CASTLE
L'Ensouleiado Software, 1984
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Solution by Exemptus - December 2022
Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
This is an educational game with a curious twist: the idea is to explore a
medieval castle and find three pieces of a golden goblet, but in order to move
in most rooms, the player has to answer a vocabulary question about castles.
These questions use very specialist words, and the idea is to test the knowledge
of castle vocabulary. This isn't as far out as it sounds, because the original
instructions included a list of about 60 words and their meanings, so it could
be used as a cheat sheet. The same question also corresponds to the same room,
and once we have successfully answered it, we will not be asked again in that
location.
In other respects, this is a crude BASIC adventure. There are some objects, such
as a key (used to escape from prison, where we will be put in if we are found
out by the castle guards), a uniform, which serves as a disguise, and a torch,
which of course provides light in dark locations. The pieces of the goblet are
always in the same places, but we need to reach them. It will be necessary to
locate the three objects above before moving far. Once we have found the objects
we can explore the rest of the castle unimpeded, find the goblet pieces, then
get out.
The game is also fatally bugged: it cannot be completed as intended, and what is
worse, if we visit enough rooms, we'll get an "Out of memory" error. This is
perplexing, as the game tells us one of the goals is to visit all the rooms, but
this simply cannot be done. There are some atrocious typos as well, which for an
educational game is particularly jarring. I have fixed the bugs above, which
required a major overhaul of the code, and many typos as well, so at least now
the game can be finished.
There is just enough vocabulary to get the job done. Directions can be
abbreviated and we can TAKE objects, but not drop them (no need to). There is no
way to display the inventory, which is odd, but not too bad as there are very
few objects. The geography of the game is realistic, although a couple of
locations display some directions that don't work. I haven't fixed these as they
can be worked around.
In the intro, the game says there are 84 locations in total. Funnily enough,
this is untrue: there are actually 93. And there is no need to visit them all by
a large shot: once we escape the castle with the three goblet pieces, the game
is over. The only score kept is the number of rooms visited, which is displayed
on the screen in red.
The list of questions and answers follows. There are questions with more than
one right answer, so these are only an example. Also, I haven't distinguished
between questions such as "what is this room?" that require the description of
the room in question. You should be able to guess where to use which one. After
all, this section is just for general hints. Remember as well that some
questions are asked more than once (in different rooms), so don't be afraid to
re-use an answer.
1. What is the name for the small protective courtyard that projects in front
of the gate? BARBICAN
2. Did D-shaped towers come before square ones? NO
3. What is the wood and iron grille that can be lowered in front of the door?
PORTCULLIS
4. Did square towers come before round ones? YES
5. What is this sort of dungeon called? OUBLIETTE
6. What is this room? CHAPEL
7. What is this room? GUARDROOM
8. What are these holes? MEURTRIERES
9. What is this room? ARMOURY
10. What name is usually given to the platform? DAIS
11. What name is usually given to a castle courtyard? BAILEY
12. What is this room? MEWS
13. What is this man? MINSTREL
14. What are the targets called? BUTTS
15. What is the target called? QUINTAIN
16. What is this sort of gate usually called? POSTERN
17. What is the norman-french name for a juggler? JONGLEUR
18. Can you name one type of these machines? TREBUCHET
19. What is a ladies' riding horse called? PALFREY
20. What is this room? BUTTERY
21. What is iron frame the ox was roasted on? SPIT
22. What is this room? BREWERY
23. What is this room? WELL HOUSE
24. What is this room? LAUNDRY
25. What is the norman-french name for a castle mound? MOTTE
26. What is the name for a small gate like this? POSTERN
27. What is this sort of cell? OUBLIETTE
28. What is the name for the wooden gallery that can be built out over the
battlements? HOURD
29. What is the centre post in spiral staircase called? NEWEL
30. Name the projecting stone chutes that let you drop things down the face of
the wall. MACHICOLATIONS
31. Which way does a spiral stair usually turn going up? CLOCKWISE
32. To get royal permission to build a castle, a baron had to ask for a 'licence
to .....'? CRENELLATE
33. What room is this? CHAMBER
34. Who is this official? CONSTABLE
35. What is the alternative word for arrow slits? LOOPS
36. What is this room? KITCHEN
37. What is a castle lavatory more usually called? JAKES
38. What name is given to carved water spouts? GARGOYLES
39. What do you call an upper chamber like this? BOWER
40. What word is used for a personal chapel or small room used for private
prayer? ORATORY
41. What is the slope at the bottom of the wall called? SPLAY
The walkthrough follows. It follows a short path to completion and does not go
through all rooms, as expected. If you want to have a go at it, stop reading
now. Remember that you need to play the bugfixed version for this solution (or
any, for that matter) to work.
Walkthrough:
------------
[We begin at the entrance.]
BARBICAN [Answer]
N
PORTCULLIS [Answer]
N
MEURTRIERES [Answer]
N
BAILEY [Answer]
[We are now at the S end of the main courtyard, which has 9 locations arranged
as a square. There are some NPCs here at the SE, SW, W and NW locations who
react at random every time we pass through. Each has a 4% chance of killing us
on the spot. Although low, we will minimise this risk. Obviously, if you are
unlucky enough to get killed this way, just restart.]
W
W
W
DAIS [Answer]
[We notice someone has dropped a key here. We will need it in case we end up in
prison. Not that we plan to, but it's no bother to have it.]
TAKE KEY
N
MINSTREL [Answer]
TAKE TORCH [The torch will allow us to go through dark rooms]
N
JONGLEUR [Answer]
NE
SPIT [Answer]
E
BREWERY [Answer]
E
WELL HOUSE [Answer]
E
LAUNDRY [Answer]
TAKE UNIFORM
[The uniform is necessary to get past some places without being noticed and
arrested. Next we need to enter the keep in the back of the castle, where the
three pieces of the goblet are, but for that we'll need a password. This is
disclosed by the Constable, so we'll head there first. It is worth remembering
that the safest path through the main courtyard is the three locations on the
central file.]
S
TREBUCHET [Answer]
SW
QUINTAIN [Answer]
SW
S
GUARDROOM [Answer]
U
E
CONSTABLE [Answer]
[After we pass this question, we hear the Constable announcing the password for
today. This is one of four random words, so do note it down for later. Let us
say that the password is WARHORSE for illustration.]
W
D
N
NE
N
N
N
MOTTE [Answer]
N
N [The porter asks us for the password]
WARHORSE [Or whichever one the Constable said before]
U
N
N
N [Lavatory]
JAKES [Answer; the base of the goblet is here]
TAKE BASE
S
U
BOWER [Answer]
E
ORATORY [Answer; the bowl of the goblet is here]
TAKE BOWL
D
CHAPEL [Answer]
SW
S
D
DRAGON [The porter's password again]
S
W
NW
U
LOOPS [Answer]
U
GARGOYLES [Answer; the lid is here]
TAKE LID
[At this point, the game should congratulate us for finding the three pieces of
the goblet. We only have to get out of the castle. If we try going back to the
entrance, we'll see that the portcullis is raised and we cannot get out that
way, so we'll need an alternative exit. That is exactly what posterns are for.]
D
D
SE
W
POSTERN [Answer]
W [We tumble down the side of the castle]
[End of game.]
