GANDALF THE SORCEROR FULL FAQ Author: Sashanan (sashanan@hetnet.nl) Date: 28 December 2000 Version: 1.01 DISCLAIMER This document is copyright 2000 Sashanan. All rights reserved. You are allowed to do the following: - Make copies (electronical or physical) for your own, personal use; - Post this FAQ on a non-commercial, freely accessible web site. My permission is not required, however, the FAQ must be posted in its full, original form, including this notice, and credited to Sashanan. You are not allowed to: - Make money off this FAQ in any imaginable way. - Post this FAQ on a commercial site without my express written permission. - Use this FAQ, or part of it in magazines, guides, books, etc. without my express written permission. - Edit this FAQ in any way, use it as a basis for your own FAQ, or post this FAQ without giving proper credit. This is considered plagiarism. ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= - About this FAQ - Overall description - Controls - Game components - Tactics - Revision history - Final words =========================================================================== ABOUT THIS FAQ =========================================================================== I guess I've always been a Commodore 64 addict. It's the machine that got me started on playing computer games, and some of its games have left a lasting impression on me. One of those games is Gandalf the Sorceror, and you're now reading my FAQ on it. Gandalf the Sorceror is fairly complicated for a Commodore action game. There are quite a few things to keep in mind while playing, and in the later stages, you always find yourself needing to be everywhere at once. This FAQ is meant to help you make most of the game. I cannot guarantee you will finish the game with it; I never did, and I'm not even sure there is an ending. But it will help you understand the basics, and hopefully improve your play enough to boost your scores. Note that I never had the manual to this game and I've never been able to track one down. Therefore, I do not know the storyline. For example, I'm referring to the attacking monster hordes as "trolls". Perhaps the designers called them something else, like orcs, ogres, lizardmen, Draconians, or something creepier. I don't know. Should you have a copy of the manual, you could do me a big favour by sending me the text! My E-mail address is sashanan@hetnet.nl. This FAQ is divided into four sections. First comes the overall game description, in which I explain the basics. After that, I discuss the game's controls, which are fairly complicated for a Commodore game. Then comes the detailed game components section, in which I describe every single part of the game, one by one, giving as many details as I know. The last section, game tactics, puts it all together. Here I describe what I think is the best way to go about playing the game. =========================================================================== OVERALL DESCRIPTION =========================================================================== We take control of a robed wizard named Gandalf, a name that should be familiar to Lord of the Rings fans. Gandalf has a castle of his own and three princesses, who seem to spend most of their time cooking. I guess that's one way to cut down on the personnel budget. The castle is perfectly symmetrical, consisting of two floors and two towers. In front of the castle is a large field, and monstrous hordes of trolls are advancing on the castle from there. Their aim? To force open the gate, kidnap one of the princesses, and drag her back to their lair, quite possibly to eat her. Or perhaps to sacrifice her to one dark god or another. There are other possibilities we probably don't even want to think about. Whatever it is, though, it isn't pretty, and our job is to prevent it from happening. If the trolls manage to drag one of your princesses away, never fear - the second one will take her place, and after that, the third one. However, if all the princesses are captured, the game is over. Also, the game is over if Gandalf is slain by the enemy. (Presumably they won't have any trouble getting to the rest of the princesses if this happens!) From the relative safety of his castle, Gandalf can fire bolts of lightning at his enemies. Unfortunately, his powers are far from unlimited. For every shot, Gandalf loses a point of power, and when he runs out, no more shooting. Gandalf can recharge his powers by aiming his wand at a bright star burning in the night sky, for which he has to visit one of the towers. Of course, while Gandalf is busy recharging, he can't be shooting at trolls, so some will eventually get through. If too many trolls escape the wrath of Gandalf's magic, they will force open the castle gate, and one will run in to snatch the princess. All is not lost, because Gandalf can venture outside at this point, kill the princess' captors and escort her back inside before the enemies can retaliate. This is, however, a very risky move, because now the trolls can fight back using their deadly fire breath. If a horde of trolls is wiped out entirely, Gandalf wins - for now. A more vicious horde is already underway, featuring faster, stronger and smarter trolls. Your goal is to fight off the trolls as long as you can, before you are ultimately overwhelmed. =========================================================================== CONTROLS =========================================================================== The Commodore 64 has a joystick with only a single fire button, which somewhat limits the possible combinations. You use the joystick to either move Gandalf around, or fire his lightning spell. To aim your spell, simply move the joystick in the desired direction to move your targeting cursor. When you're at the top floor of the castle, you can aim at the fields outside. On the bottom floor, you can only aim at targets which are also on the bottom floor. Outside, you can aim anywhere. To fire your spell, simply tap the fire button. A bolt of lightning is fired and impacts at the location of your targeting cursor. Your targeting is then reset, and you will have to acquire a new target. You cannot fire more than one spell at a time. To move Gandalf around, press and hold the fire button, then move the joystick. In the castle, you can only move left and right. When you go through one of the doors at the sides of the castle, you can switch floors by moving the joystick up or down. You can also exit the castle through the main gate by standing in front of it, pushing the fire button and moving the joystick up. This is only possible if the gate is open. Outside, you can move Gandalf in four diagonal directions (horizontal and vertical movement is not possible). You can only exit this screen by entering the castle through the main gate again. (In fact, as you will see, even coming near one of the other edges can be very dangerous.) Note that Gandalf cannot move if he is currently targeting a spell. You must either fire or return his pending spell to his hand before he can move again. Another thing to keep in mind is that your spell automatically returns to you if you stop targeting. This makes pinpointing a target (particularly a quick moving one) tricky. Fortunately, your spells having limited homing capabilities - once you align your sights on a target, your cursor will automatically track the target for a limited time. You should use this time to fire, of course! If Gandalf has run out of power, he cannot fire any spells until he has recharged his magic. You can still target, but pressing the fire button will do nothing. You still need to return your cursor to Gandalf before he can move again, so it's wise not to waste time targeting when you cannot fire anyway. =========================================================================== GAME COMPONENTS =========================================================================== GANDALF Our main character, a wizard in white robes. He starts with a power attribute of 50, and spends one point of power whenever he fires a spell. He can also lose power if he is struck by lighting (8) or bitten by a poisonous spider (all power lost). Gandalf can recharge his power in one of the towers of the castle. Gandalf changes in colour as he loses power, so you can see quickly what his status is like, without having to look up the number at the top of the screen. The colour coding is as follows: POWER COLOUR 41-50 white 31-40 yellow 21-30 green 11-20 light blue 0-10 dark blue Gandalf can die in two different ways. First, if he is bitten by the spider when he has no power at all, he dies. (This happens most often when the spider manages to bite you twice in a row. The first bite reduces you to 0 power, the second kills you.) Gandalf is also killed if a troll hits him with his fiery breath when he ventures outside, regardless of remaining power. For this reason, it's important to be careful outside. PRINCESS The one we're trying to keep alive. She can always be found cooking one thing or another in the lower left portion of the castle. If the trolls manage to invade the castle, they will snatch her away from there and you will have to rescue her. If you succeed, she will return to her cooking as if nothing happened. If the trolls manage to get away with the princess, a new one will take her place at the cooking pot. The three princesses are colour coded as well. The first one is yellow, the second is red and the third (and last) is white. They all act the same. If all three are lost, the game is over, even if Gandalf survives. If a princess is dragged outside and you kill the troll dragging her away (which can only be done if you go outside as well, you won't see her and her captor from inside), she will stand in place, waiting for you to take her hand and escort her back to the gate. Another troll can move on to capture her at this point, or you can jump in, grab her hand and lead her back to the castle. Personally, I'd go for the latter. TROLLS The trolls come in different colours depending on level. The first are green, but they go through all sort of colours in later stages. Trolls appear from the forests around the castle, walk out into the marshalling field before it, then advance on the gate. When they disappear from sight, they line up at the gate in an attempt to force it open. When enough trolls reach the gate (how many depends on the level), they can force it open and one will come in to snatch the princess. If and when you venture outside, trolls become far more dangerous. One will be dragging the princess away, and if you kill him, a new one will try to move in to get her. Meanwhile, up to three other trolls will do everything in their power to prevent you from getting the princess back to safety. Every troll has the ability to breathe scorching fire at you. One hit, and you're history! Should you be hit while you were escorting the princess back to the castle, she is toasted as well (not that it makes a difference, you lose either way). If you kill a troll from the second floor of the castle, he'll leave gold behind. If you kill a troll who came inside, or kill one while you are outside, no gold appears. THE GATE At the start of each level, the castle gate is closed. As trolls manage to escape the fury of your magic and reach the gate, they will attempt to force it open. Whether they succeed depends purely on how many trolls get through and what stage you are playing, there is no time factor involved. Even if it looks like the trolls almost have it open, they cannot actually force the gate until they get more backup. When they finally open the gate, the trolls will send one of their people forward to snatch the princess. If you're quick, you can kill him inside the castle. This somehow demoralizes the rest of the bunch, as the gate slams closed and they will have to start all over again to open it. If the trolls manage to drag the princess outside, the gate remains open so you have a chance to go after them. If you get the princess back to safety, the gate will close behind you. If the trolls escape with the princess, the gate also shuts as the next princess appears. THE SPIDER By far the most annoying enemy in the entire game, the spider is not interested in the princess at all. He's coming for you, and you only. About halfway the first stage, the first spider appears outside. If you're quick, you can kill him there, but new ones will appear. One will eventually reach the gate. Although the spider cannot help the trolls to open it, he'll slip inside as soon as they manage to lift it even a bit, at which point he'll hide in one of the towers, only to come dashing out and attacking you at the least opportune moment. If the spider touches you, you lose all your power instantly, and need to recharge in one of the towers. If the spider touches you and you had no power to begin with, Gandalf will crumble into a heap, and that's that. No second chances with this guy. It's tough to kill the spider when he's already inside, because he's small, fast and hard to target. Even if you do kill him, a new one will appear almost immediately. You'll have to resign yourself to the fact that, especially in the later stages, there will almost always be a spider running loose in your castle. Just be thankful there is only one at a time. In later stages, the spider becomes quicker and quicker, and also spends less time lurking in the darkness of your towers. He'll come out more often. The spider cannot harm you while you're in a tower, but he can attack you both on the first and the second floor. If you're stationary or moving towards him while he bites you, you suffer only one hit. Be very careful when you run away from him, because if you're moving away from the spider as he touches you, he'll touch you twice in a row, which means instant death. THE BRIGHT STAR Gandalf will often run out of power from shooting at trolls (not to mention being struck by lightning or bitten by spiders). He can recharge his wand by moving closer to the bright star shining in the sky. Moving into either of the two towers allows Gandalf to regain his power. However, recharging from the star takes time, which is usually a precious commodity in this game. In later stages, recharging usually means allowing the princess to be captured and giving the spider a free entry into the castle. You have no choice but to recharge when you can, though. Note that you cannot recharge from the star if The Annoying Cloud (tm) is in front of it. THE ANNOYING CLOUD If the spider wins the "most annoying feature of Gandalf the Sorceror" award, the cloud gets the honorable mention. Moving slowly from left to right, the cloud is there for no other purpose than to make the game more difficult in two ways. First, the cloud blocks your ability to recharge magic when it is in front of the bright star. That means even more time wasted waiting for it to go away, and as you'll know after a game or two, wasting time can be fatal in this game. Second, the cloud just loves striking you with lightning. Occasionally, but often enough to be very annoying, a lightning bolt is sent your way when you're on the second floor. There's nothing to do about this. If you are struck, you lose 8 power points, and you are immobilized for a few precious seconds. The lightning can never kill you; if you were already at power 7 or below, you are simply reduced to 0. If you happen to be struck by lightning and attacked by the spider simultaneously, the game is actually merciful. The spider will pass through you as if you aren't there. The cloud's greatest annoyance comes when the princess is captured, because it will move in front of the bright star, and stop right there. That means you cannot recharge until you rescue the princess. Of course, if you're at power 0 when it happens (as the spider is quite happy to ensure), that means you are powerless to do anything! You cannot save the princess without recharging, and cannot recharge without saving the princess. There are a number of very nasty words for such a situation. There is one way around it, though - if you go outside, then immediately back inside, the cloud will move again. Of course, by the time you are recharged and ready to save the princess, the trolls have probably escaped with her. Besides, there's always the slight risk of being scorched immediately upon exiting the castle if a troll happens to be near the door. GOLD A troll killed from the second floor will leave gold behind. At the end of each stage, when the trolls run out, all gold is magically collected, but this form of collection seems to destroy some of the gold. You get more if you collect the gold manually when you are outside. Of course, this is a risky approach, but it results in far more points, especially if the grounds are thick with gold. GANDALF'S WAND Whether you are inside or outside, your targeting cursor automatically returns to you if you stop targeting. If you fire, it normally returns to you as well. There is one exception and that is when you fire while you're outside, and miss. In this case, the cursor will remain in place where you fired, and you cannot fire again until you collect it! I'm not sure why this is, but it's a very important thing to remember. Try not to miss outside, and keep your shots relatively close to yourself so you don't have to cross the entire screen to pick up your wand if you do miss. (Of course, don't let the trolls come too close either!) If you go inside without collecting your wand, it'll automatically come to you when you enter the castle. THE STRANGE LLAMA At certain points during a level, a very quick, yellow llama crosses the screen horizontally. This always happens at the end of a level, and sometimes during the level as well. I don't know if this has any relevance or not. Perhaps you get some kind of bonus for hitting a llama, but I never managed to. If you find out, please let me know. =========================================================================== TACTICS =========================================================================== I have arranged this section as a bunch of loose hints and tactics. This kind of game does not allow for a true walkthrough. If you have anything to add to the tactics outlined below, please drop me a mail. I'll be happy to add any constructive hints, with full credit given. - The intensity with which trolls approach varies. When it looks like there is a temporary break in the enemy attack, seize the opportunity to snatch a few power points from the bright star. You need them. - When hunting the spider, don't bother to recharge to power 50 every time. If he bites you, you're back at 0 anyway. Rather, recharge to 6-10 or so and try to beat him. If you manage it, you can recharge then (but be quick about it, new spiders come quickly!) - This should go without saying, but you should always recharge fully between levels, while the computer is automatically collecting your gold. - Whenever you are outside, clear any monsters near the entrance before you reenter the castle. They will still be there when you come out the next time if you don't, and may scorch you before you have a chance to do anything. Even if you do keep the entry clear, poor luck may still kill you here. In other words, don't go outside unless you need to. - If the trolls are about the force the gate open, stand in front of it and hold the fire button. Upon entering, the troll will immediately be killed and the gate is fully closed again. - Always keep an eye on the spider. Always. You must always know if there is one in the castle, and if so, which tower he is currently in. Then stay away from that side of the castle. - The spider is your priority target as long as it's outside, try to keep it out. Once it's in, hunt it when you can, but don't let it distract you from your main goal, which is keeping the trolls out. There is only one spider at a time, and as long as you can elude it, it won't do any harm. In the earlier stages of the game, you can actually outrun it. Later on, you'll have to stay as far away from it as possible. - When hunting the spider inside, go to the other side of the castle and drag your targeting cursor along the bottom in the direction of the spider. Don't rest it at the door of the tower you are expecting him to emerge from, it won't hit that way. You must acquire and fire when he appears, not before. - If you cannot avoid the spider, don't run away from him, or you might suffer a double hit. Stand still or move towards him. Best of all, stand still and try to pick him off with a spell close by. The chances are slim, but it's better than nothing. - Take the opportunity to snatch gold when you're outside, but don't overdo it. Particularly, stay away from the edges of the screen where new trolls may appear. In the earlier stages, you may wish to allow the trolls to capture the princess, just to have an opportunity to go outside and snatch gold. This is too dangerous in the later stages (although at that point, you probably won't be able to prevent the trolls from getting the princess anyway). - Fire carefully outside. Make every shot count, and try not to run out of power. Remember that trolls only get replaced as you kill other ones, so if they are all far away, don't bother fighting them. Only kill those trolls you need to kill and leave the rest alone. Also, get back inside as soon as possible! - Do what you can to rescue a capture princess, but don't overdo it. There are three princesses, but only one Gandalf. Only defend the last one with your life. - Don't bother trying to hide in the towers or on the first floor to avoid being struck by lightning. There's no telling when it will strike, no good way to avoid it, and you can't afford to be away from the second floor for too long. The cloud is on the screen more often than not, and you'll just have to risk it. =========================================================================== REVISION HISTORY =========================================================================== v1.0: (2 Nov '00) First version of the FAQ. v1.01: (28 Dec '00) A few minor grammar corrections. This may very well be the final version of the FAQ, as I've revealed just about everything I know about the game. If there's anything more you'd like to see in this FAQ, be sure to let me know. =========================================================================== FINAL WORDS =========================================================================== For questions, comments, suggestions, praise and criticism, contact the author, Sashanan, at sashanan@hetnet.nl. Any serious mail will be answered. Please put "Your Gandalf the Sorceror FAQ" or something like that in the topic. If you wish to do anything with this FAQ except for just reading it, check the Disclaimer section at the top of the FAQ to find out what you can and can't do. When in doubt, you can always mail me. I have a small RPG review/walkthrough site called Sashy's RPG Temple at http://come.to/sashy, feel free to check it out. "Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me." (Lee Wilson Dodd) This document copyright 2000, Sashanan. All rights reserved.