I’ve kept my blog-related New Year’s resolution! I stopped tinkering with my own blog long enough to finish the game in this final post. And the game kept its resolution as well. Castle Adventure is still hunkering along at 320x300 pixels.
When we last visited the castle, I had done some research in the library.
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| It would have been so easy to post another Buffy picture, but I’ll be impressed if anyone knows the TV show this is from. |
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| We’ve been here before... |
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| It’s an Australian castle! I’m being attacked by a boomerang! |
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| #^&^%@^%@&^#^&! (Oops, I’m sorry, I can’t say those words in this family blog.) |
A couple of screens of maze down, I find a treasure. And the author has left his initials hidden in the game.
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| We’ve been here before... |
I continue through the maze, and on one of the screens, I find another creature.
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| Wait,wasn’t this an itsy, bitsy spider? Engorgio. |
South of there is the torture room.
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| “I've just sucked one year of your life away. I might one day go as high as five, but I really don't know what that would do to you...” |
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| I truly hope he’s learned to spell since graduating high school... |
So, I think I finished that floor, so I’ll examine that upper battlement. Four screens, a couple of down stairs, and a couple of up ones. Let’s go up.
On the castle wall, there’s some more stairs and not much else, until...
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| I’ll get you, my pretty. And your little dog slippers too. |
I take one of the stairs to the top of a tower, and find a HARP.
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| It’s made of GOLD. |
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| That fairy is now dust. |
So, back to exploiting things I’ve missed. Back to the upper battlement, but to the west tower this time... and, I’ve found the sorcerer’s quarters.
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| Why does the sorcerer need two beds? |
Let’s check this out. I’ll save you the trillion screenshots as I work my way back down to the dungeon area.
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| Puff, the magic dragon... |
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| Finally, a room where the walls aren’t just grey stone. |
So, I’ll make my way back to the starting room, where I’ve been keeping things. I’ll arrange what I have.
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| Junior, it’s time to clean your room. It’s a mess. |
Treasures:
- Diamond
- Harp
- Goldbar
- Silver bars
- Large Gem
- Fancy Goblet
- Jade Figurine
- Hourglass
- Holy Cross
- Lamp
- Crown
- Rubys
- Scepter
- Helmet
- Sword
- Key
- Eyeglasses
- Book
- Wine Flask
- Crystal Ball
- Magic Wand
- Necklace
WAVE SCEPTER
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| And then, I’ll walk a few steps south... |
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| I’ve collected these “Treasues” |
So, without further delay, let’s see how the game scored.
Final Rating
Puzzles and Solvability
Well, in some small ways, Castle Adventure exceeds expectations. There actually WERE puzzles! You couldn’t read the book without glasses, for example, and you needed to check out the crystal ball image to get a hint on the location of the scepter. True, 90% of the game was simple fetch quests, but I was expecting it to be more like 100%.
There was nothing unsolvable in this game. Heck, I probably could have solved it faster if I wasn’t blogging for you guys. (But don’t worry, I still love you all.) None of the puzzles felt exceptionally unfair, with the possible exception of knowing what to do with the loot you accumulated. But that’s a topic for a different category.
There’s object manipulation (filling the flask), item dependency situations (glasses, lamp), subtle and blatant hints on examination (crystal ball, book), the handling of the fairy and vampire, and the use of the magic wand. I’m rounding this up to 2.
Interface and Inventory
The arbitrary inventory limit of 6 comes to play here. WHY? Speaking as someone who programmed in BASIC back in the day, just a couple of years after this game was released, I can’t think of any legitimate programming reason for this limit, so this felt like just a way to make the game a little tougher. Otherwise, the interface has a lot of positives. The items on the screen are listed on the side of the screen, almost as well done as in a past Missed Classic. With the icons next to them. I joke a little about it, but it was a nice touch and well handled. ON the final screen, when I had all of my 13 treasures and other junk piled on the floor, the interface only listed a few of the items, but I’m choosing to regard that as an unexpected bug rather than lazy programming. The inventory limit? THAT was lazy.
The parser was generally serviceable, and I’m somewhat happy that the verb USE was never programmed in. That was the lazy verb used in later games, so people didn’t have to think how an object could be interacted with. Like the hand icon in a point & click, I suppose.
As for navigation, your character does exactly what you’d expect by using the directional keys, stairways and passageways are generally obvious (except for the secret ones, of course), and no special instructions were necessary. Even the diagonal keys work, for us old-school folk using the numeric keypad, so you could travel in 8 directions.
The typographical errors only really affected my handling of one item, the RUBYS. But since the game spelled that on the screen for me when I first encountered them, it won’t affect the score. It was fair.
Again, as in the puzzle category, there were item manipulation and dependency puzzles, and those were handled well. The overall interface was straightforward, and I rarely stumped the simple parser, and when I did, I was able to figure out the proper verb quickly enough.
The game has a save/load feature, and while my research tells me there’s a possible bug in it (saving before encountering a certain creature makes it harder to kill it), I never experienced that bug, so I won’t penalize the game. A detriment, however, was a lack of a way to check your status while playing, your score and which treasures you collected.
Having read through some past missed classics to keep this score in line, again, I’ll be generous, because the game made a healthy effort. I could justify a 3, but instead I’ll score a 4.
Story and Setting
Well, here’s where the game fails to shine. The story can be summed up in a few lines from the game’s instructions:
I mean, it’s pretty much the same story as DOOM, but I don’t expect that game to score high on the PISSED scale either.
The setting worked for the time, I suppose, the ASCII art drew me in as a little kid. The room descriptions did add a little bit to the game. A little.
I want to be generous here, but can I really give more than a 1?
Sound and Graphics
Well, the game wasn’t completely devoid of this category. It played music at the start, when you played the flute, and when you won the game. And graphics, well, it made use of the 256-character keyset to visualize the world. So, it gets a score of 1.
Environment and Atmosphere
Other than the occasional attacks from random wildlife, there was no tension, no need to rush, no sense of urgency. The “art”, while it does somewhat resemble crumbling cement blocks of a castle, wasn’t enough to heighten the barely one-line room descriptions.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. Even if it was meaningless (“it’s dead.” “it’s red.” etc) there were descriptions for most everything and each room, and a lot of appropriate objects used to make it not just a maze quest through empty hallways. Perhaps I’m being a little generous here, but I’m rounding up to 2.
Dialog and Acting
Well, there is next to none. This overlaps with the previous category, a bit, because we tend to include the room descriptions and narration in this score, and that’s the saving grace for this game. Even though there’s some odd spelling errors, there’s descriptions for every room, there’s descriptions, even if minimal, for practically every item, even if it’s just basic colors. Some of the descriptions are meant to be hints (“It’s magical!”) and was effective in providing the right hints to solve the puzzles. So, a generous 2 here.
I think I’ve been more than generous here, so I won’t be adding any extra points. 2+4+1+1+2+2=12/.6=20
This score seems about right to me, because the game tried hard to do what it could with the limitations of a 360k disk drive of the time.
Reiko guessed this score exactly, so her treasure chest will be filled with SILVER BARS, GOLD BARS, RUBYS, and even some CAPs when the next mainline game finishes up.
Until then, I’ll go back to my wizard’s tower until the next game for me comes along.
Session Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Well, in some small ways, Castle Adventure exceeds expectations. There actually WERE puzzles! You couldn’t read the book without glasses, for example, and you needed to check out the crystal ball image to get a hint on the location of the scepter. True, 90% of the game was simple fetch quests, but I was expecting it to be more like 100%.
There was nothing unsolvable in this game. Heck, I probably could have solved it faster if I wasn’t blogging for you guys. (But don’t worry, I still love you all.) None of the puzzles felt exceptionally unfair, with the possible exception of knowing what to do with the loot you accumulated. But that’s a topic for a different category.
There’s object manipulation (filling the flask), item dependency situations (glasses, lamp), subtle and blatant hints on examination (crystal ball, book), the handling of the fairy and vampire, and the use of the magic wand. I’m rounding this up to 2.
Interface and Inventory
The arbitrary inventory limit of 6 comes to play here. WHY? Speaking as someone who programmed in BASIC back in the day, just a couple of years after this game was released, I can’t think of any legitimate programming reason for this limit, so this felt like just a way to make the game a little tougher. Otherwise, the interface has a lot of positives. The items on the screen are listed on the side of the screen, almost as well done as in a past Missed Classic. With the icons next to them. I joke a little about it, but it was a nice touch and well handled. ON the final screen, when I had all of my 13 treasures and other junk piled on the floor, the interface only listed a few of the items, but I’m choosing to regard that as an unexpected bug rather than lazy programming. The inventory limit? THAT was lazy.
The parser was generally serviceable, and I’m somewhat happy that the verb USE was never programmed in. That was the lazy verb used in later games, so people didn’t have to think how an object could be interacted with. Like the hand icon in a point & click, I suppose.
As for navigation, your character does exactly what you’d expect by using the directional keys, stairways and passageways are generally obvious (except for the secret ones, of course), and no special instructions were necessary. Even the diagonal keys work, for us old-school folk using the numeric keypad, so you could travel in 8 directions.
The typographical errors only really affected my handling of one item, the RUBYS. But since the game spelled that on the screen for me when I first encountered them, it won’t affect the score. It was fair.
Again, as in the puzzle category, there were item manipulation and dependency puzzles, and those were handled well. The overall interface was straightforward, and I rarely stumped the simple parser, and when I did, I was able to figure out the proper verb quickly enough.
The game has a save/load feature, and while my research tells me there’s a possible bug in it (saving before encountering a certain creature makes it harder to kill it), I never experienced that bug, so I won’t penalize the game. A detriment, however, was a lack of a way to check your status while playing, your score and which treasures you collected.
Having read through some past missed classics to keep this score in line, again, I’ll be generous, because the game made a healthy effort. I could justify a 3, but instead I’ll score a 4.
Story and Setting
Well, here’s where the game fails to shine. The story can be summed up in a few lines from the game’s instructions:
The setting worked for the time, I suppose, the ASCII art drew me in as a little kid. The room descriptions did add a little bit to the game. A little.
I want to be generous here, but can I really give more than a 1?
Sound and Graphics
Well, the game wasn’t completely devoid of this category. It played music at the start, when you played the flute, and when you won the game. And graphics, well, it made use of the 256-character keyset to visualize the world. So, it gets a score of 1.
Environment and Atmosphere
Other than the occasional attacks from random wildlife, there was no tension, no need to rush, no sense of urgency. The “art”, while it does somewhat resemble crumbling cement blocks of a castle, wasn’t enough to heighten the barely one-line room descriptions.
Still, it wasn’t all bad. Even if it was meaningless (“it’s dead.” “it’s red.” etc) there were descriptions for most everything and each room, and a lot of appropriate objects used to make it not just a maze quest through empty hallways. Perhaps I’m being a little generous here, but I’m rounding up to 2.
Dialog and Acting
Well, there is next to none. This overlaps with the previous category, a bit, because we tend to include the room descriptions and narration in this score, and that’s the saving grace for this game. Even though there’s some odd spelling errors, there’s descriptions for every room, there’s descriptions, even if minimal, for practically every item, even if it’s just basic colors. Some of the descriptions are meant to be hints (“It’s magical!”) and was effective in providing the right hints to solve the puzzles. So, a generous 2 here.
I think I’ve been more than generous here, so I won’t be adding any extra points. 2+4+1+1+2+2=12/.6=20
This score seems about right to me, because the game tried hard to do what it could with the limitations of a 360k disk drive of the time.
Reiko guessed this score exactly, so her treasure chest will be filled with SILVER BARS, GOLD BARS, RUBYS, and even some CAPs when the next mainline game finishes up.
Until then, I’ll go back to my wizard’s tower until the next game for me comes along.
Session Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Right, now that this is finished I feel I should link the speedrun ( https://tasvideos.org/2131M ) and the map editor ( https://www.moddb.com/games/castle-adventure/downloads ), the latter of which was made by myself as a teenager.
ReplyDeleteRegarding inventory limits, one way to implement inventory is with an array ( DIM INVENT(6) ), and arrays in BASIC are fixed length; so that might be a reason. I don't know if Kevin Bales played any classic text adventures, but most of those also have an inventory limit. I'm not saying they're great game design but they don't bother me overly much.
My complaint isn't so much that there was an inventory limit, but more with the seemingly random choice of 6. The game instructions didn't tell you what to do with the treasures when you got them, so I just assumed he took direction from Zork, and placed the items in the start location. But a limit of 6, with no stated reason, and with triple that number of items needed to be found was a bad design choice.
DeleteModern game design might change a few things, for example, wearing the necklace or glasses would remove them from my pockets or hands, leaving more room for other items.
So... since you made a map editor, any custom maps you've made that you're proud of?
In hindsight, I think it was a conscious decision to extend the game time. The item substitution forced you to go back and forth to maintain a specific combination of items to progress. 5 would have been too small an inventory with sword, helmet, key, wand, necklace.... you couldn't grab anything else, 6 or 7 puts you in that "sweet spot" of just enough to grab one or two more things, whilst 8 would have you treasure swapping only. Not saying it's good design, but if that was the rationale, 6 makes sense.
DeleteNo, it has more to do with limited screen real estate. It can list up to 10 items on the screen at one, not leaving much room to display your inventory if you type INVENTORY.
DeleteSomehow, I feel a little self-conscious seeing my post having to come after possibly the highest-commented post in years on TAG. It's a tough act to follow.
ReplyDeleteIt was still a great read and very informative, but there's only so much that can be said about the game. I love ASCII art but here it is mostly a bunch of blocks, although the icons for the treasure and items are nicely thought out.
DeleteI would also just like to point out that in my opinion no-one is complaining about the missed classics, we were just missing some more well-known games to add some diversity. With Bloodnet, Blue force and day of the tentacle going the balance should be a lot better.
My guess for the image is "You Can't Do That On Television". I didn't get Nick until the early 90s, but I'm fairly sure that I recognize the actress. If I am wrong, please don't hate me.
ReplyDeleteIt was a toss up whether this post would go before the next "Nord and Bert" post, but I have just returned from traveling and wasn't as successful in writing on the trip as I hoped. (Airplane seats are really tight!) That one should be next, unless a main game post is done first.
You got it! The best years of YCDTOTV was about 1986-87, when you had Adam and Alistair (who I'm pretty sure is in this picture).
DeleteIn the 90s, it was slightly less edgy, but one of the kids was Alanis Morissette, so there's that.
Now, I need to find myself a new mixed classic to tackle while the current mainline games are being played. I have some thoughts.
*missed. Cell phone auto correct:)
DeleteWow - we got YCDTOTV here on the free-to-air national broadcaster here in Australia in the late 80s but I never would have picked it from that screen cap alone... nice one Joe. Incidentally, there are multiple points in different Lucasarts games where I'm reminded of the execution skit that was (from memory) a regular feature of YCDTOTV. I don't know if it's the voices, or visual setup, or the "Wait, wait, wait!!!" of a Guybrush trying to delay his impending demise, but it's interesting what sticks with you from your formative years.
DeleteI was waiting for someone to say they didn't know where it was from, so I could offer this hint
DeleteI'm assuming you'd have found a link that didn't include the title of the show in the lower right corner... :P
DeleteI'd hope I'd be that smart... ;)
DeleteDangit y'all! I clocked this immediately, but I was reading in bed on my iPad at the time and for whatever reason Safari (or possibly something to do with my VPN) doesn't like to recognize my Google login on Blogspot, so effectively I can't comment (unless I want to do so anonymously)... so I missed my chance to scoop everyone on this :P
DeleteI watched YKDTOT a lot on Nickelodeon, heh.
I'm glad I didn't bet any CAPs against someone figuring it out. (´･ _･｀)
DeleteI think the final score is bang on given your commentary. What it does highlight though, is just because something gets a low PISSED score, doesn't make it unworthy of your time... the modern casual gamer in me enjoyed the two half-hour sessions I had getting to the end of this. In fact, if we look at this through a different lens, Castle Adventure scores a very healthy 17 PISSED points per hour making it a significantly better "modern" game than, say, Fate of Atlantis which delivers a relatively unrewarding 8 PISSED / hour. :P
ReplyDeleteWell, did you calculate that for replaying with the three different paths? Just to make sure the math is correct.
DeleteHowever, another calculation is on the price paid. Castle Adventure, as freeware, was infinitely more enjoyable per dollar than Fate of Atlantis, which, at the MSRP of the time, would have been about 1.7 PISSED / dollar, give or take.
The case for Castle Adventure being the GOAT just gets stronger by the revelation...
DeleteCastle Adventure may be freeware, but a $10 contribution would be greatly appreciated. ^_^
DeleteThis was one of the very first games I ever played on a PC in the early-to-mid 1990s. The machine I used (16MHz 386SX IIRC) was much faster than what the game had been programmed for (no speed-adjustable DOS emulators back then), which made the monsters completely undefeatable, as I couldn't even react before they had beaten me to death. I solved that problem by hex-editing the monsters' hit points to zero (the executable is produced by a BASIC compiler, which just copied the contents of DATA statements unchanged, making it very easy to find and edit them). Not that it was strictly necessary; it's possible to collect every item in the game without having to fight a single monster, since almost all of them are in rooms you don't need to enter at all, and the one that isn't is in such a room that it can't just rush you, so I wouldn't really have missed out much even if I hadn't bothered to do that.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, Michael, did you find out what happens if you don't wear the necklace? You didn't mention it and there are no screenshots of it, so maybe you didn't.
Yes, I did, but I completely forgot to mention it. I was disappointed there wasn't a Sierra-style death screen dialog box...
DeleteThat's what I was remembering too! I commented on the speed issue when I made my original guess on the intro post. I didn't know how to hex-edit though, and I think even the MO-SLO utility or whatever it was called didn't slow it down enough to be playable, so I never got anywhere with the game.
DeletePrevious comment was mine. Can't get my new phone to remember my handle here at the moment.
DeleteCongrats on winning your first game for the blog, Michael!
ReplyDeleteThank you. It won't be the last.
DeleteFUN FACTS:
ReplyDelete- Was King's Quest REALLY the first "animated" adventure game? KQ was released in May 1984 for the IBM PCjr, and Castle Adventure, in "1984"... But aren't there other similar, previous games?
- It appears the idea to create an animated game may not have come from Roberta Williams, but after a meeting with IBM and Sierra where IBM may have indicated that they needed an "animated game" to promote their new PCjr.
Okay, according to Ken Williams himself, "Roberta started developing this version of the game, but, as Ken recalls, “She wanted to add animation.” So, instead of just doing a straightforward port, Roberta began developing a whole new title, which would become King’s Quest.". https://wireframe.raspberrypi.com/articles/once-upon-a-time-the-epic-history-of-kings-quest
DeleteSierra's version of this story has never changed over the years. IBM generally, in production of the various PCs, outsourced a lot more decisions and products than they ever did with their mainframe systems, which they still regarded as their real systems as opposed to the toys that were PCs. The story of MS-DOS is a great example of this.
DeleteMost accounts basically say that Sierra was asked to design a game that would showcase the higher capabilities of the system.
I just learned there's a new adventure game site, "Adventure Game Hotspot", by old Adventure Gamers staff: https://adventuregamehotspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThread at Adventure Gamers: https://adventuregamers.com/forums/viewthread/15943
Interesting. I'll look at it more in-depth, but it feels like a soulless version of the AG site. And, as someone noted in that comment thread, they don't yet have forums, only a discord. I used to be a big fan of the AG forums, but over time drifted.
DeleteI just "re-learned" what happened with King's Quest VIII... wow!
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic that both KQ8 and Castle Adventure are medieval graphic adventures with minimal plot and clunky combat.
So I guess Castle Adventure was way ahead of its time! (Or maybe it was KQ8 which was way behind its time).
Big difference: developer of Castle Adventure wanted to make a good game. Developers of KQ8 wanted something else entirely. >:)
DeleteProbably the first game I ever played! Thanks for this blast from the past.
ReplyDeleteJust out of curiosity, what's with the change in the style of the ANSI characters? They looked different in the first post.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of anything different, except I think in one of the posts I forgot to rescale the image files.
DeleteThere's more to it than that. The player character looks like a card club in the original post. It looks completely different in subsequent posts. There are a few other differences too, like the walls..
DeleteI see what you mean. I think between the first post and the second post, I changed some of the DOSBox settings, and I must have had the graphics card set to Hercules for the first post, and CGA for the rest. My grandfather had both monitors, and I probably tested out both for my curiosity for the playthrough.
Delete