Our journey through adventures with significant randomization, or as I’ve termed them, adventure-roguelikes, has been seriously bumpy.
To be clear, not every randomization is “significant”; random wanderings of the dwarves and pirates in Adventure don’t affect the underlying gameplay at a fundamental level, and it is still possible to play with a traditional walkthrough. Mines, on the other hand, has the map and puzzle placement generated anew for each game, and The 6 Keys of Tangrin had a generator so out-of-control it was possible to land in a map consisting of two rooms.
Lugi is maybe the best representative for one of these games that includes map-randomization. That game also hit what I think is the big disjoint that makes RPG-roguelikes work where adventure-roguelikes struggle; RPGs tend to have multiple routes to accomplishing things, while adventures often have specific solutions in mind. It means in an adventure while puzzle X might require item A, you might just never find item A and be stuck; while futile searching for a desired item can happen in Nethack, usually there’s some kind of substitute strategy to muddle through an obstacle (if nothing else, you can hope to luck out).
Madness and the Minotaur from Spectral Associates uses the strategy of not randomizing the basic elements of the map…
It always has this 3d layout, where the grey cubes represent the maze.
…but rather making it so the monster-and-object-and-trap placement cause sufficient issues to feel like there is a random “overlay”. This is a decent strategy for an adventure, as you’re essentially playing two games at once: the specific game you’ve rolled up, and the meta-game of elements that will stay consistent between attempts. This makes every attempt feel like “progress”. Mapping in a game like The 6 Keys of Tangrin always felt particularly fruitless and robotic, far more than the random dungeon of an RPG (which you generally don’t have to put in work in map creation); by having a consistent map yet random elements this issue gets avoided.
Tom [Rosenbaum] loved to play adventure games but was disappointed in the computer adventure games that were out there because they had no replay ability. Once you solved them, playing again was exactly the same. Tom also liked board games like Civilization, and decided that a computer game with the randomness and unpredictability of games like this would be something he would enjoy playing over and over.
While Tom Rosenbaum wrote Madness and the Minotaur, the sequel, Keys of the Wizard, was written by his employee Tom Gabbard:
The first program I wrote for Spectral was Keys of the Wizard. I use the term “wrote” very loosely, because the underlying code was from Madness and the Minotaur and most of the “writing” I did was in the form of map changes, dictionary changes and room description changes. There were a few code changes and additions that changed the way battling creatures worked, and that gave a few of the creatures the ability to “catch your scent” and follow you, but it was mostly Madness code.
The earliest ad I’ve seen for the game is from an August 1982 issue of The Rainbow. I’ve never seen a copy of that ’82 version. What I have seen is the version printed by Microdeal from the UK starting in 1984. They made both a Tandy Color Computer version as well as one for the Dragon (the clone-computer from Wales). I’ll be playing the version for Dragon.
Via World of Dragon.
Despite Mr. Gabbard claiming there wasn’t much change with Minotaur, there’s one significant one off the start: this game has difficulty levels.
1 is for the “novice player” where “only a few treasures are hidden, the creatures are easy to defeat and only a few special tricks are active”. Difficulty 3 has “all the treasures” hidden with “very dangerous” creatures and “all the special tricks and traps are active”. I’m starting with difficulty 1 (as recommended by the instructions) and then I’ll ramp up to 3 later to see what changes.
The reference to hidden treasures is ominous. I remember this being one of the fiddliest parts of Minotaur, with acts as random as dropping a lantern in a particular place (which would change during the game) revealing a treasure. I am hoping this isn’t going to devolve into the sort of thing where I try every plausible action in every room just because there’s no hints where an event might happen.
Here’s two renditions of the opening room (level 1):
The room description is consistent in both cases (again, this is a fixed map). The direction descriptions randomize, and they randomize on the spot; if you look at the room again one time you may see THERE IS A TRAIL TO THE SOUTH and another time it may be A DIRT TRAIL WINDS SOUTH and on yet another it may be A TWISTING PATH LEADS SOUTH. The room description repeats if you walk in a wall but it repeats with the exit-description change listed above, so traversing the game can feel a touch surreal.
In the first variation there was a pool of water but no objects; in the second there were two treasures here right off the start (bag of pearls, small silver spoon). The treasures don’t go at the start but rather a location called the Sanctuary so it doesn’t give starting points just for lucky RNG. The goal of the game is to rescue 32 treasures and bring them to the Sanctuary (I don’t know if the game gives points for killing creatures, or if their lack of hitting the player is a reward unto itself).
The CYC-TRL-BAT-etc. along the top with 255 next to each represent the creatures of the game. It gives consistently at all times what their condition is and if it reaches 0 that creature is dead. The full list (from the manual) is
CYCLOPS, ORC, DRAGON, BAT, TROLL, WIZARD, JESTER, UNICORN
The ORC and DRAGON follow the player (see the “catch your scent” mechanic the author mentioned), the jester is a “trickster” (stealing items, maybe?) and the unicorn will give hints if you RUB HORN; I suppose the unicorn is this game’s oracle. (In Madness and the Minotaur, the way I finally started making progress was manipulating the oracle’s RNG to cycle through every possible hint.)
While I’m quoting manual things I should mention the weapons list…
DAGGER, MATTOCK, DRAGON SWORD, PISTOL, MACE, SCIMITAR, MACHETTE, LANCE
…and the verb list.
BASH, GET, LOOK, RUB, BURY, HACK, OPEN, SPRINKLE, DROP, INV, PLAY, SHOOT, DIG, JUMP, PUSH, STAB, DRINK, KICK, QUIET, TOSS, EAT, LEAP, READ, UNCLE, EXAMINE, LOAD, READY, UNLOCK, FILL, REST
QUIET pauses the game (this is in real time, so if you step away from the computer you might have a monster wander in and whomp you). UNCLE quits and allows a restart; READY is used to wield a weapon.
REST is a special mechanic for recovering strength, and it causes the monsters to “move 60 times their normal speed and recuperate at 12 times that of normal”. The “tome”, “necklace”, and “medallion” are magic items that can help wake you if a monster walks in. Of the three items one is chosen at random at the start to appear “and will be used during the entire adventure.”
I’d give the lore, too, but there doesn’t appear to be any; there’s a wizard, you need to get treasure, now go forth. Minotaur had a little lore so that makes one difference between the games, the other one being a de-emphasis on magic. There was a list of spells with lots of various effects in the original manual that don’t show up here; I don’t know if that means any magic is more item-oriented here or the manual is just being cryptic intentionally.
The game is in the same rectilinear format as before; here’s the map of the first floor without taking any down-exits:
I’m dutifully marking down the room names though it’s hard to tell how useful they’ll be with this sort of game. Can the “broken chariot” mention in the unicorn screenshot earlier be used, somehow? (If so, based on Minotaur, it’ll be an indication some random object gets used there.) At the very least the Wizard’s Hidden Temple seems like it must be significant because of a “golden box”:
The game says I can’t when trying to open the box. It might need the right key (I’ve found a DIAMONDKEY on one run but that wasn’t it) or maybe it only responds to the right sort of magic.
The upper left corner of the map lets you go up as well as down. Going up leads to the “sanctuary” which is where the treasures go; heading north from the sanctuary loops the player back to the cottage at the start.
So far on the first floor I’ve only met the jester (who just appeared and disappeared) and the unicorn, whose clues follow roughly the same format as Minotaur (“to get X you need Y”). I assume the danger starts when I go diving down, although in one case the diving was unintentional:
Even on difficulty level 1 this has traps! The triggers were rather complicated in Minotaur so I expect the same here.
An old map with a hint. I haven’t found it twice so I don’t know yet if the hint changes.
Next time, I’ll report in from level 2 and beyond. Based on the gaps I’m already seeing I expect once again I’m going to have to think of the overall geography in three dimensions.
Renga in Blue 
“The earliest ad I’ve seen for the game is from an August 1982 issue of The Rainbow. I’ve never seen a copy of that ’82 version.”
Maybe I’m confused here and you’re referring to something else, but the Spectral Associates Coco version seems to be readily available. There’s a DSK image on the TRS-80 Color Computer Archive site, and a bunch of screenshots on Mobygames. Weirdly though, despite being dated 1982 on the title screen, it says version 1.3, whereas the ’83/’84 Microdeal one that you’re playing is version 1.2. It seems that Spectral kept marketing it themselves for quite a while, so that would probably explain it. I was able to find an ad for it in Rainbow from as late as the 12/84 issue, where it was also available on disk and was one of several games labeled as “NOW TALKS!”, indicating that they had added some speech capabilities to it. There’s also an entry on Ye Olde Infocom Shoppe (which displays the original Spectral baggied release) where it says:
“A randomized fantasy adventure with RPG elements. All-text, with a parser. Comes in a plastic bag with fold-out instruction sheet. The tape label reads “Wizard’s Keys”. This was released for the TRS-80, the Dragon Data, and something called the TDP-100.
The instructions say that A.J. Hobbs Jr, from Kansas, has the record high score of 578, but that 622 is the maximum possible. Anyone top that?”
So, how could someone have sent in a high score to beat, if this wasn’t actually from a later version as well? That TDP-100 reference is interesting too. That was Tandy’s experiment in briefly trying to rebrand the Coco and some of its software to be distributed outside of Radio Shack stores by RCA. It appears to be fairly rare.
I mean the box and the manual. I only have pictures of the cover shown in this post. The early version vs later versions of the Minotaur manual were very different.
Ah, okay. Well, Ye Olde Infocome Shop has a good shot of it, but not an actual scan.
Here it is:
https://yois.if-legends.org/vault.php?id=935
Much nicer artwork, I’d say. Reminds me of an early ’80s third party D&D module.
Thanks!
btw, noticed that Forman is selling a PC-98 version of Zork I, has a pretty good picture
https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Zork-I-The-Great-Underground-Empire-Vintage-PC-9801-Computer-Game-Infocom/140389971
Somewhat related to this, I’m hoping to finish my long-delayed translation of Denshi Shōsetsu Hihyō Josetsu (On Electronic Fiction) by Yoshiki Hatanaka sometime later this year. My Yuugekishu set is still stuck in storage with most of my magazine/book collection, but I do have this one with me. It’s probably the best writing on Infocom and classic IF in general from the ’80s that’s still not widely available to the general public, so I’d like to finally buckle down and get it done.
There is an earlier ad for Keys of the Wizard then the August 1982 Rainbow. Page 341 of the June/July issue of 80 Micro. The Color Computer Archive also has a copy of the original manual (Spectral’s manuals were very primitive back that early in time).
Ah, missed that manual! Taking a look at it, the instructions seem pretty much identical. Interesting to note that it doesn’t contain that high score addendum that YOIS mentions. That must prove the one he has is indeed a later version. Maybe it also includes the speech capability that’s mentioned in those later ads.
BTW, took a poke around at 80 Micro and noticed that there’s an even earlier ad, from the May ’82 issue (page. 72). Due to standard publishing lead times, that likely pushes the date of the game’s release back to at least April.
there’s one slight (and important) difference! I’ll talk about it on my next post (which might be today, I’ve got some messy maps I’m trying to put together so it might be tomorrow)
No comments on this game, which looks ingenious for it’s time, but I am really enjoying your work here.
Thanks!
Btw, since you seem to be a fan of the Smurfs, I did write about one Smurf game: https://bluerenga.blog/tag/the-smurf-adventure/?order=ASC
Jason,
I can’t find a place for suggestions, but by this posting, you seem to be nearing 1983 in your playing. In case you’re interested in trying an interesting German graphic adventure from ’83, but translated to English, I’ve ported “Drakulas Diamanten.” More info about it can be found here: https://archive.org/details/DRAKULAS
Thanks for covering Coco and Dragon games (and the occasional MC-10),
Jim Gerrie
Question while you’re here: are there any MC-10 text adventures around that were written for the MC-10 only?
I’d have to check. I recall someone remembering one from back in the day. But I don’t think any copies survived. I’ll get back if I find anything.
The closest you could get would be those made for the Matra Alice (The French “Red MC-10”), but those were made for the Alice32 and Alice 90, which were so souped-up, they weren’t really MC-10 computers anymore. But I have “down shifted” a couple. They were of course in French, but I’ve translated them:
I’ve looked into this a bit, and here’s what I’ve come up with:
There are two small adventures for the MC-10, Kutenkamen and Haunted House, both related to one Roger Torre. Sounds simple, but unfortunately it’s not…
Kutenkamen was adapted by him from a TRS-80 Model III type-in by John Clement of Clark, NJ, in the 7/83 issue of TRS-80 Microcomputer News. However, if you look at the original listing, the game is much earlier. It’s dated February 1982, with a March 1982 revision. Making things even more confusing is that it’s listed in Goldklang as being by Bob Kozal, who’s also credited with dozens of titles there, including many other undated and possibly plagiarized adventures. CASA also shows an uncredited Adam port, but they’re missing the MC-10 version.
Haunted House seems to be a Torre original (although the game itself is very unoriginal!), with the released version dated 8/18/84. Looking at the code, it would appear that he essentially took Clement’s (?) “system” from Kutenkamen and made his own game with it. The confusion here starts with the fact that there’s a Model III port which says it’s adapted from the Color Computer, but I think this is actually a mix-up, and the original was for the (basically compatible) MC-10, as that version has no such statements in it, and Torre seemed to be working with a MC-10 at the time, as evidenced by his earlier Kutenkamen adaptation. Once again, there’s also an uncredited Adam port.
So, to sum up: John Clement’s (?) Kutenkamen for the Model III is actually from at least as early as February 1982, and was then adapted by Roger Torre for the MC-10, which he then used as the basis to write Haunted House in 1984, which is therefore original to the platform. I think.
Time for a nap…
I didn’t think to mention Kutenkamen and HH since they were ported from other systems. I recall on the old Yahoo group many years ago someone mentioning an MC-10 text adventure advertised for sale in one of the Coco mags. But the consensus was that it had gone to the ether.
The game “Puzzle in the Metro” I mentioned is called “Casse-Tête dans le Métro. That, and “Sphinx d’Or” (The Golden Sphinx) and Sorcellierie (Sorcery) have all been taken by me from the Matra Alice 32 (latter model MC-10 with 40 and 80 column resolutions) and converted back to MC-10 32 column and translated to English. Sorcellierie is interesting because it has the theme of “wizards coming out of hiding to try to dominate the non-magical world.” J.K. Rolling was studying French, I think, around the time this game was out in France (home of the Alice) and may have run across it. Makes me wonder. But the Alice was also a bit of an orphan system like the MC-10 in NA, so there weren’t many programs for it. Here are all the games:
http://alice32.free.fr/programmes/_html/categorie_jeu.html
Well, I did a bit of digging and am pretty sure I came up with the game you had heard rumor of back in the day:
It was called “Adventure in Bipland” (I kid you not) by The Dataman/Dataman International of North Hamilton, Ontario. It was first mentioned in the 7/84 issue of Hot Coco, then got a small descriptive write-up in the 8/84 issue of Rainbow, before getting a full review in the 9/84 Hot Coco (p.107). It finally made it into Dataman’s ads in the 12/84 and 1/85 issues of Rainbow, and then seemed to disappear for good. It was a traditional text adventure (requiring 16K) with graphics, which judging by the screenshot in the review actually look pretty similar in style to some that you’ve created for your various ports. While having a few nitpicks, the review was pretty positive overall. Unfortunately, it does seem to be lost.
So, there you go. I did a pretty thorough excavation up through the end of 1985, and the only other adventure that I found was a 16K MC-10 port of Aardvark’s Pyramid, which they advertised for a few months in Rainbow circa early ’84, and seems to be undocumented elsewhere.
Dear Rob,
That’s amazing. That was precisely the game mentioned. “Bipland.” How could I forget that? So distinctive. I did remember some connection to my old home town (Hamilton). Wow. So cool. And so sad that it hasn’t been located. I’ll have to look into Aardvark’s Pyramid. Was there a Coco version? If so I’ll have to convert it (if I haven’t already). Thanks for your through excavation.
Yes, they were advertising the 16K Coco version of Pyramid in those same spots. That one included graphics, which I think Jason covered in his posts on the game. CASA, while missing the original MC-10 version, does note that you did indeed port it “from the original BASIC”, so presumably from one of the older 1980 versions? It would be interesting to know if Aardvark’s MC-10 port had also added graphics. It certainly would have been possible with 16K, and I believe a couple of the later examples of these ads even say something like “NEW! GRAPHIC ADVENTURES” at the bottom.
I should also note that they were also advertising 16K MC-10 ports of Dungeons of Death and Quest, so presumably those would also be the only RPG (or at least RPG-esque) games that the platform got at the time.
Yes, I played the Coco version of Pyramid. It would be nice to find the MC-10 one (if it really exists) as I found both the Coco version and Ohio Scientific versions to be glitchy, maybe that one is magically in the clear.
I’ll have to add “putting graphics from the M/L Coco graphic adventure back into Pyramid Adventure” onto my list of projects. Just did a bunch a graphics and glitch editing on my port and translation to English of “Drakulas Diamenten”: https://jimgerrie.blogspot.com/2025/04/drakulas-diamanten-by-c-seibt-1983.html