Electron Kastle

[Elk2019]

Hi all. Came across a neat flick screen arcade adventure for the Elk called "Kastle". It has a full screen playing area with large colourful sprites. What is typical of games from this era is the way you are sent back to the start when you die. This sort of makes or breaks a game for many. Is it possible for an experienced member to post a trained disk (.ssd) version of this game? It would be nice to progress further and be able to explore and map this interesting game.

[rmbrowngr]

I've seen in emulators the ability to save the state of the emulator and there for giving games and other software "save" (and load) functionality which they didn't have. Very useful for practicing docking with space stations in Elite etc. Would be nice to have this via SW ROM\RAM on a real machine with Disk drive.

[CMcDougall]

maybe adjusted to play on beeb
http://bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?rt_R=&r ... tle&sort=b
and the tape :
http://www.stairwaytohell.com/electron/ ... e_E.hq.zip

[0xC0DE]

I've just created a patched version of Kastle. You don't lose energy and there are no attacks by birds, skeletons, et cetera. In other words, it makes the game pretty dull

But it helps to explore the game a bit further. I've never played the game much but it seems with my current patch you cannot proceed beyond a certain point where you have to slay a dragon. Maybe I will try to refine my patch later.

So, if it sounds useful to you I will create a patched UEF or SSD for you.

Edit: attached Kastle patch v1

kastle-patch-v1.ssd

(200 KiB) Downloaded 67 times

[billcarr2005]

I think this suffers from the potential same problem, although energy can be lost repeatedly with no death as a result.
If the dragon was able to be slain / slayed / slew, the path goes no further anyway...

[Elk2019]

to 0xCODE and thanks to all that viewed this post.

[billcarr2005]

How are you supposed to "solve" the spell when it's cast on a screen with the dragon? There's a circle with skulls numbered 1 to 5. I assume they need to be put into a certain pattern? I've given myself plenty of time to solve it, although maybe that's what 0xC0DE was referring to about not being able to slay?

I tried saving a screenshot in Elkulator, but it causes the emulator to crash. Save states not working for me either

[Steven666v2]

You had to put the number 1-5 clockwise if my memory serves me correctly. And each time you select a number it alters the two around it or something like that. It was a long time ago since I played it. Years later I played the no damage cheat version above but that took this puzzle away and you end up at the dragon in a dead end.

[Steven666v2]

So I played the bbc micro version of this tonight. Possibly slightly doctored as skulls and wizards did no damage and you didn’t drain health. But if you kill every dragon in the game with the 12345 spell you get an actual ending where it say something like PURE MAGIK and then resets to the start again. I’ll do a recording soon if no one has ever seen it!

[bob147]

So does this mean the version on bbcmicro.co.uk is hacked and doesn't reflect the true gameplay? That site is meant to have only undoctored versions of games, so it'd be good to figure out how the original is supposed to behave. Well done on finishing it btw!

[Steven666v2]

I appears to be doctored slightly but then the Acorn Elk isn’t right either as playing on Elk makes the game impossible as you move too slow so you life drain always kills you. On the original Electron hardware I was always able to get very deep in the game using the spells etc, but on Elk I can’t far enough to use them even with being optimal.

[Michael Brown]

Hi,
Kastle was only a Electron title IIRC and was not available, nor worked on the BBC Micro.

However, some time back one of our forum members posted a BBC patched version.
This version was then amended by me with a slow-down routine for the BBC Micro and that was then put onto one of my games discs and may probably be the version you are downloading.

Since, I did not transfer this game from tape myself, I cannot say whether the version used by the original forum member was the original tape copy or from some other source.
If it has been amended from its original gameplay then it may be work us asking that forum member to re-submit a newer version with the original gameplay.

Mick.

[Steven666v2]

Well here's the version that I have played and a full 14 minute completed walkthrough of the game including the ending.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztSH4NVcC3o

I do think the original version of the game is impossible given the health issue and so reuploading the original (although will be accurate) will not be completable.