One, and most importantly, this is a rotten hard and randomly unfair game. It's
the sequel to Philosopher's Quest, the nastiest of the Topologika games, and it
shows it. The other Topologika games want you dead; Castle of Riddles wants you
dead _now_, and if at all possible, for you to suffer in the process. You can
die at the game's slightest whim. At least making a typo doesn't cost a move,
unlike in the original - but beware, going in a non-existent direction, for
example, does. And there are many places where a single lost move kills you
/instanter/. Save often, and keep _all_ your save files until you've finished
the game.
Two, the parser is limited, but reasonable. I have not found any place where
using prepositions ("hit tree with axe") is necessary or even possible. By
contrast, the games are good at giving you less to type. If there is only one
object, simply "get" will take it; if there are several, it will assume the
first one listed. Ditto for "drop", which will drop the first object in your
inventory; and ditto for several other verbs. "Get all", however, is
unfortunately not provided. As far as I can tell, words are significant to the
usual first four letters.
Third, I'm not taking you past all the sights and clues. Also, this game
(unfashionably, these days) expects a lot of experimentation and learning-by-
dying to solve them, none of which can easily be done in a walkthrough. Because
of this, before you resort to reading this walkthrough you might want to try
the official hints. Floating about the 'net is a text file with the original
hint booklet for this game.
Finally, this walkthrough (including the above notes) is for the Topologika
BBC game which is available at the IF Archive. As this is a special game for
the BBC, which includes a few puzzles cut from the BBC version of Philosopher's
Quest, I don't think there are any versions for other systems, but I could be
wrong.
So, let's find that ring.
You start in front of a castle, surrounded by forest. We'll explore outside
first. Go south and west - any other direction will just make you wander
aimlessly in the forest - and take the coin. Go east, climb a tree and go back
down. Now go ne, nw and south, get the usual lamp, north, sw, se, and north
into the castle.
Turn on your lamp (which in this game, as usual in Phoenix-derived games, is
done using only the command "on"), then go north. A maze! This game is riddled
with them. And this is an unusual one: you don't have enough objects to map it
the usual way, and no, there aren't any more to get, yet. In fact, you can't
even use your lamp to object-map it, because of course moving in the dark is
immediatly deadly. (By the way, moving _from_ dark _to_ light, or vice versa,
is safe. We'll use that soon to save lamp power.)
There's obviously a trick to this maze, but what? Well, turn off your lamp
("off"), and you'll see an arrow appear. Note where it points - and remember
that direction. Turn your lamp back on, then go in that direction. Repeat this
procedure (off, remember direction, on, move) until you reach the anteroom.
Turn your lamp off and go north.
We now have three obvious areas to explore (and one to store our treasure in).
We start by going west. Lamp on, then go ne. Take the rod, then obey the sign:
drop the coin. Go north, and wait for the bear to be at the south end of the
corridor - which he may well already be.
When he is, go north, ne, nw, and north (and don't dawdle on the way or you get
bear-hugged - specifically, don't take the necklace yet), the ne, take the can
and ignore the bed (or not, if you're already suicidal), sw and nw, and take
the contraption (which turns out to be a hangglider).
You are faced with a riddle. In fact, throughout the game you will encounter
six of them. It's called "Castle of Riddles", after all... Some of them are
harder than others, and several could have multiple answers, but the accepted
answer to each is a single word. These are: what gets wetter as it dries is a
"towel"; Nancy Etticoat is a "candle"; everyone overlooks his "nose"; a rich
man and a fat man have "pounds"; what lives in winter is an "icicle"; and the
beginning of eternity is "e".
Give this answer (just the one word, as your entire command). Then make a note
somewhere of this answer, because you'll need it again, and you'll need to
remember the order in which you gave them. I don't know if that order is
randomised; the above is the order in which they appeared in my game, but yours
might or might not be different, so make that note anyway.
Go north, take the book and tiara, then go south twice. You'll have noted the
title of the book... throw the book at the bear. Now go south and se, take the
necklace, and go back nw, north, nw and north. Solve this riddle as well, and
remember it.
Go north. Sit. Sit again, and another time. Go down. Lamp off, get the
figurine, then dig. Hey, we're back! Go north, on, north again, then through
the maze. This _should_ need the same directions as you took before, so if you
took notes then, try them. If I'm wrong, and it is randomised (but it didn't
seem to be in my game), you can always use the same off-on-move procedure as
before. Turn your lamp off, go north, and answer "no" to the question - clearly
you are nowhere near ready yet. Drop the tiara, necklace, and figurine.
Now the north area. But first open the can, then go north, on, north into an
area where you shouldn't waste a single move, and west four times. Throw the
can. Now this part is safe. Go south three times, take the box (and don't worry
about that ticking), and west thrice.
Rub the mirror and go north. Take the vase and go west. Hey! There's that coin.
Turn your lamp off to save power - it's rather tightly measured (well, what
else did you expect from a game like this). Take the coin, then keep taking the
bucket until you succeed.
Turn your lamp on, then go east and ne. Ah, another riddle! Solve it and
remember it. Go north, get the portrait, solve and remember the next riddle,
and go north, up twice - again no dawdling in this bit - east, and jump. Turn
off your lamp.
We're in the forest, but we know how to deal with that: climb a tree and go
down. Hey, we're not south of the castle this time! Go north into the boat -
just in time! Drop the hangglider and take the cushion. Wait until the water
starts filling your boat, then bail boat.
Ah, here we are! Drop the cushion here - we'll see why later. Then go north,
on, north, through the maze again, off, north, "no". Drop the coin, vase,
portrait and bucket.
And finally... go east. Turn on your lamp, and go east. This is a nasty maze,
which you can't map at all using normal means. There is, in fact, a way to do
so, but it involves an object you've already lost, a word written on both a
wall and a floor, and (now frowned upon, but back then par for the course)
saving and re-loading. No, I'm not going to tell you what this method is. If
you want to know such things, don't read walkthroughs!
In any case, go east again, then north. Take the sculpture, go down, and take
the case - and _do_ worry about that ticking! Go down twice more, ne, and west.
Enter "Spectrum" - a very superior computer to the BBC, of course, and no, I'm
not telling you how to find out about _that_ command, either!
Now for another tightly-timed bit: go north, nw, ne - don't get the brooch -
se, ne, nw, and sw; drop the case and the box (and leave the brooch again), go
nw, ne, ne, off. While your lamp is off, you may as well solve (and note) that
riddle. Then wait for something to go bang.
Turn your lamp back on, then go south, sw, sw, take the stole, ne, se, _now_
take the brooch and the clock, and go nw, ne, ne and north. Take the diamond,
solve and remember your last riddle, then go north and up, off, and east. No
exits here... except to jump!
Do so to land on that cushion we'd so presciently left here. It may be ruined
now, but take it with you anyway. Then go north, on, north, through the maze
one final time, off, north, "no" (but we're close!), and drop the cushion.
We have no more puzzle areas to explore - it's time to cash in our treasures
for points! Get your coin, go nw, enter the command "gloop" (which you saw
written along a wall earlier, and which wouldn't have worked before you did),
turn your lamp on to see that safe, go west, off (still saving lamp power, you
see).
Drop the coin, sculpture, stole, clock, brooch and diamond. On, east, off, se,
still "no". Take the portrait, vase, figurine, necklace, tiara and cushion; the
only thing left should be the bucket - and the ring, of course. Go nw, on, w,
off. Drop the portrait, vase, figurine, necklace and tiara, but keep the
cushion.
Turn your lamp on, east, then turn it back off and drop it. Go north for a
useful effect, and back south. Retrieve your lamp and turn it on, go west, and
drop cushion - your final treasure! By the way, by now your lamp should be
getting dim, but we're so close to the end that it doesn't matter any more. If
you've been wasting too many moves, though... be careful!
Go east and se, and finally answer "yes"! And for your final puzzle, answer
with the first letters of the answers you gave to the riddles - I hope you did
as I told you and wrote them down...
So there you are. No ring of power, but 250 points worth of treasure. And you
deserve every single point, for getting through this nasty piece of work.
I don't know which is worse, this one or its predecessor Philosopher's Quest,
but in any case I much preferred Killworth's Doom trilogy.
