Author: professor6153

You take the dusty stairs two at a time and charge urgently up into the gloom. You find yourself in a cozy little room crammed with shelves, worn carpet and comfortable chair. Stacks of books tower precariously around the chair and a smoking pipe floats in mid-air above a side table. There is a sudden WHOOSH of air and suddenly the old mage appears out of nowhere to stand before his chair. He turns and acknowledges your arrival with a sudden arch of his eyebrow. “Here for another story are you?” The glowing circle pulsing on the floor suddenly disappears as he plucks his pipe out of mid-air and unceremoniously deposits himself into the folds of his old chair.

“Well sit down, sit down I’m not getting any younger.” He takes a puff of the pipe and appears lost in thought. The smoke rises towards the ceiling of the room; taking the shape of a stag being chased by a wolf. “Let’s see…. last time I told you about Morloc’s Tower; so it’s time for something completely different.”

Burial Ground is an interactive text adventure written by Joel Mick who was only 12 at the time. In the late 1980’s Joel Mick would attend the University of Pennyslvania and get tagged by Richard Garfield to help get the Alpha card set ready for Magic the Gathering. He later became Head Designer and Developer and then Magic’s Brand Manager. He would design Antiquities, Weatherlight, Mirage, Visions, Arabian Nights and Sixth Edition for you Magic the Gathering enthusiasts.

It is at this point that I start to ask a question when the old man vehemently waves me off. “Pay attention now lad; interactive fiction requires you to use your imagination! Hrumph! Now where was I….”

“There really is no plot to Burial Adventure. You find yourself on an island with a house and a kennel of dogs. I’m reminded of Ronald Dahl’s The Most Dangerous Game“, here the old mage chuckles and then scowls upon noticing my look of confusion, “…the youth of today need to spend more time with their nose in a good book rather than playing video games!”

“However it is not YOU that is hunted but instead your job is to be the hunter and collect a number of treasures and then deposit them in a safe spot.”

“When you find yourself trapped in a pit you’re going to need a rope to get out. Once you have the shovel in hand you can find the rope that you need by digging in the disgusting swamp. The dogs are going to need to be pacified in order to get the key that they are guarding. Be sure to watch the television inside the house; one of the commercials will nudge you in the right direction.”

“Finding the burial ground can be the hardest part of the game and that is merely because of word play and syntax. When you’re on the beach near the cliffs and they describe a hole you can go down; you can go down the cliffs but you can ALSO go down the hole. You’re going to want to be explicit and actually GO HOLE in order to make your way into the catacombs. I found myself hung up on this spot for some time before I realized I’d dug my own mental hole.”

The old wizard chuckles to himself at his own joke but frowns when I politely laugh as well.

“In the catacombs you’ll acquire the rubies, diamond jewelry, ancient drawings, and gold cross.” Here he wags a finger; “You’ll want to take a shovel with ya because at one point you’re going to have to dig your way out. If you don’t bring the shovel with ya you’re done for.”

“When you’re in the house; you need something to reach and push up the attic door in order to climb up. You’ll need the bamboo pole to get that job done.”

“Here is the list of treasures that you’re going to need to find:

• a pile of rubies
• diamond jewelry
• ancient drawings
• a gold cross
• a valuable portrait of George Washington
• a big black pearl
• an old stamp album

“Now if you’ll excuse me; the Innkeeper has a spider infestation problem that I need to take care of…..”

Wilderness Campaign is the direct sequel to Robert Clardy’s Dungeon Campaign which was released a year earlier. You can read my review and experience with Dungeon Campaign HERE. The sequel takes graphical role-playing games on a very early foray to the great outdoors. In 1979 the only other computer role-playing game that introduced an outdoor map was Richard Garriot’s Akalabeth: World of Doom.

Where Garriot’s game excelled in the wireframe dungeons Clardy ‘rolls a 20’ with his outdoor campaign. Wilderness Campaign is a turn based game set in a fantasy world, starring a party of adventurers on a mission to save the once prosperous realm of Draconia from the dreaded Necromancer. This evil Necromancer has ensconced himself in a magically protected keep. This is the first computer role-playing game to stage a complete outdoor campaign and serves as a pioneer for others that would follow.

The game consists of a single outdoor map which contains castles, towns, ruins, temples, mountains, forests, deserts, swamps, and of course the dreaded keep of the evil Necromancer. The keep of the Necromancer is a fixed location however the ruins, towns, and temples are always randomly generated with each new game.

There is quite a bit of strategy and management involved with this game. You do not merely control a single character but a large party. You begin with 10 fighters but you can add to your party over the course of the campaign. You should have a party size of roughly 50-75 individuals before you decide to storm the Necromancer’s keep. Here is where the management and strategy come in to play. You can hire mercenaries in the towns that you visit; but you can only do so once per town. You will attract the number of mercenaries based upon the amount of gold or salary you’re willing to pay your mercenaries. When you visit a castle a benevolent ruler may decide to bestow some fighters and gold quadroons to you to aid in your quest.

The more mercenaries you acquire the more gold you’re going to have to accumulate in order to pay them. If you run out of gold and cannot pay them they will abandon you and leave the party; drastically reducing your numbers.

Food adds another layer of complexity to the game. Like in Akalabeth, you have to manage your food and if you run out of food you will starve and perish! The mercenaries that you hire do not eat for free. The larger the party you have the more food is subtracted from your supply as you move about the map. So you must have enough gold to not only pay the salaries of these fighters but you must have enough gold to stock up on food in each town in order to keep them fed.

You not only purchase food in each of the towns but you also have the ability to purchase supplies. The armor, weapons, and equipment that you purchase is shared by your entire party. You will also find that you will not be able to cross terrain or certain obstacles without the proper equipment. So you’ll have to spend a lot of your gold purchasing items to prepare for just about any contingency. You will find that not all of the towns you visit may have the equipment that you need. You will have to move about the map and visit the various towns in order to find items to help you traverse parts of the map. For example I found that the inflatable boats and rope ladders were not found in every town but you had to quest for them. Once you have items in your possession then your entire party can move beyond the outdoor obstacle.

Once you begin to purchase a lot of the food and equipment you need in your outdoor campaign you’re also going to have to purchase porters to help you move the equipment around the map. These porters are also purchased in each of the towns and are not as much financial upkeep as your fighters however you do need to pay their salaries on time just as you do the mercenaries. The more gold quadroons you offer in each town the more porters you’ll attract.

So where do you acquire all of the gold you’ll need to buy the proper equipment, pay your mercenaries and your porters? You acquire gold from benevolent rulers in castles and from exploring ruins and temples as well as some of the wandering encounters. Your graphic display does not switch from an outdoor map to a dungeon like it does in Akalabeth. You switch to a combat screen for wandering encounters and combat within ruins and temples.

Once you choose to enter into combat you switch to a combat screen and combat then plays out over a number of rounds. Your combat rolls are affected by your attribute scores, the amount of experience you have, any magic items you possess, and a luck factor. The luck factor is rolled for randomly by pressing the space bar to choose a number; shades of Clardy’s Dungeon Campaign. In each round if an attacker’s score is greater than a defender’s score then casualties ensue. Mathematically it is extremely important to do well the first round of combat and achieve an upper hand where sheer numbers can then bring about defeat. If you take too many casualties in the first round your best option is to then run.

When you enter a ruin or temple you can choose to keep pressing the Search key for new encounters and the chance for more gold. This is where strategy and management come in to play and you have to strive to strike some sort of balance. Each time you find yourself in combat you may lose party members. If your party number weakens you will never be able to survive an assault on the Necromancer’s keep. However if you don’t embroil yourself in enough encounters you won’t have the gold to pay your mercenaries. Once you do begin to lose mercenaries you cannot go back to previous towns to recruit more. Your only option is to travel to a town you’ve never been to and recruit more.

You ultimately want to find the Sanctuary of the Great Mage who then gives you a choice of two gifts.

You definitely want to choose the Staff of Power as one of your options. You will need it to bring down the force field surrounding the Necromancer’s keep.

Once you have located the Sanctuary of the Great Mage, secured the Staff of Power, and have 50-70 party members, you can then choose to assault the Keep of the Necromancer. You’ll need to expend shots from the Staff of Power to knock out the force field surrounding the keep but then once you do you’ll find yourself in a titanic skirmish with the forces emanating from the keep. It is an epic battle which is why you need strength in numbers. Should you prevail, you’ll be rewarded with the screen above.

I greatly enjoyed Wilderness Campaign. I thought it was much more polished than Clardy’s previous Dungeon Campaign and I felt immersed in a role-playing game. The outdoor map represented a world in which I wanted to explore and it was exciting to see just what WOULD happen when I landed on a ruin, temple, or town. You will encounter traps as you traverse the map such as avalanches, earthquakes and quick sand. You will have to make a saving throw using the space bar and your result will determine if you lost party members or not. It took me two hours to play through a campaign and defeat the Necromancer although on my first two attempts I died rather quickly until I found an optimal party size balance.

I highly recommend Robert Clardy’s Wilderness Campaign. It is the first CRPG where the entire gameplay and focus is on an outdoor map. There are enough elements in this game that makes it feel like a true RPG experience.

Dunjonquest: Morloc’s Tower was played emulating an Apple II platform. It took me 2 hours to beat the game though I am sure others could do so in considerably less time. Morloc’s Tower is another Microquest from Jonathan Freeman and Jeffrey A. Johnson. The Microquest designation means that there is no choice of character type or generation of attributes. You once again take on the role of Brian Hammerhand who was the main protagonist in Datestones of Ryn and whose short story in Temple of Apshai served to introduce readers to that fantasy world. The game manual packaged with this game contains another Brian Hammerhand short story and it is equally entertaining and serves to properly setup the scenario.

The overall arching plot here is to enter Morloc’s tower and slay the mad wizard before he destroys the peaceful town of Hagedorn.

Morloc’s tower is comprised of 6 floors containing a total of 30 rooms. The structure of the tower and the treasures found within the tower remain constant. The traps within the tower and where some of the monsters may be encountered in the game are random each time you play.

The graphical representation, movement and keyboard controls should look and feel familiar to those who have already played Temple of Apshai or Datestones of Ryn. The one significant difference, which in my opinion elevates the potential of the series going forward, is the addition of the U command which allows the player to USE a treasure or item which has been found. This is the key feature that makes Morloc’s Tower unique and caused me to fall in love with this little game.

It would be very easy for me to complain about the slow movement speed of the character icon or to roll my eyes at the simple graphics (ROGUE would come along later to show us that you do not need great graphics to deliver an outstanding game) represented here. I could also lament about the lack of any character generation or the absence of room descriptions(remember the Microquest designation). I believe though that you have to put on your CRPG historian cap here and realize that it IS only 1979. Automated Simulatons, Inc. published three CRPG’s in the same year and they realized they had a bonafide hit on their hands with the Dunjonquest series. They were experimenting with different iterations in the series and the addition of the USE command added an entirely new level of depth to the game.

On the most basic level, players could spend time mapping out the tower “dungeon”, battle monsters, and acquire treasures. However if you enjoy solving puzzles there is an entirely new wrinkle added to Dunjonquest. When you find treasures scattered throughout the tower you have to deduce their function and learn to use them properly in your quest. If you want to track down and slay Morloc you’re going to have to use your wits to learn the functions or benefits of each of the treasures you find.

The following items represent the treasures you can find within Morloc’s Tower and what they will do ( SPOILER ) If you intend to play Morloc’s Tower skip this listing of treasures as spoilers are provided:

• A gold ring (serves no function)
• A small pyramid with a dull black base and softly glowing blue sides (this prevents Morloc from teleporting out of any room that he is in)
• A polished circlet of gold adorned with two large diamonds (this item when picked up actually works AGAINST the pyramid and will force you to have to chase Morloc all over the tower)
• A brass ring (protects you from fire damage)
• A statuette of a lovely nymph. This affects your encumbrance a great deal and has no useful function
• A black metal egg ( a giant grenade that deals a significant amount of fire damage to everyone in the room )
• A large boxlike device. Most of one face is opaque glass; below this are several knobs. (this allows you to see where Morloc is within the tower at all times. This device greatly affects your encumbrance and movement)
• A copper ring (there are two of these within the tower – they gradually heal all of your wounds)
• A brass amulet (protects you from fire)
• A sword with a gleaming silver blade, finely wrought and well balanced. ( a magical sword)
• A pouch filled with strong smelling herbs and other unidentifiable substances (this has no useful function)
• A hunting horn (this has no magical properties however if you use it you may attract wandering monsters)

The guardians that you’ll encounter in the tower are varied and creative. The magical suits of armor that animate can deal tremendous damage to you but are extremely vulnerable to a (T)hrust whether than all out (A)ttack. Wolf hounds and dire wolves are common wandering monsters on each of the six levels. You will also encounter Golems, Ogres, and Vampire Bats. There are three “bosses” or stand out encounters that are difficult. The creeping crud that resembles a giant amoeba is extremely deadly. You’ll have to dispatch this adversary because the treasure it guards is important. There is also a fire breathing lizard (dragon) on the third level that you can spend a lot of time and resources defeating but it is not necessary because the treasure this small dragon guards is always useless.

Morloc represents the “big bad” and defeating him is your ultimate goal. If you use three of the items you find in conjunction with one another slaying this mad wizard becomes a simple affair. Sometimes Morloc will fling a fireball at you or he may conjure a creature for you to fight. Once you defeat Morloc you’ll jump to a screen where you are given a score based on how much time it took you to defeat Morloc, the number of creatures you killed, and treasures you found. This represents the third facet of the game. You can play the game again to try to improve your score or to compare to others.

Mapping the six levels of Morloc’s Tower is a simple affair. The stairs to each level are always located in the bottom right corner of the map. Each tower level perfectly fits your monitor view so there are no vast, sprawling levels. Each level consists of five rooms.

I greatly enjoyed Morloc’s Tower. The premise of storming a mad wizard’s tower, surviving deadly traps and monsters and puzzling out enchanted artifacts all to track down and slay an evil wizard checks a lot of boxes for me. The overall plot as well as the addition of getting to (U)se and puzzle through the artifacts you find is a big series improvement for me. This 2nd Microquest installment from Freeman and Johnson really resonated with me.

Jon Freeman, cofounder of Automated Simulations would later marry Anne Westfall. In 1981, Freeman and Westfall would leave Epyx to create Free Fall Associates along with game designer Paul Reiche III. Free Fall went on to develop two highly acclaimed games published by Electronic Arts: Archon and Archon II. Freeman is recently credited with some recent development with Square Enix. Jeff Johnson took a position with SSI and worked on games such as Phatasie III, Eternal Dagger, and Wizards Crown.

A band of some two-dozen thieves and cutthroats, led by the infamous robber baron, Rex the Reaver, have stolen the duchy’s most revered possessions, the foundation of the ducal calendar, the datestones.

The thieves fled and were pursued by the Duke’s own cavalry. Rex the Reaver led his brigands to their cave complex in the foothills of the Haunted Mountains, there to rest until nightfall, when they could slip out a secret exit under cover of darkness.

It was late in the afternoon before Captain Morpheus of the cavalry, tortuously following the trail, led his men to the cavern entrance.

Stationing them in a picket line around this shadowy opening, he pondered the situation briefly before calling for a volunteer to go inside. If the rumor was true, and there was a secret exit, decisive action would have to be taken before sunset, and it was already hard upon dusk in the hills. Venturing en masse into a certain ambush was little better than suicide. Their own noise would effectively mask the rogues’ actions, and torchlight would make them easy
targets. Going in darkness was still worse; they’d stumble about and count
themselves lucky not to be killed by their own comrades.

No, the answer to stealth was stealth. Tum the robbers’ own tricks against them. One brave, sly (and, of course, junior) officer might succeed where even a small number of troopers might not. You, mercenary at large, have drawn the short straw, have the singular honor of undertaking this hazardous but glorious mission. Will you emerge victorious, carrying the sacred stones and the head of Rex the Reaver, or will you meet ignominious defeat, pierced through by a cold steel blade thrust from the shadows? The honor of the duchy is in your hands.

This is the excellent and well written premise for this follow up to Temple of Apshai. This is a much shorter scenario in the Dunjonquest series and given the moniker of Microquest. You have a 20 minute time limit to get into the cavern complex, get as many of the datestones as you can, and get out.

There is an additional point bonus for being outside of the caverns at the expiration of the time limit. The largest part of your points comes from recovering the datestones. Victory points for the datestones will be awarded only upon their removal from the cavern. You also get points for slaying opponents. Finding and killing Rex the Reaver is a more valuable prize than obtaining a datestone. When you begin play you are just inside the cave complex.

When you begin the game you are not given a choice of character class nor do you have any control over your attributes.

Your stats are provided as you are thrust into the role of protagonist Brian Hammerhand who was first introduced in the Temple of Apshai. The attribute scores generated are always the same from game to game. There is not an accumulation of experience points nor any kind of character growth or progression. There is not an innkeeper in this game nor a place to purchase weapons & armor. This particular Microquest plays more like an arcade experience rather than a role-playing game.

The graphics and controls will feel familiar to veterans of the Temple of Apshai. There really are no differences though fatigue is a much bigger factor in this game. There is a 20 minute time limit imposed to get as many of the Datestones as you can and then get out. So you’re in a race against the clock. The cave complex, because of the time limit, is very small. I mapped out a total of 9 rooms. There are also a total of 36 Datestones. There is also monster or brigand in every room as well as wandering encounters that spawn in the halls. I encountered centipedes, robbers, skeletons, skeletal bats, spiders, swamp rats, and Rex Reaver himself. Most of these creatures perish after two hits however there are so many of them that they begin to wear you down. You do have arrows which you can use however the random encounters spawn so close to you in the halls that it renders your bow useless. The combination of combat and moving quickly through halls and in and out of rooms with Datestones makes dealing with fatigue a constant.

I emulated Datestones of Ryn on a TRS-80 platform. The result was that I found the rendering of the walls and rooms to be extremely slow. My experience with Temple of Apshai had been on the Apple II platform and I found that gameplay there was much faster.

I found a magic sword in the upper northeast chamber as well as a secret door. The chest containing the magical sword is trapped. The room beyond the secret door is where you will find Rex the Reaver. I found combat with the big bad was surprisingly easy however the trapped chest filled with spiders in that same room was NOT. In my first foray I only escaped with 7 Datestones. My next successful venture resulted in me escaping with 11 Datestones. In another scenario I escaped with 15 and killed Rex the Reaver. In between all of these successes I died A LOT. I have to hand it to anybody who finds all 36 Datestones, kills Rex the Reaver, and exits within 20 minutes. That is extremely impressive. I mapped out the entire complex; and I could leave with many Datestones, kill Rex the Reaver and leave; but I never did collect all of the Datestones AND kill Rex the Reaver. I may have had the patience for several more missions if the graphic rendering had been faster.

I found Datestones of Ryn to be more of an arcade experience than a computer role-playing game. I don’t take issue with that however the differences between this game with Temple of Apshai need to be stressed. I found the premise and idea to be engaging and well presented. I found the difficulty level to be above average given the number of encounters and traps. I spent approximately 4 hours with this game and appreciated finally having the time to sit down with this little piece of gaming history.

The Temple of Apshai was the most successful and most widely ported game in the Dunjonquest series.

Dunjonquest is a series of single player computer role playing games. The games relied on strategy and pen and paper RPG style rules and statistics. There were actually three different kinds of Dunjonquest games and I used to get confused about the particular order of the titles and how they should be played. I wanted to take a moment to identify the different types of Dunjonquest games.

There were two basic types of Dunjonquest games:

• Temple of Apshai & Hellfire Warrior and their related expansions are all larger games. Each contain four dungeons with detailed room descriptions and there is no time limit. These games have an Innkeeper area where the player character is created and equipment can be bought and sold. Character statistics can also be typed in manually and character saves were allowed between sessions. The dungeons are reset upon each visit.
• Datestones of Ryn, Morloc’s Tower and Sorcerer of Siva were sold under a MicroQuest label and were half the price of the larger games. Each were confined to a single, smaller dungeon and the player had to achieve a goal with a time limit. There are no room descriptions and no Innkeeper, the player character is predefined.

• Temple of Apshai (Augus 1979) – the first and most successful of the Dunjonquest titles is a longer game spanning four dungeons with more than 200 rooms with detailed descriptions. The game had no specific goal other than explore a temple to amass treasure and gain experience.
• Datestones of Ryn (November 1979) – the first in the Microquest series. The object is to enter a lair of robbers, find as many of the Datestones as you can in a 20 minute time limit and get out. This was a stand alone, shorter game.
• Morloc’s Tower (September 1980) – the second Microquest adventure finds you exploring a six story tower with over 30 rooms total. Morloc is a boss enemy who has to be defeated within 45 minutes of starting the game.
• Hellfire Warrior (September 1980) – a direct sequel to Temple of Apshai consisting of four different dungeons. Players are led into the ruins underneath the temple. The four dungeon levels are: The Lower Reaches of Apshai, The Labyrinth of the Minotaur, The Vault of the Dead, and The Plains of Hell.
• Upper Reaches of Apshai (September 1981) – this is an Expansion Pack to Temple of Apshai. It contains four new dungeon levels for beginning characters and contains a more humorous tone.
• The Keys of Acheron (September 1981) – the first Expansion Pack to Hellfire Warrior provides four new dungeon levels to find the four Keys of Acheron. The player is constantly stalked by a demon who tries to prevent the finding of the keys.
• Sorcerer of Siva (December 1981) – the last stand alone game in the series. The player takes on the role of a wizard, who is thrown in a labyrinth of mines by his rival.
• Curse of Ra (1982) – this is the second Expansion Pack for the Temple of Apshai. It is set in ancient Egypt and has a higher difficulty level then the previous two parts. It consists of four new dungeon levels with 179 rooms.
• Danger in Drindisti (1982) – the second Expansion Pack to Hellfire Warrior also features four new dungeons. The player has to defeat a boss enemy in each level.
• Temple of Apshai Trilogy (1985) – featuring the main game and it’s two Expansion Packs. New graphics and music were added. This new version is now available on Steam.

You begin the Temple of Apshai game with the Innkeeper. You can create a character here as well as purchase armor, weapons, and supplies. You have two different ways that you can choose to generate a character:

• You can choose to have the Innkeeper create a character for you. In this instance the computer will randomly generate your six character attributes.
• You can choose to manually enter or type in a character that you’re currently playing in a fantasy role-playing campaign. You can type in your own attribute scores with 18 being the maximum. If your character in the campaign had magical weapons or armor you can manually enter those as well. This was clearly an attempt to create cross platform opportunities for characters in a real-life Dungeons & Dragons campaign with that of a computer game.

The six character attributes are Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence and Ego. Once your character has been generated and appropriately named you are given some starting silver and allowed to purchase weapons and supplies. There are not a lot of choices here but certainly many more choices than Akalabeth: World of Doom provided. You can even purchase a bow, arrows, salves, and elixirs.

One you have purchased all of your gear you are ready to start your foray into one of the Temple dungeons. There are four different dungeons in Temple of Apshai. The first level is for character levels 1-3 and thus is the easiest of the dungeons and then each level gets progressively harder. The fourth dungeon is the hardest level and combat can be grueling. You can only move between the four different dungeons by way of the Innkeeper. So once you have completed the first level you may head back and sell the treasures that you have collected and also purchase more equipment. Each time you successfully venture into the dungeons you acquire experience points. The more experience points you earn the more powerful you become. Each time you make your way back to the Innkeeper he will keep track of your experience points. The Innkeeper will continue to track your experience points until you turn off the computer or generate a new character. When you leave the Innkeeper he will ask you which dungeon level you want to explore. You can choose 1 through 4.

There is no major plot or goal in Temple of Apshai other than to explore the four dungeon levels and amass as much gold and treasure as you can. It is necessary to map the levels out by hand using graph paper or you will easily become lost.

I ended up amassing 3,655 experience points after exploring Level 1. Most of my encounters on this level were with Ant Men, Beetles, and Leeches. There were five different traps on this first level that you’ll want to be wary of: the lily trap, needle trap, pit trap, spear trap, and mold trap. This is what your computer screen looks like while exploring the Temple:

The graphics are simple but they certainly get the job done. The view of the dungeon is from a top down perspective. There are secret doors and rooms so you’ll need to take the time to search for them. Your wounds and fatigue are monitored on the upper right side of the screen as well as your total number of monsters slain. Remember this is how you gain experience points and increase in power.

Where the Temple of Apshai really shines however is with the manual that comes with the game. You’ll notice in the upper right hand corner of the screen there is a room number. There are a total of 233 rooms among the four dungeon levels and every single room has a written description in the manual. Once you enter a room and deal with any inhabitants you can then read the room description in the manual.

When I first started play I found the experience of moving from the computer screen to the manual to read room descriptions a little over stimulating and I felt discombobulated. However after several rooms I found that this helped to create a more immersive experience and I found myself to be greatly enjoying the process. The writing is very well done and it definitely creates a particular mood or tension. One of my favorite rooms involved an altar and a giant statue of a praying mantis. If you rob or disturb the altar the giant praying mantis comes to life and you have to do battle with it. The graphic of the giant mantis actually looked pretty cool too. The treasures that you find in the game are also numbered and they have specific descriptions in the manual as well. This was definitely a way to work around the technology that currently existed in order to create a more immersive experience. You will later see that the very popular Gold Box series from SSI adopted this same format. The Temple of Apshai was a tremendous commercial success for its era, selling 20,000 copies by the end of 1981 and 30,000 copies by June of 1982. It remained a best seller for four years and was followed by several sequels that were collectively known as the Dunjonquest series which I outlined above.

Once I finished exploring and mapping the second level of Apshai I had now accumulated a total of 8,095 experience points and I had a magic sword in my possession too. The Temple of Apshai manual also contains a short story introducing the character of Brian Hammerhand. This fictional character appears in several short story sections in the different dunjonquest manuals. The author uses him as an introduction into the fantasy world and narrative. The manual is extremely well done and very impressive. The manual concept is very similar to role-playing solitaire adventures.

Once I arrived at the Innkeeper after my sojourn into the 3rd dungeon level I found I had amassed 16,320 experience points. I was getting very comfortable mapping out the levels and getting great enjoyment moving from the computer screen to reading the detailed room descriptions in the manual. There definitely was a difficulty progression moving from the first dungeon level to the fourth. The difficulty factor became very apparent however with the fourth dungeon level.

In the fourth dungeon level you’ll find that the monsters are much more numerous. Every time you think an encounter has concluded another Antman or creature will respawn. I ended up surviving the fourth level but BARELY and this is after gaining a lot of confidence from my foray into the third. When I reached the Innkeeper I had a total of 24,135 experience points.

Each level took approximately 2.5 hours to play. I spent 10-12 total hours with the game on the complete play-through.

I found the Temple of Apshai to be extremely enjoyable. It goes to show you that you don’t necessarily need great graphics to enjoy a good game. The introduction of the detailed room descriptions in the manual created a much greater immersive experience for me and the writing was great. It is easy to see how this game launched an entire series of sequels.

The Temple of Apshai and Akalabeth: World of Doom were the ambassadors in this era for all of the other CRPGs that would come after them. I am very grateful to have found the time to be able to sit down and experience this game in its entirely. I strongly recommend that you try this piece of CRPG history. Coincidentally, the Temple of Apshai Trilogy was just released on Steam for only $3.99 so journey back through time and brave the dungeons of Apshai!

“Beware, foolish mortal, you trespass in Akalabeth, world of doom!” This was the warning found on a card insert inside the Akalabeth packaging. The packaging consisted of a Ziploc bag which also contained a 5 1/4 Apple II disk and photocopied instructions. Richard Garriott, still in high school, had spent $200 to package and sell Akalabeth and this was the result. The cover was drawn by Richard Garriot’s mother. Garriott did not realize it at the time but this decision would launch a flagship series for the CRPG genre and transform him into an industry icon. Akalabeth is now seen as part of the Ultima series. It was included in the 1998 Ultima Collection where it officially picked up the name Ultima 0.

Richard’s father, Owen, was an astronaut and had temporarily shared the title for the longest space flight any human has ever taken. Owen would routinely bring home expensive government toys from NASA headquarters which Richard and his two older brothers would experiment with. Richard’s mother, Helen, was a free spirited artist who had a large studio in the garage. She was always working on a project and her children always had an open invitation to join in. The Garriott home was a cross between a mad scientist’s laboratory and an art studio. Richard was blessed as a young man to have been brought up in a home that pushed computers and technology, instilled a sense of adventure, and fostered experimentation and creativity. Garriott was loved by his parents and his creativity and decisions seemed to be fully endorsed and supported.

Richard’s parents had sent him to a seven week summer computer camp at Oklahoma University. It was there that Richard discovered the game Dungeons & Dragons as well as a newfound sense of community. It was at computer camp where he was also given the nickname of British which would later become Lord British. When Garriott returned to high school in the fall he wanted to continue to foster that feeling of community so he began to recruit friends to play Dungeons & Dragons. They played the game in Richard’s home and soon word began to spread throughout the school like wildfire. Everyone wanted to play. On the weekends there would be a group playing in the kitchen of the Garriott home, the dining room, the living room, and Helen even gave up her art studio in the garage and put together two ping pong tables without nets for a gaming table. The teens would play all weekend and even several groups of parents would socialize on the Garriott’s front porch. Richard Garriott had created that community through his passion for gaming.

In his Houston high school, Richard had a basic computer class which was already taught well below his ability level. Teachers and administrators recognized his ability and modified the course so that he could work on independent projects. Richard wanted to extend his gaming community beyond the boundaries of his home and wanted to give that same sense of adventure and excitement to the entire world. So he began to work on a game in Applesoft BASIC for the Apple II during his junior year. His father bought him an Apple II for home as well. When the game reached the 28th version he demoed the game – now renamed Akalabeth – for his boss at a Texas area Computerland where he worked the summer of his senior year. His boss was so impressed he suggested that Richard sell the game in the store. This suggestion led to the package pictured above and claimed to offer “10 different Hi-Res Monsters combined with perfect perspective and infinite dungeon levels”.  California Pacific Computer Company received a copy, and contacted Garriott to publish the game. Garriott flew to California with his parents and agreed to receive $5 for each copy sold. The retail price of the California Pacific version, with cover artwork by Denis Loubet, was $35. The company suggested that for marketing purposes “Lord British” be credited as the author, and organized a contest for Softalk readers to figure out his true identity.

The name Akalabeth comes from Akallabeth, one of the chapters in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. Akalabeth is not based on Lord of the Rings however this appears to be a nod or tribute to Tolkien. Another Tolkien reference in Garriott’s game is that the final enemy you must hunt is a Balrog. “Akalabeth was not made to be published. I made it merely for myself and my friends. It was John Mayer, the manager of the Computerland store where I had a summer job, who encouraged me to spend the large sum (in those days for a high school senior) of $200 to “publish” it on the store wall.” – Richard Garriott

You can read about Garriott’s story as well as the story of other creators, crusaders, and celebrity players in Dungeons and Dreamers by Brad King & John Borland.

Akalabeth checks off a lot of boxes for the computer role-playing game (CRPG) purists. You get your choice of character class. You can choose to play a Fighter or a Mage. If you choose the Fighter option you can wield a greater variety of weapons and armor. If you choose the Mage option you’ll find you have greater control over the Magic Amulet. The Magic Amulet can cast four different spells for you:

• Ladder Up – this creates a ladder leading up to the level above your present position
• Ladder Down – the creates a ladder that leads down a level from your current position
• Kill – this casts an offensive spell against your opponent
• Bad?? – when you choose to cast this spell three different things can happen: 1) half of your hit points are drained 2) you are turned into a Toad and all of your attributes become 3 or lastly 3) it turns you into a Lizard Man multiplying all of your stats by 2.5. These three different effects are supposed to be completely random but are they really random? More on this later

There is a very limited store in which you are able to buy weapons and armor.

It should be noted that once you buy your initial weapons and armor there is no need for further equipment. You are done. Your choices do not vary with different towns and there is no opportunity to find better equipment or magical items in the dungeons. What you will need from the store is food! Lots of it. You want to buy as much as you can afford. It is very easy to starve to death in Akalabeth. The management of your food can even be a distraction from game play. This part of the game seems to be a direct influence from the Moria game which I reviewed earlier. Akalabeth is the first commercial game where managing your food becomes a part of your survival. This is not a first for the genre but a first for home computer games.

I chose the Mage class and purchased a Magic Amulet and then all of the food that I could afford. Your attributes are randomly generated and you can choose to reroll your stats as many times as you would like. It is important that your character begin with at LEAST 22 gold so that you can purchase the Magic Amulet AND enough food to survive. I chose the Mage class over the Fighter because the Magic Amulet is a deal breaker. The ability to create ladders and move between levels becomes crucial late in the game. I also very much wanted to transform into a Lizard Man! More on that later.

When the game begins it asks you to pick a lucky number from 1 to 100. This becomes an extremely important aspect of the game. The number you choose will procedurally generate the outdoor map in Akalabeth, the placement of Lord British’s castle, surrounding towns and scattered dungeons. The layout of each floor of the dungeon are also procedurally generated according to the number that you choose and EVERY single dungeon will have the SAME layout. This is important because death is permanent in Akalabeth and there is no save game feature! When you perish, and have to restart the game, if you choose the same lucky number, the outdoor map, towns, and dungeons will all be placed in the same spot again and the dungeon level layouts will remain the same. Each different “lucky number” will procedurally generate an entire new configuration for everything.

When I first began I chose number 27 as my “lucky number”. Akalabeth has a first person perspective and wire frame dungeons except when you’re using the outdoor map. The perspective is then top down. There are mountains,

towns,

trees (yes, that’s a tree, use your imagination!)

Lord British’s Castle,

and finally dungeons which are represented by an X on the outdoor map. This is from the documentation that came with the game and it provides us with some background story and a plot hook.

So we’re not out to save the world from the evil Mondain it would appear that Lord British was already victorious in that regard. There is no evil orb to acquire nor is there a necromancer to find and destroy; it would appear we are Lord British’s cleanup crew. The duty before us is to rid the dungeons of the foul creatures found within. Only by doing this are we able to obtain knighthood. Okay I can live with that. I thought it best then to first seek out the Castle of Lord British and obtain my first quest from him. I started to traverse the land of Akalabeth looking for the Castle – and I starved to death and died. I starved four different characters until I finally found his Castle and I received my first quest!

Greeted by his most magnificent excellency Lord British himself! I chose the name of Fost! I was then given my first quest assignment.

Mission now in hand I retreated from the castle to find the nearest dungeon. And I starved to death. I chose “lucky number” 27 again, made my way directly to the castle (since I now knew where it was located), received a new mission, and again starved. It seemed that the Castle of Lord British was inconveniently placed. No matter what I did I could not find a dungeon close enough to fulfill the quest. Couldn’t Lord British see that I was starving? He couldn’t even toss a stale loaf of bread down the steps to feed a devoted servant? I was after all volunteering to clean up his dungeons. Alas I was given no food.

It was at this point that I put on the brakes and begin to explore the use of different “lucky numbers”. I tried the age of each of my kids, I tried the number of years my wife and I have been married; all kinds of different permutations with just about the same amount of luck. I did have some success where “lucky number” 11 was concerned. I could make it to a castle and a dungeon without starving however I was intrigued by the Magic Amulet. If the procedural generation of the outdoor map and dungeons is always the same based on the “lucky number” that you choose than might not the Magic Amulet work the same way? I found this also to be the case. The random affects produced by the Bad?? spell always occurred in the same order for each procedural number. If you enter a dungeon and perform the exact same actions in the exact same order you can expect the exact same results. I knew then that not only did I want to find a “lucky number” that allowed for easy access to Lord British’s Castle but that I also wanted that same “lucky number” to allow me to become a Lizard Man on my first attempt. I spent five hours going down this particular rabbit hole and finally found a number that met both of my criteria in spectacular fashion. The “lucky number” ? 2

Two was the number no more no less. Three was too much; and one was not enough. The “lucky number” was 2 .

When you choose “lucky number” 2 you get this outdoor configuration:

I almost fell out of my chair. The starting town is almost adjacent to the Castle of Lord British. It was literally two steps away – this is extremely important when food becomes a managerial issue. Not only that; but the dungeon itself was just to the north only four steps away!

I made my way into the Castle of Lord British and once again I was given a quest. This time I once again ventured forth as Fost ( I was still playing the Mage Class).

Now that I was armed with my first task I entered the dungeon which was literally only four steps away. Once inside the dungeon I immediately used my Magic Amulet and cast the Bad?? spell. I was transformed into a Lizard Man and all of my attributes were multiplied by 2.5. I left the dungeon, entered again, and did the same exact thing: using the Magic Amulet to cast Bad?? I was again transformed into a Lizard Man and my CURRENT attributes were again multiplied by 2.5. I was amazed. The spell results stack! I did this a few more times and stopped out of fear of breaking the game. I mean we don’t want to get too greedy.

Akalabeth has a pretty unique leveling system. It is based on your experience which checks another CRPG box but it hides the math. Each time you enter a dungeon, encounter and defeat dungeon denizens and leave, you receive a hit point increase based on the number of creatures you killed. Now I don’t consider moving about as a super charged Lizard Man to be cheating as it is in the game and I took advantage of it. It is not on the same level as save scumming or using a walk through. I have honored permadeath in all of the games I’ve played thus far. If this violates a particular code my suggestion would be to enter the dungeon, experience a few encounters, leave the dungeon, enter again, wash, rinse, repeat. In this fashion you can raise your hit points enough not to have to worry about being killed in that fashion. You still have to worry about the management of your food however which remains the largest problem in the game.

Just as the game advertises there are 10 different hi-res monsters that you encounter in the game. The combat increases in difficulty and your foes become more powerful the deeper you delve into the dungeon.

The 10 different monsters are as follows:

• Level One: Skeleton & Thief (the thief steals both money & food)
• Level Two: Giant Rat
• Level Three: Orc
• Level Four: Viper
• Level Five: Carrion Crawler
• Level Six: Mimic
• Level Seven: Gremlin (Steals 1/2 of whatever your food allotment is)
• Level Eight: Daemon
• Level Nine: Balrog (your Final Enemy and always the last monster on the list to be killed)

Once I had defeated a Carrion Crawler on Level 5 I returned to the Lord British’s Castle to receive my next task. Lord British raised each of my attributes by one for succeeding in slaying the Carrion Crawler. He raises your attributes by one with each successful quest completion. My new quest was to find and slay a Gremlin. The Gremlin is probably the most dreaded monster in the entire game. I know it doesn’t look the part but the Gremlin steals half of whatever food allotment you have. So your elevated stats do not matter nor does it matter if you have amassed 2000 food portions. When the Gremlin strikes he steals 1000 of that 2000 number and if he hits again he’ll steal half that number again leaving you at 500. If you do not slay the Gremlin as fast as you can it will steal all of your food and you instantly starve to death. So beware the dreaded Gremlin!

Once that was completed my 3rd task was to find a Mimic and my 4th task was to find a slay a Daemon. My last task and the way that you win the game is to make your way all the way down to level 9 and slay the mighty Balrog! I must say the picture of the Balrog is pretty menacing for wire frame graphics. Once you complete this task the Magic Amulet becomes valuable in the lower levels because you can use charges to simply cast Ladder Up spells to quickly move back up through the dungeon.

The dungeon levels are each 9 x 9 and pretty simple to map out. There are pits that drop you down to lower levels so at the beginning of the game you’ll want to be very wary of these and map where they are to avoid them. Ladders that go up and down are usually in opposite corners of each level as well. Each door or doorway takes up an entire 10′ of space so this does take a little getting used to. I have hand drawn maps of the nine dungeon levels using “lucky number 2” and I can provide them upon request. If you decide to play Akalabeth and choose the “lucky number” 2 you should have the exact same configuration as what I have.

Once you have slain the Balrog and return to Lord British’s Castle this is the message that you receive:

I played Akalabeth on the Apple II platform using an emulator. I need to point out that GOG does offer a free version of Akalabeth but here is an interesting fact. If you download and play that version, no matter what “lucky number” you use, every single time you enter a dungeon it procedurally generates a new layout. Even the same dungeon never has the same layout when you come and go. I found this to be extremely annoying and I moved from that DOS version to the Apple II version. There is also a fan made version of Akalabeth with updated graphics and sound and a graphical intro story however I wanted a true experience so stuck with the original Apple II version.

I really enjoyed finally sitting down and playing this piece of CRPG history. This game was certainly an ambassador for other computer role-playing games that would follow. It was the first commercial release to offer a first person view and wire frame dungeons and it was also the first commercial release that introduced food as survival management. I have read other reviews that felt like the game has not held up well but I must confess to being impressed with the procedural generation of the dungeons and random quest routines associated with each lucky number. In 1979 and 1980 this must have been Dungeons & Dragons nerd nirvana to enthusiasts across the globe. The game does exactly as advertised. It would also initiate what would be one of THE most famous CRPG franchises through time and that would the Ultima Series. Richard Garriott in his guise as Lord British would also go on to be one of the most influential influential characters in the industry in both business and game design.

I spent probably 4.5 hours playing around with the “lucky number” world generation until I found a configuration that didn’t have me starving looking for the Castle. I went a step further and tried to find a number that worked just as well with the use of the Magic Amulet until I found one. Once I started play I probably spent another good 3 hours mapping out the different levels and completing my tasks for Lord British for a total of 9 hours spent with the game. I simply could not wait to sit down and play Akalabeth all the way through. It is the equivalent of strolling about a museum and marveling at the artifacts.

Lords of Karma is an interactive text adventure written by Gary Bedrosian who would later go on to create Empire of the Over-Mind.

The game boasts of an open world setting with virtually no rules.

This game was hands down my favorite interactive adventure from 1978. It was also my favorite overall game from that year. This was the first interactive text adventure that I played where I felt I was exploring a region that was open and made sense. It was the first time where I felt immersed into an environment that I wanted to explore. There is a town, an oak forest, a maple forest, an aspen forest, mountains and a swamp. The land is even bordered by ocean. There are sewer systems and tunnels under the mountains to explore.

The back of the box suggests that you ultimately make all of the decisions in the game and that your choices have consequences. You earn “karma points” or lose “karma points” based on the actions you take in the game. The ultimate end game is to earn enough “karma points” to be able to ascend to heaven. This is THE most original premise we’ve encountered so far from the games in 1978.

You begin the game randomly on one of two mountain tops and can begin to explore from there. There is a genuine feeling of awe and mystery as you have virtually no idea what you should be doing. There are characters AND monsters to interact with. Your first inclination might be to attack or to run but I encourage you to try talking to the different characters you encounter. Talking with each of the NPCs (non player characters) will help you to solve one of the game’s puzzles as well. You will also eventually find a book randomly placed at a location within the game that works very much like a hint or guide book. When you read the book you discover there are five major overall quests. The book doesn’t tell you exactly what to do but instead gives you a cryptic chapter title. This at least gives you a sense of direction and is very original.

The puzzles do require a bit of thought and working through them was very satisfying. The one minor complaint I had with the game is that the number of “karma points” you need to ascend to heaven changes. In one game I was able to ascend with only 220 points while in another game I had 358 “karma points” and was rebuffed. I found that I enjoyed the game environment and trying to work through the puzzles so much that I did NOT want to ascend to heaven. I wanted to stay in the game and explore and experiment. There were a couple of games that I played in 1978 where I found myself asking; ‘ what is the bare minimum I have to do in order to qualify as having won’ because I couldn’t wait to be finished with them. In Lords of Karma I did NOT want to leave but wanted to continue play. I felt that this was a strong testament to the strength of the game and what Gary Bedrosian was able to accomplish.

There ARE treasures scattered about in the game that you can find but you are not awarded “karma points” when you pick them up. However if you give them away or donate them to the church you ARE awarded “karma points”. You will find that certain weapons you use and choices you make can decrease your “karma points” as well. In a wonderful real world juxtaposition you will find that anything that makes your life or quest easier in the game might advance the narrative faster but will also cause you to lose “karma”.

I had gotten very far in the game and could not figure out what to do with the egg that was “cooling”. I had a thought to see if I could get the shimmering mage to throw a fireball at me while it was in my possession but then late one evening I accidentally prayed without thinking about the consequences and I had enough “karma” to ascend to heaven. I chose not to play again simply to solve that one puzzle (it would have required completing a long chain of particular events again) but I find myself wondering about what the solution might be there.

If you perish in the game, and you will perish, you are reincarnated and you find yourself back on a mountain top. You do not lose any of your “karma points” but you do lose all of your possessions and they are randomly scattered throughout the world whereby you have to find them again. So perseverance counts for much.

I was not able to get a winning screenshot for this game. I played Lords of Karma on a platform that emulated the TRS-80. When I prayed and ascended to heaven the screen went by extremely fast and suddenly dumped me to dos.

Lords of Karma was the last game I played from the 1978 selection and it was a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed it very much, it was my favorite game from 1978, and I recommend that you experience this hidden gem.

Quest was written by a school teacher by the name of Roger Chaffee. The code can be found in the July 1978 issue of Byte Magazine which you can find in the Internet Archive here. Chaffee’s school received a pair of Commodore PETs and he wrote the game in only two weeks!

Surprise surprise! We’re going spelunking in search of treasure. In the game you explore the cave complex using compass directions of North, South, East, West, Up and Down using only the first letter of each word.

It took me probably 45 minutes to map the entire game out AND find the treasure. The problem? Now that I had the treasure in hand I found I could not leave the cave complex. The obvious exit is now blocked by the treacherous Gnome-King. The other exit is too narrow for me to fit through now that I have the treasure.

I methodically began to more carefully explore my locations. There are a couple of instances where new locations open themselves up to you. I was not clear if this happened after multiple explorations and was in the code that way or if it was because I was in possession of the treasure. Once I found the Crystal Palace it then led me to a new labyrinth which I was able to work my way through to escape with the treasure.

Colossal Cave continues to influence the interactive fiction in 1978. There is a maze within the cavern complex here AND a labyrinth that you have to work through. I also had my treasure stolen by a pirate in the game but I was able to find it in a dead end to the maze. Once I recovered the treasure the pirate never bothered me again.

The game is small but the locations within the cave complex are interesting enough. I believe I spent a total of 90 minutes playing Quest and I enjoyed the experience. I thought it was very impressive for a teacher to produce this in only two weeks for his students to play. It must have been the talk of the school and thrilling to go into Mr. Chaffee’s computer class in 1978 and play Quest in class.

This is adventure #2 in Scott Adam’s text adventure series. I chose to emulate the game on a TRS-80 platform.

This interactive text adventure is the first to move away from fantasy & horror and delve into a pirate theme. I found the change rather refreshing and I was looking forward to the experience. I found the game to be much tighter thematically than Adam’s previous Adventureland. Yes, like other text adventures that we’ve played from 1978, we’re going on a treasure hunt. However it’s the journey and the pirate-themed trappings that set it apart from the rest.

The difficulty level is easy to moderate and I spent roughly two to three hours on the game.

You start in your flat in London and you’ll have to spend some time exploring your surroundings and picking up some items that you may need later. You’ll eventually find an old, blood-stained copy of Treasure Island among other things and your adventure begins from there.

The first tricky part of the game involves you trying to figure out how you’re going to go from your apartment to an old pirate island. It does involve a bit of magic and if there is anything this old wizard knows regarding magic it’s all about location, location, location.

Once you make your way to the pirate isle you’ll encounter a pirate, a parrot, man-eating alligators, and mysterious locked doors. None of the puzzles are particularly difficult nor do they violate my fair play rules. There were only one or two areas on Pirate’s Isle where I got “stuck” for a little bit but I was able to work my way through it with persistence and a bit of luck. Fans of interactive fiction like to work through puzzles so I always hesitate to provide a complete walkthrough. If this is something you’d like to see me change I’d love to hear from you. My thought process is if I give you the answers to the puzzles then I am possibly spoiling the experience for you should you decided you’d like to play the game. I am very aware as well that many enjoy reading a good walkthrough. I’d love to hear where you stand on this. I will offer up this piece of advice: you may find yourself going back to your flat out of necessity so don’t completely put your flat in London out of your mind.

Instead of 13 treasures like Adams had in his previous adventure you’re only looking for two and both of them are hidden on Treasure Island. You’re going to have to deal with the obstacles on Pirate Island and then figure out how you’re going to get to Treasure Island from where you’re currently marooned.

The length of the adventure took me by surprise. Once I arrived on Treasure Island I thought I might have quite a bit of game left but this last part was a bit anti-climatic though still entertaining. There are two different puzzle solutions in this game where Scott Adams seems to be paying tribute to Colossal Cave.

I was able to complete the entire game without help of any kind though I did become stuck in a couple of spots for a little while.

The theme is new and the story is tight and enjoyable. I enjoyed my time dealing with pirates and searching for buried treasure. Once I had finished I had the yearning to read Treasure Island once again and to watch Pirates of the Caribbean.

Mystery Mansion is an interactive text adventure programmed by Bill Wolpert for a mainframe or university computer similar to PLATO. There are a lot of moving parts in this game; some of them work quite well while others left me extremely frustrated.

Mystery Mansion was not a commercial release in 1978. It was played by university students on campus much like Dungeon, Moria and Zork. Therefore there is no official documentation or instructions which come with the game nor did the game itself offer any. The picture above depicts the start screen for the game. A taxi has dropped you off at the front gate of an old mansion and the game begins there. There is no explanation of any kind as to why you are there or what you are supposed to do. I decided I would walk around the mansion and explore my surroundings before trying to venture inside the gate.

Your movement while you are outdoors is controlled by the compass directions N, S, E, W but the system of movement changes once you are inside the mansion. More on this later. I began exploring to the east and three moves later fell over a 500 foot cliff without warning and I died. This would not be the first time that I fell to my death. It was then that I noticed my score was 47 out of 999 possible points placing me in the Incompetent Asshole category; the latter being my own designation not the games’. I continued my exploration of the grounds outside of the mansion and mapped them out by hand. I encountered a hunter and a woodsman while I was exploring and found a double-bladed axe and an old rusty shovel. Once I was satisfied that I had seen all there was to see I decided to go through the main gate and make my way into the mansion. Now remember up to this point I still had no idea what my purpose was in this game or what I was supposed to do. This will all change soon enough but let’s move away from the story itself and talk about a couple of the games moving parts that I had referred to earlier.

Once inside the mansion movement is no longer dictated by the N, S, E, W commands. It completely changes to Left, Right, Forward and Backward. It took me quite some to figure this out and I found it to be frustrating and not very intuitive. Even after learning that there was a new, unique way to move throughout the house I still found myself having terrible difficulty mapping out the mansion. Rooms and exits that had not been on my left before were suddenly on my left and nothing ever seemed to stay the same. I thought perhaps something was wrong with my version of the game. Then I realized that the new Left, Right, Forward and Backward commands were not static! Meaning that each time you made your way into an area your perspective changed. It always depended on which way you were facing. So maybe the living room was to the left of the main hall; but if you entered the main hall from the ball room then the living room would now be on your right. I have to tell you; I found this to be so frustrating that it was almost a deal breaker for me. It was the first time in my exploration of these older games that I had encountered something so maddening that it almost ruined the entire experience for me. If you find the compass in the mansion it will revert movement so that you can then use N, S, E , W and get a true read of the map of the mansion. While some might have appreciated this I found the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. The idea of finding an item to fix a game mechanic didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t find the compass, which was located on the second floor, until much later in the game because I wanted to explore the lower levels first. In later games I would rush upstairs to go get the compass so I could quickly put this issue to rest.

The writing in Mystery Mansion is extremely well done. It is far superior to the other text adventures which we have experienced in 1978. This was the first piece of interactive fiction where you really had to pay close attention to room and location descriptions. You have the ability to manipulate and remove items based on the descriptions. In this game nothing is apparent. Everything is hidden. An example of this can be found in the game room. One of the objects described there is a radio. You can actually turn the radio on and it will provide you with an important clue. In interactive fiction we have experienced thus far, items you can take or manipulate have been kept separate from location descriptions. This is still the case with Mystery Mansion however there are so many other things you can manipulate that are embedded in the location descriptions now. The words confuscate and obtuse come to mind.

The more exploration of the mansion that you do you come to realize that you are in the middle of a murder mystery. The main part of the game plays like a game of clue. There is a corpse, a list of suspects, and multiple murder weapons. In order to win the game you need to have the correct murder weapon in your possession; and you have to lure the murderer back to the scene of the crime. Once you have all three things: suspect, scene and murder weapon correct you will be awarded many points. None of this is very clear. You have to do quite a bit of exploring and combat the movement mechanics of the game in order to deduce that this is what you need to do.

This leads me to what was another infuriating aspect of this game. I had no idea at all that you could QUESTION your suspects. The only way I found this out was by obtaining a book found in the library. If you READ the book it will give you one word or verb that it recognizes in the game. I had died enough that eventually the word QUESTION was found in the book. I almost fell out of my chair. Once you begin to QUESTION each of your suspects they randomly offer you clues which causes the game to make much more sense and have more cohesion. I also spent a good number of minutes trying to figure out how to examine the corpse. LOOK AT CORPSE are the VERY SPECIFIC words you have to use to get a clue as to how the victim died. You will need to do this to find the correct murder weapon. There a number of these scattered throughout the mansion.

The murder mystery is something that the game does very well. Examining corpses, finding the murder weapon, questioning the inhabitants of the mansion is very entertaining and quite a programming feat in 1978. Each new game the murderer, scene, and weapon randomly change UNLESS you type in the case number located in the opening scene. Doing so will keep the murderer, suspect, and scene the same. As entertaining as this is, once again Mystery Mansion mixes the salty with the sweet.

One of the things you have had to deal with in 1978 with every piece of interactive fiction is your light source. Mystery Mansion is no different. The lantern that you find in the game does not last very long. You have to be VERY economical with its use. There are secret passages scattered throughout the mansion that can economize movement between floors and you can also open the curtains in many of the rooms but you STILL have to be very conservative with your light source. You can find a battery replacement for the lantern in a, wait for it, maze which you have to map out which will help. This can become very frustrating.

The inhabitants of the mansion can be questioned but each of them tend to hamper your investigation in a very frustrating way. Let me explain. The list of suspects in the game are: the master, lady, maid, butler, cook, and gardener. Sometimes the suspects will begin to follow you around from location to location after you encounter them. If you come upon a location that you have not explored yet and have one of the inhabitants in tow; they may quite literally pick up and take an object in the room that you needed before you get the chance to. It does not matter if they are the guilty party or not; they pick up objects and take them and deposit them in other areas of the house. When you are dealing with a light source that allows for limited moves this becomes a headache. In one of the games I played I knew from examining the corpse (excuse me LOOK AT CORPSE) that it had died from poison. I knew where the vial of poison was located and went to go procure it. When I got to the location where the vial was located the cook picked it up before I could. I moved about the mansion and looked in each of the rooms and never did find the vial of poison again in that particular game. It was another frustrating aspect of the game that only forced you to have to begin again.

The main part of the game is arguably the murder mystery. There is so much that goes into the design and it is quite impressive. I was able to eventually solve the mystery and after doing so you actually use a phone located in the mansion to call the police who then come and take the murderer away. I was half expecting the murderer to exclaim; “..and I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” but alas that didn’t happen.

There are other layers to Mystery Mansion however. There is a crypt located in the basement of the mansion which houses a vampire. I was able to lure the vampire upstairs and kill it in a very gratifying and original way which I’ll leave you to figure out on your own should you decide to play.

One of the inhabitants of the house is also a werewolf and I found a handgun and silver bullet in the house but never got the opportunity to slay the werewolf. I am not 100% positive that there is a werewolf but a note I found in the mansion suggested that is the case.

Mystery Mansion is also a treasure hunt. There is supposedly treasure or treasures hidden somewhere in the mansion or on the grounds and I am sure if you find these items it will greatly increase your score. I also found some sort of futuristic transmitter and receiver hidden in the house that you can use as some sort of teleportation device but I never used it. So there are all sorts of crazy going on at Mystery Mansion.

Once I had solved the murder mystery of Mystery Mansion I was ready to move on. There was a lot to explore and map and for much of that I was in constant combat with the movement mechanics, my light source, and the inhabitants themselves taking items from rooms before I could. I was in no mood to spend more time with the game looking for treasure to increase my point total. I was very happy to walk away.

I am usually a pretty big completionist, especially where CRPGs are concerned (look no further than my Moria victory), but I felt I met the minimum requirements needed to place this in the win column and be grateful for the experience. There are a few reasons I decided to end where I did: 1) the game can be very obtuse and I knew I was starting to get to a point where I might lose patience and resort to cheating. I was not going to feel rewarded for finding the treasure if I had to resort to a walkthrough in order to do so. I knew I could ask comrades in arms for subtle clues but that would have been a big expenditure of time 2) there is another maze in the game called the “mole maze”. I started to drop items and map out the maze on two different occasions but then the earth shifted and tunnels changed or collapsed which completely altered the maze and obliterated my previous map attempt. My patience was already wearing thin with this one and I knew that solving the maze would be tedious and a big investment of time. A couple of the puzzles that I had solved in the mansion on my own had been what I would term difficult and it was only time and luck which helped me there. In the back of my mind I am thinking that the mole maze and many of the secret passages hold the key and I didn’t have the patience for either and did not want to resort to cheating to find the treasure.

Mystery Mansion is large. It has murder, vampires & werewolves, and a hidden treasure to find. There were not many games available to play in 1978 and I imagine that many university students spent hours with this game competitively trying to get the highest score. There are too many other games awaiting my attention for me to spend hours and hours trying to increase my score. There are too many unfair or “gotcha” events that eroded my patience with this one as well. I enjoyed solving the murder and the writing and programming here are the best I have seen in interactive fiction thus far. If I had been warned ahead of time about the movement mechanics of the game it might have helped take some of the “mystery” out of the mystery.