Secret of Kandar

Overview

Written by Andrew Taylor in 1984 this flipscreen action-adventure was initially named "Castle Capers", but Ocean Software Ltd. held it back because the graphics were in need of improvement and never released it in the UK. Nevertheless this game was published in the UK two years later, in 1986, by Alpha-Omega Software under the name "Secret of Kandar".

In 1987 Alpha-Omega Software was renamed into The Power House and "Secret of Kandar" was released once again under the new publishing label and with a new box cover. In Germany this title was already published in 1985 by QuelleSoft/Ocean Software Ltd. with the name "Das Spukschloß" what means translated: "haunted castle".

Story

The story like found on the box cover: "It is early morning and you awake outside the gates of a great castle - the Castle of Kandar. As your hazed memroy clears it all comes back to you - the tales in the village of a great mystery deep within the castle, then the drink; it tasted strange at the time, then feeling sleepy, so very sleepy. You are the one chosen to face the unknown dangers of the castle this year, or else be exiled from the village - a coward. Every year a person was chosen to enter, but none who dared enter had yet returned. Can you explore the more than one hundred rooms of the castle in this fully graphic quest? Will you survive..."

Gameplay

The aim of the game is to find the secret room which opens after finding the fourth talisman. This secret room contains the Crown of Kandar that allows the player to rule over Kandar.

The adventure starts with the playable character standing in front of the Castle of Kandar, next to the main entry. The castle itself consist of rooms, prison cells, dungeons and battlements located on different floors and accessible by stairways. Useful objects(there are a total of 25) like daggers, banners or keys to open the 47 closed doors are scattered around the castle and can be picked up by simply walking over them. Only two objects can be carried at one time, so the last collected object is exchanged with the first item in the inventory. The inventory, which displays the carrying objects, number of visited locations(there are a total of 104), score and left lives, can be accessed by pressing the "S" key or by pushing the joystick downwards.

The castle is populated with a number of enemies who hamper the search for 'the secret' and must be avoided. Some of them like birds and rats are moving around, whereas others like knights, ogres, dogs and cats are static.