The Forest of Doom

The Forest of Doom
Title screen of the game
Game No.	558
Voting	6.00 points, 1 votes
Developer	Darryl K. Mattocks, Simon J. Ball
Company	Puffin Books Ltd.
Publisher	Puffin Books Ltd.
Musician	B. Robinson
HVSC-File	/GAMES/A-F/Forest_of_Doom.sid
Release	1984
Platform	C64, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Adventure
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language
Information	Series: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (Forerunner; ZX Spectrum only) The Citadel of Chaos (Forerunner)

Description

In the game Forest of Doom, the player takes on the role of a adventurer who has found country life too dull and has set out in search of wealth and adventure. Initially, he wanders aimlessly through the forests along his country's northern border, but soon accepts a mission from an old dwarf to search the Darkwood for the four lost brass runes of the dwarven people. The program then unfolds the story of this adventure section by section, requiring the player to make repeated decisions regarding the acquisition of magical items, the path to take, and how to deal with the mythical creatures and their dwellings within the Darkwood.

If the player character succeeds in finding all four runes and bringing them to the Dwarf King Gillibran, they are richly rewarded and complete the game's objective: the reunited dwarven people can then march to battle against the evil trolls. Conversely, if the player is missing even a single rune or if the character falls victim to one of the adversaries in the Darkwood, the mission fails and must be restarted at a later time.

The narrative, beginning with the backstory, appears gradually on a scroll.

At the start of the game, the player character's abilities are determined by rolling dice.

A battle against an evenly matched opponent consumes a great deal of time and energy.

Backstory

Immediately after the title screen, the game's backstory is displayed on a scroll:

You are an adventurer, a sword for hire, and have been roaming the northern borderlands of your kingdom. Having always spurned the dullness of village life, you now wander the lands in search of wealth and danger. Despite the long walks and rough outdoor life you are content with your unknown destiny. The world holds no fears for you as you are a skillful warrior, well practised in the art of slaying evil men and beasts with your trusty sword. Not once during the last ten days since entering the northern borderlands have you set eyes upon another person. This does not worry you at all, as you are happy with your own company and enjoy the slow, sunny days hunting, eating and sleeping. It is evening, and having feasted on a dinner of rabbit, spit-roasted on an open fire, you settle down to sleep beneath your sheepskin blanket. There is a full moon, and the light sparkles on the blade of your broadsword skewered into the ground by your side. You gaze at it, wondering when you will next have to wipe the blood of some vile creature from its sharp edge. These are strange lands, inhabited by weird and loathsome beasts - goblins,trolls and even dragons. As the flame of your camp fire gently dies, you begin to drift asleep, and images of screaming, green-faced trolls flicker through your mind.

Suddenly, in the bushes to your left, you hear the loud crack of a twig breaking under a clumsy foot. You leap up and grab your sword from the ground. You stand motionless but alert, ready to pounce on your unseen adversary. Then you hear a groan, followed by the dull thud of a body falling to the ground. Is it a trap? Slowly you walk over to the bush where the noise is coming from and carefully pull back the branches. You look down to see a little old man with a bushy beard, his face contorted with pain. You crouch down to remove the iron helmet covering his balding head and notice two crossbow bolts protruding from the stomach of his plump, chainmail-clad torso. Picking him up, you carry him over to the fire and stir the dying embers into life. After covering him with your sheepskin blanket, you manage to get the old man to drink a little water. He coughs and moans. He sits up rigid, eyes staring fixedly ahead and starts to shout. "I will get them! I will get them! Do not fear Gillibran, Bigleg is coming to bring you the runes. Oh yes, indeed I am. Oh yes." The dwarf, whose name you presume to be Bigleg, is obviously delirious from the poison-tipped bolts lodged in his stomach. You watch as he slumps down to the ground, then whisper his name in his ear. His eyes half open and the pain seems to ease a little, and as the delirium subsides, he speaks to you again in a low whisper. "Help us, friend. Take the runes to Gillibran. Only the runes will unite our people against the trolls. We were on our way to Darkwood in search of the runes. Ambushed by the hill people. Others killed. The map in my pouch will take you to the home of Yaztromo, the master mage of these parts. He has great magics for sale to protect you against the creatures of Darkwood. Take my gold. I beg you to find the runes and take them to Gillibran, my lord of Stonebridge. You will be well rewarded." Bigleg opens his mouth to start another sentence, but nothing comes out except his last dying breath.

You sit down and ponder Biglegs words. Who is Gillibran? Who is Yaztromo? What is all the fuss about the dwarfish runes? You reach over to the still body of Bigleg and remove the pouch from the leather belt around his waist. Inside you find 30 gold pieces and a map. Jingling the coins in your hand you think of the possible rewards which may await you just for returning some runes to a village of dwarfs. You decide to find the runes in Darkwood Forest. Its been weeks since your last good battle, and, what is more, you are likely to be well paid for this one. With your mind made up, you settle down to sleep, having taken back the blanket from poor Bigleg. In the morning you bury the old dwarf and gather up your possessions. You examine the map, look up at the sun, and find your bearings. Whistling merrily, you head off south at a good pace, eager to meet this man Yaztromo and see what he has to offer.

Next, the characteristics of your player character are determined — partly by rolling dice and partly by your own choice — before the story proceeds:

Your walk to Yaztromos takes a little over half a day, and you arrive at his stone tower home dirty and hungry. As the tower is set back on the edges of Darkwood some fifty meters away from the path you have been following, it is difficult to find. Finally you walk up to the huge oak door, somewhat relieved to find that Bigleg had not been speaking wildly in his delirium. A large brass bell and gong hang from the stone archway. As you ring the bell, a shiver runs down your spine and you realize that the loud "bong" invades a deep silence which you had not noticed before. There are no sounds of birds or animals to be heard.

You wait anxiously at the door and hear slow footsteps descending stairs from the tower above. A small wooden slot in the door slides open, and two eyes appear and examine you. “Well who are you?" demands a grumpy voice through the hole. You answer that you are an adventurer in search of the master mage Yaztromo, intending to purchase magical items from him to combat the creatures of Darkwood Forest. "Oh! Well in that case, if you are interested in buying some of my merchandise, you had better come up. I am Yaztromo." he turns and slowly climbs the stone stairs. You follow the huffing and puffing old man in his tattered robes up the spiral staircase to a large room at the top of the tower. Shelves, cupboards and cabinets line the walls, all filled with bottles, jars, weapons, armor and all manners of strange artefacts. Yaztromo shuffles past the general clutter and slumps down in an old oak chair.

He reaches into his top pocket and pulls out a fragile pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. Placing these on his nose, he picks up a piece of slate and chalk from a table next to his chair and begins to write frantically. He then hands you the slate. He tells you that all that instructions for use are written clearly on the labels attached to the items, together with their suggested use. He sighs and tells you that unfortunately the magic in the items only works once, but they are the best you can buy for the money. You may buy any of the items.

There follows a list of the available magical items from which the player can assemble their equipment. After this digression, the story continues:

Yaztromo then asks you the reason for the purchase of the items, and you tell him your story and your decision to continue the quest of the luckless Bigleg. "Ah yes", Yaztromo says slowly, rubbing his chin, "I heard that the good dwarfs of Stonebridge had lost the runes of the ancients - four bronze talismans which were worn around the necks of the old kings of stonebridge before Gillibran came to the throne. Without them Gillibran is unable to stir his people, despite the fact that hill trolls threaten their village. Apparently an envious king of another village sent an assassin thief to Stonebridge to steal the talismans which he succeeded in doing. but as he returned through Darkwood forest, he was attacked by goblins and killed. the goblins argued about the talismans and they were divided up, and that was the last that was seen of them. Who knows if they still have them. so I am afraid your task is not simple. Good luck." You thank Yaztromo and leave the room by the spiral staircase.

Outside in the bright light you notice the dead quietness again. A narrow path leads northwards from the tall grass surrounding Yaztromos tower into the dense undergrowth of Darkwoood forest. In a few strides you are surrounded by the dark and tangled forest. Stones and knotted roots seem to hide in the shadows and you can almost believe they are trying to trip you up. The light fades quickly and the air becomes moist and unpleasant. Deeper and deeper you go, into the gloom. Eventually the path forks on either side of a huge old tree.

The game proper begins with the choice of one of the two possible paths at this fork.

The first decision on the journey through the Forest of Doom

Daring or caution — that is the question here

Up to four paths meet at the intersections

Background

The game is a nearly exact adaptation of the book of the same name by author Ian Livingstone. The reader — like the player of the computer game — must make decisions from time to time and continue reading at different points depending on those choices: The book's 400 sections are numbered sequentially, allowing the reader to be directed to the next section via a number — based, for instance, on a decision made or the outcome of a battle.

The book and game correspond closely. The method of determining the outcome of confrontations and tricky situations using dice is also identical in both the book and the game; however, in the electronic version, the computer handles the dice rolling and the calculation of Skill, Luck, and Stamina, whereas the reader of the book must perform these tasks manually using two dice, a pencil, and paper.

The most significant difference between the book and its computer game adaptation is that the goal of the adventure in the printed edition is to find the two parts — head and shaft — of a dwarf hammer, whereas the game requires the player to locate a total of four brass runes. Apart from this difference in the quest's objective, the book and the game largely correspond. However, in the electronic version, the computer handles the rolling of the dice and the calculation of Skill, Luck, and Stamina, whereas the reader of the book must perform these tasks manually using two dice, a pencil, and paper.

Design

The individual episodes of the adventure — which the player experiences and shapes through their decisions — are narrated sequentially on a scroll that occupies the top two-thirds of the screen. The bottom third is reserved for displaying the courses of action among which the player must repeatedly choose.

Whenever the player's inventory changes — whether through acquiring or losing an item, using magical objects obtained from the wizard Yaztromo, paying with gold pieces, eating a meal, or drinking a potion — the screen display switches to show the player character's attributes. This display change also occurs whenever an additional part of the program is loaded.

If an encounter with a mythical creature from the Darkwood leads to combat, a dedicated screen appears: for a brief time, the player sees an image of the opponent, the attributes of both combatants, and information on the progress of the fight.

Sound

Numerous game situations are accompanied by pleasant, two-part melodies. In addition, specific events are underscored by short, simple sound effects; for instance, three consecutive changes to the player's inventory are marked by a specific sound sequence.

Sound effect for acquiring three items (9.6 s)

Hints

The game begins with the player — following the backstory — encountering the dying dwarf Bigleg and accepting his mission: to find the four lost brass runes of the dwarf folk and return them to King Gillibran. For this purpose, the player character takes the map carried by Bigleg as well as his 30 gold pieces.

The program then determines the player character's attributes by "rolling dice": Skill is the sum of 6 and the result of a single die roll (a value between 7 and 12); Stamina is the sum of 12 and the results of two dice (a value between 14 and 24); and Luck is again the sum of 6 and a single die roll (between 7 and 12). These values ​​not only establish the character's starting attributes but also set the maximum limits that the character cannot exceed throughout the game. Consequently, exceptionally low values ​​might prompt a player to restart the game rather than embark on an adventure that is virtually hopeless from the outset.

Finally, the player may name their character and choose a bottle containing a magic potion — which will later grant a one-time boost to one of their three attributes — before the mission begins.

The story of the adventure unfolds in sections. After each segment of text, the player selects from the available options by pressing a number key; often, only a single course of action is offered — such as "CONTINUE" or "YOU MUST FIGHT THE..."

Following Bigleg's advice, the character first visits the wizard Yaztromo to acquire magical equipment for the adventure. The number of items that can be carried is limited to ten; given a maximum price of three gold pieces per item, the thirty gold pieces provided by Bigleg are sufficient to cover the cost in every case. Most of the items offered by Yaztromo prove useful at some point in Darkwood, though some are only of use on paths that do not lead to the solution:

• [24] healing potion 3 gps
• [26] plant cntrl pot 2 gps
• [27] stillness potion 3 gps
• [28] insect cntrl pot 2 gps
• [29] anti-poison pot 2 gps
• [30] holy water 3 gps
• [31] ring of light 3 gps
• [32] boots of leaping 2 gps
• [33] rope of climbing 3 gps
• [35] entanglement net 3 gps
• [36] strength bracelet 3 gps
• [37] missile dex glv 2 gps
• [38] waterfinding rod 2 gps
• [39] garlic buds 2 gps
• [41] headband of conc 3 gps
• [42] fire capsules 3 gps
• [43] nose filters 3 gps

To acquire magical items, the player first selects the option "SELECT THE ITEMS YOU WISH TO BUY" by pressing the 1  key, and then enters the two-digit code listed next to the corresponding item in Yaztromo's catalogue and the list above. Finally, pressing the space bar confirms the purchase.

The program, not the player, decides when to use the magical items based on the situation. Even with items that appear very useful — such as "FIRE CAPSULES" (a type of flash-bang grenade that would surely send many enemies fleeing or at least temporarily incapacitate them) — it makes little sense to buy multiple units, as the program only resorts to this weapon in a single specific situation. Only the antidote can be used in multiple situations, though most of these are scenarios one would likely avoid anyway after a single negative experience.

Screen Layout

The illustration below shows the screen layout during the journey through the Darkwood: the story's progress is narrated on a scroll, with the player's available actions for the current situation listed beneath it. The numbers preceding each option indicate the keys to be pressed to select that specific action.

A typical scene on the journey through the Darkwood

The next image shows a typical combat scene — in this case, a fight against a giant spider that is just as skilled as the player (both combatants have a "Skill" rating of 7). Round by round, the computer rolls two dice for each fighter and calculates the sum of their Skill rating and the roll result. Comparing the totals calculated in this way (here 7 + (3 + 5) = 15 for the player and 7 + (1 + 3) = 11 for the opponent) yields the outcome of the combat round (here "YOU HIT IT, IT LOSES 2 STAMINA POINTS").

A typical combat scene, here featuring a giant spider.

Situations that depend on luck are also resolved by rolling dice. In this process, two dice are rolled, and the player's current number of luck points is compared to the sum of the numbers rolled. If the number of luck points is greater than or equal to the rolled sum, the player is lucky; otherwise, they are unlucky. After every such decision — regardless of the outcome — the player's luck points decrease by 1. The table below shows the probability of the player being lucky in such a decision, based on their luck points:

Player's luck points	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2
Probability of being lucky	100%	97,2 %	91,7%	83,3%	72,2%	58,3%	41,7%	27,8%	16,7%	8,3%	2,8%

Enemies

Many of the creatures dwelling in Darkwood are hostile toward the adventurer controlled by the player. In some instances, an encounter can be avoided if our hero ducks into the bushes in time, or by fighting the opponent using a magical item acquired from the wizard Yaztromo. Often, however, combat ensues; the outcome depends on the player's Stamina and Skill ratings and on the number, stamina, and skill of their opponents.

The following gallery displays all the adversaries lurking in Darkwood. If the adventurer must face a group of similar enemies, this is indicated by a number preceding the name; the ratings for STAMINA and SKILL appear in parentheses after the name. Groups of opponents do not always share identical attributes; in such cases, the minimum and maximum values ​​are listed within the parentheses.

Eel (4, 5)

Ape Man (7, 8)

4× Bandits (4..9, 6..8)

Bear (8, 7)

Barbarian (7, 9)

Treeman (16, 8)

Boulder Beast (11, 8)

Fire Demon (10, 10)

Fish-man (6, 7)

Shape-shifter (10, 10)

Ghoul (7, 9)

Goblin (4, 5)

Gremlins 1..2× (2..5, 3..5)

2× Hobgoblins (6..7, 5..6)

4× Hunter and hunting dogs (5..13, 6..7)

Cat-woman (5, 6)

Wild boar (5, 6)

3× Killer bees (3..4, 7..8)

4× Clone warriors (4..9, 5..6)

Wyvern (11, 10)

Ogre (12, 8)

2× Orcs (5..6, 5)

Pterodactyl (8, 7)

2× Pygmies (5..6, 5)

Spider (8, 7)

Sting worm (7, 8)

3× Death hawks (3..4, 4..5)

Troll (9, 8)

3× Vampire bats (5..7, 5..6)

Forest giant (9, 9)

Werewolf (9, 8)

2× Wild men (4..5, 6..7)

3× Wolves (7..9, 7..8)

Dwarf (5, 8)

Controls

In addition to the number keys used to select an action, the following keys are assigned functions during the game — though not during active combat:

• D : Drop and leave behind an item you are carrying
• F : Consume one of your carried meals and — provided the maximum limit is not exceeded — gain 4 energy points
• M : Configure sound output: full (music and sound effects) / partial (sound effects only) / no sound; loud / quiet; one-off / continuous
• P : Drink the potion selected during initial setup
• Q : Toggle between slow and fast text display
• SPACE : Temporarily toggle text display speed while the key is held down — for example, to skim through a familiar passage of text when the display is otherwise set to slow.
  Additionally, pressing this key switches from the character stats screen back to the scroll where the story narrative continues.
• F1 : Return to the scroll and resume the game after a battle ends

Tips

• Both the paths through Darkwood Forest and the locations of all characters remain the same in every game. To solve the adventure, it is therefore helpful to gradually create a map of the forest, marking down all paths, encounters, and items found. Alternatively, a complete map without any solution hints can be found here: File:ForestOfDoom Map NoHint.pdf.
• The journey begins at the tower of the wizard Yaztromo at the southern end of Darkwood Forest and proceeds step-by-step to the dwarf village of Stonebridge in the north. Along the way, at every crossroads, the program automatically excludes paths that lead back south. Consequently, northward paths running in parallel represent alternatives, of which exactly one must be chosen.
• You only discover the function of the magical items offered by the wizard Yaztromo when the program accesses the object in question during a specific situation. It is therefore advisable, when first getting to know the game, to buy items on a trial basis and keep a list matching each item to its location of use and its function. This makes it easier to decide later which objects are actually necessary to complete the game.
• If you find an item while traveling through Darkwood Forest that later proves useful, this does not necessarily mean that the path taken to find it is part of the route required to complete the game.
• Your character acquires new gold pieces on numerous occasions while traveling through Darkwood Forest. Consequently, it is usually not worth accepting disadvantages or foregoing important magical items just to save gold.
• There is no objective way to determine the relative importance of the Luck, Stamina, and Skill stats. It is up to the player to decide whether the initially assigned stats are sufficient for the planned undertaking or whether it is better to restart the game in hopes of getting better values. For the purpose of simply exploring Darkwood Forest, the author of this article recommends a high LUCK stat and, if possible, a high SKILL stat as well; for actually completing the game once the route is known, a high SKILL stat — and ideally a high STAMINA stat — is recommended.
• Similarly, there is no hard-and-fast rule regarding which magic potion to choose at the start of the game. The author of this article prefers the FORTUNE potion for exploring Darkwood Forest and the STAMINA potion for completing the game.

Solution

To complete the game, you must first purchase the right equipment for the adventure from the wizard Yaztromo, and then — while making your way through the forest — choose the correct turns at every intersection, fight the right opponents, and search the right dwellings. Alternative approaches lead to success in only a few places, usually in the form of small, optional detours. The following sections therefore describe the procedure for completing the game in great detail.

Map

The following illustration shows the complete game map; a PDF version can be found here: File:ForestOfDoom Map PDF.pdf. Broad horizontal and vertical lines represent paths in Darkwood Forest; characters and locations are marked as rectangular text boxes. Characters and locations that you inevitably encounter along a path are marked directly on the line in question, whereas avoidable encounters are indicated by a text box next to the path. Opponents you can fight are also depicted above the text box.

The walkthrough path is marked by a red line. It begins at the bottom edge (at the far south, near the tower of the Archmage Yaztromo) and ends at the top edge (at the far north, in the dwarven village of Stonebridge). Text boxes outlined in red indicate characters and locations that must be visited to complete the game, or that at least provide the player character with an advantage at no risk. Text boxes with a golden-yellow background mark locations where one of the four dwarven runes can be found.

Step by Step

To complete the game, the magical items offered by Yaztromo — numbered 26, 31, 33, 35, 41, and 42 — are either helpful or essential. Most of the other items are useful elsewhere in Darkwood, but those locations are not visited along the walkthrough path:

• [24] HEALING POTION: heals a broken leg after a deep jump into the Fire Demon's lair
• [26] PLANT CNTRL POT: against the blood-sucking strangler grass
• [27] STILLNESS POTION: dampens the shocks when you have broken the vase containing the black liquid at the wooden hut by the pond
• [28] INSECT CNTRL POT: against the killer bees
• [29] ANTI-POISON POT: against the tree's purple fruits in the far southeast, the Pygmies' arrow poison, and the humanoids' red poisonous mushrooms
• [30] HOLY WATER: against the ghoul rising from the stone sarcophagus in the stone hut
• [31] RING OF LIGHT: illuminates the entrance to the fire demon's cave
• [32] BOOTS OF LEAPING: with which one can escape the bear trap under one's own power
• [33] ROPE OF CLIMBING: for the descent into the Fire Demon's lair
• [35] ENTANGLEMENT NET: saves you from a fight with the troll in the cave
• [36] STRENGTH BRACELET: with which you can definitely win an arm-wrestling match against the strong Quin
• [37] MISSILE DEX GLV: to accurately hurl chunks of rock at the ogre in the cave
• [38] WATERFINDING ROD: without intended use
• [39] GARLIC BUDS: against the vampire bats
• [41] HEADBAND OF CONC: against the witch's stupefying gas
• [42] FIRE CAPSULES: save you from a fight with the tree-man
• [43] NOSE FILTER: against the poison gas in the small silver box in the orge's cave

Numerous magical items can also be collected along the way; however, none of them are required to complete the computer game. In the printed version, however, the Levitation Dust is strictly required, and possibly — depending on the player character's stats — the Silver Key as well:

• EYE OF AMBER: exposes the Archmage Arragon as a fraud
• SILVER KEY: opens the stone house containing the ghoul
• BRASS FLUTE: puts the dragon to sleep
• LEVITATION DUST: opens the stone coffin containing the ghoul
• BELLADONNA: stops the transformation into a werewolf after being wounded by one
• BRASS BELL: can be traded with the monk for a potent healing potion

Equipped with the items acquired from Yaztromo, you then set off through Darkwood Forest toward the dwarf village of Stonebridge. To do this, you must make the specific decisions listed in the table below.

Taste	Beschreibung	Bemerkungen
1	FOLLOW HIM UP THE STAIRS	To purchase magical equipment, you follow the wizard Yaztromo to his tower chamber. Attacking Yaztromo is worthwhile only if you are dissatisfied with your character's randomly rolled attributes. In that case, the game ends with Yaztromo turning the adventurer into a frog, allowing you to restart with a new, potentially better-equipped character.
1	SELECT THE ITEMS YOU WISH TO BUY
1	GO WEST	—
2	TURN NORTH
1	LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOW OF THE HUT	The headband of concentration offered by Yaztromo protects against the witch's stupefying gas. If you are hit by the chair thrown by the hunchbacked servant, you lose consciousness and are stripped of all your food supplies, though you can still search the witch's house afterwards. The first dwarf rune is found inside the hollowed-out book beneath the broken table leg.
1	ENTER THE HUT
2	DRAW YOUR SWORD
1	SEARCH THE HUT FOR SOMETHING USEFUL
1	PICK UP THE BOOK
1	REACH UP TO PUT YOUR HAND IN THE HOLE	Optional increase in combat power; in return, you are bitten by a small animal hiding in the tree hollow.
1	TRY OUT THE HELMET
2	GO EAST	The plant-control potion offered by Yaztromo is effective against the blood-sucking creeping vine. The walking tree can be temporarily incapacitated using the fire capsules.
2	GO EAST
2	CONTINUE EAST
1	TRY TO START A CONVERSATION WITH HIM	You can also decline the centaur's offer and save 3 gold pieces, but you will then be bitten by a leech while wading across the river and lose a meal in the process of fighting it off with salt.
1	ACCEPT HIS OFFER
2	GO EAST ALONG THE NEW PATH	—
1	ENTER THE CAVE	The entanglement net offered by Yaztromo saves you from an exhausting fight with the troll. The second dwarf rune is found in the troll's pouch.
2	TAKE OUT THE NET OF ENTANGLEMENT
2	GO WEST	—
1	CONTINUE WEST
2	CONTINUE TO WALK WEST
2	HEAD NORTH AGAIN
2	RUB SOME HOT MUD IN YOUR WOUNDS	The pool is filled with healing mud that causes wounds to heal quickly.
1	FOLLOW THE ARROW	The ring of light purchased from Yaztromo helps illuminate the cave, while the climbing rope — also bought there — aids in climbing down.
1	CLIMB DOWN THE ROPE
3	DEMAND TO EAT A GREEN-TOPPED FUNGUS	The green mushrooms provide a boost to your strength.
1	LOOK INSIDE THE BARREL	The third dwarf rune is found in the wooden chest.
1	TAKE IT
1	OPEN THE WOODEN CHEST
1	LEAVE THE ALCOVE TO CLIMB FURTHER UP THE STAIRS
2	CONTINUE CLIMBING	Saves you from an exhausting but ultimately pointless fight against four clone warriors.
3	STEP OVER THE FIRE DEMON AND CLIMB UP TO THE ROOF	Putting on the crown or sitting on the throne transforms you into a fire demon, and the game ends.
2	HEAD EAST	—
3	PUSH HIM OFF THE LOG AND RUN EAST ALONG THE PATH	The dwarf belongs to a hostile tribe.
1	FACE THE ONCOMING BEAST	Rubbing the lamp summons a genie who reveals that the fourth dwarf rune is hidden inside the forest giant's boot.
1	RUB THE LANTERN AND MAKE A WISH
2	HURRY NORTH ALONG THE PATH	—
1	GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT	By now, the player character is wealthy enough to avoid an exhausting fight against four bandits by paying 7 gold pieces.
2	PAY THE GOLD

Ending

Once the player has found all four brass runes and safely navigated the Darkwood and its many perils, the adventure draws to a happy conclusion:

The path leads through the field to a stone bridge over a clear stream. Beyond the bridge are the small cottages and wooden huts of a village. A sign on the bridge reads "Stonebridge". You cross the bridge and see two old dwarves with long white beards standing by a cottage looking at you.

The story's happy ending

You walk up to the old dwarfs and ask them to take you to Gillibran. They eye you suspiciously but agree to do so, commenting on your wounds and torn clothing. "You got those in Darkwood Forest I presume," says one of the dwarfs, pointing at various gashes on your body with a long clay pipe. "Some people never learn. Adventurers are all the same. I see no sense in it myself." You walk through the village behind the two dwarfs and are aware of many dwarfish folk watching you. They begin to follow you and a procession builds up behind. There are lots of mutterings and whispers amongst the crowd of dwarfs and expectant looks show on their faces. Soon you arrive at the foot of stone steps leading up to a stone building.

Outside the building on an ornate wooden throne sits a small old man with a long beard. He is wearing a crown but looks miserable and holds his head in his hands. You run up the steps, taking the talismans from your backpack. At the sight of them the old dwarfs eyes light up and he jumps to his feet. Taking them eagerly from your hands he starts to shout "The runes of the ancients have been found! We are saved. Now, my people, we are ready to fight the trolls." The whole crowd erupts into cheering, waving their axes and swords in the air. You tell Gillibran of Biglegs misfortune and why you decided to continue his quest, and of all the monsters you encountered on the way. Gillibran listens and frowns at the news of Bigleg his faithful servant. Then he opens a drawer in the base of the throne and reaches into it, pulling out a small silver box and a golden winged helmet, and hands them to you. The helmet is worth hundreds of gold pieces and you proudly place it on your head. A great roar of approval comes from the crowd. You open the silver box and find dozens of jewels and gems. You put these in your backpack and wave to the happy dwarfs of Stonebridge. Your quest is over and you are now wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.

Cheats

With an initial Skill score of only 7, a battle against the Fire Demon is difficult to win.

No cheats are available online. However, if you do not wish to rely on luck — hoping for at least halfway decent stats for your character at the start of each game — you can choose one of the cracks from "The Twin Crackers", "1701 Crackware", "Lion Heart", or "DCS" on CSDb. Load the first part of the program by entering LOAD "PROG",8,1, then modify the game's machine code using the command sequences below before finally starting the program with the command SYS 35631:

A=39177 : K=18 : POKE A,169 : POKE A+1,K : REM SET SKILL ALWAYS TO K=12 (BCD) AT THE START INSTEAD OF RANDOM
A=39229 : T=36 : POKE A,169 : POKE A+1,T : REM SET STAMINA ALWAYS TO T=24 (BCD) AT THE START INSTEAD OF RANDOM
A=39291 : L=18 : POKE A,169 : POKE A+1,L : REM SET SKILL ALWAYS TO L=12 (BCD) AT THE START INSTEAD OF RANDOM

Furthermore, if you wish to influence the course of the game in ways that would not occur naturally, you can also opt for the following manipulations:

A=50364 : POKE A,0 : POKE A+1,234        : REM DO NOT REDUCE THE NUMBER OF MEALS; EAT EVEN IF THE COUNT IS 0
A=52037 : POKE A,44                      : REM DO NOT LOSE MEALS TO WITCH, WATER, OR LEECH

Internal Data Structures

Knowledge of memory layout and internal operations is helpful for developing your own trainer functions and for analyzing or manipulating the data used by the game. The following table therefore compiles a range of information regarding "The Forest of Doom".

Address	Content	Value Range	Remarks
$A071	maximum Skill	7..12	BCD format, calculated at the start of the game as 6 + the roll of a die
$A073	maximum Stamina	14..24	BCD format, calculated at the start of the game as 12 + the sum of two dice
$A075	maximum Luck	7..12	BCD format, calculated at the start of the game as 6 + the roll of a die
$A077	current Skill	0..12	BCD format, determined at the start of the game together with maximum Skill.
$A079	current Stamina	0..24	BCD format, determined at the start of the game together with maximum Stamina.
$A07B	current Luck	0..12	BCD format, determined at the start of the game together with maximum Luck.
$A07E	number of gold pieces	0..99	BCD format; rises from an initial 0 to 30 after the encounter with the dwarf Bigleg.
$A07F	number of meals	0..9	—

Votes

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
6.00 points at 1 vote. You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
Lemon 64	7,18	August 6, 2026 - 17 votes
Your Commodore	3/5	Issue 3 (December 1984)
TV Gamer	Value 5, Graphics 4, Sound 5, Gameplay 3,5	November 1984
Universal Videogame List	3.3/5	August 6, 2026
Rombach	8	September 1984 - "Verdict 2"

Critics

Stephan64: "Forest of Doom is a fantasy role-playing game that is beautifully designed in every respect, especially considering its early release date. The only slightly annoying aspects are the time-consuming, dice-based battles against the mythical creatures of the Darkwood Forest, and the fact that the game waits only a limited time for user input before automatically selecting the first of the available options. I give it 6 points."

Miscellaneous

Cover

A small image of the cover can be found at Ready 64 as well as in the preview in the "Video Recording " section; a large illustration appears in the review in "TV Gamer" magazine (see External Links). It depicts a sinister-looking creature with green skin, long claws, and sharp teeth, prowling through a dense forest while wrapped in a tattered cloak.

Theme

The musical accompaniment consists of the theme tune and eight additional polyphonic melodies, all of which are quite pleasant. The gallery below displays a selection of these musical pieces in standard musical notation. For creative reuse, the sheet music for all the melodies is also available as a PDF document (File:ForestOfDoom Theme PDF.pdf) and in ABC music notation (File:ForestOfDoom Theme.abc.txt).

Accompaniment melody for the intro, reconstructed by logging all write operations to the SID chip

Accompaniment melody upon reaching the witch's cottage

Accompaniment melody upon encountering the man in dark robes

Video Recording

Gameplay recording showing a successful completion of the game, though unfortunately truncated, omitting a few crucial situations

Bugs

• If one attempts to run quickly past the cat-woman instead of fighting her, the program enters an infinite loop, repeatedly reloading data blocks in a cycle.
• In the gremlin cave, the gold bar is so heavy that it can only be taken if two items from the backpack are left behind in exchange. However, if the backpack is empty at that moment, the game ends abruptly with the adventurer's death, without further explanation.
• The game does not save the state in which the adventurer left a previously visited location. In the few instances where it is possible to revisit enemies — such as in the gremlin caves beneath the stone well — this allows the player to destroy them over and over again.
• Numerous details are taken from the book "The Forest of Doom", although in that version one must search for two parts of a dwarf hammer instead of four brass runes, and the hammer parts are found in completely different locations than the runes. Consequently, the advice obtainable from various mythical creatures in exchange for gold coins makes sense only in the book, not in the computer game.
• During battles involving multiple opponents, the attacker is often described incorrectly. For instance, in the left-hand animation of the gallery below, the player character is fighting the last of three dogs, yet the accompanying description reads "THE FIRST CREATURE ATTACKS" or "THE SECOND CREATURE ATTACKS."
• The combat display routine expects the stamina point value to be in BCD format. However, in the left-hand animation, the hunter has a stamina value of 13 (binary), causing special characters to appear instead of decimal digits.
• Finally, there are several minor typos in the text output. In the screenshot gallery below, for example, the word "DARKWOOD" is spelled with three "O"s in the middle screenshot; in the right-hand screenshot, the word "LEVITATION" contains the digit "0" instead of the letter "O":

Enemy dog ​​numbered incorrectly; hunter's stamina displayed incorrectly

"DARKWOOOD" instead of "DARKWOOD" in the second line of text

"LEVITATI0N" instead of "LEVITATION" in the inventory list

Accesories

The German version of the book upon which the game is based contains several drawings depicting specific scenes from the story. The gallery below shows these illustrations alongside their original captions. From left to right, the images show the two hobgoblins, the masked rider with his hunting dogs, the arch-mage Arragon, and the forest giant.

​​Upon seeing you, they stop arguing, draw their short swords, and approach you.

The masked rider fixes you with a piercing gaze but says not a word.

An old man in a purple cloak sits at a desk.

It is a forest giant. Upon seeing you, his eyes widen in astonishment, and he raises his mighty wooden club.

Technical Details

Random Numbers

For dice rolling, the oscillator of SID voice 3 is used as a random number generator; its current state can be read from the register at address $D41B. Voice 3 is muted for this purpose before the noise generator is activated at a high frequency. The corresponding assembly routine begins at address $A273:

A273: JSR $A181 ; Set SID voice 3 to "mute, noise"
A276: LDA $D41B ; Read the state of the voice 3 oscillator
A279: AND #$07  ; and scale it to the range 0–7
A27B: BEQ A273  ; Return and get a new random value if 0 (because it is too low)
A27D: CMP #$07  ; Compare against the upper limit of 7
A27F: BEQ A273  ; Return and get a new random value if 7 (because it is too high)
A281: RTS       ; Return a random number between 1 and 6

With this calculation method, attributes are assigned independently of one another; thus, a low value in one area is not necessarily compensated for by superior performance elsewhere. Consequently, it is possible to generate either a hero with maximum stats (Stamina 24; Skill and Luck 12 each) or a weakling (Stamina 14; Skill and Luck 7 each) who has no chance of completing the game.

Text

The narrative that gradually appears on the scroll is not stored on the data medium as continuous text. Instead, the data blocks loaded during gameplay contain lists of words that are assembled at runtime. This approach allows for significant space savings, particularly for similar text segments — such as two encounters with the same adversary, one with and one without the appropriate magical item from Yaztromo.

Graphics

The screen display is implemented with remarkable simplicity: the scroll and the available choices are shown in monochrome text mode, while the list of abilities and carried items — as well as the combat sequences — are displayed in multicolor text mode. In all cases, screen memory begins at address $0400 and the character set at $0800.

Highscore

A high score serves no purpose in this game.

Links

Forest of Doom Wikipedia: The Forest of Doom

• C64Games.de - Game No. 2557
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 2870
• CSDb
• CSDb - Release No. 247597
• Lemon64 - Game No. 3053
• ready64 - Game No. 4644
• The Forest of Doom at MobyGames

• Solutionarchive.com
• Universal Videogame List
• The Good Old Days
• Game review, comparison with the printed version and map for the book
• User manual (ASCII text)
• The Preservation of Complex Objects, Volume 3: Gaming Environments and Virtual Worlds History of the game's creation (pp. 32)

Magazine

• Your Commodore Test report (p. 52)
• Your Computer Test report (p. 43)
• Popular Computing Weekly Publication announcement (p. 53)
• TV Gamer Test report (pp. 28)