Four Early Demo Versions Found on a Hand Labelled Castle Quest Disc

Two copies of Kuma’s Castle Quest went through the Greaseweazle this week. The first was an ordinary release copy. The second came in the official case with the official artwork, but the disc inside was a plain one with “Castle Quest” written on it in pen. It looked like someone’s backup. It turned out to hold something older than the game in the box.

What Was on the Disc

One side of the disc held four BASIC programs. All four are games that Kuma went on to sell, but none of them is the version Kuma sold:

• CQUEST, an early Castle Quest by John Wolstencroft. Its remarks read “COPYRIGHT (C) 1982 AND TATUNG”. The Kuma release does not mention Tatung.
• QUEST, the companion adventure, whose title screen calls it “FANTASY QUEST”, “COPYRIGHT (C) 1982,1983 and 1984”.
• QUADRAX and PELMAN, two games by A.J. & S.E. Pack, © 1983.

Quadrax and Pelmanism are dated by their own first lines:

1 REM QUADRAX.XBS
2 REM DEMO VERSION 001 16/4/84

That puts the disc in the spring of 1984, before Kuma’s editions. Each program also begins with a line that sets the machine up for demonstration, the kind of thing you would want on a disc running in a shop or at a show.

How They Differ From the Released Games

We compared each program line by line with the copy already in the library. They are recognisably the same games, but none is identical:

• Castle Quest is shorter than the release, and its title screen is grey where the release’s is black. About ninety lines differ, mostly in how it starts up, handles errors and sets up the screen.
• Quest has no instructions screen and no HELP command. It has fewer sound effects, and it keeps spelling slips that the release later fixed: “You anter the room of Myrrh”.
• Pelmanism draws several of its card symbols differently. The title tune ends on a different note, and the same player starts every round.
• Quadrax is the closest to its release, with a few lines of screen layout changed.

Download Them

Each one now has its own entry, with a disc image holding just that program and a MAME flux image:

• Castle Quest (Early Demo Version, 1984)
• Quest (Early Demo Version, 1984)
• Quadrax (Early Demo Version, 1984)
• Pelmanism (Early Demo Version, 1984)

The released versions are still in the library as Castle Quest & Quest, Xanagrams & Quadrax and Tycoon & Pelmanism, so you can play the two side by side.

It is a good reminder of why we dump every disc, even the scruffy hand labelled ones. If you have Einstein discs in a drawer, get in touch. You never know what is on them.