Checked 2026-10-30
How to play The Halloween Man
According to ready64’s public readme (single developer source), you are the Halloween Man, a pumpkin wizard lost in ten haunted mazes. Collect every magic star to break a maze and move on. Eat a flashing power star and the monsters turn blue and shiver, so you can magic them away for a short time. Clear all ten and the game calls you the Halloween champion.
Play The Halloween Man
Quick steps based on the developer's public readme and instruction screen, checked on 30 October 2026. These are one developer source, not independent playtesting.
- Start a round. According to the developer instructions, press RETURN to leave the title and instruction screens.
- Move around the maze. Use W, A, S and D, the C64 cursor keys, or a joystick in port 2. The controls table below explains the cursor-key combinations.
- Clear the stars. Collect every magic star to finish the maze. A flashing power star temporarily turns monsters blue so you can remove them; the developer instructions describe this effect.
The free files are on the download page. Level-by-level maps are on the walkthrough.
What you are trying to do
Each maze is full of small magic stars and four large power stars. The public source counts both kinds toward the stars you must clear, so the next maze starts only after both kinds have been cleared. A bonus star appears twice in a maze and is worth 1,000 points. You begin with three lives.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Joystick in port 2 (the developer also lists port 1) | Move |
| W / A / S / D | Up / left / down / right |
| C64 cursor keys | Unshifted: down/right; Shift: up/left; host keyboard mappings depend on emulator |
| RETURN | Leave the title screen and the instruction screen |
| Y / N | Answer PLAY AGAIN |
The four monsters
These habits are the developer readme, checked 30 October 2026. The instruction screen names the same four creatures and does not repeat the habits line by line.
- Witch — stays on you. Do not share a long corridor with her. A corner is how you make space.
- Vampire — aims in front of you and tries to cut you off. A sudden reverse works better than a straight sprint.
- Werewolf — chases from far away, then turns shy up close. You can step past him in that shy moment.
- Pumpkin Ghost — unpredictable, and the readme says he works with the witch. Save a power star for him.
Monsters also swap between chasing you and flying back to the four corners. That swap is the breathing room.
Power stars
The developer’s source package places four power stars in every maze. Eating one turns the monsters blue and shivering. Eating them in a row scores 200, then 400, then 800, then 1600. Their eyes fly back to the house in the centre and they return. The source’s fright timer drops from 100 on level 1 to 28 on level 10, one tick every four frames. On a 50 Hz PAL machine that is roughly eight seconds down to a little over two. The manual never prints those seconds, so treat them as a reading of the source.
Scoring and difficulty
Scoring in the developer readme, checked 30 October 2026; no independent score table was found.
| Event | Points |
|---|---|
| Magic star | 10 |
| Power star | 50 |
| Monsters in one power-star chain | 200, then 400, then 800, then 1600 |
| Bonus star (twice per maze) | 1,000 |
| Extra life | At 10,000 points |
Levels 1–5 are marked EASY, 6–8 HARDER, and 9–10 HARD. Five layouts are reused, so the later half is the same maps with quicker monsters and a shorter fright. A full clear time is not published. I am not guessing one.
Questions
How many lives do I start with?
Three. The instruction screen grants an extra life at 10,000 points.
What are the four monsters called?
Witch, Vampire, Werewolf and Pumpkin Ghost. The side panel shortens the last one to GHOST.