Geisha

Last updated: January 9, 2026

Overview

Geisha is an erotic adventure game developed by French company Coktel Vision and published by Sierra On-Line in 1990¹. The game represents Sierra’s brief foray into adult-oriented content, unusual for their typical family-friendly catalog². Designed by Muriel Tramis, who was known for incorporating themes of race, colonialism, and sexuality drawn from her Créolité heritage³, Geisha blends traditional adventure gameplay with mature themes and surreal imagery⁴.

Part adventure, part fever dream, the game is filled with surreal art, bizarre puzzles, and enough questionable content to raise an eyebrow or two⁵. The game was originally developed by Coktel Vision during Tramis’ period at the company, featuring the distinctive marks of her designs including the use of female protagonists and mildly erotic scenes³.

Game Info

Developer: Coktel Vision¹ Designer: Muriel Tramis³ Publisher: Sierra On-Line¹ Platforms: DOS, Amiga, Atari ST⁶ Release Year: 1990 Series: null Sierra Lineage: Core Sierra

Story Summary

The game follows a protagonist whose girlfriend Eva has been kidnapped by a mad scientist⁷. The scientist intends to transform her into some sort of futuristic geisha - half-machine, half-human - using cybernetic modifications⁸. The hero must travel to Tokyo, a city torn between modernism and tradition, to rescue Eva from the “Lustful Dragon’s” evil clutches⁹.

The game’s manual begins: “Eva was missing… She had been kidnapped from under my own eyes!“¹⁰. Players must navigate the phantasmatic depths of an unconventional Tokyo, facing various dangers and bizarre characters including Yakuza chiefs and fortune tellers to prevent Eva’s transformation¹¹. The story makes little sense according to critics, with one reviewer describing it as “something something something girl and robot body, something about an escape… dragons?“¹².

Gameplay

Interface and Controls

Geisha uses a point-and-click interface with mouse support, typical of adventure games from the era⁷. The game features a first-person perspective with slideshow presentation style graphics¹. Players navigate through various screens by clicking on interactive elements, though the game is notoriously difficult due to unclear visual cues about which items can be picked up¹³.

Structure and Progression

The game is structured as a collection of about a dozen puzzle and arcade games loosely bound by the overarching storyline¹⁴. It includes several small sub-games such as a simple card game, a jigsaw puzzle with time limits, and short arcade sequences⁷. The game can be completed in approximately 30 minutes¹⁵, making it unusually brief for an adventure game of its era.

Puzzles and Mechanics

The puzzles require what critics described as “a very warped mind that most gamers don’t have”¹³. The game features inexplicable mini-games and giant robot heads among its surreal content¹⁵. Players must solve various challenges while interacting with characters like Sensei Isuzu, who provides cryptic fortune-telling advice, and Mr. O (The Elegant Locust), a Yakuza chief involved in business and politics¹⁰.

Reception

Contemporary Reviews

Publication	Score	Notes
Amiga Power	5%	Described game as “user-friendly and sexy as a rotten anchovy”8
Amiga Joker	42%	Review by Carsten Borgmeier, January 199116
Joystick	84/100	December 199017
Génération 4	67/100	November 199017
ASM	50/100	February 199117
MobyGames Critics	38%	1990 aggregate score1

Modern Assessment

Modern retrospective reviews have been overwhelmingly negative. Alex Bevilacqua’s 2023 review opened with “This game is terrible” and concluded with the emphatic recommendation: “DON’T PLAY THIS ‘GAME’“¹². His revised score of 7% (down from an original 11%) reflects the game’s poor aging¹². MyAbandonware users have given it a more moderate 3.74/5 rating based on 27 votes¹³, while Abandonware DOS rates it 3.93/5⁵.

Development

Origins

Geisha was developed during Muriel Tramis’ tenure at Coktel Vision in the early 1990s¹⁸. The game emerged from the company’s exploration of adult-themed content, building on their previous work including titles “from the makers of Emmanuelle”⁴. Coktel Vision was later absorbed into the Sierra family but was eventually told to “put its pants back on,” ending their adult game development².

Production

The game’s music was composed by Frédéric “Elmobo” Motte, marking some of his first work in the video game industry¹⁹. Motte described the collection of tunes he made for Coktel Vision in the beginning of the 90s as “My first gigs in the video game industry… Oh boy…“¹⁹. The game was rushed to meet a Christmas release deadline, which may have contributed to its various issues¹⁵.

Technical Achievements

Geisha runs on the Gob engine and supports multiple graphics modes including CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules, and Tandy/PCjr⁶. The minimum system requirements include an Intel 286 processor, 512 KB RAM (640 KB for MCGA and Tandy modes), and DOS 2.11²⁰. The game supports various sound devices including PC Speaker, AdLib, and the Intersound MDO²¹. It was distributed on 3.5” floppy disks¹.

Legacy

Geisha is notable primarily as a curiosity from Sierra’s brief experimentation with adult content¹³. The game has been preserved by various abandonware sites and is considered no longer commercially available²². It remains playable through emulation, with ScummVM providing modern compatibility²³. Despite its poor critical reception, the game represents an interesting footnote in both Sierra’s history and the career of designer Muriel Tramis¹⁸.

The game’s legacy is largely that of a cautionary tale about rushed development and questionable design choices. As one modern reviewer noted, “It’s not exactly highbrow, but it’s definitely memorable in that ‘I can’t unsee this’ sort of way”⁵.

Downloads

Purchase / Digital Stores

• GOG Dreamlist - Community wishlist

Download / Preservation

• MyAbandonware
• Internet Archive
• Abandonware DOS

Series Continuity

• Previous: N/A
• Next: N/A

References

Footnotes

1. MobyGames – - Basic game information and developer/publisher details ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. Adventure Gamers Blog – - Context about Sierra’s adult content experiment ↩ ↩²

3. MobyGames - Muriel Tramis – - Designer biography and career themes ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. GameFAQs Walkthrough – - Game description and designer information ↩ ↩²

5. Abandonware DOS – - Review commentary on game content ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. PC Gaming Wiki – - Platform availability ↩ ↩²

7. Internet Archive – - Plot summary from Mobygames source ↩ ↩² ↩³

8. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha_(video_game) – ) - Basic plot description ↩ ↩²

9. Adventure Gamers – - Game plot description ↩

10. GameFAQs – - Opening quote from game manual ↩ ↩²

11. OldGames – - Plot summary and setting description ↩

12. Alex Bevilacqua Blog – - Description of confusing plot ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. MyAbandonware – - User criticism about visual clarity ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

14. Games Database – - Game structure description ↩

15. UVList – - Game completion time ↩ ↩² ↩³

16. Lemon Amiga – - Magazine review scores ↩

17. UVList – - Review scores compilation ↩ ↩² ↩³

18. GameFAQs Walkthrough – - Development context ↩ ↩²

19. Elmobo Bandcamp – - Composer information ↩ ↩²

20. MobyGames – - System requirements ↩

21. Vogons Forum – - Sound device compatibility ↩

22. Internet Archive – - Availability status ↩

23. ScummVM Wiki – - Modern compatibility ↩