...When the drawbridge crashes into the moat, you can only hope there is another way out - somewhere beyond the castle's dark entrance. But don't expect the owner of Castle Ralf to show you the way. Dr. Bellefleur Q. Izgotcha III invents phenomenal puzzles to frustrate and tantalize the finest minds, and, since the castle is his workshop, a myriad of obstacles block your exit, including an acrobatic hamster, some incarcerated alligators, and a less-than-friendly Chihuahua. To escape from Castle Ralf alive, you'll have to learn how the castle itself, and some of Dr. Izgotcha's most amazing inventions, work. Can you beat the odds, the alligators, and the puzzles to get out?
Released as shareware way back in 1987 by Doug Clutter and Steve Vance, Castle Ralf is a standard text adventure – known as interactive fiction – that is good for both newbies to IF and hardened travelers alike. One thing that makes it stand out from a lot of the other text adventures available is that you can use a menu interface (pretty innovative at the time), located at the bottom of the field, instead of the usual text parser. This means that you are able to see the list of usable verbs at all times and gives this somewhat lackluster adventure a few redeeming qualities. Another is that this game features a basic auto-mapping system! Your surroundings are displayed in the bottom-right corner and are constantly updated as you explore.
Castle Ralf is a basic dungeon roamer and, largely due to (what attempts to pass as) humor and genuinely challenging puzzles dealing with such things as burnt pizza, portable cyclotrons, and alligator love potions, is adequately fun. Most of the puzzles are pretty hard, but not unfair or so irrational that you’ll end up tearing your hair out.
The storyline is not why you’ll be playing this game. It is puzzle after puzzle after puzzle. I wouldn’t class this game as interactive fiction. It is more like 1987’s version of a puzzler of the type that is now produced in Flash and involves little more than arrow keys and the space bar.
There is nothing especially outstanding about Castle Ralf except for the verb-list menu and the auto-mapping system, but the puzzles are quite fun and satisfying when you solve them.
Dear Abandonia visitors: Help us keep Abandonia free with a small donation. Abandonia is like an old gaming arcade with only original games. Abandonia helps you have fun four hours and years. If Abandonia is useful to you, please help us forget fundraising and get back to Abandonia.
