Sword of Fargoal (VIC-20), Explained in 64 Seconds

Channel:

David Youd

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Published on November 10, 2022 6:49:50 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnSGYDtSIo4

Game:

Sword of Fargoal (1982)

Duration: 1:35

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50

This was my favorite childhood game before I got my C64. The VIC-20 verison is written entirely in BASIC. I still have my old game box, but can't find the tape! I remember it was cool to watch it load from tape, as the redefined characters for the game (64 of them) started at $1400 and BASIC code started at $1601, so you could watch a screen of garbage get slowly defined during the load.

I wrote a little cheat patch to help with making the video. When playing the game, just press the RUN/STOP key, then enter:
48 IFA$="O"THEN207:REM MAP OFF
49 IFA$="B"THENGOSUB329:POKEO+D%,K:GOTO37:REM MAP ON
This redefines two of the existing key commands to remove or add back the dungeon's "fog of war".

Things I didn't cover:
- Monster movement becomes more frequent with lower dungeon levels (maxing out at level 19)
- Human-like foes pick up gold on the ground (unless buried). They can also steal gold directly from you. You can get it back if you go kill 'em.
- If the sword of fargoal is stolen, you must return to the level on which you found it and find it again. Meanwhile, the 2000-second clock keeps ticking.

Links:
- I scanned and added the manual to archive.org: https://archive.org/details/swordOfFargoalVic20Manual
- Box and manual art drawn by fantasy artist George Barr: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Barr_%28artist%29
- McCord did a reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/116mna/hi_my_name_is_jeff_mccord_and_im_the_creator_of/

Bugs:
- The manual says the sword could be on level 20, but this never happens.
- The manual says there's a temple on each level, but there is no temple on the level that contains the sword of fargoal.
- In the code, I found one range check bug and some unreachable code, but otherwise, it looks pretty well tested.

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