Holy Horrors

Games for Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, Amiga, Apple ][ and the rest of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. Pleas for help, puzzles, bug reports etc.

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Gunness
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Holy Horrors

#1 Post by Gunness »

Along with Andrew Teague, I've been stuck in this BBC game forever. Has anyone played it? Specifically I'd like to know what to do in the passage under the moat.
Geoff
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#2 Post by Geoff »

My, this is a weird one!

The game seems to have one of the most limited parsers ever released and who's this bloke chewing chunks out of my neck?

I can't even enter the church!

All the best,

Geoff
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Gunness
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#3 Post by Gunness »

Geoff wrote:My, this is a weird one!

The game seems to have one of the most limited parsers ever released and who's this bloke chewing chunks out of my neck?

I can't even enter the church!
Hehe, yeah, the parser isn't exactly the best, but the game has some neat puzzles inside the castle, IMO. I don't think the church is important until the very end, since the whole point of the game is to retrieve a bell for the church.

I'm also stuck inside the castle but have made quite a lot of progress there. Let me know if you have any specific problems :)
Geoff
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#4 Post by Geoff »

Thanks, Jacob,

But any help to get into the castle in the first place would be much appreciated.

I presume that I have to buy an axe to chop down the tree and avoid the crocodile, but money I have none. All attempts to investigate the hollow tree or call for 'Rover' prove fruitless.

All the best,

Geoff
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Gunness
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#5 Post by Gunness »

If you LOOK IN TREE, you will find some money. This allows you to buy the axe. Once you reach the outside of the castle, you will come across Rover. Since Rover is a dog, you'll also need to buy something to allow you to lead him to his owner :)
Once you get inside the castle, the puzzles should be a bit easier!
Geoff
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#6 Post by Geoff »

What version are you playing, Jacob? 'Look in tree' produces no response, though ' get gold' works.
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#7 Post by Gunness »

Geoff has brought it to my attention that there are problems with the version of the game found on Stairway to Hell. If anyone else wants to join in, let me know and I'll send you the necessary files
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ateague
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Holy Horrors - Thanks Jacob

#8 Post by ateague »

Hi Everyone,

Here are some tips to get you into the castle/house:

Go North,North, West, South, West to Clearing in forest with Hollow Tree
Take Gold (from Tree)
Go South, South, Takes you back to the Start
Go West - Market Stall
Buy Axe - Take Axe
Buy Chain - Take Chain
East Takes you back to the Start
Go South - Takes you to Grave Yard (man shouting 'Rover'/ Wooden box)
Go South - Takes you to small church (no other directions - North, North takes you back to the start)

At this point you have been through all the compass points apart from East.

Go East - Take Hacksaw
Go East - Cut down tree with axe
Go East, East - Enter Garden
Go East - House Entrance - Put Lead/Chain on Dog - The dog is now following you.

At this point the logical thing would be to take the dog back to the guy that is shouting 'Rover'

Go West, West, West, West - Back to the Start

Go South - Church yard with rover man (I feel that there should be some type of reward favour here but I've tried all the syntax and nothing seems to work) - I beleive that you need to wooden box for reasons that will become clearer later.

Give Dog to Man
Go North, East, East, East, East and East again to enter the house.

When you get to the river with the tree type down (d) , this will put you into the moat with the crocodile.

If you press down again you find yourself in a tunnel (note: the picture doesn’t draw correctly on the beebem version) .

Type East again and you continue down the tunnel (the version now behaves itself) and you find a skull.

East again and there you will find a sleepy troll (what would we do without those guys) next to which is a magic sword.

Try taking the sword and the troll kills you.

Type south and you find yourself in a room containing a jewel but with a hole in the ceiling. I have never been able to climb into this hole.

Back to the troll (North) and drop the jewel , this allows you to take the sword as the troll is now in love with the jewel.

Now here is the rub, try leaving the tunnel through the moat (the way you came in) and the croc gets you.

This is one of the reasons I didn’t tell you about this particular diversion before:

I agree the parser is awful on this game but the premise is intriguing. I believe I discovered the gold in the tree (don’t ask how) on my first go back in 1984…..That’s about as much luck as I’ve had.

Other unknowns :

Red button on the wall ?
How do you get out of the moat tunnel.?
Panel behind medusa ?
Wooden box in graveyard ?
Why is the butler shackled ?

I have very recently (this week) managed to contact Clive Webster who wrote this game. He runs a software company in the South of England. Hopefully Clive will get back to me sometime this week.

Hope this makes sense and gets you to the same point that I have been at for 20 years !!.

Andy Teague
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ateague
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The Moat

#9 Post by ateague »

Just a bit of an afterthought - I do actually believe that the moat tunnel is more of a way out than a way in. The only problem being the Crocodile in the moat. This would indicate that you need to kill the croc the moat or before you enter to the other entrance to the tunnel into the sword room - where ever that is !
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ateague
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Holy Horrors - Secret Panel

#10 Post by ateague »

'open sesame' - from the great man himself. You should find a secret room with a picture.
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Re: Holy Horrors - Secret Panel

#11 Post by Gunness »

ateague wrote:'open sesame' - from the great man himself.
This is what is known in the gaming community as a Really Lame Puzzle! :shock:
There are absolutely no indications that any such command should work.
Did the great man have any other input?
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ateague
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Progress

#12 Post by ateague »

Afriad Clive didn't have any extra info as even after 20 years he was keeping his cards close to his chest. Although, it could be worth being a little kinder to his game as he knows about this site . LOL

RLP - It's hardly suprising we've been stuck !

My feeling is that the clock in the other room reading 4-55 might have some bearing on the safe combination. My copy of the game is very buggy though and So if anyone has a beebem save state that works it would be appreciated.
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Re: Progress

#13 Post by Gunness »

ateague wrote:Afriad Clive didn't have any extra info as even after 20 years he was keeping his cards close to his chest. Although, it could be worth being a little kinder to his game as he knows about this site . LOL
Haha, good point. Clive, if you read this: Holy Horrors is a fine game with some nice puzzles. However, the "open sesame" one borders on the unforgivable! :)

Andy, I'll give it a try during the weekend.

UPDATE: To aid anyone interested in this game, I've added the map I've made of the game so far:
http://solutionarchive.com/Maps/Holy_Horrors_map.gif
Guido
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#14 Post by Guido »

Hi, can anyone tell me where to get this game ? And some advice for another BBC emulator but BeebEm (Beebem suddenly crashes on my system) I would like to try this one too :)
Amby
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#15 Post by Amby »

Geoff has brought it to my attention that there are problems with the version of the game found on Stairway to Hell. If anyone else wants to join in, let me know and I'll send you the necessary files
I think I'm in need of these files since I can't "look in tree" etc. Using the information here I've made it as far as freeing the butler (but then I ran out of light) and during another try, as far as the room with the painting (although nothing I type reveals a safe)...
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