It was growing late the other evening, the clock had just struck midnight, when I pumped a fist into the air like my team had just scored a touchdown. I finally found myself victorious over the dread demon Dal’ Brad. Shadowkeep, the ambitious dungeon crawler released in 1984, took me over 22 hours to beat. I played Shadowkeep on an Apple emulator.
The secret to beating Shadowkeep’s big bad is hinted at in the Book of Shadows. It’s also in the game’s manual in the Clues section. How did I arrive at this final confrontation?
I first had to complete my exploration of the 7th tower level. There are two very important items that you’ll need to find on this level. The most important is the Staff of Rogarth because you need this item in order to reach the end of the game. The staff is guarded by a giant slug-like creature which is one of the only fixed combats in the entire game.
Once you defeat the guardian then the staff is yours to take.
The other area of interest on the 7th level was yet another vault. This vault door was hot to the touch and when you try to open the vault you get badly burned. This is where the Gloves of Cold come in to play that you found on the 4th dungeon level. Once you don the Gloves of Cold you can then open the vault door. Inside the vault you will find 32,000 goldens and the Book of Darkness. I already owned every magic item that money could buy and thus I ignored the giant pile of gold.
Reaching the 8th tower level proved to be difficult. The 9th tower level, which proved to be the very top of the tower, was easily accessible via the proper password and the entire level contained a whole lot of nothing other than difficult combat encounters. Remember that most of the levels contain a podium with a shallow depression. These are teleport devices. Early on we discovered that if you place the funny rock on the podium’s depression you will be teleported to the 4th dungeon level. These teleport devices can transport you to different dungeon levels based on the type of gem that you place in the depression. On two different dungeon levels you were given the hint: “Gems of distant lands can often bridge far distances.” When you place the Gem of Change, that you discovered on the 6th tower level, on the depression you are transported to the 8th tower level. To my knowledge, this is the only way to access the 8th level.
The combat encounters on the 8th tower level are very difficult. I had several random encounters on this level and then encountered a crystal pillar. One of your characters has to put on the Silver Helm found on the 5th level and equip the Staff of Rogarth that was uncovered from the 7th level. Once this has been accomplished the character has to touch the staff to the crystal pillar which will release the wizard that was imprisoned inside by the demon. The wizard, as a token of gratitude, gives you the Devil’s Gem and beseeches you to continue your quest and slay the demon.
The encounter with the demon was not too far away from the room with the crystal pillar. This is how I arrived at the final confrontation with Dal’Brad. Once you encounter Dal’Brad nothing that you do seems to affect him. No weapon or spell can touch him. The only way to defeat the demon is to smash the Devil’s Gem that the wizard gave to you. Once you smash the gem then Dal’Brad shatters as well.
Shadowkeep was certainly an ambitious dungeon crawler. It had graphics, sound, recognized an incredible vocabulary, a lot of equipment and magic items to manage, and a pretty decent story. I enjoyed the game and I certainly recognize the attempts that the programmers made towards greatness. The speed of play and the mechanics however were so slow and cumbersome that it makes the game a pale comparison to say a Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. If the speed of play had been much faster, and if the designers had instead went the way of experience point progression, then I would have rated the game even higher.
Next up on the docket is another dungeon crawler entitled Tyrann. The wrinkle with Tyrann is that it was produced in France and entirely in French! Wish me luck!
Until next time…