Witch Trial
Your mission is to explore the parish and collect items which are needed by the inhabitants of the village and return the items to them. If you solve all quests the hangman will let you go in peace.
Key Features:
- Apple ][ Double LORES adventure game with joystick/mouse and MockingBoard support
- Point and click adventure with
- Steerable pointer for interfacing with the navigation menu
- Over 40 places to visit and fulfil quests, several NPCs to talk to
- Changing quest goals during the course of the game after solving a certain amount of puzzles
- Hidden Easter Egg
- MockingBoard PT3-soundtrack (if MockingBoard is installed)
System Requirements
- Apple //e enhanced, IIc, IIc+, IIgs
- 65C02 CPU and min. 128 kB RAM
- 3.5” Disk Drive or emulated ProDOS device. Mass storage devices with a SCSI II card should be using Slot #7.
- Joystick or Mouse required
- Optional: MockingBoard (no soundtrack without MockingBoard - but the game is playable.)
Apple IIgs: clash of MockingBoard and mouse port interrupts so music only available when playing with joystick control!
Apple IIc/IIc+: MockingBoard musicis only available when activating the MockingBoard first before you run the game!
Getting the Game
Physical Copy
- Physical 3.5" floppy (new old stock) with uniquely designed collector's disk label in a retro ZipLoc bag
- Color printed manual
- Digital version of the game, PDF-files of manual, disk label
- Free 8-Bit-Shack sticker
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Digital DSK-Image
Interested in getting a digital version of the game for 8€ including digital versions of the manual and two disk labels to produce your own physical copy of the game or play the game in your favourite emulator or to use it with your floppy emu? Get it fast and easily from our Digital Distributor:
Gameplay
- Objective: Prove that you are not a witch by fulfilling quests and save your life!
- NPCs: Be sure to speak to everyone you encounter. Some people will be helpful, some not so much but remember, their willingness to talk to you may change during the course of the game.
- Quit game: press key Q and press the button of the mouse or joystick to quit the game back to the menu screen. You can restart your quest or quit the game. CAUTION: using this option will delete your progress of the gameplay and you will be starting from the beginning!
- Toggle music: press key S and press the button of the mouse or joystick to toggle the music.
- Strategy: Go and search all possible places for quest items. Talk to everyone you encounter. Also talk several times to people you meet. Their answers might change during the course of the game giving you new hints! Talking to villagers will start and end your tasks in collecting different items and bringing them to the appropriate villagers!
Game Controls
Joystick/Mouse:
- Movement: Controls the pointer. Hoover to the right of the screen to see the navigation menu.
- Button: Mouse or fire button to select menu items
- Navigation Menu: Appears on the right when the cursor is moved to the right edge of the screen. Possible directions are denoted by blue blocks “N, S, E, W”. Click on the desired direction to move through the Parish of Woodford.
- Items: On some screens items are hidden that can be picked up to solve the current task! Note: you can only carry one item at a time. If you have picked up an item, you cannot drop it. You have to finish the task with that item first!
- Inventory: To see the item you are currently carrying press on the blue inventory block “I”.
- Talk: On some screens it is possible to talk to the villagers. If a blue talk block “T” is displayed, you can and should talk to the villager in order to gather more information about a task you need to perform or to finish a task, e.g. if you want to bring an item to a villager you need to talk to her/him to hand over the item you carry! If you deliver an item to the appropriate villager your inventory will be empty again and you can solve the next puzzle.
Keyboard Commands:
- Require additional mouse click or fire button pressing!
- S: Toggle soundtrack playback on/off
- Q: Quit to the menu screen - restart or quit the game from there
Game Inspiration by Daniel Henderson
The idea came to me when I was walking my dog near to where I live and found a plaque dedicated to three women who were killed after being accused of witchcraft in the 1600’s. I began to formulate a story in my head which, as always, I wanted to translate to the Apple II!
I started drawing multiple screens a few months ago using Roby Sherman’s Double Paint program, not knowing exactly where it was going until it became apparent that I was making an adventure game, the size of which would mean it wouldn’t fit onto a 140k disk, so I decided to use my preferred ProDOS as the background o/s. We then decided to push the envelope and realized it would be great to have it pop up in GSOS with its own icon and carry on with the mouse control into the game.
It is only really in the last year that I would have felt confident with this way of thinking and most of that is because I have got to know the right people to work with. Never having been an expert programmer, I enlisted the help of Marc, who wrote the background graphics and sprite system and Roby who wrote all of the game play code, both of which surpass my original idea to make something that we are all very proud of.
Most of the images are hand-drawn by myself. I did use some art-assets for the people as they have never been my forte. but everything needed resizing and the colors matching to the Apple II lo-res palette. I think people tended to ignore lo-res for a long time because they think that the more image you can get on the screen, the better the effect but I have found that not to be the case with the Apple II, in fact Hi-res has massive limitations with color clashes and is generally slow, whereas the fact that you can store multiple lo-res screens in memory and the load them fast is great. Plus the modern obsession with retro pixel art is a perfect fit for what I am doing.
In terms of the gameplay. it isn’t overcomplicated, in fact I would probably say any kid over 10 should be able to complete it maybe with a bit of help. The basic idea is, as you can see from the video, you have been accused of being a witch and you need to prove your innocence by moving from scene to scene and interacting or talking to the various characters and helping them out with a variety of tasks. This is done with the mouse or joystick. I think using a mouse really brings it to life and there is some fitting music available if a MockingBoard is installed.
Known Bugs & Limitations:
- Keyboard commands always need an additional click of the mouse or fire button of the joystick to be executed.
- Toggling the soundplayer with key S can freeze a IIc/IIc+!
- MockingBoard music on an Apple IIc/IIc+ is only available when activating the MockingBoard first before you run the game. Go to the monitor with “CALL -151” and then type “C403: FF FF” and press RETURN to activate the MockingBoard. Then boot the game and the soundtrack will be played. This is due to the fact that initially another card is bound to Slot #4 by the IIc/IIc+ when the computer is turned on and the MockingBoard needs to be awaken from deep slumber.
- The mouse port interrupt conflicts with the MockingBoard interrupt on the IIgs hence music playback via the MockingBoard is only possible on the IIgs when choosing joystick control. If you choose mouse control then the game may hang at the first start. In that case please press RESET and restart the game via typing RUN from the command prompt. The game can then be played with mouse control and no soundtrack.
Credits
- Game Design & Graphics: Dan Henderson
- Game Engine and Mouse/Joystick Interface: Roby Sherman
- Double Lores Engine and Music Player: Marc Golombeck
- Music: Greensleeves (traditional)
- Additional Advice: Dr. N. H. Cham
- Hosting & Disk Distribution: 8-Bit-Shack
Need more Help?
There is book with a complete walkthrough of the game available if you really get stuck: