Sunday, September 30, 2012

Rare Retro Games Escape from Mt. Drash

Escape from Mt. Drash Box Art
 
Escape from Mt. Drash Cassette
 
Escape from Mt. Drash Screenshot

Manufactured: 1983 for Commodore VIC-20 home computer.
Publisher: Sierra On-Line

Programmed by Keith Zabalaoui for Sierra, Escape from Mt.Drash is considered one of the most valuable if not rarest game ever released for the VIC-20.

The Plot
Imprisoned within a mountain by "Garrnintrots" your task is to escape the randomly generated dungeon mazes across 15 increasingly difficult levels and do so before the time runs out.  Along the way you must defeat a variety of monsters and collect gems to aid in your escape.

from the manual....
"Escape from Mt. Drash is a game of life, and unless you can prevent it, a game of death"

Rarity
Only 13 copies of the reported 3000 that were manufactured are believed to be in existence.  The game was published on Cassette tape and not the standard Rom Catridge. In addition, because of it's length the game required a memory expansion cartidge to be installed on the Vic-20, further limiting it's sales.

The first complete copy of the game sold on eBay in March 2004 for $3,605, in June 2009 a boxed copy without manual was sold on ebay for $1,875. December 2011 and again on ebay an unboxed manual and cassette sold for $676.

I wanta play it:
Vic-20 emulator in hand then hit this Peroxide.dk link page.

Mt. Drash article on "Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe"
See all "Retro Game" posts

5 comments:

GamingAles said...

Ahhhh retro gaming. They had an amazing retro gaming zone at the Eurogamer Expo! They didnt have this particular game though... probably on account of the fact its rarer than dragon shite... I can't stop going on about Eurogamer btw! Heeeeeeelp!

Unknown said...

Hiya Bickle :) I most definitely missed the expo of the year, never imagined it would be that sucessful. Which I reckon means that next year there'll be a veritable scramble for tickets.....

You don't think it's too early to send Alf off to queue?

GamingAles said...

Given that tickets won't be on sale for another 9 or 10 months, I'd definitely advise sending Alf now to queue up, if you haven't already done so. This way we'll definitely ensure our places for 2013. Does he have a tent...?

Unknown said...

:) excellent!!!

Alf!!!! I have a job for you...

(opens bottle of select reserve brandy and a new box of Cuban cigars...)

This calls for a celebration!!!

Alf The Helper said...

:(