I finished "Conquests of the Longbow" in 6 hours!

But what if you're lefthanded?

I finished Conquests of the Longbow in six hours! Well, at least I think I did. I reloaded so often, the timestamps of the save slots weren't really good to keep track of my progress anymore. It could be closer to seven hours in total. Because I restored a lot...

I also feel like a dolt. Last time I was stuck on the riddle part of the game. My wife even offered her assistance with the riddles, but she didn't understand it either. We were convinced some of our answers HAD to be correct, but they still weren't accepted. Finally she looked one of them up, and indeed, it WAS the right answer! So, was this a bug? No, finally we figured it out... After spelling out the correct answer on the hand palm, I clicked in the wrong place on the screen to submit it, making the game think I submitted blank. So after we realized that, we quickly answered three riddles, clicking the sweet spot and submitting them correctly, and finally the game continued! Sigh...

Sensory overload in this place...

Anyways, on with the mission! A lot happened, and it happened fast, so I had to reload a couple of times, both when being overpowered by the sheriff's men, and when I noticed some decisions made my score drop again. But I won the archery tournament, with the famous arrow-splitting scene of course! The fair overwhelmed me a bit, I have to be honest. I think I missed loads of hidden things there, and I got captured twice for talking to the wrong scholar. But it worked out in the end.

Thank you very much, easy arcade settings!

I also rescued Lady Marian after she was accused of being a witch, and bamboozled the sheriff with some fake jewelry, literally stripping him of all his possessions. Then it was finally time for the big robbery. Just as with Lady Marian's rescue mission, I had to choose between all the plans my merry men proposed. With Marian it was obvious what to do, but for the robbery I just guessed at what would be most succesful.

Such gruesome slaughter...

So I collected the ransom money for King Richard, then almost got tricked by a fake knight of the Queen. I had to go back to the monastery to free the real knight, and I finally found a use for one of the rings I acquired. I wish there had been a use for the second ring as well, but perhaps I missed that bit somewhere.

This tower kept me busy for a while...

After all, I finished the game with only  6815 points out of a total 7325, but I did get the good ending - freeing King Richard, him absolving me and my men, and he gave me his blessing to marry Lady Marian. So everything I missed should only be some little extras here and there. What I like about this game is that, whenever you do something wrong, you hear a bad jingle and your points are lowered. So a quick restore and a change of tactics remedies that. I was also surprised the number of outlaws always remained constant, but I think that's just due to being very lucky and choosing the right strategies in the battle sequences. It's a very narrative game and not as punishing as other Sierra titles. I was always surprised how quickly a day ended. Usually there were very clear goals, and most puzzles made sense. Whenever I was stuck, it turned out I had to check the manual for something. I'm glad I've played this game now, but I'm also a bit sad I didn't get around to it earlier. It's a great balance of tension and humor, lots of dangerous places and game-over screens but very manageable and with funny writing.

The Kingdom is saved! Huzzah!

You can find Conquests of the Longbow here!

3 hours into "Conquests of the Longbow" and breaking my head over some riddles...

Aww, soulmates...

I'm 3 hours into Conquests of the Longbow and breaking my head over some riddles...

Lots has happened since my first playing session. First I finally found a disguise to venture inside Nottingham. The local cobbler gave me a silver comb, which I had to show to Marian to pledge my allegiance to the cause of gathering King Richard's ransom. Apparently there's a treasure passing through Watling Street, so I'll have to prepare to take possession of it. But the cobbler is going on a reconnaissance mission first, and will inform me about it later.

Really hope this isn't the river Styx...

Then Marian sent me undercover into an evil monastery to retrieve a stolen scroll. This was actually a pretty fun part, and the map of the building reminded me a lot of the map of Camelot in Conquests of Camelot, only more graphically advanced. This felt as a first real mission in the game. But the Sheriff had also arrested three peasant brothers, and I had to get them out of jail before they were hanged. I had to choose what I would do first, so luckily I still had time the next day to go rescue the brothers.

I really wanted to snoop through all bedrooms for some reason...

I was able to procure myself a monk's habit, so I could enter the castle and see the brothers, but the guards were keeping a close eye on me so I couldn't really do anything. I also met the evil abbot, who sent me on an ale-fetching quest to the local pub. Then he invited me to drink with him, after which I had a game-over screen since they recognized who I was when I had passed out drunk. So after a reload, I refused his invitation, but this angered him and he threw me out. So had to reload several times and finally I found the correct order of doing things, which all had to do with winning a game of Nine Men's Morris first - which took me several attempts before I learned a good strategy.

Quite a fun game once you get the hang of it...

At the moment I'm stuck answering a couple of riddles by the Great Green Oak Man, Guardian of Sherwood Forest. I kinda liked the riddles in Conquests of Camelot, I didn't get all of them but at least there was more chance of getting some right. But here I have absolutely no idea what the answer to any of them might be. I'll have to stew on them for a while...

You can find Conquests of the Longbow here!

Classic time: "Conquests of the Longbow" playthrough!

New game!

I've started playing Christie Marx's Conquests of the Longbow and I'm 1 hour into it! I've never played this classic before, so it's a maiden voyage for me. During my life, I've seen four different iterations of the Robin Hood story, and now this is the first one I'll experience in game form. I doubt the character needs much introduction from me.

Robin has pretty basic living arrangements...

From the start the look and feel of the game are very familiar. The graphic design, the music, the interface, it's all classic 90s Sierra adventure. But there are some extra elements that immediately come to the fore. At the top of the playing field, you'll see statistics for the current "Ransom" money you have gathered. You can keep track of the number of  your"Outlaws" that are still alive. Other than that, there are many arcade sequences and decisions you will have to make. If you fail those, you either die (it's a Sierra game, after all) or you'll get a bad ending; so save often, I'd say!

What a merry bunch... If two people can be called a bunch...

The game starts with an (optional) prologue where you see King Richard of England taken prisoner by Leopold of Austria when the former travels back from the crusades in Jerusalem. It's your job as Robin Hood to rob the rich and give to the poor, or in this case gather the necessary ransom of one hundred thousands mark.

Already killed a guy within the first hour...

After I did some target practice, I wandered Sherwood Forest a bit, unsure what I was supposed to be doing. Then I remembered Friar Tuck at the campsite telling me to go see Little John at the overlook point. But I had no idea where that was, so I had to search for it. Once there, I witnessed a peasant woman being chased by one of the Sheriff's men. So I quickly dispatched him and set the woman free.

Already killed two guys within the first hour...

That ended the day, apparently! A short scene at the campsite later, Robin fell asleep and dreamt about Marian dancing in the willow grove. The next morning, I got the message I needed to visit the cobbler in town, but Robin doesn't dare go there without a disguise of some sort. And also, he needs a woman's slipper to prove to the cobbler he's Robin Hood. Without much else to do, I explored the forest until I came upon Marian attacked by a monk. So I quickly dispatched him, and lo and behold! Marian rewarded me with a slipper!

Exploring Sherwood Forest is pretty slow going...

That ended another day, apparently! The next morning I figured I had to go look around for that disguise, so I'm currently exploring the forest again, hoping to come upon something useful, since none of the locations on my map seem to hold anything interesting. 

You can find Conquests of the Longbow here!