Gargoyle Castle was written by Kit Domenico and supposedly published by Panic Simulations in 1980. I use the word supposedly because I cannot find any cover art or documentation on this game. There is also a bug in the game, at least there was in my version, that prevents you from getting a perfect score. It is a shame if it never did get officially published because I found it to be very entertaining and actually quite good.
This text adventure is a treasure hunt with a twist. You’re tasked with exploring an old tower in order to find ten different treasures. You obtain points for each item that you deposit in the tower’s throne room. So far nothing that sounds original right? The unique twist is this: the puzzles which you encounter in this game are the items that you collect and the way that they interact with one another. There are no adversaries in this game or rooms that contain diabolical traps. The puzzle here is to find out how each of the items you find reacts with the other items in your inventory. You may find that this interaction leads to new areas to explore or may very well provide you with one of the ten treasures that you seek.
For example, in a waiting area you find an old, dull ring. In another location, a workroom, you find an old cloth made of soft fibers. If you use the cloth to clean the ring you find that you are holding a gleaming gold ring and that it is one of the ten treasures that you have to find. This example is the simplest of the item interactions and it is a puzzle which has been used in other games as well. You will find as you progress through the game that these interactions become much more interesting and original.
Another unique feature of Gargoyle Castle is that you create new locations or rooms by digging. Two different items that you can find in the game are a gardening trowel and an antique shovel. Both of them will give you the ability to dig. You will find many opportunities to use them.
The parser consists of a two word vocabulary and the location descriptions are very brief. However the tower locations and items that you find work together to create a mysterious and immersive environment.
There are ten treasures to find and deposit in the throne room and you receive 10 points apiece for putting each of them in the throne room.
However another unique feature of this game is that it penalizes you for sloppiness and deducts points from your score if you don’t clean up after yourself. I found that anything you do not deem a treasure, once you’ve exhausted it’s use, must be thrown in the garbage heap located in one of the rooms of the tower. I have not encountered anything like this in any of the previous games I’ve played. Once you do this you are no longer deducted points for sloppiness.
I encountered a glitch in my version of this game. I even started the game over and tried a different sequence and still encountered the same problem. I still encourage you to try this game as I found it highly enjoyable.
SPOILER AHEAD
I suggest that the last treasure you find is the gargoyle. There is a section in the tower in which you can dig a hole. When you descend into the hole you will encounter a gargoyle. If you attempt to pick the gargoyle up he will attack. If you are wearing your armor, you will remain unscathed. If you took your armor off, inventory management in this game can get tricky at times, you will instantly be killed by the gargoyle and have to begin again. When you encounter this gargoyle you must have the rope in your possession. You then want to tie the rope to the gargoyle which turns his reaction from hostile to angry for some reason. When you type LOOK again you will see a * appear next to the gargoyle which now denotes him as a treasure to be placed in the throne room. When you go to lead the gargoyle out of the hole it drops you to dos. In the game I was playing, the gargoyle just so happened to be the last treasure I needed. The other nine were safely ensconced in the throne room. When I went to lead the gargoyle out of the pit, it congratulated me on my win even though I had not returned him yet and didn’t give me the ten points for the gargoyle. So I found all ten treasures but finished with a score of 90. When I restarted the game and attempted to make the gargoyle my first treasure it just dropped me to dos with no congratulatory win or points. I am not sure if there are other versions out there where this error does not occur but I wanted to make you aware of it; so that you can play the entire game and save the gargoyle for last. It is worth doing so.
END OF SPOILER
Regular readers of my blog know that I was growing very weary of the treasure hunt trope but Gargoyle Castle presents it in a new and slightly unique way; enough so that it qualifies as a sleeper hit for me here in 1980.
Fascinating game – it’s not one that I can recall ever reading about before so well done on unearthing it! I will add it to my ever-growing list of games to be played some day.
Unfortunately the treasure hunt trope would haunt the design of adventure games all the way through the commercial era of the 1970s and 80s. Scott Adams, after showing some early promise, would fall back on it for many of his later games. Infocom was more successful in creating adventures with a variety of objectives but even they weren’t immune to resorting to it at times (“Hollywood Hijinx” for example).
As an aside, it’s reading about forgotten adventures which makes this website so interesting. The well-known games of the era have been much reviewed elsewhere so it is great when you play something obscure.
Thank you William I certainly appreciate your kind words and glad you’re along for the ride. I’m glad you’ve added the game to your list to play