Walkthrough for Ring Quest by Origin Systems
Copyright Jeffrey Hoeksma, jhoeksma@is2.dal.ca
Written on June 11, 2002
Ring Quest is a text-based graphical adventure game originally
released by Penguin software for the Apple II computer system in
1983. Origin Systems then later released the game when Dallas Snell
began working for Origin.
The goal of your adventure is to destroy the ring of chaos possessed
by the sorceress Lisa.
You possess the ring of order, which you obtained during the choose-
your-own adventure style booklet included with the game. Along the
way you are helped by the noble warrior Gorn, who will be your window
into the world of Ring Quest.
~~Playing the game~~
Since Ring Quest was written before during the dinosaur age of
computing, don't expect any miracles from this game. No mouse
support, no music support, a very basic syntax, and most gamers had
not yet heard of a "hard-drive". Still this game is an excellent
example of early graphic adventures.
The view screen is normally divided into two parts, the graphical
section taking up the top 4/5 of the screen, and the command section
taking up the bottom 1/5. By pressing "enter" at any command prompt,
the game is converted to full text mode, which displays a full page
of text and which items are available and which directions may be
travelled.
Some other basic commands are:
"save" - save your game
"restore" - restore your game
"inventory" - see what you're carrying
"quit" - quit the game
~~Troubleshooting~~
-When I played this game via emulator, there was a crash that
occurred after finishing each arcade sequence. The game view screen
would go black, after loading disk 2 and if I tried to perform an
action the game would crash. As a work around to this, save your
game immediately after each arcade sequence while the view-screen is
black, then quit the game entirely. Then restart the game and
restore your save. The picture should be back and everything should
work fine.
-Since all computer games created during the past 12 years required a
hard-drive to play, many gamers may not be familiar with disk
swapping when creating a save game. When saving a game, you will be
prompted to what name you want to save as, remember this. As well,
keep it simple to save you frustration. Then you will be asked to
insert your storage disk, insert a blank disk, or if using an
emulator the master disk. This will write to the disk. Then you
switch back to the play disk when prompted. For restoring a game
repeat the same process
~~Basic hints~~
-Make sure you have lots of water. Remember to refill your water
skin whenever you pass a fresh water source in the game. If the
enchantress drains your water, make sure to head immediately to the
nearest water source.
-The enchantress can sure be annoying, she'll pop up at random
intervals during the game and cast a spell on you. During the game
there is nothing that can be done to stop these annoying attacks.
The four spells she casts are teleport, drain water, confuse, and
ignore. Teleport will transport you to randomly about the map.
Confuse makes your character to become confused and possibly travel
the wrong direction. Ignore will cause Gorn to be unable to
understand you, forcing you to spam a few lines. Drain water will
send you running to the nearest water source.
-Make sure to save cash whereever possible, be thrifty, you need to
spend every last piece wisely. If you lose gold and don't get
anything or anywhere in return, restore your game. You can only
afford to use the troll bridge once.
-The old man says something very important to you, write it down
properly.
-Trying to kill anything only yields interesting death messages.
-Some things take time, go "Wait" somewhere else.
-In order to place an item anywhere, use the "drop" command. The
game can have a very limited syntax. For instance to place a sword
on a table type, "drop sword beside table".
-Create a map of the land you will be exploring. It will be your
best friend and save you a lot of frustration.
~~Arcade Sequences~~
These may easily be the most annoying part of the game. They're
extremely tedious and many of the sequences boil down to just plain
luck. Unfortunately they cannot be bypassed and if you don't know
what you're doing you may be forced to repeat them.
-During the rock climbing game, the goal is to reach the cavern in
the top-right corner of the cliff. To do this first climb up past
the snake in the top left. Then immediately head right toward the
purple rockslide in the top centre of the screen. You should fall
down the rockslide past the snake. The move right while below the
rockslide until you clear it. Then climb below the snake in top
right corner. Then move yourself up into the cliff.
Unfortunately while you're climbing near the top of the screen, the
game can decide to randomly dump 4 boulders directly on top of you.
No amount of skill can manoeuvre you around this. Just be persistent
and you'll eventually reach it.
use J or left arrow to move left
use K, L, or right arrow to move right
use I, A, or up arrow to move up
use M, Z, or down arrow to move down
use space to stop
-During the flying game, you goal is to land on the tiny platform in
the middle of the lake of fire while avoiding arrows shooting from
the walls and fireballs from the lake. This game can often boil down
to solely luck as well. Often just as you get low, there is very
little time to avoid fireballs. As you prepare to land, you simply
have to hope none shoot underneath you.
It doesn't matter the speed you hit the landing pad. Crash right
into it if you want. Primarily concentrate upon dodging stuff, move
slowly towards your goal.
Press spacebar to flap
press J or left arrow to move left
press K, L, or right arrow to move right
~~Step-by-step walkthrough~~
All directions are based upon the starting point at the 8 way
crossroad
-Find the spring hidden in the forest
-"look in water"
-"get dagger"
-Find the old man in his tent. The tent is located in the northeast
section of the world.
-"give man 100 gold" he'll tell you about what lies ahead in your
adventure, and will give you an important chant.
-Go to the wrecked boat located at the eastern side of the map and
get hugged by the ogress, apparently Gorn has already met her. You
now smell like ogress.
-Go to the island in the southeast section of the map and find the
werewolf.
-"kill werewolf"
-Go west to timber wolf
-"Bafenris"
-"drop ring beside gem"
-Go to troll bridge in the southern section of the map.
-Drop everything but 100 gold before crossing
-Travel to the ogre, he'll smell you and begin to follow you.
-Travel back across bridge and retrieve all items.
-Travel back to the boat in the east end of the map, both the ogre
and ogress will leave.
-Enter the boat.
-"get rope"
-"open chest"
-"get ruby"
-Travel to the cave down in the valley. This is located in the west
end of the map. Here are the remains of the ranger you met in the
pre-story.
-"get all"
-Travel to the boulder hidden in the woods. It looks like some sort
of an animal has been around this area quite often. Hmmm...
-"set trap beside boulder"
-Go somewhere else and "Wait 10" twice.
-Return to the boulder
-"get boar"
-Travel to the manticora in the northwest area of the map.
-"give boar to manticora" Now that it isn't as hungry, you can cross
the bridge.
-Travel west to the sandroc, if he's home leave the area and wait for
a while. Try returning later, eventually he won't be home.
-Enter the sandroc's nest.
-"get feathers"
-Find the areas past the manticora where the cliff is climbable.
-"climb"
-Beat cheesy arcade sequence.
-"drop gem beside staff"
-Enter the cave
-"baarachna"
-"drop ring beside gem"
-exit the cave and climb down
-Reach the ferry in the southwest section of the map.
-"tie rope to arrow"
-"shoot arrow at post"
-Travel across the river and enter the falcon hut. Leave the
quicksand alone.
-"give 50 gold to man"
-Travel to the fire chasm in the northern section of the map.
-"fly"
-Navigate obligatory arcade sequence.
-"bapyrosnaca" to banish the fire snake.
-"drop ring beside gem"
-That's all three gems de-activated now.
-Climb the mountain northeast of the forest. Before de-activating
the gem you tower was unreachable.
-Enter through the doors into darkness
-Go either north, east, south, or west. They all have the same
result, you plummet into the obligatory text-adventure maze. Watch
your step, falling for eternity can get boring.
-In the maze travel: N. N. E. N. N. E. E. E. S. S. E. E. N. W. N. N.
E. E. N. E. E. N. N. W. W. W. W. W. S. S. E. E. E. N.
-Walk up to the enchantress and watch the end game.
