The Curse of Rabenstein
A downloadable game
"We should try to find a place to stay for the night. The horses need a rest." Those were the coachman's last words before he disappeared without a trace. Lost deep in the Black Forest, you soon find out that some things should remain buried forever.
ABOUT THIS GAME
The Curse of Rabenstein is a graphic adventure from Stefan Vogt, the author of the acclaimed Hibernated interactive fiction series, available in English, Spanish and German language. The Curse of Rabenstein is following the paths of the legendary adventures from Level 9, but it tries to meet modern gaming expectations, so that the most sophisticated genre back from the day transforms into a contemporary homage.
SYSTEMS
Rabenstein is available for C64, Plus/4, CPC, ZX Spectrum (48k and 128k with divMMC), ZX Spectrum +3, ZX Spectrum Next, Amiga, Atari ST, MSX1, MSX2, DOS and modern PC.
TRANSLATIONS
Versions for all systems are available in both English and Spanish language. There also is a point and click edition available in German and English language, which is C64 only. Please scroll down for the translation credits. I'd sincerely like to thank fellow authors and fans of the game that made these translations and ports possible.
PHYSICAL EDITION
A boxed release with stunning beautiful art, media, feelies and extras may be ordered from Poly.Play. The C64 point and click version may also be ordered physically in both English and German language. You may choose between disk and cartridge formats, whatever lifts your spirits.
C64 40TH ANNIVERSARY (POINT AND CLICK) EDITION
There is a special edition of Rabenstein featuring a point and click interface which you can either play with mouse or joystick. It comes with wonderful moody SID tunes. If you're not into parser-driver games, this might be the right version for you.
REQUIREMENTS / STARTING YOUR ADVENTURE
C64 - Insert the game disk, then type: LOAD"*",8,1. Once loading is done, type RUN.
Plus/4 - Insert the game disk, then type: LOAD"*",8. Once loading is done, type RUN.
Spectrum 48k/128k (with divMMC device) - Copy the files from the provided archive onto your divMMC SD card. Launch the TAP file like you would load any other game.
Spectrum +3 - Insert disk then use the machine's built-in LOADER function.
Spectrum Next - Just copy all files to a folder on your Spectrum Next SD media and load the game as you would load any other game. Note that the Spectrum Next version makes use of the machine's extended capabilities and thus presents location graphics on-par with the 16-bit versions. It also runs at smooth 14Mhz to make sure the text is fluid on screen and graphics are loaded fast. If you bought the physical edition, you find this version on the supplied SD card(s).
CPC - Rabenstein should run on any machine with an internal or external disc drive. Insert disc side 1, then type: run"disc. The game will ask you to insert disc side 2 at a certain point of progress.
Amiga - Insert the game disk. Rabenstein will auto-execute.
Atari ST - Insert the game disk. Double-click RABENST.PRG to start your adventure.
MSX 1 - Insert the game disk. Rabenstein will auto-boot.
MS2 2 - Insert the game disk. Rabenstein will auto-boot. This version comes with extended graphics based on the Spectrum Next version.
DOS - Copy all contents to a hard disk drive. Execute RABENST.COM to start your adventure.
Modern PC - The game will run on any modern PC with a JavaScript enabled browser. Just open the HTML file to get started. If you bought the physical edition, you find this version on the supplied SD card.
SAVING / LOADING
You can SAVE and LOAD your progress anytime. When asked for the filename to load, be sure to first insert the disc where you saved your game.
GAMEPLAY
Generally you may use the in-game HELP function to get a basic overview how to play the game.
PARSER LOGIC
The game conforms to a two word logic, e.g. EAT APPLE.
INTERACTION
The objects you urgently need to interact with to complete the game are visible under YOU NOTICE.
EXAMINE / SEARCH: A pretty important but anachronistic practice is to EXAMINE objects you can interact with, so you learn more about them or get useful hints. Sometimes you also need to SEARCH to progress further. Please note that EXAMINE and SEARCH is not the same in this adventure and thus may trigger different results. Make sure you try to examine the things mentioned in the room descriptions as there is much to discover and these replies add a lot to the game's atmosphere and the background story. Try to EXAMINE FOREST or EXAMINE SHADOWS at the location where you start to get an idea about it.
DYING
As scary as this game is, you can't die in Rabenstein. There are also no dead ends. The progress is very linear.
HINTS
A map is not urgently necessary for Rabenstein. There is a solution available at CASA. Hints are provided in the popular invisiclues format, which is the recommended way in case you're stuck.
RELEASE INFORMATION
Type VERSION and CREDITS to see which version of the game you're running.
CREDITS FOR THE SPANISH EDITION
Spanish translation: J.A. Rubio
Additional support with code and compilation: Uto
I sincerely like to thank everyone who was involved in making the Spanish translation become reality. Back when I wrote Rabenstein, I never thought it would be such a massively loved game from communities all over the world.
CREDITS FOR C64 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The C64 40th Anniversary Point and Click edition was developed using the D42 Adventure System by Tobias Erbsland und Stephan Lesch.
D42 port and German language translation: Sönke Wolfgramm
SID Music: René aka Peacemaker
Cartridge created by: Mike Robertson
Testing: André Eymann
Special thanks to Stephan Lesch for all his support, for fixing bugs and providing us with custom builds of the D42 system.
LEGAL
The Curse of Rabenstein is (C) 2020-2022 Stefan Vogt and Puddle Software. All rights reserved.
WEB
Stefan Vogt on itch.io: 8bitgames.itch.io
Puddle Software: http://puddlesoft.net
Publisher: http://polyplay.xyz
DONATIONS
Please support the hard work that went into this game and donate via itch.io.
You may also buy me a coffee http://ko-fi.com/8bitgames
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Rabenstein now available in Spanish languageFeb 18, 2023
- Rabenstein - Point and Click Edition is out!Jul 22, 2022
- New all-graphics versions for Spectrum & MSXApr 15, 2022
- Release 11 Serial no. 200329 is out nowMar 29, 2020
- Spectrum Next bugfix updateMar 23, 2020
- Release 10 Serial no. 200322 is outMar 22, 2020
- The Curse of Rabenstein out!Mar 17, 2020
Comments
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Hallo und vielen dank für das tolle Spiel!
Bei mir kommt folgende Fehlermeldung und das Spiel lädt dann nicht weiter (echter C64 mit SD2IEC)
"timeout erkannt, bitte floppy reset und dann feuer"
Kann mir da jemand helfen?
Dankeschön
Any chance on a .PRG or .CRT file? Cant currently play it on a real C64c with Kung Fu Flash which is a bummer. Have to use the MiSTer or C64 Maxi to play. Just seems odd that this is in disk format. Any chance? please?
Hi ! By any chance, would an HD-installable Amiga AGA compatible be possible ? :) Maybe in the shape of a WHDLoad slave ? :) Thanks again so much for your work <3
You could request a WHDLoad install here on EAB: http://eab.abime.net/forumdisplay.php?f=22
Yep that's true ! Maybe I will... I have made way too many requests on the Mantis Whdload bugtracker lately, ahah !
When I boot the Amiga version, I just get to a black screen with the mouse pointer. I'm actually able to get to the title screen by moving the mouse pointer to the center of the screen and clicking the left mouse button, but I nevertheless think that's not the way it should be. I'm on an Amiga 500 with Kickstart 1.3 and 1MB of memory.
Unfortunately this is a limitation of the interpreter. It is meant to display a title screen when the game starts but just move on when there is no title screen. So this actually is a known bug in the interpreter.
So heartwarming to see the C64 still gets new releases.
Remarkable IF piece, too. You can tell this game is a labor of love!
Thank you so much for the kind words. I am so glad you like it! If you'd like to play a text-only game as well that is more of an interactive novella, you might want to play my other game Hibernated1 Director's Cut. :)
Each time I load the game, right after run/return, I receive the message "Time Out - Reset Floppy and press fire", then nothing happens. I am using a Ultimate 64. Anything I am missing?
You need to deactivate any second disk drive in the config, inckuding the IEC drive, which is activated by standard. This can confuse some games as even when unused the drive is residing on the bus.
Ok thanks a lot, works like charm now!
Fabulous game, it's giving me some CRL vibes, really like it! Awesome edition!
Very nice Adventure game that is not too hard to solve. Good Graphic and Music on Commodore 64. I played the Point and Click Edition.
question: ZX verison .tap, I cant get it towork o0n my FUSE or ZXSPIN emulator, both error 138. What did I do wrong?
As I wrote already in the readme, if you scroll up you can see it under "requirements", the ZX Spectrum version is intended to run on real hardware with a divMMC device. You have to put all the files from the archive onto the SD card of the divMMC device. It loads the pictures from the SD while executing the .TAP file. If you really want to play Rabenstein with emulation, Fuse at least allows simulating a divMMC environment. There are quite a few tutorials out in the wild that explain how you can do that. Hope this helps!
Here is a reference for setting up Fuse with a divMMC environment http://board.esxdos.org/viewtopic.php?id=240
Just a great adventure I played mainly in Vice, Dosbox. If you like horror story, you'll be happy here.
I'm not a fan of horror games, but I must admit that I've enjoyed the game, the graphics and the easy going story. A small beautiful game that works perfectly as introduction to adventures for novel players.
Despite I appreciate and understand why the pixel-like fonts are used, I wonder if could be possible to change them on the browser version (as an option, perhaps) to help players that start having difficulties to read some fonts :-)
Mmmh. The Engine I am using for the browser based version is Adventuron. I'll ping the maker and see if there is a hidden option to change the font to a more readable style
The game is really fun. The only problem I found its that when I copy game files on my amiga HDD I have a problem to save game.
The game works normal without any problems but I cant save my progress.
Any chance to add options to give path to where to save game so the game can be played fully from the hdd without floppy disk?
That's a limitation of the engine I used to build this game. So unfortunately there is no way to save to HDD.
Well regardless thank you for the answer.
I guess I will need to find some floppy disk for dedicated save file. :D
I think the challenge is finding a working one xD
We shall see. :P
The disk versions of Rabenstein and Hibernated 1 run great on my Amstrad CPC6128. Is there any way to get them to run via an M4 or USIFAC card? I can get as far as the loading screen, but the game doesn't load after that.
I suspect the Maluva plugin does some cheaty things for faster disk access, which my USIFAC card might not emulate.
I had a chat with Uto, who created Maluva. He has a M4 himself and says the game works fine there, so we are not able to reproduce this. Here is what he wrote btw. you may want to try both ways, not sure how you've set the content of the game up:
There are two ways to play in M4 though:
1) drop all the files in a folder in the SD, this way I have not tested
2) drop the two .dsk files and run emulated disks (this one I tried)
We also had a look at the USIFAC since we never heard of it before. Seems to be a good thing. From what I read it should work. My point here is that the game is running on real hardware, and if it does that it's more a problem of the device and firmware rather than of the game itself. Since we don't have such a device we are not able to dive deeper anyway. Hope you understand :) Cheers!
Thanks, it works under FDC emulation, but not directory access. I wonder if I have got all the files? Is there an archive with the CPC files in, not in disk images?
Unfortunately, no. I've automated the build process so that the output goes straight onto a disk image. What you can do though is extracting the contents of both disks using CPCDiskXP.
I haven't tried it yet, but it looks great! What program did you use to create this graphical text adventure?
It has been made with DAAD + Maluva Plugin
Nice 🙂 can you make games using Maluva and sell them? I thought it had a commercial licence or something?
Nope, you can make commercial games
I ordered the c64 physical edition and can't get it to run on my C64. Neither from floppy, nor from the disc image.
That sounds much like a local problem with your C64 unfortunately. Can you give me a little bit of information? Can you see the disk contents with LOAD"$",8 and LIST afterwards? What C64 are you using? Did you modify it? Do you use a Fastloader and if so have you tried to disable it? Which hardware are you using to load the disk image (eg. 1541 Ultimate, SD2IEC and so on)? Rabenstein has been loaded on hundreds of C64 machines without issues. I could imagine a broken disk. But if it is not working on both your disk AND the disk image, it is highly likely this is your local configuration somehow.
I can see the directory and it begins to load. After running the programm, its continus to load and after some time, my disc drive gives an error (indicated by a blinking led).
I probably got an C64 II in a breadbox case. It's hard to figure out which revision exactly. My disk drive is an OC-118N clone produced by Westfalia Technika and for the disk image I use a SD2IEC.
Everything is unmodified. I tried both, the floppy and the image, without a fast loader and with the final cartridge III.
I am really confused by this. The disk could be a faulty disk, which actually has to be cleared with my publisher, and they will replace it. On the other hand I am not sure if the game ever has been tested on that particular OC-118N clone. The original Oceanic is very compatible, almost 100 percent they say. You don't have the option to try with a 1541 or 1541-II?
Regarding the disk image that's the most confusing part. The game has been loaded thousands of times on C64 machines from an SD2IEC without any issues at all. I load it from an SD2IEC myself, at least on the Plus/4. Did you download the disk image from here? Or are you using the one that came on the SD card supplied with the game? Still this must have something to do with your hardware. I don't have any other explanation as the game runs perfectly on pretty much any C64. Is the SD2IEC from "The Future was 8-bit" or is it a different manufacturer?
One more thing to add... did you load that particular disk image in an emulator to verify it works?
Yes, it works fine on an emulator.
I somehow think, that my C64 is something of an oddball. It seems to be manufactured, when they threw together parts from different revisions to meet the demand.
I was gifted it on christmas '87 and it has the dark grey-brownish case of the old C64 with the light-grey keys of the C64 II. IIRC, my parents bought it from Data Becker.
The SD2IEC seems to be from ncsystems.eu.
Let's not go all BASIC 2.0 on the poor plussy =) =) -- the plus/4 release can be loaded jus' fine with Shift-Run/Stop or dload"*"!
So...funny story...I ordered a physical copy of this back on March 9th 2020 and today it arrived. Better late than never! haha
Yes, because of the pandemic especially overseas shipments weren't possible for many months since the German Post postponed much of their international letter services. It would have been delivered much faster if you'd chosen parcel service on the checkout process. Also in March the game was still a pre-order. It was not out at that time. Anyway, glad it arrived. Thank you very much for your support!
Sorry if my sense of humor didn't come through. Not upset at all. The parcel service was like $25 US i think at the time so i just went with the cheaper option. Good things come to those with patience.
Hi ! I've got the boxed version of the game :) However due to eyestrain issues, I'd like to play it on an e-ink Android device. Is it possible ? Best regards :)
Hi there, I am not sure to be honest. You could trying make the HTML version run on it.
I'd be interested to find out if it works on E-INK too. I suggest typing the following commands:
PEN #000
PAPER #FFF
This will set the background white and the text black, which should work better on E-INK (in theory).
Hi ! I'll try and get back to you ! Actually, there are optimizations that can be applied on the fly on my e-ink device and alter the palette afterwards even if the app / site is not meant for it. Check out "Onyx Boox". Cheers !
It works great, it's soooo much more pleasant to play this kind of games on e-ink... When you have eyestrain issues. Cheers !
Glad this worked for you mate! Yay and happy Easter :)
Finished the game in an afternoon. The gloomy and spooky atmosphere really adds to the dark concept in general. You can accompany this with the Bram Stoker's Dracula movie soundtrack from 1992 directed by Francis Ford Coppola!
I was hoping the game to be longer and more challenging; at least to keep me on my toes for a couple of weeks. Other than that, fingers crossed for a similar adventure set in gothic horror era.
Nice one, really like it, although I'm just beginning. And already failing so hard... how can I get water out of the well? I have a bucket and a bottle... but using/filling/dropping anything in any combination with the well won't give me water... any advise?
You need something else than the bucket to reach the water into the deep well...
Got it, thanks. Wasn't clear to me that something's missing
Just bought and finished this game in a few play sessions. I greatly enjoyed the spooky atmosphere that paired well with the Halloween Season.
The game hit a sweet spot for difficulty, length, complexity, and story. Although I do like games that are also a little longer, I find shorter games fit my schedule better. The artwork was terrific and added to the ambience. I was able to solve most of the puzzles, but had to consult a walkthrough guide at a few spots of difficulty. There were a couple of times where I knew that I needed to do "x", but had trouble figuring out how, but later learned "USE" is a pretty good all around VERB for most situations and that helped.
All around, this was a very enjoyable and fun/relaxing game to play through. Please consider making more of these in the future!
Thank you so much for the kind words, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, there will be more in the future, no worries :)
I had a great time playing this adventure. Well done! I did a review of the game on my Commodore blog, here, and hope to interest more people in giving it a try. Please don't let this be your last graphic text adventure.
Thank you so much, I am glad you liked and enjoyed the game! No worries, I will come back to text-/graphic adventures :)
Hi ! I hope you don't mind I made no donation here, I have already bought the boxed Amiga version :-) Thanks a lot, looking forward to playing in on my FPGA Amiga :-)
Hi!
Will there be an Enterprise 128K version?
As an example You can look at Hobbit (remake):
There are unfortunately no further ports planned at this time.
Will language patches also appear? So German, Chinese, Japanese etc.
We haven’t planned any translations at this point.
Oh that's a shame! But the game is really good! ^^
Thank you very much, glad you like it :)
I'd love to contribute with a spanish translation, I'm a native spanish speaker from Uruguay. Bought the physical edition from poly.play and finished it today. Loved every minute of it!
Amazing, thanks for your support! I am currently working on Hibernated 2 and unfortunately don't have much time to assist with a translation, even though the build tools are semi-automated. I've released the sources of Rabenstein here so feel free to take a look at it. The actual source is the DSF file. You would need to adapt that to the Spanish language template of our DAAD compiler, which you find here. Please ping me if you're getting somewhere. Would love a Spanish translation since our adventure system has native Spanish support. Kind regards!
Really nice, got it ordereed right after the first batch was sold out (was still in stock it said)... But hope to have it very soon and enjoy it in these cray crazy times ... Take care and keep up the good work ..
Wow! Another really nice text adventure beholds! I'll be sure to get me this boxed edition in April, too! These days, all you can do is sit at home and play games, so I'll treat myself to this one! :)
PS: How did I not know about this until now? I've finished Hibernated 1 a good while ago, and with the biggest bonus game ever, in a neat box, too.
What other adventures might there be that I should know of? :D
You could give Davide Bucci’s “The Queen’s Footsteps” a go. Very nice adventure.
Looks really neat! I'm very interested in the physical copy; though you've got editions for a bunch of my favourite old computers, I'm curious to know if the included SD card includes images for all platforms, or only the one you order a box for?
yes, the SD includes images for all platforms :)
Awesome, thanks!
The preorder for the physical release is live now. Head over to our publisher and PREORDER RABENSTEIN
How long before downloadable versions are released typically?
Sorry, must have missed your question for some reason. We aim for mid-March, a little bit after the first physical units from our publisher Poly.Play arrive to those who preordered the game.
no problem. Thank you.
And finished. Beautiful game!
awww thank you <3
glad you enjoyed it !!
it's a great game as one would expect. little typos like "appruptly" as opposed to "abruptly".
stable description may have a little bug where it mentions south as the exit. some objects can be picked up more than once.
currently stuck on the 2nd bit after finding all of the things. can it be progressed from here? can't use any objects atm.
EDIT: on the move again. loving this game
Thank you very much for getting lost in Rabenstein :)
You're referring to typos in plural. Could you please be a bit more precise, since you already noticed them? That would help a lot. I've already updated "abruptly" and the stable description. I'm planning to push a new release later today.
Could you explain "can be picked up more than once"? Is that a hint for other players telling objects are usable at more than one occasions, or do you mean you may pick up the same object twice, referring to a bug? If a bug, I would also need to know the objects so I may check the game logic around them.
Cheers!
I thought I had seen a typo related to "building" as well but can't find it anymore.
the bucket can be used and then found again. and then be carried to the 2nd part of the game.
oh good to know. That's not intended. I'll fix that now and then push the new version later today!
which version will be on the physical copies?
Well, if you follow the link to PolyPlay, you see for which systems you can order. On the SD cards, there will be every version in addition https://www.polyplay.xyz/navi.php?qs=Rabenstein
ah - small typo in "libary" as opposed to "library". "apparation" instead of "apparition"
fixed, thank you so much for your support!