History

This wonderful game, programmed by Paco Menéndez with graphics made by Juan Delcán, let us enjoy too much in a part of our life. In Spain, it is still considered like one of the best games of all times (Canal C: "The Spanish Soft Gold Age (1985/1991)". Canal Satélite Digital).

It was programmed initially in an Amstrad CPC 6128, because it had more powerful graphics, and it was more easy to convert to Spectrum. The progam was made for 128k Spectrum, Amstrad CPC (64k and 128k), MSX (64k) and PC -with digitized voices via speaker-.

It wasn't possible to talk with Umberto Eco, the author of "The Name of the Rose", so the authors of the game decided, after three months, that it would be called "La Abadía del Crimen" ("The Abbey of crime"). Although this, this title was bright by itself, and even it was during various months in the MicroHobby's sales Top 20, not a normal thing because it wasn't an arcade nor a sports game, and because it was a 128k program.

The program received some awards, like MicroHobby annual awards 1988, to the best programmer (Paco Menéndez), best argument and best graphics (of course!).

Paco Menéndez left his work for 8-bit to dedicate his efforts to his principal ocupation: to be engineer. It was 10 years ago. He wanted to make a new computer, with an structure and language so different to another one known.


Actuality (updated September 7th, 2002)

Actually, La Abadía del Crimen (Crime's Abbey) continues being one of the most remembered games by all the people who had a 8 bit computer. For example, the forum is in continous activity, and the guestbook of our mother page ( Computer Emuzone ), receive a lot of messages about this incredible game.

But, fortunately, we can live without remembering everydays the past. People like Antonio Giner or Manuel Pazos are putting their own work in order to make new versions of the classic game.

Antonio Giner is the author of the PC Remake , wich is still in phase of development. The actual version is in VGA 256 colours, and it hasn't sound yet. But Antonio said that the final version will have True Color graphics and Sound Blaster sound, so I think you could imagine how good it will be.

And it's not all, fortunately. In MSX world, so active yet, two man are doing a great job. Armando Pérez created a version for MSX 2, with the "save the game" option. Continuing his work, Manuel Pazos made an incredible 16 colours version, also for MSX 2, 2+ and Turbo R, obtaining a wonderful game with three different colour palettes, and the original MSX sound (although he is thinking about adding FM or WAVE sound, and also in a japanese translation).

As you can see, La Abadía del Crimen will live so many years yet. Long life for Paco and Juan!