I am ENDORR, the Ancient One. I am in danger and need your help to drive away the dark forces of evil.
Many evil deeds are done in the world but this is nothing compared with what is to come. The power of goodness must shine again in the world if we are to be saved... The powers of goodness have been worn away and must be made strong again.
Every 100 years, a good and brave person must be found to shine the light of goodness in the World.
Because of your special qualities, you have been chosen to perform this task.
But be warned... There is a difficult journey ahead of you. There will be many perils along the way - you must travel with courage in your heart.
You must travel to my sanctum, bringing the symbol of life with you. I have been able to transport you some of the way already, to start you off!
Published on the December 1988 issue (issue 14) of Disk User.
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This is another game where the parser is far more threatening than rabid beast or sword wielding troll. One can construct a raft at the lake's edge and there it sits, floating coquettishly on the cusp of the waters, defying all strenuous effort and verb/noun combinations. LAUNCH RAFT, BOARD RAFT, SAIL RAFT, EMBARK, CROSS LAKE, NORTH, GET ON RAFT, ROW RAFT, USE RAFT, STICK RAFT UP ARSE.....all to no avail. I felt sure that the last option would work at least. It's enough to make Robinson Crusoe break down and cry.
OK - it seems that sometimes a command isn't recognised, for instance PLAY FLUTE sometimes parses "please be sensible" however entering it again as your next command produces a positive response. This seems to affect all actions sporadically; thiw caused the problem I was having with the river transport as a command I had previously entered and which had been rejected worked upon a subsequent attempt in the same locale. If you are playing you should also bear in mind that if you build something or drop something it often doesn't show up in the room description even if you EXAMINE said location. You have to move away and then return and miraculously it has reappeared.
A large and tedious game. It is littered with ostensible puzzles which later transpire to be mere map boundaries. An otter-like creature, pygmies, giant spiders etc. are just there as such; this makes it difficult to discern actual map edges from real puzzles (like the vulture). You can make yourself invisible in one actual puzzle but for some reason can still be seen by every NPC that you subsequently come across. It is clearly a clumsy construct which will only work in one particular instance.
There are also too many bending exits/entrances. If meandering paths are used sparingly they can seem realistic but splashing them everywhere is merely an annoying contrivance. The game also includes irritating hunger and thirst daemons (you can't fill your bottle even when standing next to a river); a cheese paring inventory limit which entails tedious traipsing backwards and forwards through seemingly endless forest and marshlands; and many unmentioned exits. In short this is a model lesson in how not to create a large text adventure game. It is the mirror image of a game like Level 9's superlative Adventure Quest. I am about half-way through (or so a rotting sign in one marsh location tells me) and finding it hard to motivate myself to continue.
If you attempt to play the flute when confronted by the hissing cat (it is meant to calm animals down) the game crashes. At least it does so via the B-em emulator V2.2
"Rub Mud." ...you gradually become invisible!
"W"
"You are blocked by an ox, which is tied in the field. It strains at its rope on seeing you."