Game 461: The Pawn

 

Before Data Driven Gamer, I had virtually no knowledge of any IF titles outside the Infocom canon and Sierra's proto-adventures. Even now, it's still pretty limited. From my own perspective, Infocom remains the main contributor to the genre in 1985, but their relevance is quickly waning despite significant advances in world size, mechanical depth, and vocabulary. In the UK, where Infocom lacks a publisher and the disk drives needed to play their games are uncommon, audiences are served by Adventure International's exports, and a cottage industry of BASIC adventures in the same style (and limitations) thrives but sees no fame abroad.

The UK's biggest and most iconic homegrown IF studios are Level 9 and Magnetic Scrolls, whose games are released overseas through British Telecom. The latter is known for lusciously illustrated scenes on cutting-edge 16-bit platforms, and the former known for squeezing impossibly large game worlds into the confining limits of 32KB micros. I have yet to play a single game by either studio.

The Pawn was Magnetic Scrolls' first release, and the earliest by Telecom to make whale status, but their trademark illustrations aren't here yet; the initial release was on Sinclair's ill-fated 16-bit Spectrum successor "Quantum Leap" and was text-only. Presumably there is a reason why this was the target platform, but it's not a well explored one, and this is likely the only time I will ever emulate one. A consequence is that the only emulator I could find and get working with the QL's "microdrive" cartridge format is QemuLator, which lacks many modern emulation niceties, including native resolution screenshotting. Which I guess doesn't matter that much for a text-only game.

The original booklet, titled "QL-Pawn," explains that this adventure is set in the fantasy world of Kerovnia during a time of social upheaval driven mainly by whiskey and beer shortages. I'm not really sure how seriously we're supposed to take that backstory, but the dwarves are banished, King Erik is unpopular, and we're here for some unexplained reason and purpose. It also outlines the capability's of Magnetic Scrolls' parser, and demonstrates no particular feat that we haven't seen from Infocom, but complex, compound sentences parse, adjectives are recognized, and there is even some structure for interpersonal conversation.

 

Well, no points for originality in this intro.

Unsurprisingly, the wristband can't be removed, and has no remarkable qualities when examined. So, as always, I begin by Trizborting.

This initial area is wide open with most "rooms" having exits in all eight directions, though a few non-orthogonal passages exist, and rooms are not all uniquely named.

• To the east of the path, Honest John the traveling salesman, offers rations, water, whiskey, and armor for sale, but I have no money right now.
• Southward, a magician "Kronos" asks me to deliver a sealed message to King Erik.
• Further east, a bridge leads to the palace gardens, where a toolshed is seen in the corner, and a conspicuous mat reveals a key when lifted. This key does not open the toolshed, unfortunately, and the parser none-too-subtly reveals the existence of a metal key when I try ("wooden key or metal key?" it tasks, when I tell it to unlock the door with my key).
• The place guards permit me an audience with the king, but he promptly throws me out after reading Kronos' message.
• A series of notice boards posted on the southern edge of the map inform me that this is the edge of the adventure, and crossing any further in possession of artifacts is impossible. This proves to be correct.
• The western side of the map is the "Rank Forest" and gives me the most mapping trouble of any area, consisting of multiple confusingly laid-out rooms, though unique room descriptions help.
• A tree stump lies in a clearing in the middle, but there is no obvious significance.
• A sole tree in the forest is climbable, and at the top, a little wooden door is opened by my wooden key, but I get no further; the room is empty save for loose floorboards that I'm told are too heavy to lift.
• In the hills to the north, a  spiritual leader dwells in suitably austere living space, and is remarkably unhelpful.

 

And now I'm stuck. There are two other events I've seen while exploring, but I've restarted since and am unable to figure out what triggers them - an adventurer on horseback appeared once, somewhere around the main path, and Kronos appeared in the forest clearing demanding that I murder the adventurer with a cursed chest in exchange for my freedom from the wristband. Sound fishy, but I guess it's not called The Pawn for nothing.

 

My Trizbort map (so far) - most of the extraneous room connectors are removed in order to keep the map from looking like a Factorio blueprint: