Walkthrough for Ring Quest by Origin Systems
Copyright Jeffrey Hoeksma,
[email protected]
Written on June 11, 2002
Ring Quest is a text-based graphical adventure game originally released by
Penguin software for the Apple II computer system in 1983. Origin Systems then
later released the game when Dallas Snell began working for Origin.
The goal of your adventure is to destroy the ring of chaos possessed by the
sorceress Lisa.
You possess the ring of order, which you obtained during the choose-your-own
adventure style booklet included with the game. Along the way you are helped by
the noble warrior Gorn, who will be your window into the world of Ring Quest.
~~Playing the game~~
Since Ring Quest was written before during the dinosaur age of computing, don't
expect any miracles from this game. No mouse support, no music support, a very
basic syntax, and most gamers had not yet heard of a "hard-drive". Still this
game is an excellent example of early graphic adventures.
The view screen is normally divided into two parts, the graphical section
taking up the top 4/5 of the screen, and the command section taking up the
bottom 1/5. By pressing "enter" at any command prompt, the game is converted
to full text mode, which displays a full page of text and which items are
available and which directions may be travelled.
Some other basic commands are:
"save" - save your game
"restore" - restore your game
"inventory" - see what you're carrying
"quit" - quit the game
~~Troubleshooting~~
-When I played this game via emulator, there was a crash that occurred after
finishing each arcade sequence. The game view screen would go black, after
loading disk 2 and if I tried to perform an action the game would crash. As a
work around to this, save your game immediately after each arcade sequence
while the view-screen is black, then quit the game entirely. Then restart the
game and restore your save. The picture should be back and everything should
work fine.
-Since all computer games created during the past 12 years required a
hard-drive to play, many gamers may not be familiar with disk swapping when
creating a save game.
When saving a game, you will be prompted to what name you want to save as,
remember this. As well, keep it simple to save you frustration. Then you will
be asked to insert your storage disk, insert a blank disk, or if using an
emulator the master disk. This will write to the disk. Then you switch back
to the play disk when prompted. For restoring a game repeat the same process
~~Basic hints~~
-Make sure you have lots of water. Remember to refill your water skin whenever
you pass a fresh water source in the game. If the enchantress drains your
water, make sure to head immediately to the nearest water source.
-The enchantress can sure be annoying, she'll pop up at random intervals during
the game and cast a spell on you. During the game there is nothing that can be
done to stop these annoying attacks. The four spells she casts are teleport,
drain water, confuse, and ignore. Teleport will transport you to randomly
about the map. Confuse makes your character to become confused and possibly
travel the wrong direction. Ignore will cause Gorn to be unable to understand
you, forcing you to spam a few lines. Drain water will send you running to the
nearest water source.
-Make sure to save cash whereever possible, be thrifty, you need to spend every
last piece wisely. If you lose gold and don't get anything or anywhere in
return, restore your game. You can only afford to use the troll bridge once.
-The old man says something very important to you, write it down properly.
-Trying to kill anything only yields interesting death messages.
-Some things take time, go "Wait" somewhere else.
-In order to place an item anywhere, use the "drop" command. The game can have
a very limited syntax. For instance to place a sword on a table type, "drop
sword beside table".
-Create a map of the land you will be exploring. It will be your best friend
and save you a lot of frustration.
~~Arcade Sequences~~
These may easily be the most annoying part of the game. They're extremely
tedious and many of the sequences boil down to just plain luck. Unfortunately
they cannot be bypassed and if you don't know what you're doing you may be
forced to repeat them.
-During the rock climbing game, the goal is to reach the cavern in the
top-right corner of the cliff. To do this first climb up past the snake in the
top left. Then immediately head right toward the purple rockslide in the top
centre of the screen. You should fall down the rockslide past the snake. The
move right while below the rockslide until you clear it. Then climb below the
snake in top right corner. Then move yourself up into the cliff.
Unfortunately while you're climbing near the top of the screen, the game can
decide to randomly dump 4 boulders directly on top of you. No amount of skill
can maneuver you around this. Just be persistent and you'll eventually reach
it.
use J or left arrow to move left
use K, L, or right arrow to move right
use I, A, or up arrow to move up
use M, Z, or down arrow to move down
use space to stop
-During the flying game, you goal is to land on the tiny platform in the middle
of the lake of fire while avoiding arrows shooting from the walls and fireballs
from the lake. This game can often boil down to solely luck as well. Often
just as you get low, there is very little time to avoid fireballs. As you
prepare to land, you simply have to hope none shoot underneath you.
It doesn't matter the speed you hit the landing pad. Crash right into it if
you want. Primarily concentrate upon dodging stuff, move slowly towards your
goal.
Press spacebar to flap
press J or left arrow to move left
press K, L, or right arrow to move right
~~Step-by-step walkthrough~~
All directions are based upon the starting point at the 8 way crossroad
-Find the spring hidden in the forest
-"look in water"
-"get dagger"
-Find the old man in his tent. The tent is located in the northeast section of
the world.
-"give man 100 gold" he'll tell you about what lies ahead in your adventure,
and will give you an important chant.
-Go to the wrecked boat located at the eastern side of the map and get hugged
by the ogress, apparently Gorn has already met her. You now smell like ogress.
-Go to the island in the southeast section of the map and find the werewolf.
-"kill werewolf"
-Go west to timber wolf
-"Bafenris"
-"drop ring beside gem"
-Go to troll bridge in the southern section of the map.
-Drop everything but 100 gold before crossing
-Travel to the ogre, he'll smell you and begin to follow you.
-Travel back across bridge and retrieve all items.
-Travel back to the boat in the east end of the map, both the ogre and ogress
will leave.
-Enter the boat.
-"get rope"
-"open chest"
-"get ruby"
-Travel to the cave down in the valley. This is located in the west end of the
map. Here are the remains of the ranger you met in the pre-story.
-"get all"
-Travel to the boulder hidden in the woods. It looks like some sort of an
animal has been around this area quite often. Hmmm...
-"set trap beside boulder"
-Go somewhere else and "Wait 10" twice.
-Return to the boulder
-"get boar"
-Travel to the manticora in the northwest area of the map.
-"give boar to manticora" Now that it isn't as hungry, you can cross the
bridge.
-Travel west to the sandroc, if he's home leave the area and wait for a while.
Try returning later, eventually he won't be home.
-Enter the sandroc's nest.
-"get feathers"
-Find the areas past the manticora where the cliff is climbable.
-"climb"
-Beat cheesy arcade sequence.
-"drop gem beside staff"
-Enter the cave
-"baarachna"
-"drop ring beside gem"
-exit the cave and climb down
-Reach the ferry in the southwest section of the map.
-"tie rope to arrow"
-"shoot arrow at post"
-Travel across the river and enter the falcon hut. Leave the quicksand alone.
-"give 50 gold to man"
-Travel to the fire chasm in the northern section of the map.
-"fly"
-Navigate obligatory arcade sequence.
-"bapyrosnaca" to banish the fire snake.
-"drop ring beside gem"
-That's all three gems de-activated now.
-Climb the mountain northeast of the forest. Before de-activating the gem you
tower was unreachable.
-Enter through the doors into darkness
-Go either north, east, south, or west. They all have the same result, you
plummet into the obligatory text-adventure maze. Watch your step, falling for
eternity can get boring.
-In the maze travel: N. N. E. N. N. E. E. E. S. S. E. E. N. W. N. N. E. E. N.
E. E. N. N. W. W. W. W. W. S. S. E. E. E. N.
-Walk up to the enchantress and watch the end game.
