The Wizard's Castle, aka Orb Of Zot is a classic text adventure that has been around in various forms since 1980. Originally in BASIC, I have rewritten it in C for Amiga and other systems.

The game is turn based and takes place in an 8 x 8 x 8 dungeon that is randomly stocked with monsters, treasure and various other items. Goals involve fighting monsters, recovering magic items, avoiding traps and rescuing various persons, both evil and good.

#HISTORY

Many cycles ago, I owned a Commodore 128. The 128 was the last and greatest of the 8-bit era of computing and had many different capabilities; one of which was a full implementation of CP/M. CP/M was well on its way out, while MS-DOS was on its way in, which made locating CP/M software difficult. Fortunately, I had a friend with an Osborne with which to trade software. One of the disks had a BASIC game called ZOT.BAS, otherwise known as The Wizard's Castle.

I enjoyed this game a great deal. Although it was completely text-based and non-graphical, it was challenging with good repeat playability. I later copied it to MS-DOS and then on to AmigaBASIC.

Many cycles passed. BASIC and the systems that used it faded into obscurity. Hard drives lived and died.

Then recently, while reminiscing about the game and wishing I could play it again, I had an idea: WHY NOT DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT? DUH! And thus my current project was born.

I decided to rewrite the game in C, for maximum compatibility with just about every system I own. I also made the decision not to add improvements such as graphics and sound, but to remain as faithful as possible to the look and feel of the original. Such enhanced and updated versions already exist.

I needed a listing of the BASIC program to get started, which is when I discovered that the game I had played was not, in fact, the original Wizard's Castle! The original was written by Joseph R. Power for the Exidy Sorcerer and appeared in the July/August 1980 issue of Recreational Computing Magazine. The version I was used to playing was an Enhanced version written by Verne R. Walrafen in 1984. This was the version that I wanted to convert, but I was unable to find any listing of it on the Internet. Well, good thing I still have my Commodore 128, and my original disk is still in readable shape!

A few cycles later, and The Wizard's Castle has come back to life. Enjoy looking for the Orb Of Zot, watch what you kiss, be careful when opening books and try not to step on any frogs!

Leslie Bird