This is a tedious, uninteresting game with little point to most of it and few challenging puzzles. While there are several choice points, for example about which objects to take in the beginning, there are many locations which you do not need to visit at all to finish. Points are accumulated by killing monsters. The best place to do that is in the maze with the staff and the sword. There is no "end" to the maze and no objects to be found in it. Many objects are unnecessary. The Balrog can often not be killed. There are random elements (or possibly a limited number of pre-programmed moves, or moves which are predetermined) which make it frustrating. Lots of dead ends.
If you try to enter the boat with too many objects, the game tells you that you can only carry the weight of three objects. However, if you wear the hat, you technically have four.
Your aim is to recover the Golden Bird of Paradise, which is guarded by a wizard. You get 10 points for each monster you kill.
The following "bare-bones" solution worked for me, but the game has random or predetermined elements. I did not come across the Balrog, though there is one around, which most of the time, cannot be defeated. There are many other locations, so explore if you wish.
You begin at the crossroads. Go W, TAKE KEYS (you don't really need the keys in this walkthrough, but why not?), TAKE HAMBONE, TAKE HAT, WEAR HAT, TAKE SWORD, ENTER, FEED DOG, TAKE STICK, INVENTORY (you now have the Wizard's staff), ENTER, WEST (you see "Zoot" written on the wall), E, N, LEFT, S, S, E, UP, N, TAKE LAMP, W, KILL GOBLIN (until it dies), DOWN, E, DOWN (you land in soft sand), WAVE STAFF (you find yourself in a large cave with a voice booming out "neirif" – saying this word in any location takes you to the hollow tree), E, ENTER, TAKE SANDWICH, TAKE ROPE (I'm not sure you really need this either), OUT, W, N, E, W, W (you see a hungry gypsy), GIVE SANDWICH (he takes you to the edge of the lake), SWIM (you see a crocodile), WAVE STAFF (you create a bridge), CROSS BRIDGE, N, W, W, UP (in courtyard with three doors), W, WAVE STAFF (until you kill something), E, N, RIGHT, N, WAIT (the game does not recognize the word but time passes and eventually you see the Wizard arrive), ZOOT (he plunges into the abyss, the cage dissolves and you free the bird).
If you wish to go into the maze to kill more monsters and thus get more points (WAVE STAFF at each location), from the hollow tree go W, N, S, E. The maze is a 4 x 6 grid laid out like a sphere, so 6 moves east or west takes you back to the same location, and 4 moves north and south does the same. There are two exceptions: when you enter the maze you cannot go north, and from there going E, N, W, you cannot go south. To leave the maze, go E, N, E, S from your initial position, and you return to the glen.
Terri Sheehan, 2006-03-14
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