Black Magic FAQ(Apple game)
version 1.0.0 by Andrew Schultz schultza@earthlink.net
Please do not redistribute this FAQ for profit without my permission. I
don't intend to make any profit off it and do it largely to preserve
memory of great games or to help people wondering how to get through
that game they were stuck on so long ago. However a polite e-mail
addressing me by name and pointing out specific game(s) will be more
likely to get a favorable response.
Currently the detail maps are not complete, but the important stuff is
in there, and you should be able to get through the game with this.
================================
OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
CONTROLS
SPELLS TO USE
MONSTERS AND SCORING
NOT-SO-BAD GUYS
BAD GUYS
WHO APPEARS WHEN
STRATEGIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
WALKTHROUGH
MARIGOLD
ROUGH MAP (NOT TO SCALE)
TO-SCALE MAPS
PRISONER'S KEEP
LEFT PART(TO COME)
CAVE OF COURAGE
ZAHGRIM'S CASTLE AREA
ROUGH MAP (NOT TO SCALE)
TO-SCALE MAPS
BEFORE
IN THE CASTLE
CHEATING (AKA STUPID EMULATOR TRICKS)
WIPING THE HIGH SCORE LIST
OVERCOMING RANDOMIZATION
ENDGAME SPOILER TEXT
VERSIONS AND CREDITS
================================
INTRODUCTION
Black Magic starts out with great promise and, for the most part,
executes it. The story is that the evil wizard Zahgrim has turned the
good wizard Aganar to stone, removed his six eyes, and placed them in
different locations throughout the land so they can view the destruction
being reaped. Your initial object is to find the six eyes placed across
the land, which will allow you to approach the Blind Statue. Once
you've put the eyes back in the Blind Statue, a message will appear that
will tell you how to get rid of Zahgrim's rule over the land. It
involves entering his castle, a wicked maze of traps and very nasty
monsters. You need to pick up provisions, arrows, and scrolls for
spells to sustain your quest. Any one game can last rather a long time,
and each world(start and Blind Statue/Castle area) is twelve screens by
four and a half. At the end of the game there's a humorous skit where
you die, and you get to see if your score made the top twenty.
Near the end you may find the task gets nearly impossible, as there
seems to be a lot that must randomly fall your way to win. This aside,
Black Magic is a slick, fun game even if you can't win, and I enjoyed
even the details of mapping it out.
CONTROLS
--space pauses the game indefinitely. Note that other pop-up messages
*don't* pause the game indefinitely, as I found when I went to fix some
dinner after I got some food in the game.
--CTRL-R resets the game.
--CTRL-S toggles the sound.
--the joystick controls you as you'd expect. Diagonal movement when you
climb up stairs assures you'll hit the ground running and is better than
swerving to the side when you get to the top. The second of these may
make you jump in the air before you get started. Diagonal moving when
you go down stairs will make you crouch. Diagonal movement when walking
on a platform won't allow you to climb up stairs. The game's order of
sensitivity to moving appears as follows:
Check for DOWN, then LEFT/RIGHT, then UP.
--joystick button zero fires horizontally in the direction you're
facing. If you just came from a ladder or from jumping, you can't fire.
--button one does the same thing except it fires at a 45 degree angle.
There's a bit of leeway here in whether you hit something, which is good
if you want to zap monsters in air but annoying if you are trying to
knock stalactites down.
--hitting both buttons simultaneously lets you access the spell list.
Any one spell costs one scroll, but as you get more experience and hence
more rank, more spells will be open to you.
--most of the time, you pick up items by walking over them. Whenever
you walk over food, your food bar grows by one arrow. However,
prisoners and ammo boxes and even eyes may not always be so cooperative.
If that happens, walk back and forth over them, that should do the trick
pretty quickly.
--you can take a hit after your health bar drops to critical before you
die. Health is also affected by food; every so often the computer will
check to see if you have any food left. If so, you gain health and lose
one food. If not, you lose health.
--you can jump onto a ladder if it is one rung above you. You can also
jump onto ropes, which usually cross over lakes, but you will go half-
speed across them.
--note that 49 arrows are the maximum you can hold and still be able to
open up an ammo box. There are generally 10-15 arrows in an ammo box.
--although this is not part of controlling you, it is useful to know how
the screen scrolls. I consider the game screen to be a 20x10 array of
icons. When you scroll right, you go 4 icons to the right. If you
scroll left, you go 5 to the left. Climbing down, scrolling is 4 icons
down, but climbing up it is 3 icons up. This allows you to customize
when scrolling occurs. If you can scroll just as you get to a dead-end
and see areas on the other side, you are that much more likely to blink
over there. Walking back and forth will allow this tweak although
getting it perfect may cost a bit of time.
SPELLS TO USE
Thanks to rubywand for allowing me to paraphrase his docs. And also
for writing them up in the first place as I'd never have figured out how
to use the spells or what they did otherwise.
APPRENTICE SPELLS
--blink-- teleports you randomly to another place on the screen where
you can walk.
verdict: this spell, or bolt, is necessary to complete the game, as
you will find yourself trapped in certain places or unable to get beyond
a specific wall. It can also reduce the legwork to get to an eyeball
and to backtrack after you've gotten one. Remember, time is health in
this game. Also note that you should find strategic points to blink
from--each point you can walk is given an equal chance(I think) for you
to land, so bump up against a wall if you must.
--vanish-- causes you to vanish so you cannot be damaged. However, you
cannot touch anything that would be good for you, either.
verdict: not quite as useful, unless you are out of arrows and need
to make a run for it and there are a lot of plants or damaging
areas(fire, etc.) in the way. Even then it's inconvenient to wait
around to reappear so you can actually pick up more arrows.
WIZARD SPELLS
--chill-- freezes monsters as well as water, but plants are unaffected.
verdict: very useful for getting past large stretches without
plants or damaging areas, or for freezing monsters and blasting them for
experience(especially if arrows are around to recharge you.) I really
like using this over water, as this also stops the very nasty water
monsters and may even provide a temporary bridge that's faster than the
hand-over-hand rope climbing you'd need otherwise.
--trap-- creates a trap(bevelled looking icon) that will erupt into
flames when a monster passes by it, killing it.
verdict: not totally useless if there are monsters trailing you,
but chill seems to work better long-term.
SORCERER SPELLS
--conjure-- allows you to gain food, arrows or health
verdict: incredibly useful and versatile. You'll probably never
need arrows but there is a question as to whether you'll need food or
health. Go for food if no monsters are immediately around and you're in
no immediate danger of dying(this gets you eventual health + a bit of
extra time as opposed to just conjuring health.) Note that in some
areas, evil forces block your conjuring. Notably you'll want to cast
this a bunch before the Cave of Courage, and it's periodically zapped
over the castle. Don't worry, you won't lose your spell if this
happens.
--fire-- thaws out a chill spell and torches bad guys
verdict: a bunch of fire icons appear all around. This is almost
triple-edged and although most monsters will get zapped with this spell,
1) it undoes a chill spell and 2) you'll have trouble walking through
the fire unless you combine this with vanish. Use chill instead.
NECROMANCER SPELLS
--fear-- causes monsters to fear you
verdict: amusing to try, as it causes bad guys to scatter, but why
not chill and shoot them and enjoy the experience instead? It's still
tough to tell when monsters will come back(small ticking noises in the
background are overlapped by your walking noises) so this is the less
serious of the two top-level spells.
--bolt-- you can cut through walls with your next shot or two
verdict: awesome but very short-lived. If you can't trust blink,
blast through walls with bolt. The walls will disappear, and nothing
will collapse. Monsters also don't stand much of a chance with this
spell. Be sure you're right next to a wall when you go at it, though,
since it doesn't last long and if you are lucky and quick you can get
two shots with this spell. This may be better to use than blink when
going for the staff, although you will not have a sanctum where you can
wait for the bird and will probably need to act more quickly to get out.
Three is the greatest total of wall icons I've been able to take out
with one spell.
MONSTERS AND SCORING
ACHIEVING NEW RANKS
Every 4000 points, you get a new rank. Experience points are reset
to zero on gaining a new rank, so if you have 3987 and get an eyeball,
you start with 0 and not 87 for the next level. I'm not sure what
happens if you eclipse 9999 with a necromancer, but I bet it can be
done. I also believe you cannot be demoted for shooting a troll.
NOT-SO-BAD GUYS
--there is a bird that swoops down and places you at a place above
and/or to the left(usually) of where you are. You get 11 for shooting
it. Most of the time you will need to shoot diagonally to knock it out.
However, if it comes from below and you react quickly a horizontal shot
will zap it. You can also outrun it, and the computer doesn't keep
track of it off-screen as it does other monsters.
--that little ball on legs is a troll. It may offer you unlimited
supplies of shots or spells(I prefer spells!) If you are able to get it
when you're a sorcerer, you can conjure a lot of food and health to
supply yourself for later. Shooting it loses you 100 points. If you
have no food when you touch it, it curses you and leaves. If you have
food and wish to avoid it, note how it jumps. Duck under it. But if
you are in a jam with lots of monsters you may have to take the hundred-
point loss. I believe if you have <100 experience you don't lose a
rank.
--prisoners you rescue get 20 points. All you have to do is run past
them although it may not work the first time.
BAD GUYS
--plants that spit bullets when facing you(you must duck or jump them)
get you 100 points. You can touch them with no problem. However you
have to shoot plants so they are facing you when shot.
--small demons your size(but a bit fatter) are worth 50 if you shoot
them. They are the only monsters who can climb up stairs.
--bats are very small and slow and predictable, but they bounce
diagonally in the air. They are worth 50 when you shoot them.
--ghosts bounce up and down rather quickly. Some are as fast as you and
some are slightly smaller. They are worth 50 on shooting.
STRATEGIES TO BEAT GHOSTS: Turn back quickly and forward. You can
often ambush a ghost from behind at close range like that.
--monsters that require multiple hits below give you 50 points when you
kill them and 1 point for each hit before then.
--dragons(blue) require three hits to kill and are three times taller
than you. You'll take two hits if you run into them. They tend to
bounce toward you. They are slightly faster than you. (52 points)
STRATEGIES TO BEAT DRAGONS: chill spell looks best, but in general,
run right at them and shoot them.
--demons are the same size as dragons. They require five hits, and
you'll take three hits running into them. They frequently pause and
preen, and that is a good time to hit them. You are slightly faster
than they are. (54 points)
STRATEGIES TO BEAT DEMONS: duck, run, fire, etc., though a chill
spell is ideal.
--snakes require six hits. They are very wide but as tall as you are.
(55 points)
STRATEGIES TO BEAT SNAKES: see demon strategies.
--water monsters jump out of the water and grab you. They will pull you
down off a rope and cannot be shot. The best way to deal with them is
beforehand, with a chill spell. Often you can't avoid them since you
walk across a rope so slowly--the odds are not in your favor. Also
there seems to be a small graphic bug where monsters can pop out from
half on land. It's really annoying; just when you think you're safe,
you're not.
--all monsters are worth 100 points if you run into them and kill them.
However, with dragons and other tougher monsters, you will take a few
hits before killing them.
WHO APPEARS WHEN
1 eye : grunts and bats appear
2 eyes: ghosts appear
3 eyes: dragons appear
4 eyes: demons appear
5 eyes: snakes appear
6 eyes: trolls disappear(?)
STRATEGIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
WALKTHROUGH
In this walkthrough, if you go straight through, you may not wind up
with the experience necessary to cast important spells like chill and
conjure which help you immensely. You may want to spend some time
bashing monsters when you have boxes around to replenish your arrow
supply.
**Preparation**
I suggest finding each eyeball individually before going for the
whole enchilada. Each area has its own wrinkles that seeing and playing
through it will help you to adjust to, so that when you sweep for all
the eyeballs, you won't be caught off-guard by nuances and lose health
that way.
**Eyeball # 1**
So at first this game doesn't look like it's going to be so bad, as
the first eyeball is right above you. Go right, up the ladder, left and
past the volcano. One down, six to go.
**Eyeball # 2**
Go right past the ladder. Take the second ladder down and go back
left. Climb down the ladder and go left to start. Go down the first
ladder, i.e. before you get to town(it's dangerous to set the town on
fire,) and head left to avoid the plants. Now I recommend casting blink
here until you wind up on the level below. I don't recommend getting
the eyeball to the left YET. The reason is that you will have to face
some nasty monsters in the bat cave if you don't--certain monsters
appear only after you've gotten X eyeballs, so make them wait. Head to
the right and fall down. Left, down the ladder, and right. At the
volcano bridge you will need to do some serious diagonal shooting. Six
stalactites and you should get to the bridge. Six more and you can get
to the other side. Blink is also a decent resort here if you run out of
stuff. One-third to go, only you know where one eyeball is--but most of
the others are harder.
**Eyeball # 3**
Go up to pick up some extra provisions, then back down and right.
On to the bat cave. It should be a straight run to the left. Plenty of
provisions here though bats and birds may be annoying. Eventually
you'll see ladder to climb up. To the right after them is an eyeball.
This is a bit easier said than done, especially since the next part may
rely a bit on chance.
**Eyeball # 4**
Now to get out of this mess you need to cast the blink spell a lot.
It's a bit annoying, but you should do it eventually. If you get lucky
you'll blink into the compartments with food, spells or arrows before
moving on. You should wind up below the ledge where you ignored the
eyeball, only you'll need to go right to get there. Once you cannot
view the bat cave part any more, try blinking again. You should move
up. Go right to get the eyeball you passed up before.
**Eyeball # 5**
Now go back left, up and right(not all the way up the ladder, you
don't need to visit the town) and up and right(I sound almost like an
aerobics instructor) and JUMP onto the rope and WATCH for those water
snakes and DROP once you're past. Wow--another lava pit. Compared to
Volcano Bridge it is a cakewalk. Blast diagonally--all five--climb up
the ladder and go right. You're in the prisoners' keep now. There's a
bit of a mess to get past. You should have the arrows to blast through
the stalactites on the right. Don't run into them as you will suffer
damage. Now there are a few ways to go through things.
Descending the first ladder is probably the most roundabout way to
do things. The second ladder allows you to go a bit more quickly, and
the third ladder with some lucky blink spells may get you to where you
want to go the quickest. Let's go to the second ladder. Go left and
down at the ladder(there's some stuff you can pick up in the dead end.)
Go left from the ladder, all the way down(pick the treasures up along
the way) and off to the right. The eye is at the middle of the long
tunnel at the bottom. I actually encourage you to go to the end, cast a
blink spell, go left once you make it to the next level up, and work
your way back up. Note that the bird who picks you up can save a lot of
time here as you must get OUT of the prisoner's keep. I don't believe
you can blink to the right here as there are no open squares off to the
right. It's a long trek back.
**Eyeball # 6**
So I assume here that you've gotten to the top, just before the
Zahgrim graveyard. Be sure to note when ghosts are poping out of the
ground. There will be a few plants before you get to the living forest,
and what you need to do here is not to get crushed by trees. Now these
trees won't seem too nasty unless you are unlucky enough to be unable to
see them, in which case you'll have to time them. As this is the same
sort of thing you use to pass trees you can see, the visual aids turn
out to be a crutch really. You are safe when there is something else
beneath the tree(prisoner and scroll before you've taken them) but
otherwise you may get hit for damage. Note that you can run into a tree
without damage. There are fifteen trees before you get to the ladder
down.
Left, down, right across the bridge, and left and down. Fall down
the ladder and right quickly(cast a chill spell here. You take damage
if you hang around.) Right, down, left and up the short ladder. Walk
across the rocks and try to time your jump onto the rope so that the
plant will be facing away from you when you go left. You'll probably
have to duck and fire a lot. This place may also be a serious nuisance
if a bird comes at you diagonally, and ghosts may be annoying too. You
may be stuck a bit as you loop back down. Jump down the ladder. Unlike
the previous one where you could jump back up, you are crossing the
Rubicon. There is no sure way back. There's another rope to jump on to
avoid the water creatures. Jump off at the end. Then jump off the
cliff to the right and go right(there's nothing to the left to improve
you.) Up the ladder and now you can try to get clever casting blink
right before you'd have to jump the rope to cross the fire pool, or you
can loop around to the right, go down, and left to get the eyeball.
Whatever you do, you can now pass to the right to the Blind Statue area.
THE NEXT PART HAS RANDOM FOOD AND SPELLS. SO I CAN'T HELP YOU WITH
SPECIFICS ABOUT PROVISIONS. BE ON YOUR GUARD.
**Before the Castle**
This part is not too bad. Several ledges should have food; get
them. All the way at the top, fall off to the right. Cast a chill
spell for the monsters blocking you from the blind statue. Run into the
base to reveal the message.
THE STAFF IS HIS POWER
ITS EVIL ROTS YOUR LAND
THROWN INTO THE POOL OF TRUTH
HIS DARK REIGN SHALL END
Take the second ladder down. A little detour before the Pool of
Truth. Then go right and down. Fall off to the left to get the
nourishment before working your way back right. Enter the castle.
**The Castle and Back**
Warning--at this point things become a bit too random without save-
states. IF anyone knows a better way to get through, please contact me.
I honestly haven't finished the castle map yet, but this is the way I
got through. Eventually you will need to use blink to get to the far
right side. I may have overdone it, but this got me to the ending. If
you are similarly Machiavellian you won't let random stuff get in the
way :).
This part is potentially very un-funny, even if the "Need a Map?"
billboard at the start is a good attempt. There should be provisions up
the stairs. Walk each way to pick up everything you can to steel
yourself. You'll want to get to the top of this ladder, go left, up,
right across the pool(you might want to freeze it to avoid baddies) and
up and left. Now I recommend going all the way to the left and casting
blink. You should make it up on top. Note that you can't get the
turkey unless you teleport to the right area.
Now you have a long walk across the top of the castle. That
guillotine needs to be zapped first. Run towards it and shoot
diagonally. SNAP! BANG! Good thing you didn't set it off by walking
past it first. Note that you cannot fall through the turrets the game
establishes the castle flavor with. You may want another freeze spell
when you are halfway along the rope--this will stop monsters and freeze
the pong to the right as well. Go to the far right of that pond and
cast another chill and then a blink. Go up, right, down and right.
Another blink should eventually carry you over to the other side. Go
all the way to the right, and climbing up and falling in the pit. Go
right and cast blink again. You should wind up on the far right.
Climb all the way down the long ladder(freeze might be good here
too) and to the left. Watch for the stupid arrows as well as the big
pulverizer. Another chill spell should get you across the final river,
and then time thing on the final pulverizer(yet another chill spell
here) and you'll need another blink spell to get into the inner sanctum
with the staff. Now I advise shooting ghosts that pop up until the bird
comes along. It's actually relatively safe in here, but you will need
to push left to get out. I found that by pushing left I would either
get back to the main hall or to the gap before "Need a map?" If the
latter happens to you, run to the edge and cast blink--you will
automatically jump to a place where you can walk to the castle
entrance/exit.
Now getting back has two options. First you can try to blink onto
the platform you jumped down from, and the Pool of Truth is a stone's
throw away. This is a bit risky, though, and if you run out of spells
you may need to run to the left try the other option. Second you can go
right and fall in the river(should be a spell just before the pool,)
cast a quick(not too quick--you want to be fairly sure you'll teleport
left) blink when you are swept left, and you'll be on the left side.
Left, up, right, up at the second ladder, and right. There should be
enough provisions to tide you over. Cast chill spells with abandon as
you're not going to need them.
Either way you just need to walk into the pool of truth and you'll
see the final scene in the game. It's relatively epic even if it isn't
quite poetry.
MARIGOLD
ROUGH MAP(NOT TO SCALE)
TO-SCALE MAPS
PRISONER'S KEEP
LEFT PART(TO COME)
CAVE OF COURAGE
ZAHGRIM'S CASTLE AREA
ROUGH MAP(NOT TO SCALE)
(currently a partial map, but you can see how to get to the staff.)
R = rock pile
S = statue
X = solid ground
H = ladder
. = rope
~ = water
- = walkway(castle)
# = bridge
* = staff
R S
XXXXHXXXXXHXXXXXHXXXX~~~|| H- |||
H H H || H|..H- |||
H H H || H---|~~|| ||| H| |
HXHXXXXXXXXXXXHXXXXX|| H | | H-H ||| H|||
XXXXHXHXXXXXXXXXXXHXXXXX||-H| ~~|~~-H H--|||--H--H|||-H
HXH H || |- H
XXXXHXH R XXX ||-H H
HXH H H
XXXXHXXXHXXXX XXXXXXX###|||| | H
HX HXXXX~XXXXXXX~~~|| H-~--
XXXXHX H - || H
HX H HX || H |*
XXXXHX~XXxxXXXXXXXXXXXXX||
TO-SCALE MAPS
BEFORE
IN THE CASTLE
CHEATING (AKA STUPID EMULATOR TRICKS)
WIPING THE HIGH SCORE LIST
The high score list on Asimov comes with some pretty lofty goals to
achieve. If you want to keep track of your own high scores, here is
what you can do, if you have an emulator.
1. Download kahei's hex editor, AXE. (www.kahei.com) Or use
Microsoft C++'s built-in one.
2. Open your Black Magic disk image file.
3. Go to offset 11000(this is in hexadecimal, not decimal)
4. Now assign the next 21 sequences of 12 bytes as follows: 0a 0a
0a 0a 0a 0a 19 19 00 00 00 00
If you are curious, the high score list format is as follows: 0-9
means to write a digit. If a variable y is 0a-23 hex, it writes letter
(y-9.) Then twelve bytes are arranged as follows:
[5 bytes for name] [3 bytes for rank] [4 bytes for score]
So you are writing AAAAA scoring 0 as an apprentice in the high
score list. There are 21 slots in memory so to be safe you should
change all 21 sets of 12 bytes. It's easy to know when to stop because
1)11100, the next sector, is up ahead and 2)all of a sudden there'll be
a bunch of 0-bytes in memory.
OVERCOMING RANDOMIZATION
** warning ** this may take a lot of the fun out of the game. You'll
get the most feeling of accomplishment over solving this game straight
up, but of course if you feel that you know how to win but aren't
getting breaks, this is slightly dishonest but may save you some late
nights. It's what I did.
I recommend Paul Ellsworth's ApplePC for this. It allows save
states that I know how to use. At a critical juncture, or after you've
done something right, push [f9] and push [s] and then a good name(I
usually use names of the form bm-1-2] and to recall the save state
later, hit f9 and L. Hit [tab] if you've forgotten the name although of
course you can look the files up with DIR. The best times to save are:
1. before you are trying to blink to a place that you might get to
randomly, but you're low on spells
2. when you're low on strength but should be able to squeeze through
to where you can replenish--but you can't be sure!
3. a bird is in view, but it takes you to random places, and you want
it to transport you somewhere useful
4. after finding an eyeball
5. at a passage where you want to explore both of them but don't want
to restart a game
ENDGAME SPOILER TEXT
Upon reaching the magical Pool of Truth, you toss the evil Staff of
Power into its mystical waters....
[action scene where you throw the staff in the lake and it makes a
splash]
As the staff is engulfed by the pure waters, its evil powers are
cleansed, and the darkness that once plagued the kingdom is forever
vanquished.
[scroll extends to full screen]
Zahgrim, powerless without his staff, retreats deep into the
kingdom's forests, never to be seen again.
Upon returning home, you are given the prestigious position of the
King's Highest Druid, and Protector of the Lands....
--------
[after pushing a key you get to enter your name as a high score. It
should appear as [name]-NEC-HERO. Perhaps you can make it to hero as a
Sorcerer, but I was not quite able to. It would be interesting to see
what would happen in that case. Subsequent winners go to #1 in the
charts.]
END OF FAQ PROPER
================================
VERSIONS AND CREDITS
1.0.0 2/17/2002 first version is complete. I know there are details I
have not written out, but they are not critical. There will be another
version unless I get terminally lazy.
Thanks to rubywand for writing up the soft documents for the game and
giving me permission to paraphrase. He has an excellent general Apple
II information site as well:
http://home.swbell.net/rubywand.
Thanks to asimov.net for hosting 1) the disk image and 2) the soft-docs.
