complete each maze. These have been completely rearranged and their colours changed to be more in tune with the theme of game. Everything is blood red! The mazes have crosses in them as walls and plenty of blood dots to clear. The mazes have been designed so that you must always move Jason where you want or he will stop and get caught. Some mazes have no walls and sometimes the walls vanish when you eat an energizer. The bonus items have all been changed to appropriate items for the game (daggers, axes, claws, hammers...). A change in the music, though, would have been nice. Overall a challenging but fun game.