Walkthrough for "Shadowgate" from Kemco/Seika/ICOM done by tsr on 6.6.1996
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"The last thing that you remember is standing before the wizard Lakmir as he
waved his hands. Now you find yourself staring at an entryway which lies at
the edge of a forest. The druid's words ring in your ears: "Within the castle
Shadowgate lies your quest. The dreaded Warlock Lord will use his black magic
to raise the behemoth from the dark depths. The combination of his evil arts
and the great titan's power will surely destroy us all! You are the last of
the line of kings, the seed of prophecy that was foretold eons ago. Only you
can stop the evil one from darkening our world forever! Fare thee well."
Gritting your teeth, you swear by your god's name that you will destroy the
Warlock Lord!"
"This walkthru was done with the NES version of Shadowgate but should be
applicable to all versions" -tsr
"No, it isn't" -dedede
"Oh, well OK" -tsr
Before we start, a quick note about torches. Whenever you see a torch on the
wall or wherever, be sure to pick it up, since torches don't last forever and
bad things tend to happen to you when you bop around a haunted castle in the
dark. Whenever the music changes to the "your torch is about to go out" music,
be sure to light a new one by "using" one of the torches in your inventory.
Anyway:
- You start in front of the castle. Open the skull on top of the door to get
a key (Key 1). Enter the castle to receive a not all that ominous warning
from the evil wizard. If you want to, you can set fire to the rug, but
nothing is found (shades of Uninvited..) Use Key 1 on the center door, and
go through.
- In this room, take the torches (you should now have in your inventory an
entry marked "TORCH=3" and a separate item called "TORCH". We'll use that
special torch later.) and open (do NOT take) the book. Take the key (Key 2)
from the book.
- Go back to the first hallway and open the side door with Key 2. Enter and
take the sword and sling. Leave and go back to the room with the book.
Open the light-colored stone at the far end of the hallway to reveal a
passageway, then go through it.
- There's no way to get to that exit up there, so just forget about it for
now. :> (note the rather brusque language the game gives you if you try
it anyway) Use the torch on the left side to reveal (wow) another hidden
passageway. Take the arrow before you leave.
- Now we find ourselves with the option of going down a really sturdy bridge
or a really crap bridge. The crap bridge falls down if you try tromping
on it, so go down the sturdy bridge for now.
- Oh no, it's a wraith !?!@!@ Now's the time to use that "special" torch you
picked up. Light it with the torch you already have lit. Then, you auto-
matically throw the torch at the wraith. Wow! Now, open that door and go
through, casually taking the cloak from the hook along the way.
- Take the scroll off the shelf and read (open) it. This silly little rhyme
basically states the object of the game: find the bladed sun, silver orb,
staff of ages, golden blade, and the platinum horn. Read the sign twice to
learn the EPOR (blah) spell, then chant it to lift the rope up to the hole
in the ceiling. Go up the rope now.
- I'm not gonna worry about the mirrors for now; open the "back" door and go
through there to a room filled with coffins. The only coffin that's import-
ant here is the front right one; open it to find a mummy (uwaoooo~!) Now,
do what any intrepid archaeologist would do at a time like this: burn the
mummy with a torch and take the scepter that results!
- Head through the back door again to find a nondescript place with three
doors. Go through the right-hand door, then go through the next door
(yes, we're ignoring the lake for now). While we're here, grab a stone from
the floor and load it into the sling (use stone on sling). Now, click on
"Move" and then on the very tiny space between the waterfall and the rocks
on the left to find another secret room!
- Hit the rock on the wall and grab the bag. Wow, jewels! We will be using all
of these jewels in due time, but for the moment let's go back to the room
with the three doors. This time, take the left door.
- Use the white gem on the nice little hole in the wall and take that sphere
that appears as a result. Go back to the lake room and throw the sphere in
the lake. Wow! Now you can take the key (Key 3) safely from the skeleton.
Now, use your torch on the water to melt it, so you're able to get your
sphere back (yepp, we'll be using it again later). Now go back to the
room where we originally got the sphere.
- Open the door and enter. Wow! Definitely grab that shield first, to avoid
being burnt and stuff. Now, grab the helmet, hammer and spear. If you want
to, leave, return and grab the torch (if you spend too much time in the room
your shield melts and you die horribly, so try to avoid that if you can).
- Now let's go back to the mirror room (center door in the main fork). Use
the hammer on the center mirror to reveal a door, which you can now open
with Key 3 and enter. (If you really feel like it, save your game and try
breaking the other mirrors.)
- Whoops! Well, back in the mirror room, we'll put on the cloak (use it on
yourself), and now we can actually spend a turn or two in the flaming room.
Throw the sphere into the flames to get rid of the fire. Open the door, and
get out of here.
- Now, try crossing the bridge. Oh no, a troll with no lower body is trying
to extort you from your riches. Hit him with the spear and move on to the
next room.
- Wow, another enemy.. The correct weapon for this one is the sling. Slam at
him with it, then cut off 'is head with the sword. I have no real comment
about the silly david-and-goliath symbolism here. Now, use the crank on the
well and take the gauntlet that's in the bucket. Finally, open the door at
the far end and leave the joint.
- In the hallway, go to the front-left passage. hmm, doesn't this music remind
you of something you'd hear in a Speed Racer episode?
- Grab the book on the desk. Open the desk drawer and take everything inside
(scroll 3, scroll 4, key 5 and glasses). Go ahead and read the two scrolls;
you'll learn two new magic spells (terrakk, and illumina). Now, go ahead and
read whatever books the game lets you read on the bookshelf. Now, use the
glasses on yourself, and read the book you just picked up. Oh ho ho, you've
learned another spell (motari).
- Use the red gem on the hole in the wall to reveal yet another secret
passage, and move inside. Use the terrakk spell, then open the globe. Take
the key (Key 6), and leave the room. Go back to the main hallway, and take
the far left passage this time.
- Wow, a laboratory something or other ... Use the stone on the floor with a
handle on it and take the water inside. Take the Bottle 2 (the bottle
described as 'impossibly light'). Head downstairs.
- There's a flute which you need on top of that fountain but since the water
is actually hydrochloric acid (you can buy a gallon of it if you want, by
the way, at Leslie's Swimming Pool Supplies in beautiful Wayne, PA). Put
on the gauntlet (use it on yourself) and you'll be able to grab the flute
with no problem. Now, play the flute (hmm, that sounds like a riff from
Deja Vu, but that's another walkthrough..) and take the ring that appears.
Now, go back to the main hallway.
- OK, let's go down the only door we haven't hit yet. Here, we'll use your
torch on the rug to reveal a key (Key 4) which we'll use to open the down-
stairs door. Use Key 5 to open the right door, and Key 6 to open the left
hand door. Now, let's head for the right-hand door.
- Now, when you try moving, the sphinx will stop you and ask you one of six
riddles, randomly selected.
Riddle Answer
"It has towns, but no houses" map (in library)
"Eyeless tho' I might be" skull (in library)
"First I was burnt" horseshoe (in laboratory)
"Long neck and no hands" broom (in the mirror room)
"If you look at me" mirror (from where we came from)
"I at fires attend" bellows (from the globe room)
Anyway, give whatever object is the right answer to the sphinx and he will
let you go upstairs. If you weren't cheating by using this walkthrough, you
would make note of the markings on the stairs, but you are, so you won't.
- Take the star from the map (bla), and open the star map (wasn't it already
open? blaaaa...) and take the rod. Now go up the ladder. Wow, it's a hot
lady type big mama, but if you bother to save the game and try to get the
thorn, she turns into an animal and kills you. Oh well, I suppose the only
way out of this one is to run her through with the arrow you have. Doing
this lets you grab the golden thorn (!) (well, blade, I guess)
- Go back to the three-door room and take the left door. Try taking the horn.
Oh, no! What -can- we do with that hellhound ... besides throwing the (holy)
water on it. Do so and take the horn. Climb up the ladder.
- Oooooh, here's the golden sun, but (can you beLIEVE it) there's some dragon
(sorry, wyvern) guarding it. Use the star on the beastie (remember that this
was made in 1989, in the years before logical solutions to adventure game
puzzles were considered standard) and take the golden sun (talisman).
- Go back to the hall, where this time we'll take the lower door. Wow, some
festive medieval music..! :P We'll head for the left doorway for the moment.
You have been taking all those torches you've been seeing, right?
- Really scary thunder (no, really) greets you here. Put the rod in the hole
on the guardrail. Lightning strikes it, and (again for no particular reason)
a skeletal hand comes along and gives you a wand. Take the stairs down.
- Don't take the pot of gold (well, do it if you want to, I don't care) but
do take the bag. Go back upstairs, through the right-hand doorway.
- The king appears to be quite dead, but that's no problem, as you have other
things to do. Use the scepter on the king's unused hand to reveal a hole.
Put the ring in the hole to reveal yet ANOTHER secret passageway, which
we will now go down. :>
- Don't go left (like, ever), go straight to a room with two gargoyles. For
now, take the passage to the side.
- Do the motari spell, and now go safely over the bridge. Pull the right
lever, the middle lever, then the right lever. Take the orb.
- Now it's time for some backtracking.. namely all the way back to the room
with the two bridges. Now that you're there, drink the Bottle 2 and now
that you're really light and stuff, go across the crap bridge.
- Use the wand on the statue snake, and he turns into the staff of ages!!
Take it and go back to the "epor" room.
- There's a secret door on the far wall (you can see the outline in the wall).
Open it and go through. Use the blue gem on the hole. Take the scroll and
read it to learn the humana spell.
- Go up the rope, and back across the bridge. When the troll accosts you
again, do the humana spell and walk across the bridge. Now, go all the way
back to the room with the gargoyles again.
- Use the illumina spell, which incapacitates the gargoyles long enough for
you to go through the middle door.
- Use the crank on the well, then open up the bag you got from outside (Bag
3) and take the big coin. Throw it into the well, and now you can jump down
the well to the next section. (The door here is unopenable.)
- Now here you are at the river styx (blaaarrrggghhh). Use the gong to summon
the riverperson. Take one of the coins from your bag and give it to the
riverperson, who will now gladly whisk you off to the endgame.
- On some scroll or another in the game is a clue telling you to put the
sun into the hole with the sword on top of it (it's not my fault if I can't
remember :> ). Anyway, put the talisman (bladed sun) in the leftmost hole.
Now, use the horn to open the door. Enter what will be the last room of
the game (finally, blargh).
- Anyway, the behemoth appears to be a tuffie (!?!?@#!@$) so now is the time
to form the weapon alluded to in clues throughout the game. Use the blade
on the staff, then the orb on the staff. Finally, use the staff on the
dragon.
- Now you've won the game. Congrads on your excellent choice of using this
walkthrough to beat the game in a half hour instead of wasting hours of your
precious time thinking and stuff. Ciao
