Mystery of Silver Mountain, The

Usborne Publishing 1984

Language:: English
Authors:: Chris Oxlade, Judy Tatchell
Systems:: BASIC
Platforms:: Apple II, BBC/Electron , C64/128 , Spectrum, TRS-80 CoCo, VIC20
Genres:: Type-in
Related:: 1: Haunted House, 2: Mystery of Silver Mountain, The, 3: Island of Secrets, 4: Micro Puzzle, 5: Rendezvous
Entered by:: Alastair, dave, Garry, Gunness, iamaran, Strident
Added:: 10-05-2010
Edited:: 12-09-2022

Synopsis

Plot

Clustered in small villages at the foot of Silver Mountain, the Sylvani were once a peaceful and prosperous people. They were governed by a wise Council of Elders and ruled by a benign monarchy, the royal family keeping the legendary Stone of Destiny in the palace high on Silver Mountain.

This life came to an end when a massive Grarg army invaded, seized the land, took the Stone, and eventually murdered the queen. Now the Sylvani live as slaves under the merciless overlord Ogban and his murderous Grarg thugs. Ogban uses the power of the Stone to bring destruction on the families and friends of anyone who opposes him, and thus he suppresses any resistance.

Queen Pari Sylvan left behind a baby son called Kylar. Before she died she had locked into the mind of Kylar a secret: her royal ancestors had given the people certain magic objects the combined power of which would overcome any evil force controlling the Stone of Destiny. Over the centuries the whereabouts of these seemingly insignificant objects had been forgotten. On becoming a young man Kylar Sylvan set off to try and find these objects, but just when the Elders sensed that he was on the brink of success he was murdered by one of the Grarg thugs. If he had recovered any magic objects these objects would have immediately returned to their resting places.

Since this tragedy the Elders have revealed the quest to a succession of true and worthy Sylvani: all have failed. Now they plead to anyone who will listen.

Notes

Also available in Spanish.

The Mystery of Silver Mountain may be found as a type-in game in the book of the same name (pp. 18-30), a free PDF of this book is available for download from Usborne Publishing (scroll to near the middle of the page).

As well as the listing the book contains an illustrated background story to the adventure. Some of the illustrations contain information that may aide the adventurer.

From the blurb on the back of the book:

The Mystery Of Silver Mountain is the second of two books in a series marking the beginning of a completely new kind of adventure game. They each contain an exciting adventure program for you to type into your computer. As you play the game on the computer, the imaginary world of the game is vividly recreated in colourful pictures in the book and you can find clues hidden in the pictures to help you.

An adventure game takes you into a different world where you have to pit your wits against magical forces, evil creatures and powerful tyrants. The books give thorough instructions on how to play and hints on what to do if you get stuck.

The programs are written in a standard BASIC and there are conversions listed to make them suitable for the Commodore 64, expanded VIC 20, TRS-80 Colour Computer (32K), Apple II, BBC (32K), Electron and 48K Spectrum.

Jim Gerrie has created a version of the game for the TRS-80 MC-10.

There is a version of the game available for NewBrain; see here.

An unoffical port of the game, by Scott Le Brun for VZ200, was produced (c.1987) and distributed as a type-in through VZ Down Under, issues 4-8 with an update in 9, and also the VZ Link Newsletter, issues 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

Another version for VZ200 was ported from Jim Gerrie's MC10 version in 2016, then updated in November 2019 and August 2020.