I’ve been working my way through a list of old text adventures, classics and less well known alike. (I just started playing Gateway.) Castle Ralf fits the bill exactly. And at least when I get stuck I’ll know this page is here.
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Hello Rovarsson
I think you’ll enjoy it. It is one of those obscure games that deserves far more coverage but like so much old puzzle based IF from back in the day has rather fallen out of favour with the Twine trendies. I can help you if needs be up to a point but I am still stuck on the multi part gold key retrieval puzzle; surely one of the cleverest and most drawn out puzzles in IF history.
Canalboy
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You might also want to check out the four original games by Jim MacBrayne from 1989 / 1990 viz. The Holy Grail, The Golden Fleece, Frustration and The Mission. Decidedly old school, decidedly difficult and decidedly large. They have been ported to Windows by the author this year.
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Nice! Thanks.
However… The PC downloads aren’t working for me. Computer keeps asking which app I want to use to open the file. Decidedly-non-techie that I am, I have no idea. I just thought: “Windows computer here, PC-downloads there. This should work.” But I see all four games exist for TADS too.
I’ll be sure to give you some feedback when I play them. (Translation: By pointing me to these games, you have automatically accepted the resposibility of being my personal hint-machine.) This could be a while though. I’m deep in outer space with Gateway now, and next will be Bullhockey or Delusions. Or maybe the more recent Alias the Magpie.
Try right clicking the .rar file in question when downloaded, choose 7-Zip then Extract To and either choose an existing folder or create a new one. When extracted you just need to double the click the .exe file contained therein. Hope this helps.
I am always around for hints, that is if I have solved the relevant puzzle of course!
Bullhockey! and its sequel I can thoroughly recommend. Bill Lindsay is also available via email and I have found him very helpful in the past.
Canalboy
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While I’m looking through my folder of oldschool puzzlefests: Birmingham IV drew my attention. A 1988 game recentlyt ported to Inform. You seem to be very at home with these sorts of games, so… any thoughts? (Must-Play-Now! or Nice-and-Puzzly-but-no-Rush… ?)
Also, have you played The Abbey of Montglane? The oldest adventure I’ve finished so far. I wrote a review in the Reviews and Essays-section of this site. Very very good.
Edit: I see you already read it. Shame on me for self-promotion…
Oh, apparently I do not have 7-zip. Just download and install it?
Any unzipping package will do but 7-Zip is pretty straightforward and free I think.
I shall take your advice and give that game a try in the near future.
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Yes I can thorougly recommend Birmingham IV. I did write a review of it which you can see on IFDB. I never worked out what the watery eyes were about but it is an extremely good old school game which presents a dilemma at the end!
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Great review! You’ve presented me with a difficult choice to make in the near future: stick with the plan (Bullhockey, then Delusions, then …) or just jump straight into Birmingham after I finish Gateway.
Oh woe, the troubles of a n IF-player with a near infinite database to choose from!
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Did you ever venture into Castle Ralf Roversson?
I was just thinking about this game! I played it with a housemate in the early 90’s for about 6 months off and on, and then we all moved and it dropped off the map. I think I read on IFDB that no one had ever solved it???
Has anyone here solved it? I think I’ll give it another go if I can figure out how to work DosBox.
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I attained 160 out if 300 Amanda but have yet to work out how to retrieve the gold key from the conveyor belt.
This one is tough with a capital tough. And don’t forget to COGITATE in the hall for one of the funniest parser responses in text adventure history.
DosBox should work straight off the bat. Run it then mount c: c:\directory name (name being wherever you extracted the Castle Ralf files) then change to c: and type cd directory name then dir/p to see the list of files in the Castle Ralf directory. I can’t remember off the top of my head if the executable file is called castle.com or ralf.com or castle.exe;. simply type the name of the executable press return and it should run.
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Hey @Canalboy ,
It’s been in my really-big-and-time-engaging-folder for a big long while. After finishing Not Just An Ordinary Ballerina I’m taking a small break from humongous games. I’m playtesting a new game now. After that, my next will be Hollywood Hijinx.
After Not Just An Ordinary Ballerina I’m not surprised. Something more merciful should be easy to find. By the way did you ever try Search For The Lost Orb? It was written for the BBC but nobody seems to know who by. Clearly it was the work of a professional but an extremely self effacing and / or diffident one it would seem.
At any rate it is massive and very good. I put a map up somewhere (possiobly on CASA) but it is definitely worth adding to your list.
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Incidentally Jim Aikin sent me the outline of the sequel to Not Just An Ordinary Ballerina complete with code and sketches, octopus and all as I recall some time ago. Sadly I think he abandoned it as a game too far.
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Search For The Lost Orb you say? I shall search for that mysterious bauble.
If you could point me to a working download?
I love this quote!
“Not much is known about this game, but it appears to be of commercial quality.”
That neatly sums it up, from what I can tell by reading the first few descriptions. Thanks for showing me the way into another deep hole of adventure.
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It is tough but very good. Much conjecture has been made about whose writing style and puzzle content it most resembles. It kind of reminds me of Derek Haslam’s games Gateway To Karos and its sequel Mirror Of Khoronz but he didn’t write it. Very Phoenix stable like as well, viz. Jonathan Partington and the gang.