The Ormus Saga II: The XYZ Affair

 

     

I had to start over with The Ormus Saga II because I had been relying on save states rather than saving my character to the disk, and I accidentally overwrote all the save state slots trying to get Ring of Elanor to work. There's no particular reason to use save states for Ormus, as you can save from anywhere and saving and reloading both seem to work okay. But I have a long track record of C64 games, particularly those on tape, for which I can never get saving to work, and adopted the convention a long time ago of hitting ALT-S frequently as I play. That very muscle memory got me in trouble here.

   

It wasn't so bad, though, because ever since I learned that every town, keep, and dungeon has exactly eight treasures, and that the character gets an experience bonus after finding the eighth, I felt the need to start tracking how many I found. Unfortunately, I've rarely been able to get to eight. Ormus's locations often have areas blocked by locked doors, magically-locked doors, force fields, water, mountains, other pieces of furniture, and lava, each of which requires a different item or spell to bypass, none of which the starting character has. Many of the treasures are on the other sides of those obstacles.

     

Something needs to get me either past that chair or through that wall.

       

The joystick-only interface is so annoying that I was frankly considering bailing on the game, but I forced myself to slow down and keep notes. This is a paradox that I've repeatedly discovered while writing this blog: If I find myself impatient with a game, sometimes the solution is not to play faster, but to slow down and document everything. In a first-person game, this often means making maps, if I'm not already making them. For this kind of game, it means creating the sort of workbook that I've used for many Ultima clones, with tabs for locations, NPCs, equipment, monsters, and open tasks. (I'm keeping it in Google Sheets, so you're welcome to take a look.) Either way, completing the documentation becomes a goal in itself and increases my enjoyment even as it increases the amount of time I'm destined to spend on the game.

     

Finding the eighth treasure.

       

Since I had explored counter-clockwise the first time, this time I explored clockwise from Remfield. I hit the Temple of Ghur; two dungeons; the towns of Coldwater, Borger Springs, Greenfields, and Welling; a castle called Arbon; a tower called Skymount, and a small hut. Each had eight treasures, even though the huts were all in one room (every piece of furniture had something) and some of the castles had them spread out on four or more floors. The gold I found in these locations was enough to keep up my army and buy occasional equipment upgrades; battles in the wilderness remained rare.

    

Various findings:

    

• The enemy always attacks the Royal Palace moments after the character first leaves Remfield. A player who doesn't figure out quickly how to buy troops and send them to the palace is in for a short, frustrating game. The reason that the enemy always attacks the Palace is that every other town starts in enemy control. You have to free some of them before the enemy has any other place to attack.

• The game is a bit like Ultima II in that you have an inventory of usable items—maps, keys, magic keys, torches, skulls—that can only rarely be purchased. You generally get them at random for killing monsters or searching furniture.

      

Nice. Those are expensive.

     

• As you can see from that list, there are indeed both keys and magic keys. I was wondering about that during the last session. 

• All temples have monsters in the corners. It's one of the few reliable ways to find them.

• Every week, "payday" rolls around. The character gets money for every free city, town, and keep but also has to pay soldiers in his active army (i.e., not stationed at any particular location). 

       

Oof. I should have gotten rid of some of those soldiers.

       

• Monsters so far have included zombies, giant snakes, mean trolls, orcs, giant spiders, squids, seadragons, and pirate ships.

• As I checked out the inventories of each new city, I upgraded to a magic shield, magic armor, and a magic bow. So far, each of these is the best item in its class. 

          

Hell, yeah. It took the Avatar almost the entire game to get to this point.

      

I was curious how the game would approach dungeons—remember, every location in its predecessor is a menu—and it turns out that they're simply multi-leveled, indoor, top-down locations like towns and castles, but using outdoor terrain. An occasional chest or barrel hides the eight goodies that each dungeon has. A beginning character can't get very far in dungeons because so many of their areas are blocked by mountainous squares (which require a climbing pick) or lava, which I have not yet found any way to cross safely. I suspect a spell is going to be involved.

      

I guess I'll need to return later.

       

Speaking of spells, I found two magic shops among the towns I visited and logged, and between them, I bought nine different spells. Of them, there is only one that I a) know what it does, and b) can cast. That's CURAX, which cures poison. FOREMIS supposedly dispels force fields, and AN PULVIS removes obstacles, but neither work when I cast them. I suspect I need to reach a higher level. My character is still Level 1 because I haven't found a temple since the game's beginning.

         

I can't see any other way to reach that chest.

       

I know from King Argon that to beat the game, I have to:

   

• Solve the nine tasks of the god-servants.
• Go to the mystic flames in the mountains.
• Yell the Holy Word.
• Enter the Halls of Carion.
• Speak the three Eternal Words, backwards. 

    

I have not made much progress on this main quest. By the end of the first session, I knew the names of three of the god-servants, and I didn't learn any more this time. I did learn the Holy Word. In Wishek Falls, a woman named Madame Lane gave it to me as QTMNFEQ, but said it was encoded using an "ancient elven technique." According to her neighbor, Sullivan, that "ancient technique" is a simple Caesar shift of one place. However, a third NPC named Willis says that A and E are exceptions and always shift to each other. That gives the final result as RUNOGAR. That sounded familiar, so I looked up my notes, and that was the Holy Word in the first game. I guess someone who's won The Ormus Saga has an advantage.

       

Standard pronunciation?

       

Speaking of puzzles, an NPC named Allan in Monter Bay says that Tolkien's The Hobbit has the solution to one of the god-servant's riddles in Chapter 5. This is the chapter in which Bilbo and Gollum exchange a bunch of riddles, so I guess I'll just have to wait for that one.

     

I'll get right on that.

     

To this main quest, an NPC named James in Coldwater added something else. He said there were 25 treasures hidden across the land: three in the world of the undead and 22 on the mainland. He further said that I would need to find all 25 to succeed. So far, I have the locations of 8 of them. I've only dug up one. It was 4 squares away from the coordinates I had been given, and it had 3 jewels, 1 silver, 3 linen, and 2 CURAX spells. I'm not sure why I would have needed to find that to win the game. Maybe finding all the treasures is one of the god-servant's tasks. 

       

I don't like where this is going.

      

Most of the NPCs have just flat-out given me the coordinates for the treasures, but one of them, Jones in the town of Welling, had to make it a puzzle. He gave me an algebraic formula for figuring out the coordinates; I had to get the values from two other NPCs. This was the sequence:

   

Y = north coordinate

Z = west coordinate

    

Y = C + (4 x 6)

Z = (Y x 3) + D

C = 4 x 7 + 2 

D = (5 x 9) - 34

     

I'm aware none of those parentheses are necessary, but that's how the game gave them to me. 

         

This NPC is part of the problem.

        

I realized as I talked to NPCs that there's something I don't understand about the backstory. I don't know how much of it is left over from the first game, how much is kept deliberately hidden, and how much is just inept storytelling on the part of the author. This is the relevant text from the backstory in the game's introduction:

       

After reading the compendium, you know of the black book called Ulbore. The book has finally revealed the terrible truth about Sullivan and the Brotherhood of the White Rose. It is now up to you to complete 9 tasks provided by god servants in order to rescue the kingdom from the Armageddon.

       

So what was the "terrible truth," and how does that segue to needing to complete nine tasks? And who is Sullivan? I don't believe the first game mentioned Sullivan or the Brotherhood. Whoever Sullivan is, he appears to have been murdered. Princess Sheila says that King Argon feels responsible. All the conspirators who killed him have themselves been killed except for one named Gorab.

     

That's my summary of where I am with the game. Since I don't think the entry is long enough, I'll pick up from here and relate part of my journey in real-time, starting from Monter Bay, the last city I visited. It's on the east coast of Beryland, and I'm still working my way clockwise. I'm at full health and have 414 gold pieces, 44 troops, and 35 food. I immediately send 20 troops to Monter Bay, as I had to liberate it to explore the city and it otherwise has no garrison.

       

Checking my surroundings.

      

I check my coordinates and note that I'm not too far from a treasure. Monter Bay is at 96N 221W and there's a treasure at 64N 217W. It's dark as I head out. I'm out of torches, so I won't be able to see much of anything until the sun comes up. I use a map to get a sense of the area and see that the treasure is surrounded by swamp, which will almost certainly poison me. Not a problem; I have a CURAX. The bigger issue might be navigating around these rivers. If it gets too tough, I'll wait until I have a skiff.

     

As the sun comes up, I get a message that the enemy is attacking the Royal Palace. I have plenty of troops there, so the battle is quick. Unfortunately, I can't afford to replenish any of the soldiers I lost, since I need them to force my way into the next enemy-held town I encounter.

      

Defending the Royal Palace. Again.

       

64N 217W turns out to be right on the edge of an inlet. Of course, the treasure isn't there. I find it four squares to the north and west. It consists of 1 silver, 2 copper, 3 linen, 1 wood, and a magic axe. The magic axe sounds cool. I haven't seen one for sale. I equip it, get out of the swamp, and cure my poison.

        

A pretty good haul.

     

I soon encounter an orc. I attack with my magic axe and am happy to see that it's a ranged weapon. It hits him—and immediately breaks. I remember this from the last game. Ormus decides that the next time you fight, whatever weapon you have equipped is going to break. The only way to avoid it is to reload and equip a different weapon. No way am I losing my magic axe after one hit, so I reload, equip a dagger, watch it break, change back to my magic axe, and finish off the orc. I get 16 experience, 47 gold, and a key.

  

Combat is such a rare and minor part of the game, at least so far.

      

I almost don't see a little hut to my west. I enter. The location is labeled only "a small hut." The map consists of a single building and a fenced garden to its south. A tree in the garden has some gold. The building has a locked door, which I open with a key. Inside are two barrels (gold in both) and a bookcase (magic keys). A barrel in some woods has maps. There isn't any furniture left, so I start searching ground squares in the house and garden and find a couple units of jewels. 

 

Treasures are rarely hidden in random squares like this.

     

A zombie attacks in the northeast corner, and I kill him for 14 experience, 52 gold, and a nugget. Then I spy a troll by a pond and get 18 more experience and 28 gold. Then another one appears. This turns out to be the best grinding spot in the entire game. I'm tempted to stay until I have enough money for a ship.

    

After an entire night spent searching the walls of the buildings, the pond, and other terrain features, I can't find the final treasure. I'm not willing to search every square on the 576-tile map (I might if I could do it with "S"), so I reluctantly leave. 

       

The magic map of Caldara.

      

Not too far south of the hut is the city of Caldara. It's naturally occupied by enemy soldiers. I attack with y 24 troops. There isn't much strategy to these battles. You can either "attack," or fire a single volley at a single column of soldiers, or use a "weapon" which damages multiple soldiers at once. Weapons are single-use items that cost 24 gold pieces to replace, but you need a few of them because attacks only hit one soldier at a time, some soldiers require multiple hits, and you have to destroy the wall in front of them first. We're evenly matched here, and it takes me a couple of tries to win. I'm down to 4 troops when I do.

     

Caldara is a standard-sized city. My normal practice is to use a map when I first enter a location, then keep the screenshot handy for reference. Like many cities, most of its shops have ladders and thus rooms above them, but I rarely need to take a shot of the second floor. Night falls halfway through my visit, but the screenshot helps me navigate without requiring me to waste a torch.

         

You rarely have to worry about getting lost on the second floor.

       

The first thing I find is a boat shop, where I have enough money for a skiff (451 gold) but not a ship (3801 gold). I'll come back. The skiff, meanwhile, will get me across small bodies of water and increase the chances I can fully explore a city. A weapons shop has nothing new. At the troop shop, I replenish my lost troops and buy enough to garrison this city when I leave. At the inn, I replenish health and mana and buy a little extra food. 

   

There are two very valuable NPCs. Steve, above the weapon shop, gives me the name of another god-servant: NIKODEMUS. The town's mayor, Maddock, living above the inn, tells me of the Trigonom, which lets the wielder enter the Land of the Dead. It is assembled from three amulets, each of which is at a different temple.

      

I'm pretty sure I was supposed to try in the first game.

      

I find all the treasures and get 75 experience points. The treasures are five units of gold, one of silver, one of jewels, and a Stone Key, which seems like a unique item. I stop at the pawn shop on the way out of town and sell my excess treasures. I end up leaving with about as much gold as when I entered.

   

The enemy attacks and retakes Caldara the moment I step outside. I don't even have time to even save first. I re-conquer it, re-enter, replenish my troops, exit, and immediately send 20 to garrison the city.

   

Again, I realize I'm close to another treasure: the one from the algebra puzzle. Of course, I can't find it. I search for a five-square radius around the chest (which shouldn't be necessary, since Jones said the formula was its "exact location"). I double-check the solution to the puzzle (54N, 173W). I even go all the way back to Welling (without saving) to verify I wrote down the clues correctly. Nothing. Either I'm not going to be able to win the game because the author bungled his own algebra clue, or you're all about to tell me I somehow failed at simple math. 

    

Time so far: 9 hours 

 

Game 554: Castle of the Winds: Part One - A Question of Vengeance (1992)

I suspect I'm going to choose vengeance.

        

Castle of the Winds: Part One - A Question of Vengeance 

SaadaSoft (developer); Epic MegaGames (publisher, as shareware)

Released 1992 for Windows 3 

Date Started: 7 July 2025

Date Ended: 9 July 2025

Total Hours: 8

Difficulty: Moderate (3.0/5)
Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)  

         

Castle of the Winds was probably a lot of players' entry point into the roguelike (or, more appropriately, "roguelite") world. It isn't the first graphical roguelike, but it's one of the few that had any kind of widespread distribution. Because author Rick Saada worked at Microsoft, he was able to develop the game for Windows 3.1 long before the OS was released. It came out just as the average person started to access the Internet, and thus right as the shareware scene exploded. As such, if you Google the game today, you'll see that it has a lot more recognition than any of the titles that inspired it. Most of its players were probably unaware of those titles or of the larger roguelike genre.

        

Castle's clear origin point is Moria (1983); you see it in the town level, the types of inventory items, the spell list, the automap system, the way the "Return" spell creates a charge in the air around you and then makes you wait a few rounds before you actually teleport. It simplifies many of the mechanics, which I find too bad, and I normally wouldn't countenance such simplification in the name of a tile set and a few icons. But it also offers some significant improvements, including:

    

• A detailed, evolving story. I've never understood why other roguelike titles (as well as games in the Dungeon Master line) are so reluctant to occasionally interrupt the action with some bits of text. Here, you get regular plot updates and they're even somewhat interesting. You can review what you've already learned by choosing "Review Story" on the "File" menu.

• An improved interface. You know me: I like keyboards. How do you "improve" upon a classic roguelike interface like Moria's, where every action is mapped to its own key? The answer is, you keep that, and then you add the option do to certain things with a mouse, such as targeting enemies who aren't in your column or row, or dragging items from your pack to your various inventory slots, or right-clicking on an enemy to see how much damage he's taken. All of that is possible here.

• Excellent documentation. At any point in the game, you can click on the "Help" menu to get a list of commands, monster descriptions, spell descriptions, and weapon values.

       

This is the kind of weapon documentation every game should have.

       

Where the recently-covered Magus (1993) made me wish I could just play Moria instead, Castle is a game I would rather play than Moria. You'd think I could make that statement more often when we're talking about a ten-year gap, but alas. Ask me about The Ormus Saga II and Ultima III, for instance.

     

The PC is presented as an orphan raised by two kindly godparents. He knows nothing about his background except that he was found with an amulet. Around his 18th birthday, while he was away from home, marauders raided, pillaged, and burned his godparents' farm, stealing the amulet, leaving two charred corpses behind. Monstrous footprints led away from the scene towards some northern mountains.

     

Character creation begins that simplification process I talked about. All characters are the same fighter/mage/cleric/thief combo, although the player can set attributes (strength, intelligence, constitution, dexterity) to whatever he likes. He can upload his own icon and set a difficulty level from "easy" to "experts only." His first spell comes from a small list, with options like "Heal Minor Wounds," "Light," and "Magic Arrow."

          

Character creation. Since the author worked at Microsoft, I would have expected the option to label those columns with the actual values.

         

The character starts with around 5-10 hit points, 5-10 mana points, and 1500 copper pieces in a little hamlet south of the burned farmhouse. It has a couple of useless buildings and about half a dozen shops and services:

   

• Olaf's Junk Store, which will buy just about anything, including cursed items and rusted armor.

• Snorri the Sage, who will identify items until you get the "Identify" spell. You want to do this, as uncursing items is prohibitively expensive.

• Bjorn the Blacksmith, who buys and sells weapons. As you level up, the items sold get more advanced.

• Gunnhild's General Store, where you buy and sell cloaks, scrolls, potions, boots, belts, and packs.

• The Temple of Odin, where you can get healed and restored. You can also pay 1,000 copper pieces to get sent back to the lowest level of the dungeon that you've explored, at least until you get the "Rune of Return" spell on your own.

          

Buying my first belt.

      

As you can tell from some of these names, the game leans into a Norse theme, although until the end, it's mostly just names. Still, I suppose I prefer it to the constant regurgitation of Tolkien characters. 

     

North of town is a large screen with nothing to do but visit the burned-out homestead and walk north to the cave system where the monsters came from. This is where the game really "starts." My understanding is that the first level of these caves, and of the game's second dungeon, are fixed. The rest are randomly-generated when you arrive, but unlike Moria, they don't reset when you leave and return. The levels are full of traps, damaging runes, and secret doors, all of which can be found with a S)earch.

     

There are no enemies, and not much to do, in the outdoor areas.

       

The core gameplay is about exploring these dungeon levels, killing enemies, and collecting items to make your character stronger. There are multiple types of enemies—animals, humanoids, undead—and they get progressively harder as you go down. Some can attack from a distance—the manticore's barbs are particularly deadly—and some have status effects, like poison and temporary attribute drains. You fight with melee weapons and spells, but not missile weapons.

           

A gelatinous cube chases me through a dungeon room with a rune and a gas trap.

      

In contrast to most roguelikes, I found that I really couldn't survive without offensive spells. Some enemies just grind your hit points down so fast, you don't want to get anywhere near them. I had a lot of trouble with Level 1 characters until I created a new one with "Magic Arrow" as his first spell. Even late in the game, I was avoiding a lot of enemies by blasting them with "Lightning Bolt" and then escaping with "Phase Door" when they got too close.

     

Hit points restore at a pretty good clip as you walk around, but magic points are very slow to recharge. You need to find safe spaces to rest, which can be difficult, especially since enemies continually spawn. The overall challenge is well-balanced. One thing that makes the game a "roguelite" rather than a "roguelike," however, is that death isn't permanent. You can save and reload from anywhere. There's also no food system, which was mostly a waste of time in Moria anyway, and although there's a clock, there's no time limit.

       

Not the problem that this would be in a lot of roguelikes.

       

I like the inventory system a lot. Encumbrance depends on both weight and size of objects, and it slows down your movement speed when you get particularly laden. It's worth paying to have new items identified before trying them on; most of my early-game gold went to this expense. It was a relief when I finally got "Identify" for myself and could save my money for some of the tantalizing items the stores were starting to offer. I found plenty of upgrades in the dungeon itself, of course, and soon my small wooden shield became a medium steel shield and then an enchanted steel shield. There are "enchanted" versions of just about everything. With slots for weapons, armor, necklace, helmet, cape, shield, bracers, gauntlets, belt, boots, pack, purse, and two rings, you're almost always getting some kind of upgrade.

 

I found usable items less useful. Potions, wands, and spell scrolls all take time to use, opening yourself up to a couple of free hits in combat. If you save them for when you're desperate, you can easily get killed trying to use them.

       

The intuitive inventory interface.

      

Leveling is a somewhat lesser part of character development, occurring only about once per game hour (more frequently towards the beginning) and conferring extra health, mana, and one spell per level. You also get spells permanently from spellbooks and temporarily from scrolls. They're all very useful, although I've never understood Moria's system of applying "Light" to the room rather than the character.

        

Learning a new spell upon leveling up.

     

The spellbook can hold as many spells as you want, but you can select 10 to be hotkeyed from the "Spell" menu and to appear on the upper-right icon bar. Again, I usually give the keyboard the prize when it comes to efficiency, but I admit that clicking on a single icon is easier than hitting C)ast, then having to ? the spellbook because I don't remember the order of the spells, then hit the number associated with the spell.  

     

The game offers no sound. The graphics are mostly utilitarian and not terribly evocative. Every once in a while, the author places something like a statue or a fountain in a dungeon room to give it some character. 

       

Oh, that's so cute. Some of the little kobolds are still tucked in their little beds.

        

One such place was Level 4 of the first dungeon (the "mine"), where I found a bunch of kobolds sleeping on straw mats. A scrap of paper on their floor hit the first plot beat. It was signed with an "S." and told the receiver to "return to the fortress north of Bjarnarhaven" once his target was dead.

   

When I left the dungeon after finding this message, I found to my horror that the raiders had returned, this time burning down the entire town. This led my character to realize that he, specifically, was being targeted. "You swear once again to exact vengeance against those responsible."

        

Well, sorry everyone.

      

At this point, the player can travel west from the mines (via a road closed off earlier) to the village of Bjarnarhaven. It has the same services as the opening village, although wearable items and magic items are now split into two shops. There's a bank, and a neat aspect of the game is that deposited money remains available to spend, as if it were still in your pockets. The idea is that you're basically writing checks on your account.

       

I'm sure you folks will be okay, though.

      

There is indeed a fortress north of the city, a small fixed first floor giving way to 10 more lower floors. Gameplay remains the same as before, with the enemies getting harder. Fortunately, by this point I had the "Rune of Return" spell and could go back and forth from town as necessary. 

         

The automap of the fortress's first level. The levels below this one are larger and random.

       

On Level 5 of this fortress, I found a note ordering its recipient to patrol the fortress carefully, as "Hrungnir fears we have missed our quarry," and Hrungnir had already reported to his boss that he had completed the mission.  

     

After a lot more fighting, leveling, and so forth, I found the next plot point in a room on Level 11. Hrungnir turned out to be a Jotun (giant). He confirmed that I was his target. "My lord need never know of my initial failure." He attacked me with a squad of ogres and was capable of hurling boulders from a distance. I only won the battle using hit and run tactics (via "Phase Door").

       

Shooting a lightning bolt at the Jotun.

       

When Hrungnir falls dead, the character has a moment of satisfaction but is then racked by questions: "Who sent this Hrungnir? To whom or what did he report? Why were you selected to receive his malign attentions?" The character recovers his birthright amulet from the giant's body. This shows up in the inventory as the "Enchanted Amulet of Kings." 

   

I wasn't sure what to do at this point, and I spent some time bumbling about the dungeon and town before I realized I could use the amulet from the "activate" menu. The text related that it enveloped me in a warm glow and showed me a vision of my father. He introduced himself as "Prince Arvi," and said that the amulet's power let us meet somewhere between the nether realm and Midgard. He said that 18 years ago, the royal family got "enmeshed in a great conflict between the Aesir Thor and the trickster Loki." As a part of this conflict, the fire giant Surtur has come to Midgard, which wasn't supposed to happen until Ragnarok. Surtur is Hrungnir's master. My destiny, my father said, is to "thwart Surtur's designs on Midgard" and "reclaim our fallen Castle of the Winds!" I appreciate that because I was wondering what the title was about.  

      

My heritage becomes clear.

        

Finally, Arvi said that if I used the amulet again, it would teleport me to a town near the castle. At the castle, I will be able to confer with the ghost of my grandfather, King Lifthransir. I suspect he's going to tell me about the bane, as the subtitle of Castle of the Winds: Part Two is Lifthransir's Bane—although at one point, it must have been The Fall of Surtur.

         

No Y2K problems in this game.

        

In a GIMLET, I give the game:

        

• 5 points for the game world. I enjoyed the plot and the use of Norse themes.

 

Some well-written text describes my meeting with Hrungnir.

        

• 2 points for character creation and development. There isn't enough personalization of the character, alas, and I would have liked more variety in character classes.

          

My mid-game character sheet.

        

• 0 points for no NPC interaction. The author missed an opportunity to really flesh out the world.

• 3 points for encounters and foes. The foes are pretty standard, but with a decent variety of special attacks. I give a point here for the detailed descriptions in the manual. There are no non-combat encounters or puzzles except for the contextual encounter before the last battle.

      

I admittedly already had a pretty good handle on what "goblin" was, but I still love reading paragraphs like this.

        

• 4 points for magic and combat. It has a well-balanced magic system and encourages you not to ignore it. I wouldn't have minded some missile weapon options.

• 6 points for equipment. There are a lot of equipment slots and a decent variety of things to put in them. More important, it's always clear when you have an upgrade.

      

My endgame equipment.

      

• 6 points for the economy. Not terribly complex, but rewarding, especially at the beginning of the game. 

• 2 points for a main quest. There are, alas, no side-quests or choices.

• 3 points for graphics, sound, and interface. The graphics are nothing special, but they don't interfere. As I reported, the interface works well, although I think it could have been a bit easier to use an item (you have to drag it to a belt slot or your free hand, then click "Activate," then choose the item).

• 5 points for gameplay. It's linear and not very replayable, but I found the difficulty and length both pitched exactly right.

   

That's a final score of 36. That's very close to the 38 I gave Moria, and if you look at the scores, you can see how the simplifications that Castle makes just about equal out its innovations. But as I said, I'd rather play another round of Castle than Moria (although not overwhelmingly so), so go figure. 

      

I'd like to get vengeance on this cover artist.

       

Computer Gaming World introduced a column on shareware gaming, written by Chuck Miller, in its December 1992 issue. This was just in time for Miller to review Castle of the Winds in 1993. Reading his column, I'm surprised to see him recognize its Moria roots, and even more surprised that he drops Moria's name with no explanation, as if the average reader could be expected to know what it was. I somehow didn't think that freeware roguelikes were as prominent in the average reader's vocabulary in 1993. Anyway, he liked the game, praised the interface, but criticized the lack of sound effects.

      

Author Rick Saada was a Cleveland native and Princeton University graduate who spent eight years at Microsoft during the company's formative years. He would have been in his late 20s when he put the finishing touches on Castle. Later in the 1990s, he moved to Flying Lab software and worked on Rails Across America (2001) and the MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea (2008). He ran his own company called Holospark from 2015-2019; its primary output was an action game called Earthfall (2017). Since 2019, Saada has served as the CEO for Earthfall's publisher, Nimble.

         

I like Lifthransir's Bane better. The Fall of Surtur feels like a spoiler.

        

Dating Castle of the Winds is difficult, and even now I'm not sure of the precise timeline. I believe the copyright date of 1989 is when Saada began working on it. A couple of sites online have the date as 1992, which seems possible given Computer Gaming World's January 1993 coverage, but I cannot find any mentions of the game in pre-1993 media. In any event, Part One was distributed as freeware. Those who paid the $25 registration fee received Part Two. There's no suggestion that this took a year, so I cannot countenance the opinion of many sites that Part Two is a 1994 game. It is, however, a completely different set of files, so I have to regard it as a unique title. I'll give it a try after an Ormus Saga break.

 

Edit from a day later: Based on this site that Busca linked to, which offers several early version of the game, it appears that the author was circulating versions of the game around his co-workers at Microsoft as early as 1990. It also appears that Epic MegaGames was offering it for sale by mid-1992, so I have changed the date accordingly. 

 

Game 553: The Ormus Saga II: Guild of Death

 

      

The Ormus Saga II: Guild of Death

Germany

Mike Doran Software (developer); CP Verlag (publisher) 

Released 1993 for Commodore 64

Date Started: 5 July 2025   

     

The Ormus Saga II is a sequel to an Ultima clone I played a decade ago and couldn't win. I remember that it was a bit infuriating because I had visited every location and done everything there was to do. I never found out if my failure to win was something I had done wrong or some error in the programming. The intervening decade has not provided any more clues.

    

The first game was set in the world of Beryland, and the PC was tasked with stopping the Ormus Cult from taking over the world. The second game begins two years later. A mysterious book called the "Ulbore" has surfaced; it's somehow associated with the Brotherhood of the White Rose, who are again taking over cities. The character must complete 9 tasks "provided by the god-servants" within 12 months, or the game is automatically lost.

      

I feel like this story could benefit from a few more introductory sentences.

       

Character creation is nothing more than specifying a name. The character starts with 90 hits, 90 experience points, 160 gold, 8 food, 8 soldiers, and 20 magic points outside a town called Remfield. The game's geography has not changed at all. The shape of the continent is the same, as is the placement of cities and even the specific people in the cities.

   

What has changed is that cities are no longer menu towns but rather fully explorable 32 x 32 areas, sometimes with multiple levels. You have to chase down NPCs, interact with shopkeepers, and search pieces of furniture. The author has also made some cosmetic changes to the screen and has added a day/night cycle, complete with a moon and a sun cycling through the sky, with darkness crowding in around the player at night. Graphically, of course, the game looks like the early Ultima series, and many of these mechanics were adopted from those games.

        

The game begins.

       

Curiously, the author decided to move a bit "backwards" when it comes to combat. Instead of the Ultima III-style tactical combat grid, the game has reverted to more of an Ultima I/II approach where you fight enemies on the main exploration screen, and there's only ever one of them at a time.

     

Fighting a spider. You can't see the cursor blinking on and off.

    

Oh, what else . . . let's see . . . oh, yes. The author does not adopt Ultima's approach of mapping each of the game's many commands to a sensible key. Instead, except for the occasional password, all control is through the joystick. To access a menu command, you hit the joystick button, scroll through the list, and hit it again to select. No big deal.

        

      

Seriously, I don't know how much more of this I can take. Between the all-mouse controls of Sandor II and Magus, my mother's death, and the all-joystick control of Ormus, it's like the universe wants to punish me somehow. I don't mean to suggest that those things all have equal weight. 

     

This is a list of all the commands on that menu:

   

EXIT MENU

ATTACK

BOARD SHIP

CAST SPELL

ENTER

CLIMB

VIEW MAP

OPEN DOOR

UNLOCK DOOR

WEAR RING

EXIT SHIP

     

Scrolling through the long menu.

     

SAVE GAME

LOOK

INVENTORY

TIME DATE

READY ITEM

EQUIPMENT

SEND TROOPS

LIGHT TORCH

ATTACK CITY

SEARCH

TALK

VIEW PLAYER

YELL/PRAY 

     

Even joystick lovers ought to agree that this is an unwieldy list, particularly since TALK and SEARCH, two of the most common commands, are at the bottom. If you're a game author, and your player enters a room full of treasure chests, you want him to cheer, not swear.

        

Damn it.

       

The Ormus games do have something original to add to their Ultima heritage: A city conquering/defense mechanic. Throughout the game, the enemy faction (Ormus in the first game; the Brotherhood of the White Rose here) will launch attacks against friendly cities. If the player can't defend them, he has to successfully conquer them back in order to visit them. Both defense and conquering take place on a screen in which the player's forces face off against the enemy's forces. But there's so little to do on this screen, and the ending is so predetermined based on the number of troops and weapons (i.e., cannons) that each side has, that the contest might as well have been handled automatically. In any event, you can buy soldiers and weapons in most towns, then send them to other towns to help beef up the garrison.

          

That seems a little unfair.

      

One thing that the game doesn't warn you about is that if the king's palace is conquered, you lose immediately. This happened to me within the first 15 minutes of playing. Accordingly, you want to send some troops to the king's palace as early in the game as possible.

    

Beyond that, winning the game appears to be about assembling clues from NPC dialogue and other sources. NPCs just spill their guts when you talk to them; there are no dialogue options. I started in Remfield and moved east along the coast.

   

Remfield  

• Armor shop, weapon shop, inn, troop shop. 
• Shaw: Just joined the Brotherhood of the White Rose, "probably the only unsullied order in Beryland."
• Nomis: Recognizes me as the knight who put an end to Lord Marox.
• Bulk: The enemy is growing strong again. "Ulbore" has been translated. Lord Falworth knows the location of a treasure.
• Ekim: A terrible secret will be released once "Ulbore" is translated.
• Falworth: There's a treasure at 130N, 141W. I should go to King Argon right away.

        

I left a locked door for which I need a magic key. I didn't find any magic keys until later, and even then the game won't let me open locked doors with them. Either there are regular keys in addition to magic keys, or the game isn't reading my key inventory properly.

     

But I do!

      

Like its predecessor, the game has a system by which you can see both world maps and area maps, and get your current coordinates, if you find magic maps. I found a few in some piece of furniture. The author did not fix the problem from the first Ormus where "west" really means "east." 

       

The map of King Argon's palace.

      

I had to reload and return to Remfield multiple times to buy more troops and weapons to conquer the next two cities. Fortunately, the treasure chests in the city gave me enough money to do that. This isn't the sort of game where you're an Avatar and need to avoid stealing from chests. Indeed, you have to search basically every piece of furniture.

        

Dillingston  

• I had to reconquer the city. 

       

Dillingston was "occupied" when I tried to enter.

     

• Troop shop, pawn shop, healer, ship shop
• Sally: There's a spell called FOREMIS that dissolves force fields. PORDI teleports to safe ground near the king's palace. 
• Festus: Wants to be mayor. Was ordered by Lord Narod to tell me the name of a god-servant: MARCIUM. 
• Velvet: Recently explored a dungeon. At the bottom, found a scroll with coordinates 81N, 156W listed.

      

A later map of the game world, with current coordinates.

       

• Derrick: The Black Dragon (a foe from the first game) is still alive, the most powerful being that has ever walked Beryland. Since Lord Marox and Thorn both perished, the dragon is the "last titan." It used to live in the eastern swamps. 

   

The pawn shop buys nuggets, jewels, silver, copper, and some other items, added to the game to increase the complexity of the economy. Finding 6 nuggets and then having to sell them is more work than just finding 60 gold pieces in the first place, but there's still something I like about it. 

     

You and I have different definitions of "only."

       

Ships cost over 3,000 gold pieces, so I'm a long way from being able to afford one. 

 

Dalewood 

• Also had to reconquer the city. 
• Inn, weapon shop, troop shop, magic shop.
• Farlow: Suggests I find the Mystic Helm but gives no clue where it is.
• Tom: Thinks I may have been referred to him by Martin but wants the password.
• Garder: We can blame all recent troubles on the Brotherhood of the White Rose. 
• Beth: Flirts. I should talk to Eliza, who has a secret.
• Eliza: Search 52N, 73W. 

    

In a barrel in the city, I found something called Lord Skull. I bought all the spells at the magic shop, which were cheap, but I don't know what all of them do. 

      

With night closed in around me, I find a skull.

       

52N, 73W wasn't far from Dalewood, so I headed over there after finishing the city, searched the appropriate square, and found nothing. It's hard not to feel like I'm already walking dead because of some screw-up in the coordinate system.

  

Hillstone

• Also had to reconquer the city. How big a head start did the Brotherhood have? 
• Troop store, healer, armory.
• Manuel: Went to school with Simon, Ralf, and Mike. Mike is serving in the military, helping the king to fight the Ormus troops.
• Tina: Farm girl. Flirts. Suggests I visit her at night. 

      

I then promptly forgot.

       

• Marry: Waitress at the inn. 
• Ralf: In school studying law. Manuel is a banker. "In each city, village, and other place, you can find 8 items! After you discovered them all, you receive a bonus!"
• Left a locked door. 

     

Ralf's comment was a fun bit of intelligence. Knowing each town has exactly 8 items will cut down on the number of scrolling to "Search" that I need to do. It also explains why I got experience after my last search in Dalewood. The references to the NPCs all going to school together seems to be a real-world reference to author Mike Doran and other people who contributed to the game.

 

As I traveled between these cities, I only fought about three battles with wandering enemies. I remember noting this in the first Ormus, too. 

     

Temple Mar

• Prayed in front of an altar. Was told I wasn't ready for a higher level. Good to know that's how you level up. 

         

What does it look like I'm doing?!

         

• Attacked by an archer and a troll. I didn't realize you could get attacked in temples. If I try to talk to them, the game crashes. It occurs to me later that this might be a good place to grind if it loads an enemy every time you visit. 

       

Have some respect, troll.

        

• Left a locked door with a poison field on the other side.
• Couldn't figure out a way to access a large part of the area. Need a way to cross water or go through walls, or there's some secret door mechanic that I can't figure out. 

    

Harper Valley 

• Again, had to liberate it from enemy troops.
• Armory, troop store, weapon store.
• Upgraded to chain armor (from leather) and a dragon shield.
• Andrea: Close friend of Lord Narod. The name of one god-servant is FERMON.
• Gorab: Member of the Ormus cult. They will get their revenge on me.

     

I do not remember, but good to see you anyway.

      

• Martina: I should ask her husband about a treasure. 
• Lothar: His grandfather stole a chest from a dragon and hid it at 132N, 25W.

   

At this point, I figured it was time to visit the Royal Palace. I looked up its location in the first game, and it was in the same place here. I marched right up to King Argon's throne room and spoke to him. He reiterated that I would have to complete 9 tasks for the various god-servants, go to the mystic flames in the Stone Mountains, yell the "holy word," and speak the three "eternal words," but backwards. Somehow, this will save the world.

 

Bar-Yogun, the king's wizard, told me of a treasure at 64N, 217W. He also warned me that when someone gives me coordinates, they may not be exact, and I should search the general area, so perhaps that's the solution to my earlier problem. Princess Sheila told me the name of another god-servant: URUK. 

       

I'm not sure you understand the purpose of "coordinates."

     

As I left the castle, I was wondering where I would meet the god-servants, and it occurred to me that maybe I needed to summon them. I used the YELL command to bellow URUK.

   

Sure enough, the creature appeared. He said that the task I'd need to do for him is to finish a sequence of runes, shown below.

      

Those aren't "secret runes"; they're just letters.

        

I'll be damned if I can make anything out of it. I'm guessing it requires knowledge of something in the game, like maybe those are the first letters of towns or something.

 

I continued with the other two names I had. FERMON wanted three black jewels and MARCIUM wanted to know the "holy word." 

    

As I wrap up this first session, it's 15 January. The game started on 7 January. I don't love the idea of a time limit, but I also don't seem to be in much danger of hitting it. Now that I know the map is the same as the first game, including the locations of towns, I can work out an optimal exploration strategy.

   

This kind of gameplay, involving finding clues and searching towns and talking to NPCs, is one of the things I love about CRPGs. I just wish I could do it with the damned keyboard.

   

Time so far: 4 hours