Below the Root

Moby ID: 602
PC Booter Specs

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

Programming
Graphics / Artwork
Writing / Dialogue / Story
IBM PC/jr Version
Apple II Version

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 65% (based on 2 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 29 ratings with 6 reviews)

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

Side Scrolling Masterpiece

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

I was 7 years old when I played this... I'm 17 now and I miss it so bad!

The Good
I liked everything. The whole game kinda entranced me. I was pretty good too. It's like one of those memories... there's no words for it. I just miss the game so much. It seems almost like a fantasy, but it's not. I struggle to remember parts of it and I would absolutely love to play it again, on the Commodore 64. There was something appealing about the graphics, mysterious almost. It would never be the same with different graphics.

The Bad
I honestly don't remember anything I didn't like about it. I guess the fact that I'm never going to play it again.

The Bottom Line
This game is like playing a dream. The graphics, sounds, movements, colors, everything is like dream. Exactly.

Commodore 64 · by Lisa Bradley (2) · 2004

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

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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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.