This walkthrough refers to the original AGI interpreter version of the game, released in 1984. For the 1990 remake in SCI, click here.
Survival tips
Like other early Sierra games, while Graham clearly can swim, for some gawdawful reason he doesn't know that he should until you tell him to. So whenever you enter a body of water, be ready to quickly press the equals key (or type swim), or Graham will drown.
There are some wandering characters who can give you a bad time:
A witch: She captures Graham to eat him, ending the game. She can appear at the gingerbread cottage, or the screens west, east, and south of it.
A sorcerer: He freezes Graham in place for a minute or so. This isn't deadly in itself, but is a problem if one of the others comes by.
A wolf: Catches and eats Graham.
A dwarf: Steals all your treasures, ending the game because you can't get them back. (Why that's fatal if you're not carrying any of the magical treasures you're questing for, I'm not sure; you'd think it would just deduct the points.)
The magic ring's invisibility will protect you from all of these, but it's better to save it to use on the giant in the Land of the Clouds, because that scores the most points. The magic shield will also protect you from these enemies, so that's why we'll get it first.
Around Daventry
Carefully cross the bridge over the moat. Go west. Walk up to the castle door and open it. Go north and west. Walk up to the foot of the throne stairs and bow to King Edward. Talk to the king. Leave the castle. Be careful to stop moving (keypad 5) as soon as the screen changes, especially if you have the game sped up, or you will plunge into the moat. Go across the western bridge and head north behind the castle. Look at the garden. Pick a carrot. Continue north. If there is not an elf here, exit south or north and return until he appears. Talk to him and you will receive a magic ring. Wear the ring.
Go north and get the bowl that is over on the right side of the screen. Examine the bowl. Read the word in the bowl. Go north. Walk into the yellow area on the river shore and get some pebbles. Return south and go west. Get a walnut from the tree and open it. If you don't find a gold walnut, try again. Go south two screens. Climb the large tree at the bottom right of the screen. Walk carefully out along the branch to the bird's nest. (A fall here won't kill, fortunately.) Get the egg from the nest. Go back across the branch and down.
Go south. Stand to the north of the rock and move rock. Look in the hole and get the dagger. Go west. Swim west across the lake, then continue west one more screen. Look in the tree stump at the left of the screen. Get the pouch and open it.
Return east one screen, then south. Go inside the house. Look at the house. Hmm, looks like they could use some help. Say fill to fill the bowl with stew. (There seems to be some bugginess around crediting points for this action, as some points lists say it is worth 2 and some 0. I've personally witnessed the points not being awarded, but have been unable to reliably reproduce it.) Give the bowl to the woodcutter. Walk over to the bottom right corner, being careful not to fall in the hole in the floor, and take the fiddle.
Leave the woodcutter's house. Go south, then swim south across the lake to a sweet-looking cottage. Walk out from behind the trees and examine the cottage. Oh -- a literally sweet, gingerbread, cottage! Obviously a witch lives here, right? Save the game. Walk up near the front door and eat the cottage. If you hear the witch's voice from within, leave the screen to the east or west and return. (If you go south, she may swoop in and catch you before you can escape, especially if you have the game sped up, because she appears at the top of the screen and so does Graham.) Repeat until she isn't home.
Open the door. Go into the bedroom. Walk a little towards the bottom edge of the screen, positioning Graham up against the bed so he's behind the wall and wouldn't be seen from the main room. Save the game. Wait for the witch to come home. When she does, quickly walk up behind her and push her into the oven. Go back into the bedroom and get the note from the bedside table. Read it. Open the cupboard on the wall next to the cage and get the cheese. Leave the house. Save the game.
For Your Amusement:
Walk into the moat.(save first)
Stand to the south of the rock when you move it. (save first)
Get caught by the witch. (save first)
The Magic Shield
Go one screen south and three west, swimming across the lake. Get the four-leaf clover from the patch towards the left of the screen. Return east two screens. Type jump but don't press enter. (The menu says you should be able to press keypad 0 for this action, but it doesn't work for me.) Wait for an eagle to appear, and approach it as closely as you can. Jump when the eagle swoops down; this may take a few tries. If you don't catch it, or it doesn't come, leave the screen and come back to try again. Slow the game down if you are having trouble.
Once you get a ride, go west one screen from where you are dropped, being careful to avoid the hole in the ground. Walk up to the mushroom growing by the river and pick it. (It may seem from the background art that Castle Daventry is just to the north of here, but actually you're on an island surrounded by obstacles.) Go back east and now fall down the hole. Follow the cave south and west. Observe how the rat doesn't come all the way across the cavern. Walk carefully up to the eastern edge of its range and give it the cheese. (The alternate solution is to give the rat a treasure, at the cost of the treasure.) Slow the game down to normal speed if you have it on fast. Open the door. Quickly play the fiddle before the guards reach you.
Go south. Take the sceptre. (You have to spell it "sceptre"; the game doesn't recognize "scepter".) Take the shield. (...In your pocket?) Go west up the stairs. Walk up to the small hole at the top left. Eat the mushroom. Graham will automatically exit.
For Your Amusement:
After giving the rat the cheese, count your fingers.
The Magic Mirror
Go north three screens, then west. (You may encounter the wolf on the way, but with the shield, you don't need to worry about it.) Walk up to the well. Cut the rope to get the bucket. Walk around to the right side of the well. Lower the rope. Move to the top or bottom side and climb the rope. Go down into the well. Continue off the end of the rope. Swim. Dive. Swim down and through the hole at the bottom left. Immediately stop moving; like the rat, the dragon doesn't come all the way east.
Look at the bucket and notice that it filled with water when you dived. Save the game. Move as far west as you can without getting torched. Throw the water at the dragon. If you miss, restore and try again. (For fewer points, you can also throw the dagger.) The blue border around a grey rectangle on the west side of the cave is the mirror. Take it. Look in the mirror. Return east, swim up, and climb rope. Go up and out of the well.
For Your Amusement:
Walk too close to the dragon. (save first)
The Magic Chest
Go west one screen. Walk up to the gate and open it. Enter the pen and close the gate behind you, being careful not to let the goat out. Go west if the goat is not on this screen. Show the carrot to the goat, but do not give it to him. (This may take several tries.) Once the goat is following you, leave the pen. Go two screens west and two north to a bridge.
Start to cross the bridge and a troll will appear. The billy goat will butt him off the bridge and then leave. Cross the bridge. On the next screen, approach the gnome. Talk to him. His name is Ifnkovhgroghprm, which is "Rumplestiltskin" spelled in a backwards alphabet, per the note in the witch's cottage which was a very subtle hint. (Yes, really! One of Sierra's more infamously obscure puzzles. Thankfully, they toned the difficulty of this one down a bit in the SCI remake.) The gnome will give you some magic beans which appear as yellow dots on the ground. Get the beans.
Move up to the upper half of the screen. Walk east and immediately stop when the screen changes (it's very easy to fall into the river). Continue across the bridge and east to a flower patch. Plant the beans. Climb the beanstalk. Despite what you might think from the graphics, you can literally go straight up on this first screen. Save the game when you change screens.
Now it gets extremely difficult. Slow the game down. Very carefully work your way up, saving every time you gain a few steps, and alternating between at least two save files. Perhaps counterintuitively, this may be easier to do with the keyboard than the mouse. On this second screen, try to follow the piece of the stalk that overlaps in front past the large leaf outlined in black, so diagonally up left and then up right. At the center where Graham's head starts to disappear behind the twist of the stalk, move to the right a bit, then keep going straight up.
On the third screen, move slightly to the right where there is a bigger hole in the twist at the center of the screen. Try to keep each of Graham's hands on the green of the stalk on either side. If Graham's head disappears behind the twist again, that's good. Keep going up until the feather in Graham's cap starts to peek out behind the stalk, then head up-left, up a bit, and very carefully zigzag out the top.
When you change screens again to some clouds, go straight up until Graham automatically jumps off the stalk, then save again. Speed the game up again. Walk straight east until you hit solid ground. Walk east from here one screen, then south, then two more east. Look in the hole at the base of the tree towards the right of the screen. Get the sling.
Go north one screen. Rub the ring. Go west. Hang around until the giant falls asleep. (This should take less than a minute. If nothing seems to be happening, walk slightly further into the screen.) Go up to the giant and take the chest.
Go back east one screen and remove the ring. (I don't think there's anything you can do about the loss of points here. Keeping the ring on doesn't save them, because the points are also deducted when the spell simply expires on its own and the ring disappears, and if you could keep them, you'd go over the maximum score.) Save the game. Enter the cave. Go down the stairs with the diagonal keypad numbers (3 and 1), which makes walking in a straight line on the correct angle much easier. Besides falling to your death, in here it is also possible the dwarf to appear. When you reach the bottom, go south to exit the cave.
Once outside, go south two screens, then east one. Cross the bridge as carefully as ever and open the castle door. Go in and bow to King Edward again. Congratulations, King Graham!
For Your Amusement:
Kill the goat.
In the meadow where you plant the beans, eat the butterfly.
On the first beanstalk screen, look at the clouds.
Extras
For further entertainment, you may be interested in information on unused game resources, differences between game releases, debugging mode tricks, etc. at The Cutting Room Floor.
Points
| Action | Points | Action | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Around Daventry | The Magic Shield, cont'd. | ||
| Open castle door | 1 | Give cheese to rat | 2 |
| Bow to King Edward | 3 | Play fiddle for guards | 3 |
| Get carrot | 2 | Get sceptre | 6 |
| Talk to elf (get ring) | 3 | Get shield | 8 |
| Get bowl | 3 | Eat mushroom | 2 |
| Read bowl | 1 | Exit cavern | 1 |
| Get pebbles | 1 | ||
| Get walnut | 3 | The Magic Mirror | |
| Find gold walnut | 3 | Cut rope (get bucket) | 2 |
| Climb large tree | 2 | Go down into well | 1 |
| Get egg | 6 | Dive | 4 |
| Move rock | 2 | Swim through hole | 1 |
| Get dagger | 5 | Throw water at dragon | 5 |
| Look in tree stump | 1 | Get mirror | 8 |
| Get pouch | 3 | Go back up well | 4 |
| Open pouch | 3 | ||
| Fill bowl | 2 | The Magic Chest | |
| Give bowl to woodcutters | 3 | Show carrot to goat | 5 |
| Get fiddle | 3 | Goat butts troll | 4 |
| Eat cottage | 2 | Guess gnome's name | 5 |
| Push witch into oven | 7 | Get beans | 4 |
| Get note | 2 | Plant beans | 2 |
| Read note | 1 | Get sling | 2 |
| Open cupboard | 2 | Wait until giant falls asleep | 7 |
| Get cheese | 2 | Get chest | 8 |
| (Remove ring / ring expires) | (-3) | ||
| The Magic Shield | Open castle door | 1 | |
| Get four-leaf clover | 2 | Bow to King Edward | 3 |
| Catch eagle | 3 | ||
| Get mushroom | 1 | Total | 157/158 |
Last updated: 6/01/2021