''Castle Adventure'' is a

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

. It was also illegally included in Keypunch's ''Swords and Sorcery'' under the title ''Golden Wombat''. It is compiled from

Microsoft BASIC Microsoft BASIC is the foundation software product of the Microsoft company and evolved into a line of BASIC interpreters and compiler(s) adapted for many different microcomputers. It first appeared in 1975 as Altair BASIC, which was the first ...

. The

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

has never been released.

Plot

''Castle Adventure'' is a

dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a " dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games ...

with little

backstory A backstory, background story, back-story, or background is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding and leading up to that plot. It is a literary device of a narrative history all chronologically earlier than the narrative of ...

. The second screen of the game displays: "You are trapped in a deserted castle and you must escape. It is rumored that the castle is full of treasures. Can you find them all?"

Gameplay

The player interacts with the environment through a mix of keyboard controls and a

text parser {{Refimprove, date=August 2007 In adventure games, a text parser takes typed input (a command) from the player and simplifies it to something the game can understand. Usually, words with the same meaning are turned into the same word (e.g. "take" a ...

. Items visible on the screen can be picked up by guiding the adventurer over them. For items not on the screen, the player needs to type commands such as: . In order to defeat and defend against monsters, the adventurer must possess a sword. Fighting in ''Castle Adventure'' consists of directing the adventurer into a monster. Though it is not visibly recorded, combatants can sustain only a finite amount of damage, after which either the monster or the adventurer dies (as appropriate). To complete the game, the adventurer must open a gate in the room from which the game begins, freeing themselves from the castle.

Development

The game uses the

text mode Text mode is a computer display mode in which content is internally represented on a computer screen in terms of characters rather than individual pixels. Typically, the screen consists of a uniform rectangular grid of ''character cells'', each o ...

IBM PC compatibles IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones ...

. It uses special characters from

code page 437 Code page 437 (CCSID 437) is the character set of the original IBM PC (personal computer). It is also known as CP437, OEM-US, OEM 437, PC-8, or DOS Latin US. The set includes all printable ASCII characters as well as some accented letters (diac ...

to represent monsters, treasures, weapons, props, castle walls, etc. It could be played on even the earliest IBM PC display equipment, such as the

IBM Monochrome Display Adapter The Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA, also MDA card, Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter, MDPA) is IBM's standard video display card and computer display standard for the IBM PC introduced in 1981. The MDA does not have any pixel-addressab ...

and the

IBM 5151 The IBM 5151 is a 12" transistor–transistor logic (TTL) monochrome monitor, shipped with the original IBM Personal Computer for use with the IBM Monochrome Display Adapter. A few other cards were designed to work with it, such as the Hercules Gra ...

monitor.

Reception

Home of the Underdogs called the game as "one of the most memorable ASCII games of the bygone

BBS BBS may refer to: Ammunition * BBs, BB gun metal bullets * BBs, airsoft gun plastic pellets Computing and gaming * Bulletin board system, a computer server users dial into via dial-up or telnet; precursor to the Internet * BIOS Boot Specificat ...

era". DOSGames.com noted that the game "is nostalgically remembered by gamers who played it in the DOS era" while giving it 2.5 stars out of five and concluding that "the game itself is rather average, but it does include action and adventure elements, although there is very little plot".

References

External links

* {{Internet Archive game, msdos_Castle_Adventure_1984, Castle Adventure 1984 video games Adventure games DOS games DOS-only freeware games Video games with textual graphics Video games developed in the United States Video games set in castles Single-player video games