Reviews by Canalboy

This is another large and finicky Epic adventure with interminable dull paths and real-time elements; there are a whole host of winding underground tunnels and paths which need careful mapping. The number of redundant locations can't possibly have anything to do with making the game seem more attractive in the advertising of the day when room count was a major selling point. Oh dear me no.

The premise is that you find yourself on a country road next to a well after spinning a strange wheel you found lying in a country lane; to return to civilisation you must find 23 treasures and then...well, it should be fairly obvious.

There are umpteen ways of soft and hard locking yourself out of completion in this game so you must save in almost an anal fashion. Remember the lamp will burn in real time too so no dawdling or al fresco lamp lighting. Some exits are not clued so mapping is essential here; successful completion depends on not wasting precious lamp oil. It is not possible to refill your lamp as I eventually discovered, despite there being a large pool of oil in one location. Lubrication may be a prerequisite elsewhere.

The game has a number of split second timing decisions to make, mostly centering around when and where to interact with the various NPCs in the game as well as some one visit only areas. Discovering which objects to take with you into these areas and the order in which to visit them will inevitably lead to numerous reloads and restarts. The ten item inventory limit may sound ample but there are times when you will need to take that many items with you so there is no scope for getting it wrong.

The EPIC Operating system was co-written by the author together with D.M. Johnson and updated several times; while the parser in this game is not as sophisticated as the one in The Lost Crystal written three years later from the same stable I found it adequate and I didn't have much trouble in expressing my desire, with the exception of one set piece involving a farmer and a bull in a china shop. I came across not a single typo or other shrdlu which is refreshing.

As mentioned above there are a number of both obstructive and helpful NPCs including a policemen, a werewolf, a troll and a tramp who move across certain areas of the game map. As in many of the games from the seminal years there is ample scope for soft and hard locks, sometimes obvious straight away and sometimes not.

Squeezing 218 illustrated rooms into the 32K Beeb won't have been easy this side of Level 9 text compression techniques and overall the game is worth playing for the puzzles which are definitely the game's strong suit.

I played via the B-em emulator version 2.2 as I prefer the native font to the BeebEm program and upped the emulator speed to 300 per cent which gave smooth and fast game play sessions.

Hermit's Secret was the second of six games written by the science fiction author Dian Crayn (she had several pseudonyms) in 1982 and 1983. They are all of a piece, that is large, puzzle based treasure hunts replete with mazes (a couple of them nasty with random exits) and timed end sequences. As I have always been a fan of old style games these are right up my street, or down my grating if you prefer. The grating reference is apt as all of the games have more than a bottom note of Willie Crowther and Don Woods. Each has its equivalent of the pirate and the axe throwing dwarves and in this game they are an over-stressed salesman, a hooded assassin and an obsequious elf. Keep on the move and you should be okay. There is even an homage to the dragon killing method in the 1976 game in here as is the last lousy point. There are also a number of magic words in the game that transport you instantaneously across its broad canvas and into some secret rooms which are not reachable by conventional means.

Dian's descriptions are mostly well-done and of medium length although the two word parser could have been improved by allowing more location items to be interacted with - "examine" is not included. There is a coding oddity in that the table for the push command appears to be empty. This does not prevent the game from being completed but does affect a later game, Granny's Place from being wrapped up. I also make no apologies in spoiling one particular puzzle which had me flummoxed for ages, namely digging in the mud hole only works if you are holding the pig. It should be predicated upon whether or not you are holding the shovel but there is a dodgy conditional flag here; likewise when attempting to cross the chasm with the pig. I realised it must be possible to dig at the mud hole as the parser hints as much when you essay the action sans porker.

In all there are 22 of the Hermit's treasures to be located and stored in an unlikely place across over 200 locations; these are split roughly between two thirds below ground and one third the other side of the topsoil.

There is a lamp timer at work but the number of moves permitted is so large that this should not be a problem - if it is, a battery vending machine can be located guess where? Yup that's right, thank you Don Woods.

I played via DOSBox-X which is my go to program for playing these old DOS games. I find it gives a better save game experience and a cleaner more customisable display.