OPERATION ROMAN GAUL
Specsoft, 1984
====================
Solution by Exemptus - December 2022
Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
We play as Ajax, a gaul soldier that has to find and rescue a soothsayer
captured by the Romans. We begin the game aboard a Roman galley about to dock at
a small Gaulish port, and we will have to escape the ship, then locate and
release our friend, who is believed to be held by the local Prefect. We are told
there is a magic potion somewhere which can help us, but we don't know what
effects it may have.
Other adventures by Specsoft (see "Castle of Doom" or "Village of Death") have
proven to be shockingly bad, but, even more shockingly, this one is pretty much
OK. The scenario is more original and, importantly, the game itself seems to be
fairly well debugged, unlike the others. So no need for a fixed version this
time.
Mechanics are similar to other Specsoft games: directions are NESW but have to
be typed in full, but this time the cursor keys can be used as one-key direction
commands. PICK and DROP take and leave objects; out inventory is 6 objects and
each location can't have more than 2 objects there. HELP gives useful clues and
LOOK redescribes and provides inventory. Energy is limited and spent by using
turns, so the player can EAT food and replenish energy. SCORE and SAVE do the
obvious things, and we can also WAIT.
Puzzles are merely obstacles blocking connections and need a specific verb
(usually several work) and possibly an object; once cleared, the connection is
permanently open.
The game is almost deterministic, but there is an exception: at one point we
need to fight a lion. The outcome of the fight depends on the amount of energy
points of the lion (which is random within a certain band) and the energy points
of the player. It can also be influenced by having the right weapon, but it is
possible to lose the fight even in optimal conditions, if the lion turns out to
be particularly strong by chance. In this case there is nothing to do but
restart the game and hope the lion is weaker this time.
Walkthrough:
============
[We start in a damp hold of the galley ship. If we move around too much while we
are still at sea, we will be discovered and chained to an oar, but that needs to
happen in any case. Once at port, we are safe, and when we arrive depends
entirely of our energy level: once it's low enough the ship will automatically
dock. This can be baffling if not known in advance.]
EAST [The door is secure and will not open easily]
PICK CHAIN
OPEN DOOR WITH CHAIN [The door opens]
DROP CHAIN
SOUTH [There is a key and a bottle here]
PICK KEY
NORTH
NORTH [This is a guard post, so we are captured and chained to an oar]
[The reason we need to be captured is that we need the hacksaw and floorboard in
this location. Since we have the key, we can unchain ourselves easily.]
PICK HACKSAW
PICK FLOORBOARD
UNLOCK CHAINS WITH KEY [We move to a passage]
[Once here, we have all we need from the ship. If we go E while at sea, we will
be captured again and dispossessed of everything, which is fatal and makes the
game unwinnable, so we stay put. There is nothing to do until we dock at port.]
DROP KEY [We won't need it]
WAIT [Repeat this command until at port - it takes at most 9 turns]
EAST [We can move freely now]
NORTH [We cannot leave, there is no gangway; that's what the floorboard is for]
LAY FLOORBOARD [We disembark]
[We are now at the quay. We can go to a fair number of places in town, but there
is a sequence of objects that we'll need to get.]
EAST
EAST [Can't pass, there's an upturned barrow]
TURN BARROW [Very logical]
NORTH [We enter a butcher's]
PICK FOOD
PICK MEAT-CLEAVER
[The food's use is obvious, but we'll wait until later to eat it. This is
because we need to top up our energy right before dealing with the lion later
on. The meat-cleaver has a couple of uses.]
SOUTH
WEST
WEST
WEST [A Roman patrol is in the way]
KILL ROMANS WITH MEAT-CLEAVER [Works, ultra-violent and unrealistic as it is]
PICK GOLD-COIN [We will need it to enter the arena]
EAST
NORTH [Candy shop]
PICK MOULDY-CAKE
NORTH
EAST [An arena attendant demands money]
GIVE GOLD-COIN [We get in]
NORTH
EAST [A metal grill stops us]
[Careful now. It's clear that we can deal with the grill by using the hacksaw,
and that's why we brought it, but we will immediately be attacked by a lion. The
lion has a random number of energy points, but always higher than our maximum.
We can maximise out possibilities by eating food and having the meat-cleaver
with us (this is why we kept it), but since this is a chance fight, there's the
possibility that we will be killed. I'm afraid that, should that happen, there's
no recourse but to reload the game and start again. This may require a bit of
patience.]
EAT FOOD
SAW GRILL WITH HACKSAW
[The lion fight is on. Let's assume we win.]
DROP MEAT-CLEAVER
DROP HACKSAW
WEST
PICK DEAD-LION [Strange as it seems, we'll need the dead lion near the end]
SOUTH
WEST
SOUTH [Bakery]
PICK OLD-BREAD [Local produce is not really top quality, is it]
NORTH
NORTH
[We are now at the fish stall. Incidentally, we may SAVE the game now in old
school fashion, if we want. North of here is the Army camp, a dangerous place
to be seen. We will go W first.]
WEST
SOUTH [A man selling urns slows us down]
THROW OLD-BREAD [He falls to the ground senseless and we make our way]
DROP OLD-BREAD
PICK URN [A good urn is something you never can have enough of]
NORTH
WEST
[There is more food here, but I'll ignore it as this walkthrough is short enough
not to need it. We have the public baths to our W.]
WEST [A mad dog is blocking the entrance]
GIVE MOULDY-CAKE [The dog, undiscerning creature that it is, wolfs the cake]
NORTH [The changing room]
PICK GUARD'S-HELMET
[There are a number of other objects in the baths, but this is the one that
interests us, as it will prevent a guard in the army camp from recognising us
and throwing us in the nick as a result.]
NORTH
EAST [Behind the baths]
[S of here is a druid area, and the famous potion the instructions told us about
is there. We won't be needing it. The potion provides a way out of a puzzle, but
there is a second way out that I like better. More about this later.]
E [A slow cart delays us]
THROW URN [The horses start and we pass by; we are lost in a forest]
[Wow, one gets lost quickly. This is really a single location, and there are two
exits out of here. The first is found by asking for HELP, which offers the clue
"septentrio septentrio occidens", that is, NNW. Meaning we just have to type
these directions to get out. In fact, we can type them in any order; as long as
we go twice north and one west in three consecutive moves, we'll get out. The
other we'll see later. We can go to the Army camp now.]
NORTH
NORTH
WEST [Back to behind the baths]
WEST
SOUTH
SOUTH
EAST
EAST
EAST
NORTH [Entering camp]
NORTH
NORTH [Next to the centurion's tent]
[If we tried to enter the centurion's tent to the N without the guard's helmet,
we'd be recognised and sent to prison.]
NORTH [We go in without a problem]
PICK CENTURION'S-KEY
SOUTH
SOUTH
DROP GUARD'S-HELMET
[Now that we have the Centurion's key, interestingly, we can use a shortcut by
going to prison on purpose. So we'll walk right into it.]
WEST [We are in prison; there is a playing card here and no apparent exits]
[There are two ways out of prison. One is by drinking the potion, since it
transports us automagically to the first location, in the hold of the ship, from
where we can disembark again and continue going about our business. The other is
suggested by HELP, which offers the advice "the card is a spade", meaning that
we can DIG out of here. The card is actually not needed, it's just there to
provide an excuse for a cute bit of wordplay.]
DIG [We burrow a passage]
EAST [We end up in the Forest again]
[Remember I said there was a second exit from the forest? This is not evident,
but we have just to follow the opposite directions to the first one. If the
former exit requires us to go NNW, for this one we must go SSE.]
SOUTH
SOUTH
EAST [Paved road; this is the final area of the game]
SOUTH [A locked door halts us]
OPEN DOOR WITH CENTURION'S-KEY [To the centurion's private quarters]
PICK IDENTITY-CARD
NORTH
[We need to go back to the camp again. We'll have to go by the long route.]
WEST
NORTH
NORTH
WEST
WEST
SOUTH
SOUTH
EAST
EAST
EAST
NORTH
NORTH [Centre of camp]
WEST [A guard demands identification]
SHOW IDENTITY-CARD [And we are in the legionary quarters]
PICK BATTERING-RAM
[We'll take the prison shortcut again - the camp soldiers get none the wiser.]
EAST
EAST
DIG
EAST
SOUTH
SOUTH
EAST
EAST
EAST
EAST [Law court]
EAST [An old oak door stops us]
BREAK DOOR WITH BATTERING-RAM [We smash it]
PICK RELEASE-LETTER [This is the order to release the prisoner]
WEST
WEST
NORTH [A ravenous prefect bars the way]
[OK, this is just parody, but we don't care a lot at this point]
GIVE DEAD-LION [The Prefect goes to eat the lion and we go in]
EAST [There's a guard keeping an eye on the prisoner]
SHOW RELEASE-LETTER
[And there it goes, 100% completion. End of game.]
