Title: Souls of Darkon
PUBLISHER: Bug-Byte
AUTHOR: Taskset
YEAR: 1986
CATEGORY: Adventure
Keyboard only
Instructions
Megron, where science and sorcery are used to awesome effect. The obsession
for power has released the evil of DARKON. Only you and Komputa can free
the people. A sci-fi fantasy with magical graphics from beyond the sun of
Crenal.
You have landed on Megron and your faithful robotic friend hovers nearby.
The air is fresh and things seem normal. Long gone is the Grand Council of
Megron. Their power and knowledge which combined science and sorcery has
been amassed by the evil one, Darkon. Your task is to find him and destroy
him. All you have is your ability to learn and your technical know-how.
A text panel describes your surroundings; the graphics screen can give you
more info, if requested. The R-H panel is a record of your commands. The
bottom line is for you to enter commands in typed English. ENTER the
commands. You will need to enter specific commands. Many commands can be
abbreviated.
Try V or VOCAB to see some of the verbs you can use.
RESTART sets you back at the beginning.
SAVE saves your current position.
LOAD brings back SAVEd positions.
You should already be in the adventure before LOADing.
Hints/Cheats
Phrases in [] are corrections added by me (Jim Grimwood).
THE MOST IMPORTANT HINT OF ALL
This game isn't too difficult, except for one problem which I was unable to resolve without help from Bob Manson, who disassembled the game code to find out - how to see in the dark. There is no hint either on the cassette inlay or in the game as to how this can be done, and I think that the likelihood of anyone deducing it is remote, so here's how:
SCAN INFRARED
... or maybe two problems.
To activate the Silicon Star: SAY SILICON.
Jim Grimwood
HELP and LEGEND hints
There are a number of places in the game where typing HELP or LEGEND will give you a clue as to how to proceed; these are listed here to save you time, as most of them aren't much help at all, but they should be enough hints, taken with the above two, to enable you to solve the game without looking at the full solution.
Start: It is said that the sculpture was made by the rebel Crigon.
Fountain: Pay the guide to help you through.
Altar: It is said that the stone guardian, Rok, guards the Sacred Altar of Darkon from those who would yield the Solar Sword.
Monolith: The Monolith was erected in honour of Darkon and is the gateway to his domain.
Clearing in Woods: Find a hungry gnome with a map.
Outside Grimor's lair: It is said that no one escapes Grimor's lair.
Cave: It is said that the Pool of Darkon is inhabited by demons.
Field in the Fortress: All is not as it seems.
Glass Room in the Fortress: It is said that the Silicon Star is useless outside the Fortress.
Darkon's Chamber: It is said that the Solar Sword is the only thing to destroy Darkon.
There are many dead ends, useless objects and red herrings in this game, and most of the 'hints' the game gives are pretty irrelevant to it's solution. There are some places where you will be told that you can't go, because there is a closed door there which isn't mentioned; just OPEN DOOR first.
Jim Grimwood
The guard at the monolith needs a bottle of gold. If you've got the
container, to fill it you: PUT CRYSTAL IN FOUNTAIN[; FILL BOTTLE WITH GOLD].
Robot: ZAP ROBOT; EXAMINE ARM; PRESS BUTTON; LOOK[; GET VISOR]; GET CRYSTAL.
Sword: GIVE COIN TO BLACKSMITH[; OUT; EXAMINE BARREL; GET SWORD].