TREASURE OF MEATHOS
J. Copland, 1984
===================
Solution by Exemptus - January 2023
Overview and general hints:
---------------------------
In this adventure we are trying to find the treasure of King Natocriaq, buried
with him in his tomb, in the network of passages under the huge volcano of
Meathos. The tomb itself is hidden, and to prevent tomb-robbing, before he died
the King asked his evil wizard, Taumas, to create a monster that would protect
the tomb. The monster was said to have escaped the tomb after the King was
buried and is now roaming free in the maze of volcano passages. So we will need
to find the tomb and a way to deal with the monster.
This game is in two parts. It is a fairly conventional adventure, crafted by
hand in BASIC in a very old school fashion: no generic parsing or vocabulary
database, no pre-constructed map, no event handling - all is done through
stateful conditional statements. There is little randomness, and only in Part 2.
Part 1 is fully deterministic. Like most games of its type, it is very sparse:
few objects or puzzles, many locations. A particular quirk is that Part 1
accepts GET and TAKE as synonyms, but Part 2 only accepts TAKE.
Help is available in the form of Boris, a NPC who follows us, but has no other
purpose that giving advice (most of it obvious) in exchange for a gold coin. We
begin the game with 3 of these. It is possible to get more, but for most of the
game they don't serve any purpose, and neither does Boris. At least he doesn't
interfere with things.
It is possible to interact with NPCs by using SAY TO <npc>'<command>, with an
apostrophe as the separator. We rarely need to do this, but it's good to keep in
mind. NPCs will only react to very specific sentences.
The first part is exclusively focused on finding an object that will vanquish
the monster, while in the second we enter the tomb proper. The sequence of tasks
in the first part is the following:
1. Find someone which will help us find the magic object (the black diamond).
2. Do a side quest in exchange for the info of where to find the diamond, which
happens to be buried somewhere.
3. Locate the place where is diamond is likely buried.
4. Find a spade.
5. Get back to the main area and dig for the diamond.
6. Once with the diamond, find the way to the volcano.
Tasks 1, 2, 3 and 6 are very easy. Task 4, finding a spade, is pretty long, as
it requires exploring practically the whole map, but it just requires patience
and cartography. However, in doing so we will pass a number of one-way-only
connections, so Task 5 is the really tricky one. The place where the diamond is
buried is in an area that requires us to retrace back our steps, but we cannot
do that in a straightforward way.
This is where the main annoyance of the game comes in: exits are only partially
indicated in locations. Outside exits are reliable, but once within the tunnels,
caves, and underground passages, there are a number of connections which are not
stated. Finding these is the key to successfully navigating the first part.
Part 2's main difficulty is not getting bored with all the travelling, since the
author has opted for the "let's tire the player out" style. The amount of
locations is close to 400 between both parts, discounting endless corridors (of
which there are a few as well). There are a few objects to gather but it is a
more or less straightforward walk-to-the-end, fight-the-monster, get-the-
treasure, win sequence, while avoiding traps along the way. Boris is even less
useful here than in Part 1.
Walkthrough:
------------
*PART 1*
[We begin in a dark, stoney path. Going S is the first step, just because it is
the way for Boris to join.]
S [Boris joins]
N
N
N
W
W [We are south of a village, which is where we'll go first]
N [At the gates]
[Here we have a guardian, who asks us what we want. The way to deal with him is
a bit indirect, since the gates are not closed - Boris will tell us as much if
we ask for his help.]
OPEN GATES [The guardian climbs down]
KILL MAN [We don't, but he flees instead; the way N is open]
N [An old woman accosts us asking for a gold coin]
GIVE COIN [Any other reaction will result in our death]
N
N
N [At the wall]
W
W [Inside a hut, there is a sword here]
TAKE SWORD
[We actually won't need a weapon until much later, but it's convenient to get it
now.]
E
S
S
E [We are told to go E is we're looking for treasure]
E
E
E [In a shack; there is an old man here]
SAY TO OLD MAN'HELLO [He asks if we are another adventurer]
SAY TO OLD MAN'YES
[He then says he can give us a reward if we can bring him back a Telkoth crystal
egg. He also gives us a golden key, which appears in our inventory.]
W
W
W
W [Village centre]
S
S
S
S
S [Junction of several paths]
W
W [Sludgy path]
W
N
N
N [Cave]
U
U [There is a trap door on the ceiling and a large oak door here]
[With the golden key we can open the trap door, but that will be fatal: a
telkoth, which seems to be a type of angry bird, will fall through and end up in
the cave below. If later we try to exit the cave with the egg, the telkoth will
peck us to death. The trap door is a red herring in fact.]
OPEN DOOR [We go in]
W [Foot of another door]
OPEN DOOR
W [A bed and some drawers are here]
DROP GOLDEN KEY [We don't need it]
OPEN DRAWERS [Full of junk]
EXAMINE JUNK [A crystal egg is in the junk]
TAKE CRYSTAL EGG
E
E
E
D
D
S
S
S
E
E
E
N
OPEN GATES [To enter the village again]
N
N
E
E
E
E [Again at shack]
SAY TO OLD MAN'HELLO
[The old man tells us that the only artefact with the power to destroy the
Guardian of Meathos is the black diamond, but it was buried with an adventurer
somewhere on the land. It's not much, but we'll take it.]
W
W
W
W
S
S
S
S
S [Junction of paths again]
[Directly S of here there's a scene with 3 ogres who are waiting to have dinner.
We can ignore them, as there's no way to interact with the ogres and live.]
D [The steps down crumble]
[There is no way to go back to the section of the map we just came from, but we
won't need to.]
S
S
S [Bilbo Sackbelly shows up and calls the guards - we are trespassing]
KILL BILBO [Some elves thank us, give us 3 gold coins and tell us to go E]
E
U
S
S [Foot of tree]
[This is a good base of operations. We should have a sword and 5 gold coins. You
can ignore the locked door on the tree for which the game says we don't have a
suitable key if we try to UNLOCK it. In fact it can be unlocked, much later, but
it's another red herring.]
DROP SWORD [This is to prepare for later - we'll need the inventory space]
E
E
E
D [Damp smelly hole]
[According to the plaque, the bones of a Frederick Jones are buried here. This
is the adventurer that had the black diamond, so here is where we need to dig.
All we need is something to dig with. We will have to go far to find it. Nothing
we can do here now, so we'll be on our way.]
U
E
S
S [A large iron door slides down and blocks the way back]
[We are now cut off from the tree area. There is no way to get this door open
again. We will need to get back to the tree area later, but we'll have to find
another way.]
S
E
N
E [A sleeping troll is here]
[You may ignore the troll. If we have the sword, it is possible to kill him, but
he won't wake up in the whole game anyway, so why bother.]
S
S [There is a key here]
TAKE KEY [We'll need the key on our way back]
N
N
W
S
S [Ignore the steps down]
W
S
E
E
E
S
E
S
S
W [There is a knife here]
TAKE KNIFE
E
N
N
W
N
W
W
S
S
S
S [We find a door for "authorised trolls only"]
OPEN DOOR [Trolls pour out and we end up in a dungeon; we notice a trap door]
OPEN TRAP DOOR
D [We fall on a troll, knocking him down]
[Again, we won't be going up the way we came. We are in the passages below the
lands above. From here there are two paths to the abandoned mine, where we are
headed: one to the N and another one to the S. The problem with the one N is
that we have to go through a location that we can visit only once, and we need
to go through it on the way back. Hence, we need to take the S route, which is
twistier.]
S
S
W [A large spider appears]
THROW KNIFE [The spider dies]
S
E
S
W
W
W
N
N
W [The cavern stops here]
[This is seemingly a dead end, but is one of the locations where not all exits
are noted.]
U
E
U
U
U
U
U
U
U [Note that these are Up locations only - we can't go back down]
N [Clearing]
[This location links to the Troll passages through the Bandit Lands to the E and
leads to the abandoned mine to the N. We enter the mine.]
N
N
N
N
W [A goblin appears and asks the solution of an arithmetical puzzle]
47 [And the second number?]
728 [OK, we can go past]
[If we get either solution wrong, the goblin kicks us out of the mine and we
need to do it again.]
LOOK [No goblin anymore]
W [The floor has caved here]
D
N
E
E [The spade is here]
DROP KNIFE [Not needed]
TAKE SPADE
[Now we need to get back to the tree area, which is easier said than done, since
it isn't even clear how to get out of the mine.]
S
S
S
E
S
W [Dead end, but isn't]
U [We are near the mine entrance again]
S
S
[The mine entrance is due S, but it so happens that the ceiling has caved down
and that exit is now blocked. We'll have to explore the mine further looking for
another way out.]
W
W
W [End of the tunnel. Or is it?]
U
S
E
E [Another dead end, but we are told that the ground is thin here]
DIG GROUND [The ground collapses; we fall down to a side entrance]
E [Outside at the clearing again]
[That was quite a trip. Now back to the troll caves by the E path.]
E
N [Three bandits jump us and take all our gold coins]
[This is the location that can only be visited once. If we pop by again, the
bandits will kill us. Although this is not strictly true: there is another gold
coin hidden in a part of the underground passages that we haven't visited, nor
have a need to. We could go there from here, get the coin, then we could pass
through here again, but that's all. There is no need to resort to that, since we
don't need to use the gold coins anymore.]
E
N
E
S
S [There is a door here]
OPEN DOOR [We need the key for this]
E [We are in a dungeon]
E [There is another door here]
OPEN DOOR
N [And we are outside the original dungeon here, back in the caves]
[Now to escape the caves. We could have thought that the key would also enable
us to get the iron door open, but it doesn't. The solution is another secret
passage.]
N
N
N
N
W
W [We have found a secret passage which leads to a road outside]
S
S [Back to the tree]
DROP KEY [Not needed]
E
E
E
D [Back where the plaque is]
DIG SOIL [Some human bones are uncovered]
EXAMINE BONES [The black diamond appears]
DROP SPADE
TAKE BLACK DIAMOND [Its power surges through us]
U
W
W
W
TAKE SWORD [We'll need it one more time]
[Now for the final run, as we haven't explored W from here yet.]
W [A slimy hand grabs our ankle through the ground below]
CUT HAND [Problem solved]
W [We fall into a hole leading to an underground river]
[We are washed up onto a grassy bank. Going back to the river will mean death,
and we can't go back to the tree area either.]
U
W [We go into a shallow hole]
D [There is a passage we can crawl into]
S
S
S
S
W
W
S
W [The passage ends here, but there's an exit above]
U [Ensure you have the diamond, then prepare to load Part 2]
W [End of Part 1]
[We are given a code, which is 89616992; it's always the same, so it doesn't
matter what other objects we carry. We only need to have the black diamond with
us.]
*PART 2*
89616992
[We begin in the forest where we were, carrying just the black diamond. If we
check our SCORE, we always begin Part 2 with 50%, even if the maximum score we
can achieve in Part 1 is 42.75%.]
W
N
N
N
E
E
N [There is a box of matches here]
TAKE MATCHES
[We will need the matches soon. Following this path we can find a gold coin a
bit further on, but we won't be using those. There's also a location with a fire
that will burn our matches if we carry them.]
S
W
W
W
W [Edge of swamp]
W
N [A dragon appears]
SAY TO DRAGON'HELLO [The dragon asks for some matches]
GIVE MATCHES [It gives us 3 coins and takes us to a warm cave]
N
OPEN DOOR
N
D
TAKE SILVER KEY
[There are two different keys, silver and brass. Both open a single door each,
and can be discarded once used.]
U
S
S
W
W
D
N
UNLOCK DOOR [With the silver key]
OPEN DOOR
N [The King's library]
DROP SILVER KEY
W
S
OPEN DOOR
S
W
W
W
W
OPEN DOORS
W
W
[This is the main junction of the game. From here there are two paths, one to
the upper level of the fortress and another one to the underground passages. We
will need a couple of objects found around before we go into the depths.]
W
W
OPEN DOOR
W [There is a wand here]
TAKE WAND
E
E
N
N
E [There is a scimitar here]
TAKE SCIMITAR
[We are now equipped and can go down.]
W
S
S
E
S
S
D
D [There is no light here]
[In the way down, some locations will be lighted and some won't. There are no
light sources: they are intended to remain dark, and unlike in other locations,
we won't be told when a direction is successful in getting us to another room.
This provides a crude but effective maze. Of course, the maze can't be mapped
by dropping objects, since darkness is complete: if we drop an object in the
dark, it is lost forever.]
D
E
S
W
D [Light again - there is a torch here, but is decoration]
S
S [Dark]
U
E
D
D
D
D [Light]
S [An orc jumps from behind a rock]
[The orc points to an orc statue, which holds a wine goblet and has the words
'stoned again' scrawled in its forehead. He asks whether we did that.]
SAY TO ORC'YES [The orc thanks us and gives another gold coin]
S
W
D
N
W
W
D
S
D
D [Mummy's room]
W
D [Chained man; ignore all these distractions]
S
D
D
W
N [Edge of yellow liquid pool]
[The path to the W is one-way only; we won't be able to get back. Not that we
need to.]
W
N
E
N
W
W [The brass key is here]
TAKE BRASS KEY
N
N
E
N
D [Passages leading N and D]
[The passage leading D goes to a small section which is a red herring, so you
can ignore it. N of here there are two locations where there is a random chance
that we will be attacked by vicious gangoans intent on having us for dinner. The
scimitar allows us to KILL GANGOAN if that happens. These encounters are random,
so you may or may not come across these. The first encounter happens just N]
N [KILL GANGOAN if needed here]
W
W [KILL GANGOAN if needed here]
W
S
S
W
D
N
N [There are 3 cave trolls here, but they won't bother us]
W
W
W
W [Locked door]
DROP SCIMITAR
UNLOCK DOOR [With the brass key]
OPEN DOOR
DROP BRASS KEY
W
W
S
OPEN DOOR
S
E
S
E
S
OPEN DOOR
S
W
[Take care here. The room W of here has a blue dwarf who will steal our black
diamond if we have it and dump it in the Dwarf's cave, which is a bit ahead. If
we don't have the black diamond, he will kill Boris (not a tragedy), else he
won't do anything. We can just avoid the faff not going through that room.]
S
W
W
W
D
D
D
D
S
W
N
N
N
N
N
N
W [Closed iron gate]
[This is what we needed the wand for.]
THROW WAND [The gate rises]
W
W
S
S [Something moves ahead]
[A dwarf will appear here and say hello. Just ignore the pest.]
S
S
S
S
[We need to continue S from here, but there is a random chance we will be sent
back to where the dwarf appeared before. If so, just come back here and try
again.]
S
E
S [The passage leads down]
[The last stretch involves a trek downwards where you will find several passages
branching in different directions. These passages will be endless, except one of
them, which will just appear to be, but in reality is on a finite loop and will
end after eight iterations. The right passage is the fourth one, going S - after
that the downwards steps will become endless themselves, so you'd go on going
down forever.]
D
D
D [First branching, ignore]
D
D [Second branching, ignore]
D [Third branching, ignore]
D
D [This is the one to take]
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
W
S
S [The hideous monster of Meathos is here]
[The monster is toast, since we have the black diamond. However, we have to use
it twice.]
THROW BLACK DIAMOND [It hits the monster on the nose and falls to the floor]
TAKE BLACK DIAMOND
THROW BLACK DIAMOND [The monster is dead]
[Funnily, the game says the black diamond disappears on a cloud of smoke, but it
is still in our inventory.]
W
D
S [In King Natacriaq's burial chamber]
OPEN CURTAINS [A small archway is behind leading to another chamber]
E [A statue with a sapphire and a lump of lead is here]
TAKE SAPPHIRE [A secret passage opens to the E]
E [A huge pile of diamonds is here]
TAKE DIAMONDS
S
E [A rusty ladder goes up]
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U
U [We have escaped with the treasure]
[End of game.]
