Druid
fantasy hack and slash adventure game for Commodore 64, 1986
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AIM OF THE GAME
Four demon Princes of Darkness of immense evil power have taken
up residence in a Castle under the form of fire spitting skulls.
The princes are now spreading misery and decay throughout the
Land. You, as an aging Druid, must destroy the evil princes.
THE GAME PLAY
You can cast various types of spells. On top of the screen the
following spells are displayed from left to right.
First, the common ones:
- Water
- Fire
- Electricity
while other rarer but more powerful ones are:
- Key (opens door)
- Invisibility
- Golem (creates magical assistant - of which more later)
- Chaos (smart bomb).
Each time a spell is cast your capacity for casting that part-
icular spell decreases, and the counter under the respective
icon at the top of the screen will show this.
Each kind of demon servant has a strength or weakness for
elements so each will take varying types and numbers of shots
to kill, as follows:
Demon Water Fire Electricity
Servant Bolt Bolt Bolt
-------- ----- ---- -----------
Ghost 1 1 2
Beetle 3 1 2
Skeleton 1 3 2
Snake 3 1 2
Ralack 1 2 2
Wraith 3 2 2
Slime 3 1 2
Devil 3 3 1
To kill a demon Prince there is no other way but to touch it
and unleash a Chaos spell at the same time (this is the end
game).
The druid's most powerful spell is indeed the Chaos spell but
you must reserve some for the princes! It will kill all bar a
few types of servants on screen whether they are there or
appearing.
The Chaos spell also makes the Druid regain a little energy.
If any of the above demon servants contact you they will drain
your energy. This energy can however be replenished by standing
on one of the Pentagrams of Life that are scattered around the
Castle.
Chests are another source of useful power. Chests hold many
goodies and can be opened by running into them. But careful
thought is needed before selecting an item from a chest; the
items are magically trapped and taking one item will destroy all
the others in the chest. Hint: a map might be useful...
If things are getting a bit too hectic, casting the Golem spell
creates a magical servant who can be controlled by separate
keyboard commands or a second joystick. The golem can
be given three commands: Send, Follow and Wait and has its own
energy bar (at the top left of the screen below the Druid's bar)
which is drained in the same way as yours. However, its touch is
instantly fatal to demons!
Golems cannot be healed and you can only have one at a time but
they can be replaced. Use the golem as a shield - it kills any
demon servant it touches at a small cost of energy.
Key spells can open locked doors. Be warned, locked doors reset
when you leave a level and it is possible to be unable to win if
you run out of key spells.
An Invisibility spell will make monsters not run at you for a
while.
The druid will be hurt by his environment - things like water,
fire, certain unholy symbols.
CONTROLS
Joystick port 2 and keyboard
Joystick Movement left/right/up/down
Fire Cast elemental (Water/Fire/Electricity) spells
P Toggle the elementals
+ Cast Key spell to open locked door
- Cast Invisibility spell
C= Summons a golem - can be given orders via joystick
C= + ??? Summons a golem - can be given orders via keys
Clr/Home Summons Chaos spell.
Run/Stop Pause mode (switch control of golem then?)
KEYBOARD CONTROLS : Left - Z
Right - X
Up - K
Down - M
Fire - SPACE
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Some useful keyboard shortcuts
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[PAUSE] - stop/continue game
[F9] - quick load game state
[F12] - quick save game state (still stored after leaving the site)
[F11] - toggle fullscreen mode
[ScrollLock] - quick switch control ports
[PageDown] - make a screenshot (320x200)