Castle Terroretra

Released near the end of 1993, Castle Terroretra was Reldni's first Windows adventure game.

Unfolding Legends
Game concepts took priority over the plot development on the original Castle Terroretra game for Windows. The prime concern was to build some playable interface and tie a story to the game later. The only basis for a plot was summed up with the lines "It looks like Billy is hanging around with the beastie." (the screen showed Billy hanging from a rope with the green beastie beside him). The story of how Billy was kidnapped was only fully explained in the Castle Terroretra manual. A brief animated sequence shows the essential kidnapping sequence.

Old Characters
The earliest foes created for Castle Terroretra included a small purple horned creature named Dirky Dragon. In one early screen design, Dirky is seen at a large control panel talking to another character named Clawman. Clawman appears on the control panel screen. Dirky orders Clawman to seek out and destroy the Castle intruder. Dirky was also seen performing a pathetic dance in a brief animated sequence.

Role Playing Game Style
As clearly shown on the Castle Terroretra Demo, Castle Terroretra was originally styled as a typical role playing game. The interface included a toolbox. The toolbox had three different main sections. The first section contained icons for basic senses such as an eye for look and a hand for touch. The second section contained objects that were collected throughout the game such as matches and a pair of binoculars. The third section consisted of spells that were also obtained during game play. The user would first click with the mouse on an icon in the toolbox. Next the user click an object or an area on the screen to use the action or object chosen from the toolbox.

Puzzle Game Style
After a successful puzzle type screen was designed for Castle Terroretra, the Role Playing Game interface was removed from the game. There had been numerous difficulties designing the toolbox interface. The puzzle game style was easier to program. It also performed more smoothly than the toolbox level.

Story
The Castle Terroretra Story (The following is taken from the Castle Terroretra Manual)

MAGIC WORDS :

raciih rietdrautduihdraugh ondraih iriettion utdondaih utrietutdca!

There once was an old man named Dr. Blood. He wasn't really a doctor, but he once played one, on an old radio soap opera. Nobody liked Dr. Blood. He was a bitter and selfish man. He lived in a large house near a lake. Dr. Blood has nothing to do with the story of Castle Terroretra.

Nobody knows much about Castle Terroretra. The castle seems to be crumbling. Late at night strange mechanical grumbling noises can be heard coming from the castle depths.

"I dare you." George suddenly announced.

"All right then, I will; but only if you come too!" Billy replied.

"Okay, we meet at the castle at midnight". George agreed.

That night, Billy sneaked out of bed and climbed out the window. He did this often on these warm summer nights. Last week, he sneaked out to a party that lasted until the police came. Everyone was smoking Popeye cigarettes, and getting high on Flintstone chewables.

Billy walked to the bottom of the castle's hill. George wasn't there. Billy decided he would wait a maximum of ten minutes, before heading back home.

Then the noises started. He heard a sound like an old train, echoing inside of the castle. Billy started to get scared. He began to run. He looked back. The castle began to rumble as a flying saucer approached. All the absurd rumours regarding the castle now rushed through Billy's mind. Aliens, ghosts and monsters were said to dwell there. The saucer suddenly glowed brighter. It shot a beam of light on to Billy. Billy ran home, as fast as he could.

Two weeks later, Billy was home alone. His parents had gone out for the evening. His brother was with his band in somebody's basement. Billy first saw a bright light. He looked out his bedroom window. The flying saucer had come for him!

Billy's brother was almost back home. He heard a loud explosion. With sheer horror, he realised that his house had been blown up. He ran as fast as he could. He then saw Billy get zapped into the saucer by a beam of light!

Development
Previously, Reldni had created two DOS text adventure games, The Steven Miller Quest and The Phase of Aron. A third text adventure game The Stage Of Utopia was in the works.

Development on "Stage Of Utopia" was quickly abandoned when Reldni started producing games for the Microsoft Windows environment. The first Reldni Windows game was "Fab Freddy's Tic Tac Toe". "Fab Freddy's Tic Tac Toe" went through two revisions. It became part of "The Reldni GamePack" and "The Reldni GamePack II".

About the same time "Fab Freddy's Tic Tac Toe" was being refined, work began on the original "Castle Terroretra". The first incarnation of the game featured the characters of Dirky Dragon and Clawman. These characters were phased out and the game resembled "The Castle Terroretra Demo". "The Castle Terroretra Demo" is an uncompleted early version of the game. The final version of the game was short, but it promised a sequel.

Reldni Productions lacked funds for advertising "Castle Terroretra". In the end, "Castle Terroretra" was made available on the odd BBS. Be the first person on your block to play the game that will not die! Enjoy the original "Castle Terroretra".

Castle Terroretra was written long long ago when the best PC you could buy was a 386. When "Castle Terroretra" runs on a faster system, the animation sequences are so fast, you can hardly see them. We have opted not to re-write the program because of four reasons.

ONE : This would ruin the integrity of the original game.

TWO : We wish to devote our time, effort and money on new projects.

THREE: We couldn't be bothered to re-write the program.

FOUR : The source code has been lost.