SCHATTENFELS
Chapter 1: Beyond the Gate
A free Halloween adventure for the Commodore 64
retro-modern.net


THE STORY

31 October 1886, shortly before midnight. The mail coach goes no
further than the graveyard below Castle Schattenfels. Professor
Fledermann, vampirologist, is certain that Count Ottokar sleeps up
there in his coffin - and wakes at midnight. His young assistant Emil
is to find that coffin first. The Professor will keep watch. Outside.

Nine rooms, two playable characters, three puzzle threads side by
side. You cannot die, and you cannot get stuck.

This is the first chapter of SCHATTENFELS. The story goes on.


WHAT YOU NEED

schattenfels-en.crt is an EasyFlash cartridge image (type 32) and runs
on any C64 with a SID:

  Emulator      VICE 3.x:  x64sc -cartcrt schattenfels-en.crt
  Ultimate 64   load the cartridge from the menu or via FTP
  1541 Ultimate start the cartridge
  Kung-Fu-Flash copy onto the SD card and pick it from the menu
  EasyFlash     burn onto a real EasyFlash cartridge

PAL and NTSC: the cartridge detects the machine at power-on and
adjusts by itself. The German version is schattenfels.crt, a separate
download on retro-modern.net and itch.io.


CONTROLS

The game is played with the mouse. A Commodore 1351 mouse in port 1 is
the default; a joystick works too.

  S          cycles the input device:
             joystick -> mouse in port 1 -> mouse in port 2
  F3         pointer sensitivity (four steps)
  F5         save
  F7         load
  W          switch between Emil and the Professor
             (once Emil is inside the castle)
  space bar  pause - press again to carry on
  RUN/STOP   skips a cutscene (everything in it still happens)

  click        pick a verb, then click the object
  click        during text: skip to the next line
  right button looks at a thing at once

Saved games are written into the cartridge flash. This works in the
emulator and on the Ultimate 64.

IN THE EMULATOR: VICE only reports the mouse button while the mouse is
grabbed. If the pointer moves but clicks do not register, grabbing is
off - Cmd+M (Mac) or Alt+M toggles it. And the ports have to be right:

  x64sc -controlport1device 3 -controlport2device 1 -mouse \
        -cartcrt schattenfels-en.crt


BUILT WITH

FABULA C64, an adventure engine and workshop for the C64: paint rooms,
place things, write scripts, compose SID music - out comes a cartridge
like this one. No special engine: SCHATTENFELS was made with the same
FABULA anyone can download.

  https://retro-modern.itch.io/fabula-c64
  https://retro-modern.net


CREDITS

Story, graphics (pixel art), music   Claude & retro-modern.net
Production and direction             retro-modern.net

The game may be passed on freely, unchanged and together with this
file. The EAPI flash library inside the cartridge is by Thomas "skoe"
Giesel, under the zlib licence.

The character set is taken from your C64's ROM at start-up - it belongs
to Commodore and is therefore not included.


VERSIONS

  23 October 2026
    First release.

  Saved games live inside the cartridge itself. Replacing the file
  means starting with empty save slots.
