The Tarturian was written by Butch Greathouse and Garry Rheinhardt and published by Highlands Computer Services. It is a direct sequel to Oldorf’s Revenge but much bigger in scope and much harder. Created in 1980 for the Apple II it represented one of the more original games during that period.
The game’s ideas and originality makes it a little more difficult to categorize it. It sports early hi-res vector graphics and quite a bit of text as well. The interesting part of the game is that you represent various characters that make up your party. You switch between characters such as the Cleric, the Thief, the Gladiator, the Strongman, the Magician, the Wizard, and the Elf. Each of them has a specific skill set that you will need to solve various puzzles and obstacles in your explorations.
The cleric can read, write, speak, listen, translate, and decipher. The thief can pick locks, rest, open things, and unlock while the gladiator can kill, fight, search, and attack. The strongman can lift, push, move, break and smash while the magician has magic at his or her disposal as well as the gaze ability when crystal balls are about. The wizard can cast while the elf can use items, eat, feed, and jump. All of these actions come into play; some much more than others There are limitations as to how many times you can freely move from character to character. There are nine of each character type present in the party. Using the gladiator as an example; once you’ve accessed the gladiator nine different times then there are no gladiators left in your party.
To make things even more interesting; each time you switch character classes your strength score decreases by 2. Once your strength score reaches 0 you perish.
The documentation which comes with the game is brief however it does contain a nice background story. The goal of the party is to ultimately find and defeat the terrible Tarturian who is the “big bad” of the game. There are multiple goals which have to be achieved before you’re ready to face the Tarturian. You must first find 10 different treasures scattered throughout the different dungeons. Some of these treasures have extra powers or abilities that the elf in your party will need to use in order to advance further in the game. Each treasure found boosts the wizard’s power by 10. The wizard in your party will need a power score of 100 to get beyond the Tarturian’s force field late in the game. The 10 different treasures that you need to find are shown below:
Having the 10 treasures in your possession and having the wizard’s power score = 100 are still not enough to defeat the Tarturian. You must also outfit each of the party members in your group with enough weapons to face the Tarturian in battle and recover the flame of WAU. The cleric needs spears, the thief daggers, the gladiator swords, the strongman a mace, the magician both magic and potions, and lastly the elf needs poison darts. Once you have outfitted your company with the proper weapons and have found all ten treasures then you’re ready to find and face the Tarturian.
This was a hard game. It required several hours to complete and was much more difficult than it’s predecessor. The map was extremely challenging and aggravating in more ways than one – more on this later. A few of the puzzles were very challenging and required thought, experimentation, and time. There are over 160 different locations in the game and it took me some time to find them all. It required a lot of patience and perseverance and in the end I still had to “phone a friend”.
The next few paragraphs contain SPOILERS as I am going to walk you through how to find each of the 10 treasures you need to defeat the Tarturian. If you plan on playing this game and experiencing it on your own then I suggest that you skip through these next few sections.
*** BEGINNING OF SPOILERS ***
The game itself is divided into four sections to explore. You reach each of these areas by finding special junctions within the dungeon. You will have to move back and forth between these sections several times. The four sections are: the worlock’s realm, the maze, the minotaur’s land, and the deeper caves.
One of the treasures is found within the catacombs located in the worlock’s realm. The door to the catacombs is sealed shut and the only way to open this particular door is to choose the role of wizard and have him CAST. The door will then open and you can proceed into the catacombs.
The goal in the catacombs is to free the trapped spirit located within one of the tombs. You do so by saying a magic word that you discover in another area of the dungeon. The magic word is WUCI. Any character can use the magic word and once you do the spirit is free and awards your efforts with the Pendant of Bodil.
Treasure #2 is also found within the Worlock’s Realm in the Pentagon Room. There is a heavy stone slab in the middle of the room and if you have your Wizard CAST once again the heavy slab will disappear revealing a chute which leads below. If you travel down the chute it will take you to a narrow ledge where you will find the Ancient Gold. Now ONLY in this area, if you switch to your Elf character, and USE gold your strength will increase dramatically to 290. This is a nice boon because you use up strength with every action you take and you lose 2 strength points each time you switch between characters. While this is a nice boon it is not absolutely necessary to win the game. When you find that your strength reserves are running low, you can switch to your thief character and choose to REST. When you do so in key locations on your map then this skill is highly effective in restoring your strength. This ability does not work in every map location so you’ll have to experiment with it. The only way to escape from this area and return to the map is to jump from the ledge which only the elf can do.
The other interesting area in worlock’s realm is the lair of the Tuliesweep. Each time you enter the area the Tuliesweep runs away unless you are in the role of the elf character when you enter the location. The Tuliesweep loves elves and give your party 25 gold pieces. Gold is a valuable commodity in this game as you will need to buy your characters back from the Slave Traders. There are two areas in the game where you are automatically assaulted by slavers and they steal several of your party members. There are two different Slave Market locations in the game where you can use gold to buy back characters which you need. This becomes an important issue late in the game. When you find you are running low on a particular character class you can travel to a Slave Market and hopefully buy more of the particular class that you need. In this way, while much harder, this game is less forgiving in that area than Oldorf’s Revenge. I had to start Oldorf’s Revenge over twice to properly move through character classes without soft locking myself out of the game. In The Tarturian, the difficulty is in it’s different puzzles and trying to find hidden areas on the map.
Treasure #3 can be found in the Maze section. It is the only item or treasure to find in this section. You map out the maze by using the Cleric’s write ability in each area. The cleric will draw with chalk so that you can successfully navigate through the maze. You will eventually come to an area where only three of the walls are described as strong. If you then switch to the role of the Strongman and choose to SMASH then a hole will appear in the wall and you will find Kileng the Traveler’s Powerful Ring.
When you leave the maze you will find yourself in a series of locations involving a canyon. On one of the canyon walls there is an On/Off switch. It is possible to “soft lock” the game here so that you are unable to complete it. Did I do that? Of course I did! If you flick the switch to ON you let the minotaur out of his cage in the Minotaur’s Land. If you do not have the magic item in your possession that you need to defeat the minotaur then it will not let you pass into further areas of that section; thereby making it impossible for you to complete the game. So DO NOT flick the switch to the ON position until you have Rexxon’s Arc in your possession.
If you go north from the area you exited the maze you will come to an iron box. If you switch to the Elf role and USE pendant the box will magically open to reveal the Wand of Palx which is Treasure #4.
Treasure #5 is found in the Minotaur’s Land and it is one of the harder treasures to find. I found it quite by accident merely because I was “stuck” in the game and couldn’t find new areas of the map to explore. So I started to meticulously use different character’s abilities in each area of the map to see if it would open up a new area. There is a fissure in the land of the minotaur that you can JUMP using the elf role so that you land on the opposite side. You can go NORTH from this spot and explore other areas however if you switch to the role of the Magician and use MAGIC here then it whisks you to another far ledge that you normally can’t reach. This new area leads you to a grave site. If you take on the role of Strongman you can then LIFT Rexxon’s Arc out of the grave which is Treasure #5.
You can then flick the On/Off switch to the ON position and let the minotaur out of the cage. The elf can USE arc to defeat the minotaur. Once you defeat the minotaur you can explore the inside of it’s cage where you will encounter a giant, deadly centipede. You can defeat the centipede with the Wand of Palx. When you do so it turns the centipede into the Scholl’s Crown which is Treasure #6.
Once you have the Crown in your possession you can travel back to one of the special junction areas and head to the Deeper Caverns. A location within that section has a bust which is missing the head. If you USE crown in that room the bust moves to reveal a Platinum Hand which is Treasure #7.
In another area in the Deeper Caverns is a strongbox. If you attempt to open the box or use an item on the box it releases snakes which attack you and they sap much of your strength. However if you switch to the role of Strongman and MOVE the box it reveals a hole which contains Marin’s Jewels which is Treasure #8.
Now doing all of this took me a great amount of time. It was time consuming to find many hidden areas on the map and it required patience and perseverance to cycle through each of the character’s and their skills. This is the part of the game where I became “stuck” again and I was starting to lose what patience I had left with the game. I had gone over all of the areas and I knew there was an area on the map that I was missing. I resigned myself to having to begin the elimination process all over again and I knew that it would take hours. I chose instead to “phone a friend” and I contacted Jason Dyer from Renga in Blue and I explained to him the eight treasures that I had found and that I was likely missing a hidden area of the map. Rather than a hint I asked if he had his old maps handy from the game. He did! He sent his maps and I noticed right away that I missed a secret door in an area within the Deeper Caves. I was sure I had checked that room too. I went back to the game and I opened the secret door and continued with the game.
The secret door led to a series of doors and encounters which eventually led me to the Vortex. Once past the vortex I found a dead end area which contained Kimmor’s Staff which was Treasure #9 and I knew immediately what I had to do with it.
In an area of the Deeper Caves is an area where you encounter Count Snoottweeker and no matter what you try or use you cannot seem to defeat this scoundrel. However, when you try to use magic on him he laughs and comments that “your magic doesn’t scare me since I hid Kimmor’s Staff and defeated Kimmor”. So once I had Kimmor’s Staff in my possession I went back to the count and used it on him and was able to defeat him. When you defeat the Count he leaves behind Herc’s Elixir which is finally Treasure #10
*** END OF SPOILERS ***
Once you have all 10 treasures you still need to go back through the maze and explore each area in order to find the weapons that you need to defeat the Tarturian. This more difficult than it sounds because you will not find the weapons you need until you have most of the 10 treasures in your possession. The treasures have magical powers of their own . The battle arc not only defeats the minotaur but it reveals where daggers and poisonous darts are. The Crown helps you uncover the Platinum Hand but it also reveals where swords and spears are. The Wand defeats the dangerous centipede but it also reveals where magic potions are. The Pendant reveals where magic is. Many of these are dead ends or secret areas that the Gladiator has to Search for.
In the land of the Minotaur there is a dead end area which contains a secret door that can only be found by choosing MOVE which swivels a burning torch sconce on the wall which causes the wall to slide open. From this area you’ll find a series of rooms where most of the equipment you need can be found. Finding these sections was not easy.
Once you have the 10 treasures and the all of the weapons in your arsenal then you are ready to face the Tarturian. This is where the game really sets itself apart from others during this period. It is one of the very first games where the concentration is on finding and defeating a “big bad”. It also sports in my opinion one of the very best computer game endings of it’s time. Most game endings during this period are very abrupt or they quickly congratulation you before dropping you into a dos prompt. In The Tarturian; while the entire end sequence is animated and you don’t interact in any way; it was still rewarding to see all that you accomplished in the game reach some sort of fruition.
The secret entrance to the Tarturian is actually found in the Worlock’s Realm. In one area a spider hangs from a strand. If you take on the role of Strongman and PULL the strand a secret door opens and you are asked if you want to enter the lair of the Tarturian. If you do so and you have not collected all the necessary items then you will be defeated. However once you have everything in your arsenal and you choose to do battle with the Tarturian then drama ensues.
A series of animations then begins to play before you.
Once you use the Wizard’s power to defeat his force field you encounter the three headed Tarturian!
The animated sequence and final battle with the big bad at the end of this game is the first of it’s kind for this period and the game itself is very underrated. I am not sure why Oldorf’s Revenge gets more attention than it’s sequel as The Tarturian is a much better game and much bigger in scope though frustrating.