Dragons and broomsticks

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Could you resist the goddess Artemis when she asks you to find and return her power orb? Of course not, particularly as she promises to let you keep any other treasure you find once she has cleansed it of evil. It will be a long and difficult task as the orb is well hidden somewhere in the vast passage and cavern system beneath Castle Blackstar.

In this budget text adventure you start on a dusty road which leads to the castle. Stray from this and you enter a maze of woodland locations which must be mapped to find three extremely important places.

Getting into the castle is your first real task. Most of the treasures are well protected by devious boobytraps, and the inevitable troll and dragon could give some trouble, particularly the dragon if approached from the wrong direction.

As almost everything found is a treasure, and therefore has to be cleansed before you are credited with full points there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the castle and temple. Your carrying capacity is limited to eight items, so knowing the shortest route to base is useful.

Along the way you will also discover such exotic places as a gingerbread cottage, several pits, a gold mine and throne room before reaching your goal, the power orb.

Few weapons are found, or in fact needed, and your only advantage is that the goddess wants you to succeed and will resurrect you several times if necessary.

Originally released in 1984, this adventure, with its one and two word inputs, is less demanding than the more modern ones. The screen layout is nicely arranged, with he score and move counter in the top right hand corner, the present location identification top left and the inputs and location descriptions scrolling underneath. Responses are quick and in clear white on black.

Considering the adventure's size, descriptions are quite lengthy and the response to EXAMine helpful.

I suppose it is inevitable that Castle Blackstar will be compared with other adventures. Well, it's nearly as good as Dungeon Adventure by Level 9, which comes readily to mind. The lovely ending has you looking down on earth from a broomstick - magic.

Barbara Gibb