Mortville Manor

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Mortville Manor
Developer(s)Lankhor
Publisher(s)Lankhor
Director(s)
  • Bruno Gourier Edit this on Wikidata
Designer(s)Bernard Grelaud
Artist(s)Dominique Sablons
Maria-Dolores
Writer(s)Bernard Grelaud
Bruno Gourier
Composer(s)Beatrice Langlois
Jean-Luc Langlois
Platform(s)Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Sinclair QL, MS-DOS
Release1987
MS-DOS
1988
Genre(s)Adventure game
Mode(s)Single-player

Mortville Manor (French: Le Manoir de Mortevielle) is a point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Lankhor released in 1987 for Atari ST. The game was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Amiga and Sinclair QL. An MS-DOS version was released in 1988 adapted by Clement Roques. Mortville Manor was the first game with speech synthesis and was sold 10,000 copies around Europe.[1][2] Mortville Manor was followed by its sequel Maupiti Island.

In 2015, an amateur theater company known as Théâtre de l'Embellie in Montauban paid a tribute to the game through the show Les Secrets du manoir de Mortevielle and the play the game in 2021.[3]

Plot[edit]

The game takes place in France in the 1950s.[4] The plot begins in the office of Jérôme Lange, a famous private detective, who receives a letter from his childhood friend Julia Defranck, in which she writes that she is ill and asks him to investigate strange events at Mortville Manor. Upon arrival, Jérôme is informed of Julia's death with a storm approaching, and begins his search around the manor.

Gameplay[edit]

The player can select Jérôme's next action using the drop-down menus (Atari ST screenshot).

Mortville Manor is a first-person adventure game with a point-and-click interface.[4] The player takes on the role of Jérôme Lange, observing the world though first-person perspective. The player can move around Mortevielle's mansion by using the toolbar at the top of the screen and giving the hero commands from the drop-down lists.[4] The player also has the opportunity to interrogate individual residents of the Mortevielle estate, who move freely around the game.

Development[edit]

The first version of Mortville Manor was released for the Sinclair QL and was developed by two employees of the Kyilkhor studio who operated with the Pyramide publishing house Bruno Gourier and Bernard Grelaud. Gourier and Grelaud teamed up with siblings Béatrice and Jean-Luc Langlois and started their own company Lankhor. With its technical qualities and attractive price, the Atari ST was gaining momentum in France and the company decides to develop for this machine as a priority.[5] Mortville Manor was released for the Atari ST in 1987. The Langlois siblings developed a speech synthesizer that read other characters speeches. Dominique Sablons responded with a complete redesign of the Amiga and MS-DOS graphics.[6]

Reception[edit]

In France, Mortville Manor was a great artistic success. The magazine "Tilt" gave the game two Tilt d'Or awards for the best adventure game of the year and for the sound design.[6] Tilt reviewer Mathieu Brisou found the game to be a "superbly crafted" game based on a "classic yet enjoyable" script.[9] The magazine Génération 4 wrote that the game was "one of the best adventure games in French available on the Atari ST".[10] The game was also considered one of the greatest video games ever made for the Amiga.[11] Eric See-To for New Straits Times wrote that the game was a "fairly absorbing adventure", calling it unique, while criticizing the graphics and stating it was difficult to hear the digitised speech.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "ACE, Issue 013". ACE (13): 104. October 1988. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Lankhor.net". Lankhor. Archived from the original on January 17, 2002. Retrieved September 18, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ Desormeaux, Kenza Gros (October 20, 2021). "Soirée frisson, festival, randonnées… Que faire à Montauban pour les vacances de la Toussaint?" [Evening thrill, festival, hikes… What to do in Montauban for the All Saints holidays?]. Lopinion (in French). Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  4. ^ a b c Jankowski, F (2019). Settling accounts with France's historical past on the example of Lankhor games (in Polish). The Polish Journal of Game Studies.
  5. ^ Desktop, Steph (May 22, 2017). "Le Manoir de Mortevielle de Lankhor - il y a 30 ans débutait sur ATARI ST une nouvelle génération du jeu vidéo d'aventure" [Le Manoir de Mortevielle de Lankhor - 30 years ago, a new generation of adventure video games began on the ATARI ST]. Rom Game (in French). Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  6. ^ a b "Abandonware France, #MadeInFrance 07 : From Mortevielle to Maupiti". Abandonware France (in French). Hoagie. January 25, 2019. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  7. ^ "CVG, Issue 084". Computer and Video Games. No. 84. October 1988. p. 85. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  8. ^ "Jeux & stratégie 47". October 1987.
  9. ^ Brisou, Mathieu (1987). "Mortville Manor". Tilt (45): 64.
  10. ^ "Mortville Manor". Génération 4 (1): 100. 1987.
  11. ^ "Amiga Classix Gold - Test, Sonstiges". 4Players (in German). 2005-10-09. Retrieved 2023-05-21.
  12. ^ See-To, Eric (December 8, 1988). "New Straits Times". New Straits Times: 30.

External links[edit]

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