Now the Lord of the Sacred Formulation proclaims the mantra worthy to be spoken,
in which Indra, Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman, and the gods have made their home.
Just that would we speak at the rites—the faultless mantra that brings good fortune, o gods.
And if you gladly receive this speech, o noble men, it will attain all things of yours worth winning.— Rig Veda, I.40 Brahmaṇaspati, Jamison and Brereton translation
Scott Morgan of Eden Prairie, Minnesota produced a series of six games for Texas Instruments computers in 1982 published under the name American Software Design and Distribution (ASD&D).
In Search of the Four Vedas (right here!)
Fun House
Stone Age
I am not clear on the intended order. I started with the “beginner” game (Aqua Base) which said at the end to play Haunted House, and the ending of Haunted house said to play Miner, and the end of Miner said to play Vedas, so I’m just following the chain. I should find out at the end of this game whether I’m playing Fun House or Stone Age next.
From the Museum of Computer Adventure Games.
In Search of the Four Vedas is one of the two games (along with Fun House) marked as “advanced” although at least the start of the game is straightforward.
During this adventure you must find the ancient books that your tribe lost many years ago. They contain great knowledge of magic and the past.
Your goal is to find the four Vedas of Hinduism: the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda.
I don’t think there’s world-verse integration like we had with El Diablero; it’s just the four books form the “treasures” of the game and are a little more interesting than the usual *RUBY*, *DIAMOND*, and *GOLD NECKLACE*. I am not sure why a random American in the Midwest latched onto the Vedas as a good goal, but I appreciate the variety.
A 450-year old copy of the Rig Veda written on bark. The Rig Veda is the oldest of the four, with it being passed orally from somewhere in the second millennium BC. It includes mantras which allegedly are linked to the creation of the cosmos.
The action kicks off on a beach next to a lake too cold to swim in.
The anchor can be nabbed, the X can be dealt with later, and tree can be climbed.
The manual hints about flying a bird, and FLY ALB says “CAN’T FLY…YET!” so I assume there’s some way of setting it up. Here’s the remainder of my currently accessible map:
While quite small I already have two of the Vedas! The first can be found by retrieving a rope from a nearby cave, tying it to the anchor, and then throwing the anchor while next to a “very large tree”. This allows entering a treehouse.
The shovel can then be carted over to the beach where the X sits; digging reveals a chest and the second of the four treasures.
That went rather quickly, but perhaps the treasure distribution is “imbalanced” and the third and fourth will raise serious difficult. As things go I am stuck as there is not much to noodle around with. The Rig Veda had a coin inside; a hut had matches, wax, and a cup. Other than those I still have the shovel for digging as well as a knife, but that’s it. There doesn’t seem to be any places for secret exits, and the “albotross” is not cooperating with any verbs I’ve tried to throw at it. My guess is, structurally, the bird takes us to Part 2 and that’s where things get complicated or at least Advanced.
About now is when I’d trudge through my verb list but the parser treats every valid command in a bespoke way, so there’s no way to find out (say) LASSO is a valid word without testing it in context.
Renga in Blue 
I was away last night, didn’t have my laptop, and wanted something to play on my phone, so I tried these last three Scott Morgan adventures out on js99er, and they worked well. I kind of got on a roll and played through all three of them, since they’re so short. Brief thoughts follow:
Four Vedas: I was hoping that this would be something mystical or psychedelic like El Diablero, and… Well, let’s just say that it does end up being very surreal, but I’m not sure it was intentional. I can’t wait to see what you think the explanation is behind a couple of these puzzles.
Stone Age: Not much to say here. Pretty trivial.
Fun House: Parser shenanigans! The kids love ’em! I’ll say no more… Do note that this one annoyingly has no save feature, unlike the others. I can see no reason for this other than to be obnoxious. Fortunately it’s short, since TI99 emulators seem allergic to having save states.
I did finish. I have my post scheduled to pop up later today. The one heavily surreal part is also the part that might have actual inspiration from the Vedas; I explain what I mean in the post. (The zombie part is pretty weird too, but I have no idea what that’s all about.)
Just as a heads up, Windmere is next.
“I’m just following the chain”
What if the final game invites you to replay Aqua Base?
eventually, after repeating often enough times, we’ll reach Nirvana