(My posts on this game in order are here. You should read my previous posts about this game first.)
I’ve finished, and this was an enormous slog.
From the Winter 1982 Dynacomp catalog, via eBay. Two of the other North Star adventures upcoming (Windmere and Zodiac) are listed as “Late Arrivals” meaning Uncle Harry/Whembly came earlier.
I left off last time on a moment I felt was genuinely promising. The game had bestowed some clues where I thought I just needed to interpret them and arrive at the goal, but the only clue of any note is “DIG 1800 GOLDPIECES………”. I still don’t know what the purpose of Alice and the rabbit and so forth are.
I was sidetracked into thinking (because the rabbit had a wristwatch) that maybe 1800 referred to a time, 18:00, which on a clock would be “south”. Just to the south of the painting is a privy, and maybe I could use the rope to go in….?
AGAINST THE EAST WALL. ON THE SOUTH WALL IS A PAINTING OF A YOUNG GIRL HOLDING A RABBIT. THE RABBIT IS WEARING A WRISTWATCH. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND SOUTH.
YOU SEE HERE, A NOTE
NOW WHAT? >S
YOU ARE IN A PRIVY. THERE ARE DOORS NORTH AND SOUTH.
NOW WHAT? >D
YOU CAN’T GO THAT WAY
No. What you can instead do (with help from Gus and Rob in the comments) is go to the random well in the northwest corner and TIE ROPE to go down. As far as I can tell no clue is related to this.
YOU ARE HANGING AT THE END OF THE ROPE.
YOU ARE AT THE END OF THE ROPE DANGLING OVER A TEN FOOT DIAMETER HOLE IN THE FLOOR OF A LARGE ROOM.
NOW WHAT? >D
YOU ARE IN THE LOWER WELL ROOM. THERE IS A 10 FT. DIAMETER HOLE HERE. THERE ARE DOORS EAST, SE, AND SOUTH.
It isn’t like “climb the well” is unreasonable but it was disappointing to think the game was going in an interesting direction only to find not much going on.
From here is when the slog begins.
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF HALLS
NOW WHAT? >S
YOU ARE AT A DEAD END
The game decided to give another maze. I sighed and started dutifully mapping. My map is a mess and incomplete so I’m not going to give the whole thing.
Early on there’s a bit of a trap: what looks like a vault door. Perhaps the gold is inside?
NOW WHAT? >OPEN DOOR
THE DOOR SWINGS OPEN WITH A CRASH. TONS OF ICY WATER POUR THROUGH THE OPENING. THE WATER LEVEL RISES RAPIDLY! YOU DROWN!!!
WELL, YOU MANAGED TO GET YOURSELF KILLED! BETTER LUCK WITH YOUR NEXT TRY. HOPE YOU REMEMBERED TO SAVE THE GAME BEFORE TRYING SOMETHING NEW!
After enough trudging I finally hit a room with something different:
YOU ARE IN A LARGE ROOM. IN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM ON A ROUND BASE IS THE STATUE OF A WOMAN. HER ARM IS RAISED AND POINTING AT YOU.
NOW WHAT? > ROTATE STATUE
ROTATE TO WHAT DIRECTION? W
A DOOR IN THE WEST WALL OPENS. THE OTHER DOOR CLOSES.
The rotating arm lets you flip between exits. There’s a switch to a water pump to the west that will drain the water, and a battery in another. Additionally, in a completely random spot in the maze, down a dead end, there is a flashlight to go with the battery. I found the flashlight first and found if you try to light it the game just wouldn’t let me, and the player is just supposed to use their imagination to guess that a battery is required.
With the water drained, you can pass through the vault-looking door to find yourself underneath a pool that marked the center of the castle.
YOU ARE IN A DAMP CHAMBER. THERE ARE PUDDLES OF WATER EVERYWHERE. HIGH ABOVE IS A LARGE CIRCULAR MESH GRATING. YOU CAN SEE THE SKY THROUGH THE GRATING. THERE IS A TUNNEL TO THE NORTH AND AN EXIT WEST.
I thought, well, finally, this is getting back on track. Maybe we’ll have to triangulate directions based on the fact we know the pool is in the middle. Going north required light (LOAD FLASHLIGHT / LIGHT FLASHLIGHT) and I moved forward to gloriously find myself…
YOU ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF A LONG FLIGHT OF STAIRS A TUNNEL LEADS SOUTH
NOW WHAT? >U
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TUNNELS
…back in another, entirely distinct maze.
The game is nice enough to maintain the rule that if room A goes to B, an exit from B goes to A. However, even given games like Acheton which went overboard with their mazes, I’ve never experienced a game with the mazes as grinding as this. Acheton tried to mix in variety, with things like a “turn-based Pac-man” maze, a hedge maze, and a gimmick maze that required an item; here, it is literally the same action over and over and over and over. Drop items, keep track of exits, repeat.
Incidentally, as part of all this I found an exit going back to the manhole near the cabin. Unfortunately, this is a one-way trip, so this bit that might be nice location continuity (and the opportunity to enter the maze via a different route) ends up being a softlock.
Eventually — after another moment of false promise climbing down a hole which seems like it might be the end, but no — the maze winds its way to the outside.
YOU ARE AT THE BASE OF A LARGE MOUNTAIN. THERE IS A MINE ENTRANCE TO THE EAST. A PATH LEADS NW. THERE ARE DENSE WOODS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE PATH.
NOW WHAT? >NW
YOU ARE ON A PATH IN THE WOODS. THE PATH TURNS NORTH AND SE HERE.
This leads to a fork in the road. On the northeast fork there is a “SMALL CLEARING” with a “WOODEN BENCH” and a “SHOVEL”. To the left are some graves and the last part of the game, so you might think: we are free of mazes, yes? We are now trying to use the clues to find the gold?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha no it’s another maze.
At least this one is interesting to look at.
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
SIR JOHN WHEMBLY
1729 – 1818
KNIGHT & PIRATENOW WHAT? >S
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
P. MORTON CLYDE
HUNG TILL HE DIED
HIGHWAYMAN
1632 – 1688
As I said earlier, the 1800 clue is pertinent: you’re looking for the year. However, there’s not really much reason to look hard, since it is easy to DIG in every room, and the important one is most likely going to come near the end of your mapping due to how the map is structured.
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
BABY
AURUM
DIED-A-BORNIN’
1800NOW WHAT? >DIG
YOU DIG INTO THE GRAVE.
YOUR SHOVEL HITS A COFFIN.
The coffin has a small skeleton (…sad…) but if you LIFT COFFIN you see an extra hole and the treasure.
NOW WHAT? >LIFT COFFIN
BEHIND THE SIDE OF THE COFFIN IS A HOLE IN THE SIDE OF THE GRAVE. THERE IS A CHEST IN THE HOLE.
NOW WHAT? >OPEN CHEST
THE CHEST IS FILLED WITH GOLD COINS.
A SHEET OF PAPER IN THE CHEST READS: CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE FOUND MY GOLD! NOW, LEAVE IT HERE AND SEE IF YOUR FRIENDS CAN FIND IT!!!
JOHN WHEMBLY
For my longtime readers, you know I’m willing to tolerate a lot of nonsense. I’ve played enough games from the era to be able to be “in the head” of a player from that time period and get a feeling how they’d react. I just don’t see even the most maze-crazed of fans being enthused about this. Most of the games I’ve played has kept to the unspoken rule of one (1) standard maze and if you insist on more you need to mix up the configuration somehow. So despite an absolutely standard maze in Murdac it could be one of my favorite games of 1982, and when there was a second maze (the haunted house with the flying furniture) it wasn’t really a maze at all.
But I’m mostly annoyed that the premise didn’t pay off. Uncle Harry had a genuinely good moment with home base (undercut by a bug, but still, conceptually) and I thought the follow-up might have more of that with less of the fluff of mapping an endless freeway system. The endless mazes made this game worse instead.
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF GRAVES.
A HEADSTONE HERE READS:
HERE LIES IMA PRUDE
BORN A VIRGIN
LIVED A VIRGIN
DIED A VIRGIN
WHO SAYS YOU CANT
TAKE IT WITH YOU?
1740 – 1831
I’ve been on the hunt for R.L. Turner still, and maybe the open possibility that he or she did more games, but I’ve come up empty. However, it’s only recently these games were even unearthed, so I’m still hopeful at least more information will appear in the future.
For now, let’s return to the (fictional) future, as we get help from various animals in an alien zoo to escape a UFO.
As part of their maximalist approach, Dynacomp also did public domain distribution. Disks via eBay.
ADDENDUM: I got so caught up in the maze nonsense that I forgot to mention the resolution to the drawbridge. With the crank, you can LIFT PORTCULLIS as a direct command; the use of the crank is passive and automatic if you’re holding it, so the bit with the small hole can be ignored. With the sword you can then CUT ROPE to open the drawbridge. All this turns out to be meaningless, as there’s no point in going back outside. This seems to be due to a bug. You were supposed to leave the can with gas behind before climbing the vine, and then get it after dropping the drawbridge, then use it to start the generator. Since the generator already has gas — I assume due to a bug — none of this is necessary at all.
Renga in Blue 
A few thoughts:
I believe that the Alice/rabbit/watch bit is supposed to indicate that you need to “go down the rabbit hole”, as she does in the story. Thus “she knows ways” indicates that the way is “DOWN”. IIRC, the well room describes a hole, and since you have a rope, it’s all supposed to come together from there. At least that was my take on it while playing.
The mazes are indeed absurd. There’s one more funny bug there, where you can actually take the battery out of the flashlight and then dump them individually to use as mapping items, and the game is still flagged that you have light going forward! Once it’s on, you don’t need it anymore.
In the end, the main problems here remain roughly the same as in Uncle Harry: Multiple serious bugs, a pointlessly huge (over 340 rooms at my count) and empty map with a major dearth of items, puzzles or encounters to liven it up, and an inevitable funneling towards the end goal that renders the whole thing little more than a tedious exercise in mapping. He had a few decent ideas, but lacked the fundamental knack of what makes a good adventure game (kind of an anti-Scott Adams, really) and was too sloppy of a coder to really implement them anyway. Oh well…
Oh yeah, forgot one other thing: He even ruined the ambiguous “1800” clue from the trap room, as there’s a room early on in the first maze (IIRC) that has a message scratched on the wall that reads something like “THE TREASURE IS IN THE GRAVE DATED THE YEAR 1800”. It’s supposed to be faded with time and hard to read, so ge left out some letters (like “Th..reas.re..s..uried..”, etc.), but it’s still way too obvious.
Wow, I totally forgot to even bother with that clue. Spent all week mapping mazes wiped my brain.
Very easy to just test dig on all the gravesites anyway.
It might just be my irritating 2024 sensibilities, but I also blanched a bit at the baby grave. A combination of that serious subject matter and a pointless mazefest feels off. There has to be at least the illusion of worldbuilding and some kind of point to things if you’re going to include that, but the mazes then thoroughly kill any idea the author was going for anything grand.
agreed, the addition of a baby felt very off-the-cuff
I can’t swear to it but just compared to other adventure games from that time it was unusual
probably the closest we’ve had in terms of “edgy humor” is Hog Jowl Mansion
https://bluerenga.blog/2022/04/12/hog-jowl-mansion-1981-1982/
which had you store the treasures in a bathroom, and one of the treasures is some gold fillings from a dead IRS agent
Thinking about it you are right in the paucity of edgy humour in games up until now. Another one that springs to mind is the old lady falling into the pit after the earthquake in Brand X. If only she’d had her wiring seen to by a registered electrician….and had a seismograph fitted of course. Sheer neglect.
SIR JOHN WHEMBLY
1729 – 1818
KNIGHT & PIRATE
An unlikely combination, although I suppose it would be possible to engage in piracy as a young man (although b. 1729 is already a bit late for the golden age of piracy), escape being caught, manage to start a new life under another name with your gains, and somehow make it to knighthood… Living to the age of 89 is also quite a feat for the era!
P. MORTON CLYDE
HUNG TILL HE DIED
HIGHWAYMAN
1632 – 1688
And here we have a 56-year-old highwayman, more clearly still pursuing his life of crime at that age since he was hanged for it. (I mean, I guess. I suppose he could have been hanged for some other reason…)
What actually makes it more jarring is that a few of the other gravestone inscriptions around it are much more jokey. Along the lines of:
HERE LIES MARY PRUDE
BORN A VIRGIN
LIVED A VIRGIN
DIED A VIRGIN
WHO SAYS YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU?
Or:
HERE LIES JONATHAN SAINT
FIRST HE WAS
NOW HE AIN’T
Then suddenly you’re exhuming and tossing
aside an infant’s skeleton to get your hands
on some gold and read a jovial greeting from your crazed great-grandfather. I think between weird uncle Harry and old grandpa Whembly, there may have been rumors of “madness running in the family”, back in the old days…
I have discovered another bug….after you have raised the portcullis and lowered the drawbridge you can proceed to the north side of the bridge. However, if you do the parser effectively stops working if you try re-entering the castle using the same route as above and any command parses “I don’t understand.”
Yeah, I warned about that in one of the comments here, I think. He obviously meant to join those two parts of the map up at that point in the game, but his habitually sloppy coding got in the way again. I was quite surprised that it was actually winnable by the time I got to the end. I doubt he actually checked, based on Uncle Harry…
Roger, if you end up playing Uncle Harry, this line in the BASIC is broken
1730!V0$\P1=1\X(12)=L\\GOTO300
you need to type
1730!V0$\P1=1\X(12)=L\GOTO300
so the game doesn’t get broken late on
it’s still kind of glitchy in spots (although not as much as Whembly)
Thanks for the warning. I’m actually getting cross-eyed having mapped all the mazes in Whembly Castle. I have just found another bug; if you empty the pool using the electrically operated pump and then visit the pool room it is still described as being full of water. I am persevering with this as it does at least have some atmosphere and due to the information from you both that it can be finished. I have put the game up on IFDB and CASA and I will post my map up when and if I manage to finish it.
There is nothing more frustrating than solving problems (like the drawbridge and the portcullis and finding the E-W tunnel to the pool) only to find that there is no need because of bugs! The reward for assiduous mapping of the maze and finding the tunnel is taking you back to an area you have already visited. The ALICE conceit seems pointless too as the game doesn’t even recognise the word ALICE. It reminds me a bit of the Secretarial Pool in Warp where there was obviously going to be a problem but it wasn’t followed through by the author. The vine grows back too so you can climb it multiple times, leaving alone the self-filling pool! I trhink I’ve probably seen enough now. Incidentally what is the route to the mountainside? I’ve spent a few days mapping the mazes but can’t see the route to that.
Well, if you’ve decided to pack it in on this one (and I can hardly blame you) and don’t care about spoilers anymore, then just go ahead and read the older comments on these Whembly posts, as I think I adressed most of these bugs, clues, etc. and how they affect the game as Jason was slogging through it. I will say that the Alice bit was one of the only semi-clever things in there, at least in my opinion.
As far as the final mountain area goes, I took a look at my map, and basically it’s that one of the last rooms you get to on the lowest level of that multi-tiered maze has a NW exit that finally empties you outside into the endgame region. My map counted 341 rooms in total, by the way.
This also reminds me: I just saw your comments on Whembly over at CASA regarding the maze to room count ratio, and I had similar thoughts while playing it. However, one of the very next games I played perhaps even bests it within this particular metric, as its maze complex is just about as huge, while the overall map is more compact (although still large-ish, and much more “dense”). Luckily, it’s a vastly better game. It’s one of the titles from the recent Lost Media posts here that I was able to track down, and hope to be able to share soon. I think you’ll enjoy it.
I finally nailed this bugger thanks to Jason giving me the last part of the maze up to the base of the mountain and from there it was fairly straightforward. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at a bit of baby grave defilement given the nature of the game up until then. There was the germ of a good game here if the coding had been better and the many loose ends (grating, drawbridge, vine etc.) had been fixed. And of course the mazes truncated to somthing approaching sense.