LABYRINTHS OF LACOSHE
Introduction, Carol PedderThis adventure game was first mentioned in the original "Killer Gorilla" advert (in the "other titles available" section) which appeared from July 1983 in BBC Micro magazines (in particular, the back covers of "Acorn User" and "The Micro User") under the name of "The Labrynthe of La Coshe".
By September of the same year it was appearing in the "Escape from Moonbase Alpha" advert as "Labyrinths of Lacoshe" (having gone up £1 in the process - this was the confusing inc. VAT/exc. VAT period!), and the name stayed (sometimes it appeared as La Coshe) until the game disappeared from the big glossy adverts by the end of 1983.
The version of the game I bought didn't even have a properly printed cassette cover design, just the blank "Program Power" template with the game name typed on (in red – with black bits at the top of the letters where the typewriter ribbon had slipped!). Needless to say, there were no instructions at all, no scene-setting, nothing. I got lost straight away. "INVENTORY", "SCORE", "LOOK" didn't work – what sort of an adventure was this? I rang Program Power for help, but they didn't know what to do either – so it was "list the program time" (luckily it is written in Basic). Once I had a few commands under my belt, I could begin.
N, S, E, W, U, D are the usual directions, IN and OUT are allowed under certain circumstances.
I (capital letter i) = INVENTORY + SCORE rolled into one, also shows 'turns taken' and 'weight carried' (maximum weight allowed = 12).
L = LOOK.
Other commands are :-
WELL, THROUGH, ULYSSES, OFF, ON, THROW, DIG, LOCK, EXORCISE, RING, READ, KILL, PUSH, OPEN, GIVE, KICK, TURN, UNLOCK, TIE, WAVE, MOVE, RUB, TAKE, JUMP, DROP.
The Map
=======The are 6 pages to the map. Where a box has a reference in the bottom left corner, it refers to the Hint Notes (see below). A reference in the bottom right corner is the "room" number – essential knowledge for full use of the Necklace of
Numbers! The map is not drawn to represent directions accurately, it is drawn to make drawing the map simpler!!Hint Notes
========There are 3 pages of Notes which go with the map. Note that being able to kill the thief is a random event even if you have the knife or sword (IF RND(4)=1 you can't!!).
"The Solution"
===========The solution will allow you to become a "Grotto Master". It has 135 moves – it's called cutting it fine!! If you enter your name at the beginning as "SUPREME CHEATER" then you are allowed to use the Necklace of Numbers to "JUMP" to a "room" number – although this is not allowed in ALL the "rooms".
The only problem is killing the thief – he randomly refuses to die (see Hint Notes above). If despite following the list of moves, the thief stabs you and the game ends, then just "RUN" the program again at the command prompt and enter the moves again. The reason that this will work is because the program re-seeds the random number generator each time it is run. This is also the reason that SAVEing and LOADing at this point (using your emulator) won't help – because the next "random" number to come up will be the same one that came up last time! This is because (a) there is no such thing as a true random number generated by a computer and (b) emulators save/load the entire "machine state". However, once the thief is dead, SAVE/LOAD may be used without problems.
The list of moves should be entered in column order i.e. all of column 1 then all of column 2 etc.
The numbers in brackets are the weights of the individual items "taken".
So now you know everything you need to know to find a shorter "solution"!!
Game played and mapped – July 1983 (or thereabouts!)
Game documentation scanned – January 2003
Carol Pedder – 04/02/2003