Developer(s) The Edge Initial release date 1984 Genre Action-adventure game Platform Commodore 64 | Designer(s) Steven T. Chapman Publisher Edge Games Mode Single-player video game | |
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Summary
The ultimate aim of the game was to explore a vast set of caverns and retrieve a sceptre. Along the way you had to avoid (or shoot) various monsters (that depleted your energy) and lava pits (which killed you outright).
Contents
The playing area of the game extended over 1024 screen sizes, making it the largest arcade adventure/platform game of the time. A map of the playing area was published in the October 1984 issue of the magazine Personal Computer Games. One curious sidenote about this game was that various "riddles" were hidden throughout the caverns. When the game was first released the publishers offered a prize to the first person who could complete the game and find and correctly answer all the riddles.
The prize, a gold sceptre evidently worth £35,000, was apparently never claimed. Some people did mail answers in but were told they had answered the riddles incorrectly.
Critical acclaim
Quo Vadis received the Game of the Month award in the September 1984 issue of the UK magazine Personal Computer Games.
The Riddles
AT LAST YOU THINK YOU ARE THERE
BE SWEET AND BE QUICK TO GO BACKWARD
TOURD'FORCE USING ONLY A KNIFE TO EAT AN A1 SOLUTION.
BINARY INDECISIONS BETWEEN SILENT BEGINNINGS AND QUIET TERMINATIONS
LOSING THE DUTCH ONE, ROYALTY APPEARS BEFORE ME
A THOUSAND ADDED TO EVERYTHING LOSES FIFTY
Solutions
Possible solution
"Honi soit qui mal y pense" translated as "Shame be to him who thinks evil of it"
AT LAST YOU THINK YOU ARE THERE = "Y PENSE"
In French "to think" = "penser" and "there" = "y".
BE SWEET AND BE QUICK TO GO BACKWARD = "?"
"Be sweet" (read: "bee sweet") might refer to "honey", with a similar sound to the French word "honi".
TOURD'FORCE USING ONLY A KNIFE TO EAT AN A1 SOLUTION. = "?"
BINARY INDECISIONS BETWEEN SILENT BEGINNINGS AND QUIET TERMINATIONS = "SOIT"
The beginning letter of "silent"' is "s". The termination (letter) of "quiet" is "t". "Binary indecisions" must be a 0 or a 1. S + 01 + T = "SOIT"
LOSING THE DUTCH ONE, ROYALTY APPEARS BEFORE ME = "QUI"
"One" in Dutch is "een". "Royalty" = "Queen" "Me" = "I" QUEEN - EEN + I = "QUI"
A THOUSAND ADDED TO EVERYTHING LOSES FIFTY = "MAL"
Roman numerals. M=1000 "Everything" = "all". 50=L M + All - L = "MAL"
The game was supplied with a blank map to complete. Four sections were filled in to assist the budding gamer BUT three were incorrect!