As indicated in my previous post Text Adventures for the Commodore 64, I plan to open the door to this genre of games to today's gamer -- you.  If you're lost with all of this talk of "text gaming", please refer back to my prior posting, as it explains the basics of Text Adventuring.

The first Text Adventure I want to introduce is very typical of the genre, but better designed than most, so intuitive commands won't leave you with frustrating "I don't understand" messages.  Well, at least not as often as some of the more amateurish games out there.  As a bit of trivia, nearly 1000 games for the C64 pop up on a GB64 'Adventure - Text Only' Search.

As with so many Text Adventures, Castle of Spirits, by Anthony Maro and Loadstar/Sofdisk Publishing, is set in a Western Fantasy / Horror environment.  It's a spooky castle where death stalks you and no escape is obvious.   There also seems to be an element of time, or random death waiting for you if you tarry for too long in one place.  I won't spoil the surprise and will let you figure it out.

Let's be straight here - it makes the game a lot more fun (and tolerable) for a modern gamer if you use "Save State" in your emulator, such as VICE.  Death in some text adventures can be swift, harsh and unexpected, and this game is of that type.  Use "Save State" frequently, and you'll be happy to keep the progress you've made in the game even if you die.  Today's gamers do not have the patience for doing things over again, and Save State comes to the rescue, thanks to C64 emulators available now.

It also helps to have a pad of paper, touchpad or a window open that you can scrawl a map on for a game like this, especially if you find yourself unable to keep track of how the Castle is laid out in your head.  Draw little boxes with arrows between them, and keep a North, South, East, West bearing.  Draw little pictures for the landmarks if it helps.

Note that, at least in this game, to "EXAMINE" an object in a room, you may need to "GET" the item first.  After you pick up the object, you can examine it more closely.  As the game goes on and you have many items, use the command "INVENTORY" to check what exactly you have.

This game is representative of the "quick and fun" style of Text Adventuring.  Room descriptions are not overly long, and there's not much in the way of character interaction.  It's not the best made text game ever, but it doesn't need to be.  It's just you, some locations, some important objects, and how you use them to complete the game.  Oh, and the evil baddies hunting you down.

Experienced Text Adventurers might wonder why I didn't use this opportunity to introduce a well-known game like Scott Adams' Adventureland.  Well, like other games here at the C64 Walkabout, I try to make sure that we cover more than just the popular games that were ported to multiple systems and reviewed multiple times on other C64 sites, and try to revive interest in games that have been lost to obscurity over the years. 

Oh, and Castle of Spirits is just plain good fun, and reminds me of many of the no-name, lost to the mists of time type of Text Adventures I enjoyed in the past.

It's also the perfect way to get your feet wet in Text Adventuring (next time we'll tackle a deeper game with a rich story), so download it now and give it a try!

You can find the file for download HERE (As always, click the "Latif" link) 

Once loaded, hit space to continue.  The "Q" for Loadstar thing is just going to kick you out of the game.