“The Secret of the Ancient Castle” is an arcade adventure game developed by the Russian team Art Studio Soft and released in 1996.
The game was created for home computers ZX Spectrum 48K and, in an extended version, for 128K.
The project is notable for its high-quality graphics for its time, musical accompaniment for the AY-8910 chip
and the presence of animated inserts. This was the first and, apparently, the only completed project of the studio,
distributed by the company “Inforcom”.


History and plot

The plot of the game is simple, but fully consistent with the spirit of classic arcades.
The main character – a brave knight – finds a message in a bottle on the shore.
The message contains information about an ancient castle full of ghosts and monsters,
in which a chest with countless treasures is hidden. Unable to resist such temptation, the knight goes in search of the castle.

His goal is simple: to enter a three-story building filled with deadly traps and hostile creatures,
find the treasured chest of gold and safely get out of this godforsaken place alive.


Gameplay and controls

The gameplay involves exploring a multi-story castle consisting of many rooms connected by corridors, stairs and passages.
The player must avoid collisions with numerous monsters (ghosts, spiders, skeletons and others), as any touch to them takes away life.

The game is keyboard-based and intuitive:

6 – left
7 – right
8 – down
9 – jump
0 – attack


Authors (Developers)

The game was developed by the Russian team Art Studio Soft (not to be confused with foreign studios with similar names).
The names of two key participants in the project are known:

Dmitry Artamonov
Alexey Telyushkin

Development was carried out on a Soviet clone of the ZX Spectrum — the ATM Turbo 512 computer.
The game was created using the ART STUDIO 128K (for graphics) and SOUND TRACKER (for creating music) tools.
As stated in the game’s intro, this was the authors’ first project written in assembler.


Interesting facts about the game

Technical difficulties: The initial release of the game was postponed due to technical problems that arose during development,
but the project was eventually successfully completed.

The only project: For Art Studio Soft, this game became the only known release. Despite this,
the project was recognized among ZX Spectrum users.

Distribution: The game was officially distributed through the Inforcom company, which was one of the well-known
publishers and distributors of software for the Spectrum in Russia in the 90s.


Recommendations and tips

Patience: Don’t rush headlong. Monsters often move along predetermined routes – watch their patrol paths to find a safe moment to pass.

Jump is your everything: Mastering the jump is the key to survival.
It can not only jump over pits, but also effectively dodge attacking monsters.

Explore everything: Carefully examine each room. Some passages or objects may not be obvious at first glance.
