CASTLE OF TERROR (Melbourne House) Walkthrough by Michael Lambert and Jacob Gunness When Grahame Willis progrmmed Castle of Terror in 1984, he probably didn't anticipate the fact that now, 35 years later (2019), no one has to date managed to complete the game fully. This 'solution' won't change that fact, but perhaps a unified effort can change all this (read: help needed!) You're trying to kill the count with the spear, right? Have a look at note 5 below. Part 1: Vocabulary (VOCAB) Buy, climb, dig, drag, drnk, drop, dump, eat, enter, ex, examine, exit, get, give, go, help, i, insert, inv, inventory, knock, l, leave, light, load, lock, look, lower, move, open, pickup, place, pray, put, quit, raise, search, show, shut, speak, spend, swim, take, talk, turn, unbolt, unlock, vocab, wait, walk, work. (You begin near a field) HELP (10/10) (the villagers give you a coin), GET COIN (5/15) Note: You can continue helping the villagers (1 point each time) N, (outside the humble cottege) N, (inside the humble cottege) EXAMINE POT, EAT SOUP (5/20) - Note: you can continue eating the soup (5 points each time) EXAMINE TABLE, GET KNIFE (5/25) S, E, (first of two mills) EXAMINE BARREL (contains a flint), GET FLINT (5/30) U, (inside mill) MOVE SACK (5/35) (this prevents the mill from catching on fire) GET LANTERN (20/55) Note: You can get the rung from this ladder as well. Also, there is a 'loft' above the ladder, but since we have no way of climbing the ladder (in either mills) this is just another enigimatic (unseen) location... just a text description of something that never existed! D, W, S (outside the Duck Inn), E (2nd Mill - barrel is empty), U, (inside mill) GET ROPE (5/60) EXAMINE LADDER (rung is loose) GET RUNG (10/70) - Note: if you climb the ladder you lose 5 points EXAMINE RUNG (10/80) (it's a locking pin for the drawbridge wheel) D, W, (outside the Duck Inn), ENTER INN, TALK TO MAN (he wants a drink), BUY ALE (1/81) GIVE ALE TO MAN (5/86) (he tells you about his lost daughter and gives you a key) WAIT x 6 (5/91) (the villagers give you a tankard of ale) W, W, (old church grounds) EXAMINE CHURCH, GET CROSS (5/96) S, EXAMINE GRAVE, GET BONE (no points) Note: If you EXAMINE GRAVE again it says 'It's just your size!' W, (road connecting castle to village) N, (river with boat on othersideNote: This is where you exit the castle at the end of the game) S, (road connecting castle to village) W, (entrance to castle - gatehouse) EXAMINE WHEEL, TURN WHEEL (10/106), LOCK WHEEL or INSERT PIN (5/111) (with the rung you lock the wheel, this way you won't be killed when you go north!) N, KNOCK (5/116) (the door opens) Note: You can also use the key to unlock the door, but you don't get any points N or ENTER DOOR (enter the Castle of Terror!) ***END OF PART ONE WITH 116 POINTS*** Part 2: Vocabulary (VOCAB) ask, attack, battle, blow, break, call, climb, cut, depress, dig, drag, drop, eat, end, enter, escape, ex, examine, extinguish, fight, finish, force, get, give, go, grab, help, hit, i, inv, inventory, jump, kill, l, leap, light, load, look, move, open, pour, press, pull, push, put, quit, read, remove, replace, restart (doesn't work for my C64 emulator - Forever 64), save, say, shout, show, shut, snuff, stab, start, strike, swim, swing, take, throw, tip, unlight, untie, version, vocab, walk, work. (You begin in the entance hall) DROP BONE, DROP KEY, DROP LANTERN (none are needed anymore) Note: What is the Lantern's purpose? Why did we die the first time around by not moving the sack in the mill? It says 'it's fragile', but there is no way to light or unlight it? What purpose doest the Lantern serve other than for points and to fill up our inventory with a useless item? There is one dark place in the game (under the dungeon) but you can't even light the lamp here? W (the library) Note: The bone is part of a human skull, so I thought I could 'REPLACE BONE' on one of the skulls, but 'REPLACE' just drops the bone? So it seems there is no use for the bone. In fact I have never found a use for it. You can only carry 9 items in Part 1, but there are 10 items to pick up. (1) Coin, (2) Knife, (3) Flint, (4) Lantern, (5) Tankard, (6) Key, (7) Rung, (8) Rope, (9) Cross, (10) Bone. EXAMINE SKULL (It's a depressing sight - hint!) EXAMINE CANDLE (the candle is lit) UNLIGHT CANDLE (5/121) (the skull's eyes start to glow) PRESS SKULL or DEPRESS SKULL (5/126) (otherwise you'll fall into the dungeon when you take the book) Note: Pressing the skull will continue to add 5 points per push. GET BOOK (10/136) (a passage opens to the west) W (secret treasure room) GET TREASURE (20/156) EXAMINE CANDLE (the candle is unlit) LIGHT CANDLE (5/161) (you see that a book is missing) EXAMINE BOOKCASE (The bookcase contains many dusty volumes) PUT BOOK ON SHELF (5/166) (the exit opens to the East again) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternate outcome: Don't PRESS SKULL, but rather just GET BOOK! You will fall down into a dungeon with a fire pot and two skeletons, one on either side. (You choke at the sickening sight before you - the bodies of other fools lie rotting on the floor). EXAMINE SKELETON (Slime covers the remaining bones of the ill-fated adventures!) Although there are no 'visible exits' - to escape the dungeon just head S (to crumbling tunnel with adventurer skeleton) Note: You can also escape by EXTINGUISH FIRE with the ALE (this puts out the fire) and then GET CAULDRON (Amid the smell of burning flesh, you manage to slide the cauldron of oil to the side of the fireplace, which reveals a small hole leading down! D (dark passgae below the dungeon - with a light to the south), S (you crawl along the dark passaeway until it comes out in the village graveyard! Note: it appears the grave we saw in part one is the exit of this dark passage). You have escaped from the Castle and have earned the respect of the villagers! Note: No points are awarded fo this. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E, (Library), DROP BOOK (not needed anymore) E, (entrance hall), E (banquet hall - the table is covered with stale food and cobwebs) Note: You lose 5 points for eating the food! Note: If you attempt to go U you get a message 'You start to climb the narrow stairs that lead up to the castle tower, but the sound of approaching footsteps forces you back, and you return to the banquet hall'. Or 'a barrage of bats beat you back, and you return to the banquet hall.' This puzzle stumped me for ages! How do you climb up the narrow stairs? The solution makes no sense! See further down. E (a long gallery), D (armoury) GET AXE (5/171) GET ARMOUR (5/176), U, W, D, (tunnels under the castle) N, (two knights guarding a red door), KILL KNIGHT or ATTACK KNIGHT or THROW ROPE (to entangle them!) (10/186) (you must have both axe and armour to do this - your passage N is now clear) Note: For some obscure reason, this action now allows you to climb the narrow stairs to the Count's tower? Why by fighting these particular knights does this happen? They are guarding a door a floor below the banquet hall? N (narrow tunnel with spider's web) , DROP AXE, GET CLUB (2/188), REMOVE WEB or SWING CLUB (5/193) (to remove the spider's web, you can now proceed N), N (crumbling tunnel with adventurer skeleton), DROP CLUB (only needed to remove the web), EXAMINE ADVENTURER (he clutches a small piece of paper and holds a dagger in his skeletal hand!), READ NOTE (5/198) (It says - Beware of the living dead - they never sleep) GET DAGGER (5/203), EXAMINE DAGGER (the dagger has pieces of twine hanging from the blade) Note: This means that this brave adventurer actually made it to the Maiden's chamber, and managed to start cutting the ropes that bound her... but then trying to escape he ended up in this crumbling tunnel and was subject to a grissly end ... poor soul! EXAMINE TUNNEL (the tunnel walls are old and crumbling. The brick-work is in need of repair) PRESS BRICK (pressing the brick produces a faint click followed by a louder clang!) Note: This implies that some kind of button was pressed (the faint click) the 'louder clang' might be a heavy metal door slamming shut... or perhaps a door opening somewhere? Note: If you PULL BRICK (weird... now this doesn't work for me?) It used to say that a part of the brick fell down onto your toe... I guess you would loose 5 points for this? Can someone else please clarify this for me? S, S, U, U (Castle tower - The castle tower presents a terrifying sight of a coffin stained with fresh blood.) , EXAMINE COUNT (he sees the cross and is paralysed!) KILL COUNT or ATTACK COUNT (20/223) (with the knife - this doesn't kill him though - he just turns into a bat and flies out the window) Note: You strike the sleeping Count in the heart, but the blow does not kill kim. Too late you remember that only a wooden stake can kill the un-dead, you have but a steel blade, Suddenly the body in the coffin transforms into a bat and flies out the open window into the night. UNTIE MAIDEN (20/243), (she says she thinks there is a boat by the river in which you might escape, if only you could get ther quickly!) D (banquet hall), D (underground corridor), E (deep pit with skeleton) EXAMINE SKELETON (at the bottom of the pit lies the body of a previous rescuer!) That's 2 heros who gave their lives trying to rescue the Maiden! DROP ARMOUR (otherwise you will drown in the river) THROW ROPE (the only way to cross the pit with the Maiden) THROW ROPE (you have escaped from the castle - but the count is still alive!) ***CURRENT SCORE 243/290*** Notes: 1. Use SHOW to see all exits an items in each location 2. There are quite a few score bugs. You can keep on eating soup and gaining points, and you'll also be awarded 5 points for each weapon you pick up. Doesn't make much sense. 3. Yes, there *are* two mills! One with the flint and lantern, the other with rung and rope. 4. What is the effect of pressing the brick in the tunnel? 5. About the spear: The *rumour* (which everybody seems to know) originated in 1985 (or 1984, can't remember) issue of Computer & Video Games. A guy named Steve King wrote to Keith Campbell around the middle of 1986 and stated that he had managed to kill the count. Keith called back (by popular request) and asked how it had be done. However, the man was away on holiday, but his wife looked around and seemed to recall that the man had broken the spear. More writing back and forth produced the answer that you had to attack the count with the spear in order to be able to break it. This should give you the stake you need for killing the count. To my knowledge, no one has ever been able to repeat these actions. Please tell me if I'm wrong, but the way I see it, the whole stake business is a misunderstanding. 6. The counts sees the cross if you examine him. Can this be used in any way?