Planet of Death was the first a very long line of games for Spectrum computers, and consequently provokes enough nostalgia that there’s both an Android remake and an iPhone remake.
Planet of Death was a technical miracle straining against its original hardware.
Planet of Death ambitiously included multiple solutions for at least two of its puzzles.
Alas, that still doesn’t stop Planet of Death being a very bad game, at least in its original incarnation.
I switched to the ZX Spectrum version, the blinking in the ZX81 version got to be too much.
Last time, I was stuck trying to get a mirror from a “green man”.
I AM IN A QUIET CAVERN
THERE ARE EXITS WEST,EAST AND SOUTH
I CAN ALSO SEE :
A MIRROR
A SMALL GREEN MAN SLEEPING ON THE MIRROR
I had a failure of visualization here; I was thinking “short” in human terms but it really meant “small enough to just pick up”.
>GET MAN
UGH! HE IS ALL SLIMY
You can then set the man down and get the mirror.
The second issue I had was with a force field.
I AM IN A PASSAGE
THERE IS A FORCE FIELD TO THE SOUTH : BEWARE OF SECURITY
THERE ARE EXITS TO NORTH,EAST AND WEST
I CAN ALSO SEE : A LOUDSPEAKER WITH DANCE MUSIC COMING OUT
I needed a walkthrough. The right action is to be holding the laser gun, and then to…
>SMASH FIELD
IT HAS WEAKENED IT
..not, HIT, SHOOT, BREAK or any other logical alternatives work. Those three verbs are even understood by the game, just not here! Guess-the-verb can be slightly manageable if it’s a matter of “I clearly haven’t communicated my intentions yet, I’ll keep trying” but when the game appears to have understood an action but just ignored it, it makes puzzle-solving almost impossible.
We aren’t done yet!
>S
I CANT GO IN THAT DIRECTION
>GO FIELD
IT HAD NO EFFECT
The right way to get through is to DANCE while holding the MIRROR. If you don’t have the MIRROR you fall over, although this happens if the field has been smashed or not so it’s unclear what function the mirror is having.
>DANCE
I AM IN A LARGE HANGER
THERE IS A LOCKED DOOR TO THE WEST
THERE ARE ALSO EXITS EAST,NORTH AND SOUTH
I CAN ALSO SEE :
A SMALL BUT POWERFULL SPACE SHIP
A SLEEPING SECURITY MAN
This is near the end of the game: the goal is to be able to launch the ship and leave. Unfortunately, entering the ship right away is a trap; the ship can’t launch yet (for unclear reasons) there is no way to leave once entering.
You first need to go west into a “lift control room” with “3 switches” and a sign that says:
5,4 NO DUSTY BIN RULES
Here is an excerpt of my attempt at operating the switches:
It turns out you can just PUSH 1, PUSH 2, and PUSH 3, although they need to be done in the order 3, 2, 1.
If you’re as puzzled as I was what the DUSTY BIN reference has to do with anything, it’s from the old British game show 3-2-1. Dusty Bin is the mascot for the show.
After hitting the switches a lift opens. You can get an engine from another room (where there’s an OUT OF ORDER sign, implying the engine doesn’t work, but I guess it does) and then take it into the ship, and finally launch…
…except make sure you don’t push the MAIN button because the spaceship blows up. The AUX button works:
…
Let’s go back to those two puzzles with alternate solutions. You might notice nowhere above did I mention the ice block from the maze I was puzzling over in my last post. That’s because it’s an entirely optional way of going down, although one I don’t see how anyone at all would ever find in either the original ZX-81 or Spectrum versions. Here is the relevant room:
I AM IN AN ICE CAVERN
THERE IS AN EXIT TO THE EAST
I CAN ALSO SEE :
A BLOCK OF ICE
Although mentioned nowhere in the text, there also to be an exit DOWN;
>DOWN
HOW?
>WITH ICE
I AM IN A QUIET CAVERN
THERE ARE EXITS WEST,EAST AND SOUTH
I CAN ALSO SEE :
A MIRROR
A SMALL GREEN MAN SLEEPING ON THE MIRROR
(Note this only works if you’re holding the ice block — it can’t just be in the room, even though I think you’re supposed to be “riding” the ice.)
This is the same room you reach if you just go down a pit using a rope, which is not exactly a difficult puzzle. So even though the ice block represents an alternate solution, the method of solution it is used for is so obscure it might as well be a red herring instead.
Additionally, I mentioned occasionally being tossed into a prison.
I AM IN A PRISON CELL
I CAN ALSO SEE :
A LOCKED DOOR
A BARRED WINDOW
TELL ME WHAT TO DO
There are two ways to escape. You can LOOK UP (!?) which let you see the bars are loose, and then you can KICK BARS (by some miracle I came up with this verb on my own). Or if you have a gold coin from doing GO LAKE earlier (something I missed in my playthrough) you can USE COIN and that bribes … an invisible guard, I guess?
This is interesting in a theory-of-game-craft sense. Red herrings can be painful (especially when there’s a puzzle like a maze attached to reach them) so what do you do when you have alternate solutions that rely on different objects? — can alternate solutions only use objects that are easy to reach, or is it possible to make them in a way it doesn’t feel like part of the game is wasted? At the Gaming After 40 writeup, Dale Dobson finished the game without knowing what the ice and gold coin did at all, and had the exact same frustrations a real red herring would provide.
I once tried (and failed) to design a small adventure game where each puzzle had 3 or 4 solutions, but it never occurred to me until now that adding solutions, while making a particular puzzle easier, might make a game holistically more difficult. Objects intended as possible solves to early puzzles might never be applied, but the player wouldn’t know that and might fruitlessly try to use those same objects in later puzzles.
…
The authors clearly had a sense of what makes an adventure game interesting; alternate solutions are still pretty rare in our chronological sequence, and they at least attempted to stage “scenes” rather than arbitrary obstacles. However, as early trailblazers, it would have been hard to know how to write scenes that come across to the player in a logical way.
Take the central puzzle with the security barrier — it’s reasonable, on its own, to shoot the barrier with a gun; it’s reasonable, on its own, that dance music might prompt the music DANCE; it’s reasonable, on its own, that a MIRROR might mess with a security system somehow, but when all the parts are jammed together without logic or explanation (and the absurd verb SMASH) it makes for a dreadful puzzle. I don’t think it would have been so obviously dreadful on paper, at its inception; being aware of the effect would require realizing what the implementation would be like (and how hard the verbs would be to find).
We’re not leaving Artic Software just yet, because their next game was also released in 1981. The author is different this time; someone famous enough that there’s a good chance you’ll recognize some of his more recent work.
Renga in Blue 
My dim memory of playing this game way back in 1981 is that instead of Smash Field you can just type Field with no recognised verb and get the same result. I never did understand what was supposed to be happening there! Nice to finally know I was smashing it.
Now I’m wondering if that’s works elsewhere (you just type the noun and the right thing happens). USE COIN definitely took some doing to find, it would have been useful to just type COIN.
I never played this one, but I did briefly borrow a Spectrum (being a Commodore man myself) and play Espionage Island, which was #4 in the same series. I remember it being really, really terrible — so much so that when I started hawking my own games around publishers, the covering letter said things like “Unlike many games, this does not constantly respond I CANT”. It really put me into a fury.
I played this game in a ZX Spectrum. I was disappointed that the port was merely adding color to the presentation screen, the remaining of the game as the same. Black, all caps, and difficult as hell.
It was definitely more commonly referred to as Adventure A back in the day, before the subtitles were given more prominence. As you allude to in your introduction, its place as an early entry in UK adventure game history has meant that the game has been made available in many different forms over the years…
The unadventurous ZX Spectrum edition was disappointing, as was the quickly ported Amstrad CPC version.
The similarly barebones C64 game was eventually followed by a far more verbose version made with the Quill by A.W.J. Adam. It was that, expanded version that was later reworked into The Last Planet starring Nick Hardy… One of these days I will get around to playing through that Quilled C64 version to see how it compares. Amusingly, “Nick Hardy” was apparently the hero of three such remakes of Artic’s games… The Temple Curse (Inca Curse), The Last Planet (Planet of Death) and The Island of Spies (Espionage Island)… He appears, from the box art for the Nick Hardy Adventures compilation, to be an Indiana Jones-like figure… making his spy-based and alien planet escapades impressively unlikely. https://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=nickhardy
Lots of unofficial ports of Planet of Death exist for other systems (e.g. CP/M) and there are many translations to other languages too… including Russian and Spanish, the latter of which seems to also be a Nick Hardy-like text-heavy version created with Gilsoft’s PAW. There’s even a ZX80 version in Italian!
From the amount of remakes and re-releases, it’s obviously a game that many remember fondly, or feel was important to them… but not one I would go rushing back to play myself.
I’m guessing from the exclamation mark in “UGH! HE IS ALL SLIMY” that you were playing the Spectrum port, which has a crucial change (?bug) in this puzzle. In the original ZX81 version, picking up the man without taking appropriate precautions kills you ten turns later, but in the Spectrum version the relevant flag is cleared rather than set and so you can pick him up with impunity.
Yeah, I switched to Spectrum after suffering with the blinkiness long enough.
Hi, I’m the developer who made the Android version of Planet of Death, thanks for the mention. I tried to simplify it somewhat by removing some of the more obscure verbs in the game and replacing most of them with USE or USE WITH.
I have fond memories of playing this when I was about 5yrs old, although there were a lot of frustrating “features”in it. I remember my parents played it too.
I’ve been working with the guy who owns the copyright to this and all other Artic titles.
I’ve also done Inca Curse (finished this week) and also Ship of Doom, which I finished a few months ago, I know they were done in the wrong order but I preferred to do SoD before IC. Neither of these have been released yet as there are a few complications about getting it out and it’s down to the copyright holder as to how and when they are released.
I agree that a lot of Artic games are cheaper copies of bigger name games but it was good back then that you could get an alternate to the big money games.
Drop a note when the other games are out, I’d love to see them.
I finished Inca Curse but my work-in-progress post probably won’t be up until Monday.
Not a problem, I believe it will be a few months, at least, before they are released. They have the same look and feel of Adventure A, I designed that in a way that I could re-use the core “engine”. I’ve added the scoring and a few extra bits to Inca Curse and I’ve added the annoying little alien and the countdown in Ship of Doom.
I’ve added an alternate ending to Ship of Doom based on something earlier in the game.
I’ve also added a choice of UI in Inca Curse so you can play on ZX Spectrum or C64, I may continue this into the next games in the series.
You might want to consider promoting the Android version(s) in the UK 8-bit text adventure community a little… I’m very active there and hadn’t heard about it… I presume it’s this game -> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PurpleViking.AdventureA ? It doesn’t mentioned the fact that it’s officially authorised, which may put off some people from downloading it.
Yes that’s me, along with the itch.io link Jason added in his article.
When I wrote Planet of Death it wasn’t official, I actually did it as a birthday present for my mom, however the guy who owns the copyright got in touch with me and we are now working to rewrite some of the older games, he has all Artic games along with a few other intellectual properties. He let me keep this version up there, however I’ve got a backup now of about 8 games waiting to be released, amongst these are Inca Curse and Ship of Doom.
The newer games will be released on a different Google Play account, I will let you know when they are released and how to find them, they also won’t be free like Planet of Death either as I need to eat 😅.
Unfortunately marketing and promotion aren’t my forte, so if you could point me towards the 8 bit text adventure community that would be great, either via this forum or my email link in the play store link you posted.
Cheers,
Lee
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“This is the same room you reach if you just go down a pit using a rope, which is not exactly a difficult puzzle.”
Especially because there’s a cave drawing showing a man climbing down a pit using a rope.
I’ve seen puzzles with alternate solutions where one solution was easier to find than the other, but this was ludicrous.
Hoping someone here can help me. I’m playing the C64 version of this game, and cannot get out of the Ice Cavern, or back across the Ravine from the Shed.
Ice Cavern – I can see the sleep incline, but DOWN (WITH ICE) does not work.
Old Shed (with GUN) – I get to the shed by crossing the Ravine after BRIDGE RAVINE WITH BOARD (ridiculous!) but attempts to get back result isnfalling into the ravine. Don’t know what has happened to the board.
Any clues appreciated.
Which C64 version? There are technically (at least) three different C64 versions (four if you count the Nick Hardy renamed version). Are you playing the original (# prompt) version or one of the later Quilled (> prompt) versions? [I’m guessing it’s probably the original version, from the four word command you posted]
Hi Gareth, thanks for your replies.
Which version? Good question, Quilled version based on prompt. Playing both the version that has shipped with the recent theC64 Maxi, and a downloaded T64 image version using the C64 Forever emulator. Both versions are quilled, and appear to be playing identically.
Neither USE ICE or USE BOARD work in the scenarios above. The response to both is “I can’t”.
BTW, BRIDGE RAVINE works as well as BRIDGE RAVINE WITH BOARD.
Cheers
Rod
The Quilled versions came later so will be programmed differently to the original Artic releases. BRIDGE RAVINE WITH BOARD will actually be ignoring the WITH BOARD part, because Quill is only (outside of a special custom edition) a two-word parser. Most of the solutions on the main sites are for non-Quilled versions. I’ll see if I can unQuill the database to have a nose at the code. I’ve been meaning to look at the more verbose Quilled editions for a while now… I want to run a comparison between that and the Nick Hardy edition.
SLIDE seems to be the command with the ice block. CROSS RAVINE is in the code too. You can go from the lake side to the shed side using the board. When you make a return trip across from the shed side to the lake then the game destroys the board.
I’ll pop a link to the game database below, for those who are interested. (If you don’t see it straight away then the link will probably need to be approved by Jason first)
A link to the extracted game database from the later C64 Quilled version of the game, which was adapted by A.W.J. Adam. This version is notable because it’s a lot more verbose and also because it later went on to form part of the Nick Hardy trilogy which was published in the US. http://8bitag.com/temp/PLANET.TXT
Thanks Gareth. I’ll try SLIDE but I’m told there’s a steep INCLINE, and sliding UP an incline doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me :)
Regarding the lake, I cannot seem to make the trip back from the shed. It’s like the board is already destroyed ?!?
I’ll check out the database.
Cheers
Rod
I just had a look at the database. Wow! The location descriptions are far more comprehensive than the version I am playing. The word list does give me a few ideas though. Maybe I can ascend the incline as well.
USE ICE is the command some versions need. USE BOARD is the command in many versions too.
Why do you want to go back up the incline?
Because I can’t find any other way out of the maze once I’m in other than to exit via the ice cavern. I’m not sure whether I ever need to enter the maze in the first place (the maze has BOOTS, GLOVES and ICE BLOCK – haven’t yet found a use for any of these).
SLIDE and ASCEND do not work.
Back at the old shed, there appears to be no way back across the ravine after getting the gun.
Would there be any way to “unquill” the version I’m playing? All I have is the T64 image.
Does the ice maze configuration differ from my map?
https://bluerenga.blog/tag/planet-of-death/?order=ASC
In the original you didn’t need to enter the ice maze at all – just going down the pit takes you to the same place.
The gun is definitely necessary though. If I get time I’ll track down the T64 file and try it. I’m definitely interested since this is the version that’s on the plug-and-play C64 currently being sold; while I’ve run into bugs with old games that made them impossible to beat (that were in stores) I haven’t seen such a thing happen with a plug-and-play before.
Hi Jason,
I’ll check when I get home tonight, but I think the maze differs from your version. Perhaps I have missed another exit point, I’ll re-check.
The maze has the boots, so unless I can get back out I can’t try wearing the boots to see if the coin is in the lake.
The inability to get back from the old shed feels like a bug, but maybe I’ve missed something.
And yes, I’m playing this both on the “plug-and-play” theC64 Maxi released over Xmas and using a T64 image on a C64 emulator, and both seem to be playing identicially.
I think this was the T64 image I downloaded, but can’t confirm right now…
https://wowroms.com/en/roms/commodore-64/planet-of-death/136782.html
Cheers
Rod
If that is the file you download then that’s not one of the Quilled versions of the game; it has the # prompt. It’s the original “basic” C64 release. It is solvable (I’ve just played through and completed it) but I didn’t bother with the coin, boots etc. as they’re not needed.
Hi Gareth, sorry could not have been that one then. Maybe this one…
http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=10275
Here’s the database from that one. Yes, that’s nowhere near as verbose! :) I’m going to run a comparison to see if it formed the basis of the longer text-heavy edition… http://8bitag.com/temp/PLANET2.TXT
Looking through the database… the Quilled version above is completely different code to the AWJ Adam Quilled version… which means that there are at least four distinct versions of Planet of Death available for the C64… the original “basic” port, a Quilled version based on the original “basic” game, an enhanced more-verbose Quilled version by AWJ Adam, and the renamed Nick Hardy version.
Just to add to the confusion, there is also (what seems like) a “cracked” version of Planet of Death going around which is called “The Pain” by “Ivysoft”. This seems to just be the original C64 version with a few changes on the title screen.
Hi Gareth, so if I’m reading PLANET2.TXT correctly, then if I’m at location 7 (OLD SHED) and CROSS RAVINE then there are two possible outcomes based on LT 1 2 OR GT 1 1. What are these evaluations? I seem to be hitting the latter.
Flag 1 holds the number of objects a player is carrying, so the LT/GT check is looking at whether you have more than 1 object on you. If you do, then it breaks the board… whether you die when that happens, depends, I think, on which direction you are heading in.
It’s the shed to lake direction that the object limit applies to, so you can only bring objects back one at a time across the board in that direction.
And there it is. I thought I’d tried dropping all objects at the lake before crossing to the ravine (and getting the gun), but maybe when coming back I’d just tried EAST rather than CROSS RAVINE.
Anyway, that works. Happy days. I can probably finish the game now I have the gun, but I’ll go back into the maze, get the maze objects, see if can get out, and see what I can do with those objects, even if they are not critical to finish the game.
Thanks for your assistance. Much appreciated ;-)