…and we had to restart The Pawn. As we did not ask Kronos about THE FRIGGING WRISTBAND! Without that we don’t get the chest that we need to kill the rider with the horse with no legs. Oh how I hate such puzzle designs! Luckily this is a text adventure and we can skip all the exploring and catch up rather quickly.
#magneticscrolls #interactivefiction #commodore #c64
root42
On our way to the palace we come across a hut in the palace gardens. There is a doormat in front under which there is a wooden key. If course it doesn’t fit…

In the western part of the country we find a hut with a monk inside. However he starts laughing uncontrollably… we manage to take his bowl of rice though…
Interesting enough the usual enter/leave or in/out directives don’t work in this game.
Quickly thereafter we meet Kronos the Magician. He offers us a note that we are supposed to bring to Erik the King.
We start off waking up in Kerovnia without knowing how we got here.

Also: this is one of the few games that were actually targeted for the EGA 640x350 mode. Also supported Hercules in monochrome. I spent countless hours on the Shareware version as a kid, which had a nag screen appearing after a certain score, making it unplayable. But I loved it. It was a success to get further into the next room.
@[email protected] yes it requires a bit more advanced solder skills. If you never soldered before I would advise not to try it. But GameGears can be repaired very well. Lots of replacement parts available. And with a new TFT screen they are immense fun, I think. Pick up a cheap flash cart and go nuts! Total invest with screen and flash cart is not cheap though. Will come to about 120€. Doing only the capacitor replacements is only about 8€ in materials.
@[email protected] yes, might be the same screws. Definitely a kind of security bit. The smaller 3.8mm variant is I think also used on GameBoy cartridges.
By the way: if you want to open up a GameGear you need a 4.5mm bit that’s shaped like… a flower…? Not sure what this is called.
Before we continue much further into the game we better read the backstory in the game manual! I think maybe it contains a bit of lore that will help us in puzzles that we might otherwise miss…
THIS is a useful addition to a game! Nobody needs keychains or other gimmicks. But having game relevant feelies and backstories is great. The story also doubles as copy protection as on every restore you will be asked for a certain word from a random page.