Game 545: Teldor (1989)

This sounds like a command you would have typed to access a BBS service.

        

Teldor

Germany
Efchen Systems (developer and publisher)
Released in 1989 for the Commodore 64

Date Started: 13 March 2025

Date Ended: 14 March 2025

Total Hours: 3

Difficulty: Easy (2.0/5)
Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)  

      

Here's our second German game in a row that had to be rescued from some fairly deep depths (thanks to Busca and LanHawk), and yet I found it surprisingly competent. Its mechanics are a bit simplistic, but it was inexpensive and short, and it seems to take its primary inspiration from Phantasie, maybe a little from Questron, which is a nice departure from the usual Ultima clones.

    

I couldn't find any documentation, but we can infer from plot developments that the game takes place on the world of Teldor and that the player's job is to end a demonic invasion that has flooded the land with monsters. Character creation consists of giving the character a name and then rolling for strength (1-5) and skill (1-30). It doesn't take many re-rolls to get near-maximum values in both attributes. All characters start with 50 gold, no weapons, and no armor, and at Level 1 with 100 hit points. 

      

The brief character creation process.

       

The game world consists of a single screen with three towns and two caves (one with two exits). You start in the southeast quadrant, near the town of Barad-Beleg, which I'm guessing means "Beleg's Tower" in Tolkien elvish. The city sells knives, axes, short swords, and leather armor. (You have enough opening gold for a knife or leather but not both.) It is also the only place with a healer who will fully restore hit points.

     

The game begins.

         

Monsters attack as you roam the forests and plains. Combat is very basic; your only options are to attack or flee. Fleeing always works, although about 25% of the time you take a small hit point loss. There really isn't any reason to flee at the beginning of the game, however, since the kobolds, gnomes, and dwarves that you face barely do any damage. After about 10 battles, I reached Level 2, which confers an extra 100 hit points, plus the ability to buy either +1 strength or +3 skill at the magic shops in the other two towns.

    

Fighting a giant spider. There are no monster graphics.

   

The interface is relatively easy to master. Movement is with the [;'/ cluster; the only other commands that work in the exploration window are I)nventory and Q)uit and save (which doesn't quit, only saves), plus A)ttack and F)lee when you meet monsters. Everything else is menu-driven. There is no sound.

   

Eventually, I was strong enough to make it up to the second city, north of the mountain range. Ar-Aelin sells long swords, bows, and chainmail, in addition to torches that you need to enter the cave.

   

As I continued to grind for these improved items, I found combat getting harder. As you level up, new enemies get added to the battlefield, though the old ones never go away, which I prefer. By Level 3, you're fighting orcs, thieves, skeletons, and sorcerers. By Level 5, you've got trolls and giants. By Level 10, which I think is the last level that new enemies appear, you're facing dragons, demons, basilisks, and vampires. None of these enemies have any special attacks or defenses, but the higher-level ones hit a lot harder. I started to lose more money in healing than I was making in victories, and I learned to flee from the battles that were likely to give me trouble.

     

Combat in the dungeon.

     

Water and mountains block access to the west side of the continent and the third city, so you have to go through a mountain passage. Things become more interesting when you do. This is the part of the game that feels most like Phantasie, with a dungeon that reveals itself bit by bit as you explore, and dots representing special encounters, messages, or choices. Some of the messages and encounters include:

 

• "You are in a cave beneath the long mountains. The cave system looks as if it were man-made."

• "Here is a prison cell. There is an old skeleton on the floor. What do you want to do?" You have options to search or leave. This encounter appears twice in the dungeon; in one, the skeleton comes to life and attacks; in the other, you get a little gold.

     

I enjoy little encounters like this.

    

• "A basilisk says: for 500 gold I will tell you a secret." If you pay, the secret turns out to be: "I heard there was a secret door." This refers to one illusory wall space in the dungeon, which you must find if you want to exit.

   

Finding an illusory wall.

    

• "Read the seven letters of the name from top to bottom."

• "Here you can see giants and vampires in camps."

            

Note the arrangement of letters.

     

Those last two clues come together in the most important encounter in the dungeon, where a demon asks you to give him his master's name. If you're wrong, you end up fighting the demon. But if you follow the first word in the left column for that last message, the letters spell out HERUVAL. I figured it out because no other message received in the dungeon made a sensible name. They all had too many vowels or not enough. Giving that name to the demon nets you 1,000 gold pieces.

    

That was generous. I would have settled for not dying.

   

You have to budget your hit points carefully in the dungeon, fleeing from tough encounters, because you're a long way from the only place that heals you. On the other hand, every time you level up, you get another 100 hit points.

     

After I exited the dungeon on the west side of the map, I visited the third city, Durlad, which sells magic wands (2500 gold) and elfin mail (5000 gold), plus ropes. Ropes allow you to cross mountains, so you can walk back to the beginning and visit Barad-Beleg for healing without having to go through the dungeon.

    

Durlad sells the best armor in the game.

     

The rope also gets you to the final dungeon in the northwest. An early message says: "You're finally in Heruval's dungeon. You sense evil all around you." The enemies are very hard in this dungeon—lots of demons and dragons—and the place is full of secret doors. At one point, you meet a "gigantic demon" blocking the way. After you waste a lot of hit points killing him, you realize there's just a dead end behind him, and the real way forward is through illusory walls.

   

I got sick of trying to grind for the final equipment, and I ended up exploring this dungeon too early. Heruval's chamber has a battle literally every step. When I finally ran into Heruval, he swatted away my hit points in three rounds. As I sighed and settled in for a long session of grinding, I realized that dungeons respawn after you leave, so the encounter where you get 1,000 gold is repeatable. By farming that, I got enough money for the best equipment right about the same time I hit the maximum level of 20.

      

I meet Heruval.

       

Once you have the elfin mail, hardly anybody can even touch you. I made my way to Heruval again and defeated him in half a dozen rounds. He gloated: "So you have defeated me. But that will do you no good, for you are imprisoned here! The devil be with you!"

     

My endgame character.

   

A few steps later, the meaning of his words became clear: "'Welcome! I have granted Heruval's wish. Here I am!' Before you stands the devil himself!"

      

Beating the devil.

      

The devil has about 3,000 hit points against the character maximum of 2,000, but with the best equipment, his go faster. I was able to defeat him with a few hundred hit points to spare. "'For defeating me, you may use the exit! But remember, I am immortal, unlike Heruval.' The devil disappears, snorting with rage."

   

You find a key after this battle, but the passage ends without a door. The game says that you think, "That devious devil." However, there's another illusory wall. Taking it reveals the endgame text.

  

The winning screen.

  

This is translated as:

    

The rock face before your eyes suddenly blur, and you feel dizzy. You feel as if you were first floating and then flying. You lose consciousness. Then suddenly you think you're floating on clouds. Below you, you recognize your homeland, the land of Teldor. Trees are blooming everywhere, and people are celebrating in the meadows. The cave entrance to Heruval's dungeon is blocked. You feel as if a voice is speaking to you!

"As you can see, you have freed Teldor from evil. The people will be eternally grateful to you. However, in Hell, the devil is loose! The one you defeated spews venom and bile over your victory. Volcanic eruptions are taking place on the surface, and new islands are forming. Beware of the devil's wrath! But now return to your homeland and live in peace on Teldor!"

      

Teldor earns a 19 on the GIMLET, nothing higher than a 3, but in many ways, this is a solid ten-dollar, three-hour game. When I was a kid, I would have gladly played it on a rainy Sunday. My imagination would have filled in the gaps, and I would have somehow turned it into a character prologue for the next game that I really wanted to play but couldn't yet afford.

    

Efchen Systems seems to have been a sole proprietorship of Martin Friedrich of Erlangen, Bavaria. He billed himself as "Sir Efchen, Knight of Elvendar" on some old discussion boards. I can't find him or Efchen attached to any games other than the three Teldor titles. Some web sites list them all as 1989 games, but I don't think that's the case. Friedrich sold the games for 10 DM (about $10 today) by advertising in magazines like Power Play, and the first ads for Teldor II don't show up until 1990. These ads only list Teldor and Teldor II, which doesn't make sense if Teldor III was already available. I can't find any ads that even mention the third game, but I'm guessing Teldor II is 1990 and Teldor III is around 1992. I previewed them a bit. Teldor II: Die Rache des Teufels ("The Devil's Revenge") offers a few interface improvements and small, explorable towns instead of menu towns, but otherwise seems largely the same type of game. Teldor III: Der Weg Zurück ("The Way Back") has the same graphics but offers a spell system and a multi-screen game world. I'll give them both a try in time.