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North Star Games

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2024 12:44 pm
by Canalboy
I have sent the Horizon emulator plus the Whembly Castle game and instructions for setup to CASA. They play surprisingly smoothly if slowly; up the speed in DOSBox-X. I will also send Zodiac Castle and Windmere Estate. I have started playing Castle and it seems to work fine. It will be interesting to see if the bugged versions of the games (Windmere Estate and Zodiac Castle) have the same bugs as the later Dynacomp versions.

Re: North Star Games

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2024 7:38 pm
by Canalboy
The bug involving the grille in the torture chamber is fortunately not present in the North Star version, although I could not go north via the designated path from the rear door of the castle. I managed 480 points out of 470 (oddly) and deposited all 28 of the treasures but couldn't trigger the end game.

Whembly Castle was never a Dynacomp release but is one leviathan of a game; I have so far mapped 168 locations and I am sure that the end is still a long way away. It is rather buggy and I had to restart as I couldn't enter the boat in my original assault. However, having restarted armed with the route through the rather tortuous forest maze I managed to enter the boat and navigate the lake. Unfortunately I hit more coding turbulence here as I couldn't pick up any items dropped in the boat and you have to drop the oars in the boat to get it to move. Arming myself with as many items as I could get away with I then made it to the castle but another bug means you have to carry around the boat (you can't drop it) inside the castle and also the items you dropped inside it, but you can never take them again. if you land on the berm though the boat drifts away and you are left with just the items that you were carrying inside the boat. I do not yet know if you need the boat again later on.

Inside the castle I have found loads of corridors and rooms, towers and particularly privies; it appears the author liked his petits coins.

At least I haven't found any more bugs since the boat.

When and if I finish this I am going to take a punt at the North Star version of Windmere Estate which was later (like Zodiac Castle) release by Dynacomp and rewritten by the author Dennis N Strong.

Re: North Star Games

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2024 6:37 pm
by Strident
Canalboy wrote: Wed Nov 20, 2024 7:38 pm Whembly Castle was never a Dynacomp release
The game is listed for sale in multiple Dynacomp catalogues for the North Star (Horizon). It's also listed as being sold by Dynacomp in the Software Encyclopaedias for the IBM PC and Apple II.

All the games you've mentioned are listed in the Dynacomp catalogue for the North Star.

Re: North Star Games

Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 4:10 pm
by Canalboy
Puzzle answers for Windmere Esate below:-

Windmere Estate is proving to be a rather more complex game than I had hitherto summised. It is also a better game than Zodiac Castle I think as it has cleverer and more intricate puzzles and generally seems more evocative in terms of atmosphere and description. In response to Alex's observation I have managed to open the main gate by prying it with the crowbar; this gives you a more straightforward traversal between the said gate and the treasure room. Using the spyglass from the observation tower I have espied a hidden cave by the stream to the north of the gatekeeper's cottage but, having travelled there via the rowboat I still can't seem to find it. I also found the cufflink in the Lost Room but on subsequent tries have never found it there again; I'm not sure what I did differently the first time.

I have now attained 360 out of 405 but aside from the cave section there's not much left. I notice you can wind the watch and break the egg (the latter causing a snake to emerge) whch I suspect brings the rattle into play here somehow.

The main sticking point remains the cave by the stream at the moment.

Re: North Star Games

Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 10:38 pm
by Alex
Canalboy wrote: Wed Dec 04, 2024 4:10 pm The main sticking point remains the cave by the stream at the moment.
This location is not reached from the water. After you looked through the spyglass an exit has become available in another location which first was not there.

Re: North Star Games

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2024 5:32 pm
by Canalboy
Yes, by trying north from every possible location you eventually find the correct route. It was hardly a breeze to solve it.