Thoughts on Kemco's NES port of Shadowgate

[Victar]

In 1989, Kemco-Seika ported the point-and-click adventure game Shadowgate (developed by ICOM Simulations) to the Nintendo Entertainment System. This port was so successful that ICOM Simulations had Kemco follow up with NES ports of the point-and-click games "Deja Vu" and "Uninvited". Today, all three games are easiest to acquire as the "Macventure" trilogy on Steam, PS4, and probably other platforms.

Although it was a point-and-click puzzle-solving game, Shadowgate had the external trappings of a classic fantasy adventure or RPG. The player was a brave knight sent to the monster-infested Castle Shadowgate, in order to stop the evil Warlock Lord. The plot and storytelling were very basic.

A companion "novel" for young adult readers was published. Its title was "Before Shadowgate". It just might be the worst commercial YA book I have ever read.

All of Shadowgate's puzzles revolved around objects - "TAKE" objects, then use them on things in the environment, on each other, or on oneself. There was a clickable "SELF" box, used to do things like drink potions ("USE" potion on "SELF"). One could also "HIT", "OPEN", "LOOK" etc. at various things. There were magic spells, but they only existed to solve specific puzzles.

Shadowgate was on a time limit. The hero carried 1-2 lit torches that burned out over time. If the hero's last torch went out, he tripped in the dark and died. There were plenty of torches to collect, and torches could be used to light one another, but getting stuck on a puzzle for too long made the game unwinnable. Astute players could pause the game to extend torch life, while they contemplated a puzzle.

It was also possible to make Shadowgate unwinnable by consuming all vials of a certain, limited-quantity potion in the wrong location. Fortunately, point-and-click adventures only take a long time if the player doesn't know what to do, so replaying Shadowgate up to the point where it might have become unwinnable last time was a swift affair.

Shadowgate was notorious for its gallows humor, and the many, many different ways the player could die. The player could save the game anywhere, which made it easy to experience all its grimly funny death scenes.

Although Shadowgate certainly wasn't on the level of the most cruel point-and-click adventures, it was modestly difficult to solve without a guide. Missing one crucial item, anywhere, would inevitably lead the player to backtrack through Every. Single. Room. of the entire castle, hunting for the one little collection of pixels they didn't click on the first time. Or that they didn't click on with the right command the first time.

I clearly remember a certain thing that only responded to the "USE" command, while the "OPEN" command gave a standard error message. This caused me to miss a vital item, which led to asking fellow students at the high school cafeteria how on Earth to progress the game. By "asking", I mean:

"This game is impossible!"

"No, it's not."

"I swear it is, I searched everywhere!"

"No, really, it's not."

Such was the era before GameFAQs and ubiquitous internet access.