This is part of the authentic vintage gaming experience I sincerely do not miss. No, it does - but it's a faithful emulation of the C64's notoriously sluggish disk drive, and it takes a minute or two (of a streamed black screen) for the game to finish loading and resume. And on Antstream, this doesn't seem to happen? Oh. the game prompts us to enter the MASTER disk for a load. To the North of the drawbridge we find a wooden door, and after we UNLOCK DOOR with the key. Ah - we have to LOCK WHEEL, as it has a place for a locking pin, and this keeps the gate at bay. Progress!Д«ut how do we use the key? I can't UNLOCK DOOR or UNLOCK GATE, and merely possessing the key doesn't prevent our death by iron gate. He concludes by giving us a key that he indicates will help us enter the castle, before returning to his deep, dissolute depression. Oh! We have to GIVE ALE TO MAN ( GIVE ALE doesn't work) to hear his tale of woe regarding his missing daughter. EXAMINE TANKARD indicates it's got ale in it. quite a trick, as when we try to TAKE TANKARD it's already in our inventory. Trying again, we can BUY ALE, but when we TALK TO MAN, he just finishes his drink and bangs his empty tankard on the table. (This will later prove to be something I should have paid more attention to.) except, no, I forgot to TAKE COIN earlier, so I have to go back and get it, which I can do even though the room description never mentions it is just lying there. Now we can return to the Duck Inn, BUY ALE.

What else? Oh, if we HELP VILLAGERS in the field where we started, they thank us and pay us a coin. I can't BUY ALE with the gold cross or SELL CROSS to anyone in the inn. We can't GO RIVER or GO MOAT, as those destinations are unrecognized. The parser doesn't recognize THROW, so my ideas about triggering the trap somehow are for nought. But trying to enter the castle by going NВ at this point results in our immediate demise, as an iron gate crashes down and sends pieces of our body hurtling down the cliff into the river below! So it's a good thing I saved right before trying that! lower the drawbridge, rather reducing its effectiveness as a security measure. There's a gatehouse (apparently near the castle?) with a WHEEL we can TURN to. Though EXAMINE CROSS reveals it is made of gold, so if we have to collect treasures it may be handy on that count as well. We can't ENTER CHURCH or GO CHURCH but if we EXAMINE CHURCH we find a dusty cross, always good to have on hand when these sorts of title screens are about. Wandering around some more, I find a small cottage north of the mill and enter, TAKEing a KNIFE from the kitchen table (though it is only revealed after we EXAMINE TABLE.) Can we do anything with the dray outside the inn? We can't LOCK DRAY (using the rung as a locking pin) or PULL DRAY or TAKE DRAY ( It is too big!) Of course, we discover that You have no money with which to buy ale, should we foolishly try to BUY ALE. MAN doesn't yield a response, but TALK TO MAN allows him to ask us to buy him a tankard of ale. Unfortunately, the parser will not allow us to TALK MAN, but if we try to TALK it asks us to whom we wish to speak. There are some villagers grouped in a cluster of mobbish, limited interactivity, and the text also calls our attention to an old man. I haven't been inside the Inn yet, so let's go check it out. But EXAMINE RUNG suggests it's the same size as a stay from the dray (wagon) parked outside the Duck Inn. We can't FIX RUNG or REPAIR RUNG but we can TAKE RUNG - it might come in handy as a stake, now that I think of it, or rather that I allow my brain to remain preoccupied by the game's title screen. There's a ladder onscreen, but trying to CLIMB LADDER only causes me to fall off, and EXAMINE LADDER reveals the bottom rung is broken. I enter the mill and try to GRIND BONE or PUT BONE ON GRINDSTONE, but the parser doesn't grasp my intent. The map isn't very consistent geographically - there are lots of approximate connections along the cardinal directions, and interiors seem to allow any direction as an exit, though it's entirely consistent and mappable. I wander around a bit - we can see a foreboding castle along the north-south road from the village, and can enter a mill where there's a grindstone that might come in handy. I'll take it along just in case, per tradition. EXAMINE GRAVE reveals a bit of bone, and EXAMINE BONE reveals it seems to be a bit of skull. I decide to head South to the location of the Duck Inn just trying to get my bearings, I continue S to the old church grounds, and S again to a fresh grave.

Ski or die nes cartridge