Spellseeker
fantasy adventure game for Commodore 64, 1987
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You are the Spellseeker: a wizard with
mercenary tendencies who has volunteered
to search the Magic Maze for the evil
sorcerer Ashlaa and kill him.
The maze is full of dangerous monsters
who will try to kill you by decreasing
your damage and when it reaches zero it
is game over.
You are able to use various types of
magic which can be collected along the
way as well as a shield.
Scattered around the maze are various
types of wells which can increase your
damage and magic but some are poisonous.
Teleports can also be discovered which
will transport you to other parts of the
maze.
The game is an isometric flick-screen
maze arcade adventure where a joystick
is used to control your hero while the
keyboard finds and selects spells in a
small menu which also allows you to
unlock items and escape. As well as the
main playing area and menu you can see
your damage, magic and spell meters, a
clock and which monster you're fighting.
The game objects, and their use, are as
follows:
KEY: Held by skeleton, allows unlocking
of doors. 10 pts.
CROSS: Doubles effect of blast spell
against skeletons, wraiths & vampires.
10 pts.
COMPASS: Displays North-South, etc. as
mapping aid. 10 pts.
SPELLBOOK: Held by vampire.
Allows casting of shield spell. 30 pts.
CHALICE: Allows casting of fireball
spell. 60 pts.
RING: Held by witch. Allows casting of
destroy spell. 60 pts.
CROWN: Object of the game. Held by
sorcerer. Allows casting of escape spell
to end game. 150 pts.
CHEST: Treasure! 200 pts.
JADE SKULL: Treasure! 100 pts.
MONSTERS ARE:
1 SKELETON: Attacks by striking.
2 GOBLIN: Ditto.
3 WRAITH: Ditto.
4 VAMPIRE: Ditto.
5 VORTEX: Causes player to be moved to a
randomly selected room on touching, but
otherwise no damage.
6 ELF: Casts Blast spells.
7 WITCH: Casts Fireball.
8 SORCERER: Casts Destroy spells.
9 SNAKE: Spits poison, damage can be
shielded against but player 'poisoned'
rating will still increase.
Monsters are listed in order of damage
inflicted, they resist damage better in
the same order.
There's only one Sorcerer and one Witch.
There are 35 other monsters in the game.
PLAYER SPELLS ARE:
1 SHIELD: Max value 2, will absorb total
damage from 1 strike, regardless of
attack, except will not prevent poison.
Must select spellbook as 'in use' to
cast this.
2 BLAST: No restrictions on casting,
initially the only spell player can
cast. Minimum damage, if cross is held
damage to Skeleton, Wraith, Vampire is
doubled.
3 FIREBALL: Requires Chalice to be held,
double blast damage is caused.
4 DESTROY: Requires Power Ring to cast.
Treble Fireball damage.
5 ESCAPE: Requires Crown to cast, ends
game.
WELLS: come in four types, walk onto the
flagstone area of the well, face it, and
select drink. Strength wells increase
strength by 25 pts (max 99).
Magic wells increase magic pts by 30
(max 99).
Poison wells increase poison rating by 1
Cure wells zero the poison rating.
Wells turn to water (no effect)
following a drink.
POISON: At regular intervals the poison
rating is deducted from strength, the
higher the number of poison strikes
(snake) or drinks (wells) the quicker
you die. To handle snakes it's suggested
that only fully fit players try it, dart
into the room - Fire - Exit, and go for
a cure every couple of hits suffered.
Monsters do not regenerate lost hit
points. You can wound a monster then
return later to finish it off.
To unlock a door you must face it and be
on the flagstone in front of the door.
Locked doors are vertically barred,
'cutaway' doors that are locked have a
large yellow diamond centrally.
A normal door is an empty frame, doors
in the 'cutaway' sections are empty
flagstones leading off to the rear or
right hand side. You'll exit the room by
stepping onto the door flagstone.
(You must be in the central two thirds
or so of a doer to pass through it, you
can't walk through the doorframe, even
an invisible one!).
A further design (white, starlike) can
be seen on some flagstones.
These are transporter squares that will
move you to a new room (each transporter
goes to its own particular destination,
whereas the Vortices are less
predictable as they select one from a
list of predetermined destinations).
Commands are selected via F1/F7
scrolling, and actioned on pressing the
Fire button.
Joystick in Port 2 for movement, which
is turn 90 degrees left - right and walk
forwards. Commands are summarised at the
game start.
Some objects are set in otherwise empty
rooms, and are acquired simply by
entering the room, others are gained by
killing a particular monster.
Upon acquiring an object it is displayed
with an appropriate message, then added
to the inventory display.
To get an object ready for use (required
for most spells, etc.) use the swap
command to select a new object from the
displayed inventory.
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[F3] - pause on
[F5] - pause off
[F1] / [F7] scroll through orders
fire - perform selected order
[CTRL] + [D] TURN LEFT
[CTRL] + [G] TURN RIGHT
[CTRL] + [J] FIRE
[CTRL] + [CRSR RIGHT] MOVE FORWARD
[CBM] + [H] TURN LEFT
[CBM] + [F] TURN RIGHT
[CBM] + [K] FIRE
[O] - music off
[M] - music on
[SHIFT] + [HOME] - restart game
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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)