Missed Classic: Sherwood Forest - Cats Always Land on Their Feet

Written by Michael

This will be a shorter post than you usually get from me.  I was too busy hitting on the ladies at a hotel bar.

Sorry for the absence! I stepped aside to allow a couple of other games to finish up, and some important ones to start. But I haven't forgotten my beatnik hero trying to win the hand of the beautiful Maid Marion.

When we last left, I had just picked up my snazzy new suit from the tailors.  Will it do the job and get me past the bouncer at the river crossing?

Yes!  I first come across a catapult, with a button on the side, a bracket, and a socket.  Like a cat, I am curious. PRESS BUTTON?

That probably wasn’t smart.  But fortunately, I had just saved.  So I keep exploring this side of the river.  There’s lots and lots of nothing (well, a couple of screens of it).  At one point I’m at the bottom of a rocky plain and can choose to go UP.  So I do.

Some more exploring and I find myself at the edge of a cliff that overlooks some rocks by the ocean.  It tells me that the only path is to go back, but what happens if I CLIMB DOWN?  “You cannot climb down from here, but perhaps you could jump..... A tremendous wind whistles below!!”

So, of course, I JUMP.  “Ok.  A tremendous wind catches you!  You are blown out to a rocky grave!” 

And once again, I am deceased.

I find a cave nearby, with a big boulder out front.  A westerly wind is howling fiercely.  I go ahead and ENTER CAVE.

Dun dun.   Dun dun.  Dun dun.

That sends me out into the water.  Is it deadly?  Well, eventually deadly.  Sadly, I can’t figure out what to do here, so I get exhausted from trying to keep afloat, and I perish.

I think you know what that screen looks like by now.

Back to the cave screen.  LOOK BOULDER.  “There are carvings on the side.”  READ CARVINGS.  “Move me you must, move me you can, move me with the ‘total’ strength... of a ‘single’ man.”

Well, Robin Hood isn’t married yet, but I suspect that’s not what they mean by single.  They put it in quotes, after all.

MOVE BOULDER.  “You haven’t the strength for that.”

EXERCISE.  “That is impossible at this time.”

LIFT WEIGHTS.  “That is impossible at this time.”

(Hey, it was worth a try.)

GET BOULDER.  “Arrgh!  Too heavy!”

Well, since Morpheus just played an RPG for the blog right now, let’s think about it in RPG (or old-school adventure) terms.  Maybe the stuff I’m carrying is weighing me down.  DROP ALL.

Notice how everything is in the same spots of the screens as I originally found them?

Well, that worked.  After all, if I'm not carrying anything, I can devote my "total" strength to the boulder, and I will be singular. I suppose this is what the game means. MOVE BOULDER now works as well.  Why did I move it?  Because the game told me to.  Now I pick up all my stuff.  I try GET ALL but the game calls me out for being lazy, by making me get them one by one.

But now, with the wind stopped, I’m able to jump down from the edge of the cliff again.  When I look at the cliff now, it just suggests the jumping but doesn’t point out the wind anymore.  Guess it was whipping through the cave.

My jump lands me at another cave entrance.  I’m assuming it’s the same one, for the reasons I just said.  The screen tells me that this ledge overlooks some rocks by the ocean.  

SAVE GAME.

JUMP.

“Ok, you just jumped onto a crag of jagged rocks below.  Do you wish to play again?”

Gosh, did I see that one coming.

Climbing into the cave brings me to a narrow path going downward.  I keep going.

Further on, I find a Marty McFly outfit.  I think perhaps it will be useful for the ocean?  If I have a reason to go there.

I climb further on, and a couple of screens later, I find an axe.  But I cannot take it.  This game is like an old adventure, with an inventory limit!  Ugh.

I climb out of the cave and go back to the catapult, and drop a couple of items I don’t think I’ll need in the cave.  Say, the thread and the lifejacket.  (Why the catapult?  Why not.)  Then I return.

I grab the axe, and further down the cave I find a crank, so I grab that too.  

It’s all my fault.

Eventually, I reach the end, a exit blocked by a large boulder.  Gee, I wonder how that got there.  But since I seem to be done with the cave, I leave. I go the long way. I didn't even think to try MOVE BOULDER again. Shame on me. But then again, if I was able to move it (after dropping all my stuff), the wind tunnel would have likely sent me away again.

I actually go all the way back to town, because I suspect I need to sharpen this ax, and I don’t know what may come next.  “Ok!  The ax is now real sharp!”

Back at the catapult, I think the crank might be useful.  INSTALL CRANK puts it into the socket.  Then I push the button.

Trying again,  I TURN CRANK and head a click.  Well, that did something.

Well, since I got rid of the crank, I have room for one more inventory item.  So, I wear the lifejacket.  Then, I push the button on the catapult.

And I think I’ll pause here, as I do my imitation of the star on top of a Christmas tree.  I’m not a cat.  There’s only so many times I can perish. We'll finish things up next time.

Inventory: Flint, steel, (Uniform), penny, ax, (Life Jacket).

This Session: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

Body Count: 9 gruesome deaths so far (also, if you turn the crank an extra time, it sets the wrong coordinates and... splat.)