The Bilestoad

The Bilestoad is a computer game by Marc Goodman (credited as "Mangrove Earthshoe") for the Apple II platform, released in 1982 by Datamost.

Premise

In The Bilestoad, players control "meatlings" that hack and battle with axes and shields from a top-view perspective. The name is derived from the German words Beil (axe) and Tod (death). The odd spelling reflects Goodman's idea of a future language similar to A Clockwork Orange's Nadsat in which English has been modified by the borrowing of foreign words.^[1] Although the game may seem medieval, the backstory in the manual explains that the axe fighting is actually a future virtual reality game designed to reduce real violence.

Game play

The Bilestoad allows a human player to fight against either a computer-controlled opponent or another human. One can also pit two robots against each other. Movement and combat is accomplished with the keyboard, pressing keys to swing the gladiator's axe or shield outwards or inwards, or to make the gladiator turn, stop or walk. The game play is quite violent and bloody—players lop off their opponents' shield or sword arms, and dispatch them by decapitation.

Players progress through levels by successfully defeating their opponent. The highest level is called the 'Master' level.

The arena of combat is a small island, maps of which (at short, medium, and long range) are shown at the right side of the screen. Scattered around the arena are various objects, including yin/yang discs which players can stand on to accelerate their movement, stars that transport players to other points in the arena, and "faces" that allow players to leave the level. The game offers more strategic variation than many fighting games, letting the player run away and be chased around the island. The musical soundtrack begins with Beethoven's "Für Elise".

According to the author, influences for The Bilestoad include the movie Excalibur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.^[1]

Controls

Players control the gladiators using two groupings of keys: one on the left side of the keyboard, the other on the right.

Legacy

The game was an inspiration for the 1998 hack-and-slash Windows game Die by the Sword.

In the mid-1990s, Mark Goodman also released an alpha demo of a higher-resolution re-working of the game for the color Macintosh platform.

The Apple II had no built-in tone generator; all sound (including music) was produced by repeatedly clicking the speaker at appropriate intervals. The game's incorporation of music with gameplay was therefore a quite impressive technical feat.^[2]

Notes