Will ‘O the Wisp is an interactive text adventure which originally appeared as a type-in in Nibble, Vol. 1, No. 8. (December 1980)
It was later reprinted in Nibble Express and a VIC-20 version was published in Commodore Computing International Vol. 1, No. 11 (March 1983). A C64 version was published in the book CBM 64 Programs – Volume 1, Duckworth Home Computing, 1984. A version for Commodore PET also exists and the game was also later ported to the TI-99/4A and the TRS-80.
The game was written by Mark Capella and it appears to be his only adventure game. He is credited with another, World of Odyssey, which also sold commercially but presumably only a few copies were sold and it is not listed in any Apple II archives nor in any biographies of Mark Capella. The rumor is that a couple of text errors on the back side of data files rendered the game unplayable.
The plot of Will ‘O the Wisp is that you’re a poor country boy who is destined to marry the beautiful Brunhilde the very next day. So you decide to embark on a little adventure before the nuptials. The writing and descriptions throughout the game by Capella are humorous and quite clever. The game has a Princess Bride meets Shrek feel to it.
The game itself is a bit deceptive as there are not many puzzles and seems more a walking simulator much like Dante’s Inferno. Unlike Dante’s Inferno, Will ‘O the Wisp DOES have a parser and the ability to interact with the environment. There are a few puzzles and things that can get you into trouble as you play through the game. The pared down parser however allows for a great deal of text throughout the game and the author makes good use of it.
Some of my favorite passages are those describing the land of the evil witch; Prudence. The dirty, sneaky, little path descriptions had me laughing out loud.
Successfully playing through Will ‘O the Wisp is going to require you to map out the locations by hand. There are four major areas to explore and the size of the game is actually quite large. It will likely take you a few hours to successfully navigate through the game environment.
The cave complex and the land of the evil witch are especially challenging to map out and navigate your way through. I had to resort to mapping by hand and I used four sides of paper before I successfully made my way through to the end.
As I stated earlier there are four major areas within the game: 1) the forest area just outside of your old farmhouse 2) the cave complex 3) Ralph’s castle and then lastly 4) the lands of the evil witch; Prudence. The forested area and Ralph’s Castle are relatively minor mapping chores. Navigating through the cave complex and lands of the evil witch however is a dastardly affair. I was surprised at the amount of time I spent with the game. I cleaned up the forested area and provided you, dear reader with a clear map to get you to the cave complex. The rest is up to you as the heart of the game is a mapping exercise.
There are a couple of puzzles in the game. You’ll encounter a banana peel that you’ll keep slipping and sliding on until you pick it up at which point you can continue on. (in the C64 version I played but in a run through on the PET version I never had this problem with the peel – it was just simply there to take ) You’ll find a discarded bottle in the forested area that you’ll want to pick up as this bottle becomes extremely important late in the game.
Once you make your way through the castle area and encounter said owner of the castle an actual quest makes itself apparent:
Once you realize you’re being tasked with stealing a broomstick from an evil witch the game begins to channel a bit of The Wizard of Oz.
Finding the land of the evil witch is not easily done but once you find it you also discover a puddle of water. I used the bottle in my possession to collect some water.
Once again the humor and tone of the game stand out as you rid yourself of the evil witch. “I’m smelting….!” LOL The broom now in your possession, you have to make your way all the way back to the castle complex and present it to Ralph.
Ralph rewards you by sending you back to your farmhouse but not empty-handed.
I really enjoyed Will ‘O the Wisp. It was engaging and more challenging to map then I’d have thought. The game gets it’s title because as you’re getting close to the end of a particular map section a Will ‘O the Wisp will appear in an attempt to get you to follow it. This is certainly true for the forested area in the version that I played but was of little help in the cavern complex or in the land of the evil witch.
What’s even more amazing to me is that this program, which I rather enjoyed, was a type-in from various magazines Type-in magazines were very popular in the 80s. They were great places to learn to write programs and the published listings were well commented. Tricks used by programmers who wrote their articles were available for all to see and learn. Utilities and games were published in this way and disk were also usually made available containing all of the programs from a single issue for those who didn’t want to enter the programs by hand. We have covered a few of these type-in programs already.
I will be stepping away from commercial products in my next blog post and returning to the Roger M. Wilcox collection with his Vial of Doom; an interactive text adventure.