Game #206: Baldor’s Castle (1983)

Baldor’s Castle was developed and published by Daedalus Digital for the VIC-20 in 1983.

I searched high and low and I could not find any box art or commercial packaging for this name. I did find an advertisement for the game:

Baldor’s Castle is an early roleplaying game for the VIC-20. Play is from a top-down perspective as the player explores the halls and rooms of the castle.

There is no main quest or objective in the game other than to try and stay alive, battle monsters, and collect gold. You can choose to fight with a sword or arrows.

You can also find potions to aid you in your pursuit of riches. In my tenure with this game, I found two different types of potions. One of the potions was a healing potion that increased my life and the other potion sped up the regeneration of my Power. The game was extremely basic, and you can see the different keyboard commands for the game listed above.

The game uses a fog of war to hide the castle’s level from you which is exposed as you move about and explore. One of the things that you can obtain after defeating a monster is a map which will not only show you the entire level but also where monsters and treasures are located.

The Power score is used to perform attacks. Each time you swing your sword or fire an arrow it depletes this score. The Power score replenishes as you move about the castle. Your Skill points are much like experience points and these increase as you defeat monsters. Once a monster is defeated you usually are rewarded with gold and potions. The potions are usually of the healing variety.

There is not a lot here. The only impetus to continue to play is to see if you can keep increasing your overall score. I knew what I was getting into before I even began the game because of the system it was created for.

I managed after playing for a couple of hours to get my Skill score up to 65 and this was accomplished by exploring much of the castle level. I suspect there is another level to be found because the screen goes out of it’s way to let you know that you are on the First Floor.

I played Baldur’s Castle on an emulator and spent about 2.5 hours with the game. It DOES check the RPG boxes and WAS on my list from 1983 and so the completist in me felt compelled to play the title and to report on it. I was surprised that I was able to find a one-page advertisement for the game but that I was unsuccessful in finding the game’s packaging.

Next upon the docket – we leave the 1983 list behind now after having worked through it – and move on to the RPGs that were developed and published in 1984. The first game from the list I’m choosing to tackle is Questron. I’m excited to play this one. I remember being attracted to the box art and I had always wanted to play the game but never did. Now I get the opportunity to do so.

Until next time…