Missed Classic: Castle Adventure - Scenes From an Italian Restaurant Located Inside Castle Highclere

By Michael

Now that we’ve celebrated the holidays and again have an empty wine flask, I welcome you back to our visit to the unnamed castle. Welcome back to our visit to the unnamed castle. This is the reverse of a good murder mystery, because we know whodunnit. That would be me, with the sword, in the Castle Gardens, the Throne Room, and the Knights’ Hall.

I wonder if a candlestick, revolver, lead pipe, or a rope will be of use in this game?

I chose to go up. At the northernmost end of the first floor, there’s a staircase that goes up. It brings me to an identical looking “cooridor”.

Former home to the giant, purple people eater

Going counter-clockwise from this point, we will visit a rainbow of colors. First is the Purple Room, decorated all in purple, and has a bed.

Past headquarters for this organization

Going south through another passage brings us to the Red Room, which is decorated all in red, and has two beds and a holy cross. Well... I think I have a use for that cross. Although, since I’m part Italian, I would have preferred finding some garlic. And some onions. And some prosciutto.

At the southeast corner of this floor, there’s a Blue Room. I wonder if you can guess what color the beds are?

I know, I should have posted a SPOILER ALERT for that.

And finishing our tour of this floor, in the Northeastern most corner, is the Yellow Room.

I spy, with my little eyes, something upon the desk.

Looking at the desk in this room gives me a new item, a pair of glasses.When I try to take it, I’m admonished for being too far away, so I walk over to the desk and grab them. Somehow, I don’t think these are a treasure, because when I examine them, I’m not told they are made of gold or anything, but just that they are bifocals.

I suspect I know whom they may have belonged to before

I suppose I should note that, with the exception of a couple of rooms that had creatures in or guarding them, I’ve been able to explore almost everywhere I’ve wanted so far. I wonder when I’ll find a locked door or even a puzzle to solve, besides the vampire and the main castle gate.

And that’s that for this floor. So, I want to continue to explore upwards, but I think I’ll take a break to first see if the cross takes care of our nocturnal friend one floor down.

I first try to just ram him again, and it has no effect. So, simply having the cross isn’t enough, I’ll need to do something with it. I first try to USE CROSS, but the game doesn’t understand that. So, I try SHOW CROSS. Well, that worked. “The vampire sees the holy cross and disappears!”

BEFORE

AFTER

And I’m allowed access to a Guest Room, which was being guarded by an unwanted guest.

Hey, look, a treasure!

It’s a Jade Figurine. Looking at it, I’m told “It looks Expensive!” so it is probably a treasure.

My inventory is full right now, so let me run downstairs, and unload my stash, and see what I have.

There’s 256 characters in the ASCII library, so I can probably pick up a few more items.

Items that are probably treasures:

• Silver Bars
• Jade Figurine
• Hourglass
• Large Gem
• Fancy Goblet

Items that probably aren’t treasures:

• Eye glasses
• Wine flask
• Holy Cross
• Sword
• Helmet

Items that could go either way, I’m not sure:

• Lamp
• Magic Wand
• Necklace

So, short of committing Hara-Kiri, I have no way to tell how close I am to a finish. So, Let me go back up to the third floor, and continue to the fourth.

From the third floor, I take a stairway up from the southern end.This floor is a similar size to the third floor, so it won’t take too long, maybe.

This textual fairy has my (un)divided attention.

I head north, and find a passage blocked by a fairy. Just like the vampire, I cannot attack her, so I need something. Thinking about my inventory downstairs, don’t I have a magic wand? Maybe that will work. I’ll go get it back.

I try to SHOW WAND to the fairy, and I’m told she looks at me funny. Well, you don’t usually SHOW a wand, right? Since the game doesn’t like the word USE, I’ll try to WAVE it. “As you wave the WAND... Nothing Happens!”

As a talented 14 year-old programmer, Kevin Bales might not have known how to get past this screen without any real life experience yet.

Well, maybe this isn’t the solution. Perhaps I’ll find something somewhere else. Wait, I forgot the basic rule of the game. Examine EVERYTHING. So, I look at the fairy. “The FAIRY looks pretty but unhappy.” I suppose that’s a hint, but I don’t think anything in my inventory right now would make her happy, and TELL JOKE doesn’t work. KISS FAIRY doesn’t either. I’d go further down that line of thought, but Al Lowe probably didn’t work on the parser for this game. So, let me examine the path to the EAST.

Well, the desk IS bigger than the one on the floors below...

I look at the desk and find a KEY. Examining it, I’m told that it is old. Don’t think that will help, but I’ll keep it in mind.

I go south a couple of screens, and find myself in the east end of a library.

That’s true. No HUMAN BEING would ever stack books like this.

I browse the shelves and find nothing. Then I go west, and do the same at the other end. LOOK SHELVES. “There’s a book on one.” GET BOOK. “You can’t reach it.” Move some more, GET BOOK. “Done.”

Okay, first step for every new item: LOOK BOOK. “It is titled ‘The Gate’”.

I wonder if this is the book I found?

Well, I suppose the next obvious thing to try is READ BOOK. “You can’t see well enough. It’s all Blurry.” Well, time to run downstairs again, I suppose, and grab those glasses!

I pick up the glasses, and read the book. “The book reads: Wave Scepter.” Well, that was a short book. So, I’m guessing I’ll find a scepter at some point, and I’m guessing (hoping) that the gate is the main gate at the start of the game. In other words, I just solved a puzzle to finish the game eventually. Yay!

This seems like an appropriate time to pause, and recollect our thoughts before exploring the rest of the castle.  My new year’s resolution will be to finish the game in the next post.  It might be the only resolution I’ve ever kept.

Session Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!