A trip back to 1641
In the realm of the Apple II, there have been many different types of adventures produced but rarely has one delved into the ideas of witches and witch trials. Dan Henderson, Roby Sherman, and Dr. Mark A. Golombeck have resolved this oversight in a rather spectacular way.
About the game
The Witch Trial adventure game places the adventurer squarely back in the year of our lord, 1641 A.D. You play a character that stands accused of being a witch. You must find your way through the parish of Woodford gathering items and returning them to the residents of the village in order to prove your innocence and escape alive.
The Technical details
Using the Crow Cousins Software product Paint 1.5. Dan Henderson has deftly drawn an entire series of double low resolution screens, creating an absolutely stunning adventure, mixing them with an adventure engine which Roby Sherman finessed and Marc tweaked the DOLORES library to produce a game which has boot track based Mockingboard sound and complete control through the mouse or joystick and keyboard.
Witch Trial is controlled with either Mouse or Joystick and has a number of features that make the adventurer go a different direction mid game. These changing goals provide challenges that make the game interesting and along with the more than 40 scenes and quests, it should provide a good time for all players. The NPC’s within the game will provide guidance and information to the adventurer which may help them in their quest.
Gameplay
The resulting game is one that introduces a number of new concepts surrounding the control of a game. Using a built in point and click system, the user navigates through the adventure. Directions are denoted by the blocks on the screen. N,S,E,W denote the directions North, South, East and West. The I or Inventory block will show the adventurer the items they are currently carrying. The T or Talk block will allow the adventurer to talk to the characters in the scene.
Individual items within the adventure can be acquired or “picked up” by clicking on the individual item within the scene. You can toggle the sound within the game by using the S key on the keyboard. If you wish to quit the current game and return to the home screen, the Q key will allow you to do that.
While this adventure game is best suited for the kids aged 9-16, adults are sure to find it fun to play as well. The adventure can be controlled through either the mouse or a joystick and will run on both emulators as well as real Apple II hardware
Hints and Tips
As you wander through the game, be sure to talk to all of the people in a particular scene. Some of the people will willingly help you and give you information while others may not be quite so friendly or helpful. This can also change over the course of the game as well.
Downloads
The game itself is available from the Witch Trial website in .2mg format 800k disk image, along with tons of screenshots are available on the Witch Trial webpage: https://golombeck.eu/index.php?id=57&L=1
The disk can be reconstituted to an Apple II 3.5 inch floppy disk using utilities such as Applesauce. Further information about specific Apple II hardware related items are still forthcoming.
