This wiki serves as a comprehensive guide to the Wizard's Castle game, its mechanics, and development. Whether you're a player looking to master the game or a developer interested in contributing, you'll find valuable information here.
- Game Overview
- Gameplay Mechanics
- Characters and Races
- Items and Treasures
- Monsters and Combat
- Magic and Spells
- Castle Layout
- Development Guide
- Version History
- FAQs
Wizard's Castle is a text-based roguelike adventure game where players explore a randomly generated castle in search of the legendary Orb of Zot. The game combines elements of strategy, resource management, and chance as players navigate through various rooms, battle monsters, and collect treasures. Originally conceived in 1980 by Joseph R. Power, this implementation brings the classic game to modern systems.
- Use single-letter commands to interact with the game (with the exception being drink):
- N/S/E/W: Move in cardinal directions
- U/D: Go up or down stairs
- DR: Drink from a pool
- M: Display map of current level
- F: Light a flare
- L: Use lamp to look into adjacent room
- O: Open a chest or book
- G: Gaze into a crystal orb
- T: Teleport (requires Runestaff)
- Q: Quit the game
- Z: Display player status
Each action you take counts as a turn. Monsters are statically located, and certain events (like curses) may occur randomly between turns.
The castle consists of 8 levels, each with 64 rooms (8x8 grid). You start at the entrance and must find your way through the castle, discovering rooms as you go. Use the 'M' command to view a map of discovered rooms on your current level.
Manage your gold, flares, armor durability, and health (strength) carefully. You can buy supplies from vendors or find them in the castle.
At the start of the game, you'll choose your race and allocate attribute points.
Choose from four races, each with unique starting attributes:
- Hobbit
- Elf
- Human
- Dwarf
- Dark Elf (Drow)
There's no traditional leveling system. Improve your character by finding magical pools, purchasing attribute enhancements from vendors, or finding powerful items.
Weapons:
- Dagger
- Mace
- Sword
- Excalibur (not purchasable)
Armor:
- Leather
- Chainmail
- Plate
- Stone (not purchasable)
- Lamp: Allows you to peek into adjacent rooms
- Flares: Reveal all adjacent rooms
- Runestaff: Allows teleportation
- Orb of Zot: The ultimate goal of the game
- Ruby Red: Helps avoid lethargy
- Pale Pearl: Protects from leeches
- Green Gem: Helps avoid forgetting
- Opal Eye: Cures blindness
- Blue Flame: Dissolves sticky books
- Norn Stone, Palantir, Silmaril: Valuable but no special effects
Enemies range from weak to strong:
- Kobold, Orc, Wolf, Goblin, Ogre, Troll, Bear, Minotaur, Gargoyle, Chimera, Balrog, Dragon
- Gargoyles and Dragons can break weapons so be careful
- You can not attack monsters with your bare hands or if you have a book stuck to your hand
- Some enemies have magical powers like Kobolds, Balrogs, and Dragons
Combat is turn-based. You can choose to attack, retreat, attempt to bribe, or cast a spell (if your intelligence is high enough). Species may have unique attacks which will change as the game is developed.
- Web: Immobilizes the enemy
- Fireball: Deals damage
- Deathspell: Instantly kills the enemy (or you, if it fails)
- Heal (increases strength at a cost of 1 intelligence points)
- Bright (temporarily increases intelligence)
- Haste (temporarily increases dexterity)
Spell success is based on your Intelligence attribute. Higher Intelligence increases the chance of successful spells.
The castle is randomly generated at the start of each game, ensuring a unique experience every time.
- Empty rooms
- Stairs (up and down)
- Pools (can be drunk from for random effects)
- Chests (can contain gold or traps)
- Crystal Orbs (can be gazed into for information)
- Books (can be read for various effects); beware their is a chance a book will stick to your hand or make you blind
- Monster rooms
- Vendor rooms
- Warp rooms (teleport you to a random location)
- Sinkhole (drops you to the level below)
Use the 'M' command to view a map of the current level. Unexplored rooms are hidden until discovered.
On Linux, hitting F5 and F6 will change the color scheme but doesn't work on every terminal (uses ANSI escape codes which are handled differently depending on the terminal). The equivalent of that is page up/page down on Windows
The project contains multiple implementations:
- C implementation (fully functional)
- Python implementation (incomplete)
- Original BASIC source
- Refactored BASIC source
- Android Port
To build the CLI version (in Linux):
- Navigate to the
c/directory - Run
maketo compile - Run
./wizardscastleto play
To build the QT C version (in Linux):
- Navigate to the 'c/' directory
- Run
make qtto compile (make sure you have qt-development libraries installed) - Run ./wizards_castle_qt
To build the CLI Windows version (in Linux):
- Navigate to the 'c/' directory
- Run
make windowsto compile (make sure you have docker installed and functioning) - Copy the resuling .exe to a Windows machine (wizard_windows.exe)
- Alternatively, if you have mingw installed, you can run x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc main.c wizardio.c wizards-castle.c player.c gamestate.c combat.c utilities.c vendor.c -o wizard_windows.exe
To build the QT Windows version (in Windows)
-
Navigate to the 'c' dir
-
Run qmake wizard_castle_qt5.pro
-
Run nmake (if the msvc and QT Gods are kind to you and you have all the dependencies installed)
-
If you have issues, please view .github/worksflows/release.yml to see how I compile it.
- name: Build Qt application shell: cmd working-directory: c run: | echo Current directory: %CD% set CL=/MD /O1 /W1 /wd4996 /wd4244 /wd5105 /Zc:preprocessor- /GS- /D_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS /diagnostics:column /errorReport:send qmake wizard_castle_qt5.pro nmake
-
I have not tried to build the CLI version in Windows because mingw works great and my environment is Fedora based.
-
The MSVC version has a severe limitation with constant character types whereas GCC doesn't; hence the simplified ASCII Art.
To build the MS-DOS CLI version (in Linux)
- Naviage to the 'c/' dir
- Run make msdos (requires Docker); it's much easier to use someone else's image to build
- Alternatively, have gcc from DJGPP in your path and run gcc main.c wizardio.c wizards-castle.c player.c gamestate.c combat.c utilities.c vendor.c -o wizard_dos.exe
- Setting up DJGPP can be a pain but not impossible; much easier to use docker
I also have a "make qt-windows" command which cross compiles the code from Linux to Windows but the .exe generated doesn't run because it's not packaged with all the proper DLLs dependencies and I am ignorant on how to build that.
For debugging, use make debug for memory issues. Additionally, not related to memory issues, run with ./wizardscastle --debug to make the castle much easier.
Check the project's GitHub repository for the latest updates and changes.
Q: How do I win the game? A: Find the Orb of Zot and escape the castle with it.
Q: What does the Runestaff do? A: The Runestaff allows you to teleport within the castle.
Q: How far away from the origin is this version? A: It has been significantly enhanced but has kept the basic structure.
Q: Can I play the original BASIC version? A: Yes, the original BASIC source is included and can be run using Quick Basic 7.1.
Q: Is there a mobile version available? A: Not currently, but it's a potential future development.
We encourage all players and developers to contribute to this wiki. If you have knowledge to share or find any inaccuracies, please feel free to edit and improve these pages. Together, we can create a comprehensive resource for all things Wizard's Castle!
For guidelines on contributing to the project itself, please refer to our CONTRIBUTING.md file.
Happy adventuring in the Wizard's Castle!