Page 1 of 4

What happened to Lantern of D'Gamma

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 4:53 am
by Angus
http://solutionarchive.com/Various/Druadic_9912.html says that the solution to Lantern of D'Gamma is here, but it's not among the solutions

Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 10:20 pm
by Alastair
The news from 1999 ( http://solutionarchive.com/news99.php ) states that this is a list of updates for Druadic's site, unfortunately that site has either moved or is no more.

Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 11:38 pm
by terri
Presuming this is an Apple game, I can't seem to get it to load.

I am using Applewin 1.14.2. I get the loadoing screen, but then it quits.

Any help with this?

Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:02 pm
by Juan
terri wrote:Presuming this is an Apple game, I can't seem to get it to load.

I am using Applewin 1.14.2. I get the loadoing screen, but then it quits.

Any help with this?
Seems to be working fine on my AppleWin 1.14.0-beta. Maybe you downloaded a corrupted copy of the game. I downloaded it here:

http://www.virtualapple.org/lanternofdgammadisk.html

I am trying to sort out the labyrinth down in the dark tunnels, but one match does not seem to be enough for the task.

Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:47 pm
by Juan
Update: I have mapped the dark tunnel labyrinth even after the match runs out, by walking around in the dark (restoring games whenever I got killed by falling into a pit.) This can be done more easily now with an emulator, but it must have been a pain in the neck back then with a real Apple. Maybe there are more matches or a lamp somewhere which I am not aware of?

Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 11:12 pm
by Amby
Is there anything useful in the maze? I seem to remember not finding anything and then just getting into the castle another way...

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 4:07 am
by Angus
At this point it's only a scrap of paper. You don't even need to do the tunnels. By taking the key and whatever else it is you find in the lit part of the tunnels, you can get into the rest of the castle.
The bugger for me right now is that damn code at the end of the diary. I've put in about a dozen hours writing a computer program to try to crack it, but so far it hasn't worked.

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 6:09 am
by Juan
Angus wrote:At this point it's only a scrap of paper. You don't even need to do the tunnels. By taking the key and whatever else it is you find in the lit part of the tunnels, you can get into the rest of the castle.
How? I suppose it has to do with the buttons in the mailbox which apparently lower the drawbridge, but I have not been able to get what number to enter.

The bugger for me right now is that damn code at the end of the diary. I've put in about a dozen hours writing a computer program to try to crack it, but so far it hasn't worked.
At the end of the diary? When I try to read the diary all the text I see is coded.

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 4:03 pm
by Angus
Juan wrote:
Angus wrote:At this point it's only a scrap of paper. You don't even need to do the tunnels. By taking the key and whatever else it is you find in the lit part of the tunnels, you can get into the rest of the castle.
How? I suppose it has to do with the buttons in the mailbox which apparently lower the drawbridge, but I have not been able to get what number to enter.
Well, since you put it that way, I guess you could say that there are 2 ways to get into the castle, one is through the tunnels, and another is the drawbridge.
The bugger for me right now is that damn code at the end of the diary. I've put in about a dozen hours writing a computer program to try to crack it, but so far it hasn't worked.
At the end of the diary? When I try to read the diary all the text I see is coded.
Ya think? Actually, there are 2 codes used in the diary. It didn't take me too many minutes to break the code for the first part, but I've been days on the second one. What are you doing with the diary anyway, if you can't get into the castle?

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 5:30 pm
by Juan
Angus wrote:Well, since you put it that way, I guess you could say that there are 2 ways to get into the castle, one is through the tunnels, and another is the drawbridge.
Yes, but what number are you supposed to enter for the drawbridge to come down? (if that's the way to do it.) The number (256) in the mailbox descripton does not seem to work, and so far I haven't seen anything else that looks like a "clue" about this.
Ya think? Actually, there are 2 codes used in the diary. It didn't take me too many minutes to break the code for the first part, but I've been days on the second one. What are you doing with the diary anyway, if you can't get into the castle?
As you said yourself above, there's two ways to get into the castle. I got in through the tunnels.

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 6:33 pm
by dave
Do you want to put up the coded bit? I don't have much time to play the game through (Terri and Doreen are keeping me busy with buggy Spectrum adventures), but I'm always up for a challenge :-)

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 7:14 pm
by Juan
dave wrote:Do you want to put up the coded bit? I don't have much time to play the game through (Terri and Doreen are keeping me busy with buggy Spectrum adventures), but I'm always up for a challenge :-)
The difficult to decipher part is this:

Smvbkc lkgy lke smkh jmhe br smph rl tlukr wsek B wmq nmtbkc lii rse jmn aur rse qyqrej B ibcupeh lur wlpfeh wegg. Br qeejq jlpe kmrupmg rsmk rse kujaepq B gempkeh bk qtsllg.


"B" would appear to be a vowel ("I" very likely)

According to how I deciphered the previous part, the diary's author says he will change the code and make "mathematics" the key.

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 7:16 pm
by Angus
Juan wrote:
Angus wrote:Well, since you put it that way, I guess you could say that there are 2 ways to get into the castle, one is through the tunnels, and another is the drawbridge.
Yes, but what number are you supposed to enter for the drawbridge to come down? (if that's the way to do it.) The number (256) in the mailbox descripton does not seem to work, and so far I haven't seen anything else that looks like a "clue" about this.
Correct, 256 is key to the solution. Remember, a lot of these puzzles are solved mathematically. What's that? Shut up and give you the answer? Ok, I think the right number is 16. Whatever it is, you are supposed to break up the digits of 256 then perform a multiplication and an addition on them.

Dave: if no one else has, I'll give you the code when I get home.

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 7:28 pm
by Juan
Angus wrote:Correct, 256 is key to the solution. Remember, a lot of these puzzles are solved mathematically. What's that? Shut up and give you the answer? Ok, I think the right number is 16. Whatever it is, you are supposed to break up the digits of 256 then perform a multiplication and an addition on them.
OK, thanks, but sounds a bit arbitrary. I had tried changing the numbers fom their original sequence (652, 526, 625, etc.), and also adding all the numbers (13), but it did not work. Was there some "clue" about this multiplication + addition somewhere that I missed?

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 7:43 pm
by Angus
If there was, I missed it. 80s adventure games were always filled with illogical, impossible puzzles.