Shadow Of The Unicorn

Shadow of the Unicorn is Mikro-Gen’s 1985 adventure game, here converted to a cartridge. The task is to conquer the evil forces in the lands of Falforn and Oronfal; the places include Derris Marshes, the Ice Mere, Dwarf Land, Temple Road and the Desert of Kora, and the objects you collect include Avarath’s staff, Kielmath’s book, Mithulin’s seal, Rolquin’s sceptre and crown, Holdin’s helm, Ulin-Gail’s pipes and Sharmek’s amulet, along with a lamp, a scroll of healing, a horn and a cloak. Success ends with “WELL DONE! You have conquered the evil forces in the lands of Falforn and Oronfal”.

The ROM’s banner reads “SHADOW of the UNICORN (c)1985 Mikro-Gen / Cartridge version by A.Owen / Feb 8, 2009”, so this cartridge is a 2009 conversion, not a 1985 release. The menu still carries the original’s options (start a game, return to the current game, copy the tape or Microdrive, load from tape) and its tape alignment program, which asks you to “Insert side B of master tape” and adjust the head azimuth screw.

Program Analysis

Structure

The download is a 64K DCK image: all eight 8K chunks of the dock bank hold ROM. The adventure is machine code, with its location names, object names and messages packed together as text.

Potential Issues

• The tape-copying and Microdrive options and the tape alignment program come from the original release and may not work, or make sense, from a cartridge.