Into the breach we go. This post will only make sense if you’ve read my previous ones first.
From the cover of the game’s manual, via the Gallery of Undiscovered Entities.
Before approaching the final battle, I needed to get all the weapons in addition to all the treasures.
daggers, potions, swords, spears, darts, maces
Some of these are dependent on if you are holding certain treasures; for example, if you are holding Rexxon’s Arc (that was the one that required doing the USE RING/MAGIC puzzle) you can find the daggers in a random dead end.
This is after the vast majority of people will have everything mapped out. Just to be clear how annoying this is, here is a merged version of all the maps together.
I’m not sure what the expectations of the authors was — that the entire map get combed over again?
The maces are the same way — they are in a random dead end, and you can find them while holding the pendant (it’s more feasible a player would be holding the pendant by the time they first reach this location, but I hadn’t).
There are swords are at yet another random dead end, this time while holding the crown (which is likely one of the last treasures the player would find!)
Oddly enough, another place has swords. It’s in a location with a whole stash: darts, potions, spears, and swords all together.
This is the only “interesting” weapon spot, insofar as reaching it requires going past a slaver raid (there’s no way past it) …
After this I was out of strongmen and elves.
… and down a shaft, where there’s no way to get back up. I hence had one somewhat random puzzle left to solve, although my solution came from taking the magician I happened to have out and trying MAGIC in every room. In one of the rooms you find a bicyclops. (A cyclops with two eyes. Yes.)
From the source code
2917 IF A$ = “” THEN PRINT “YES THAT IS THE CARRIAGE RETURN KEY NOW LETS SEE YOU FIND SOME OTHERS”: GOTO 2910
2920 IF A$ = “SEX” THEN FOR I = 1 TO 5: XDRAW 38 AT 120,60: XDRAW 38 AT 135,60: DRAW 38 AT 120,90: DRAW 38 AT 135,90: XDRAW 38 AT 120,90: XDRAW 38 AT 135,90: DRAW 38 AT 120,60: DRAW 38 AT 135,60: NEXT I: PRINT “OOOGA OOOGA”: GOTO 2910
2925 IF LEFT$(A$,4) = “HELP” THEN PRINT “TELL ME ONLY WHAT YOU NEED HELP WITH”: GOTO 2910
2930 IF LEFT$(A$,4) = “FIND” THEN PRINT “TELL ME ONLY WHAT YOU NEED TO FIND”: GOTO 2910
2940 IF A$ = “EXIT” OR A$ = “ENTRANCE” OR A$ = “LEAVE” THEN GOTO 8140
2950 IF A$ = “GOLD” OR A$ = “TREASURE” OR A$ = “WEAPONS” THEN PRINT “I DON’T SEE ANY”: GOTO 2910
(If you pick SEX the eyes move rapidly up and down, followed by OOOGA OOOGA. I will spare you a screenshot.)
After enough turns have passed the bicyclops helpfully states IF YOU SAY ‘EXIT’ I WILL GET YOU OUT so at least this isn’t a complete guessing game.
With all that taken care of, I first needed to restock my supply of elves and strongmen.
Urgh. This is the only thing money in the game is used for.
Then it was just the Tarturian to worry about. I mentioned I already found it last time. What happened is I had found some food for the yummy yakky (two posts ago, so let me reproduce the picture)…
…who, after USE FOOD, gives you a hint.
BURP THANKS.I TRIED TO EAT A SPIDER HANGING FROM THE CEILING ONCE BUT SOMEBODY MEAN PUSHED IT TOO HIGH FOR ME
Way back in one of the early rooms of the game I remembered a spider.
I tried doing the Strongman’s various maneuvers: MOVE unveiled the passage to the Tarturian.
THIS IS THE ENTRANCE TO THE TARTURIANS LAIR. IF YOU ENTER IT THERE WILL BE NO RETURNING.
DO YOU WISH TO FACE THE TERRIBLE TARTURIAN Y(YES) N(NO)?
This leads to the final showdown, which has no interactivity at all (as long as you’ve brought all the weapons and treasures).
The game then kicks to the Apple II prompt and ends by informing you that GOTO 10 will let you watch the whole sequence again, if you want.
Utterly, utterly, exhausting. Easily 80% of my gameplay was either a.) mapping, where I had to test every room exit since none are listed b.) trawling through the map a second time once I realized what was going on with the how the weapons showed up and c.) the logistics of a decreasing strength meter and losing party members. It was hard to find satisfaction even in the puzzles that had hints to them. But at least I’m done with it.
Renga in Blue 
A curious game with a weird war-party mechanic (a cast of dozens!?), which might have had potential but seems to have turned out to be just a frustrating grind. But it was interesting to read about. Thanks for persevering with it!
Prior to playing this game, I had no idea how to have a (good) adventure game where you control an entire war-party. Now, even though The Tarturian is essentially a negative example, I have an inkling.
The random-critters-killing-particular party members would have to go, and the command structure would need to be streamlined (like, I could see choosing CAST and having some message along the lines of one of your wizards stepping up). I’d put in some bona-fide combat as opposed to just having set places where slavers make off with party members.
I’d also give them names and stuff. Even if it’s an XCOM type situation where some of them are cannon fodder, a few character strokes would go a long way.
“What Level Are We At”? “Don’t Like”? I’m suspecting a bit of editorializing here…. ;)
2917 IF A$ = “” THEN PRINT “YES THAT IS THE CARRIAGE RETURN KEY NOW LETS SEE YOU FIND SOME OTHERS”: GOTO 2910
*snerk*
The fact that they specially coded for the response SEX says something about who they expected to be playing this game, methinks.
THOUST BAND OF RAG TAG WARRIORS
“Thoust”? Look, I know everyone gets thy/thine wrong (“thy” before consonant sounds, “thine” before vowels) but thoust?? Excuse me, I need I lie-down.
Those are actual room titles. (Don’t like is something like “I don’t like this”.)
Thou’st is a genuine archaic contraction of “thou hast” apparently (not like it makes any sense in this context, still).
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thou%27st
… genuine room titles. Huh. *nonplussed*
For a time “The Tarturian” was an in-joke on Mobygames, whenever someone would ask after an obscure and unknown game of no known title. “Have you tried… The Tarturian?”
I can’t really explain why it was funny, but the game’s dubious merits made it no less a fan than John Romero, who was the one who wrote it up for that site!
I saw Romero did a tweet about it! The odd thing is his description meant he got to the end but he must have been one of only a few people to finish it, because there were no maps/walkthroughs anywhere on the Internet.
I could see liking it with a certain mindset. It certainly is unique if nothing else.
I finished The Tarturian about a year ago. I grew up with the game, and remembered the epic final battle with The Tarturian, which at the time was a miraculous experience for my 7 year old self. Because it was a self-contained animated sequence (which adapted based on the weapons you had or didn’t have) It was as if I were watching a movie that I took a part in creating, and that was new and exciting.
Also, consider that The Tarturian could possibly be the first epic boss battle in video gaming history. That’s pretty remarkable.
The final battle was definitely neat. You may want to check out my writeup on Hezarin which also has a crazy (puzzle-solving) boss sequence on the end.
Did you do anything in particular to find the obscurely hidden stuff, especially the items that only appear in a room later?
Sorry for the late reply. I’m just seeing this now.
When I recently replayed it, I dug around in the source code for hints.
When I played it in 1981, I really have no idea what I did to win it (but we definitely did win it because I bet much remember the end game and being grossed out by the hi-res Apple ][ gore.. It was the neck stumps that did it for me.)
My father someone’s would call up the publishers for clues, so that’s a big possibility. Also, in later years there were the huge “book of adventure games” which published walkthroughs of all of these old Yankees in days before the internet. I think we owned 3 volumes of them.
I don’t think The Tarturian ever ended up in those books. The Highland folks did take hint questions but only when they still existed, in 1981 — would it have been about then?
yes we had an Apple ][+ in 1979 and Oldorf’s Revenge and Tarturian were some of the earliest games I played at 6-7 years old. We had originals because I distinctly remember the red and white slanted Highlands logo. I remember those book adventure games volumes being awfully comprehensive. Because they were so few games available in those days, I don’t think Tarturian at the time was as obscure a game as people think of it now. They were so few games publishers that when a new one came out, it was exciting. That Tarturian has been largely lost to obscurity is not a reflection of the state of Apple yanking in the early 80s. If it didn’t appear in the first volume of the Book of Adventure games I’d consider that an egregious oversight.
It has Oldorf’s but not Tarturian. Maybe Schuette played it but couldn’t beat it?
And it’s not in volume 2? What about Creature Venture? Again, these were not obscure games in 1981. You could buy them from your local computerland on the peg wall of Ziploc software. If we finished it, others did too. Also remember Apple user group meetups were common in those days and that’s how people would swap tips.
Not in volume 2 (which I have a copy of), no.
Volume 1 includes Creature Venture and Mummy’s Curse. I really do suspect Kim just couldn’t lick Tarturian so that one got left out.
Interesting. My reaction was to look up Kim Schuette to see if I could ask him directly, but according to this he passed quite some time ago. https://comp.sys.cbm.narkive.com/bc90ZXkS/looking-for-information-on-kim-r-reid-schuette-the-guy-that-did-the-book-of-adventure-games-game
I don’t see any good reason why Schuette couldn’t have finished Tarturian on his own (or with help). I’m sure you’ve noticed that Oldorf operated on much of the same zonky logic that The Tarturian did and Schuette was able to finish that one. And I recall the “master adventurer” section of Creatue Venture was far more difficult to crack than Tarturian.
Remember, people were paying the equivalent sometimes of $70-100 for games (adjusted for inflation) and so a game was supposed to “last” for a while. That sometimes meant putting a game away and coming back to it later with a fresh mind. People in those days weren’t trying to power through a game in a few days’ time.