Game 276: Shadow Keep (1991)

    

Shadow Keep

United States

Independently developed and distributed as Shareware

Released in 1991 for Macintosh

Date Started: 30 December 2017

In Skariten, we had a freeware-quality game masquerading as a major commercial release. With Shadow Keep, we have the opposite: a fun, well-programmed title whose author only wanted $10. The game would probably be better-remembered today except that Mac games had a limited audience in the first place and are difficult to emulate today.

Shadow Keep was clearly inspired by Ultima IV and V. You see it in large mechanics, like the keyword-based dialogue system for NPCs (where NAME and JOB both work), in small mechanics like the use of "Z" for character stats, and in content like the importance of an ankh, the use of descriptors like "lightly wounded" and "critically wounded" for enemy health, and capturable pirate ships as enemies.
      

Some of the homages go a bit too far.

       
And yet I hesitate to call it an "Ultima clone," partly because most games of that designation are clones of the early Ultima titles, not the good ones, and partly because it finds its own style with the GUI interface and original graphics. For instance, you have a paper doll on the main screen, which depicts what the character is wearing and holding. To "use" something, you don't hit a universal "U" key but instead hold the object in one hand or the other and activate that hand with "L" or "R." The other controls are simple, consisting of what you see on the screen: talk, pause, search, adjust sound, adjust speed, and see the character stats. You need to use weapon, armor, and item menus to equip things.
     

The game begins outside the titular Shadow Keep.

      

The author, Glenn Seemann, was "a brilliant young programmer" according to every NPC in the game. He was based in the little town of Destrehan, Louisiana, just up the river from my beloved New Orleans, and home of the best plantation tour that I've taken in the area. A dozen web sites, all clearly copying from the same source, claim that "an earlier version of the game existed in the early 1980s for the PET and TRS80 computers." This is uncited and I frankly have trouble believing it. Too much of the game depends on the Mac interface, and too much of the content is inspired by Ultima IV-V, which weren't available until the late 1980s. I have an e-mail in to Mr. Seemann hoping to clarify.
       

The queen fills in some of the back story.

      

The main character here is the son of a legendary knight who participated in The Great Battle against the Evil Overlord decades ago. It had been a Pyrrhic Victory, with many knights slain and the entire race of giant birds wiped out. The battle only turned when the Evil Overlord was somehow relieved of The Black Sword. Now, decades later, the Evil Overlord has returned. He sacked the PC's hometown and killed his family, stole the mystical Ankh from the Temple of Life, and unleashed abominations on the land. The PC has journeyed to Shadow Keep, home of King Mondor and Queen Verryl, the "last bastion of law and order," on a quest to find the Black Sword and destroy the Evil Overlord once and for all.
     

The king outlines the main quest.

    

The character starts in front of the titular Shadow Keep ("Mondor, honey, since we're the last bastion of light in an evil world, maybe we should think about re-naming our castle"). There's no character creation, not even a name, although the game assumes the character's name is the same as the save game file. The PC starts with 200 gold and a handful of magic keys. He has bars for health, magic, rations, and strength, and separate statistics for "fighting ability," magic level, and experience. Fighting ability and magic level increase as you fight and use magic scrolls. "Experience" does nothing; it's more like a point system to compare scores with other players.

The land is quite large and dotted with shops, huts, and temples, but also wandering monsters. Early in the game, I bought a dagger and leather armor at a nearby shop and for the first few hours, periodically darted out of the safety of Shadow Keep to slay an enemy or two before retreating to heal. Damage heals steadily over time.
          

Transacting in a shop.

      
Shadow Keep itself has no services, but the large castle has plenty of NPCs to talk with and rooms to search for valuables. Early in the game, King Mondor gives the main quest to the player. I spent much of this early session just feeding keywords to the NPCs, whose names are almost all drawn from Shakespeare (e.g., Ophelia, Polonius, Oberon, Titania, Malvolio). The keyword-based dialogue works pretty much like Ultima IV except that it takes entire phrases (e.g., VALLEY OF THE UNICORN). It also has a much larger box to display the results, which is ironic because the NPCs don't generally have a lot to say. Most of them have one or two lines inspired by JOB (and a lot of them have the same job, like king's advisor or lady-in-waiting) and then everyone has stock responses to common terms like SHADOW KEEP, OVERLORD, and BLACK SWORD. Only a small percentage offer unique comments; more on that in a bit.

A key game element, whether indoors or outdoors, is the frequent use of "S" to search your surroundings. The action briefly highlights the 8 squares immediately adjacent to the character, and it reveals secret doors on walls and treasures hidden within furniture or (outdoors) trees. You want to hit it when next to pretty much any object. The castle turned out to be full of gold, potions, rations, and keys (you need many keys to unlock the doors in the castle), and the manual says that King Mondor explicitly encourages you to loot the things you find, as only clever adventurers will defeat the Evil Overlord.
       

Searching turns furniture into valuables.

      
Such generosity does not extend to looting the actual treasure chamber, unfortunately, nor to killing any inhabitants or even wielding a weapon while in the castle. Such actions bring the guards swarming at you, and unlike Ultima's guards, they don't forget about your deeds when you leave the castle and return.
      

Don't even think about it. Trust me.

     
I haven't made much progress outdoors because combats are hard early in the game. There isn't much to them. You stand adjacent to the enemy and exchange blows with the "R" or "L" keys depending on which hand holds the desired weapon. If you have a magic scroll or potion, you can use it the same way. There are both land-based and water-based creatures, but the latter don't drop treasure chests. Particularly annoying are giant spiders and giant scorpions, both of which inevitably poison you. I found a few vials of both spider and scorpion poison antidote in the castle, but not enough for more than a few combats and the creatures are everywhere.
       

Trading blows with a goblin in the woods.

     
From the denizens of the castle (and a few people in the huts to the southwest of the castle), I've learned that the Ankh stolen from the Temple of Life was probably taken to Far Land, a continent across the sea. There's supposedly a labyrinth built by gnomes that connects the two continents, and I need a magic amulet to navigate the labyrinth. (I need to find an innkeeper named Thaldo and ask him about the amulet.) At some location, I'm going to need to pass a Guardian, built by a long-dead wizard named Sorn, which will require me to have a Sacred Bone. The bone is in the dungeon beneath the castle.
    

Getting some information from an NPC.

     
The Black Sword was lost in a battle between the knights of Shadow Keep and the Overlord's Demon Knights, an elite unit. The remains of the Demon Knights are in the Catacombs beneath an old cemetery in the southwest corner of the continent. Everyone warns me not to go there.

The Overlord is in a vast cavern beneath the kingdom, and the only entrance to it is on a small island in the middle of the Sea of Serpents. A torch will scare away the serpents. When I encounter the Overlord, I'll want a magic Grail to protect against his magic.

I've explored a bit of the dungeon beneath the castle, but I need more vials of anti-venom, as the place is full of spiders and scorpions. A bird-keeper named John is rumored to be in the dungeon somewhere, and apparently he can fill in a lot of the blanks in the game's lore.
       

The entrance to the dungeon. I've just killed a scorpion and then took some anti-venom. Those bottles of poison are like bombs that kill you if you step on them.

       
Just as I was wrapping up, I had found or made enough money to upgrade to a sword and chainmail. I need to spend some more time grinding and then find a magic shop for those anti-venom vials.
    

Death gives you an image of what I presume is the Evil Overlord.

     

Before I forget, I need to thank reader Rick S. for helping me with the files. This was ages ago, back in April 2016, and I'm not even sure if he's still reading. I still can't get any sound out of any game I play in the emulator, but I watched some video online and sound doesn't seem to be a big part of the game.

I look forward to seeing how this one develops. It's definitely the best RPG for the Mac so far. [Edit: I meant exclusively, of course.]

****

About to get started on Eye of the Beholder II. Any opinions on creating a new team vs. importing my old one?