Woodbury End

[OldDavy]

Hello all!

Is anyone on this forum in touch with the fine people behind SHARDS Software and their atmospheric adventure game, Woodbury End?

And, while I'm asking, did anyone actually win a print of "local artist" David Cohen's lovely atmospheric cover for the game? Does anyone know what happened to him?

Thanks!

[flaxcottage]

Welcome, Dave, and no, sorry.

[tricky]

Welcome, sorry, never heard of it.

[leenew]

https://www.premier.org.uk/Premier-Authors/Steve-Maltz

[OldDavy]

Thanks for the welcome, folks.

https://www.premier.org.uk/Premier-Authors/Steve-Maltz

Oh! I dunno how the name of the author was so under my radar. Thanks! I never would have thought to look for the author in Christian publishing houses.

Looks like he has a Facebook page for his current publishing career -- and there's even the briefest of mentions of Woodbury End here.

For those who don't know, Woodbury End was a strangely atmospheric text adventure (with minimal graphics), set in an English village that was the beachhead for an alien invasion. Doing an image search for "woodbury end shards software" will pull up results for the full cover on both Google and DuckDuckGo. (I'd share but am a little unsure of forum policy about this kind of thing. Thanks for your patience! )

[lurkio]

did anyone actually win a print of "local artist" David Cohen's lovely atmospheric cover for the game? Does anyone know what happened to him?

More to the point, does anyone have a copy of the “sealed confession”, without which I presume the game remains a bit of a mystery even if you complete it?! (I haven’t played it.):

“... If you complete the adventure, you will be in possession of a sealed confession and you will be given a title. Write to us giving this title and we will send you a copy of the confession which will explain all.” [See instructions.]



Just for completeness’ sake, here’s a link to the actual game Woodbury End:

• http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=1672

Instructions here:

• Woodbury End instructions @ EveryGameGoing.com

[OldDavy]

More to the point, does anyone have a copy of the “sealed confession”, without which I presume the game remains a bit of a mystery even if you complete it?! (I haven’t played it.):

Oh, good grief -- YES! It'd be fantastic to see that!

[Elminster]

Welcome, few I don’t have to answer any questions.

[Ron Bacardi]

I am officially the first person to solve Woodbury End, I was the first Liberator.

I still have documentation from then, including the Confession.

I will do my best to post these for all to see.

[lurkio]

I am officially the first person to solve Woodbury End, I was the first Liberator. I still have documentation from then, including the Confession. I will do my best to post these for all to see.

I look forward to it! Thank you!

And welcome to Stardot!

[leenew]

The plot of this game has always drawn me towards it.
I am a fan of old British Sci-fi and horror films, and it reminds me of old black and white classics such as Village of the damned (The Midwich cuckoos).
Then it loads, and my eyeballs burn
I wonder if anyone could Re-write this in MODE 7?

Lee.

[rgrainger]

I am officially the first person to solve Woodbury End, I was the first Liberator.

I still have documentation from then, including the Confession.

I will do my best to post these for all to see.

I'm waiting with baited breath. I've been wondering about the mysterious "confession" since the 80s.

[Ron Bacardi]

I am searching searching through the very many boxes and cases in the attic. 30 years worth. No luck so far other than a map of the caves in The Sphinx!

From memory the first line of the Confession stated that they had come from Betelgeuse then explained how they took over the village.

I think the school was where their 'spaceship' was hidden and was where you had to get the bomb to finish the game.

[rgrainger]

Cool, thanks Ron!

[OldDavy]

Wow! Brilliant -- thanks, Ron!

(Apologies for the delay. My notifications were banjaxed.)

[iamaran]

The MODE5 made my eyes hurt even back then, never mind now! The same with Pettigrew's Diary so I never got on with either.

[rgrainger]

I wonder if we'll ever find out the full text of the confession?

[fuzzel]

It's very doubtful, I wonder if Ron has managed to complete his search of his Aladdin's Cave yet? I'm impressed though that he remembers roughly the first line of the confession after all these years, but I guess it was a big deal for a young lad getting a letter from the software house concerned (I can remember getting a congratulations letter from the Chief Top Trumper for something or other I did, can't remember what though). If the search has drawn a blank I wonder if Ron would agree to hypnosis?

[Dave_E]

Oooooh, someone's bound to have it somewhere. There was a time when we never dreamed we'd unearth Pirate's Peril and Elk Music 5000. I am hopeful. Someone definitely completed it, will read this, will find it, scan it and we'll all know what the f*** it was all about (because it literally makes zero sense without that confession).

[leenew]

Not that I am social-media-savvy, but would it be better to ask on Twitter or FaceBook?

Lee

[rgrainger]

"(because it literally makes zero sense without that confession)."

I have to disagree there. To be honest, between the text in the game and the cassette inlay, I think we can work out the overall story, and it's pretty straightforward. Aliens came to the village, impersonated humans and took over, mesmerising the children. It's possible to work out who some of the aliens are from clues as to who has come to the village most recently, as no-one else has moved in since they arrived.

I am just intrigued whether the confession had extra information. Given that it's for people who completed the game, the implication is that it does, but who knows? To be honest, the stuff that Ron mentioned above I'd worked out (except the fact that the aliens came from Betelgeuse, which I don't remember being revealed before, but maybe it's in the inlay).

I think the really weird thing in the game is the set of clues when you type "help", but I think this is less mystery and more too-opaque clue writing. "Early one morn the curtains were torn", and so on. Some of them are helpful, some make sense only when you've solved the associated puzzle and others are beyond cryptic, even when you've solved the puzzle they relate to. "Twilight hours and ditto rum", anyone?

[rgrainger]

To be honest, I'm tempted to reach out to the game's author, who has a presence online. I might do that if I get a moment to think it through. It's also possible that he had no part in writing the "confession", and he might never have seen it!

[fuzzel]

I'd be more than happy to approach him if someone could send me his email address. Unfortunately, I'm not on twitter or facebook so emails would be the only route for me.

[rgrainger]

I don't think I should post someone's email address on a forum, so I'll PM you.

Edit: I can't so that - I guess I haven't posted enough - but his address is publicly posted on this page (he's the named contact for the web site in question)

Edit: I've removed the link now, for privacy reasons - erring on the side of caution.

[fuzzel]

Thanks rgrainger, I think you need a minimum number of posts before you can PM, hopefully you've reached that threshold. If not, post away!

[rgrainger]

See my post above, which I've just edited.

[saltysteve]

Hi chaps,

My name is Steve Maltz and I'm the dodgy person who created Woodbury End all of those decades ago. I can't believe that people are still playing it as my old adventure game was hardly state of the art. Although i will try to find a 'certificate' the next time I visit my attic, I can't make any promises. As far as my memory concerning the game itself, here are some fragments that come to mind:
- it was the first game I wrote in 6502 assembler code (rest were in boring BASIC) and it fit into 19k of memory! I think that's why i had to use that horrible graphic mode - the same amount of memory that a .gif image uses today!
- it was based on the Wyndham book - 'Village of the Damned' though the plot came straight from my imagination
- the artwork was commissioned for my uncle Dave - who had a bit of a reputation for his painting skills at the time
- not many people completed it - it wasn't that much of a success though I'm proud of it
- there was a software bug in it that caused a crash at one place - sorry!
- I wrote the whole thing - i think - in real time to give it a bit of urgency
- the graphics were crap even by the standards of the day
- all of my other adventures - looking back - were absolute rubbish I think - though I thought i was pretty clever at the time
- that's about all I can remember for now

Steve

[rgrainger]

Hi Steve

It's great to see you here.

Woodbury End had some idiosyncrasies - e.g. the screen mode - but despite this, it was incredibly atmospheric. I think that was a combination of the setting, the real time nature of the game, and the story. I have to admit that the cover artwork contributed to the mystique as well! Oh, and the game had a great "cold open" - having to escape before the aliens come back to the cottage. This really sold the high stakes right from the start.

I think I completed the game to about 90% back then, and I've since completed it in an emulator, with the help of a walkthrough, just to see how it ended. I think the only thing I didn't work out was the location of where to take the two locators (or whatever they were called). I think my favourite part was figuring out the identities of some of the aliens from clues - e.g. the inscription on the tankard, if memory serves.

Of all the text adventures I played back then, this is one of three that has stayed with me, so I'd like to say thank you.

[8bitAG]

Hi Steve,

Always great to hear from a former text adventure writer!

I see you have a programming credit (with John Minkah) for Shards' four part Pettigrew Chronicles too... a game that sort of mashed together bits from their Pettigrew's Diary and Operation Safras.

Can you tell us anything about how you got involved with that? And what was the nature of your involvement?

(You also mentioned other "BASIC" games in your post... What were they?)

[saltysteve]

I wrote Pettigrew's Diary originally for the Dragon 32. It was innovative for it's time though looking back now its technical shortcomings make me cringe (a recent reviewer said that he's prefer watching paint dry than play it and I agree). But, interestingly, when it came out in 1983 it was a runaway success and reached Number 1 in the Dragon charts, mainly through the massive quantities sold through Boots the Chemist! I followed it up with Operation Safras which wasn't so successful - also I put both out as the Pettigrew Chronicles for Spectrum/C64 but they were terrible implementations - I think I was encourages by a large pre-order from Boots. The cassette packaging and extra bits were far better than the game itself!