A new adventure game with impressive graphics. I thought I give it a try, but so far I am quite disappointed. A good text adventure is more than just great graphics. More important is a good parser and the ability to respond to many commands. The game is very slow in normal mode, so I play it in warp mode on the vice emulator. That makes it playable. But when the graphics are turned on, the text area is very small, so I decided that it plays better if you turn the graphics off by pressing enter (so far for the great graphics).
So how far did I get. I made a map of all the locations (without using the map that came with the digital version). I solved a few small puzzles, but the biggest problem is that I have no idea what commands to use, because the answer given is usually "Thy request is not understood" even if you use commands which are very common in most text adventures. I found a rowing boat with oars, but I couldn't use it. Some NPCs ask you a question, but I couldn't give them an answer. Some NPC give a hint what they want, others are just a big mystery after you have talked to them. The only way to communicate seems to be "talk to person". Some actions which were understood by the game like "pray" or giving something to a certain NPC are not really clear if they were usefull. Because I was bored I made a list of all 85 objects and 28 NPCs, but I give up for now. I've played much better games from the eighties than this one. Too bad, because it's great to have new text adventures for classic systems, but as mentioned above, playability is more than good graphics.
Reason I made this topic, if there is someone else out there who bought a copy and made a bit more progress (using the rowboat or anything else) some hints would be nice. Would be nice to be able to enjoy it a bit more after buying it.
Kingdom of the seven stones c64
Moderator: Alastair
Re: Kingdom of the seven stones c64
I'm getting a bit further, but you have to do a lot of talking with the NPC. I earned a shilling and permission to use the rowboat. Good ending for today. I'll try again tomorrow. Still pity the game is not a bit more responsive to wrong commands.
Re: Kingdom of the seven stones c64
Getting further. The way to use the rowboat is a bit strange as you don't have to enter it to use it. I encountered some nice puzzles as well. For instance how to deal with Medusa and get past the gargoyles to the tower. I'm having trouble to "raise a hue and cry" in the town to find the sheep (probably just have to find the right command to do this) .
Re: Kingdom of the seven stones c64
Nearing the end (however still a few problems have to be solved) I've uploaded a map with all the objects. Note a lot of objects are red herrings and if you choose the wrong objects you have to start over again (or load a saved game).
Re: Kingdom of the seven stones c64
Yeah I've found all the seven stones and defeated the shadow. In the end the puzzles get better. If the game was a bit more responsive to commands it would be a lot better.
*** beware spoiler ****
There is one puzzle I did not manage to solve yet. At some point you become cursed by the shadow and you must free yourself of this curse, but I'm doing something wrong. So I still have to solve that one. Luckily the game came with some savegames and I could pass that problem for now.
Then also the trumpet player says there is somewhere a three note cipher to be found which helps you to understand the notes. I did decipher the notes but I did it by myself, maybe I overlooked a hint how to do this in the game.
*** beware spoiler ****
There is one puzzle I did not manage to solve yet. At some point you become cursed by the shadow and you must free yourself of this curse, but I'm doing something wrong. So I still have to solve that one. Luckily the game came with some savegames and I could pass that problem for now.
Then also the trumpet player says there is somewhere a three note cipher to be found which helps you to understand the notes. I did decipher the notes but I did it by myself, maybe I overlooked a hint how to do this in the game.
Re: Kingdom of the seven stones c64
Today my prayers worked and I lifted the curse. I was forgotten to remove something. I've finished the game and will upload a walkthrough.
Re: Kingdom of the seven stones c64
Congrats!
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Mr Creosote
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Re: Kingdom of the seven stones c64
Congratulations for your persistence!
According to your description, it seems the game's approach at creating difficulty (bad parser aside) is quantity. Lots of locations, lots of objects, lots of NPCs. All this increasing search space of solutions exponentially. I really prefer games these days which are compact, but implement their few locations deeply.
Good illustrations can sometimes make otherwise mediocre or even bad games bearable. I'm thinking, for example, of The Curse of Rabenstein. Badly paced storytelling, railroaded progress which doesn't always make sense, thin implementation, plainly obvious puzzles. But the good pictures made it all appear much more professional than it really was.
According to your description, it seems the game's approach at creating difficulty (bad parser aside) is quantity. Lots of locations, lots of objects, lots of NPCs. All this increasing search space of solutions exponentially. I really prefer games these days which are compact, but implement their few locations deeply.
Good illustrations can sometimes make otherwise mediocre or even bad games bearable. I'm thinking, for example, of The Curse of Rabenstein. Badly paced storytelling, railroaded progress which doesn't always make sense, thin implementation, plainly obvious puzzles. But the good pictures made it all appear much more professional than it really was.