Doriath

Doriath
Game No.	495
Voting	-
Developer	Ian Gray, Lee Braine, Richard Murray (graphics), Dom Ashworth (labyrinth layout), Chris Maines (hi-res title screen)
Company	Virgin Games
Publisher	Virgin Games, Rabbit Software
Musician	Chris Cox
HVSC-File	/MUSICIANS/C/Cox_Chris/Doriath.sid
Release	1984
Platform	C64
Genre	Side-view action adventure game
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language

Description

Doriath is an arcade adventure game which is quite interesting to explore.

Text from the back cover of the game:
It was Atelan, Lord of time who loved Fianna so much he bestowed upon her the Coronet of Arien, which gives immortality. Fianna loved him not and Atelan’s rage was so great he cast the Coronet into the Deeps of Doriath protected by his terrible powers.

Many centuries passed. Elidaan the Loremaster found the scroll of Fianna and read the ancient writings. Great powers had he but the Coronet represented the most coveted promise – immortality.

Design

Levels

The game is composed of a matrix of 16 x 16 screens. Horizontally they're numbered, and vertically they've a name whose first letter is A to P ("Hall X of Y's deep").

The different vertical levels are named:

• Atelan's Deep
• Beren's Deep
• Cerim's Deep
• Darin's Deep
• Elidaan's Deep
• Feanor's Deep
• Galoth's Deep
• Haldir's Deep
• Istar's Deep
• Jetar's Deep
• Khadim's Deep
• Lental's Deep
• Maglor's Deep
• Nerid's Deep
• Orlic's Deep
• Pentar's Deep

Controls

The controls are a bit uncommon. You can use the joystick in port 2 to move Elidaan the Loremaster left and right, and also up and down if he happens to be on a ladder or rope.

If you press the joystick button while moving left or right, Elidaan will "float" (it's not really jumping) a short distance in that direction. The distance is normally what's required to cross a normal size pit on screen.

If you press the joystick button while pulling the joystick down, AND you've an amulet selected (more on this below), the spell related to that amulet will appear on top of Elidaan's head, and you can move it around while you keep the button down. During that time Elidaan is focussed on controlling the spell so he cannot move. The idea is to position the spell on top of a monster which can be killed by it (more on this below) and release the button, killing the monster.

While lurking around you'll find several items, which will be reflected on the top of the screen:

• Stamina Potions: give you health.
• Portcullis keys: use those to open the vertical gates.
• Trapdoor Keys: use those to open the horizontal trapdoors.
• Fungata Potions: can be used on screens where there's a fungi, as you can't open the chest or fire spells in these rooms. Using the Fungata Potion on top of the fungi (yes, you've to stand on top of it) that restriction disappears (and the Fungata Potion as well).
• Cloronar Potions: this is a tricky one. In screen D5 there's a static spell on the right side that will be fired at you after a few seconds. You have those seconds to use your Cloronar Potion on top or near of the small weed (I'm not sure of the location, I vaguely remember using the potion slightly to the right of the small weed). You'll know that you've been successful if you see the weed growing into a tall plant, that will stop the spell (of course it will be a good idea to be on the LEFT side of the plant when the spell is fired...)

The way to use these items is by pressing F1 to select which one you want to use, then F7 to actually use it.

You can press 'S' to see the scroll fragments you've collected so far.

Amulets and Monsters

• PLEBATA - the only one you've when you start. Use it to kill soldiers and archers.
• ROIMORT - located at B1. Allows you to kill the dead kings, like the one at C1.
• COBRON - located at I6. Allows you to kill the serpents (cobras), like the ones at H1.
• MAGUSAAN - located at I2. Allows you to kill the spectres (banshees), like the one at D1.
• QUASILIN - I was never able to found this one. My guess is that its use should be to kill the hunchbacks (Quasimodo), like the one at A10. This can impose a limitation to access the screens on the right side of the map, because there's almost a continuous line of such hunchbacks after column 10. On the other hand, there's nothing very important to finish the game on the right side of the map...
• WISPITH - located at C6. Allows you to kill the small spectres, like the ones at A7.
• DRACONIS - located at L4. Allows you to kill dragons, like the one at A1 (not the one at P1, you can't fire the spell there!).
• MINGOS - located at F7. Allows you to kill those strange purple guys, like the one at I1.
• KRAKOLI - located at O4. Allows you to kill the octopus (kraken), like the one located at B4.

Elidaan facing the dragon on room A1.

Doriath complete scroll after collecting the 8 fragments.

Doriath's final boss (ice dragon on room P1).

Hints

MAP the dungeon as you move around, or enjoy a map I made around 2004, which can be found on The C64 Adventure Game Solutions and Walkthrough Site.

You do NOT need to visit the right side of the map behind the hunchbacks, there is nothing strictly required to finish the game in there.

Solution

You've to move around the dungeon, mapping, killing the monsters and surviving, until you get all the Scroll Fragments and 100% Wisdom, then run INTO the Ice Dragon at room P1.

That's it.

If you try to exit the room, you die.

If you get the chest at P1, you're trapped forever (you wanted immortality, didn't you?).

Not a nice ending, isn't it?

Cheats

The Quasilin amulet is not there. Full stop.

You can get it (if you want) putting $01 in memory location $036d with you favorite machine code monitor, and of course it is useful to kill the hunchbacks.

All amulets (set the location to $01 to get the amulet):

• $0365 - Wispith amulet
• $0366 - Draconis amulet
• $0367 - Mingos amulet
• $0368 - Krakoli amulet
• $036a - Roimort amulet
• $036b - Cobron amulet
• $036c - Magusaan amulet
• $036d - Quasilin amulet

Stamina is decreased here:

.C:4dd5  38          SEC
.C:4dd6  AD 76 03    LDA $0376
.C:4dd9  ED 3A 03    SBC $033A
.C:4ddc  B0 02       BCS $4DE0
.C:4dde  A9 00       LDA #$00
.C:4de0  8D 76 03    STA $0376 ****** result stored
.C:4de3  A0 14       LDY #$14
.C:4de5  20 48 4D    JSR $4D48
.C:4de8  A9 04       LDA #$04
.C:4dea  85 FF       STA $FF
.C:4dec  60          RTS

So by changing the STA instruction to LDA, the result of the substraction is never stored and stamina never decreases:

> 4de0 ad

It must be noted that the above forbids Elidaan from dying, and dying is required at the end of the game, so the change can be reverted (once the game is almost complete) with:

> 4de0 8d

You get goods by setting the desired value at the following locations:

• Stamina potions: $036e
• Portcullis keys: $036f
• Trapdoor keys: $0370
• Fungata potions: $0371
• Cloronar potions: $0372

Wisdom is stored at:

• $0375

Finally, the count of scroll fragments (0 to 8) is stored here:

• $037a

In the CSDb there are Cracks with trainer functions.

Voting

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Reviews

Name: "No criticism". or Testuser: "No criticism".

Miscellaneous

Cover

Highscore

There is no score and no high score list.

Links

Wikipedia: Doriath_(video_game)

• C64Games.de - Game No. 840
• Lemon64 - Game No. 751
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 2268
• ready64 - Game No. 1204
• CSDb
• Zzap64!
• MobyGams.com
• Doriath Dungeon, the best fan-made site about this game

References