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