 Blue Sky Ranger David Warhol, co-designer of the Intellivision cartridge Thunder Castle, has created not only a new game but a new genre with the release today of Soul Catcher for the iPhone. Available on the iPhone AppStore, Soul Catcher is the first Realtime Audio Adventure from Dave's company, Realtime Associates.
As "Audio Adventure" implies, players have to rely on their ears, not eyes, to progress through Soul Catcher. Clues are provided through narration, dialog, sound effects and music. Navigating requires paying attention to where sounds are placed in the stereo spectrum. Only static graphics and simple controls are displayed on the iPhone screen; Dave recommends playing the game mostly with eyes closed.
 Soul Catcher follows paranormal private investigator Kane Pryce as he hunts down, catches and banishes ghosts. The game is divided into 23 chapters, each taking about five to fifteen minutes to solve its puzzle and move on to the next, for a three to four hour total experience. An audio sample can be heard on the Soul Catcher web page.
More Kane Pryce mysteries are planned, as well as hard-boiled detective stories, romantic thrillers and even an interactive version of Tom Sawyer.
Dave Warhol majored in music composition in college, so when he came to Mattel Electronics in 1982, it was natural for him to bring a new level of attention to music and sounds in Intellivision games. Thunder Castle features excerpts from numerous classical pieces with arrangements that belie the three-note limit of the Intellivision sound chip. After Mattel, Dave produced all of the new games released by INTV Corporation for Intellivision, personally creating nearly all of the music and sound effects for the games.
Dave's Realtime Associates has developed titles for nearly every game platform of the last two decades. With Realtime Audio Adventures for iPhone, he comes full-circle back to his first love of creating audio art.
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