About Cauldron II

 Cauldron II was, unsurpringly, the sequel to the successful Cauldron, which I've never played. I gather that players took on the role of a witch who had to collect pumpkins. In Cauldron II, written in 1986 and published by Palace Software, the roles are reversed; you play a bouncing pumpkin who must fight your way through 125 rooms in the witch's castle, collecting seven magical objects with a view to trimming her hair and then escaping by locating her magical cauldron. Truly.

Cauldron II was written and designed by Steve Brown, programmed for the Amstrad by Richard Leinfellner, and had sound by Richard Joseph. I first played it on my Amstrad CPC 6128, and now play it using a CPC emulator on my PC. I was seriously addicted to this game in 1989 (when it formed a useful stress relief to my high school studies), and actually managed to complete it without using a cheat mode or similar. It's highly addictive, although mastering the physics of the bouncing pumpkin can be tricky. Once you know what you're doing, you can complete the entire game in less than half an hour.

When I originally played CII, I actually did a partial map on paper to help finish it. Thanks to the wonders of screen-grabbing technology, this site offers a much more complete interactive map, which lets you wander through the entire game setting. If you want to complete the game, this will hopefully be of assistance. (Why I felt the urge to make a map of a 10-year old game is a question we'll leave for another time, thanks.)

KEY TO MAP SYMBOLS

Click on the red arrows to move in the indcated direction. No visible arrow means you can't move in that direction.

Yellow arrows indicate a one-way entry which can't actually be used to exit from this room when you're playing the game, although it's visible and active in the map for viewer convenience.

Angled arrows indicate that falling below this screen in that direction will drop you to the forest outside the castle (and lose you a life into the bargain).

Each room is shown as it is when you first enter it, with all objects intact. The location of the pumpkin onscreen is where you will start from if you die (or begin) in the room. There are also handy hints on the relevance of each room and tricks you'll need to finish the game.

To begin touring through the map, pick a starting location. (In the game itself, these are chosen at random, although some are more common than others). Then just click on the arrows and move around the map at will.

If all this makes you want to play the game, check our guide to where to find it. And if you have any thoughts, comments or additional advice, I'd like to hear from you.

- Last updated October 18, 2003.