Serpent Isle: Scorch'd, not Killed

When the story is written, Shamino, I'll be sure to include the "Aiiieeeee!"

         

As I start this session, I haven't played in a couple of weeks, so it's a good thing that the linear nature of the game hasn't left me with many options. Having survived the Mountains of Freedom and reassembled my party, I have precisely 0 leads on how to get off this island. I decide to start with a loop of the city to see who has new dialogue. Also, there are some people I'd like to kill, though I don't expect that they've stuck around.

       

• Bucia had no new dialogue options. I rather hoped she'd apologize for testifying against me. Also having no new dialogue: Mosh, Julia, Pothos, Fedabiblio, Flindo, Freli, Andrio, Melino, Rocco, and Petra. Kane has nothing new to say, but he's hanging out at Gustacio's now.

• Mortegro, Frigidazzi, and Filbercio are nowhere to be found. I wasn't done buying spells from Mortegro, but Torrisso tells me he's gone missing, zapped away during a magical storm. Torrisso has joined the Council since I was imprisoned. 

• Columna claims that since Stefano has returned to Moonshade, she's going to have him executed. Stefano has nothing to say about that. There's a "join" option when I talk to him, but he refuses, even if I drop other party members.

• Ducio says that aside from the demon being missing, my Black Sword has been damaged beyond his ability to repair. He suggests I check with Gustacio.

• Gustacio has the most new dialogue. He apologizes for the sham of a trial but says he couldn't contradict the MageLord. He says he could repair my Black Sword if he had his flux analyzer, but it was stolen years ago. He confirms that Mortegro disappeared from Gustacio's own cellar, replaced by a strange altar--"like something from a Serpent temple."  

      

I confirm that there's a stone altar in Gustacio's basement. A naga attacks me when I enter. I don't know if this is the same naga that I freed from Rotoluncia's house or a different one. Rotoluncia's is gone, in any event. 

    

A) How did lightning strike in here? B) What was Mortegro doing standing in a cave against the wall?

     

Gustacio asks for my help analyzing the teleportation storms. He thinks the color of the lightning has something to do with its properties--teleportation, transmutation, and transposition. He wants me to take an energy globe to a tower he's erected in the valley north of town, fiddle with the levers to summon a storm, and watch the effects. Yay. I just love puzzles involving colors.

       

"My report: Red, yellow, or green lighting transmutes things; red, yellow, or green lightning transposes them; and red, yellow, or green lightning teleports them."

      

As I head up to Gustacio's tower, I find a couple of things I missed before, including a chasm in the ground with a bow next to it and a ruined house with a locked door. There seem to be stairs heading down in the house. My lockpicks don't work on the door, and gods know if any of my million keys will open it. 

   

I reach the tower, install the globe, and start pulling levers. To the best that I can tell:

    

• A yellow, orange, or green bolt replaces a plate with a pinecone. I don't know if this is transmutation or transposition.
  

• A yellow, orange, or green bolt replaces a helmet with a cat. I hope this is a transmutation, or else some poor family has lost a cat.
  

      

Honestly, guys. Sometimes I feel like I'm on my own here.

     

• A red bolt--thankfully, Dupre speaks up--makes a shield disappear.

• A red or green bolt turns a hoe into a small rock.

• A red or green bolt destroys a cup.

• A red or green bolt destroys a pumpkin. At this point, Iolo says that all the bolts have been red, green, or yellow.

• Two platforms have nothing on them. I pull their associated levers, and my party members identify the bolts that struck them as yellow and red, but nothing happens in either case.

     

Glad we cleared that up.

       

Could you maybe tell me which bolt did what?

     

Rolling the winch to open the gate causes the energy globe to explode. The Avatar wakes up next to the chasm wondering where he is. The party members are gone. For $&*#'s sake. I just went through this. I find them hanging around the tower and have them re-join, but of course I have to re-equip them with all their stuff.

   

Back in town, Gustacio sends me to Fedabiblio for the "answers." (Man, am I going to be glad when I no longer have to remember how to spell these names.) He says I should consult his crystal ball to solve the mystery of "the missing brother." I wasn't aware that was why I was doing all these things, but I guess it explains Kane in Gustacio's house. The crystal ball shows Edrin, Kane's brother, trying to escape a teleportation storm and getting transmuted into a parrot, which was the solution I'd figured out when I first met the damned thing. 

      

Technically, it's a "transmutation" storm.

    

I bring the news back to Gustacio, who tells me to take Ale (the parrot) to the tower and "place him where the lightning can strike him." He gives me a cage to trap Ale and a new energy globe. This might be my imagination, but Ale seems to be trying to run away and hide as I approach him with the cage. I have to chase him down the street.

      

On the way back to the tower, I accidentally fall into the chasm. The corpses of those who have done the same litter the floor. A short corridor takes me up to the interior of the ruined house, but I can't find a key anywhere and have to reload and replay the entire tower sequence again because I stupidly didn't save after I finished it the first time.

          

Which is why this screenshot contradicts what I said two paragraphs ago.

      

Back at the tower, I pick one of the platforms at random, pull the lever, and cross my fingers. Fortunately, Ale is transformed back to Edrin. He thanks us and says he hopes to book passage home to the mainland. The farm that he and Kane tend is apparently south of Fawn. I think the only farm I found in that area showed signs of a massacre. I don't have any dialogue options along those lines. Edrin also mentions that when he was a parrot, he had dreams of a beautiful woman named Siranush. "Oftimes, I would only see her from afar . . . other times, we would be together, swimming, gardening, walking . . . ." I don't know what to make of this. 

   

As I leave the tower, let me note that it's a real pain in the neck to take stairs in this engine. Movement in the interface is difficult when you have to aim for something as narrow as a staircase. Half the time, you end up walking alongside the staircase and jamming yourself in a corner, or somehow getting yourself caught on the risers next to the staircase, or what have you. I spend a lot of time bumbling around trying to get the party unstuck. Later in the game, I somehow wind up on top of a pile of rocks, and it takes about 10 minutes to get off of them.

           

As a bird, you could have flown off this island.

     

In town again, Gustacio gives us the Mirror of Truth as a reward for helping in the experiment. I don't know what to make of this, as I've never heard of the Mirror of Truth before and don't know why I need it. He also teaches me the spells he knows for free. I'll have an entry on magic at some point.

          

The serpent earring speaks to me briefly as I leave Gustacio's house: "Who art thou, stranger? Why can't I see thee? Curse this imbalance which veils my mind . . . ." I don't know what to make of that. ("I don't know what to make of that" would have been my subtitle for this entry if I could have made a snake-related pun out of it.) Kane and Ale both talk about booking passage off the island, so I go and talk with Captain Hawk. He still refuses to sail, but he says that there are caves in the southern mountains and Julia has a key to a door that will let me in. 

    

Hold me back, Boydon.

      

Sensing an imminent departure, I spend the rest of my guilders on reagents and then head to the rangers' winery. Julia gives me the key for 40 guilders--thankfully, I had just about that much left--and warns us about the dungeon's heat and its dangerous "rat-men."

   

A ranger is guarding the dungeon entrance. We unlock the door and enter. We are attacked by giant rats in the hallways, which lead us to a "village" of larger rat-men. As they're hostile, we kill them and loot their cheese. Past their village, we find a corridor where the rat-men seemed to have piled up furniture to block a group of undead from entering their village. The undead area has an altar with gold, potions, and a Sword of Defense.

      

These little "houses" are kind of cute. I don't know why the rat-men had to be hostile.

    

Beyond the undead area is a door with a "flaming man" (I wish I knew their real name) beyond it. We kill him after taking significant damage from his explosions. This turns out to be a dead end, so we have to head back through the undead area (the creatures of course have respawned), past a house where a couple of trolls live, and up some stairs to the dungeon Furnace.

   

We come immediately to an open drawbridge. A gargoyle patrols the other side next to a lever. I try casting "Telekinesis" on the lever, but it's stuck, so I hail him. He introduces himself as Zhelkas, "ruler of the gargoyles." His people have lived in these Ophidian ruins, which he calls the "Lost City," for a couple of generations. What sounds like Knights of Monitor have harassed them, calling them "daemons," but they usually die from the heat before they can do much damage. He's thus wary of us, but he also thinks I might be the "Hero of the Dream." The gargoyles apparently have recurring dreams about a hero from another world who will kill the Trinity of Evil and "triumph through virtue." They have a Ring of the Serpent to give to him. My companions all assure Zhelkas that I must be the hero, but he says I'll have to "submit to the Test of Purity" to prove myself. I agree to submit and he lowers the drawbridge, telling me to go to the Place of Purity and grasp the Pillar of Fire.

        

I've always thought of myself as the only "man" in this group; I just didn't know that Dupre did, too.

    

A couple of things happen on the other side of the bridge. First, the Serpent Earring speaks to me again: "I know we have met before, Stranger. Dost thou recall?" No, not really. Second, my companions start complaining about the heat and taking damage, so I cast the "Chill" spell that Frigidazzi gave me. I note that I only have enough reagents for 9 castings of the spell. I hope it lasts.

  

We enter the ruins of the city. Most of the ways are blocked by iron bars, opened by levers that we're not strong enough to pull, but a button opens a path to the south. We cross another bridge to an island, where I pick up several handfuls of sulfur ash. Another bridge takes us to what I guess is the core of the city, with numerous multi-leveled buildings connected by stone bridges. They're mostly empty. Serpents with globes in their mouths look like they served as street lights, which suggests the place wasn't always covered in lava. There are some interesting scenes in some of the buildings, but they're almost all empty.

      

Did any of the Ophidians ever say, "Maybe we're overdoing it with the snakes"?

      

One section appears to be a market area with stores still displaying their wares. There's an obvious tavern, an armory, and shops with grandfather clocks and shelves full of ice wine. "Chill" runs out as I explore, and I have to cast it again. I need to get moving. There are a number of locked doors, including magically-locked doors, but I don't want to waste reagents on them. 

   

We find a few gargoyles sleeping on stone beds. Zhelkas had warned us that he was the only gargoyle not "trapped in the dream." When we encounter the first one, Shamino says, "'Tis reminiscent of the problems that are occurring in Britannia this very instant!" and then "The emps...." I have no idea what he's talking about. 

    

How do you have any idea what's occurring in Britannia "this very instant"?

      

We come across a room full of bales of wool, spinning wheels, and a loom. I'm reminded that in this game, you can use bales of wool on a wheel to make thread, then use the thread on a loom to make cloth, then use shears on the cloth to make bandages. It might be worth making some, but I'm more concerned about the "Chill" spell running out. Fortunately, I find an alchemy lab full of reagents that give me half a dozen more castings. Later, we find an entire drawer full of "Chill" spell scrolls.

       

Who needs yellow potions?

     

We find a library, where the "Translation" spell lets me read the obsidian script. There's a book that describes how the light posts were created by a mage named Eshalveras. A book called Civil War on the Evil Forces of Chaos, barely visible in some rubble, suggests that this must be the City of Order. We find a key on a corpse and a stairway down. The key opens a door in the basement, which leads to a room with four chests. They contain spell scrolls for "Serpent Bond," "Invoke Snow Serpent," "Telekinesis," and "Create Automaton."

     

And there was a giant spider.

     

We come to some kind of arena. While exploring it, the gates open, and a bunch of automatons come out and attack us with serpent swords. Shamino goes down and has to be healed. Elsewhere, we're attacked by snakes and more "fire men."

   

Well before we've finished exploring the huge city, we find what we're looking for: The Test of Purity. It's in a small temple with two pillars. The ice pillar is broken, the fire pillar intact. I grasp the fire pillar as Zhelkas said and find myself teleported to a new building with no items. There are three doors leading from the room.

     

It's annoying how often this question comes up in this game.

     

I take the east door and find Dupre. "Zhelkas has appointed me moderator of the Game," he says. He explains that I'm about to face 10 worms, one after the other, and I can't leave until the last one is dead. I have to kill them with a hammer found nearby. Dupre leaves and the worms start popping out of the ground. I swing away with the hammer--frustratingly, because the game keeps insisting I'm "out of range." After I kill a few, Dupre comes running from the north, saying he's just found an amazing treasure. After every few more, he comes running back with more hyperbole about what he's found. After the ninth worm, he insists that I come with him to see the treasure. I refuse, which causes him to run off, cursing my name. I finish destroying the final worm and appear in the main foyer. 

   

I've never felt so connected to my player character.

     

To the north, an apparition of Iolo stands next to a moongate. He tries to convince me that after I left, Dupre tried to kill Zhelkas, the Guardian invaded, everyone concluded that Serpent Isle is already doomed, and a horde of trolls is about to overwhelm the Lost City. He further says that the Guardian said, apparently directly to Iolo 'cause they're old friends, that he intends to go to Earth next. Iolo encourages me to take the moongate, which conveniently leads to Earth, to Earth. I refuse and end up back in the main room.

     

No. Stop. Don't.

       

The final test is really creepy. I find Shamino in a western room surrounded by gamboling women. There are two pillars with buttons. Shamino explains that if you press the left button, the women become randy and the lot of you can retire to the nearby bedroom. Notably, however, they shout things like "No!" and "Curse the buttons!" while doing so. If you press the right one, they praise you for setting them free, although I'm not sure they're real in the first place.

        

You're overdoing it, Shamino.

     

These iterations of Shamino, Iolo, and Dupre clearly aren't real. They make racist comments about gargoyles and all say "Damn thee!" when I choose the correct solution. "Shamino" is clearly okay with human trafficking. On the other hand, the real versions of the three of them are pretty mean to Boydon; Shamino hates cats; and Dupre is too stupid to keep his mouth shut about Lord British, so maybe I'm overestimating them. 

   

Were they your friends or something?

     

I get teleported back outside the test and have all my stuff again, except of course in the wrong places. As I get it all straightened out, Zhelkas acclaims me as the prophesied hero and gives me the Serpent Ring. He says that I passed the tests of ethicality, discipline, and logic, which were the virtues of the Forces of Order. I guess if the other pillar hadn't been broken, I would have faced a test where I had to prove tolerance, enthusiasm, and emotion. This was all very cute, but if you tell someone ahead of time that he's about to face something called the "Test of Purity," he's going to be on the lookout for obvious traps. It would have been a better "test" if Zhelkas had just let me wander into it.

     

I absolutely always am. It gets tiring sometimes.

     

Passing the test doesn't get me any closer to leaving the dungeon, so we continue exploring. In a large cavern full of mushrooms, I find a corpse with a Key of Ice and a serpent's tooth, which immediately goes into my jawbone. There's a golden altar at the southern end of this room and a lot of additional corpses. Maybe the mushrooms are poisonous. In what looks to be a public bathhouse, I find a corpse with a Key of Fire.

     

This serpent had some severe dental problems.

    

I never find out what the two keys are for, if they're for anything in this dungeon. Zhelkas meets me by another grate and pulls a lever to open it, and I find myself in a part of Furnace that I've already explored, accessible from the entrance near Monitor. I'm low on funds, so I don't mind when some trolls show up, as they often carry gold and gems. Dupre and Boydon are carrying light enough loads that they can fit a couple of pikemen in their packs.

   

There's still a Serpent Staff behind a locked door in a cavern full of debris and corpses. Neither of my new keys will open it. But while I'm trying, I happen to notice something I missed before: a charred book next to a pile of furs. Clicking on it tells me that it's a "ruined spellbook." So I guess that's where it's been all along. I leave it where it lays and drop the piece of pumice next to it. One more off the list.

      

The real ruined spellbook is the friends we made along the way.

      

At last, we emerge from Furnace into the sunshine. I'm eager to get back to Monitor, drop off these pikemen, and use my accumulated training points. From there, there's the city of Fawn to explore, plus a new serpent's tooth that must lead somewhere. I also feel like I should take another run through Furnace, as there was a lot to potentially miss, and there's always the Silver Seed material. I thus have at least four paths to take--or three more than I've had for the last 23 hours.

    

Time so far: 39 hours

 

 

Equipment Update:

 

• My spellbook was replaced with a chunk of pumice. Harnna thinks Krayg might know more about it. Krayg says such stones come from the center of the Earth, and Standarr often goes deep on his Quests of Courage. Standarr mentions a dungeon called Furnace. I ultimately find it in Furnace, charred to uselessness.
  
• My Black Sword was replaced with a ruddy rock. The rock may be Stoneheart, a volatile substance found in caverns near Moonshade called the Mountains of Freedom. I find the Black Sword in the Mountains of Freedom in the hands of a guard.
  
• My glass sword was replaced with a pinecone. Pine trees are found in the great forest to the north, according to Harnna and Captain Hook.
  
• The blackrock serpent was replaced by a pair of fine stockings. These seem to belong to Columna in Moonshade, but Filbercio hired Stefano to steal them. It's uncertain who was in possession of the stockings when the swap happened. However, it seems likely that Batlin stole the blackrock serpent before leaving Moonshade.
  
• A hunk of mutton was replaced by a bottle of ice wine. Harnna suggests that I run it by Simon at the inn. Simon says it's probably made by the rangers of Moonshade. I found where the wine came from in Moonshade, but by then the mutton was long gone.
• A leg of meat was replaced by 83 filari, a currency from one of the cities. Shamino's note oddly doesn't mention the money. This is the only trade in which I came out ahead.
  
• Rudyom's Wand was replaced by a strange apparatus. Harnna doesn't know what to make of it but thinks that it may have something to do with Fawn's statuary or Moonshade's magic. Bucia in Moonshade suggests I speak with Ducio, the artisan. Ducio says that it belonged to Vasculio and might have been taken by Vasculio's apprentice, Ensorcio.
  
• My magic armor was replaced by an enameled breast plate, "suitable for ceremonial occasions." Harnna says I should ask Standarr the armourer about it. Standarr says that he made it for Kylista, priestess of Fawn.
  
• My magic helm was replaced by a woman's fur cap. Shamino's note says it's "ridiculous." I think it's very practical and not obviously a woman's at all. Harnna thinks it might be the work of Cellia the Furrier. Cellia recognizes it and says she created it for a mage in Moonshade named Frigidazzi. We eventually find the helm in Frigidazzi's bureau.
  
• My magic gauntlets were replaced by a ring. Shamino's note says that it's a "finely crafted ring, of silver, of a size to fit a small woman or child." I don't know what to make of the Avatar wearing it, then. Harnna points us to Lucilla, who is "interested in baubles and trinkets," but Lucilla only offers that it might be a marriage or engagement ring. Selina at the Sleeping Bull thinks it might be from a "lesser artisan" in Moonshade. But it really belongs to Alyssand in the Fellowship village.
  
• Dupre's Magebane has been replaced by a blue egg. Based on the thickness of the shell, Harnna thinks it probably comes from a bird that lives up north. Gustachio's telescope shows the sword resting on a nest in a frozen landscape.
  
• Dupre's Shield has been replaced by a Shield of Monitor. Harnna mentions that it could belong to anyone, and I should inquire around and see if anyone is missing a shield. Later, I hear that Luther has a new magic shield.
  
• Shamino's 24 burst arrows were replaced with an odd hairbrush. "Crude," according to Shamino. Harnna has an odd reaction to it and says I should ask Templar about it. Templar says that it's a goblin hairbrush, made from the bones of their victims. Found in a goblin hut.
  
• Shamino's dagger was replaced with a severed limb. The note clarifies that it's a "bloody hand." Harnna suggests we check with Renfry to see if he's encountered a body missing a hand. Renfry doesn't know where it came from, but he deduces that it's "not dead," so some kind of magic is involved. Pothos in Moonshade thinks it's a product of one of Erstam's experiments. The dagger is found in Erstam's manor, which is full of living body parts.
• Shamino's swamp boots were replaced with a pair of slippers, "such as might be worn in the privacy of one's home." Harnna doesn't believe they belong to anyone in Monitor and suggests I check with Krayg the Provisioner. Krayg says the closest place where someone might wear these is Sleeping Bull. They belong to the innkeeper's wife, Devra, who trades them back.
• Shamino's magic bow was replaced with a bear skull Found in the opening minutes.
• Iolo's crossbow has been replaced with an urn with ashes. Harnna confirms what I already know: it's a funeral urn, and Caladin's grandfather's urn is missing. Found in the Monitor crypts.
  
• Five torches Iolo was carrying in his pack have been replaced by a pumpkin. Iolo's list doesn't mention this substitution, and all the others have been one-for-one.

 

Game 490: Ambermoon (1993)

 

         

Ambermoon

Germany

Thalion Software (developer and publisher) 

Released 1993 for Amiga

Date Started: 28 March 2023

    

Amberstar ended with the victorious party defeating the evil wizards and preventing the return of the demon/wizard Tarbos. But as the heroes celebrated their victory, they wondered: "Why does Lyramion's third moon glow evilly, with a blood red light?"

        

Could they not have made it glow with an amber light?

     

The backstory to this sequel, along with the introductory cinematic, answer the question: Tarbos had done something to mess with the moon, nudging it out of its orbit. It took 40 years, but eventually the satellite came crashing down to the surface, obliterating most of the cities. In the cinematic, the camera follows a chunk of the moon approaching Lyramion as a tune reminiscent of the Jaws theme plays in the background. The player is then treated to the sight of meteors laying waste to each of the major cities from Amberstar. That's a grim way to begin a game.

   

By now, the backstory informs us, the hero of Amberstar had retired, fathered a daughter, and enjoyed the birth of his first grandchild. (The hero of Amberstar could be either sex, but apparently was canonically male.) The family lived in Twinlake (the starting city in Amberstar), and in the rubble following its destruction, the hero found his grandchild but not his daughter. He raised the child on his own as civilization slowly rebuilt itself. As the game begins, the original hero is 80 and has sent his grandchild--the player character--on a mission to "find out what is happening on the Island of Lyramion and what risks there are to you and life on Lyramion." It's hard to imagine there are risks any worse than the entire planet being destroyed by meteors, but I guess we'll see.

      

Glad I spent all that time solving side quests here.

       

The intro is a bit confused, I should note. It starts "20 years after the events of Amberstar," depicts the broken pieces of the moon laying waste to the cities, and then says "70 years later . . ." to introduce the game. But the backstory makes it clear that the hero didn't even settle down until 20 years after Amberstar, then had a daughter who grew to adulthood, got married, and had her own child before the meteors fell. It also makes it clear that the original hero is 80 as this game begins. Thus, the title cards in the cinematic should read more like "40 years after the events of Amberstar" and "20 years later" for the period after the destruction. To make matters worse, the PC's age in the character sheet is given as 17, which doesn't fit any of the timelines provided. She should be 20 or, I suppose, 70.

     

You've got to assign someone on the team to continuity.

             

The only choices you have for character creation are sex and portrait. There are a few notable things here. The first is that the developers were a bit lazy: most of the portraits are very slight modifications of each other. I suppose it makes sense if they're all supposed to be children of the same parents. Second, in an era that often lacked racial inclusion, it's notable here that all of the female portraits could be construed as Black. Third, one of the male portraits depicts a person clearly quite older than the rest.

     

At least one of these people is not 17.

       

The game begins with the PC's grandfather on his deathbed. He summons the PC over and reveals that he was the hero who saved Lyramion however many years ago; apparently, the PC has heard this story but didn't know her grandfather's role. Grandpa says that Shandra (the wizard from Twinlake in Amberstar) appeared in his dreams and told him that a new evil was arising and that the PC would need to fight it. This is particularly odd because Shandra died during the meteor attack on Twinlake, having exhausted himself teleporting townsfolk to safety. Grandpa suggests going to Newlake (apparently the replacement for the destroyed Twinlake) to try to commune with Shandra's spirit. He gives a password (WINE) to a secret cave accessible through the basement of his house, encouraging the PC to "use everything you find there" but asking her to bring him a small piece of amber. Admonishing the PC to hurry, as he will soon "enter the realms of Bala," he collapses back on his bed.

      

A cut scene starts the dialogue . . .

 

. . . which continues in the dialogue window.

      

The main interface hasn't changed notably since the first game. The layout is identical. Party members' portraits line the top row. An exploration screen is on the left. It alters between an axonometric view (angled slightly on one axis, so it looks as if you're looking at an angle from the south) and a first-person view depending on what you're exploring. The right third of the screen has a message window at the top and an icon panel at the bottom; a right-click of the mouse alters between a movement panel and an action panel, with options to look, touch, talk, board transportation, use magic, camp, view the map, change battle positions, and view the game options (including saving and loading). I had hoped that the authors would have mapped these options to sensible keyboard commands (e.g., "T" for "Talk"), but alas the letters on the keyboard don't seem to do anything at all. You can activate the icons with the numberpad, though. Ever since I bought my new Alienware laptop, I've been grousing that it doesn't have a numberpad, so I had to buy an external one. For the first time, I'm grateful for an external pad over a built-in pad, as I can move it to where my left hand can use it, leaving my right hand on the mouse. If that gets annoying, I'll map the icons to the keys I want in the emulator settings.

        

Sent on a vital mission, the dying man's granddaughter instead bonks her head by walking into a fireplace. The old man shakes his head sadly.

        

The graphics are somewhat improved from Amberstar, though mostly because they're larger and thus show more detail. The icon for the PC is maybe four times the size as in the original game; furnishings are maybe twice as big. Somehow, the authors manage to achieve the larger icons without changing the number of visible tiles (9 x 9), partly by removing what in the first game was an excess of floor space in most of the interior areas. Most other changes, at least so far, are minor and cosmetic.

    

I spend some time exploring the house and familiarizing myself with the commands. The interface is partly inspired by Ultima V in the way that the character icon changes when you, for instance, move over a chair or bed. The world isn't quite as interactive, but there are some fun if pointless touches. Clicking on barrels of water next to fireplaces, for instance, causes you to douse the fires, after which you can walk into the fireplace, one of which hides a secret stairway. Generally speaking, though, there are only a few interactive objects out of many that look like they might be interactive. I was hoping the eye icon would reveal more descriptions, like in a Quest for Glory game, but I was disappointed.

        

Heading downstairs.

      

The PC starts naked as a Level 1 human "Adventurer," aged 17, with 10 hit points and 8 spell points. Attributes are out of 50: strength (33), intelligence (27), dexterity (34), speed (21), stamina (48), charisma (41), luck (16), and anti-magic (0). Her skills are attack (42/80), parry (19/75), swimming (1/95), critical hits (0/0), find traps (0/25), disarm traps (0/25), pick locks (0/25), search (0/25), read magic (23/50), and use magic (27/50). I verified that all these statistics are the same for a male character.

   

A chest in my room reveals 37 gold coins, two lockpicks, and a rope. My dresser has a hat, clothes, and sandals. A hutch in the dining room yields some silver cutlery. A cabinet in the kitchen has two knives, a dagger, and 15 rations. There are more rations, plus 5 torches, in barrels in the pantry. I equip the equippable items using the paperdoll inventory screen, noting that the "view item" command gives you a full set of statistics associated with each object. You don't need to view these statistics to see the immediate effects of equipped items on attack and defense power, which are offered under the character portrait.

       

The inventory screen.

       

This weapon statistics screen gives me a preview of the classes that the game will offer: adventurer, warrior, paladin, thief, ranger, healer, alchemist, mystic, and mage. You may recall that the character in Amberstar starts as nothing and has to choose his class when he finds the appropriate guild. Here, where the character explicitly starts as an "adventurer," I'm not sure if I'll have the same options to change. Gone are the classes of monk, white wizard, grey wizard, and black wizard, but I assume the four new classes here are rough analogs.

     

Thus equipped, I head down to the basement. A title card transitions the scene, noting that I hear squeaking as I enter. The basement is present in a first-person interface, and almost immediately I notice an interface change that swiftly becomes unwelcome. Perhaps inspired by Ultima Underworld or Legends of Valour (both from 1992), the developers chose to ditch tiled movement and crisp 90-degree turns for continuous movement and turning. There's nothing inherently wrong with this except that it's excruciatingly slow and, so far, not terribly necessary, since unlike Underworld, the dungeon doesn't offer a level of interactivity that requires such refined movement. The textures are nice, though. 

       

The well room with no floor and ceiling textures.

     

There are options to turn on textures for the floor and ceiling, but this just makes movement that was already maddeningly slow completely unplayable. I played with WinUAE's CPU speed options but couldn't find anything that made it faster except to kick it into "warp" mode, which is too fast, causes torches to blink out in an instant, and causes the character to tire quickly. Suggestions are appreciated because this is going to be a real problem. I'm emulating an A1200 with a 68040 CPU, AGA chipset, 2 MB RAM, JIT enabled. CPU emulation speed set to "fastest possible."

      

The same room with floor and ceiling textures.

      

(Unlike its predecessor, Ambermoon was released only for the Amiga; Thalion went out of business while planned DOS and Atari ST versions were still in development. My understanding is that it was only officially released in German, so I'm not entirely sure what the provenance is of the English translation I'm playing, but I'll try to research that for a later entry.)

      

The last time I went house shopping, I viewed some old houses with wells in basements. They always scared the hell out of me.

      

There are spiders crawling along the ceilings and floors, but they seem to be decorative, as they don't attack. I come to a well. I look into it and a pond lizard comes leaping out, sending me into the first combat of the game. Not much seems to have changed from Amberstar--you still face enemies on a 6 x 5 grid--but let me cover combat in a later entry after I've had some more experience. There's a "fast combat" option that I need to explore, as regular combat is unnecessarily bogged down with animations that take a long time. The lizard and I miss each other for about five rounds before I finally kill it, having taken five points of damage. I get 10 experience points and 2 rations.

       

The top half of the screen is just for aesthetics. I wish the "quick combat" option stripped the interface down to the grid and the messages.

      

There are some round items in the corner of the well room, but I can't figure out any way to pick them up. The "touch" and "look" interface options don't seem to do anything.

      

What are these all about?

    

A couple of rooms later, I'm killed by a giant spider.

      

I hope grandpa dies before he realizes he's sent me to my own death.

     

Unfortunately, that's about all I have time for right now, but when I reload back in grandpa's house, I think I'll try the secret area before going down into the cellar. I'm looking forward to the game and seeing where the plot goes, but I'm at the tail end of a crazy week and it was tough to even get this much done for tonight.

    

Time so far: 1 hour

  

When April Comes Again

This week was a tough one at my place of work. I had to be in at 06:00 every day. Every night, I thought I'd get started on Ambermoon, and every night, I was just too tired. I started the game last night and should have a new entry up by the end of the weekend. I don't see any reason why I can't keep a regular posting schedule after that.

   

I tried to think of a good April Fool's joke for today and didn't even get that together. The most obvious thing would be to announce the end of the blog or something like that, but I'd either have to spoil it very fast or deal with an exodus of Patreon subscribers.

On the subject of Patreon, your April contributions will be going to support an endeavor that's important to me. It's not quite a "charity," but it's a worthy cause. The best news source for traditional jazz is The Syncopated Times, run by a man named Andy Senior out of Utica, New York. (It used to be called The American Rag.) It is a source of absolutely fantastic jazz news and journalism, and Irene and I read it religiously every month. In truth, she usually reads it aloud to me while I play video games. Damn, I have a cool wife.

   

Anyway, Andy's looking to ensure The Syncopated Times never dies by turning it into a non-profit organization, at the same time expanding its offerings. To this end, he has launched a GoFundMe campaign, looking to raise $60,000. I confess that there are elements of Andy's plan I don't fully understand, but I also fully trust him. He is very well-respected in the world of jazz and was the recipient of a 2022 Jazz Journalists' Association "Jazz Hero" award. I am confident that the modest amount he's seeking is what he needs, and I look forward to see what becomes of the new organization.

   

If you're already contributing to my Patreon, thank you, you're also contributing to this effort. Everyone else, I would consider it a personal favor if you could help Andy reach his goal.

If you're not much of a jazz fan, this is as good a time as any to start. Here's a listening list for the current month:

 

"Some Other Spring" (1939). Billie Holiday.

 

"I'll Remember April" (1941). Charlie Barnet, Bob Carroll.

 

"It's De-Lovely" (1956). Vince Guaraldi Trio.

 

"April in Paris" (1958), Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

    

"It Might As Well Be Spring" (1964). Stan Getz, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto.

Game 489: Quest (1981)

 

Also copyrighted was the game that Quest took most of its ideas from.

      

Quest

United States

Independently developed; Aardvark Software Technical Services (publisher)

Released 1981 for TRS-80 and TRS-80 Color Computer; 1982 for Commodore VIC-20; 1983 for Commodore 64 and TI-99.
Date Started: 25 March 2023

Date Ended: 25 March 2023

Total Hours: 3

Difficulty: Easy (2.0/5)

Final Rating: 13

Ranking at Time of Posting: 68/508 (13%)

      

Quest is a "campaign" game, clearly inspired by Robert Clardy's Wilderness Campaign (1979), though simplified to the point that it's not much fun. It was created by a Robert Retelle and published by Aardvark Software, a mail-order company that released games with such awful production values that I almost suspect it was a front for a money launderer. Among other things, its manuals were in ALL CAPS and had cover art drawn by preschool children. The title screen of this game is another example, although I should note that the TRS-80 Color Computer version, at least, had a more artistic title. This was the only version I could find.

      

A new game begins.

    

A new game starts as soon as the game loads, with no character creation. The unnamed hero's army starts in the northern half of a world divided by a straight river. The entire game world is represented on the one screen. The goal is to reach the citadel of Moorlock in the southeastern corner and defeat him, bringing freedom to the land. The army begins with 10 men, 8 leather jerkins, 7 suits of chain mail, 29 rations, and 108 gold coins. The only commands are the four directions, (I)nventory, (U)se, and redraw the (M)ap. The game is excruciatingly slow at 100% speed, and I kicked the emulator into turbo mode for most of the game.

      

A hairy-legged man in a skirt kneels in front of a computer screen and draws lines in the dirt with a sword.

      

Two cities appear on the map. Other locations--caves, ruins, towers, and special encounters--are hidden until you move the army one square away. I've seen some descriptions of the game that say these are randomized. It's possible that they are for other versions of the game, but the C64 version I played always offered these locations in the same coordinates no matter how many times I restarted. Weirder, hitting the (M) ap command reconfigures the positions of mountains and swamp but not anything else.

      

The cave is too dark. Time to use a lamp.

    

Quest follows the basic "campaign" template. As you move around the map and explore the various areas, your fortunes wax and wane. Friendly armies may merge with yours; enemies lead you into combat. Ruins and towers deliver chests of gold but also occasional combats. You buy rations and supplies in cities, as well as special items necessary to enter the ruins (shovel), caves (lamp), and tower (grapple). "Puzzles," far more interesting in the Clardy game, boil down here to hitting the "U" key and picking the obvious item.

    

Buying items in the store. The offerings change every so often.

     

In combat, success comes down to your number of men, number of arms, experience (gained by winning previous combats), and a "luck" roll made each round. Except for the final battle at the citadel, the game almost always offers enemy parties that are weaker than your own, removing any suspense in combat.

       

Fighting some monsters in a cave.

      

By far, the most significant logistical challenge in Quest is keeping everyone fed. Every 10 moves, the army consumes a number of rations equal to half the number of men. (More in the mountains, but there's no reason to enter the mountains.) When you get to 0 food, a random number of men die when it's time to eat. This has the ripple effect of reducing the amount that you can carry, so you're constantly having to stop to dump equipment after each new batch of soldiers dies.

  

But overall, it's not hard to keep the army on a consistently upward trajectory, particularly since when other armies join yours, they bring gold and equipment with them. In fact, you get so much gold from these encounters that I'm not sure it's even worth searching ruins, caves, and towers. You could just dance back and forth in front of a town and build your army from random encounters.

        

Another group joins me.

    

Eventually, you have to buy a boat to cross the river. Once your army is strong enough, you can make your way to the citadel. The force guarding the citadel has an extremely varied number of soldiers. I initially approached it with about 150 soldiers, and they had 500. When I had 500, I tried again, and they had 800. So I kept playing until I had 800, attacked a third time, and they were down to 500. Their number of "arms" seems to increase in a linear manner throughout the game, however.

    

The cities sell a "siege tower" for 9,999 gold. Maybe you're meant to purchase it before trying to attack the citadel, but I never had anywhere near that much money. I just attacked with a regular army, and it took nearly an hour of mashing the "F" key (for "Fight") before I whittled the enemy down to zero soldiers. Maybe the siege tower would have made this go faster. There were times that neither side lost any men for four or five rounds in a row.   

      

        

Eventually, I killed the last soldier, and the message "HAIL TO THE VICTOR" scrolled down the screen. Yay.

       

You could have at least thrown in an exclamation point.

    

The only mode of character development is in that nebulous "experience" statistic, but even with that, I don't really see "campaign" games as RPGs. Many titles have done much better with the theme, including Avalon Hill's Fortress of the Witch King (1983). I think I even enjoyed Braminar (1987) more.

   

Fellow blogger El Explorador de RPG covered the game and mentioned that Aardvark published a Quest II in 1984 for the TRS-80 Color Computer, Commodore 64, and DOS.  I haven't been able to find any of these. (The generic name doesn't help.) But the gameplay seems to be similar enough that El Explorador covered it in the same entry, so I'll let it go.