LONGPLAY: Monster Bash - Episode 1 (1993) [MS-DOS]

Monster Bash (called Graveyard during development) is a side-scrolling platform game developed and published by Apogee Software on 9 April 1993 for DOS. The game features 16-color EGA graphics and IMF AdLib compatible music. It was developed by Frank Maddin and Gerald Lindsly.
The game is divided into three episodes. The first episode of the game is available to download under a shareware license, but the two remaining parts of the game must be purchased. The registered game also removes advertisements and reminders of the benefits of purchasing the games from the first episode and enables cheat code functionality.
The game was re-released in 2014 on GOG.com with support for Windows, macOS, and Linux. In 2021 Monster Bash HD got announced by the rebooted Apogee Entertainment, created by Emberheart Games.
The player controls Johnny Dash, whose pet dog Tex was captured by the game's main villain, Count Chuck. Aided by the friendly Bed Monster and Frank Lloyd Rat, Johnny enters the Underworld armed with a slingshot and an infinite supply of rocks to slay Count Chuck and his minions and rescue his beloved Tex, as well as many more captured pets.
Johnny must work his way through a total of 28 horror-themed levels. Throughout the levels, Johnny can collect candy for points, interact with objects and pickup various powerups. The three difficulty modes determine how many health points Johnny has. Any monster, enemy projectile or hazard that Johnny touches will deduct a health point from him. Health is replenished by collecting a heart. Certain hazards and deadly terrain will instantly kill Johnny and take a life away. Up to five lives can be regained by collecting a voodoo doll or earning 20,000 points. If all lives are lost, the game is over.
In each level the player has to release all pets from their cages, before making it to the exit to proceed to the next level. When entering a new level, all powerups are removed and Johnny's health is fully replenished. The player comes across various inanimate objects which they must interact with in order to complete the level. These include furniture that springs Johnny into the air, deployable ladders and flying broomsticks. At one point in each episode, Johnny will face his "Nemesis", a doppelganger of himself as a minor boss. At the end of an episode, the player must defeat a boss monster.
Johnny has an unlimited supply of rocks, and he can fire his slingshot either forward or diagonally up. Rocks move in a realistic projectile-like pattern, and can bounce off walls and other objects. As well as killing enemies, the player can also use the slingshot to position objects. The player can collect powerups for the slingshot that allow Johnny to shoot a limited quantity of more powerful projectiles, including larger rocks, missiles, and fireballs.
Enemies are based on horror-monsters, and include disembodied crawling hands, flying witches, zombies, demons, walking skeletons and werewolves. While some enemies appear in several levels, others only appear in theme-related levels. Some enemies take more hits to die than others, and a couple are invincible.
Monster Bash was the first shareware game Apogee developed to take up a megabyte of disk space. To cater for users with slower modems and better commercialize the game, Apogee created a cut down version titled "Monster Bash Lite".
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[@H0VA]

Such a great childhood growing up playing this game. Amazing time.

[@Dosgamert]

Have you played the Monster Bash HD too? :)

[@Bronko786]

Same here 😉🙋🏼‍♂️

[@MarkMeadows90]

I remember my dad having a difficult time getting the sound right for this game. We just got a new Sound Blaster card in 1994, or either 1995 and that's when we started really getting into these older DOS games. Every time my dad would load this game up, there would be no sound. Not sure how he got it working, but when we heard the Apogee music and the witch laugh, that was the sound of success lol

[@tomdoell811]

One of my favorite games growing up. The impossible frustration caused by my own abilities to complete even a single level never even stopped me from loading this bad boy up almost every time I hopped on the PC.

[@Dosgamert]

Maybe check out Monster Bash HD (2021) too!

[@tomdoell811]

I grew up in an absurdly lucky random time period to put this in perspective. Born half way through 1989. I was 10 years old during the year 2000 panic. This gave me a childhood full of easy outdated access to floppy discs, ROM, DOS, especially when it combined with Internet piracy and early age cd-r's. I even had Pokemon gold on my computer at one point, entirely in Japanese, long before it came out here in America.

[@tomdoell811]

@@Dosgamert I will. Never heard of it until you just mentioned it haha

[@tomdoell811]

I can't remember a lot of my favorites but Commander Keen, all of the Hugo games, Monster Bash and Elfland we're definitely on there. Blackthorne by Blizzard for sure. Skyroads

[@tomdoell811]

I was also kind of obsessed with trying to make Billy The Kid make sense or be remotely playable as a game at all. Loved the asthetic.

[@PubliusQuinctiliusVarus-hu1xx]

Loved this, Commander Keen and another Apogee classic Major Stryker.

[@georgeshelton6281]

There's so much ground to cover. It's also hard to go unscathed.

[@Voykod]

I played the shit out of this game when I was a lil' fella. I never finished it.

[@Dosgamert]

Have you played Monster Bash HD too? :)

[@Voykod]

@@Dosgamert Nope. I just played the first chapter on a windows 98. Where can I find the HD version?

[@Voykod]

@@Dosgamert It looks good. Maybe I'll think about getting it later. Thanks!

[@Vandellmosley]

This was critical thinking at its finest but yet innovative,!

[@unbridledenthusiasm]

This game came at the very end or just after the major side scroller era, but it was a pretty good game

[@mechasam]

Fuck I spent hours on this game. Frustrated the hell out of me. I was probably around 12 or 13

[@Dosgamert]

I know the feeling

[@Shidpant42]

Have you done a Skyroads run?

[@Dosgamert]

Not yet! Game is soo tough - Thanks for the Bacon!

[@therapeuticrecreationtv9069]

How do I go about downloading this and playing it again???

[@Dosgamert]

Steam :)

[@douro20]

I would imagine ESRB would refuse to rate this game nowadays if "No Recycling" and "Down With Rainforests!" remained. (It's almost impossible to do business with big guys without pandering)

[@Dosgamert]

I don't think that will be a problem. Tomorrow I'll post the longplay of the new HD Remaster!

[@InstazomeASMR]

That's all in your head, douro20. Humor is allowed.

[@InstazomeASMR]

@@Dosgamert Whoaaaa they're doing an HD remaster?? Awesome! This game is such simple, classic, DOS fun

[@Dosgamert]

@@InstazomeASMR I already uploaded Episode 1 of the HD remake!

[@InstazomeASMR]

@@Dosgamert Nice, I will have to watch that tomorrow eve . I subscribed--I love DOS era games. I'm doing a project thing where I'm playing through games in chronological order--currently at 1983--but I am so excited for the early and mid 90s platformer era. I should start making videos of em but alas..

[@examname9477]

it a kid game? It look way too much gore

[@xtrememusicpk]

Duke Nukem when he was a kid, I suppose

[@examname9477]

@@xtrememusicpk i said, is it a kid game?

[@InstazomeASMR]

@@examname9477 Yes, it's for kids, and there's no gore.

[@examname9477]

@@InstazomeASMR ok