(It has been a while, so you might want to refresh yourself on the Haunted Palace saga here.)
The Haunted Palace, the original, is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe, and was published in Issue 4 of the Baltimore publication American Museum of Literature and the Arts.
From the cover of Issue 2.
In the same year (1839), the whole of it was incorporated into Fall of the House of Usher (as being written by Roderick Usher), so the two are technically connected.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch’s high estate;
(Ah, let us mourn!—for never morrow
Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
And round about his home the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.And travellers, now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh—but smile no more.
The enmeshed aspect is relevant for the game The Haunted Palace, and especially in evaluating the mystery, because this has the clues for multiple plots mashed in and only some of them might be relevant for the target questions: a.) who is the burned body? and b.) who did the killing?
It is not all that odd for a mystery plot (interactive or not) to have red herrings, particularly ones signaling that possibly someone else did the killing. This gives the detective leads to trudge through. Deadline gave reason to incriminate everyone in the Robner house, but not everyone was guilty and not every piece of information was technically relevant. Similarly, here, I am approaching with the notion that it is literally impossible for every clue to be relevant.
I am also going to take the game essentially on good faith. The fantastic blog El Explorador de RPG recently had its own playthrough observing bugs and missing pieces; it is equally possible the “soft” materials (the manual and the list of clues) have flaws of their own, but if I assume parts of the puzzle are broken I can’t even approach a solution.
The proprietor of El Explorador de RPG also, importantly, managed to find the lair of the Beast. Following his instructions I found the actual secret room is to the east of a “spice room”, strangely enough in a well-lit portion of the castle.
The Beast incidentally doesn’t move, nor can you attack it. I was able to break open the treasure (with a hammer) and get a SUREGOLD PI, which means (??)
Maybe the text got cut off? Your guess is as good as mine.
There’s no ending to the game, which I already sussed out; you’re supposed to use the information you have now to solve the mystery, but since it is a contest you send in for, there’s no confirmation in the game itself.
Having the Beast be genuinely present is an important clue, insofar as we can take all information about it at face value. Let me explain what I mean by comparison.
The Crystalware Fall of the House of Usher plot involved a man whose ex-wife was thought dead but is not dead, and she murders her husband’s new wife. The first game even had a winner of the associated contest (according to their newsletter).
This game has all the same characters (husband Lord Edward, ex-wife Veronica, current wife Elizabeth) and even some clues that hint at the Usher plot (missing death certificate, bloody scarf) but there isn’t any concrete evidence in the game itself the ex-wife is alive. I suspect it’s a little like the Haunted Palace poem being embedded in the main story; the characters are being used as a framing device.
There’s also two clues trying to signal the caretaker and his wife might be at fault (references to greed in the manual, “SYBIL SAID – HE BETTER NOT LEAVE US OUT” in the clues). However, again, there is no concrete evidence that this all added up to murder, nor is it even clear how the murder would help make sure Lord Edward’s will came out to their liking.
Going back to the full list of clues, I’ve crossed some out:
DIAMOND RING IN A HEAP OF ASHES
BLOOD STAINED SCARF
MARRIAGE LICENSE-ED S. & ELIZ. ASHLEY
LETTER TO ELIZABETH FROM ANNE ASHLEY
ELIZABETH’S PICTURE/TO CHARLES-LOVE E.
WOMAN’S MASK AND TAPE
CLUE-BUTLER SLEEPS IN UNTIL 9 A.M.
BOAT TICKET TO BOSTON
UNPOSTED COPY OF EDWARD’S NEW WILL
CLUE-THERE IS A CASKET IN THE CHAPEL
CLUE-TOWN GOSSIP-SOMEONE SAW ELIZABETH
MAID’S SHOPPING LIST-ONE NEW UNIFORM
A NOTE TO CHARLES-MEET ME TONITE IN..
…I CAN’T HIDE THE TRUTH ANYMORE…
CLUE-CHARLES WAS ONCE A FAMOUS ACTOR
CLUE-NO DEATH CERTIFICATE FOR VIRGINIA
SYBIL SAID-HE BETTER NOT LEAVE US OUT
..I CAN HEAR HERMAN’S CRIES EACH NIGHT
IN THE OLD HOUSE PLANS-A SUBCELLAR
KEY #2 MISSING FROM EDWARD’S KEYRING
What is most definitely in the game is the Beast, and so the references in the clues are relevant: to the maid having to get an enormous amount of food from the village, the fact that her calendar has her from 8 to 9 am looking for a cat, that the Butler doesn’t wake until 9 am (quite specifically!), that the maid needs a new uniform (likely summoning demons is a messy business).
. . . and my lord I mean to inquire about your maids daily purchase of 30 lbs of raw entrails. It is beyond my comprehension how you … the Butcher
As described by Lord Edward in the diary section of the manual, which he stumbled across looking for lost treasure of his ancestors:
There, crouched beneath the sign of a pentagram, was the most loathsome creature I have ever seen. Its yellow eyes gleamed dully in the light of my candle and its 7 foot tall body was covered with a sickly grey matted coat of fur. Around it were strewn various skull and human bones and next to was a stack of fetid rotting entrails.
While there are mystery stories where one heinous crime happens entirely unrelated to the main murder being solved for, I think it is a safe assumption (or 95% safe) that the Beast somehow figures into the death. (If it isn’t, there is so little evidence to work with we might as well guess randomly the solution to the mystery.)
The evidence about Elizabeth being missing (and the “DIAMOND RING IN A HEAP OF ASHES” clue) suggest she is the victim. At the time she was supposed to have left to Boston but never made it there (the ship ticket and a rumor she was in town). There’s plenty of clues that she also became the butler’s lover. Would the Butler have done it, though? He was the one that discovered the body but given he was seen spending copious money in town his relationship seems to have landed him in an advantageous situation. (Also, the explicit 9-o-clock wake up time indicates to me he was unaware of the maid’s activities, and again, I’m assuming the Beast is involved somehow.)
So what motive did the maid have to kill Elizabeth? Well, the maid is mentioned as being tied in with the rumor mill; she would definitely have heard about the Butler and Elizabeth being together, and particularly, the Butler paying for bills in gold coins. This could only reasonably happen if the treasure room was the source.
Just Elizabeth knew about the treasure, but she was sharing with the Butler since they were having a romance. (I am adding this condition to have something later make sense.) The maid had been capable of summoning the Beast in various places (there are pentagrams in multiple places in the castle, although the one in the secret room is the only one that is drawn), so she (by my theory) followed Elizabeth and used the Beast to kill her and dispose of the body. The Butler never knew about the treasure’s location so never found it; His Lordship had his encounter in the diary but just ran away.
This doesn’t still explain the “mask of a woman” clue. I don’t see a mask being held by masked tape fooling anyone except in the most extreme of circumstances. If that isn’t a red herring, I suspect the maid simply dressed as Veronica to scare Lord Stuart away (the diary mentions him hearing Veronica only, so this is just a guess); presumably the treasure is large enough to make it very hard for the maid to get away scot-free on her own without the household entirely cleared out.
So (if my solution here is correct), if we picked the maid at the start of the game, we are in fact the killer! There’s no real “narrative change” to the universe, just the revelation of clues, so this is possible, but if we play the maid, probably we should be vacuuming up all the clues laying around (like the picture of the Butler with Elizabeth) and destroying them.
I’ll call that a wrap for this game! We are technically not done with Crystalware yet, as there was another game with the same engine, Glamis Castle. From an ad at Atarmania:
According to ancient legend and records this castle is one of the most haunted sites in Great Britain. One Lady Glamis, known to be in league with the devil, liked to send out a destructive demon to harass the townspeople. She finally was burnt at the stake on Castle Hill, cursing as she died all future generations of the Lyon family. Her demon still seems to haunt that spot, murdering the curious who stray up to Castle Hill after dark. The curse stipulated that each succeeding generation would have at least one child, often female, who would be a vampire. When an heir comes of age, there is a secret ceremony in which the heir, his father, and the steward take crowbars and chip away plaster concealing a hidden chamber, known only to them, that Earl Patie used when he gambled with the devil. Another tradition says that a creature, half-man, half-beast stalks the passages in the walls of Glamis to insure the fulfilling of the curse. The mystery, of course, is to determine the location of this secret chamber. Our game, occupying 2 disks, will have as exact a replica of the castle as possible. It’s definitely one of a kind! And we will be offering a $500 prize to the first person daring enough to solve the centuries old mystery of Glamis Castle.
The game was published, but we currently lack a copy. I’m not quite at a rush to return to the world of Crystalware yet anyway. I appreciated the uniqueness but the broken aspects made the whole thing collapse under its own weight.
Renga in Blue 
I remember digging into the whole Crystalware/John Bell story years ago, long before so many of the old computer/game mags were available online. I vaguely remembered the company from my early 80s gaming days, and the sort of weird/sketchy atmosphere that seemed to surround them and their games, and then came upon some references in my old Japanese magazines (I had been a keen collector of these since the mid 80s), which led me down a very strange rabbit hole. Long story short, I partially completed an article, the gist of which was something like “The first CRPG released in Japan may have actually been created by a mentally unstable American scam artist!”, but real life intruded and I never got round to finishing it. Oh well.
Further useless trivia: AIP’s 1960s “Haunted Palace” movie was actually a Lovecraft adaptation, rather than Poe. Then, classic 80s metal band (and old personal favourite) Manilla Road wrote a “Haunted Palace” song, but it was actually about the House of Usher. Seems that nobody could quite get this one straight…
Wait, Crystalware games were published in Japan, or did they publish something in Japan? I thought it was kind of weird that Polarware games got published there, by another company, but still.
Grave Digger did a song called Haunted Palace on their 2001 self-titled album, though it is a bit vague.
There are two games that were published in Japan by the Bells. In one version they went by Brother Sun and Sister Moon. One is “one of the first crpgs in japan” by suitably fuzzy definition.
more detail here: http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/dragon-lair/
Ah, funny to see those old HG101 articles again! I used to comment on those when they first started, as I was one of the only westerners to have actually played some of that stuff at the time, but it seems they must have been wiped out in a site update at some point. In any case, I did end up providing some small bit of information to one of those gentlemen, who was working on a book about obscure Japanese games, if I recall correctly.
Anyway yes, it was Dragon Lair I was referring to. It’s a shame I never finished that article, as I remember piecing together quite an absurd saga, including outraged customers, weird nonexistent games, barking mad posts of pure gibberish about super-advanced nano-bots that would surely conquer the world, etc. Bell was indeed a “character”, to put it politely…
Good call on the Grave Digger! My metal fandom petered out after the early 90s, so I wasn’t aware of their later work. Interesting that they also did a Poe concept album, just like Manilla’s “Mystification”.
A great conclusion to the Haunted Palace saga. I hope one day we can play Glamis Castle.
The “SUREGOLD PI” bug is like the “ERCORP” bug, the program stores containers and contents in the form “TREAUSREGOLD PIECES” and “MEAT LOCKERCORPSE”, and starts counting letters in the wrong spot.
That’s some real Bill Budge/Nasir Gebelli level coding right there!
Still, I’ve always loved the delicious chocolate and caramel flavour of TREASUREGOLD PIECES, and actually used to play guitar in a grindcore band named MEAT LOCKERCORPSE, so who am I to criticize?
MEAT LOCKERCORPSE? Not MEATLOCKER CORPSE? 🤣
Were Bill Budge and Nasir Gebelli known for coding poorly? I thought they were held up as some of the best Apple II programmers.
I believe that was a joke (having the weird bug where TREASUREGOLD PIECE turns into SUREGOLD PI is the opposite of what Budge would do).
Lisa–my guess is that they didn’t put spaces in between the entries, since they were supposed to be displayed separately? so if you had “MEAT LOCKERCORPSE” and you told it to display characters 1-11, you’d get “MEAT LOCKER,” and if you told it to display 12-17, you’d get “CORPSE.” But alas, if you told it to display characters 10-15…
@matt w (sorry Rob, the lack of more levels of comments is biting me here) – I was referring to the (joke, I assume) name of the grindcore band.
Oh yes! I can’t even blame the comment nesting for this one.
Are we dealing with a Cthulhu reference or are those just poorly-drawn fangs/tusks, given the references to it having fur? If we are, that might be one of the first Lovecraft references in a video game.
Maybe? There wasn’t enough there for me to want to make guesses. It certainly gives a cuddly-Cthulhu vibe.
Well, there is an obscure game supposedly by Crystalware in 1985 for Apple II called Ghost Mansion that had a Lovecraft inspired theme, and if it really is a game by Crystalware, I’m sure it reuses the code of The Haunted Palace/Glamis Castle.
It’s reviewed in a Washington Apple Pi Journal from 1985…
There was Kadath from 1979, though rather than using Lovecraft’s traditional eldritch horrors it instead uses his epic fantasy dreamcycle. It’s interesting irrespective of subject, as I do believe it’s the first adventure game to use a multiple choice menu over a parser.
Yog-Sothoth showed up in Inferno (1981). As we discussed in the comments, people might have been getting Lovecraft characters from the original D&D Deities and Demigods, before the Lovecraft mythos got kicked out.
Speaking of D&D, that looks a bit more like a mind flayer to me.
Ah hah! I knew that monster was reminding me of something else from that era. It’s almost certainly cribbed from the old AD&D artwork, and check the description:
“Mind flayers are found only in subterranean places, as they detest sunlight. They are greatly evil and consider the bulk of humanity (and its kin) as cattle to feed upon.”
It then goes on to mention that they attack with their tentacles, sucking the victim’s brain out and devouring it. Recall the manual’s description of he monster surrounded by human skulls, “fetid entrails”, etc. So, most likely a Gygax, rather than a Lovecraft, “borrowing”. Typical of the time, really.
One other thing:
This “Ghost Mansion” that Explorador mentioned is a real mystery. The review is in the November, ’85 issue of that long-running publication, but it was also referred to in an issue from early in the year as being one of a group of games that were “donated” to them. It’s clearly listed as being from Crystalware, but the company had gone under around three years prior. The review itself does indeed describe many similarities in style and content to this particular Crystalware “engine”, but also many differences, and goes on to compare it to Sword of Kadash (?!), while noting the execrable technical standards that were a company hallmark.
Just speculation here, but I wonder if what they received was actually an unfinished or unreleased game that somehow leaked out in the following years? Crystalware churned out a prodigious amount of product back then, and some of it still remains poorly accounted for.
Crystalware was not around in 1985, but I think John Bell was not the type of person who knows when to give up… He published some games in 1983 through Romox and Avalon Hill, and he even republished Benioff’s The Crypt through “Crystal Vision” in 1990:
http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-crypt-_1429.html
I’m sure this Ghost Mansion is based in the same “engine” as The Haunted Palace. Even the U key to use items is implemented as a command in The Haunred Palace, but ultimately not used. The strangest thing in that review is the Zenith Z-100 version of the manual.
Perhaps this was John Bell’s first attempt (but not the last) to resurrect his company.
Very interesting! I did a little more follow-up research, and here are a few other oddities to ponder:
Crystal Vision also apparently released other former Crystalware games for the Atari in 1990 (why?!), including Sands of Mars and an otherwise unknown/undumped title called Jihad (The Holy War), but all these were now credited to “JB Michaels”. So were these just pirates (but again, why?!) or yet more inexplicably weird John Bell shenanigans?
Regarding Jihad, the only other reference I could find to this game led me to the massive Stephen M. Cabrinety software collection at Stanford. Searching through the catalogue, I found that it not only contains the mysterious Jihad, but also a number of Crystalware titles for the Atari. Two items stand out as being of possible interest:
Lasa Wars, 1985:
Obviously just a version of 1981’s Lasar Wars/Laser Wars, but what’s with that date? Just a typo, or is this some further evidence that Bell was indeed trying to resuscitate his company around that time, as you speculated? But if so, why does the only reference to it seem to be in that one (relatively minor) magazine/newsletter via an apparently “donated” title?
Tower of Usher, 1981:
Surely just an error, right? But wait! The collection also has a separate copy of House of Usher, stored in an entirely different box of the collection. So what is this, then? A previously unknown alternate title for the same game, or…?
Maybe someone in the Stanford area with way too much time on their hands should go and solve these mysteries once and for all. Or maybe not. I fear that any more delvings into the endless abyss of eldritch, cthonic madness was Crystalware/John Bell may leave our minds blasted and barren, much like many of Lovecraft’s own unfortunate protagonists.
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”!
The crpgaddict writeup suggests jb michaels is just a john bell pseudonym. I think his source is different from yours on this. http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2020/04/closing-books-on-crystalware.html?m=1
Yeah, all of my “research” on this Crystalware nonsense was, up until today, done way before the Facebook era, so I missed that part. Cinches the whole Michaels thing though, and does make it seem more likely that he could have been up to yet more of his antics back in ’85, as these sort of manic episodes were clearly a pattern.
The most interesting thing on the CRPG post is probably the more recent comment from his later ex-wife. Explains a lot.
I don’t think that’s the plot of Poe’s original Fall of the House of Usher? Roderick Usher entombs his sister Madeleine when she’s not quite dead yet, she comes back and they both die, but there are no ex-wives or new wives involved, just the standard old-school-friend narrator who hightails it out of there as the house collapses.
I should be clear I am describing Crystalware’s version. I realize I didn’t mention that.
(actually, I totally mangled that! wow. ok, fixed now I think)
I assume you saw this in the manual (and apologies if you mentioned it in a previous post)? Check out rule #6 in particular. Maybe someone will scan old issues of Crystal Vision someday.
RULES AND HINTS
6. Only one prize will be awarded and this will go to the first to solve the
mystery and submit their solution in the correct manner. The winner will be
asked to send a short summary of about 400-500 words describing his or her
experiences in playing the game and how the solution was found. This will be
printed in a special article in Crystal Vision announcing the winner. It is also
requested that the winner submit a picture of themself which will be printed
along with the article.