The snail path

curves round and round, much like the path carved into the snail's own shell. This is not the path taken by snails, I guess, but a path one might take if inspired by a snail's shell.

A memory calls:
There was once this cheap Commodore 64 video game set in feudal Japan. The game was by the same company that made a silly adventure game (like Zork but with graphics) based on the Monty Phython movie "the Holy Grail". Don't know the company's name.

Anyway, this game set in Japan, I think you picked a character that was a small sprite, and would then navigate from screen to screen. The screen represented different locations, and often had other japanese people in then. I never understood the point of the game or how to play, though I recall that sometimes the character would get into fights, but immediately get killed.

For some reason, and this is odd, thinking back on the game, it somehow captured a feeling of tranquility -- some of the screens allowed you, for example, to visit tranquil Japanese bamboo gardens, even though they were only represented in the most basic low resolution graphics. Is this a trick of memory?


A google search informs me that the company that made the game was Mastertronic, and that the game was called "Shogun" and based on the book of the same name (that's awfully thick).