Time Traveler was developed and published by Krell Software in 1980 for the Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80. It was their first official release. Time Traveler is similar in some ways to their Sword of Zedek which was released a year later. I covered Sword of Zedek in an earlier blog post but then discovered I had missed Time Traveler from 1980 so I, ahem, traveled back in time so to speak.
The goal of this game is to time travel to 14 different periods in history and obtain a magical ring from each era. Each of the rings has a very specific power and you can choose to use that power during the course of the game. I found that you can carry up to three rings from era to era however there is a great chance that you can lose the rings in which case you’ll have to search for each one all over again. Here are the rings listed as well as each power that they possess:
- The Ring of Toth (Egypt) allows you to always read the signs. This is a very useful power as the signs often disclose exactly where the ring of that era is hidden
- The Ring of Hammurabi (Babylon) increases your eloquence rating which helps you to persuade crowds to join your group. The more allies you have the easier it is win in combat
- The Ring of Solon (Athens) speeds up the healing process after you’ve taken wounds in battle. In all honesty the wounds I suffered from combat never seemed to be an issue.
- The Ring of Romulus (Rome) helps you to locate the other rings in each era. When you use it you are given the exact location of the ring. It makes this the most powerful ring of them all however I only got to keep it through two eras as I lost it to a time anomaly and it was automatically deposited in the Time Lab. Once a ring is deposited you cannot get it back. If you decide to try this game this is the first ring you should attempt to find.
- The Ring of Joshua (Jerusalem) makes you impervious to attacks and you cannot take any damage. Be warned it doesn’t mean that you automatically win the combat. You can still be defeated, imprisoned, and have your items stripped from you.
- The Ring of Rune (Denmark) lets you return to your time machine and Time Lab with instant success. Normally you can only reach your time machine from a market area on the grid and even then you are not always successful returning to the Lab.
- The Ring of Paul (Crusades) causes anachrony to occur when you use it. This seems to cause random events to occur which normally do not work in your favor. A ring may disappear from your possession etc.
- The Ring of Augustus (Italy) stops the other rings from disappearing however I still had this particular ring disappear from me during a moment of “anachrony” so after that happened I just started depositing the rings as I found them despite how cool some of these powers were.
- The Ring of Alfred (England) allows you to escape from prison with 100% success
- The Ring of Eagles (USA) increases the amount of gold that you can find when you search. You always get favorable results
- The Ring of Gaul (France) slows down time in some way though I never tried this ring
- The Ring of Jimmu (Japan) automatically searches as you move around squares but I found this in the market and never took advantage of it as I quickly spirited away to my Time Lab with it.
- The Ring of Nevsky (Russia) lets you begin each era armed with weapons but I never used this ring either as at this point I was racing to get each ring back to the lab as quickly as possible because there was no way to save your game and I was nearing completion
- The Ring of Loki (Germany) makes you invisible and this was another ring that I did not experiment with but instead quickly deposited it in the Time Lab.
The picture above depicts each of the rings deposited in the Time Vault as I finally located all 14 rings in their respective eras.
When you visit each era you are asked to pick a side in history:
I found this to be rather unique and educational however after you choose a side there is nothing else which differentiates one era from another. Each era consists of a 5 x 5 grid of 25 locations for you to explore. In each era you can also go inside the cave or the barracks or the arsenal etc. So you have to search outside AND inside these areas for the ring.
You see this same kind of grid pattern and use in Sword of Zedek which Krell Software published in 1981.
It took me awhile to become accustomed to gameplay but once you do each era is the same. If you encounter guards in any of the locations you can choose to B)ribe the guards or F)ight the guards. If you offer enough gold to the guards they will leave you alone and vacate the area. You can find gold by S)earching each of the squares in the grid. Gold comes in quite handy as you can oftentimes pay for information if you failed to read the sign and your informant almost always discloses the location of the ring. If you choose to fight the guards you will likely lose unless you were successful in P)ersuading the crowd to join your cause. If you are successful your Eloquence score increases. If they choose not to join you it causes your Eloquence score to drop. The same is true for combat. If you win your combat score increases, if you lose your score drops. Combat is an automatic, number crunching affair. You almost always win if you were able to find allies (strength in numbers) and especially if you found weapons and were able to arm yourselves.
You move about the 5 x 5 grid by typing G)0. It will then ask if you want to go N, S, E, W, In, Out, or Time Machine. You can only enter the Time Machine via a spot marked Market on the grid.
If you press I)nformation you will shown a screen with the number of rings that you’ve collected and which rings you still have to find.
M)ap gives you a view of the grid so you can see which way you want to move.
If there is a sign in the area you’re exploring you can choose to R)ead the sign which is very helpful as these signs quite often give you directions to the ring. You are often not able to read the sign even after several attempts.
S)earch will do just that in each spot on the grid. It is how you find gold, weapons, and the rings.
Once you find any of these items you hit T)ake and choose which you’d like to take.
U) allows you to use the power of a ring in your possession.
I found Time Traveler to be very interesting and I was impressed that there were 14 different magical rings in the game each with their own unique power. It was a marvel how they each impacted the game mechanics in a game hailing from 1980.
In 1981 Krell Software would release Odyssey In Time which is an updated version of Time Traveler. Instead of 14 locations there appear to be 24 eras to visit now. Your object is to find a ring in each era and also defeat the ruler in each era to move on.
I am staying in 1980 as I make a final push to try and wrap up all of the games from this particular year. I am about to boldly go where no man has gone before and play Trek Adventure. Until next time…