Recently, the Internet Archive went down, and unfortunately, my next several posts were dependent in some way or another on references there. Hence, I scrapped my schedule and picked something I didn’t need extra research for: the sequel to Uncle Harry’s Will, by R. L. Turner, as written for the North Star Horizon.
CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE PERSERVERED TO THE END OF THE SEARCH! THE MONEY YOU HAVE FOUND IN MY CHEST WILL PAY YOUR WAY TO ENGLAND THERE, YOU’LL FIND YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE. SOMEWHERE IN WHEMBLY CASTLE LIES HIDDEN A HUGE TREASURE OF JEWELS AND GOLD. HIDDEN THERE BY YOUR GREAT, GREAT, GRANDFATHER ALMOST TWOHUNDRED YEARS AGO. MANY HAVE SEARCHED, BUT NO ONE HAS FOUND IT. WITH YOUR LOGIC AND INTELIGENCE I KNOW YOU WILL BE ABLE TO FIND IT! GOOD LUCK!
The previous game involved a gigantic map which tried to re-create the roadmap of an entire country, and the player had to follow the instructions of a poem in the manner similar to a gimmick road rally. It was, if nothing else, unique.
Whembly Castle is much more traditional: we’re on foot, we’ve arrived at a castle, we’re looking for treasure with no poem to guide us.
North Star Horizon brochure, from Bitsavers.
We even start adjacent to a forest! Very unexpected, I know.
YOU ARE AT THE END OF A ROAD LEADING NORTH. THERE ARE DENSE, UNPENATRABLE WOODS ON EACH SIDE. TO THE WEST IS A SMALL GATEHOUSE.
NOW WHAT? >W
YOU ARE IN A SMALL EMPTY ROOM. THERE IS A SIGN PAINTED ON THE WALL HERE. IT READS: BEWARE THE ICY WATER!
The start area is meant generally just to stall the player from trying a direct approach.
Entering a gate over a bridge leads to a lake which is a dead end.
YOU ARE AT THE SOUTH END OF A BRIDGE EXTENDING NORTH OVER A VERY FOGGY LAKE. SMALL TOWERS FLANK THE PASSAGE. THERE IS A DOOR INTO THE WEST TOWER.
NOW WHAT? >N
YOU ARE AT THE NORTH END OF A BRIDGE WHICH ENDS ABRUPLY HERE. TO THE NORTH LIES THE LAKE. MISTY WHITE FOG COVERS THE WATER. YOU CAN SEE A DARK MASS IN THE FOG TO THE NORTH.
Trying to enter the lake results in the icy doom warned about in the sign. The proper way to go is the previously mentioned west tower, which has a deck of cards. After picking up the deck of cards, the game rather unusually gives the player ACE OF DIAMONDS through KING OF DIAMONDS as individual objects.
YOU ARE IN THE WEST TOWER OF THE BARBICAN.
THERE IS A BENCH AND A TABLE HERE.NOW WHAT? >INVENTORY
YOU ARE CARRYING:
AN ACE OF DIAMONDS
A TWO OF DIAMONDS
A THREE OF DIAMONDS
A FOUR OF DIAMONDS
A FIVE OF DIAMONDS
A SIX OF DIAMONDS
A SEVEN OF DIAMONDS
AN EIGHT OF DIAMONDS
A NINE OF DIAMONDS
A TEN OF DIAMONDS
A JACK OF DIAMONDS
A QUEEN OF DIAMONDS
A KING OF DIAMONDS
This is quite unusual and ominous, and I immediately knew this signaled a maze coming, and the objects were intended to map things out. Indeed, heading back to enter the forest, one step in reveals “YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS”.
Topologically, you can consider the map above to be in three sections.
The “main” group is an interconnected set of 11 rooms, with many of them having a “Dead End” branch room. (The idea of random dead ends scattered about dates back to Crowther’s Adventure, even pre-Woods.) In a narrative sense, if someone is stumbling around they’ll essentially go in circles although there’s no special tendencies to force the player back to the start (unlike some mazes, which include special one-way “trap” exits; see the ending maze of Sphinx Adventure for the most extreme example). This is essentially forced by the author’s insistance that if room A goes to room B, there is a path that also lets you go back from B to A. In the context of a cave, one way exits can make sense (you come from above using gravity somehow) but in a forest it doesn’t, so I appreciate the decision.
The “branch” I have marked is miss-able by someone not thorough enough: it leads to a key.
YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS
NOW WHAT? >E
YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS
YOU SEE HERE, A RUSTY IRON KEY
The “ending” section is separated from the main set, making it less likely someone will wander to the end of the maze by accident.
YOU ARE IN A TWISTING MAZE OF PATHS
NOW WHAT? >NE
YOU ARE AT THE EDGE OF THE WOODS. TO THE NORTH IS A CLEARING. THE LAKE LIES ALONG THE WEST EDGE OF THE CLEARING. THERE ARE WOODS SURROUNDING THE CLEARING. THERE IS A TRAIL INTO THE WOODS TO THE SOUTH. YOU CAN SEE A BUILDING TO THE NORTH.
This leads to a shack next to a dock and a boat. Just for simplicity of explanation, I’ll assume a player who has already poked ahead to the next outdoor area (a cabin) and returned with a metal prybar lying out in the open.
With the prybar you can bust through a rusty padlock into the shack and find some oars.
YOU ARE AT THE NW CORNER OF THE SHACK. THERE IS A HAND-OPERATED GASOLINE PUMP HERE. THERE IS GAS IN THE PUMP.
NOW WHAT? >S
YOU ARE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE WOODEN SHACK. ON THE DOOR THERE IS A RUSTY HASP AND PADLOCK. TO THE WEST IS A BOAT DOCK. TO THE NORTH A GAS PUMP.
NOW WHAT? >OPEN DOOR
OK!
NOW WHAT? >E
YOU ARE IN A SMALL OFFICE. THERE IS A DUSTY COUNTER HERE.
THERE ARE DOORS EAST AND WEST.NOW WHAT? >E
YOU ARE IN A DIRTY STORAGE ROOM.
YOU SEE HERE, A PAIR OF OARS
The oars let you jump in the boat and row around, although I found it quite finicky; the game insisted I not use ROW WEST but instead just type the direction, but at first just typing the direction failed. I am unclear the source of the bug.
Even after getting to the lake, it turns out to be too foggy to move around.
YOU ARE ON THE LAKE NEAR THE EAST SHORE. THERE ARE ROCKS EAST.
YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.
NOW WHAT? >W
THE LAKE IS VERY FOGGY! YOU’LL NEVER FIND YOUR WAY WITHOUT A COMPASS!
There’s another bug with the boat I’ll get to in a second, but let’s check out the final area first.
This is straightforwardly a cabin with another locked door, but rather than forcing it this time, you can use the key from the forest maze.
YOU ARE IN A LARGE ROOM. THERE ARE CHAIRS AND A TABLE HERE. A LARGE DESK SITS IN ONE CORNER NEXT TO A FIREPLACE. THERE IS A BED ALONG ONE WALL. NEXT TO THE BED IS A SMALL DRESSER.
YOU SEE HERE, A GAS CAN
(The desk, dresser, table, etc. don’t seem to be hiding anything.)
The gas can can be filled up back at the shack; I haven’t used the filled can for anything yet, but I do wonder if we get to hit the road somewhere just like the last game. There’s also off to the side a manhole that goes underground.
YOU ARE AT THE NW CORNER OF THE CLEARING.
THERE IS A MANHOLE COVER IN THE GROUND HERE.NOW WHAT? >OPEN HATCH
THERE IS A LADDER HERE LEADING DOWN TO A CHAMBER BELOW.
NOW WHAT? >D
YOU ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LADDER.
THERE IS A TRAPDOOR ABOVE YOUR HEAD
(Notice how it is referred to as a “manhole cover” but you need to call it a “hatch” to get anywhere. Yes, this game retains the guess-the-noun from the previous one.)
I’ve gotten a little farther, but this seems like a good place to cut off. I did promise I’d return to the boat.
While I was able to enter the boat, I have yet to discern a good syntax for leaving the boat. Out of desparation I just tried leaving east at the docks, thinking it might have my avatar hop out of the boat automatically. Instead, the boat stayed with me.
YOU ARE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE WOODEN SHACK. ON THE DOOR THERE IS A RUSTY HASP AND PADLOCK. TO THE WEST IS A BOAT DOCK. TO THE NORTH A GAS PUMP.
YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.
Land boat! You can “ride” the boat all the way to the underground, but if you do that, you hit the “fog” condition and end up getting warped back to the docks.
YOU ARE AT THE TOP OF THE LADDER. THERE IS A TRAPDOOR ABOVE YOUR HEAD
YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.
NOW WHAT? >D
THE LAKE IS VERY FOGGY! YOU’LL NEVER FIND YOUR WAY WITHOUT A COMPASS!
YOU ARE ON THE LAKE NEXT TO THE DOCK. THE LAKE IS COVERED WITH A DENSE FOG.
YOU ARE IN THE BOAT.
The last game went up to roughly 200 rooms and I’ve only got 71 so far, so I expect quite a bit to go. I do find it interesting the same room-to-object ratio is still fairly large. In a road trip, it’s understandable you wouldn’t see much by the side of the road worth picking up; here, in a “classic” style adventure, the ratio feels a little more uneasy, but it is possible the game will change things up later.
Renga in Blue 
RavenWorks, in case you see this, are you the same one from Twitter?
After Uncle Harry, I played through this one next. It’s buggy, but winnable without having to fix the code, unlike its predecessor.
You’ve already partially gotten through the part that gave me the most trouble and almost made me hit the code to see if it was fatally bugged. IIRC, the oars actually have to be dropped in the boat to be able to row around the lake. If you’re in the boat and carrying them, it’ll give you an “I CAN’T DO THAT!” or somesuch. There are other bugs with the boat, as you’ve noticed, including more inventory stuff and getting in and out. I remember that “EXIT BOAT” or something along those lines did work if you’re at the dock, though. Also, if you get in and out of the boat and don’t “TIE BOAT”, it will sometimes float away when you come back to the area, softlocking the game. The game gives you no indication that you need to (or are even able to) do this, and the effects seem quite random. You can “UNTIE” it too, but it’s unnecessary. You may also have noted that the boat has a motor that won’t start. This can also lead to a bug that completely eliminates one of the main puzzles later in the game, which I found quite hilarious, but I’ll say no more for now…
Anyway, I still have my map and notes from the game handy, so I should be able to help out if necessary.
The boat is a lot more finicky than that — it’s definitely not if you’re carrying the oars
one time I was only able to launch when I got a literal bug (I tried LOOK and got something about the forest being too dense that way, and the next turn I could finally go west)
I still have no idea how the tying works. I can TIE BOAT while in it and the game says OK but immediately says it floats away once I step off.
Yeah, the whole implementation of the boat is a complete mess, and there may be various conditions that trigger the bugs. I’ll say this though, based on what I recall, to possibly save you some time here:
The game has no inventory limit, so just explore and map the initial areas thoroughly, then take everything you find and just bring it in the boat with you. There may be bugs triggered by holding or not holding certain items, but once you actually get the boat moving, you’ll be safe to just move on and explore the lake, not having to worry about getting out of the boat again on the dock and having it float away.
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Some time ago I downloaded AppleWin and these two games were early efforts that I tried via that emulator.
I will warn you in advance about Windmere Estate and Zodiac Castle; firstly they are meant to use the same map logistics but I did not find this to be so. The games both seem to be bugged and the problems with the portrait and the safe are sure to frustrate you in Windmere Estate. And good luck with the dumb waiter. I have my map and I wrote a review for the former I think on CASA and IFDB. The flaws are a shame as the games could be very good had they been tested properly in the first place.
I might end up playing the North Star versions, it is possible they’ll be less buggy (but given how buggy this game was, maybe not).
How “big” are they in terms of time consumption? Are we talking Avon-length or are they shorter?
They are both pretty big and tough, partly due to clever puzzles and partly due to a dodgy parser and occasional illogicalities, like the problem with the safe previously mentioned and giving objects different names to ones that the parser will accept. I have mapped ninety-five locations for Windmere Estate and amassed twenty-three treasures to give me a score of 230 out of 415. It has an unusual light recharging puzzle if I recall correctly as well as the guaranteed headache-inducing parser infelicities.
I would think they are about the same size as Avon. I made similar progress in Zodiac Castle to that of the first game but then I noticed that Alex in CASA had posted up a comment that the game was unsolvable so I decided to call it a day on that one.
I fully intended to go back to Windmere Estate and carry on where I left off but I haven’t had the time to do it recently; I can send you my (inevitably partial) map if you require it at some juncture. I found it more interesting than Zodiac Castle although I am not sure if the game is completable or not. Perhaps I can find time to play along when you get round to it.
On a more general note, having only recently looked at Apple text adventures one thing that struck me was the paucity of text-only games for the platform. So many seemed to have graphics included as well.
I took a brief look at the Northstar versions of Windmere and Zodiac after I finished Whembly. My initial impression was that the author seems a bit more competent than R.L. Turner, so hopefully these originals are less buggy than the later Apple II ports.
As someone who grew up playing adventures on the Apple II in the early 80s, I could write a dissertation on why they mainly developed in a certain style, but I’ll spare everyone the boredom…
Which version of the North Star Horizon Client Emulator did you use inside DOSBox-X Jason? There seem to be a few different downloads floating around on the internet. I have the .nsi game files.
the one from here
http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/sim/index.htm
via “My own NorthStar Horizon/Vector (205k ZIP)”
I followed the directions here (Google Translate works on it fine) https://exploradorrpg.wordpress.com/plataformas/north-star/
with the one exception I booted with ZODIAC as opposed to the plain NSDOS disk as the version of BASIC seems to be different
even if you aren’t playing Zodiac Castle after you get BASIC started you can swap disks (pick STOP, which I think is F3, then F7 to swap disks, then put in the disk you’re wanting in R/W mode), then resume with “G”
That’s probably where I went wrong. Cheers – I’ll have a bash at it later.
I feel I am almost there. Did you choose horizon /s when you ran the horizon.com file from within DOSBox-X as the game files appear to be single density. I can boot into NORTH STAR DOS 5.1 then L1 lists CASTLE but when I type GO BASIC (as the CASTLE file has a 2 at the far end of the file description to indicate BASIC) I just get a question mark. If I choose the Northstar DOS Whembly Castle.nsi file and load it as Disk 1 RO (single density) I can’t seem to get it to boot into DOS.
no launch with special settings
(F7, insert ZODIAC (I did read-only, but probably doesn’t matter), G for go)
NORTH STAR DOS 5.0
+GO BASIC
READY
(F3 to stop, F7, insert WHEMBLY as R/W, G to go)
LOAD CASTLE
READY
RUN
READING DATA……
IS THIS A CONTINUATION OF AN OLD GAME (Y/N)?
I have now managed to load basic via the GO BASIC command and I receive the READY prompt. However, LOAD CASTLE,2 produced a TOO LARGE OR NO PROGRAM ERROR
see my previous reply for sequence
my guess is it doesn’t want both disks loaded at the same time, so it genuinely is hitting a memory limit
oh and it is bonkers slow in default so I did F11 with the + a bunch of times to get the DOSBOX cycles (listed on the top bar) up to around the 76000s
If I try to load the Northstar DOS Whemnly Castle.nsi file as RO in Disk 1 or the Northstar DOS Zodiac Castle.nsi (the latter is double density) and then press G the emulato just hangs without booting to DOS. If however I load the NSDOS50 or 51 disk in Disk 1 as RO and then the game.nsi in Disk 2 it boots to DOS. Even doing them separately doesn’t work. From where did you source the game.nsi files? They appear ok but maybe they are corrupt somehow.
Nope. if I follow your steps I now get an ARG error.
I have now managed to get Zodiac Castle to run. Thanks very much for your help. I tghink there is a problem with the Whembly Castle.nsi file as the double density 175K Zodiac runs ok. I wonder if you can save?
The saved slot system works fine. I have managed to get Whembly working too. It will be interesting to see if the Dynacomp versions of Windmere and Zodiac have the same bugs as the North Star versions.
Strewth. As a traditionalist I have always been quite amenable to mazes in text adventures but this game is testing my tolerance levels.
to quote my third post
It still has some moments, but boy the author needed to lighten up
I recently completed a game (one of the titles from your first lost media list, in fact) that has a similarly huge multi-tiered maze which took me forever to map out. The common thread being that the game uses the full 8 compass points plus up and down as a tool of sadism in itself, although in this case the implementation was more clever and the game much better than Whembly overall, providing just enough motivation to keep at it until the mapping was finished.
I was considering the most horrendous mazes I have come across in forty years of wanderings. Without any serious revision I think the three nastiest are:
1. The very large maze in the Warp Building in the game of that name. There is a one way exit right at the edge of the map and it hits you near the end of your exploration when you are more likely to miss it through sheer fatigue. Part of it also leads to an area (the Secretarial Pool) where there is an apparent puzzle but in reality it is an unused scenario.
2. Adventure 500. This is an imagined clone of the Willie Crowther game but much tougher. Loads of one way exits in its maze and an area outside of the maze that is meant to fool you into thinking you have visited before as the descriptions are almost identical.
3. Inevitably the Phoenix crowd are involved. There is a black hole maze (I think in Crobe but it might be another game) where objects vanish when dropped and there is no natural light. Like the Bank Of Zork I solved this in the end by sheer doggedness rather than puzzle deconstruction.
And three of the best:
1. Fyleet by Jonathan Partington. This has a rotating maze that shifts one eighth of the compass rose in a clockwise direction with each move.
2. There is a very clever maze in The Dark Tower by Jim MacBrayne. You have to traverse it twice and learn details on your first visit that need to be applied second time around.
3. The Wild Wood maze in Hezarin needs to be solved in a way that is unique in text adventure history as far as I know.
I have avoided your write up of Whembly Castle so that I wouldn’t see any spoilers. I have, however spent over half an hour now trying to get in the blasted boat. I have the oars and the filled gas can yet I cannot get the parser to understand any form of BOARD BOAT or ROW BOAT or any number of similar two word phrases. Either it is a very obscure combination of words or there is something else I have to solve although I think I have exhausted all reachable locations.
Anything dropped by the Dock seems to vanish from the room description so I don’t know if this is a) a bug b) the objects are in the boat or c) they have fallen in the lake. I also note that although the motor part of the boat is parsed as such in START MOTOR you have to type FILL TANK but it says that will only work inside the boat. I have spent too much effort on this as I suspect it is not possible to enter the thing given my condition. I have tried every combination of objects in case my inventory was triggering a bug but there is only so much one can try before you realise the bl00dy game is not playable.
Being perhaps the first person to have played through this game since it was originally released (akin to Jason with its predecessor Uncle Harry) and having a similarly long history of slogging through these things as yourself, I can say that it’s one of the buggiest messes I’ve ever encountered that is still winnable without actually having to alter the code itself (which sadly can’t be said of Uncle Harry). The boat is definitely the worst offender, but there are many other problems as well. The real issue is that what triggers the bugs can be hard to pin down exactly, as what worked for me in getting around them didn’t always seem to work for Jason. So, I can provide some advice if you’re interested, but can’t guarantee its efficacy. However, I do think that if you’ve gotten to the boat area that it would be safe to read his coverage (and my comments on it) up to that point without spoiling anything.
Yes I read through Jason’s post and tried the same thing but it definitely isn’t letting me in to the boat. I would normally restart but the news that there are manifold bugs lurking beyond the boat launch puts me off.
I have started Zodiac Castle via North Star now and it has already exhibited some flakiness; in the Catacombs I sometimes received “You are undetermined” say every five moves and the game exits. As it constitutes 29 rooms I found myself advancing three or so moves and saving my position. I have made some progress since and haven’t come across any more bugs yet but Alex from CASA says the Dynacomp version is bugged and puts the game in an unwinnable position in a location inside the castle with some rats.
I am just hoping that this version doesn’t exhibit the same behaviour.
I can give you a save file that’s at the boat if you want
but you honestly aren’t missing much with this game! the castle is kind of fun but then it swaps back to mazes
there’s one other serious bug but it makes it so a puzzle doesn’t need to be solved
Yes if you could send it along Jason I may have another go at Whembly. By the way I have another bulletin on Zodiac Castle for when you get to it. There is a rogue message “You are undefined” which popped up in the Catacombs and again when trying to relight the lamp; I think the bug is connected to switching the lamp on and off because that is when it appears. It kicks you out of the game. After a while when I refill the lamp it says it is full but when I try to turn it on again I get “the lamp has faded” and the undefined message. Fortunately it happens rarely enough to be circumvented as a mere annoyance now and again. Also (non buggy this time) many of the actions needed are hard coded to the location and current nature of certain items where they actually work so the message “You can’t do that” is deceptive. I am making my way steadily onward at the moment. I haven’t yet reached the point where Alex on CASA found a game breaking bug in the Dynacomp version.
I have restarted this and with the benefit of my maze mapping and no necessity for manifold save games I have been able to ENTER BOAT although now I note that items dropped in it cannot be retaken. Sheesh. Perhaps the number of privies in the castle is singularly appropriate but I will give it a stay of execution for now and plough on. I see what you mean about toting the boat around with you (I don’t know if you need it again after landing on the berm). Strangely a chair appeared in the small office the second time I played through that location so I suspect more gremlins are afoot.
An odd game.
I think the save file MORE from here ought to work ok for you, it has the player in the castle
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uCXKq3p0Fru5CHRV0DEKOdqsdF-QzXV9/view?usp=drive_link
Thanks. As a matter of interest is the boat used again after having reached the castle?
the boat does not get used again
Zounds this really is the privy erm sorry maze erm sorry game that keeps on giving. It seems as big as the old Wembley (sic) Stadium.
After playing this and Uncle Harry, I did wonder if maybe they might have the largest room counts, thanks in large part to mazes (roads in Uncle Harry’s case) of any home computer adventure games up to that point, barring mainframe conversions like the Phoenix titles. They made the kind of text-based maps that I’ve always favored look like a giant code print-out, or some sort of brain-melting series of mathematical equations…
If not they must be well up there. I just fired up my Warp map (a game from 1979) and that weighs in at 415 rooms including the nasty maze in the Warp building. From my maps I make Acheton 403 and Hezarin 402. The only games I can think of from any era which may be bigger are Ferret, Wild Wood II and Mike Arnautov’s 770 point version of ADVENT. I suspect there may be a handful of others at most
Actually that Warp game total is without the hundred-odd room endgame (during which you can’t save your position unless you create macros and embed them into one large one)
Jason I have put Whembly Castle up on IFDB although I doubt it will get see much action. One thing the proliferation of privies reminded me of was this sketch form the wonderful Not The Nine O’Clock News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2b-wTJ8x3E
Slightly tangential but by the same company I have just completed the North Star version of Windmere Estate. I had a look through the source code ex post facto and the code is dated 1981. It is a tricky bugger too with ample scope for screwing up.
so Zodiac definitely came after?
The Northstar Zodiac code is dated 1982. However, both are listed together as “late arrivals” in the Dynacomp Winter ’82 catalog. It’s notable though that Windemere gets a long description, while Zodiac is stuck underneath it with a brief “the same, but different!” type of blurb. This would seem to indicate that he wrote Windemere first, then used it to make a “remix”, rather than creating his own system and churning out completely different games with it à la Scott Adams. Thus, he must have finished it rather quickly and had them published simultaneously.
Yes – it would seem that Windmere Estate was completed several months before Zodiac Castle. The former is, in my opinion a far superior game. The atmosphere and the actual puzzles themselves seem better crafted although Windmere seems to suffer from a lot more typographical errors towards the end. I suppose the old mountaineering wrinkle that the last few yards to the summit are the hardest is in play there.
The original statement on CASA stating that the two games share the same layout is definitely incorrect although there are a number of similarities. There are a few bugs scattered about but clearly Dennis N. Strong was a better coder than R. L. Turner. There is a light bug in both where if you have no light source and try moving around there is a random chance of receiving a “You are undefined” message that necessitates a reload of a saved game or a restart. There is also a weird bug in the former involving filling a container; if you leave the flashlight in another room and attempt to fill a different object you are admonished with: “Now you’ve done it! Your flashlight is ruined. What on earth were you thinking?” message. The flashlight has vanished when you return to the room you left it in.
Having said that there are also some very clever puzzles here. The one in the Treasure Room and the rats problem are both excellently crafted and there are several ways to lock yourself out of victory. One of them praises you even though you have chosen the wrong solution (a similar conceit to some of the Phoenix games).