Shadow Keep: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

 

         

Shadow Keep

United States

Independently developed and distributed as shareware

Released in 1991 for Macintosh

Date Started: 30 December 2017

Date Ended: 5 January 2018
Total hours: 10

Difficulty: 3/5 (Moderate)

Final Rating: 36

Ranking at Time of Posting: 212/282 (75%)

Ranking at Time of Game #431: 329/431 (76%)

Shadow Keep was an eminently satisfying experience. It wasn't an epic game, and it won't get epic scores, but finishing it feels like finishing a filling, inexpensive meal at some family-owned restaurant from which you had no expectations going in. It's probably the best shareware RPG that I've played. It has a few good ideas, understands its limitations, and keeps to a reasonable size, scope, and time frame. There were times I got stuck, but I always had enough clues to un-stick myself. The interface was clear and consistent, and I didn't experience a single bug. If Glenn Seeman responds to my e-mail, I'll be happy to send him his shareware fee.

          

I find a key artifact.

        

When I wrapped up last time, I had just finished mapping the overworld and identifying the entrances to all the dungeons. I had also explored the dungeon beneath the castle for the first time. After a brief rest break and re-stock of potions, I returned to the dungeon. It was a good thing I did, because on the second trip, I found the Amulet of Guidance that I needed for the labyrinth. I had assumed it would be in the catacombs.

A secret door in the dungeon led me to an NPC named John. Several other NPCs had spoken about him. He was raising giant chickens and said they were for the king's "lance corps." Anyway, he was supposed to respond to the keyword HINT, but he only told me that he didn't feel like giving me a hint. The manual warns that he's not always in the mood. I eventually left and never returned, so I don't know what his hint would have told me.

        

Sure, no problem. It only took me 45 minutes to find you.

      

I had heard that the mermaid bobbing off the northern coast would know how to defeat the evil overlord, but I didn't know how to get her to talk to me. I asked a sailor in the castle about MERMAIDS, and he said they favor orchids. Asking NPCs about ORCHID, meanwhile, gave me a hint that a hermit on an island knows about them. Having found no hermit on the island in the Sea of Serpents, I figured he must be in the middle of that eastern lake. I explored its shores for a while but still couldn't find a pirate ship.

I wondered if maybe the unnamed cave would take me to the island underground. I started to explore it but was soon turned away by a new monster type: "rust beasts." Just like their D&D counterpart, they destroy metal weapons and armor. I returned to the shop in the gnome village and bought a "champion's club" and dragon scale armor, which you'd think would be amazing but actually under-performs plate. I also had to remove my helmet.

      

"Champion's Club" sounds like a way of upselling a piece of wood.

   

The new getup was helpful against the rust beasts, but the armor offered little protection against giant wasps, terrors that could kill me in two hits. I had to keep changing armor in the middle of the dungeon, which was mildly annoying.

       

Fighting a giant wasp in the unnamed caves. The scroll with "Unlock" is nearby.

      

Anyway, my guess was wrong. The caves didn't lead to the lake and didn't have a second exit. The only thing I found, besides lots of gold, was a scroll with the "Unlock" spell, which duplicates magic keys. Since keys are pretty cheap, the dungeon is really optional. The manual noted that there were some optional areas.

Returning to the lake issue, I solved it in short order. It turned out that pirate ships sail under bridges with no problem. I assumed they wouldn't. I was able to take one from another part of the lake system and sail it to the hermit's island. He said that orchids are found in the "living forest" by the Temple of Life. I was worried because I'd slain all the tree creatures there, but I was able to find the orchid at a stationary tree.

        

Uh, yeah, it's not exactly "living" anymore.

    

With it in my hand, the mermaid came right up to me. She said that the Evil Overlord could be defeated with the Black Sword, and an NPC named Sprite would know where the sword was. That was a lot of work for nothing, as I'd already spoken to Sprite, but she also gave me a "good luck charm" that made it easier to find hidden treasure chests.

        

         

My next stop was the catacombs in the cemetery. It was swarming with skeletons, who fled at "Turn Undead," but I couldn't cast that spell too many times. I had to kill a bunch of them. Aside from a lot of chests, the dungeon had a demon guarding the Grail. He wanted to know the names of the Gods of Strength, Life, and Magic. I had no idea. I left, vowing to return later.

         

The catacombs had a lot of areas with multiple doors in a row.

       

I tried the labyrinth next. I entered and equipped the Amulet of Guidance, but it didn't seem to do anything, and I soon got lost. Reloading, I consulted my notes and saw that it said I needed to enter the labyrinth with the amulet already equipped. Doing so brought up a series of arrows directing me through the huge maze. There were no monsters in the labyrinth, which was a nice change of pace.

           

The arrows don't appear on the way back, but I was clever and wrote them down.

       

I emerged in Far Land, an overland map that I'm guessing is around half the size of the main continent. There was no way I was going to map it. I just went around the perimeter hoping that was enough. I soon found the third temple--the Temple of Magic. Shortly afterwards, I found the Valley of the Unicorn and was killed when I tried to walk past the guardian.

          

Doing it right the second time.

        

Reloading, I equipped the Sacred Bone and got past the guardian okay. The titular Unicorn told me the Black Sword was hidden along the north coast, and I soon found it in a cluster of trees. It's the best weapon in the game, but not by a lot. Most enemies still take two or three hits.

        

       

With the sword in my possession, there was nothing to do but return to Shadow Keep's land and try to find the names of the gods. I asked dozens of NPCs and got nowhere. Finally, I looked back to the manual for clues and noted a recommendation to search the temples. Sure enough, that's what I'd been missing. Each of the three temples has a scroll with the god's name on it. Returning to Far Land was a pain, but otherwise I soon had the three names and went back to the catacombs.

         

    

Another visit to the demon, and I soon had the Grail. The only thing left was to enter the cave in the center of the Lake of Serpents and find the Evil Overlord. I spent my accumulated money on potions, hopped a ship, and entered.

       

Enemies in the final dungeon include rust beats and carrion crawlers.

      

The caves had the same enemies as the other cave map. I didn't feel like changing in and out of armor constantly, so I quaffed Potions of Invisibility to run past the enemies until I found the Evil Overlord.

      

The E.O., with a kobold hovering nearby.

     

The Grail protected me from instant death, but he still packed a wallop, and I had to retreat every hit or two to swallow a healing potion. I eventually killed him with the Black Sword, and he left the stolen Ankh behind.

     

         

Using more Potions of Invisibility to get out of the dungeon, I went to the Temple of Life and returned the Ankh. I immediately got a summons back to Shadow Keep and the endgame screens. The king congratulated me and made me an honorary knight. I was able to view my final statistics, and game over at just about the 10-hour mark.

          

Some of the panels from the endgame.

       

In a GIMLET, I give it:

• 4 points for the game world. The backstory is derivative, but it's self-consciously derivative, not even bothering with names for the Evil Overlord or Great Battle, as if it was a generic template. Inside the game, the world holds up pretty well.

• 1 point for character creation and development. Not a strong point. You don't even get a name. "Development" consists solely of increases in fighting and magic ability. Frankly, these don't feel like they make a huge difference, and they max at 10.

• 5 points for NPC interaction. A great system in the Ultima style. It just lacks true dialogue options.

• 2 points for encounters and foes. The monsters are nothing special. A couple have unique attacks, like the rust beasts and the beholders that drain magic. 

• 3 points for magic and combat. It's pretty basic, but well-balanced, and there are some minor tactics associated with fleeing and the use of spells and potions. The small selection of spells would be more useful if the magic bar didn't deplete so fast and take so long to recharge. I like that enemies don't swarm you; if one enemy has you in combat, the others move around randomly instead of crowding all sides.

     

My final spell list. I think I got them all.

     

• 3 points for equipment. There's a small but decent set of weapons, armor, potions, and special items. Relative cost tells you easily how the items compare.

• 5 points for the economy. There's no complexity, but for the first half the game, you're always saving for an item upgrade, and for the second half, the need for potions keeps the economy relevant.

       

My final inventory heading into the endgame.

       

• 3 points for quests, including a clear main quest and a couple of side areas.

• 4 points for graphics, sound, and interface. The black and white graphics are only okay--most of the portraits are a little silly--and I have to judge the sparse sound from what I can hear online. I had no problems with the interface, with redundant keyboard and mouse options for most actions. I appreciated touches like the speed controls.

• 6 points for gameplay, the best category. It hits the length and difficulty just right, and it's partly non-linear. It has a strong Ultima quality where you slowly piece together what you need to do via NPC dialogue and open exploration. I wouldn't call it "replayable," though, unless you want to challenge yourself to win with the lowest score or something.

       

My final stats. The "total play time" doesn't include reloads.

     

That gives us a final score of 36, enough to call it "recommended." Like I said earlier, there's nothing "epic" here, and it isn't going to vie for "Game of the Year," but it's well-constructed and easy to pick up, and it offers a satisfyingly-moderate challenge and length. It's too bad it didn't get more recognition. I haven't been able to find a single review or walkthrough. There is, however, an effort to remake it, from the intriguingly-named "Retribution Studios." (Are you okay? Do you guys want to talk about it?) Normally I only support remakes for games that were harmed by the limited technology of when they were made. In this case, though, given how hard it is to emulate the Mac, a remake may be the only way modern players ever get to experience it. [Ed. As of 2019, it appears the remake is defunct.]

        

I like the game, but a few too many things smile within it.

      

Developer Glenn Seemann unfortunately never made another RPG that I can find, although he programmed and converted other games for the Macintosh into the 2010s, and has a site dedicated to Macintosh games.

As for me, I can't say that I'm looking forward to the rest of the Mac-only games on my list, not unless they do something different with the interface. I opened my Quarterstaff coverage by noting:

       

The interesting thing about many Mac games is that they make use of, rather than override, the conventions of the operating system. When you play a PC game, even today, you're used to the game taking over completely, remapping your keys, seizing your mouse, changing your graphic resolution, filling the screen, and monopolizing your sound . . . . The Mac was different. It pioneered the graphical user interface. It made popular the conventions of menus and overlapping windows. And games went ahead and used these conventions. You open an RPG on a Mac, and it looks like you've never left the operating system.

          

I was careful not to take a positive or negative stance on this approach, having not experienced it long enough, but now I can say for sure that my reaction is negative. Take a look at the shot below.

         

The end panels appear amidst the clutter of the Mac OS.

      

It just looks unprofessional for the game screens to appear amidst the clutter of the OS, with other open windows and icons in the background. And while playing, too many errant clicks sent me accidentally to the "finder." No, thanks. I know it's possible for Mac games to just take everything over--I sure didn't play Descent in a window with a bunch of junk in the background--and I hope they start doing so soon. I have to suffer this OS for about 20 more games.

Shadow Keep: Splish Splash

The Shadow Keep overworld.

      

If my wife ever needs evidence necessary to secure an involuntary psychiatric commitment, she probably won't have to go much further than the map I made of Shadow Keep's game world. I did it over about four hours, by taking individual screenshots of the small map window and assembling them together. (I did the same thing, although less extensively, for Skariten.) For anyone trying to do this yourself, don't try to make the edges line up. That's a recipe for madness. Instead, find physical feature like trees that you can put at the edge of each new screenshot, carefully positioning it to overlap the same features on previous shots. Even then, you have to allow that the map will get out-of-whack. Individual mis-aligned pixels add up fast.

There's no need for this kind of precision, and yet I chafe at the inaccuracies inherent in trying to do a rough sketch by hand. It's a source of constant anxiety whenever I play a top-down game with no automap. Even the roughest paper map in the game documentation is like a balm on that angst, but Shadow Keep didn't supply one.

The exercise was ultimately worth it. Not only did I find all the key locations in the game world, the combats I fought during the experience brought my martial skill to Level 9 and provided me enough gold to buy the best available equipment.

         

One guess why it's called "Sea of Serpents."

      

The Shadow Keep game world is a large portrait-oriented rectangle with the titular Shadow Keep in the far northwest. A river and lake system winds through the map's center. The largest lake is called the Sea of Serpents, and an island in the middle holds a cave that's probably the final dungeon of the game; the Evil Overlord is rumored to be in there.

A small village southwest of Shadow Keep has a general store. There's a second village, populated by gnomes, in the upper-middle of the map, just to the west of a river. It has an inn, an arms and armor shop, and a hidden entrance to the Labyrinth.

         

It's -5F here in Maine right now. This inn looks cozy.

      

East of the Sea of Serpents is a potion shop. Fortunately, vials of antidote for scorpion and giant spider venom cost just about as much as those creatures drop, so even though I had to return multiple times to stock up, it wasn't a large net blow to my finances.

        

Finding the magic shop was a god-send.

       

The southwest corner has a cemetery with an entrance to the Catacombs. There's an unnamed cave (that no one has mentioned in dialogue) amid a small cluster of mountains south of the Sea of Serpents. In a western mountain range is a weird valley with four bird totems, but I can't find anything happening there. 

     

An inset from the map showing the mysterious "totem valley."

     

There are Temples of Life (from which the Ankh was stolen, precipitating the current quest) and Strength to the southeast and northeast, respectively. I feel like there ought to be a third temple, a Temple of Magic, somewhere, but the only possible location is in the middle of an eastern lake. So far, I haven't been able to snag a boat to see if there's anything in there.

          

I get a spell for donating at the temple.

       

Combats were frequent during my journeys. Giant octopuses swarmed the ocean edges of the map as well as the lakes and rivers, and giant serpents were rife in the inland waterways. I decided early on not to waste my health and resources on combats that didn't deliver any gold, if I could avoid them. Land-based combats, which are harder to avoid, include giant vultures, goblins, tree creatures, cyclopes, giant scorpions, and giant spiders. The latter two inevitably result in poison.

Pirate ships are a useful enemy. Defeating them not only carries a large gold reward but also gives you the ship. Unfortunately, unlike the Ultima variety, these ships don't have cannons. They also have a way of disappearing when you stray too far away. They're necessary to explore islands and at least one mountain-ringed area accessible only by water. So far, I haven't seen any in the exterior ocean, nor in the small eastern lake.

       

I acquire a ride.

     

Enemies are frequent but not overwhelming, so mostly I was able to wait and heal when my health got too low. The gold from my victories enabled me to upgrade to a full long sword, a plate helmet, and plate mail, plus keep me stocked with health potions and antidotes. The heavier armor depletes my "strength" bar faster, but even an empty bar doesn't stop you from fighting. You just do less damage and miss more often.

You have to be careful not to attack everyone, because you do meet wandering NPCs in the wild.

       

A helpful elf gives me a key clue.

     

It wasn't until late in the session that I realized I'd been neglecting the game's magic system. Every time I found a scroll, I figured it was a one-use item and kept it in reserve. It turns out that possession of a scroll allows you to cast it as many times as you want, up to the limit of your magic bar (which, like health, slowly recharges). Once I realized what an idiot I'd been, I started making liberal use of "Heal" and "Nourish." Spells I've bought or found but haven't used include "Lightning Bolt," "Freeze," "Turn Undead," and "True Sight."

When I was done mapping the outdoors, I bought a bunch of potions and headed for the dungeon beneath the castle. I didn't bother to map it, but it consists of perhaps a 10 x 10 grid of large rooms swarming with beholders (which drain magic), giant bats, giant spiders, and giant scorpions. At first, I tried to kill them all, but I soon realized that they were respawning as fast as I was slaying. Ultimately, you end up running past a lot of enemies, only fighting when they're literally blocking you.

        

In the midst of the dungeon, among the rewards of two slain enemies. I have to be careful not to walk on those poison bottles.

     

The developer made the dungeon rooms all the same size, with exits in every direction, but blocked off a lot of the exits with poison bombs. As far as I know, there's no way to "clear" those. Ultimately, I emerged from the dungeon with the Sacred Bone, which I need to pass a "guardian" somewhere. I later realized that I never found an NPC named "John," but to do so I need the "True Sight" spell. I suppose I'll have to make another visit.

Among the NPCs in the villages, I learned that the Black Sword is hidden in the Valley of the Unicorn, in the northeast region of Far Land. To get to Far Land, I'll need to traverse the catacombs, but I need a magic amulet before I do that. I'm not sure where that is, but the Catacombs or the random cave is a good bet.

Meanwhile, I'm told that mermaids know how to defeat the Evil Overlord. There's a mermaid in the north sea bobbing about, but she never comes close enough to land that I can talk to her. I need to find out how to reach her.

            

Hey! Come ashore!

          

Depending on how large the other dungeons are, the game is shaping up to be just about the right length. Combat is too boring and character development too minimal to sustain a very long RPG, but if the developer manages to wrap it up before the 15-hour mark, it will be a satisfying little diversion.

Time so far: 7 hours

    

Game 276: Shadow Keep (1991)

    

Shadow Keep

United States

Independently developed and distributed as Shareware

Released in 1991 for Macintosh

Date Started: 30 December 2017

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

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

Some of the homages go a bit too far.

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

The game begins outside the titular Shadow Keep.

      

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

The queen fills in some of the back story.

      

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

The king outlines the main quest.

    

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

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

Transacting in a shop.

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

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

Searching turns furniture into valuables.

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

Don't even think about it. Trust me.

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

Trading blows with a goblin in the woods.

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

Getting some information from an NPC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

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

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

****

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