Game #55: Morton’s Fork

Morton’s Fork was developed by Chameleon Software and then later published by Adventure International as part of the Maces & Magic series. Morton’s Fork is the third in what Adventure International dubbed the Maces & Magic series.

The first in the series was first entitled Dungeon and then later changed to Balrog’s Sampler. The second in the series is the Stone of Sisyphus. I entered Morton’s Fork with a lot of trepidation as I have had poor luck with the first two in the series. I have yet to get Balrog’s Sampler even running and while I’ve played Stone of Sisyphus I’ve not completely determined if I’ve gone as far as one can possibly go. So while I would have liked to have played the series in order I am going to have to be satisfied doing a write up on this third installment.

The game begins with a character creation process and rolls for strength, luck, dexterity, intelligence, constitution and charisma. The character than chooses armor and weapons from quite a large assortment of choices. The games were meant to allow you to transfer your character from one adventure to the next much like Eamon. This may have worked at one time on their original computers but I have yet to be able to save or transfer a character in any way without any of the games crashing. The first two games for me are incredibly unstable. I was making progress in Stone of Sisyphus but now it keeps crashing to the point where it is unplayable. The copy of Morton’s Fork that I played was much more stable and a much better experience.

A Morton’s Fork is a situation in which there are two choices or alternatives whose consequences are equally unpleasant. I did not see how a Morton’s Fork applies to this game. There may have been some sarcasm involved in the title choice or it may have been an inappropriate idiom. There ARE almost always two choices for every encounter in this game. I would call Morton’s Fork a “thinking man’s dungeon” as there is usually a non-combative solution to every problem. Most of the foes which you encounter in the game will kill you instantly so it behooves you to find an alternative solution to deal with the problem.

Morton’s Fork is a text adventure / role playing game hybrid which have been popular in 1980 as the medium continues to see growing pains. It is more text adventure than role playing game but it is a damn good one. The text is well written and the plot involves you entering a castle, plundering it’s treasures, and escaping with your life. The story seems simple enough but what Morton’s Fork has accomplished is providing you with what seems a living, breathing environment waiting to be explored. The puzzles are ingenious and fair and the game is quite large. Once you understand that there is always a more intricate solution as a way to avoid most combats then it becomes an enjoyable quest to fully explore your environment. This involves clever use of your inventory which becomes quite large as the game progresses.

You begin the game in the countryside, outside of the castle, and you’re going to have to solve a couple of simple puzzles in order to make your way inside the castle. Once inside the castle it becomes a living, breathing environment to explore. Your ultimate goal is to obtain as many treasures as you can and then make your way out of the castle again.

The treasures that I acquired consisted of:

• a diamond stickpin – this was simply lying in a hallway
• a silk cloth – obtained after swimming the river to the other side and battling the slime worm found there. You’ll have to remove almost all of your equipment except your weapon in order to swim the river
• silver tea service – found by picking a lock with the hairpin
• coin collection – obtained by playing with the levers on the fireplace
• emerald orb – you have to strike the tuning fork against the iron rod which causes the dresser drawer to open in the luxurious bedroom upstairs
• large gold figure – you find a small gold figure but if you toss it into the magical blue flame upstairs it becomes enlarged. You can also jump through the magical blue flame once to increase your strength
• multi-jeweled crown – this is found in the hidden throne room which can only be found by solving a complex series of puzzles one after the other. You’re going to have to get by the bats, the sleeping dragon, and the hairy monster in order to enter the throne room.
• platinum chameleon – also very hard to obtain and the game’s most valuable treasure. It is found at the top of the tower which can only be found by way of a secret door. You’ll need to solve a series of puzzles as you climb to the very top to claim your prize. Both the crown and this platinum chameleon are the two hardest treasures to obtain.

Finding your way out of the castle was also equally tricky and the solution is like something out of a bugs bunny cartoon. In hindsight I believe this same solution has been used in other games as well and was standard comedic fare at the time. In one of the rooms on the first floor of the castle you find a can of paint. In a different part of the castle is a chute, that if you attempt to climb it, you will tumble down into a nondescript room with no doors or windows. You then literally need to paint the exit on the wall so that you may leave.

There are some encounters within the castle where the adversaries were just too powerful for me. I suspect that once you find the exit to the castle you could leave, trade in some treasure to improve armor and weapons, then come back and face these adversaries. I mentioned before that these Maces & Magic games are very unstable and anytime I tried to go back to sell inventory I would crash the game. So if I wanted to play all the way through it had to be a one and done for me but I suspect that is how you best some of the adversaries.

I was not able to beat the three bullies in the gymnasium or find a noncombative solution. There was also what I suspect was a secret door at the end of a corridor but I could not figure out how to open it. I also had some items in my inventory which I never did make use of: the dragon dung, lumber, a basket and a tiny anvil are a few. I first thought that perhaps I missed quite a few treasures however it looks like I had obtained almost all of the points that I could upon exit so maybe there was not much more to acquire. I do know that defeating the cookie monster in the kitchen pantry would net you Golden Cookies but I could not beat the cookie monster in combat nor devise a noncombative way to beat him. I believe the Golden Cookies are the only treasure I missed. Many of the items were used to circumvent combat. For example once your encumbrance begins to increase; you’ll cause the basement stairs to creak with your weight. This activates an encounter with rats however if you throw a cat at them from your inventory the cat scatters them and therefore you avoid combat. So it may simply be that there are some red herrings in the game and in my inventory or that the items help circumvent combat encounters.

I spent a lot of time with Morton’s Fork. It consumed more of my time then I would have imagined but the game is good. Real life had me busy but if I were to add up all of the time spent with Morton’s Fork it was at least 6 hours of game play to fully explore the castle and solve it’s puzzles. I highly recommend this game to text adventure fans because it is well written and the puzzles somewhat tricky in spots. I am not sure it really qualifies as a role playing game though it does check some boxes. I really enjoyed this one and for me it was a diamond in the rough in 1980.