| Escape from Monster Manor | |
| Developer: | Studio 3DO |
| Publisher: | Electronic Arts |
| Producer: | Stewart Bonn Trip Hawkins |
| Programmer: | Leo Schwab |
| Artist: | Stefan Henry-Biskup |
| Composer: | Robert Vieira |
| Platforms: | 3DO |
| Genre: | First-person shooter |
| Modes: | Single-player |
Escape from Monster Manor is a first-person shooter video game developed by Studio 3DO and published by Electronic Arts exclusively for the 3DO.
The game was released as in Japan.
Escape From Monster Manor is a first-person shooter where the player character explores a haunted mansion in a 3D environment, and must defeat spiders, ghosts, and other menaces to escape.
The objective of the game is to collect pieces of a sacred talisman in each stage, then make it through twelve levels to the exit to escape. Rather than having a HUD, the player's health is visible as damage to the on-screen hand and the ammunition is listed as a bar on the gun sprite.
The game's main developer was Leo Schwab.[1] A computing and programming prodigy, Schwab was best known for his Amiga screen hacks and animations during the mid-late 1980s[2] and for developing Disney Presents: The Animation Studio for Silent Software in 1990.[3] [4] Schwab joined Electronic Arts head Trip Hawkins when the latter founded The 3DO Company for the release of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer.[5] For Escape from Monster Manor, Schwab has cited Wolfenstein 3D as the chief inspiration for the game. After some months working on a different 3DO game, Schwab and his team abandoned that project and switched to the less ambitious Escape from Monster Manor so that they could have a demo to present at that year's Consumer Electronics Show.[6] The game's source code was released onto GitHub under the MIT License on August 7, 2022,[7] with an accompanying live stream on YouTube by original developer Leo Schwab.[8]
Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game a 6.75 out of 10, mentioning some minor issues with the control but overall recommending the game for its well-rendered graphics and genuinely creepy audio. GamePro praised the game's frightening graphics and audio, nerve-wracking challenge, and strafing ability. A review in Edge praised the "look and feel" of the game, but criticized the simplicity of the game design and gameplay. The game was compared unfavorably to DOOM and given a score of 5/10. The game was reviewed in 1994 in Dragon #204 by Sandy Petersen in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 2 out of 5 stars.