Wampus is an overhead arcade narrative adventure game developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System -- yes, the original NES!

Wampus takes place in the world of Irata, first introduced in the obscure economic simulator game M.U.L.E in 1983.

Irata is a planet invaded by colonialists farming and mining the land for its natural resources. These resource-stripping activities threaten the local flora and fauna, especially the Mountain Wampus, who get hunted for their treasure.

As a young wampus, players set out to rid Irata of the settler invaders and restore harmony to the land. While a fun lark, Wampus explores themes of environmentalism, conservationism, stewardship of the land, and the destructive nature of colonialism.

Wampus takes 25-60 minutes to complete, depending on skill and experience.

FOR BEST EXPERIENCE: I recommend getting an original NES controller and a USB adapter for it. You can find one here or here.

* * *

Wampus was made possible thanks to NESMaker, an engine developed to make NES development a reality for people who are not versed in assembly language.

In order to play Wampus, you'll need an NES emulator. I recommend FCEUX. Many emulators do not have mapper 30 support, which is the mapper NESMaker uses for its games.

Once you have FCEUX downloaded, start it up and open the Wampus.nes ROM. The game should work fine.

I don't know of an NES emulator for Mac that supports Mapper 30 yet, but if I find one, I'll update this page.

* * *

While essentially complete, I will continue to make changes to Wampus over the next year.

Wampus screenshots