Castle Master

• Title — Castle Master • Developer — Incentive Software • Publisher — Domark • Designer — Ian Andrew • Programmer — Chris Andrew Paul Gregory Sean Ellis • Artist — Mike Salmon • Writer — Mel Croucher • Engine — Freescape • Released — 1990 • Genre — Role-playing, puzzle • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Amiga, IBM PC

• Illustration — The player approaches the castle, which is rendered in flat-shaded 3D polygons. Initially the player chooses between playing as the prince or princess. The character not chosen is then taken away by a dragon to Castle Eternity. (The location of keys and some other items differ slightly between the two characters.) The game requires the player, through a first person view, to explore Castle Eternity. There are riddles on many of the castle walls, which give gameplay hints. There are also keys and pentacles hidden in various locations for the player to collect. Many rooms contain spirits which attack the player and reduce his or her health. The player's health (represented by a barbell where weights indicate the amount) is also the player's strength which is important for some puzzles. The player's only weapon is an unlimited supply of rocks to throw, but a single hit is sufficient to exorcise most of the spirits. The ultimate goal is to kill the boss spirit Magister (who can only be killed when all other spirits in the castle are destroyed) and thereby rescue the character's opposite number. The player only has a single life; if health is reduced to nothing the game is restarted from the beginning unless the player loads a saved game.

Castle Master was built using the updated Freescape engine, which allowed solid, fully three-dimensional environments to be produced. The same engine (albeit updated for each game) had been used for Driller, Dark Side and Total Eclipse which had previously been released by Incentive Software. Castle Master marked the first release in a deal with Domark who marketed the game leaving Incentive free to concentrate on the development. A sequel using the same engine, Castle Master II: The Crypt, was published together with Castle Master on a compilation exclusively for members of The Home Computer Club. The two games later featured on Domark's Virtual Worlds compilation in 1991 which also included Driller and Total Eclipse. The game's backstory was written by Mel Croucher.