Castle Ralf

While out on a late-night drive to start your vacation, you suddenly feel something and the car begins to slow down. You get out of the car to find a punctured tire but when your eyes turn back to the driveway you think you saw, you don’t see the road you were on. All you see is Castle Ralf, a dark mysterious mansion that manifested out of nowhere. As the castle stares back at you, you feel it calling out to you and you can’t shake the urge to go in to find help, or something else. And thus, your adventure begins.
CASTLE RALF is an interactive arcade fiction game that doesn’t show you any icons, images, settings, bad guys, or powers. Not even the protagonist is visible. Its gameplay is different as it features an interactive storytelling style. Everything about the adventure unfolds in the interactive text that tells players what is going on. It offers commands for players to make choices from on the options available.
To move around you can specify the direction you want to go, whether north, south, east or west, you just have to type the corresponding letter N, S, E, W. For action, you’ll type in a verb with an object, for example, “OPEN DOOR”. This command opens the door and tells you what lies ahead. If this all gets somehow confounding and you need some help, all you have to do is just type in the word HELP.
Interactive story games might be an acquired taste for some players, but what sets them apart is the thrill of the story. CASTLE RALF has no shortage of that. This mystery keeps you at the edge of your seats and hoping to find an exit from the sinister castle. Castle Ralf was released in 1987 on DOS by Douglas Associates Inc.

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