Below the Root
Description official descriptions
Below the Root is based on Zilpha Keatley Snyder's fantasy book series "The Green-Sky Trilogy". Following the events in those books, The Kindar and the Erdling societies have joined together. However unrest and distrust still remains. An old woman, D'ol Falla has heard the words "The Spirit fades, in Darkness lying. A quest proclaim, the Light is dying". Choosing one of five available people (of different ages and of either Kindar or Erdling descent) either she believes can help, D'ol Falla assigns the quest of discovering what these words mean and how to quell the racial and political tensions building between the races.
Below the Root is a adventure game and a platform game. Choosing one of five characters (each very different from one another), the player explores the tree-based lands Erdling and the underground-based lands of the Kindar. As an adventure game, goals are primarily accomplished by talking to people (though each character is treated differently by others) and finding the right items to use in specific situations, but also dealing with the challenges of level design in a platform game.
Each character can obtain different items to help with their movement as well as psychic abilities such as pensing (telepathy), kiniporting (telekinesis) and grunspreking (plant manipulation). Violence is abhorred among the Kindar and the Erdling and violent actions tend to harm the player's reputation. Kindar or Erdling factions may kidnap the player's character if they wander into the wrong areas, throwing them into a local "prison house" from which they must escape. The player must eat constantly to retain their energy, however Erdling characters do not eat meat.
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Screenshots
Credits (PC Booter version)
5 People
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 65% (based on 2 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 29 ratings with 6 reviews)
This is the one I wish I still had!
The Good
Below the Root was absolutely enchanting. I played this on my Commodore 64 computer, and was totally into it. The game included a cool fold-out map where you could plot out your movement in the game environment. Like someone else, I was never able to finish it. I got to a certain part "below the root" where I couldn't progress any further.
After moving on to the IBM environment, I got rid of all my Commodore stuff. Now that I've repurchased a Commodore 64 on ebay, I would love to get a hold of this game again!
Very warm and fuzzy memories from my childhood.
The Bad
Difficult to complete the entire game.
The Bottom Line
This game really made you think your way through, while providing a great background fantasy/myth world within which to play. It was a lot of fun, as I remember it.
PC Booter · by Kat_Girl (7) · 2002
The Good
Well, like everyone else, its been years since I've played it, on my good ol' Commodore 64, which I still have, so I'm reviewing off childhood memories here. =) Anyhow, the graphics for the time were pretty good, and the general theme of the game was great, as well as the game play itself.
The Bad
The plot was somewhat sketchy, I couldn't always figure out what I was supposed to do next.
The Bottom Line
Unlike the rest, I have finished it. =) The main goal is to rescue a guy named Rammo from the tunnels underground, Below the Root, as it were. There's either, a few large trees you have to traverse, or just one big one with some rather large limbs, I couldn't tell you without seeing the fold-out map again.. But you have to save a few people, help out some others, gather items, and get below the trees to save Rammo... what I'm not sure of, however, is who he is really, and why he's stuck under the roots...
PC Booter · by Joe Jackson (2) · 2002
The best and most impressive adventure game ever made for Commodore 64!
The Good
Everything. It totally tapped what the Commodore 64 (C64) had to offer to create a game which combines graphics adventure, action and cool storyline with a hint of RPG and arcade action. If you haven't tried this game, you simply have not seen how great a graphics adventure the C64 was capable of supporting.
It was because of this game that I read the Zilpha Keatley Schneider book trilogy. It is a masterpiece of storytelling depicting how understanding, acceptance, and spirituality can solve political, racial, spiritual, and social problems without the need to resort to violence. Like in the books, acts of violence or aggression are severely punished in Below the Root. The Kindar race can't eat meat without taking a nasty spirit loss penalty, because such foods endorse the killing of animals. Killing is simply unacceptable. You must always find another way if you are to succeed.
The game always had me immersed in the world of Green Sky. I would spend hours jumping off of every tree branch I could find, hoping to glide into some secret area to find an animal (spirit boost), elixir (boost stamina), or secret house with a new spirit leader (boost spirit and advance the storyline). I felt compelled to explore every inch of the maze of tunnels below the root, and really developed an appreciation for the detail and the vastness of the graphical adventure world of Green Sky. It is as colorful and breathtaking as any explorable world I've ever seen created on the C64.
The Bad
It was sometimes frustrating when I would collapse from exhaustion, fall through a hole, miss a jump, or get captured by a supporter of an enemy faction. Sometimes Shubas (gliders) and Trencher Beaks (saw-like bird beak) break all-to-easily, forcing you to carry spares and discover sources of emergency replacements. Also, Anyone who has ever missed a jump, landed on a spider, and been knocked down 8 or 10 times in succession know how tempting it can be to whip out a trencher beak and end it's miserable life - of course the punishment of such an act, loss of critical spirit power, is absolutely devastating. However, all these negatives provide an arcade-like challenge which serve to make the game just demanding enough to be fun, addicting, and replayable.
If anyone finds the storyline confusing, vague, or poorly drawn out, I recommend reading the book trilogy. People who criticize this aspect of the game who have not read the books are really missing the point of the game - to bring to life a world depicted in a classic novel. That is Windham Classics' primary goal in creating computer games, hence their name.
The Bottom Line
You start off as one of the various Kindar or Erdling characters, exploring Green SKY, a strange world of trees where people live in tree houses, sleep in hammocks, and travel from branch to branch with gliders. As you progress, you find sources of food, rest, money, and useful objects to help you explore further and soar to more distant trees (known as Grunds). The people you meet impart knowledge about the social structure and political challenges of green sky, and sometimes lead you important people who reveal key information about your quest and boost your spirit to help you develop a set of lost spirit skills. Armed with these key spirit skills and a few key secret objects, you finally have the power to explore the vast maze-like tunnels below the root to find and rescue Raamo, the lost Spirit Leader. Only he can restore peace and hope to Green Sky, a world troubled by a difficult time of social, political, racial, and spiritual transition (Read the Green Sky trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Schneider that the game is based on for details - they are truly classics in themselves).
All this, and a Mario jumping/flying/avoiding enemies type arcade interface that will keep you challenged for hours. You will have lot of fun looking for hidden areas and objects as you wrack your brain for ways to explore the furthest reaches of Green Sky's Grunds, the ground beneath, and the maze of tunnels that lie below the root.
From the moment I got to explore Green Sky, talk to a few people, and meet the Wize Child I was enthralled and obsessed with playing the entire game. When I got my own Commodore 64 and disk drive, this was the game I had to have.
Commodore 64 · by Daniel Gagne (3) · 2007
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Sold on Ebay! | BostonGeorge (751) | Nov 11, 2011 |
Who is the publisher | BostonGeorge (751) | Feb 18, 2009 |
Trivia
Inspiration
Below the Root is adapted from the original 1978 'science fiction fantasy' novel written by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and is the first in Green-Sky Trilogy, Followed by the books: And All Between (1979) and Until the Celebration (1980).
The game was a direct result of readers' dissatisfaction with the ending of the books. Agreeing with a lot of the criticism, author Zilpha Keatley Snyder decided that a computer game might be used to continue the story and provide a better resolution to the series' events. Much of the game focuses on discovering the hidden truths behind some of the events described in the final novel.
Information also contributed by WildKard
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Related Sites +
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Below the Root (video game)
Wikipedia page -
Below the Root .d64 Rom
Get the game ROM at Arnold's Archive (http://arnold.c64.org/) and finally finish your quest! Works with nearly all C64 Emulators. -
Walkthrough
Below the Root Solution written in 1986 by Jeanne Harlan.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Andy Roark.
Commodore 64, Apple II added by The Red King.
Additional contributors: Jeanne, The Red King, Garcia, Patrick Bregger.
Game added December 19, 1999. Last modified August 14, 2023.