Author: professor6153

Castle Quest was created in 1980 by Rick Taubold for the Compucolor Computer (CoCo) and distributed on disk number 33 of the CHIP (Rochester Compucolor Users Group).

I was rather surprised at the pull of this game and soon found myself addicted. The game is a turn-based dungeon crawler with a fixed map of 20 rooms to be explored. The goal is to amass 20,000 experience points through exploration of the dungeon without dying.

When you first start the game it asks if you want to continue with a saved game or start a new one. You can save the game once you successfully exit the dungeon. If you start the game back up later and want to continue with the same character all you have to do to access that character is type in the character’s name. The game features permadeath so if you die within the dungeon you cannot access the saved character again.

There are four different experience levels in the game. 2nd level can be attained with 2,000 experience, 3rd level with 5,000 experience, and 4th level with 10,000 experience. When you enter the castle you choose your difficulty level between 1-4 which depends of course on your experience level. You have to pay 50 gold coins each time you enter the castle so you MUST keep your entrance fee in reserve at all times otherwise you will soft lock your game.

You gain experience points from slaying monsters however your experience point total is not updated until you leave the castle. Encumbrance is a part of the game as well and your character has maximum weight limits. I found myself dumping gold pieces at different points in the game because I was overburdened.

Armor represents Armor Class and the lower your score the better. It starts and 10 and shields and armor that your purchase or find subtract from that Armor Class.

I found that the maximum hit points were random and usually between 30 and 39.

The type of weapon you purchase definitely impacts the amount of damage you can do. In one of my playthroughs I did find a Sword +1 as well so there are magic weapons to be found.

The game features six different kinds of spell scrolls that you can purchase. Knock which opens locked doors, Dispel removes traps in the room including those in chests, Heal will mend some of your wounds, Repel which also rebuffs monsters away from you, Flame which acts like an offensive fireball spell, and Shield which prevents monsters from attacking you for six rounds. I found the Knock, Heal and Shield spells to be absolute necessities so once you have some success you’re going to want to begin to purchase these spells. When you purchase a spell, and then use it, the spell is gone. So you constantly have to spend gold to replenish your spells.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen this tombstone screen. It is extremely hard to survive in this game. You could be third level, have 50 hit points, have an arsenal of spells, and if you’re hit by a Giant Spider and poisoned you die instantly. There are numerous different examples of this of this kind of instant permadeath in the game.

The game is unique in that you type in a number to move to that room number on the map but you are not yet in the room, you are merely just outside of the room. It took me a couple of playthroughs to realize this. You can then Enter the room if the door is unlocked. If the door is locked you have to use a Knock spell to open the door. You have to be careful with your Knock spells, you’ll need to always carry at least two, otherwise just ignore locked doors. Why? Many rooms will have a trap that when you enter the room the door locks behind you and the walls begin to move in. You have three rounds to get out or you will be crushed to death.

Chests can contain gold, gems (worth 10 to 99 gold each) or jewelry (worth 100 – 499 gold each), rings, or magical weapons. Most of the time you find gold but it is thrilling to find gems and jewelry. When I find a cache, I’d usually leave the castle and purchase better equipment or spells.

Some of the monsters have special abilities such as poison, flame, regeneration, and multiple attacks. You need to be very aware of these special abilities. Note that spells can only be used in the first round of combat so it is important to hold your powerful spells in reserve for when you encounter the deadlier denizens of the dungeon.

After all of this work and anxiety to survive, you are rewarded at the end with a screen that merely says congratulations. I have to say however that I found this game wildly addictive and could not stop playing it.

I had originally planned to start Autoduel which was released by Origin Systems in 1985 but got sidetracked with this little gem. Next up on the docket will indeed be Autoduel.

Until next time………..

Monster Combat was created by Lee J. Chapel for the KIM-1 and was published in the December 1980 issue of Byte magazine (Volume 5, Number 12) in the “Programming Quickies” section.

This excellent adventure-themed cover was illustrated by renowned artist Robert Tinney.

Monster Combat was an early text-based RPG game that was written in BASIC. You wander through a randomly generated 9×9 forest map represented by text characters.

The goal is to explore, encounter monsters, fight or avoid them, and collect as much treasure as possible while staying alive. The game ends when you exit the forest or die.

The Combat Strength is assigned at the beginning of the game and appears to be random. The strength value is spent when you choose to fight a monster. In a unique twist, you decide how much Combat Strength you want to spend in the encounter and then you’ll discover if that was enough of a value to overcome your opponent. Winning yields treasure, losing kills your character.

Movement around the map uses a simple directional command of N, S, E, W.

The monsters appear randomly and you decide then if you want to fight, flee, or bribe. It is a very minimal dungeon crawl in a forest style game and typical of BASIC programs from this era – short, hackable, and meant to be typed.

When the game begins, your character starts in a random place in the forest. Each space on the map can be an OPEN space, a tree, or a wall. There are different random events which can take place as you move through the forest:

• you can fall into a pit which causes damage and then deposits you in a different spot on the map
• a giant bat picks you up and deposits you in a random spot on the map – this usually happens as you’re nearing the edge of the forest and possible escape
• you can find treasure guarded by a Nothing

The different monsters and their individual strength are given to you below:

• Basilisk 100
• Chimera 70
• Cyclops 20
• Dragon 80
• Giant 40
• Goblin 5
• Griffin 60
• Harpy 50
• Minotaur 10
• Wyvern 90
• Zombie 30

When you successfully leave the forest, you win the game and are then given your total treasure accumulated score.

Treasures that you find can include silver spoons, swords, jewelry, gold, and chests (some trapped). Enchanted swords can boost your combat strength.

There are ports of the game and emulated versions that exist for the Commodore 64, TRS-80, Atari 8 bit, DOS/GWBASIC, and the TI-99/4A.

Lee J. Chapel wrote a few other games in the early 80s, including some for the TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo) like Journey to Mt. Doom. Chapel also wrote a newer version of this game entitled Giant Monster Attack which was published in the book Big Computer Games.

The new version features improved features such as a time limit, inns and castles now featured on the map, spells, and more random events and creatures.

I played the original Monster Combat version that was typed out for the Commodore 64.

Next up on the docket I am going back to 1985 to play Autoduel by Origin Systems.

Until next time……

Alternate Reality: The City was released for the Atari 8-bit in 1985 and then a year later was released for the Apple II, Commodore 64, and Atari ST. In 1988 it would be released for both the Amiga and DOS. Phillip Price published this game through California-based Datasoft amidst quite a bit of publicity. The City was going to serve as a home base and from the city the player could then move in and out of future planned releases: The Arena, The Palace, The Wilderness, Revelation, and Destiny, each with its own set of quests and winning conditions. The idea was that the player could transition from game to game as Price wanted to create a huge world for he or she to immerse themselves in.

The first break of this outline was when Datasoft forced an early release of The City. The Sewers would have been included in the initial release but a year later became The Dungeon and it’s own release. Although The Dungeon was completed and released, work on the 5 remaining installments never moved beyond theoretical outlines. A brief summary of these outlines follows:

The Sewers (which was supposed to be included with The City but later became The Dungeon – the dungeon here is made up of four levels.

The Arena – slavers were to be added to The City who would then capture new gladiators and force them into combat in the arena. There were other ways in which a character might enter the arena. A free man could also join the arena and be pitted against other opponents and possibly retire into a life of luxury.

The Palace – would feature courtly intrigue and the ability to purchase land in the city. A player could climb a ladder of power and responsibility and maybe even choose to rule as king over the city. A character could retire in politics and “win”. New players could attempt to overthrow the king.

The Wilderness – was to be a scenario for players to discover the truth concerning Alternate Reality. There would be traps and tricks and diversions all in an attempt to turn the character away from this quest of truth. This expansion would feature vast new areas of outdoor terrain to explore.

Revelation – with the illusion of The City broken, a player could now find his or her way to the alien ship and out of the holo-world. You could reach the ship through the fourth level of The Dungeon as well as an area in The Wilderness.

Destiny – now armed with high tech equipment and allies of alien factions, the player could now take the fight to his alien captors.

Price’s plan, vast in scope, never came to be. Price was not even able to finish The Dungeon and it was finished instead by Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal. Gary Gilbertson created the music for both games.

Character creation involved choosing a name and then six attributes would begin spinning along the top of the screen much like a slot machine. Hitting the space bar stops the spinning and you are then assigned your attribute scores. The six attributes are stamina, charisma, strength, intelligence, wisdom, and skill. Your experience points, level, and hit points are also displayed. Once you are assigned your values you are dumped into the city.

One of the things about this game that I instantly took a disliking too was movement. Your steps are not measured. This makes mapping of the city extremely difficult. When you move in a particular direction, the movement is reminiscent of a vehicle in an arcade game. Your character glides in the direction you want to move in and picks up speed as you hold down the key. I gave up trying to map the city and just started wandering around.

Survival in this game is a tedious affair. You begin the game with no money, dressed in rags, and bare-handed. Exploration of the city is in real-time too. There is a PAUSE button which you can activate by hitting P on your keyboard, and I made great use of this. If you hesitate at all, you will trigger a random encounter. I encountered the poor, disenchanted, thieves, cutthroats, couriers, rats, and orcs. When you’re fighting in rags and bare-handed the odds of winning any of these encounters is not very high. I found myself cycling through several characters in the beginning until I was able to find success.

When combat begins you have the choice to charm, ignore, sneak, trick, engage, use, ready, cast or leave. Engage is the same as attacking and once you choose to engage you can then lunge, attack, or parry. Charm is a very interesting option but is hit or miss. When you choose to Charm if you succeed it actually kills the opponent. I got lucky with my sixth character and was able to charm an opponent. I was able to acquire enough coppers to go to a smithy and purchase a stiletto. Once I had a minor weapon, I could then engage weaker opponents and slowly build up my experience and wealth. It was a challenge building up enough wealth to even stay at an inn. Later, Fost, my sixth character was also able to find a dagger. When you defeat opponents, you gain experience and depending on the skills used your attributes can increase with time as well. Food and water were also a chief concern.

There were some interesting innovations that were extremely noticeable in my exploration of the city. Weather changed while you’re exploring and you could experience rain and clouds as well as view a bright sun high in the sky. You can even witness sunrises and sunsets. Day turned into night and the music in the game would change based on which locations of the city you were in.

There are banks that you can deposit money in which earns interest for you. There are merchant shops, inns, a smithy, and hidden areas in the city as well. All of this would make for a memorable experience if it were not for one major detail, which is my largest complaint.

There is no specific goal for the character to achieve here. You CAN grind your character higher, but it ultimately feels like an unfinished product. There are no dungeons or ruins or storylines of any kind here. Because there was no established goal or storyline, I did not feel compelled to spend more than ten house with the game. I built my character up to 3rd level and had amassed over 4500 coppers and just decided to call it quits there. I felt like I had done enough to give me a good feel for the game and to be able to report on it. The game seems to have obtained something of a cult status with many players and quite honestly I’m not sure why. I am sure that I will enjoy The Dungeon scenario much more because there are established goals and a quest to complete.

There is a lot to appreciate in the game’s design and innovations but it’s two chief problems are big ones for me: the continuous movement and lack of any kind of goals or plot. I did find a complete map of the city that someone created online and I’m including it here for your perusal or use.

Next up I am going back in time once again to 1980 to a game entitled Monster Combat.

Until next time……………

I put a pin in my current 1985 list of games and went back in time to 1980 as I realized I had missed one of Crystalware’s games. John and Patty Bell were responsible for many of the early games that I’ve played in my journey. The House of Usher, Quest for Power, Forgotten Island, Fantasyland 2041 A.D. and The Crypt have all been completed and reviewed here for your perusal. Beneath the Pyramids was released in 1980 for the Apple II and in 1981 for the Atari 800. I chose to play the earlier 1980 Apple II version.

I have always romanticized the shifting desert sands hiding forgotten tombs beneath unexplored pyramids. You will find me a big fan of the old Universal mummy films as well as the Brendan Frasier franchise reboot. Thus, I found myself looking forward to playing a game set within this genre despite being previously underwhelmed with previous Crystalware titles.

The premise here is that we’ll be exploring an ancient pyramid looking for a secret chamber that contains a gold statue of the ancient cat goddess Bast. So far, it’s enough to make you want to rub your hands together in glee.

You begin the game with a shopping spree at the Bazaar. This is the game’s first initial puzzle that can only be solved through trial and error. You’re going to have to deduce which items are necessary to successfully complete your expedition into the pyramid. It also took me a couple of rather unsuccessful forays to realize that by purchasing the duffel bag first it would allow me to carry even more equipment. A rifle as well as ammunition is certainly a necessity. You’ll find that you can flee from most of the creatures that will assault you within the pyramid but there are times when you’re backed into a corner and will have to use the rifle. A rope and grappling hook are absolutely necessary to win. You’ll also want to purchase a crowbar, lantern, pick axe, wool coat, rations, and gas mask.

The biggest puzzle of this game is the labyrinth of the pyramid itself. There are many rooms and corridors, and it is easy to become lost.

Your health score can be depleted from various traps and triggered events within the pyramid. If the creatures you encounter are able to successfully attack you, they will drain your health. Your energy score will decrease as you explore the pyramid. You have to learn the maze of the pyramid and successfully navigate it, but you have a limited amount of time to do so. This forces you to have to economize and plan your foray carefully.

The triggered events that can befall you in any given room seem random. This is where the items you purchased at the bazaar come in handy. If a heavy statue falls on you, you’re going to need the crowbar to get it off of you. If a level of the pyramid is unbearably cold, only donning the wool coat will prevent you from being injured. If a vase topples and breaks, releasing a noxious gas throughout the room, you’re going to need your gas mask to avoid being poisoned. Even when you successfully use these items, you’ll find that these various traps all sap your energy to some degree.

In the Apple version, the pyramid is much like a dungeon which consists of four dungeon levels. The deeper you go, the closer you get to the prize you seek. There are a total of four stairways or pits that you’re going to need to find. Once you come upon one of these, only the rope and grappling hook will get you down to the next level. It took a lot of trial and error to realize what the TRUE items were that I needed from the bazaar all the while mapping the pyramid and searching for stairways to the next level.

All of the rooms and passages are labeled at the bottom which certainly helped with the mapping. I found the titles to be very creative and helped with the immersion. The Doorway to Ka, Temple of Bast, the Mummy Chamber, the Queen’s Chamber, the Royal Way, Hall of the Gods, Hall of Death, Hall of Akhenaton IV are but some of the examples.

Eventually I did find the golden cat statue of Bast. You’re going to need a pickaxe to obtain the statue as it is the only thing that allows you to bust through the walls of the chamber. Once you obtain the statue you’re going to have to reverse direction and leave the pyramid the same way you got in.

You’ll need to consume your rations and also have a little bit of luck in order to have enough energy to escape. Hopefully you’ll find a healing potion or magical incense in your explorations to help with energy recovery.

You are in for a bit of a surprise just as you’re ready to leave the pyramid. A guardian materializes near the entrance and asks you a riddle. You have to answer the riddle correctly otherwise you are sealed in the tomb forever.

Once you answer the riddle correctly you receive the following congratulatory message up above.

It took me about five total hours to beat the game. There appears to be quite a difference in the gameplay between the Apple version and the Atari version. I’ve watched some videos of the Atari gameplay and the maps as well as locations are completely different. Even though the game tells you that you are delving into a pyramid the Atari map looks a lot like the shape of a Sphinx. Whereas in the Apple version the rooms are fixed and the map is more like four dungeon levels. In the Atari version it appears the Temple of Bast is located high and in the Apple version the Temple of Bast is in the last and deepest dungeon level.

I’m not sure that I would call Beneath the Pyramids a must play game, but the completionist in me and attempt to be somewhat of a historian compelled me to go back and check this game off of the list.

I am heading right back to the 1985 list and next up will be Alternate Reality: The City.

Until next time……….

When I generate a list of games to play for each respective year, I use more than a few resources to determine what CRPGs were published that particular year. I had never heard of this particular game and thus was excited to see what it was all about. What I did not expect at all was that this game appears to be a total rip-off of Donald Brown’s Eamon franchise.

I was completely shocked. How did Green Valley Publishing get away with this? You can read my earlier review of Donald Brown’s Eamon: Beginner’s Cave HERE

I really enjoyed what Donald Brown was able to accomplish with his Eamon engine. There are now well over 250+ adventures that all begin and end in the adventurer’s hall. Donald Brown would later try to commercialize his Eamon series under the guise of Swordthrust. You can read my review of the first Swordthrust adventure HERE.

There is really nothing different between this current product and Brown’s previous The Beginner’s Cave other than cosmetic changes. All that Green Valley really did was change the name of attributes, many of the creatures, and location names. For example, The Hall of the Guild of Free Adventurers becomes the Guildhall of Free Adventurers. This blatant attempt to avoid copyright infringements occur throughout the entire game but did they really think it would fool anybody? Attribute names are changed, creature names are slightly altered, skills have different names, and so on.

One big cosmetic difference is once you enter Beginner’s Cave the interface changes to a split screen.

I thought I might see an improvement in gameplay with this cosmetic difference but my experience was quite the opposite. There are not as many verbs that are recognized in this version as there are in Brown’s version. There are some noticeable wrinkles as well. I feel like the combat in the original Eamon series seems to statistically work better. The biggest difference I found was that in the original game if you are close to defeating your opponent, they will often flee the location. When you move to an adjacent location your opponent will then be there creating a feeling of fluidity. In this ripoff version, I found that when your opponent flees, they are often nowhere to be found. When I was leaving the cave to go back to the hall and hit the Large Chamber location, all of my previous foes were all in this area. This is a programming flaw and not purposeful in my opinion.

The above just shows you yet another example of how Green Valley just changes some words and titles from the original Eamon game in this obvious rip-off.

The map and locations are also identical to the original game. I played through this entire version successfully and the treasures I uncovered were converted to gold so that I could purchase equipment. I was, and still am, a huge fan of the Eamon engine but this version with some lipstick on it somehow loses the magic that the original game had. The discovery of this game left such a bad taste in my mouth I could not wait to be done with it. Cave of the Mind and River Adventure were also released by Green Valley – both of them also original Eamon adventures. If there are any readers who can shed more light on this Green Valley Publishing mystery I’d love to hear from you.

Next up on the docket: I am once again going back through time to 1980 to play a game from Crystalware that I somehow missed: Beneath the Pyramids.

Until next time……….

Space I, also known simply as Space was published by Edu-Ware in 1979 for the Apple II. It is a text-based role-playing/strategy simulation game inspired by the Traveller tabletop RPG.

It involves a quite lengthy character creation process through military service branches, skill development, space exploration, trading, combat, and more. An expansion called Space II was released in 1979, but Edu-Ware later replaced both with their Empire trilogy due to legal issues. The creator of Traveller, Game Designers Workshop, successfully sued Edu-Ware and the game was pulled from the market. A licensed version of Traveller entitled MegaTraveller was released in 1990. Edu-ware would come back with an original trilogy called Empire between 1981 and 1984 which were released for the Apple II.

I spent a good amount of time trying to find an original box or cover art to show to you and I could not locate any pictures or scans of original packaging. Early Edu-Ware titles from 1978-1980 often used very basic, low-budget packaging such as Ziploc bags, photocopied manuals, and minimal, if any, artwork. Broderbund and Sierra would later publish more elaborately illustrated boxes and documentation.

The main menu gives you an option of Characters and then four adventures to choose from. You cannot play any of the adventures until after you have successfully created a character. In the character creation process you first choose which branch of the military you’d like to serve in: navy, army, marines, scouts, merchant marines, “other services”, or you can choose a random draft of the above.

The game then assigns you attributes in strength, dexterity, intelligence, education, social standing, health, and a psychological evaluation as well.

Once the character is created you then go through four years of rigorous training. You get to select where you’d like to focus your training at the beginning of each year and once the year is over you can then review the results of your training.

It took a good half hour before I had a character that I was happy with or that merely survived. The character creation process doesn’t always end well. I had one character die during training, and my second character had a weak heart and suffered a fatal heart attack during my four years of training.

My fourth character ended up having pretty good attributes and there were no physical or psychological problems. My third character was a hot mess. He did not respond to leadership well AND was also afraid of enclosed spaces. I did save that character but went back to the drawing board once again. Once you are done with the character creation process you are discharged to civilian life. You then return to the main menu and you can now choose one of the four adventures that are available.

The five adventures: First Blood, Defend, Explore, Trader, and High Finance couldn’t be more further apart from one another in terms of the skills that they focus on as well as the outcomes. I decided to choose the first scenario, First Blood, and in this scenario you choose your weapon, armor, mode of attack (close combat or ranged) and your attack speed. Once your choices are complete you are then faced with an opponent and taken through a series of battle rounds. Rolls for the outcome are hidden and appear to be based on your skills and training.

My fourth character, Ben Nova, successfully completed that mission after which I was once again returned to the Main Menu.

In the second adventure you are defending a planet and simply have to choose different commands that are presented to you as choices.

In all honesty, the hardest part of Space was the character creation process. Each scenario or adventure never took longer than about 20 minutes of my time to complete.

I was most interested in the High Finance scenario because I work full time in the stock market. It was indeed a portfolio building investment game that seemed completely random. I think I accrued almost 2 million dollars and then easily became bored with it. You could keep playing until your heart’s content.

I also thought exploring planets might be a lot of fun but once again all of the events seemed random and very quickly grew tedious.

Space does have a lengthy character creation process and in the first scenario it did sport statistic driven combat but it barely qualifies as a computer role-playing game in my opinion. The game is listed though, in more than one source, as a CRPG and thus the completist in my had to go back and cover this offering from 1979.

Next up on the docket is a return to 1985 and a game entitled: Adventure: Only the Fittest Shall Survive.

Until next time……

Matt Barton, from Dungeons & Desktops: A History of Computer Role-Playing Games, describes Wizard’s Crown as “probably the most hardcore RPG of its time” and “one of the most sophisticated tactical CRPGs ever designed.” I’d have to whole-heartedly agree with both of his statements. It took me 57 hours to beat Wizard’s Crown and when I was finished my emotions warred between euphoria and relief. The only other game that took me longer to complete was Moria which was played on the Plato system.

Compute! magazine favorably reviewed Wizard’s Crown describing it as “probably the most unusual fantasy game to hit the market in some time”. Citing its graphics and detailed combat, the magazine stated that the game “will excite and challenge even the most seasoned veteran of fantasy warfare”. Computer Gaming Worlds’s Scorpia admired the game’s advanced use of injuries and bleeding when simulating combat, but believed there was too much emphasis on fighting or hack and slash, with only a few trivial puzzles and too light on interactions. In 1993, she became more positive, describing it as a “better-than-average hack n’ slash. ANALOG Computing magazine called the Atari version “superb….a true gem, an addictive game which you will find yourself playing day in and day out.”

SSI sold almost 48k copies of the game in North America and it was the company’s second best-selling Commodore game as of 1987. It was the first game to be designed in-house by SSI, previously known as a wargame company. The game design and programming was done by Paul Murray and Keith Brors, both of whom have a background in wargaming. This explains the complexity of the Wizard Crown’s tactical combat. For example, shields block attacks only from the front or the left, not from the rear and the right. Spears can attack two squares away, flails ignore defender’s shields, axes have a chance of breaking shields. Bows provide targeting and long range strategic options. There is an option for quick combat, and high level skirmishes can take as long as 40 minutes to complete per encounter. The game would spawn a sequel entitled The Eternal Dagger and it’s combat engine would find it’s way into SSI’s best selling Gold Box Series.

There has been much time that has passed since my last update. This was a conscious decision on my part because I did not want to inundate you with updates on new equipment or magical items found. What I have discovered in my game play is that Wizard’s Crown is time intensive and it might be the “grindiest” game I have ever played thus far. Each time I felt confident in the power and strength of my party I would meet crushing defeat within the ruins outside of the city and realize that I needed to spend more time grinding my characters higher. Hours upon hours were spent earning enough experience points so that I could raise attributes, skills, and life points. Each time you accrue experience points you have to choose very specifically what you’re going to increase. EVERYTHING needs to be increased! Skill points, life points, attributes like Strength and Dexterity, all of them demand your attention and so the grinding process is excruciatingly slow. Every single time you think you’re finally there, a big beat down in a particular part of the game informs you how wrong you truly are.

You can see in the character snapshots up above that the gameplay is very rogue-like in the sense that you need to acquire powerful items which augment both your protection and strength. I discovered that as the dungeons get increasingly more difficult, you’re going to need a couple of +5 weapons in order to get to the final battle. Each character also needs at least three items of protection to help aid against magic thrown at you by enemies. The need to increase your character’s statistics and to hunt for increasingly more powerful items to aid you in your quest makes the grind very real.

The object of the game is to rescue a magical crown from Tarmon, a wizard who sealed himself and the crown in his laboratory 500 years ago. In my previous blog post, I had explored the Old Thieves’ Guild and discovered an Emerald Key. I found that the key grants access into Gozaroth’s Mansion which is in the western part of the ruins. I soon discovered that I was no match for the denizens lurking within the mansion and went back to grinding. Once I felt my party might be strong enough, I entered the mansion again.

Gozareth’s Mansion consisted of three levels. There were three things of interest that I found within the mansion: 1) three parts of a staff hidden throughout the levels – with all of the parts you can then form the Golem Staff – a powerful magic item needed to help with an early battle within the Palace 2) the password needed to get through the gate of the Palace and lastly 3) you learned more of Tarmon’s plans as shown below:

Once the pieces of the Golem Staff were assembled, I felt it was time to storm the Palace and discover what lies within. Once I made my way safely through the gate and started exploring the first dungeon level, I was brutally reminded that I needed to leave and do a lot more grinding. Hours and hours of grinding ensued until I felt I was ready to storm the Palace once again.

A tremendously difficult battle occurs on the second level of the Palace. A fireplace reveals a secret door which leads to the stairs to level three. However, once the secret door is triggered, golems appear out of the woodwork to assault the party. This is where the golem staff comes in handy. Strategic placement of your party here is also imperative for the win. Winning this battle and continuing on to the third level is a watershed moment.

When I reached level three, I was faced with a rather “shocking” surprise. The entire level was a treacherous maze. One wrong step in any direction triggered a deadly lightning strike. I spent an entire evening painstakingly mapping out the entire level by trial and error. You do find a map on the first level which is supposed to help you in this endeavor, but I found it to be completely useless.

While mapping out the maze I uncovered strange writing on a pillar that proved to be a valuable clue that I would need later.

The fourth level proved to be a puzzle of a different kind. In order to progress through the level, you need the proper combination of open and closed doors. I found the puzzle to be extremely frustrating as you had to backtrack and open and close doors and then return to see if you could then open a closed door to proceed. The clue from level three actually provided misinformation but the organization of the clue itself and what it portended told me what I needed to do to solve this puzzle. There are three important finds on this level: 1) you find a non-magical spear with a glowing tip that can aid you in your battle against Tarmon 2) you are told by a prisoner that magical weapons do not affect Tarmon and that if you try to use them, they will disintegrate upon impact 3) you find a secret word that you will need to get the crown itself.

Level 5 was a real heartbreaker. There is an EXTREMELY difficult battle here with a horde of Demons and High Demons. I found that no matter what I did, I was no match for them. I had to completely retreat and backtrack through the 5 levels of the Palace and begin to grind once more. I spent another few hours grinding and I also spent much of my gold reserves improving my magical weapons so that three of my party members wielded +5 weapons. Once I felt confident enough to try again, I once more stormed the Palace. I made my way slowly back to the fifth level and this time I was able to defeat the demon horde. I was finally able to climb the stairs to level six.

The entire sixth level was called The Garden of Life. There is a stream here and you can heal your entire party if you drink from it. I drank deeply and then moved forward to confront Tarmon. Strategically Tarmon places himself behind a demon horde and he casts spells safely from this position and he also teleports all over the place. I found it best to charge forward and take on the horde as quickly as I could instead of letting them sling spell after spell against me. This is the hardest battle of the game, and it took me over an hour to complete this particular battle. In order to win, half of your party members need to retain their most powerful weapons so that they can properly tackle the demon horde. The other half of the party you have to equip with non-magical weapons as they are the only thing that can cause damage to Tarmon. I barely survived the encounter, but I was able to defeat Tarmon and his horde.

I found the wizard’s laboratory, and this led to the discovery of the crown! If you do not speak the secret word found on Level 4, DORVAL, you will die instantly here.

Once you have the crown you then have to make your way back out of the palace. Before leaving this level, I drank from the Stream of Life again to heal my party. This proved to be a good thing, because just as you are about to exit the palace, demons erupt from the surrounding pillars, and you have one last titanic battle on your hands with 24 Hell Born. I was able to miraculously survive and escape the palace with crown in hand.

The trek back to the city was very difficult. You are assaulted by monsters almost every third step of the way. Despite this difficulty, I was able to make it back through the gates of the city. When you return you are greeted with the following message:

This was a very difficult game. It required great patience and perseverance to get to the finish line as well as a lot of time. It took me 57 hours to achieve victory, and the journey almost made me change the way that I do things. I strongly considered starting another game and going back and forth between the two because the grinding almost made me lose my mind a couple of times. I was worried however that if I split my time between two games, that it would merely take me that much longer to finish, so I am glad that I stuck with it. I am curious what the percentage of people are who actually finished the game after starting it. If you’re someone who loves to character build, and you love grinding over long periods in the pursuit of better equipment and higher attributes, then this is the game for you.

Next up on the playlist: Instead of tackling another game from 1985 I am going back in time once again to 1979 to a game that I missed: Space

Until next time…….

Wizard’s Crown seems far more a strategy game than a role-playing game. It has quite a tactical combat system with the focus on character development and improvement. There is quite a strategic impact on the weapons that you choose to deploy and the spells which you cast. The game has been criticized for its difficulty, and I can see why. There is an advanced injury system that involves bleeding and specific types of injuries, a morale system which can affect how you search and the success of your endeavors, an encumbrance system that has you constantly juggling items in your inventories, and a robust tactical system that involves, scanning, stealth, proper tactical placement dependent upon close combat, missile weapons and spells. The struggle to avoid being ambushed or to attempt to ambush is very real.

Ten hours into Wizard’s Crown provided a steep learning curve. I realized that I had rushed through character creation and that I was not developing my classes appropriately. Once I made my out of the poor sections of the city and started exploring the ruins I found that I was losing the struggle to merely survive. I decided to completely scrap the entire game and start over.

I gave much more thought to my party make-up as well as how I wanted to equip them. Once I started progressing through encounters I had a very specific game plan for each character’s development. I noticed, as I continued to progress, that I had a much stronger party. I was seeing success and having more enjoyment as well.

I had saved a girl from thugs in one of the poor sections of the city. Upon her rescue she told me to seek out her father’s mansion which resides to the northeast outside of town. Once I was strong enough to make the trek I was rewarded with a +2 broadsword. It was my first magic item added to equipment and luckily it would not be my last.

I spent as much time in the city as I possibly could. I would wander through the residential district and the poor areas of the city hoping to encounter thugs. I’ve noticed that the thugs in the city are the easiest opponents to combat. I used these encounters to slowly improve my characters until the mayor rewarded me for cleaning up the city.

I also discovered that the Rusty Nail Inn located within the city served as a sort of mini dungeon. I encountered several thieves and bandits within the establishment.

My thief in the party also discovered a secret door. A master assassin and his henchmen were discovered in a secret room beyond the door. They were able to provide me with information as to where I might find the next dungeon.

I now find that my party is strong enough that I am beginning to successfully explore the ruins south of the city. I am going to continue to grind in this fashion and once I feel confident, I am going to explore the old thieves guild which is easily found in the ruins.

The games graphics are pretty terrible for the time and really just a step above text, but this is all about advanced strategy and tactics over any eye candy. I am enjoying my experience with Wizards’s Crown so much more now that I realized my mistakes and started all over.

There is an overarching quest to be fulfilled here which involves the Crown of the Emperor. It is supposed to grant power and wisdom to whomever wears it. There is an entertaining story concerning the crown found in the documentation which comes with the game. We are to assume that we have been hired by the old wizard Kaitar to recover the crown and restore peace to the land. I am sure that the crown lies within a dungeon somewhere within the ruins south of town.

Thus I am currently exploring the ruins until I feel confident enough to enter the old thieves guild, which I believe is the next dungeon to explore based on the intel uncovered at the Rusty Nail.

Wish me luck…….

Wizard’s Crown was released by SSI in 1986 for the Apple II and Commodore 64. It would be ported two years later for the Atari ST and DOS machines. Strategic Simulations was the dominant force in wargames from 1981 into the early 1990s. SSI began to wade into the role-playing game arena with releases such as Questron and Phantasie. Both did very well for the company and spawned sequels. In the late 80s SSI would sign a deal with TSR, Inc. to publish official Dungeons & Dragons games. The Gold Box games were thus born and took the company in new directions. Although SSI never stopped publishing wargames, the D&D license became their main source of income and produced their best-known products.

I am sure that role-playing enthusiasts were taken by surprise with Wizard’s Crown. I am quite sure many expected another role-playing game in the same vein as Phantasie or Questron. What SSI tried to accomplish instead with Wizard’s Crown was to take a fantasy theme and meld it with a wargame. The main focus of Wizard’s Crown is tactics. Each combat that takes place within the game runs about 40 minutes in length. You can choose to have the computer run a quick auto-battle which is over in seconds but nowhere near as efficient. Your casualties will run high.

The game is brutal. If you’re someone that is turned off by games where you are forced to grind, Wizard’s Crown is the king of grinding. Each battle is a fight for survival. In this game to get anywhere, you have to improve your characters.

You improve your character by taking your experience points and converting them into skill points. Each class, depending on your selection, will want to specialize and build up certain skills in their skill tree first. You are grinding and improving your characters all of the time. You use experience points to build up your skills and then you use coin that you find or sell items you’ve looted off of the dead, to purchase new equipment and training. This constant need for experience and coin in order to improve yourself is very real.

When the game begins you find yourself within the walls of a city. In order to survive you’re going to spend a great deal of the first part of the game roaming the residential district. Here you’ll encounter only thugs which are the easiest opponents in the game. The more that you traverse and patrol a particular area the less frequently encounters will occur. Once you’re done roaming the residential district you can begin to search and make your way through the poor areas. I made the mistake of venturing outside of the city and was beset upon by monsters in a matter of seconds. My entire party was wiped out very quickly each time.

There are five classes in the game to be explored. Fighter, Ranger, Thief, Priest, and Sorcerer. The game manual which comes with the game recommends that you have at least 3 Fighters in your party. The Sorcerer takes a long, slow time to properly develop so I recommend that you do not multi-class with this class. The other classes I recommend you multi-class. You create a party of eight characters. I created a party consisting of 3 Fighters, a Ranger-Thief, a Priest-Thief, a Fighter Priest, a Ranger-Priest, and a Sorcerer.

There are not a lot of graphics or bells and whistles associated with the game. Much of the game is text and it screams tactics. When you move into battle you can see how this game progressed into the future Gold Box tactical battles. I can also see why the game can be intimidating for many expecting a role-playing experience.

The game spends a lot of time and energy on injuries and the healing of those injuries. There is first aid or combat medic training and then there is prayer which is a magical way to stem blood loss or heal all wounds. When a character is injured they have body injury points and if they are bleeding or suffering from blood loss that blood loss continues until it is treated. There is an attention to detail here.

Thus far I am working on building up the combat awareness of my Fighters as well as their weapon skills. I am working to increase the Karma score of my Priests because a high Karma allows your prayers and magics to succeed in healing. I am working on improving the haggling skills of my Thief characters so that I can get the best deal when selling looted equipment. I am working on improving the Evaluate skill for my Sorcerer to ensure that I won’t miss any magic items after combat comes to an end. I have yet to earn enough coin to purchase any meaningful armor or weapons for the characters in my party.

I spent 32 hours this year playing and defeating The Bard’s Tale and I spent 32.5 hours playing and defeating Phantasie I. I can see already that I’m going to be putting in a good 40 hours into Wizard’s Crown in order to beat this thing.

Wish me luck. Until next time……

It took me 32.2 hours to finally be able to pump my fist in the air in celebration of a hard-fought victory.

The entire Phantasie experience served to remind me why this was one of my absolute favorite series growing up. It has story, several dungeon crawls, a lot of descriptive and interactive text associated with each dungeon crawl, a great combat system, a multitude of different equipment items, magic, and a robust spell selection for casters. In my last game update, I had explored five dungeons and was continuing to map and explore the outdoor terrain.

When exploring the dungeons, you find numbered scrolls which are extremely important finds. The scrolls contain information which serve to world build and give you ultimate goals to try and complete. In my latest discovery, I learned that you cannot visit or receive recognition from the Gods until you find nine rings of power and four runes of earth, air, fire and water.

JR Trolkin’s castle, has you trapped once you are inside. There are several doors that you can’t initially open. Throw in secret doors that you have to constantly search for and you have a winding maze on your hands. Your main purpose is to find JR Trolkin’s treasure room and defeat him. It is here that I found the first three Rings of Power.

The Dungeon of the Bleebs was one of the more eccentric dungeons in the game. The entire dungeon is a logic puzzle to be solved. There are blue, green, and red bleebs and each of them divulge information about the other. Based on their statements you have to discern which are lying and which are telling the truth. Blue, green, and red pools serve as teleports which carry you all about the dungeon. Guess incorrectly, and your party is gravely injured. If you can work your way through this puzzle you will be awarded with three more Rings of Power.

The Dosnebian Temple is a nasty dungeon. First of all, the temple will not even allow you inside unless you have a minotaur in your party. I did not, thus I had to drop my Thief character that I spent all of this time building up experience with and create a new minotaur character. Once inside I found that this is the first dungeon that is populated with Black Knights which are extremely hard to kill. There are also a lot of traps found within this dungeon, and it takes a bit of experimentation until you can make your way deeper inside. There are two more Rings of Power that I found in this dungeon and getting out and escaping was not easy.

It was at this point that I only had eight of the Rings of Power and I only had the Runes of air, earth, and fire. It took me some time, but I found a third magical pool while exploring the continent. The pool was magically protected and I could not reach it. I found that the only way to reach the pool was by casting a Transportation spell while within a town and choosing the town of Phantasie as my destination (all of the different towns are listed to choose from). I was then able to reach the pool and enter it. Now that I had entered all three magical pools in the game, I had to backtrack to the dungeon of Lord Wood’s Castle and finally be awarded with a Water Rune.

The ninth Ring of Power was found in the same fashion. When I Transported to Phantasie and went shopping in the Armory, the only item for sale was the last ring! I purchased the last Ring of Power and with all rings and runes in my possession I was at last ready to visit the Gods. But where are the Gods? Once again the answer lies within the Transport spell. When you cast Transport and scroll through the Towns listed, you’ll find that at the end of the list there is a blank space, if you choose this blank space, you will be transported to Olympis, home of the Gods.

The floating castle of Zeus is the easiest dungeon to get through. It consists of only six rooms, each room with a test that the party must pass. If you have all four runes and the nine Rings of Power you will automatically pass the tests of five of the six rooms. The last room is a test of combat. If you can defeat the denizens in the room, you will then pass the last test. Once all the tests have been passed, Zeus will appear before you and award you with the God Rune. This rune allows you to withstand the terrible fear spell that normally drives you away from the last dungeon and allows you to finally enter it without being turned away.

The Black Lord’s Fortress is the last dungeon and also the hardest. The foes found near the dungeon and within prove quite a challenge. From Dragon Kings to Spectres the gamut is not easy. This dungeon is also heavily populated with Black Knights which are incredibly lethal AND hard to kill. I found that it was incredibly important to be strong enough that I could hold back my most potent combat spells because you will definitely need them to defeat the Dark Lord. The final combat and ultimate showdown with the big bad in this dungeon is an incredibly difficult and lethal battle.

I found the varying dungeons in this game, with their rich storytelling, to be highly rewarding. The unique combat experience also heightened the enjoyment of the game for me. The grinding and amount of time needed to puzzle through and finish the game is very real. Despite the uniqueness of this game compared to those that have come before it, if you are not a fan of grinding you may not rate this game as highly as I have. Even at higher levels of proficiency, gold, needed to pay for training, was scarce and thus the grinding became very real.

I rate this game very high, immensely enjoyed my experience with it, and I cannot wait to play the sequel to it.

Next up on the docket……..Wizard’s Crown.

Until next time…..