Temple of the Sun was written by Jack Powers and I played it on a TRS-80 emulator. This was a game where the introduction had me excited to play the game.
I read this and thought ‘what a novel plot device’ and my mind immediately went to Voodoo Castle. Scott Adams had broke away from the treasure hunt trope and created a puzzle box in Voodoo Castle. In order to finish Voodoo Castle and win the game you had to acquire the proper objects and literally go through the steps to complete a ritual. The introduction of Temple of the Sun led me to believe that Powers was taking a page out of the Scott Adams playbook and that we would have to acquire objects to complete a ritual.
I was wrong.
It’s a treasure hunt.
I was coming off of a short term high; elated at having discovered the hidden gems of Gargoyle Castle and Reality Ends; believing that I was on the cusp of discovering yet another hidden gem from 1980; only to be crushed. My disappointment turned to frustration as I had to deal with the parser, a very frustrating map, and an irritating game mechanic.
The Temple of the Sun instructions highlight how the map of the game is unique in that any location can have eight compass directions to move in. N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW. I sat up a little straighter in my chair and thought to myself; ‘ok…ok…..perhaps the puzzle is actually the map as we saw in Treasure Hunt by Lance Micklus.’
I was wrong.
The map is merely a grid. A grid with duplicate location names and descriptions meant to confuse and create greater game length. Why the author created an octahedral map possibility for a simple grid is beyond me.
I spent much of my time confused and deleting and editing within Trizbort. I finally gave up on appearances and switched to good old fashioned graph paper so I could easily erase and make things right.
So let’s cover my three points of frustration:
- The parser had a hard time recognizing the nouns and verbs I wanted to use. Many of the items could not be taken or used or manipulated in any way other than to type WEAR <item name>. Rather than creating a feeling of “uniqueness” which I think the author was going for it instead made the program seem primitive.
- The map. There are two Jackal Rooms and two Obsidian Mirror rooms if you look closely. Both with the same descriptions. It is only through trial and error that you learn which rooms are deadly and which are useful. It is only after the realization or the “aha moment” that there are TWO Jackal Rooms and TWO Obsidian Mirror rooms that your map begins to make much more sense and you can realign everything. I think I probably sat in stupefaction for a few moments staring at the map when I realized the whole thing was just a simple grid. Eight compass directions seemed a bit of an overkill to create a simple grid. I was a bit embarrassed that I had such a hard time with it initially.
- Once I realized the game was just a simple treasure hunt albeit with an irritating map to boot it really let the wind out of my sails. To make matters worse, it was only after the fourth play through that I discovered that you literally had to type EXAMINE ROOM in EVERY SINGLE ROOM LOCATION in order to get objects to appear. Once you typed those two magic words suddenly items would appear.
So once I was emboldened to move past my parser, map, and game mechanic issues I rallied myself to begin the treasure hunt in earnest. There are a few choices you can make which result in instant death. I believe that I discovered all of them. I chose to swim in the pool and explore the underwater tunnel.
I was then eaten by a giant turtle. It hurt.
I chose to explore an old well which had something glittering at the bottom of it. I fell in and was eaten by piranhas. It hurt.
There are false robes, false ceremonial masks, and fake crowns you can choose to WEAR which will all cause you to fall asleep and become entombed forever. INSTANT DEATH.
It hurt……myy psyche.
So on about my 8th or 9th play through I had all of the correct items that I needed for the ritual and I was then told by a mysterious voice that I needed to race to the temple steps before it is too late. I quickly made my way towards the temple steps and found yet another way to reach the SHRINKING ROOM. This is a room with no escape where the walls close in on you and slowly crush you.
It hurt.
On my 9th play through I had all of the correct items, knew a path to properly circumvent the shrinking room and make my way to the steps, was almost there, when an earthquake randomly hit, crushing me under piles of rock.
It hurt. Emotionally. At this point I wanted to go into my bedroom, pull down the blinds, make the room extremely dark, listen to some emo music like Dashboard Confessional or Matthew Pryor, and cry softly into my pillow. However I persevered and started once again.
On my 10th play through I had all of the correct ritual items, knew the correct path back to the steps, and avoided any earthquakes.
There certainly was a “uniqueness” to Temple of the Sun. I am sure that there are some who enjoyed it. I enjoyed that I avoided medicating myself during my experience and proud that I did not take up drinking.
In our next blog installment I am going to look at another offering from John O’Hare called The Great Pyramid which I’ve already recently finished and I am currently preparing myself to embark on a massive Wizardry I dissection. Wish me luck and happy gaming!