CONVERSION CAPERS

THE PROS AND CONS OF THE THREE VERSIONS OF NOSFERATU

Amstrad CPC

Nosferatu is very obviously an Amstrad original; one look at its glorious fourcolour visuals makes that clear. Its lively in-game chiptune also perfectly suits the CPC. Beyond aesthetics, the Amstrad Nosferatu delivers story-led gameplay based around bespoke mechanics, such as a dark dungeon that requires a lit gas lamp to explore, a library attic accessed by climbing a perfectly positioned ladder and a vampire-infested village where you arm yourself with stakes made by chopping up chairs.

ZX Spectrum

Thanks to the limitations of the hardware, the Spectrum Nosferatu suffers in comparison to the original. Where the Amstrad version has multihued stages this port has single-colour levels, and where the original has a multichannel soundtrack the Sinclair iteration has single-voice in-game music that slows down and speeds up depending on how much is happening on the screen. That said, the Spectrum port is identical to its CPC inspiration in terms of gameplay and level design.

C64

Quite sensibly, the C64 version of Nosferatu uses the machine’s less colourful high-res graphics mode, which allows it to reproduce the original’s visuals perfectly, albeit with the restriction of one main colour per stage. The Commodore Nosferatu improves slightly on the Amstrad’s in-game tune, although it’s more sedate. In terms of gameplay, the C64 port accurately replicates the CPC original’s mechanics and challenges, but there’s some slowdown in the levels where there’s a lot going on.