Tower of Terror is a platform game in which you play a valiant knight on a quest to free a maiden of noble descent from the clutches of a villainous wizard. The fair lady has been carried off to the top of the eponymous spire of suffering, which you must now ascend in order to rescue her. Succeed, and her hand in marriage will be yours because that's totally how love works.
The game opens with this glorious intro pic which just screams to be looked at in detail:
In the bottom right we see our curiously armorless hero knight whose bulging muscles surge with such power that one of his abs is trying to escape his body. The workmanship of his sword seems a bit rough, though, as if the blacksmith didn't get to finish it in time. The blade got enhanced with pretty blue sparkles, but that doesn't hide the fact that the sword hardly has a hilt to hold it properly.
Above the hero looms the lady to be rescued. The equally scantily-clad noblewoman looks remarkably unperturbed for a damsel who is supposedly in distress. I assume she's depicted in a different scale than the knight. Otherwise, their potential future relationship might have some biological issues to sort out.
Let's not forget the goblin warrior in the background, who is apparently the only person to show up sensibly dressed for the occasion. Even though his pose suggests that he's about to clobber the blonde lady over the head, he too is smiling as if he were part of a photo shoot.
To the left we have the game's titular tower, a soaring spire with a pointy red roof that looks way too cheerful for a fortress of fear. Man, even the building in this picture seems to be smiling.
And lastly, there's a dragon's disembodied head, spewing out a red-hot flame as if attacking the dark void in the bottom left corner. Either that, or it's Medusa's head whose serpentine hair is on fire.
I really like this picture for all its quirky, slightly off-kilter imagery. I can't tell how much of the weirdness was intentional, but it inadvertently sets the stage for what you can expect to see in the game itself.
The title screen comes with this neat raster line effect and has a catchy melody playing. The game's music was composed by Rudolf Stember, whom I came across previously when I looked at Decton. He went on to work for Rainbow Arts, and his list of game credits at mobygames.com is quite impressive. We'll be seeing his name pop up several times still, as he was involved in about a dozen games that got released on CP Verlag's diskmags.
The four corners are adorned by still frames of the player sprite, and as you can see, our protagonist went for a last minute wardrobe adjustment and now presents himself in proper knight attire. Please ignore the apparent lack of any arms. Instead, feast your eyes on the high score table:
It's using the same font as the title screen, but thanks to some creative raster coloring, it looks much fancier/gaudier. Judging by the lack of names, the game hasn't seen a lot of players today. I don't think the scores are saved to disk, so it's not surprising that the table starts empty.
Pressing fire initiates the loading of Level No.1. If you are wondering, the Timex-System refers to the copy protection programmed by Ivo Herzeg who also has an impressive list of game credits on mobygames.com. Timex apparently worked well enough that it took considerable effort for a cracker to find a workaround. It did get cracked eventually, which enabled me to play the game on an emulator.
Level 1 starts with our nameless hero standing ready in the bottom left while a massive menagerie of monsters marches back and forth above him. It's not clear how the knight entered the tower, as there is no visible door at his starting position.
 SPRITE MULTIPLEXINGIf you count the sprites on this screen, you'll notice that their number far exceeds the C64's eight possible hardware sprites. This is not the first time that I look at a game where this is the case, but I wanted to explain sprite multiplexing specifically in Tower of Terror, because a large part of the game's design depends on it. Sprite multiplexing is a technique that involves re-positioning sprites while a screen frame is still being drawn. That way, a sprite can be drawn several times on one screen, as long as it doesn't intersect with itself vertically. Look at the above screen again and count the sprites that share the same vertical space. There is no row that exceeds the sprite limit. In fact, the entire game never displays more than four enemies at the same height, and none of them ever move vertically (except when the playfield scrolls). The player and the weapon sprite are not used for multiplexing, and that's why they can move freely between floors. |
I appreciate that the monsters don't just immediately switch from one direction to the other when they turn around. Instead, they all briefly face the camera before they continue on their patrols. That wasn't really necessary to do, and it forced the artist to draw each monster from a new perspective, but I'm glad it's in the game, as I think it lends the enemies more character.
Speaking of which, some of the enemy design is outright weird. Just look at that wheeled monstrosity! Usually, you can see this kind of construct strapped to a dog who can't use its hind legs, but the wheels of this creature seem to be an organic part of it. How did this abomination come to be? Does it have a name? Is there an entire species of creatures with hind wheels in Tower of Terror's world? Unsurprisingly, the game answers none of these questions, but I remember speculating about this monster's origin story when I played the game for the first time.
Pressing fire causes the protagonist to attack. I don't know much about medieval fighting techniques, but I'm pretty sure that's not how swords are supposed to work. The sword is the weakest weapon which means it flies the shortest distance and does the least damage. It can be replaced with better weapons that are found inside breakable pots or lying around in the levels.
The controls are pretty straightforward, but they come with the typical C64 caveat that you have to push the joystick up to jump. You can either jump vertically upwards or leap diagonally, but you can't control the knight while he's in the air. This becomes one of the game's biggest crutches, but more on that later.
The game has a short and unobtrusive tune playing in the background. The music is constricted to one sound channel, and the other two channels are reserved for sound effects.
Here's me getting rid of the red bird. Almost all patrolling enemies home in on the player sprite when it gets to a similar height. You can see the small dragon is already facing the knight and ineffectively shooting fireballs. The bird turns around once I start climbing the ladder. It takes three sword hits to kill the flying menace.
Since I've played the game quite a lot, I still remember my pro strats for the first few levels. Here's hint number one: The sword's reach is just long enough that you can hit the dragon while it is hugging the wall. You just have to position yourself on the ladder so the sword can hit the lizard's head. After five shots, the dragon croaks. Not all enemies explode when they get killed. Instead, some of them leave behind corpses.
The gray pots can be smashed open with a couple of sword throws. They can contain either a weapon, a bonus item, or a dragon that immediately starts attacking. What you get is determined randomly. In this case, I received an 'E' which replenishes the knight's energy bar. It's not the most useful item at this point since I haven't lost any energy yet.
Through the power of time travel (read: save states) I tried breaking the pot a second time and got indeed a different, much worse result. For this reason I recommend smashing pots from a safe distance.
Although the green carnivorous plant is completely static, it rapidly drains your energy if you stand too close to it. It's easier if you position yourself at the top of the ladder and face to the right before climbing down. Turning around often results in the knight moving a few pixels in that direction, and you don't want that to happen while standing next to the plant. There's a way to turn on the spot by crouching, which is a move that will become important later on.
The throwing axe is a considerable weapon upgrade, and it allows me to clear all the enemies of the upper platform without taking any damage. Or rather, almost no damage. Something hit me in the above scene, though I can't tell for sure what it was.
The knight's forward jump is a bit awkward in that it doesn't describe a sine curve, but a triangle instead. The above situation is also a good example why pressing up for jump is not a good control scheme: Since you need to press up and right simultaneously to leap forward, it's very easy to accidentally move the knight to the right and cause him to fall into one of these acid pits. Luckily, the pits are shallow enough so you can still get out of them, but later levels won't be as forgiving.
Also, that is one freaky-looking, literally big boned skeleton. It's probably glad that I'm here to end its existence.
The green slugs seen at the top and bottom in this scene are the only enemies that can't be killed. All you can do is jump over them. Of course, they're usually in places with low ceilings so you can hit your head and fall right on top of them. Another devious detail in this scene is the monk next to the 'L' pickup, which signifies an extra life. That monk is actually two monks which move almost in unison, and they're just there to trip you up if you don't look closely enough.
The end of every level is guarded by a boss. The first stage features this disembodied skull (with a couple of cervicals still attached). If you're expecting an epic battle, you'll be disappointed. The skull acts like a regular enemy, it's just larger and has more hit points. It moves in your direction as soon as you reach the platform it's on, and it launches nondescript projectiles at you.
The skull is easily defeated if you stay at the top of the ladder and spam the fire button. Occasionally, you have to move down to dodge the skeletal missiles and to make the boss continue its mindless patrol. Once the boss is gone, you can leave the level by climbing the ladders to the right.
I just noticed that the skull blinks. Everyone knows that floating skulls can't blink, as they clearly don't have eyelids. My immersion is ruined.
Whenever you finish a level, the scoring screen appears and starts counting down all the monsters you killed in a delightfully flashy way. The sound is great, too. Each time the score goes up, a metallic noise yells at you, and the monsters below explode with satisfying fireworks. The counting of casualties comically concludes with the knight's jumping sound, as if an invisible cheerleader was going "Whoop!" to support you and your quest.
Level 2 introduces laser barriers and platforms that periodically blink in and out of existence. Touching the light beams results in an instant death. Evidently, this stage also features floating monks. As I mentioned before, none of the enemies move vertically, even if they happen to walk in mid-air. That pit at the top is also a death trap, as you can't jump out if you fall into it.
A bit further up the knight faces new adversaries, the stick-holding bipedal lizards. Disappointingly, they behave like any other monsters. They don't even have an attack animation. Their only way of fighting you is to move to your location and then jitter back and forth until all your energy is drained. Standing in those cyan spikes also results in rapid energy loss, so you better jump over them.
Here's where the game gets nasty: This passage represents a noticeable difficulty spike with a horizontal instakill laser barrier, birds, and a lot of indestructible slugs. Luckily, there is an invulnerability item that makes the knight impervious to damage for ten seconds. This is just enough to make it to the ladder in the top left corner without having to worry about timing.
However, if you lose a life after this point while still in this level, you have to start from its beginning, and your weapon reverts back to the sword. The level's state does no change, though, meaning that any enemies you've killed remain dead and any items you've already picked up do not respawn. Do you see the problem?
The invulnerability item is only there the first time, and after that, if you picked it up previously, you have to get past those platforms without it, which will very likely result in considerable energy loss or, more likely, death.
Ha, I forgot about those naked green chicken freaks. Their walking animations make it look like they're zooming around on roller skates. You have to give it to whoever designed the monsters, they certainly had some bizarre ideas. Even the background graphics are decidedly weird at times, like that smiling, cat-eared grandfather clock, or the sleepy marshmallow thing at the bottom.
A bit further up you can take a little detour and pick up the javelin. This is the best weapon in the game, and it is the only one that's actually meant to be thrown. Its reach goes across the entire screen, and it kills most enemies in one hit.
The second level's boss is the dragon we already saw in the intro picture. It behaves the same way as the first boss, it just shoots balls of fire instead of bony missiles. The awkward jumping mechanics represent the main challenge while battling the dragon. In most cases, I die because I accidentally jump off the platform and then land right on top of the spikes below.
There is falling damage which rapidly increases the further you drop. Luckily, you can absorb most of the damage if you hold the joystick up the moment you land.
Once the dragon's gone, the way to the exit is clear.
Or not. Damn you, Tower of Terror! Your sneakily placed laser barriers will be my doom!
Level 3 is where disaster strikes. It starts out fine with a bit of a jumping puzzle. The ladder to the right is broken, and it doesn't reach the upper platform, thus you can't use it to get to the right side.
Here's the route I found easiest to get to the top right ladder:
So far, so good. Now for the part that had me (and many other players) stumped for a long, long time:
Looks simple enough, doesn't it? All you have to do is jump back and forth from one ledge to the next, and once you're on the topmost platform, you just jump over.
Except, that doesn't work, because the knight hits his head on the ceiling and then just drops straight down. No matter how you position yourself on the top platform, you can never jump over the right ledge. I remember trying to get past that point countless times and falling off until the knight exploded. I eventually always surrendered at that point and shut the game off. Only years later did I stumble over the solution, more by luck than anything else:
You need to step away from the right ledge as far as you can, turn around on the spot by crouching, and then jump forward. If you're too close to the ledge, the knight will just jump upwards instead.
This is simply bad level design. It deliberately abuses the stiff jumping mechanics to make an obstacle out of something that's barely waist-high.
Shortly after that point, there's another situation where pixel-precision is required: You basically need to guess how to position yourself on the platform in order to jump up onto those bricks where the marshmallow thing is sitting, and you have to do that while dodging a green slug. Fun!
The boss of this level is a Lovecraftian nightmare with more eyestalks than brains, which probably explains why it got itself trapped in an acid pit. It impotently tries to shoot eyeballs at you when you get close, which just adds to the goofiness of the encounter.
Since this is another instance where you need to position yourself correctly in order to get past the pit, it's easier to just drop yourself next to the boss and prod it with javelins until it expires. Let's hope you've got enough energy left to survive a few eyeballs to the face.
Level 4's blue color scheme feels quite different, even though most of the graphics are reused from previous stages.
Compared to level 3, the platform placement isn't quite as mean, but it also has some "guess where to jump" moments, like the one above. If you jump from the wrong distance, you fall down into the acid and have to retrace your steps, which means jumping up the platforms to the left, climbing the ladder, and dropping back down.
There is a shortcut though, which you can take if you're prepared:
Thanks to the brief invulnerability you're given at the start of the level, you can just run through the acid pool and laser barriers to reach the ladder unscathed.
Further up, the platforming gets a bit more tricky. Here you have to make the knight bump his head against the block in the upper right so he can land on the one directly below.
Platforms don't get much smaller than this. By now you are expected to know the knight's jumping trajectory and how you can make him turn on the spot. An unhealthy dose of head bumping is also required. I'm starting to think the knight is wearing armor not to protect himself from the monsters, but to make the rough platforming less painful.
And here's the final boss, a robed wizard holding a stick of cotton candy. Beware, he's after your teeth! Disappointingly, his moving pattern is identical to that of the previous bosses, and with a bit of patience, it's not very hard to get rid of him.
With the game's villain out of the way, all that remains for you to do is to reach the maiden and unshackle her. Of course, this wouldn't be Tower of Terror if getting to her didn't involve some cruel platforming where you can easily fall to your death.
I expected the ending to just be a simple text message, thus I wasn't quite prepared for the onslaught of giant hearts accompanied by a barrage of explosion sounds. That is one violent love at first sight.
Remember when I was joking about the size disparity between the knight and the maiden in the intro picture? Turns out she is indeed taller than him. Just compare the size of her head with the knight's tiny noggin.
And here's the congratulations message, presented in the shiniest chrome available. I like the somber music that's playing in this part. Too bad it's the same tune that's used when you reach a regular Game Over.
The scoring doesn't vary that much between playthroughs, provided that you complete the game and kill all the enemies. In that case, the only variance would be the points you get for killing dragons that spawn out of pots, and that's a random occurrence.
CONCLUSION
I'm a bit conflicted on Tower of Terror. From a technical standpoint, the game is competently made. The graphics, while sometimes a bit amateurish, are fine overall, and I like the more exotic monster designs. The music by Rudolf Stember is of his usual high quality, even though there are only two full tracks and a one-channel background tune.
The main game mechanics of shooting enemies and getting better weapons are still enjoyable. It's a pity that the controls drag the experience down. If it weren't for the stiff jumping physics and the level design exploiting them, I'd rate the game higher. That obstacle in level 3 literally took me years to overcome, and I don't think that's entirely my fault for being bad at platform games.
I had a better time playing this game on an emulator which allowed me to remap the controls to keyboard keys, Up for jump is much more painful on an actual joystick or gamepad.
Another point of contention is the bosses which aren't all that interesting, as they all react exactly the same way. None of them are hard to defeat, and in most cases, you are more likely to die from falling off platforms or jumping into laser barriers instead.
Tower of Terror is not a particularly long game, and once you know about each level's pitfalls, you've got a realistic chance to make it through all four stages.
I realize it's hard for me to judge the game too harshly, as I somewhat fondly remember playing it almost 30 years ago. For a budget release on a diskmag, it was certainly of a higher quality than many other titles of that time.
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