Game 1: Below the Root - Final Rating

It’s time to try out the PISSED rating system and see if it works. I guess I won’t really know until I’ve applied it to a dozen games or so. Before I begin, I should point out that I’m going to try to strike a balance between rating a game from the perspective of how enjoyable it is to play today and by how pioneering it was at the time of release. For example, the graphics and sound of Below the Root, when compared to Syberia, would get a rating of 0. But at the time of release they were pretty decent and probably would have got around a 7 or 8. I’ll take all of this into account when deciding on a number.

Puzzles and Solvability
Below the Root is filled with questions and mysteries that the player needs to solve to make progress. Whether it’s figuring out how to access a new area, where a key is hidden, or deciphering the many clues that are handed out throughout the game, there’s plenty for your brain matter to ponder over. The thing that makes it all challenging is the vast area of play that needs to be covered, particularly when you consider that each newly gained skill could give you access to unknown areas anywhere on the map you’ve previously visited. Many times I had a sense of being overwhelmed, not knowing where I needed to go next, or who to speak to. Yet whether through luck or good design, I always ended up finding my way before real frustration set in. I’m going to give the game a rating of 6 for this category, as there were no puzzles with ridiculous solutions, and the message pensing ability means you’re only ever a few conversations away from getting some useful information.

Once you can pense messages, the solutions to problems are pretty much handed to you.

Interface and Inventory
There are numerous pros and cons to discuss here. The good thing about the inventory system is that when you choose an action, the game is smart enough to only suggest appropriate items to you. For example, when you choose the “eat” option, you are not presented with choices such as vine rope or temple key. The bad thing is that you can hardly carry anything. It may be that how much you can carry is determined by your strength and therefore affected by which character you choose to play as, but given how important food is to the game, it’s frustrating when it won’t let you pick any up. This becomes more of an issue later in the game, particularly once you have both keys, a shuba, a vine rope, a trencher beak, the spirit lamp and the spirit bell. That leaves room for maybe one food item. I guess this is countered by the knowledge of more places where food is given away, but still, it was annoying.

The burden of a world where coins, keys and food items are all bigger than your head.

As for the interface, the whole game is controlled by the directional keys and the spacebar. I like that the spacebar acts as a pause button while also bringing up the menu. This allows you to spend some time looking at your options (and taking screenshots if you’re blogging about the game) while time doesn’t tick away, taking with it valuable rest and food points. The only obviously bad thing about the interface is that it’s just not very responsive at times when reflexes come into play. If I want to move just one step towards a cliff and then stop at the edge, I have to press the directional key once to move and then the reverse key to stop. The amount of times that this second key press didn’t register and I found myself gliding back down to a lower grund level, after spending quite a while getting up there in the first place, was too many to count. I’m going with a 5 here.

One of the thousand times that I inadvertently ran into something.

Story and Setting
Given the story was written by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, there’re lots of rich details for fans of the books to take in. For the rest of us, the story can be fairly confusing, especially with all the terminology that, if it were not for the manual, wouldn’t make any sense to me at all. That being said, the world of Green-sky feels quite alien, so the strangeness doesn’t seem completely out of place. It’s surprising to find racial social commentary showing up in an eighties video game, but the message is conveyed nicely, not only through the story as a whole, but through the way Erdlings (who have dark skin) will be more reluctant to assist Kindars (who have light skin) and vice versa. All up I found the story quite interesting and the mystery to it all really kept me coming back for more. I’d like to be really generous when rating this category, but there’s no doubt that modern game stories are far more complex and satisfying, and the extremely abrupt ending left me feeling empty. So, 6 it is!

Haters gonna hate!

Sound and Graphics

Sound is so minimal in Below the Root that it’s hardly worth mentioning. There are sound effects such as footsteps and jumping, but they’re extremely basic. The music is a little more interesting, with a few celebratory tunes popping up when you achieve something of note. Even these have that ugly PC speaker sound that was par for the course in early computer games. As for graphics, well they suffer greatly from the four colour limitation of CGA Palette 1. If you take a look at the version that appeared on Commodore 64’s, it’s obvious that a bit of colour goes a long way. In particular, not being able to display green when the game is based almost entirely in trees is not exactly ideal. I also had quite a bit of trouble telling the difference between items lying about, meaning I had to pick them up to see what they were. Still, there’s no doubt that Dale Disharoon did a pretty decent job with the minimal tools he had available, and Green-sky is a fairly convincing place to spend time in. Animation is merely adequate, which is to be expected from a game made in 1984. I’ll have to be harsh and give this category a 3. 

My mid eighties C64 jealousy returns!!!

Environment and Atmosphere
There’s something exhilarating about climbing from branch to branch, making your way up to the very peak of a massive tree, then simply jumping off and gliding slowly down, choosing your place to land at any stage. I can’t say I’ve experienced that in any other game apart from MDK, but there’s a huge difference between the cannon fodder filled abstract madness of that game when compared to the natural, pacifistic world of Green-sky. Little details add depth to the world also, like the way you can’t take anything from any building unless it has been offered to you first (even if there’s no-one living there), and the fact that Kindar’s are vegetarian after living in the trees for so long and are therefore adversely affected by eating meat. There’s a real spiritual resonance to Below the Root that has much more to do with Snyder’s world leaking into the game through these minor details, rather than any actual gameplay element. I found the world compelling, and I can only imagine what a game based in a similar environment would feel like with today’s technology. I’m giving Below the Root a 7 in this category as everything I’ve just mentioned resulted in a compelling and consistent atmosphere.

I can fly!!!!

Dialogue and Acting

Clearly there’s no acting to speak of here, nor will there be for many years yet, but dialogue certainly has a role to play in Below the Root. It is entirely one-sided however, with the player being told pieces of information with no way to ask any direct questions or make any comments at all throughout the game. I guess this works well enough for this game, which is all about finding out clues and trying to put the pieces together, but when you’re desperately trying to find a particular item or place, it can be frustrating not having any control over conversations. This is an area that would improve dramatically in adventure games over time, so I have to give the game a dialogue rating of 4. I should also point out that as useful as it is to be able to tell what emotion each game character feels for the player prior to interaction, the choice of descriptive words are surprising. I wonder how many kids know what words such as avarice and furtiveness mean? I found myself checking in online dictionaries a few times to make sure my assumptions of character's motivations were correct.

Have you now?! Mind telling me how? Hello?! What...that's it?!

If my calculations are correct, that leaves Below the Root with a PISSED rating of 52. We'll have to wait and see how that stacks up against other adventure games. I can say that from a purely entertainment point of view, 52 seems low for this game, but given I'll be following the genre through it's evolution, it's not surpising that the first game on the list is fairly low. Onto King's Quest we go!

Game 1: Below the Root - Won!

After an epic final session of gaming (about three hours), I’ve finished Below the Root. I’ll admit that I didn’t find it particularly easy towards the end, and I also think that luck played a role in getting me across the line. After finally making my way past (over to be precise) the temple gate, I was confronted with several doors that still required the blasted temple key that had avoided me thus far. Thankfully the inhabitants of Temple Grund started directing me to the top of the tree to find the so-called “lost” key, so that was quickly in my possession. This gave me access to the temple itself, where Raamo’s mother gave me the spirit points I needed to kiniport myself from place to place (previously I’d only been able to kiniport items, but I wasn’t actually aware of that), and also advised me to seek the spirit lamp as it “shines without end”.

Cool, thanks for the tip! Hey...you haven't seen Raamo around anywhere have you?

This is where things got complicated. I knew that I had to go “below the root” to seek Raamo, but I couldn’t see any way to achieve this. My frustration was exacerbated when I found the Forgotten Chamber that D’ol Falla had directed me to, only to find that I needed yet another key that wasn’t in my possession. I spent quite a bit of time trying to reach various branches, nooks and crannies, hoping to find an area I hadn’t yet explored, without success. In the end I decided to start pensing all the temple grund residents again in hope that I’d simply missed a vital piece of information. This turned out to be my saviour when I was told to “climb at the base of the center trunk”. Having spent very little time on the ground itself, I’d overlooked some rather well hidden steps that started me on my way to finding the key I required.

If you weren't blue and computer generated, I'd kiss you! Mind you, that Avatar chick was alright.

It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that plays adventure games that getting as much information out of every character as possible can be the difference between knowing what to do next and floundering about aimlessly looking for something, anything, to get you back on track. Below the Root is no exception to this, but the completely open-ended playing area, as opposed to the bordered off, closed in sections so often found in modern games, means that you could have been given the clue you needed five days ago by a Green-sky inhabitant six trees away from where you are now, and have no recollection of it when you really need it. Never has writing down every single thing you’re told by every character been more important than it is in Below the Root. Thankfully, I’m extremely meticulous when it comes to this sort of thing, which saved me having to cover previous ground collecting clues too much.

Let me guess...I need another key don't I!!!???

Assuming the Forgotten Chamber would lead me underground somehow, I rested and fed in preparation for whatever lurked down there, and unlocked the doors. Once again my assumption was incorrect, but I did unearth the spirit lamp that Raamo’s mother recommended I find. So, I had enough spirit skill to use all the possible abilities, I had in my possession the spirit lamp from the Forgotten Chamber, and I’d already collected the spirit bell from D’ol Nesham at the top of the Sky Grund, but I still had no idea how to get beneath the surface of Green-sky to find Raamo. Long story short, I spent half an hour or so travelling along the forest floor, looking for a way to teleport myself into an area underground (there isn't one), and entering the numerous buildings on the ground in hope that one of them would reveal something new. As it turned out, what I was looking for was found in the very last building at the very left edge of the map. I’m pretty sure it’s the only house I hadn’t checked out at any stage so far, so I only had myself to blame.

I know I came in here for a reason...now what was it?!

Once I was “below the root”, the game finished rather quickly, which I guess was a bit of an anticlimax given how much effort went into getting there. From what I can tell, this whole section would be much more challenging without the spirit lamp, as without it you would have to keep finding more and more honey lamps or be left in the dark. I made my way pretty easily through the tunnels and found Raamo standing on a ledge, unable to get down and escape the underground. Kiniporting myself next to him and giving him either a vine rope or a shuba completed the quest and the game ended very abruptly. Basically I got a message saying “the quest is over and Green-sky is saved”, before being told that I’d “finished the quest in 10 days” and was therefore a “master quester”. All of a sudden I found myself back at the menu, wondering what exactly Raamo was going to do to reunite the Kindars and Erdlings and whether I would receive any sort of thanks for sacrificing my valuable time.

Whoever wrote BOTTOMLESS LAKE on the wall can't possibly have tested that theory.



Well...that's 1 game down, about 250 to go! I enjoyed Below the Root so much more than first impressions suggested I would. Once I got past the first confusing hour and things started to make sense, I found the clue collecting and platform exploration to be very satisfying. The spirit skills add extra depth to the game in that every time you gain a new one, you can go back to previously visited areas and look at them in a new light. The slight role playing aspects of the game were certainly groundbreaking, as was the almost harmless environment within which the player could explore and concentrate on the mystery without being concerned for their life. Snyder's decision to use the Below the Root video game as the fourth volume of her "trilogy" was also a brave and innovative idea that no doubt pleased any of her fans that had the technology to enjoy it at their disposal. Stay tuned for my very first PISSED rating tomorrow.

You saved Green-sky from here? Why didn't you just do that before!?



Game 1: Below the Root - Reaching Full Potential

My decision to fully explore each grund has really paid off. Every time I enter a new house or building, I mark down on my map whether the inhabitant is friendly toward me or hostile, what they’re offering or selling, and what piece of advice they gave out through speaking and pensing. At the end of my last post, I’d just gained the ability to pense messages, and was uncertain as to whether going back and pensing people I’d already met would offer up new information. The answer is a resounding yes, but unfortunately pensing uses up valuable skill points, so I’ve had to use it sparingly. Pensing the temple gatekeeper for example resulted in a message that “the key is lost”, which suggests I might have to find another way to gain access. Most rewardingly, I attempted to pense one of the friendly animals that appear throughout the map, and found that doing so increased my spirit limit by one! Since finding out this little secret, I’ve moved from grund to grund, searching high and low for animals to pense.

You could have told me that before buddy!

This process has required problem solving (to figure out how to get to certain branches), reflexes (the platform element of the game requires some dexterity) and a bit of luck (sometimes just trying something crazy results in finding something useful). With the action elements in mind, I guess it’s worth questioning whether Below the Root should be considered a pure adventure game or be classified as action adventure alongside games such as Tomb Raider. Personally, I think Below the Root “feels” like an adventure game and, given the fact that you cannot die, that there is no fighting element in the game, and that you can revisit any part of the map as many times as you like in search of clues, it clearly fits the definition. If anything, Below the Root has probably had an influence on games like Castlevania II or Metroid, which were basically platform games with an open-ended map, allowing players to revisit sections to gather clues or items to solve puzzles elsewhere. These games had a much larger focus on combat action however and the player could die if hit too many times.

Castlevania II: Possibly influenced by Below the Root's RPG and open-ended elements.

While figuring out how to access certain areas can be puzzling, the most challenging aspect of Below the Root is managing your rest and food status’. Once you’ve found a few different places you can rest and mapped them, it’s not difficult to keep that statistic fairly high. The problem is that while you’re resting, your food level decreases, meaning not only do you regularly need to rest, you also need to make sure you have enough food to devour straight afterwards or you’ll end up back at your nid-place regardless. Add to this that certain food affects you in other ways (I think roast lapan decreases my skill points) and it's clear this biological management is key to your success in the game. Thankfully, the game starts to give you the skills to make this management easier, which I’ll discuss in a second.

Everyone loves monkey magic! Don't they?!

I’ve managed to find some important figures (the Wise Child and D’ol Neshom), both of which have increased my spirit level, giving me the ability to use the heal, grunspreke and kiniport skills. Heal helps you manage the aforementioned food and rest stats by increasing them at the expense of spirit, grunspreke gives you the ability to make branches grow, giving you access to otherwise inaccessible places, and kiniport acts as teleportation, allowing you to move objects closer to you or even move yourself to another location that’s visible on the screen. Each gained skill gives you the ability to reach new areas, which in turn allows you to gain more spirit skill and so on. I’ve also had more visions, all of which suggest that Raamo is not dead, and will somehow play a role in finishing the game. I can only assume that I now need to venture underground somehow and find this bottomless lake that the visions keep showing me. Before I do that though, I’m hoping my new skills will help me get into the temple. I’m dying to find out what’s in there!

With great power comes great grunsprekability!

Game 1: Below the Root - Maps & Trencher Beaks

My first post about Below the Root, with all the talk of spirit skills and series-specific jargon, most likely gave the impression that this game might only be enjoyable to fans of the books. I thought the same to be honest after my first attempt at playing the game was ultimately a confusing and daunting one. I struggled to know which character to play as, where I actually was without any form of map, and what half the options were in the menu system such as Pense, Grunspreke and Kiniport. Picked up items such as shubas and trencher beaks held no meaning to me either, so it quickly became apparent that, unlike games today with their built in tutorials, I was going to have to read the manual before and during playing Below the Root.

Shall I rest or grunspreke? I just can't decide!

Thankfully, the game and manual do actually give you plenty of guidance if you're willing to put in a few minutes educating yourself. A brief little intro summarises your goal in the game, you can watch a reasonably lengthy example of the games basic actions by choosing Sample Quest from the opening menu, and the manual describes all the menu items and player choices adequately. I highly recommend anyone playing the game pay close attention to the "Some Final Words of Advice from D'ol Falla" section before starting. A lot of my confusion could have been avoided by reading this prior to floundering around Green-sky. I also conducted a more extensive search for the game map as the manual mentions its importance, and as you can see below, I managed to find it here!

Time to get out the pencils!

Having perused all of this material, I set back off on my quest, more adequately equipped to handle the alien world of Green-sky. I have to admit that I didn't think I would be choosing characters to play very often during the creation of this blog. Some adventure games, such as the Quest For Glory series, would eventually toe the line between the RPG and adventure genres, but they were considered quite innovative at the time (in the late eighties / early nineties). I was certainly surprised to be confronted with character selection in the very first game on the Wikipedia list. There are five characters to choose from, three of them being Kindar while the other two are Erdling. They all range in strength (which controls how much they can carry, how far they can jump, and how often they require food and rest) and spirit powers (which governs which of the spirit skills they are capable of using).

I chose Neric as he seems a good, safe mix of strength and spirit.

With my character chosen, the game begins in his home (called a nid-place). Here I picked up some food, a shuba (which I now know allows me to glide) and three tokens (used to purchase items in shops). The graphics have that very distinctive CGA look that appeared in numerous games in the early eighties. Given black, cyan, magenta and white are the only colours onscreen, programmer Disharoon did a pretty good job of making Green-sky feel alive and fairly easy to navigate. Choosing the Status option from the menu brings up useful information such as what day it is (I have fifty days to complete the quest apparently), what time it is, and my current spirit maximum and stamina. Most importantly, you can keep tabs on how long it will be until you need to find a place to rest and food to eat. If either of these reach 0, as I quickly found out, your character will go unconscious and wake up in their nid-place a day later.

Once I left my nid-place and began exploring World-sky, I soon figured out by cross-checking with the map that I was situated in Star Grund (the enormous trees are called Grunds and the map suggests there are eight in total to explore). Not really having anywhere in particular to be, I started wandering around Star Grund talking to the numerous occupants that reside there. I tried out some of the menu options available and found that Pense is particularly useful. Every time your character is close to a Green-sky resident, you can select Pense to see what their emotion towards you is. Those that feel friendly emotions, such as Kindly Warmth, will give you advice or offer you services such as a place to rest or some food. Others will be less sociable and will likely trick you and then trap you. I learnt very quickly not to accept rest every time it's offered, as my first acceptance resulted in me waking up in some sort of prison cell. With no apparent way out, I was forced to "renew", waking up in my nid a day later. If you're as vocabularily (see what I mean!) challenged as I am, you might want to use a dictionary every now and then to see whether residents mean you kindness or harm.

You're feeling what? Can you give me another clue?!

Moving around the outside world is a bit like your typical platform game, with the main difference being that there's not much in the game world that offers up much danger (at least not that I've come across). I occasionally cause my character to hit his head or fall too far, but I'm not sure this does much other than reducing your food and rest stats. At this stage of the game I don't believe there's any way to actually die. Jumping off branches and gliding can give you access to otherwise unreachable areas, normally rewarding you with items such as tokens and food. I've definitely got more questions than I have answers at this point and I'm really quite eager to explore all the grunds and unlock the secrets of the game. Where do I find the key to unlock the Temple Gate? How do I get that sword I could see from the prison cell and what would I use it for? How long will it take to gain enough spirit points to try out some of the other skills?

The monkey seems to like me, but offers little purpose from what I can tell.

I've managed to gather a bunch of clues in my travels such as "Speak with star if you have the power", "Find the wise child of the garden" and "Seek the hermit of Grand Grund", the later of which I managed to achieve during my first couple of hours play. Thankfully, when I came across the hermit's house on the very top of Grand Grund, I'd already got my hands on a trencher beak, allowing me to cut through the brambles surrounding it. In speaking to the hermit I was rewarded with five more spirit points and surprisingly told that I now have the ability to pense messages. I thought I'd already been using the pense function to its full potential, but apparently to this point I've only been pensing emotions and not messages. Perhaps going back and talking to all the residents I've already come across will bear more fruit now?

Respect the Beak! Tame the brambles!

Meeting the hermit also caused me to have a vision describing the body of Raamo sinking beneath the surface of the bottomless lake...whatever that means. The fact that I really want to find out shows how much I'm enjoying Below the Root! My initial concerns have very quickly diminished as I get used to the terminology and gameworld, and not even the primitive graphics and fairly non-existent sound can dampen my enthusiasm to continue my journey. The only way I can do that is if I stop blogging, so...

Game 1: Below the Root - Introduction

Our journey starts...now!

Anticlimactically, the first game on Wikipedia's List of Graphic Adventure Games does not appear to have ever been released for DOS or Windows, which means I'm skipping The Portopia Serial Murder Case. Having checked out the game on YouTube, I'm a little sad not to be playing it. It looks like an interesting investigative adventure with innovative features such as multiple solutions to puzzles and a twist ending. The second game on the list definitely was released for the PC though, so this epic journey kicks off with a little adventure game called Below the Root. Prior to researching for this blog, I'd never heard of the game, nor had I heard of the Green-sky series of books it's based on. A simple Google for "Below the Root dosbox download" gave me all I needed to check it out.

The Green-sky Trilogy is a fantasy series of novels written by Zilpha Keatley Snyder between 1975 and 1977. The books had a very strong following, and it seems the majority of these fans were completely disgruntled by the way the third book concluded. Realising there was no way to go back and change the ending now that the trilogy was published, Snyder was disappointed that she'd let her readers down. Around the same time, a programmer named Dale Disharoon approached Snyder to see if she was interested in making a game based on the world she'd created. Immediately seeing this as an opportunity to continue the story, and hopefully produce a more satisfyingly conclusion to her series, Snyder gave Disharoon an affirmative response.

The Green Sky Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The world of Green-sky is a low-gravity planet and could be considered utopian for the most part. Residents, called the Kindar, live in tree-houses built upon the branches of large trees, and the low gravity allows them to glide between the trees very easily. They have green skin and their hair blossoms naturally into flowers. The community is ruled by godlike leaders known as the Ol-zhaan, who have banned emotions such as anger and sorrow from the pacifistic society. A combination of meditation and narcotic berries helps the people remain calm and joyful at all times. Infants are born with paranormal powers and while these were originally retained right through to adulthood, they’ve strangely faded away earlier with each successive generation.

The Kindar fear the forest floor due to the legendary monsters called pash-shan that apparently live “below the roots” of the trees. Snyder’s trilogy of books follow a novice Ol-zhan named Raamo and his friend Neric as they venture down from the trees to see if these monsters really do exist. Instead they find dark skinned descendants of their own race called the Erdlings who had at some point been exiled from the upper world. They are a more advanced people, making use of fire, metal and even building steam propelled railway transportation. The Erdlings have no restrictions around having “unjoyful” emotions and appear to still retain their powers into adulthood. The rest of the series follows the efforts to release the Erdlings from exile while keeping the status quo of Green-sky. Disgruntled Ol-zhaan and vengeance seeking Erdlings (called the Nekom) cause trouble.

The cover artwork for the Below the Root video game

illustrated by Bill Groetzinger

While I haven’t read the books to know exactly what occurs at the end that was so controversial, it’s at this unstable phase that the video game storyline takes over, officially acting as a fourth volume in the Below the Root canon. I’ve managed to get my hands on what appears to be an OCR’d text only version of the game manual, which will undoubtedly be beneficial given all the information in there regarding the different characters you can play as, the various spirit skills at your disposal, a dictionary of jargon that would otherwise only be known to readers of the trilogy, and a bunch of hints to help you get started. If anyone knows the whereabouts of a PDF version of the manual including images and the map that apparently came with the game, I’d love to hear about it. A quick search for a map online brings up something that looks to be a fan made spoiler rather than the original, so I’m going to avoid that one.

Below is the message in the manual that gives a fairly ambiguous idea as to what I’m supposed to achieve in the game.

 

You have arrived in Green-Sky just in time to discover a hidden secret of momentous importance that will stop the headlong slide of our land toward certain disaster.

Last night these words came to me in a dream:

  The green light pales.
  The spirit fades away in darkness lying.
  A quest proclaim!
  Godspeed to all who seek. Bid them haste.
  The light is dying.

Only you can solve the riddle of my dream and save Green-Sky.

Ours is a beautiful and fertile world, covered with lush and enormous trees and plentiful wildlife. Yet peril and fear abound. We tree-living Kindar and our Erdling cousins, estranged for many years, were reunited by a spirit-gifted boy named Raamo. Now he is gone, and Green-Sky is threatened with destruction.

As a Kindar or Erdling quester, continue the work of Raamo. Seek the secret everywhere, from thin fronds of the roof trees to dark tunnels that lie below the root. Grow strong in body and in spirit skill.

Meet the inhabitants of our land. Many believe in your quest and will assist you. But beware, some of those you encounter are not what they appear to be.

The map enclosed will help you find your way. Go quickly. May you find the hidden secret and save Green-Sky.

                                            Until we meet,
                                            D'ol Falla

I'm actually pretty intrigued at this point, and finish this post eager to find out not only what all the above means, but also to get a first glimpse into the dynamics of the game.