Walls of Illusion
Germany
Motelsoft (developer and publisher)
Released as shareware in 1993 for Atari ST
Date Started: 16 February 2025Almost four years ago now, I covered Arcan (1993), Motelsoft's version of Dungeon Master. (For some reason, Motelsoft called themselves Softwave for that game.) Walls of Illusion is Arcan with a new set of maps. I don't think there has been a single mechanical or graphical change. The game notes promise that Walls is harder than Arcan, which is borne out by my experience.
If any backstory came with the game, it's been lost, but an early message suggests that the goal is to reach some sort of enemy named Bragis. As with Dungeon Master, the game is much more about mechanics than plot. There is no character creation; every player starts with four characters named Malcolm, The Turk, Harry, and Laura. They have different values in strength, condition, health, and magic power. Although any character can level in any class, it's clear that Malcolm and The Turk are meant to be the front-line warriors and Harry and Laura are meant to be the primary spellcasters. The game starts them in an appropriate arrangement.
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| The game begins. |
Each character has a (textual) level in five classes: warrior, gladiator, sorcerer, wizard, and healer. All characters start as "green beaks" and from there move to "beginner," "adventurer," and so forth up to "master" or something like it. You level by actually using the associated skills. I think the gladiator class is associated with missile weapons, warriors with melee weapons, and the rest with various spells.
The characters start on the main level of a dungeon of at least four large levels, interconnected by stairways, pits, and (probably) teleporters. As a Dungeon Master clone, Walls is primarily about two things: mechanical puzzles and real-time combat. In neither area does the game live up to Dungeon Master or even Eye of the Beholder, but as an inexpensive shareware title, it has some charm.
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| A character sheet. |
I've mapped maybe 600 squares so far on four levels, and it has been very linear. The game begins in the middle of a four-way junction with starting treasures in all directions (a bronze sword, an apple, a knife, and something I didn't write down). Two squares in any direction, however, there's no choice but to fall down a pit. The level below has four doors, all locked, so there's no choice but to fall down yet another pit. The level below has only a small area to explore before you reach a set of interconnected stairways that take you a level above the original level. There's more to explore here, but inevitably you have to return to the main level by—you guessed it—another pit. (You don't take damage by falling down pits, but you do by testing walls for secret doors.) The bottom line is that at any given moment, at least so far, there's only one way to go.
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| Character inventory. |
The mechanical puzzles include buttons on the wall (some quite small), doors that need keys, doors that need coins, pressure plates on the floor, levers (some of which have to be pulled twice), illusory walls (it's right there in the name!), walls-on-wheels that you have to drag out of the way, teleporters, and invisible barriers. None of them are as creative as some of the puzzles in Dungeon Master, but they do require careful mapping so you can determine what effect a button, lever, or pressure plate has on the wall configuration.
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| A roomful of pressure plates. |
Like Arcan, the game has a limited number of enemy types. There have only been three so far, all variants of the same sprite: melee attackers in red robes wielding staves; melee attackers in blue robes carrying swords and shields; and spellcasters in green robes carrying staves. (As always, when I talk about color, you must mentally insert the words "what I perceive as" before the color.) They're hard enough that there really is no choice but to resort to tricks like the "combat waltz," although the game anticipates this by having enemies move in irregular patterns. Enemy spellcasters can kill the starting party instantly, and in my case they were responsible for a lot of reloads.
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| Spellcasters in the middle of killing us. |
As I explored, I slowly amassed bits of equipment: bronze swords, leather pants, leather jerkins, daggers for throwing (and, annoyingly, picking up again afterwards), food, and arrows (but no bows yet). I found my first spell, "Power Spell," which improves combat damage for a time. A missile spell called "Thunderball" followed, finally giving my rear characters something to do.
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| One of three enemy types so far. |
Unfortunately, just a couple of hours into the game, I'm completely stuck. I can't find any way forward. I have four doors for which I haven't found keys, two doors that just won't open, and four doors leading to a central chamber on Main +1 that seem to open with something inserted in a slot (the previous game used coins), but I haven't found any coins. I believe I've tried bumping into and dragging every wall, and I've looked at them all twice for tiny buttons. I've fallen down every pit and fiddled with every button and lever (there are none that have no obvious effect). I've considered the possibility that keyholes or slots might want some equipment other than keys or coins, but nothing has worked. Unless another player finds the way forward or finds hints (I've searched, but perhaps there's an obscure German site I'm missing), I may have to put this game in limbo.
Oh, and my characters are starving. You find food and water in the dungeon, but not enough. There's one place that I'm sure is supposed to be a refillable fountain, but I can't get anything to happen there with my canteens or water flasks.
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| I'm sure this is supposed to work. |
I'll be so annoyed if the way forward is something obvious. Irene is always accusing me of "man-searching," in which I ask something like "Where are the Triscuits?" while they're right in front of me. I sometimes get the same kind of blindness in RPGs.
In case no help arrives and I can't figure it out, I should note that Motelsoft says on its web site that Walls is its last game for the Atari ST. It is credited to Harald Breitmaier and Heinz Munter, the founders of the company. We'll continue to see their work well into the 2000s.
Time so far: 4 hours
Maps so far are below. Yellow squares are where I can't proceed, either because of a keyhole or slot ("K") or a stuck button ("B"). Numbers indicate origins and destinations for pits, stairs, and teleporters.
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| Main level + 1 |
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| Main level. |
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| Main level - 1 |
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| Main level - 2 |
Has it been four years already since the last Motelsoft game? Where has all the time gone?
ReplyDeleteYou already got much further than I did. I set up the game when I saw it coming up in the, erm, upcoming list. But the movement keys don't work for me. The keys for selecting characters sometimes work, sometimes they won't. I found this unplayable with just the mouse, I certainly can't do a waltz that way and got slaughtered by the enemies.
BTW how do you do the maps in real-time games like this?
So I can't offer much help, but there's a savegame disk in the following link. I've loaded two of the three saves and from the ingame map it seems like a lot has been explored. Maybe you can see something in there - I found it difficult to match the ingame map with yours.
Deletehttps://www.romspedia.com/roms/atari-st/walls-of-illusion-savegame-1993-motelsoft-softwave
Movement uses the arrow cluster on the Atari ST keyboard. The authors made the left and right arrows strafe while the INSERT and HOME keys, above the left and right arrows, turn left and right. This is the opposite of what most games do, and it makes it so that if you play it using a PC keyboard, all you can do is strafe. Back when I played Arcan, I configured Steem to make the 4 and 6 keys on the numberpad activate INSERT and HOME, which largely solved the issue. I agree that playing it with a mouse is a no-go.
DeleteI do the maps the same way I do other games. Steem pauses the game when you leave the window, so the time I spent drawing the map doesn't affect food and water consumption or enemy movement.
Not even strafing worked at first. But strangely now it does, and mapping the buttons helps a lot. I'll check if I can play a bit on the weekend and find out something, though the save disk above is probably a better bet. I'm not particularly good at DM style games. :)
DeleteI checked out the save games a bit further. Vollersion (sic) is the one with the most progression, but the difference isn't big so it's hard to draw any conclusions from that.
DeleteOn main level + 1 he managed to open the southern door (with a key probably) and the eastern door. For the latter one, he made that piece of wall in front of it disappear, but I don't know how. He also managed to open one of the central doors, but there's just a pit to the starting area there. He also has a gold coin in the inventory, so coins exist.
On the main level he managed to open the southern door, which lead to a whole lot of other areas.
He opened the western, northern and eastern doors on main level - 1 and explored large areas there.
Main level -2 is as in your map.
I managed to solve at least one (partial) mistery: There's another water pipe on the main level behind the southern door. This one has a lever next to it, and when you operate it it fills a flask or bottle that is placed there.
P.S. The game gets a lot easier once you notice weapons go into the right hand.
Can't look through them in detail right now, maybe later tonight, but gave you checked the instructions? German and English version e.g. here.
ReplyDeleteThey mention things like "SEARCH AFTER EACH VICTORY AND IN FRONT OF A DOOR WHEN YOU DONT KNOW WHAT'S
WAITING FOR YOU BEHIND IT" and that there are movable walls you have to "pull".
So the German and English versions you can find linked above appear to be -mostly- covering the same ground, but they are not identical.
DeleteE.g. the German version has a part listing all the controls at the end (including the separate "pull" to pull a movable wall, which I brought up as I did not see it explicitly mentioned so far in your entry) which isn't found in the English one.
On the other hand, the latter has a number of "Tips" towards the end not contained in the German instructions (like the bit about searching after each victory and in front of doors which (the former) I think is something you initially missed in Ard II, for example.
Hope any of this helps. I noticed the instructions also mention an automap and that "ALL OBJECTS/LEVERS/OPEN DOORS ETC. DIRECTLY BECOME PART OF THE DUNGEON MAP. " though in the German version the same passage says these things can directly be clicked on in the 'dungeon window / image', so not sure it's talking about the same thing.
The part about searching in front of doors makes it sound like there's some kind of "search" button. But I don't see it on the interface, and I don't remember such a think from Arcan.
DeleteMaybe it means looking around on the screen thoroughly in such situations or using the space bar / right mouse button, which according to the German version triggers 'activate / open / take etc'? Just guessing here, though.
DeleteAnd apologies, I now realized you did actually mention the movable walls already.
I hope it's not that you somehow missed a single element somewhere due to size, colour or the like; that would probably be hard to find now without re-playing it all or a substantial part.
Maybe there's a button mentioned in the manual that does something that you need to do? The German and English controls are written differently and the German ones tell you the control functions. Beyond that, maybe you should be trying to use some things without objects in your hand?
Delete"And apologies, I now realized you did actually mention the movable walls already." You didn't make a mistake. I originally didn't have it in there because I hadn't encountered the mechanic yet. I edited it after your comment to avoid future confusion.
Delete"Softwave" here may have a distinct meaning and a different company:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mobygames.com/company/5837/ak-tronic-software-services-gmbh/
That's a different, later company. The Motelsoft founders definitely went by both Softwave and Motelsoft during the same period, for whatever reasons.
DeleteAccording to a 1989 article about Motelsoft linked on their website, the label 'Softwave' was created for commercial programs, to distinguish them from their (free) public domain (Motelsoft) products.
DeleteThe current game is presented by both labeks jointly - maybe because there is a free limited version and a full registered one, as often usual with shareware!
BTW, I don't recall if it's been mentioned before in your coverage of their games, but all your entries on Motelsoft are linked on their page.
To its credit, I find the cold off-grey walls to be much nicer to look at than Dungeon Master's (and the original Arcan's) just-grey (on-grey?) walls.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but I'd argue the reason why is because you see Dungeon Master's walls a lot more. The big problem with Dungeon Master and a lot of its clones is that they often rely on endless gray stone walls. (Or at least endless something walls) There's not a lot you can do to make these interesting, so they don't and it tends to be quite wearing. With something like this, which we'll probably only see 2-3 entries of, and will probably never play, it looks nicer to our minds because it's a slight variation on that theme.
DeleteEye of the Beholder changed up the walls from time to time. For example, the first three levels were the sewers, and the walls were made of large red bricks. Then they switched to a different design. TBH, I wasn't bothered by the grey walls everywhere in DM, but a change is inarguably nice.
DeleteThese ARE Dungeon Master's walls though, or if not a very close copy. The door frames in particular stand out. The brickwork is very close. The blue robes figures also appear to be a strong lower res rendition of the clerics of Darkmoon from Eye of the Beholder 2.
DeleteAn interesting mashup to be sure
Checking, they are, albeit the vertical lines have been shifted off by half, so it alternates differently. The ground uses a similar but distinct pattern. It occurs to me that the primary difference is in the lightning and shading, using a spray can tool in such a way that exposes the artist as someone who doesn't yet know how to shade/texture things. The portraits also seem to vary wildly, I wonder what else the game stole art from?
DeleteThat would not surprise me. If you look at their Dark Side of the Sun games on their (former) website, the interface is taken straight from Lands of Lore, combined with graphics from Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder, and those are just the ones I recognize. A two-person semi-professional development studio doesn't have the budget for an art department.
DeleteI think their later games switch to rendered stuff and that might be original.
The weapon icons looked familiar too. Some appear to be reskins from DM (the staff) but others I couldn't identify. I did check screens from other games but couldn't pick more out
Delete"Green beak" - ahh, you gotta love Motelsoft. (As you probably already guessed, the literally translated "Grünschnabel" is the German equivalent of "greenhorn".)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/@petsasjim1/search?query=walls%20of%20illusion
This guy has a bunch of videos on the game, maybe that's helpful? It's hard to check against your maps.
That frigging guy. If his video or videos on WoI are more than just the first three minutes of gameplay, they're different than any other video he posts. I refuse to give him a click.
DeleteIn Polish, we use the term żółtodziób, which translates to "yellowbeak", to express the same concept. It probably depends on what animal species a culture has available in abundance to take their metaphors from.
DeleteI was curious and checked out two of his videos. You described them perfectly so there is not much to be had there. But Busca's tips above seem potentially useful: pulling doors and searching after victories.
Delete....or just throw random stuff down hallways and hope for the best.... this game sounds like it´s to convoluted for its own good.
DeleteI'm pretty sure I've tried pulling on every exposed wall, alas. As for searching, maybe that's my problem, because if by "search," the manual means anything more than, "look around on the floor where enemies died," I haven't been doing that. There isn't a special "search" function that I can see.
DeleteBut thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming if you think of any more.
DeleteDo you know what the right-hand button of the three on the upper floor does? I gave the game a go and managed to get to the same position your maps indicate, but I didn't notice that third button until I'd already reached that point. It's conceivable I mistook it for one of the two buttons I had noticed and toggled it as such, but I still have three buttons with only two effects noted.
DeleteOther than that, I'm wondering about the lighter grey tiles the automap uses in some places. It seems to be used for the pit entrances & exits and the pressure plates, but there're also a bunch of other tiles that use it with no apparent reason.
The last thing that's on my mind about this before I pack it up for the night is the NE room on the entrance floor, the one with the gold items; the three northern alcoves in that room show as green on the automap, which seems to indicate locations with something interactable. I tried putting in three gold items to no avail, though on that general line of thought, with both the gold and the silver chain not visibly giving any stats I'm wondering if there's something more to them.
The rightmost button closes off the stairway behind you, which fortunately isn't permanent--you can still come up from below, and it opens again.
DeleteBut like you, I'm bothered by the NE room with the alcoves and jewelry, mostly because it's the last place I was able to explore with the succession of keys that I found, so I figure that something in there ought to continue the chain. Like you, I tried putting different combinations of things in different alcoves (I also tried putting them in the various slots). If there's a pattern, I can't figure it out, and yet I still agree that this is the most likely solution.
I found two gold staffs in the mapped area. In the savegame I loaded, there was one gold staff and a blow pipe with the same symbol. It didn't look like the player threw stuff away, so maybe you have to use the gold staff in some way.
DeleteEquipping a gold staff as a weapon and attacking with it twice seems to be what causes it to be named as a blow pipe, and this works for both gold staves. Haven't found anything to do with this yet, but most of my time was spent loading an earlier save and getting these while I still had enemies to test them as weapons - they seem to be melee weapons slightly worse than bronze swords, but it's not like I've found any darts or similar.
DeleteI found it, it was much simpler. In the three button room at main+1, just before the door that leads the pit room, there's a wall you can walk through to the right. Behind that there's a button that opens up a small area on the same level which has a small key and a silver coin. I guess these will then open up further areas.
DeleteAh, right. I tried replaying the section in the unregistered and german version in case there was something different in either version or language (the blow pipes are "Schlagstock", which apparently means a baton rather than a blowpipe), and I noted a kind of chirping sound when I entered that tile the first time around that I must've missed on the full version, and I now remember the instructions do say to search if you hear strange sounds; I guess that's the hint for a secret wall. It'd be nice if it didn't play first time only though.
DeleteYeah, Buck got it. I know exactly why I missed that, too: I confused it with the secret area above it. Thank you for helping out. I was ready to give up.
DeleteAnd of course a few hours later, I'm stuck again. I still can't get into the bottom half of Main-1; there are six doors I can't open; and I have an elven key that doesn't seem to go anywhere. Argh. I'm not sure the game is worth it.
DeleteIt probably isn't. I mean at least you tried.
DeleteYou're probably further than me. I had an elven key which opened up the "Caution steps" area (south door on main). But I haven't yet found out how to proceed on the upper and lower stairs of the three staircases.
DeleteThe silver coin opens up one of the central doors on main+1, but I haven't used it yet because that just seems to give access to a pit that dumps you to the starting point.
I would assume the south door on main-1 is opened from the other side.
You're probably not missing much if you don't continue here. I assume there's something with a staff of wishing and a fight against the final boss still left, and the game files hint at a few more spells (e.g. levitation), but it's unclear if the game actually uses them.
Never mind, it was fake walls again. The silver coin was needed to open up a new area on the lowest level via a pit. I did find a second one before that, but I wonder if you're stuck if you spend them all on main+1.
DeleteThanks. Your comment helped me get a bit farther. I had annotated that south door on Main as being operated by a stuck button, not a key.
DeleteCan you give me a sense of where you found the second silver coin? And did you find a message that wouldn't say anything when you clicked on it?
DeleteWhen you take the middle set of stairs in the "careful steps" area, and go to the right. There is a door where I think you need a gold coin (you should have one). After another door you're in a room with two levers and a button. Manipulate them until enough walls are gone so that you first find a piece of armor, second a silver coin.
DeleteAh. I used the only gold coin I found on Main-1 to enter an area north of the central room. I'm not sure what it got me. There were two levers in there that I'm not sure I ever found out what they did.
DeleteYou find a gold coin in the southernmost stairs in "careful steps". You find a ruby key in the nothernmost. There are levers behind illusionary walls that open the path. The minimap helps here.
DeleteI also used a gold coin before that, but I think it was a "heavy gold coin" specifically. I did not come across any door where a wrong sequence would have gotten me stuck, except for the silver coins.
I think I'm stuck in the final area now, though.
Do you remember how to open the wall at the bottom of the southernmost stair in the "Caution Steps" area? I've exposed three hidden levers, one at the bottom of the middle stairs and two at the bottom of the upper stairs, but none seems to have any effect on that wall.
DeleteThese levers that require multiple pulls are going to drive me to drink.
DeleteThe middle segment/stairs has two secret walls with levers , one removes the first wall for the nothern stairs, one the first wall of the southern one. If you found one, the other one is on the opposite site of the corridor.
DeleteThe levers that open further walls on the southern stairs are placed just like the ones on the northern stairs.
I've made it a habit to operate levers three times, unless I see it having an effect directly.
Gah. I could have sworn I tested every wall in that corridor multiple times. Thank you.
DeleteIf I get stuck again, I'm quitting, though.
That's what I told myself a couple of times. :)
DeleteHuh, I had the opposite experience; I''d swear I tested every wall in the northern stair corridor and found nothing, but got the hidden ones in the southern corridor straight away.
DeleteI also had the south door from main marked as just being locked with no apparently unlocking mechanism. I wonder if we're both just making the same mistakes or if there're more moving parts at play than immediately apparent. (I don't have high expectations of the game so my money's on the former, though.)
Will our three valiant competitors manage to vanquish all obstacles? Or give up in desperation? And who will get to the end first?
DeleteTune in again soon for the next live streaming comment thread episode of 'Takeshi's Walls of Illusions'!
And after this little commercial break, back to you (and good luck!).
THERE'S A MAIN +2?!?! No. No way.
DeleteIs whatever doubling back at "It's not stupid, turn around" triggers important? I had to reload a save after I didn't notice an enemy group and Laura got fried in one hit, didn't trigger it on the reload, and don't seem to be able to trigger it anymore. I feel I'm probably past whatever it would've governed (now trying out the wall of teleport levers), but I'd rather be sure.
DeleteI'm not sure exactly what you mean, as I don't think the message itself triggers anything. But if you're at the wall of levers, the second one from the right (facing north) will loop you back to a second that returns you to the message, so you can keep exploring.
Delete"Loop you back to a section," not "second."
DeleteI explored all I can of the upper level (Main +2). There are about 10 levers there, and I only figured out what half of them did. Having finished the area, I have four silver coins, a gold coin, and an Emerald Gold Key--and no idea where to use any of them.
DeleteIf either of you make it father than this, please let me know.
The message itself doesn't trigger anything, but when approaching it the fourth corner beforehand has a laughter sound the first time you enter, and at some point (I assume reaching the message), turning around and heading back plays a positive-sounding sound on the corner before where the laugh sound played (and perhaps only if you're facing north), so I assume something got triggered, but upon reloading my save and not doing this in the hopes of finding a mappable difference, at some point I must have reached a point that disabled it.
DeleteI thought it might have something to do with where you get teleported into a small box with three enemy groups as that did feel pretty stupid, but a brief bit of experimentation didn't show a difference.
In any case I'm now in the massive room on the top (hopefully?) floor so I might have some progress soon, but probably not 'til tomorrow. Did you try the key in the lock at NW of Main?
Whoops, that was me.
DeleteI did. No luck. I think that must be where the endgame takes place, as you get the "Bragis bids you welcome" message as you enter. I could use the coins to open the other doors around the pits on Main+1 and Main -1, but I don't see what good that would do. I hope you find something I missed.
DeleteTook one more look, found a lever I missed. It opened a way to a new area. Mapping now.
DeleteYes, I didn't mention main+2 on purpose. I guess you've found main+3 by now? If it's any consolidation, I think I found a groove and it mostly went quickly. I relied on the minimap, though.
DeleteWalls you can pull will come up, don't waste your time trying the "move" button everywhere, they are marked yellow on the minimap.
I managed to finish the game, although I needed to cheat. I overcame my last problem (again, it was an illusionary wall missed), but there was a final key missing in a place where I was sure it was supposed to be. It it was a puzzle, I didn't figure it out, I just gave myself the key with a hex editor.
After a nights sleep, it occurs to me how fitting the title "Walls of Illusion" is.
DeleteThe whole game sounds like a "Have you forgotten something?" experience.
DeleteLast nights comments makes me look forward to the next update of this game, this all sounds a bit crazy.
DeleteOh my god how many goddamned levels are there.
DeleteBuck, any hints on how to get past that door with the sign "WISDOM / IN JUDGEMENT / UNLOCKED THE DOOR" next to it? I have the Staff of Wisdom. I've tried attacking with it, clicking with it, casting with it, and throwing it.
DeleteUse the staff like a key.
DeleteI was fervently hoping you just somehow hadn't yet reached +3 with your previous message. Why does this game keep going?
DeleteP.S. You're very close. I'm curious if you can solve the very last part, but if not: write a save to disk, open the savedisk file with a hex editor, search for the savename and then the character with the keys.
DeleteInventory items have two numbers, the first is just the icon. I was missing the small key, its code is "BA".
47 00 BA Iron Key
48 00 BC Ruby Silver Key
49 00 C1 Emerald Silver Key
xx 00 B9 Small Key
Eek, "B9" not "BA" as it says below.
Delete"Use the staff like a key." I was about to object that there was no keyhole, but I figured it out. That's a BS puzzle. I'm impressed that you got it.
DeleteI like that I was semi-correct in my first comment(this is to convoluted), still adore that all of you are going strong. YAAY for chet and all the others that keeping up .
Delete.. and to be honest I atleast think that this was the isort of intention to play the game at the time, having folk at a forum exchanging experience how to procede....
DeleteOkay, so it's the small key that's missing. I see what you mean about a place where you were sure it was going to be. I assume I need to put some object or combination of objects in there.
DeleteAm I on the right track in thinking that the messages are some kind of interleave?
I thought the room past the corridor of fireball traps was going to be it. Why are there even more stairs?!
DeleteExactly my reaction, with a few more expletives. I don't know why they created a new level; they barely used the last one. They could have accomplished with teleporters what you're now experiencing with stairs.
DeleteLet me know if you solve the mystery of the small key. I don't think I can use Buck's hex editing solution because I've been playing off an archive and I haven't been using a save disk, just save states--which Steem does AWESOME, by the way; what I wouldn't give for "Undo Save" and "Undo Load" with other emulators.
Checking we're on the same page: we're both stuck with getting keys from three of the four top floor areas (iron, emerald silver, ruby silver), with nothing but a mysterious toggleable alcove in the SW section, and no apparent way to open either of the side doors in the main chamber on the previous floor?
DeleteI've been hoarding every non-consumed item in the game and tried feeding the entire thing into the alcove all at once, with I think no visible effect or change in my items (I seem to have a Gold Staff again when I thought I turned them both into Blow Pipes much earlier, but further testing indicates the alcove doesn't recharge either them or my depleted healing staff, so either something else happened at some point or I just got mixed up with my saves from back when we were all initially stuck).
Yes, that's exactly it. And I'm glad to hear that you tried feeding it everything to no effect because I was resisting doing the same thing.
DeleteI found three of the four keys pretty easy. Yes, the SW one is the problem, logically the small key should be there. This is basically the last puzzle, I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying you need to open four doors in succession in the main room. The small key just opens the first one.
DeleteI operated the lever a couple of times. I put a few things into the alcove. I tried using it with the rotating button in the level below in all four positions. I looked for illusionary walls. What irritates me: there's a green block right next to the alcove block, but it doesn't have any buttons facing the only wall you can access. I couldn't reach that block from any other side. The only possibility left would be a teleport somewhere.
You should still be able to save. I think Steem has a "insert blank disk" option, which you put in drive A. Then just click save in the game and create a savefile. You might also be able to edit the memory snapshot, but I found it more difficult - everything's in reverse and possibly encoded differently.
If all fails I can also send you the winning screenshot and a short description of the final area.
So just to clarify: we don’t know for sure that there is a “puzzle” to get that final key, right? It could just be a bug? I’d say probably, even, since all the other kids were so easy.
DeleteThat's always a possibility unless someone shows it can be solved. Though I think the game has been relatively bug-free otherwise.
DeleteI got it. I'd swear I'd already tried this, but the alcove's a red herring. Pull the lever to send it away, and you can stand in that wall to find a lever concurrent with the green tile on the automap. It's straightforward from there.
DeleteI think I just did a very good Victor Meldrew "I don't believe it" impression.
DeleteThanks for solving this, that was really bugging me.
All glory to Kalieum. Thank you!
DeleteThe weird thing is, by that part of the game, I was in the habit of testing every wall before pulling any levers, so I don't know why I didn't find it unless at least one pull of the lever is necessary to "soften" the wall.
Did either of you pull the lever in the final area and fight 8 parties of enemies for no reason? I forgot to do it until after I'd won.
I feel I tested it first as well, especially as the SW section was my second after doing NE first so I was especially expecting it to just be more hidden wall nonsense.
DeleteI think there's 3 groups of enemies in the THE END area without having to pull the schmuck bait lever, but yeah I wound up fighting them all. Gotta love no reward behind the wall, not that I'm sure what would be a meaningful one at that point.
I've still got a few unsolved mysteries about the game I'm just going to list here for want of a better place to bring them up (apologies for the length).
First the most mundane: I've got a few levers and one button that I never figured out any effect of. Probably some mix of actual do-nothings, lowering walls in areas I couldn't yet access and sloppy mapping. If the game were better I'd be interested in going back and finding out, but it's not so I'm just making this note instead.
While the game's inconsistent on marking alcoves as green on the automap or not, and misses a couple of coin slots and keyholes, every tile marked in green does having something, except one - the hidden room with the levers through the north door from main-1's centre has two levers and three green tiles along that wall. The adjacent lever is one of the ones I never figured out so there might be a connection, but damned if I know.
The gold staves - at the time I thought they were being identified as actually being Blow Sticks, but given one of my healing staves eventually turned into a 'blow stick' after enough uses I think that's just a staff out of charges, suggesting the gold staves have some magical effect as well, but what?
Mentioned before and I don't have a save at that point to mess around with anymore, but if when you first get to the 'It's not stupid, turn around' plaque and do as it says - turn around and start walking back up the corridor - it plays that chirp sound that suggests something triggered. Whatever it is, it clearly isn't necessary to beat the game, and it becomes untriggerable at some unknown point.
The plaques in general. A few are straightforward enough, but what does "Never Came|From|Far Away" have to do with running across delayed trap doors? Or "Read Not|Save That|Which" to do with "this area exists only to waste your time, don't bother with it"? Given the internet tells me the German text for Blow Stick actually means a truncheon or baton, bad translation is probably responsible for this, but it seems especially unreadable at some times.
What does increasing Sorcerer skill actually do? I could believe Warrior and Gladiator probably improve your melee/ranged weapon damage, and maybe Wizard & Healer make Power Spell and Fire Shield + last longer (though there's no way I'm bothering timing it), but the spells do fixed damage, have fixed mp costs, and it doesn't seem to improve the recast speed either.
On that subject the spell progression is weird too. First you get Thunderball (22 dmg for 5mp), then Fireball (80/15), then Iceball (60/10), then finally you find 'Lighteningball', costing 20mp for only 40 damage.
Finally, the 'power' that shows up when you cast Teleport seems to actually be an obtuse way to refer to the destination coordinates. Just why?
Three more paragraphs, and you'd have my final entry completely written.
DeleteCongratulations on your excavation of this game, this thread has been a delight to read through and fallow.
DeleteMy parents are big fans of Candy Crush, and have each reached levels in the thousands.
ReplyDeleteBut from time to time, they download one of the bazillions other Match-3 on the market (Royal Match, Gardenscape or any of the other no-names) and play some of the early levels. Early Match-3 levels are all the same - they don't have yet the fancy mechanics which differentiate that title from that other titles, so really they are playing the same core Match-3 with just a few cosmetic changes. But they like it, they like playing the same simple thing, but different.
I reckon that, blogging aside, your mind wanders in the same territory as them when you play the Dungeon Master clones. There is only so much you can do with pressure plates, niches, doors and levers, but it's still enjoyable to play the same simple gameplay - but cosmetically different :).
That is a very accurate representation, and not just for DM clones.
DeleteFor a second I'd thought that I'd found a German walkthrough, but upon closer inspection I realized that Motel soft released ANOTHER game called Arcan (Arcan - Der Schatz des Hexenmeisters) for PC in 2006, and said walkthrough was for that game. (I hate when developers do that, no matter how big or small they are...)
ReplyDeletePlus, I already played Arcan. This is the sequel.
ReplyDeleteArcan - Der Schatz des Hexenmeisters, is a different game than the Arcan you played, so there is more to look forward to in 2006.
DeleteDoes anyone else read the name of this game and say to themselves, "That's what the world is today. Hey hey"?
ReplyDelete