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Skull Cave (Skull-Cave_Sol-20_solution.txt)

Maximum 370 point solution for the Sol-20 text adventure "Skull Cave" (1982) 
by Ray G. White.

In this solution, notes are in round brackets ().

Shorthand commands such as 7S mean go south 7 times for example.

(You start at a large outcrop of stone with 0 / 370 points)
TAKE LANTERN (score +5=5), S, KILL SKELETON (repeat until dead / r.u.d ; 
score +5=10), SEARCH (repeat until key-shaped bone found ; score +15=25), LOOK 
(it is a skeleton key), TAKE KEY, S, ON (lantern), LOOK, S, 2E, NW (big 
junction), D (*note1), U, N (the "all different" maze), 5S (Witt’s End ; score 
+5=30), TAKE RED (*note2), 2N, E, D, S, SW (big junction ; score +5=35), S, SW, 
S (gate room), KILL GUARDIAN (*note3 ; score +10=45), UNLOCK (the gate; score 
+5=50), DROP KEY (*note4), 6S (note the plant, we will water it now), PLTMP 
(rock room), U, E (glass room), TAKE BOTTLE (score +5=55), W, 2SE, W, S (pool 
room), FILL BOTTLE, N, 2E, NW, S, SW, 7S, WATER PLANT (it grows), PLTMP, U, 
2SE, W, S (pool room), FILL BOTTLE, N, 2E, NW, S, SW, 6S, W (flame room), 
FILL LAMP WITH OIL (*note5 ; score +10=65), E, S, WATER PLANT (it now extends 
to the ceiling ; score +15=80), DROP BOTTLE, CLIMB (or U), 2W, KILL SPIDER 
(r.u.d ; score +5=85), SEARCH (repeat until you find a secret door in the south 
wall), S (light room ; score +10=95), TAKE SHIELD (now you have some 
protection), N, E, S, KILL TIGER (r.u.d ; score +5=100), LOOK (*note6), N, E, 
D, N, NE (bedroom), KISS GIRL (she leaves a scroll ; score +10=110), 
TAKE SCROLL, READ SCROLL (*note7), NE, W, N (passage), W (the "all alike" 
maze), NE, U, W, N, D, W (thief’s lair), KILL THIEF (r.u.d ; score +20=130), 
TAKE BLUE, TAKE CROWN, TAKE DAGGER (*note8), E, S, E, S, E, S, E (passage ; 
score +5=135), S, U, W, S, TAKE GEM (score +10=145), N, E, D, 3N, E, MOUNT GEM 
(the sword is released, straight into your inventory; score +25=170), W, 4S 
(room of brain death, note the box), SAY NICNAC (*note9 ; score +10=180), KILL 
SKULL (r.u.d; *note10 ; score +20=200), PLTMP, U, W, KILL DRAGON 
(r.u.d ; score +20=220), TAKE GOLD, NW, N, 2NE, E, S, TAKE PAINTING (score 
+10=230), N, E, N, W, W (red room), TAKE SILVER (score +10=240), E, N, 
KILL GOBLIN (r.u.d ; score +5=245), PLTMP, 2U, TAKE EMERALD (score+10=255), D, 
W, NW, SW, W, TAKE CHAIN (score +10=265), E, S, KILL TROGLODYTE (wristband ; 
score +15=280), TAKE WRISTBAND, E, NE, SE, SMASH STATUE (score +10=290), LOOK, 
TAKE EYES, NW, SW, 5S, E, S, PRAY (an orb comes out of the idol’s mouth ; score 
+15=305), LOOK, TAKE ORB, N, 2SW, S, HOOK CHAIN (score +15=320), D, E (fountain 
room), SEARCH (repeat until you get a ring ; score +15=335), W, U, S, 
DRINK POTION (*note11 ; score +5=340), DRINK POTION (score +5=345), OPEN BOX 
(score +25=370)

YOU HAVE FOUND THE PEARL OF POWER!
YOUR QUEST IS COMPLETE AND YOU ARE SAVED!!!

YOU HAVE SCORED 370 OUT OF A POSSIBLE 370.

*note1:- Rock room, note the magic word "PLTMP", this always teleports the 
player back here, very handy.

*note2:- There is an inconsistency in that you can only refer to the RED POTION 
as "RED" when picking it up, and only as "POTION" when drinking it. Same for 
the BLUE POTION later. They heal the player, increasing the odds of surviving 
combat. Also, PLTMP can be used here to escape the maze in a single turn, but I 
show the way out for completeness.

*note3:- Like with all the other creatures, repeat the KILL GUARDIAN command 
until dead. But be aware - the guardian is tough. If the guardian hits you 
once, then DRINK POTION to heal. This is often enough to survive the encounter, 
but there are no guarantees. Due to the random nature of combat, you may die at 
this point and then must restart the game.

*note4:- There is no inventory limit, so you don’t really need to drop 
anything. Although it is handy to prevent the inventory scrolling off the top 
of the screen with too many items.

*note5:- An unexpected four word command in an otherwise two-word adventure. 
When you first light the lamp it has 100 units (turns) of oil. There are 
another 200 units of oil in the dish here. The lamp has a maximum capacity of 
254 units.

*note6:- If the gem is taken now, the thief may steal it. We can just collect 
it later.

*note7:- Magic word - NICNAC. It has been changed in this version due to the 
original magic word having offensive connotations in modern usage. Be sure to 
read the scroll and note the word in your version, which will be different.

*note8:- Also take any other items that the thief might have stolen e.g. the 
gem. You want to leave an empty room behind so you don’t have to go back into 
this maze again. If you followed this walkthrough exactly, then nothing will 
have been stolen. Again, PLTMP can be used here to escape the maze. In this 
case though, it’s marginally quicker to just walk out of the maze than walk 
back from the rock room, and for purposes of the walkthrough I would like to 
show the way back out.

*note9:- Change this word to match the scroll in your version.

*note10:- The remainder of the walkthrough from here on is just to get a full 
score. Otherwise, once the skull is defeated, simply OPEN BOX in this room to 
win the game.

*note11 - Only if you have any potions remaining. You get 5 points for drinking 
each one.


On scoring - for the treasures you will get the points for each item, either by 
being in the same room as it, or carrying it. This can cause some confusion as 
to how the points were allocated between killing a creature and the treasure 
appearing in the room as a result. In many of those cases, I have just combined 
the two into a single score increase in the walkthrough. 

Also, if you needed to drink one or two potions during the course of combat, 
then your running score will be either five or ten points higher respectively, 
during most of the walkthrough.

The mazes - each of the two mazes is implemented as a single room. When you 
drop items in either maze, they are silently teleported to "Witt's End" (first 
maze) or "Thief's Lair" (second maze). Allowing items to be dropped in the maze 
would have revealed to the player that in fact they are just a single location.

The routes through the maze are encoded instead as a series of five (maze 1) or 
six (maze 2) "route bytes" followed by a destination room byte. While in the 
mazes, the route bytes are compared against the players last five or six moves.
When they exactly match, a jump is made to the room specified by the destination 
byte.

There are three routes out of the first maze and two out of the second maze. 
Four out of the five have been shown in the walkthrough above. For completeness,
the fifth is from maze 1:- U, W, D, S, S -> Low east-west passage. But this was 
surplus to requirements.

The 32 maze route and destination bytes are found at game file offset (and 
therefore memory location) 0BA0:

Maze 1, the "all different" maze:-
0BA0:
02 02 02 02 02 16 
S, S, S, S, S -> Witt’s End

0BA6:
01 03 06 02 0A 13 
N, E, D, S, SW -> Big Junction

0BAC:
05 04 06 02 02 0A 
U, W, D, S, S -> Low east-west passage

Maze 2, the "all alike" maze:-
0BB2:
02 03 02 03 02 03 2A 
S, E, S, E, S, E -> Passage (to the east of Flame Room)

0BB9:
07 05 04 01 06 04 26
NE, U, W, N, D, W -> Thief's Lair

The only mystery remains, how the player would find these routes without 
disassembling the game. The odds are astronomically unlikely to stumble upon 
the correct sequences and usual mapping methods do not work here. I wonder if 
there may have been some additional documentation or hints accompanying the 
game, or some other clues I might have missed?

Acknowledgements:-

Thank you to Jason Dyer at Renga in Blue for his excellent coverage of this 
game.

Thank you to user impomatic at CASA for their very useful map of the game.

benkid77 - 3 June 2025