From Steve Masters, author of Ghoul Manor
October 9th, 2009

I would just like to say a huge thank you for giving me the opportunity to be 'reunited'
with a text adventure game I wrote back in 1982/83.

Like many programmers of my generation, my first experience of computers was with the
Sinclair ZX81. I progressed to the Spectrum 48K as soon as it became available, and 
spent many a long day and night writing BASIC programs, playing games and eventually 
creating text adventures using Gilsoft's The Quill. Ghoul Manor was the result of 6 weeks' 
hard work, and the only text adventure game I managed to complete.

When in my early 20's and unemployed, I sold Ghoul Manor (and another game I 
had written in BASIC) to Gilsoft in Barry, South Wales, for £300. I never retained a
copy of either game.

Now a computer programmer for a large hospital in Wales, I often remarked 
to my developer colleagues that I once wrote two games and sold them to a Barry 
software house 'back in the day...' But they had only my word - the word of the 
oldest developer in the IT department. 

This morning another such conversation this time led me to search for "Ghoul Manor 
Spectrum" on Google. And this time I found several references to it!
Within an hour I had downloaded the GhoulManor.tzx.zip file, a Spectrum 48K emulator for 
Windows XP, a complete walk-through for my game (OMG the memories!) by Dorothy Millard, 
and the text of your interview with Dorothy Millard available for reading on your CASA website.
(I was fascinated to learn more about someone who might have actually played and 
completed my game!)
 
It's just as well I have the walk-through at my disposal - I really enjoyed writing the game 
but I'm not sure I have the time or the patience to play it through to the end these days! (But using 
the walk-through I will definitely see it through to the end!)