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Quarex posted:Krull Soccer is the fact that I type things entirely to entertain myself in the assumption that nobody is actually reading the things I write, so I appreciate the notice. It would ostensibly be a game based around the characters from the fantasy film Krull playing a nice game of soccer/football. Krull Football just sounds too realistic to me, though. Haha, okay, I thought you might be serious. There DOES exist a game called Mega Man Soccer (even Mega Man fans are sometimes surprised to hear this), and given common abbreviations I wouldn't be surprised if people then thought that Might & Magic Soccer exists. (Nope!) You have to be careful when reading old sources; in many cases an IBM version is claimed to exist, when it does not. In other cases, the IBM version does exist, but it has a different name. The worst culprit I can think of here is Dondra: A New Beginning turning into Prism of Heheutotol for IBM. (If you haven't heard of either, don't worry; they were both obscure even when they were current.) Another old RPG that doesn't exist for IBM is Wrath of Denethenor. I don't think I've seen anyone claim this exists for IBM, unlike a wide variety of other titles. Centauri Alliance is about the last major computer RPG that doesn't exist for IBM, though there are a couple commercial releases that are Mac-only. After that consoles became predominant. I haven't shown off my computer game collection in a while: http://www.rawbw.com/~ssjlee/games/GameCollection.html I really need to update the pictures, because they're blurry, poorly lit, and I've made additions. If there's any demand at all I'll do so.
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Mar 23, 2012 05:06
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Ugh I wish gog would get the rights to sell the gold box games.
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Mar 23, 2012 05:28
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My first time playing Phantasie I was with my brothers & cousins. We each made a character that we controlled with the last one controlled by us all. We equipped our party in the starter town and headed out. After a few easy battles we got attacked by a bunch of ants at night. Only a couple of our characters were awake, while the rest were sleeping. Most of the battle was spent yelling at our characters to wake up while they were getting eaten. That battle did not end well.
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Mar 23, 2012 05:35
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Quarex posted:nobody is actually reading the things I write Also, I notice that Wizardry V is missing from the 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 5 chain. There are also some cases where you can transfer characters backward in the series, but this varies by platform. CaptainRat posted:Fun fact: the last time I tried to do this all the way through, I was stymied by Dark Queen of Krynn, because the interface was too advanced. I had gotten so used to the Champions/Death Knights UI that I could not wrap my brain around the Dark Queen improvements. I still have never beaten Dark Queen of Krynn The key to not dying horribly in Dark Queen of Krynn derives from knowing how 1st edition AD&D spell resistance works. The higher your mage's level, the better you are at overcoming magic resistance. This wasn't obvious, because 2nd edition was the latest at the time, and this mechanic doesn't exist in 2nd edition (I think). Even a few additional levels gives your fireballs not only that many d6's of extra damage, but gives +1 per level to the d20 roll to beat magic resistance; thus, those few levels help tremendously in beating magic resistance. In the Gold Box games, this is particularly notable when fighting drow and draconians. And in Dark Queen, hoo boy do you fight a ton of draconians. You therefore want at least one single-classed mage. Unlike the Forgotten Realms games, you won't hit the level cap easily, and you won't hit the level cap at all in Dark Queen barring ungodly amounts of level grinding. If you want a party to play all three Dragonlance Gold Box games, I recommend: 1 human Knight of Solamnia 1 Silvanesti elf Ranger/Cleric of Kiri-Jolith 1 Qualinesti elf Fighter/White Robe Mage/Cleric of Majere (this is the character to replace with a second human White Robe Mage if you want two of them) 1 Qualinesti elf Fighter/Red Robe Mage (you can triple-class and throw in Cleric of Shinare if you want, particularly if you don't use the above triple-classed F/MU/C) 1 Qualinesti elf Fighter/Red Robe Mage/Thief 1 human White Robe Mage Red Robe Mages cannot cast Globe of Invulnerability, so they're somewhat more fragile as single-classed characters compared to White Robe Mages. They also can't cast Mass Charm, making their 8th level spell slots close to useless. On the other hand, they advance faster than White Robes and can cast Mirror Image, Haste, Fire Touch, and Iron Skin. Don't bother with Kender. They have level caps that become irritating in Death Knights and are pretty seriously crippling in Dark Queen. precision posted:Ha, same here. I've also never beaten Pools of Darkness, though I think that's more to do with the fact that it's stupid hard. The difficulty curve for that line of Gold Box games is so wonky; Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds are pretty drat tough at times (OH GOD A ROOM FULL OF BEHOLDERS If you know this in advance, you can abuse Secret of the Silver Blades for all it is worth. There is a ridiculous amount of experience in that game relative to the level cap of 15, enough to advance a bunch of dual classed 10th level ranger / mages to 15th level, and also a bunch (like an entire party's worth) of pure rangers to 15th plus several hundred thousand experience extra. Once you transfer to Pools of Darkness, you can train all the single-classed rangers to 16th level immediately, then fight a bar brawl and train them to 17th. (This is probably the precise purpose of that bar brawl; the same goes for the one in Curse of the Azure Bonds.) You can then go nuts making multiple dual classed 17th (or higher) level ranger / mages, which are particularly powerful. I pity the people trying to play Pools of Darkness with only one or two mages. My last playthrough had something like: 1 human dual-classed 21st level Paladin to Cleric 3 human dual-classed 21st level Ranger to Magic User 1 human dual-classed 30th level Cleric to Magic User 1 elf multi-classed Fighter/Magic User/Thief That's four full magic users, one magic user at 11th level (still enough to cast Stinking Cloud, Confusion, and Hold Monster), and two full clerics. Mass Hold Monster happens to be 9th level in 3rd edition AD&D. I think that's at least partly due to the influence of the Gold Box games. Largepotato posted:My first time playing Phantasie I was with my brothers & cousins. We each made a character that we controlled with the last one controlled by us all. Unless you are really buff, sometimes you will just get surprised like this, and sometimes very high-level monsters can appear outdoors in areas that mostly have low-level monsters. These days it's not a big deal to just kill the DOSBox process and restart it. You had to reboot your computer playing on an original IBM Model 5150, though. Also, be sure you roll decent scores in important stats. This means 11+ Luck, 15+ Constitution, and 15+ Dexterity for all; 15+ Intelligence for everyone other than fighters and thieves; and good Strength (18+ for fighters and rangers, 12+ for wizards, 15+ for everyone else). It's not obvious unless you read the manual carefully, but stats have a much bigger impact on your characters' performance than they do in most other computer RPGs, and it's very common to see both 3s and 18+ scores when rolling stats. Having scores of 3-6 are particularly crippling in Strength and Constitution, even for wizards; you need Strength to equip decent armor, and a low constitution means you'll have something like 25 hit points even at maximum level. Also, don't use Monks, they suck. In Phantasie I and II, priests are far stronger any other class; my recommended party if you're playing just those games is 1 wizard, 4 priests, and 1 thief. Priests can cast Fireflash IV just like wizards, and you shouldn't be using the "Slash" attack command much, as "Attack" is much more accurate. It's also easy for a fighter or ranger to hit the cap of 255 hit points, so their higher hit points don't help too much. If you are going to also play Phantasie III, fighting classes are much more useful. In this game, you want to use "Slash" instead of "Attack" whenever you can, because the extra attacks do extra damage, enough to more than overcome the reduced accuracy of Slash. You'll want one of every class other than monk. Make the 6th character a second fighter, ranger, or priest.
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Mar 23, 2012 06:22
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) and then Silver Blades was a total joke of a cakewalk where the only threat, literally, is getting unlucky and taking 200 damage from a Remorhaz.
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I'm still holding out hope that someone's crazy enough to do a LP of Wiz4
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Mar 23, 2012 06:52
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So I want too play a Might and Magic game. I got the 6 pack off GoG and I think I've landed on playing M&M VI first. I'd eventually like to play 3, 4 and 5 but I don't feel like playing a DOS game right now, and 6 looks plenty interesting. Thing is I'm having a hell of a time starting out. I've heard the game is pretty tough at first but I can't even make it past the first encounter (the heard of goblins by the bridge near the starting town). So noob tips for M&M6 or just M&M games in general would be much appreciated.
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Mar 23, 2012 07:04
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Fantasy Empires and Dark Legions, two games in those compilations I linked a few pages back, were both developed by Silicon Knights, I had forgotten about that.
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Mar 23, 2012 07:15
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Volitaire posted:So I want too play a Might and Magic game. I got the 6 pack off GoG and I think I've landed on playing M&M VI first. I'd eventually like to play 3, 4 and 5 but I don't feel like playing a DOS game right now, and 6 looks plenty interesting. Thing is I'm having a hell of a time starting out. I've heard the game is pretty tough at first but I can't even make it past the first encounter (the heard of goblins by the bridge near the starting town). So noob tips for M&M6 or just M&M games in general would be much appreciated. Get archery skill and a basic bow for every character... you can kite basic goblins pretty much forever. You can shoot them while their ai is stuck on walls, etc... There's a bunch of crates by the bridge on the bottom left side of new sorpigal and on the bottom right side (there's goblins in both area). These will get you some cash and potions. Also be sure to get the mission from the tavern if you haven't already; it starts the main quest and will give you 5k gold to start with. If you go to Goblinwatch (the castle S/SW of town), go inside and go down the right passageway immediately. Eventually you'll run into a long perpendicular hallway with a ton of goblins on both ends. You cannot just run in there or you'll die, but if you have bows/spells (sparks is a great spell for narrow hallways) and can grab small groups at a time, you can kite them back down the hallways while shooting them. It's worth it to do this because there's another 3 chests with a ton of money/things in them, plus you'll get some good exp. There's a mission to go further into goblinwatch from the town hall in new sorpigal. Once you have all the loot from these chests and some experience, you're in a pretty solid state to either continue with the dungeons around new sorpigal, or head to castle ironfist or whatever. Oh and make sure to go around new sorpigal/castle ironfist and join all the mage guilds. You have to find the house where their representative lives to join a guild. Once you have some cash, I'd keep an eye out for a cure poison spell (I think it's in the body magic guild). Spiders are common in the first dungeons and they will poison you, which is pretty annoying. phreaky fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Mar 23, 2012 |
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Mar 23, 2012 07:17
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Boldor posted:The worst culprit I can think of here is Dondra: A New Beginning turning into Prism of Heheutotol for IBM. (If you haven't heard of either, don't worry; they were both obscure even when they were current.) Yeah, Centauri Alliance not existing for 100% IBM COMPATIBLES was really surprising when I saw the box. Though every time I find out about some CRPG I have never heard of, my first assumption is that it was a 1990s Mac-only release. The only reason I have ever heard of Dondra: A New Beginning is because one of the early Quest For Clues books had a couple of pages devoted to it. Those books are great since there is more information in them about a lot of obscure games than seems to exist anywhere on the Internet, ha. I will also add 5 to Wizardry 1-2-3; I do not know how I forgot about it; I knew Return of Werdna was a stand-alone, but I should have remembered that they did not otherwise start over until 6. Largepotato posted:That battle did not end well. Volitaire posted:So I want too play a Might and Magic game. I got the 6 pack off GoG and I think I've landed on playing M&M VI first. I'd eventually like to play 3, 4 and 5 but I don't feel like playing a DOS game right now, and 6 looks plenty interesting. Thing is I'm having a hell of a time starting out. I've heard the game is pretty tough at first but I can't even make it past the first encounter (the heard of goblins by the bridge near the starting town). So noob tips for M&M6 or just M&M games in general would be much appreciated.  )
Dr. Quarex fucked around with this message at 07:28 on Mar 23, 2012 |
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Mar 23, 2012 07:26
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I guess my problem was trying to stand my ground against those jerks. Any advice for good classes/skills I should look out for? I've re-rolled parties a few times now, but I think I've settled on Knight/Archer/Sorc/Druid. I'm kind of at a loss as too what skills/stats I should be focusing on though. Honestly I haven't felt this overwhelmed by an RPG in quite a long time. I like open world games, but learning how everything works and figuring out what exactly I should be doing is always my biggest hurdle.
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Mar 23, 2012 07:36
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Volitaire posted:So I want too play a Might and Magic game. I got the 6 pack off GoG and I think I've landed on playing M&M VI first. I'd eventually like to play 3, 4 and 5 but I don't feel like playing a DOS game right now, and 6 looks plenty interesting. Thing is I'm having a hell of a time starting out. I've heard the game is pretty tough at first but I can't even make it past the first encounter (the heard of goblins by the bridge near the starting town). So noob tips for M&M6 or just M&M games in general would be much appreciated. Before you start, if you haven't installed GrayFace's unofficial patch for MM6, do so. It fixes a bunch of bugs (there are a TON of minor bugs even with all the official patches, including a few that only were introduced by the latest official patch) and makes several interface improvements. You should always run to move around; doing so means you move at a speed of 768 instead of 384. In MM7 or MM8, or with GrayFace's patch, you can set things up to always run unless you hold down Shift. In unpatched MM6, you have to hold down Shift to run, which gets old FAST, but 768 is enough to outrun anything on level ground, if the monster can't fly. You can weave around a bit to dodge ranged attacks from monsters; note that the monsters will do this too in real-time combat. Start with a party of paladin, druid, sorcerer, sorcerer (PDSS). This is a bit weaker at game start than the default of paladin, archer, cleric, sorcerer (PACS), but PDSS becomes better than PACS fairly quickly. Experts will want parties of nothing other than clerics, druids, and sorcerers, but I don't recommend this for new players. I do not recommend knights in MM6; only choose them if you want a serious hit point sink. (Experts do choose them for stunt runs. MM6 and MM7 are particularly well suited to stunt runs.) Paladins are actually just as good as using weapons, armor, and shields as knights are! As someone else said, get the bow skill and bows for everyone ASAP. You cannot get the skill or purchase bows in New Sorpigal; you have to travel west to Castle Ironfist to get both the skill and the bows. It is possible to walk (well, run) there, but it's safer to travel by horse carriage or boat if it's the right day of the week. You need some money to fund the bow skills and other stuff. Get the starting thousands of gold, then get the numerous chests and crates in the New Sorpigal area you can loot. You don't need to kill the monsters in the way; you can run around to scatter the monsters, then swoop in for the loot. Game time stops while you are looting a chest, so you can take your time while plucking your precious loot from chests. It costs no time other than travel time, and very little gold, to restore hit points and spell points at a temple. Learn where temples are, and abuse the healing they provide. (You still need to occasionally sleep; characters will eventually go insane or flat out drop dead if you try to stay awake 24/7.) There's no need to invest in Identify Item early in the game. You can hire a Scholar who will provide both an experience boost and let you identify stuff. Monster bodies will stay around on the ground for a minimum of 6 months in all locations other than the final dungeon. Particularly later in the game, you can clear entire maps of monsters with a Scholar/Teacher/Instructor for the bonus to experience, then hire a Banker and Factor to maximize loot collected. Bow skill is very strong at the start of the game, but increasing bow skill doesn't do much until you hit Master level, which is not worth it until later in the game. Getting Expert dagger skill is top priority in weapons, so you can dual-wield. (Part of the motivation for playing PDSS is so that everyone can dual-wield.) Armor skill isn't very useful. In fact, especially if you are playing without the unofficial patch, it can easily be better to play without body armor except maybe very early in the game. Body armor slows you down greatly until you can train armor skills to Master -- and if you're not using the unofficial patch, the armor skills do not help in reducing armor penalties! (Yes, it's a bug.) Self magic: train Spirit to Expert first so that you can cast Bless and Heroism at expert level, which makes physical combat much easier. After that, work on Body Magic for better healing spells. Mind Magic is much less useful than the other two classes. Elemental magic: Water Magic is by far the strongest; one of your sorcerers should focus on getting this to rank 12 so you can learn Master Water Magic ASAP. This is for everything from Lloyd's Beacon to Town Portal to Enchant Item to Poison Spray to Acid Burst. I wouldn't train anything else for this sorcerer other than maybe Expert Dagger and Expert Learning first. Your other sorcerer can work on getting Expert Air Magic and Expert Fire Magic quickly. The Jump and Fly spells are very useful; in particular, with the Fly spell you can move up and down even in turn-based combat, which makes fighting even dragons easy. Fire Magic has some really nice combat spells. Earth Magic is really terrible, except for Stone Skin and Mass Distortion; it's the lowest priority. Light/Dark magic: by the time you can seriously consider these, you're not early in the game any more.  Your paladin doesn't use much magic, so that's the character to train things like Disarm Trap and Repair Item on.
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Mar 23, 2012 07:52
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^^^ edit: did a more thorough job of explaining things
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Mar 23, 2012 08:03
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Chainclaw posted:Fantasy Empires and Dark Legions, two games in those compilations I linked a few pages back, were both developed by Silicon Knights, I had forgotten about that. Dark Legions. God. This thread brought out long dormant memories of that game, and I spent like an hour racking my brain trying to remember the name of it. so thanks for reminding me, I guess. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNherpNAhnw It's a fantasy-themed combat game, turn-based movement with battles resolved sort of like Star Control melee.
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Mar 23, 2012 08:16
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Lawman 0 posted:Beginners tips for daggerfall? Always, always, always, always, always, always use custom classes. the defaults have a ton of useless poo poo in them like the language and etiquette skills that do next to nothing and are hard to increase. Also always do the "choose your career path" questions so that you can start with either an ebony dagger or a silver staff. There are a few imps in the starter dungeon, and being demons they're only hurt by silver and up, and those are the only two are the only weapons you could start with that qualify.
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Mar 23, 2012 08:47
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Volitaire posted:Any advice for good classes/skills I should look out for? I've re-rolled parties a few times now, but I think I've settled on Knight/Archer/Sorc/Druid. I'm kind of at a loss as too what skills/stats I should be focusing on though. Honestly I haven't felt this overwhelmed by an RPG in quite a long time. I like open world games, but learning how everything works and figuring out what exactly I should be doing is always my biggest hurdle. I didn't see this until I made my longer post. KADS is going to suffer later in the game because you only have one character capable of casting Light/Dark Magic. Once you've gotten the basic skills down (basic Bow for all, Expert Dagger for all, Expert Learning for all, Expert Spirit Magic on one character, Expert Body Magic for anyone who can learn it, Master Water Magic, Expert Air Magic, Expert Fire Magic, Expert Perception/Disarm Trap/Repair Item all on at least one character), Light/Dark magic is the midgame way of achieving even greater power. Many people who have played the game before will actually run CSSS just so they can have four Dark Magic casters. More than one Light Magic user doesn't help too much, but it's useful having as many characters as you can slinging Shrapmetal and Dragon Breath against high-level monsters. One thing that I should warn first-time players against is that there are a bunch of unique artifacts in the game, but only 15 of them can be randomly generated. This isn't an issue until later in the game, as only chests in high-danger areas and things like dragons and titans can ever generate random artifacts, but there's a hard limit on how many of these can appear. Some random artifacts are also specifically placed; for these items, you can get one randomly and a second one that's specifically placed. I mention this is because by far the most powerful artifacts are the three that increase multiple magical skills (Guinevere, Morgan, and Igraine). Since you can miss the second one of any of these three forever, be wary about looting dragons and titans and such. I know this is a spoiler, but I don't think it's out of place warning you about things that can be lost forever in a playthrough in ways that are not at all obvious. This is also why I like to play PDSS; a third Light/Dark Magic user does not provide the marginal benefit that the second one does, because you cannot get a third Guinevere. (And I assume you aren't playing the original unpatched release, which lets you stack as many magic boosters you can equip on top of each other. An item of Dark Magic gives you +50% Dark Magic skill. You can equip six Dark Magic rings and two Dark Magic amulets to boost Dark Magic from let's say a base of 16 to 16*1.5^8, or skill level 400-something. Monsters will then die if your Dark Magic user gives them funny looks. In the later versions, you can still stack a single Dark Magic ring with Guinevere, or a single Fire Magic ring with Morgan, etc., but that's as far as it goes. It's also a big part of what makes those artifacts incredibly powerful.) redmercer posted:I'm still holding out hope that someone's crazy enough to do a LP of Wiz4 I'd probably be the person people expect to do this, since I'm the author of the main walkthrough of Wizardry 4 that's been kicking around the Internet for about 20 years, and now hosted on GameFAQs. I know all of Wizardry 1-7, especially 6, well enough to show people how to fold, spindle, and mutilate them. (I haven't played 8 thoroughly yet. Too many games, not enough free time.) The same goes for Might & Magic 1-7, but Thuryl is doing a good job on those. I'd personally prefer to do an LP with Civilization 1-4, Alpha Centauri, Master of Magic, Master of Orion 1-2, and Heroes of M&M 1-5, which I also know how to fold, spindle, and mutilate, but those are all strategy games beyond the scope of this thread. The trouble with a Wizardry 4 LP is that I don't think it would make a compelling LP. I could explain the logic behind all of the puzzles, but I don't think it'd have wide appeal. Also, combat in that game is heavily luck-dependent; there's not much strategy to it. Besides, I like 6 much better as a game. Also, I've never done a LP before and I find the prospect rather daunting. I'm most likely to do a LP of the Civilization games in series, starting with the original. Wizardry 6-7 are the only other games I'd seriously consider LPing. If you think Wizardry 4 would actually make a good LP, I'd like to hear why.
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Mar 23, 2012 09:02
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precision posted:Pool of Radiance Didn't the more recent version of that wipe your hard drive if you uninstalled? That's incentives to keep playing right there!
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Mar 23, 2012 10:06
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Boldor posted:Tons of good info Thanks for this. I think I'll finally be able to get this playthrough off the ground now.
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Mar 23, 2012 12:43
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MadJackMcJack posted:Didn't the more recent version of that wipe your hard drive if you uninstalled? That's incentives to keep playing right there! Yes And It loving Sucked
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Mar 23, 2012 13:02
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Boldor posted:The trouble with a Wizardry 4 LP is that I don't think it would make a compelling LP. I could explain the logic behind all of the puzzles, but I don't think it'd have wide appeal. Also, combat in that game is heavily luck-dependent; there's not much strategy to it. Besides, I like 6 much better as a game. Just as a heads up, if anybody is particularly jonesing for a Wizardry IV LP there's an offsite one that's pretty close to being finished now. It's a straightforward, no-nonsense exposition of how the game works and just how actively and punishingly hostile it is to its players. The LPer is attempting to solve as much of the game as possible without consulting a walkthrough, because he is insane and wishes to be more so.
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Mar 23, 2012 13:04
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MadJackMcJack posted:Didn't the more recent version of that wipe your hard drive if you uninstalled? That's incentives to keep playing right there! Not quite as bad as wiping your hard drive, but it would uninstall system files if you didn't patch it first. It was a horrible, ignominious end for one of the greatest game companies ever and I will forever hate UbiSoft for putting SSI's label on the game. R.I.P., Strategic Simulations Inc. You were too good for this world.
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Mar 23, 2012 13:38
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seorin posted:The lines when you ask Virgil what to do next at various parts through the early game are the absolute best. Someone requested I post those when I LPed the game, and I'd never heard of them before. That was probably the single best thing I learned about the game the entire time I was writing that thread. A bit late, but that was me  I started playing Arcanum again thanks to your LP, and only discovered the lines by accident when I got my half ogre so drunk his intelligence bottomed out.I still think Virgil's talking-to-the-retard lines are some of the best delivered lines in any video game, from a voice acting perspective. He really had no idea what you just called him.
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Mar 23, 2012 14:40
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Thuryl posted:Just as a heads up, if anybody is particularly jonesing for a Wizardry IV LP there's an offsite one that's pretty close to being finished now. It's a straightforward, no-nonsense exposition of how the game works and just how actively and punishingly hostile it is to its players. The LPer is attempting to solve as much of the game as possible without consulting a walkthrough, because he is insane and wishes to be more so. He's died a total of 78 times having managed to escape the 10-level dungeon. (That still doesn't mean he's even finished with the dungeon, just that he's come out of the exit and knows where it is, which is something the game tracks.) That sounds extremely low; by the time I accomplished that in my original playthrough without a walkthrough I must have died or been forced to restore a saved game at least a couple thousand times, including about 30-40 just on the introductory level. Then I read the LP more carefully, and he has been playing a majority of the game with a walkthrough, which is how he's managed that. This low number of deaths has been achieved without an item that's not essential, but does greatly cut down on the number of random combat deaths. He doesn't seem to have the Oxygen Mask, which greatly cuts down the risk of the Makanito and Lakanito spells killing you. Oddly, he hasn't died too many times to these spells. I've died probably more than 78 times just to those two spells alone! Also, he has a specific item that makes it impossible for him to get all of the endings. If you want to see all five endings in one playthrough, you have to skip choosing one of the three swords from the Dreampainter's Temple until as late as possible, because those swords correspond to one of each of three possible endings, out of five. Choosing one of those swords locks out the endings corresponding to the other swords. Dying even 2,000 times isn't unique in a game playthrough. It took me more than that to beat Nethack for the first time; that was in the days before spoilers were readily available. Neither Wizardry 4 nor Nethack is noted for playing fair, on the other hand!
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Mar 23, 2012 15:07
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Oops I forgot to do the writeup of Bard's Tale because I've been so busy at work. I'll do that today. GOG has some pretty nifty games for 50% off this weekend Including: - Master of Magic - Darklands - Master of Orion 1, 2 - Starcon 1, 2 and 3 (although it sounds like the open-source SC2 is better) Open your wallets here Edit: removed MOO3 since it sucks Peas and Rice fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Mar 23, 2012 |
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Mar 23, 2012 15:35
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This thread is still just getting started, but if/when it ever needs a version 2, I nominate Boldor to be the OP. For the time being, though, I've added those glorious walls of knowledge about the D&D games and M&M6 to a new section that he inspired me to add to the OP, where I just link to a couple of the most noteworthy contributions thus far. Feel free to let me know any other excellent posts you all think I should link to.Spike McMayhem posted:A bit late, but that was me  It's interactions like this that make me want to get back into LPing again. I also came here to post about the new GOG promo, but I see I was beaten. 
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Mar 23, 2012 15:41
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Peas and Rice posted:Including: I don't know if it needs to be said, but really, avoid Master of Orion 3 like the plague. Star Control 2 can also be had as the (free) Ur-Quan Masters, and SC1 isn't really worth playing. 3 gets mixed reviews, but I never played it. Edit: Wow I thought I was in the GOG thread, but there can never be enough warnings against Orion 3.
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Mar 23, 2012 15:48
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Thuryl posted:Just as a heads up, if anybody is particularly jonesing for a Wizardry IV LP there's an offsite one that's pretty close to being finished now. It's a straightforward, no-nonsense exposition of how the game works and just how actively and punishingly hostile it is to its players. The LPer is attempting to solve as much of the game as possible without consulting a walkthrough, because he is insane and wishes to be more so. That's actually not a bad LP. I was thinking of doing a Wizardry IV LP myself using the PSX remake in much the same vein (getting killed over and over just to show how much of a bastard the game was but that pretty much shows everything I could. Well, unless I did it using the Arrange version of the game which has New Game+ features and some bells and whistles that make it slightly different than the original Wizardry IV (in some ways easier, in some ways harder)
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Mar 23, 2012 16:13
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Peas and Rice posted:Oops I forgot to do the writeup of Bard's Tale because I've been so busy at work. I'll do that today. Might need to grab dark lands, I have always been at lease a little interested in it.
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Mar 23, 2012 16:33
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Peas and Rice posted:
There's something wrong with this picture  Seriously, that game is awful.
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Mar 23, 2012 17:24
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GrandpaPants posted:Edit: Wow I thought I was in the GOG thread, but there can never be enough warnings against Orion 3. This is the totally wrong thread, but just so people know, it truly isn't hyperbole to claim that Master of Orion 3 is a top contender for the worst computer or video game released, ever. It is not even in the same galaxy of badness as almost any other game you could possibly name. It is so bad I think it is beyond any plausible claim of "so bad it's good". There are some largely forgotten RPGs that might be in the same galaxy of bad. Something like Fountain of Dreams is too good a game to be like that. I'm thinking of games like Scavengers of the Mutant World and The Red Crystal. I haven't subjected myself to any significant amount of either of those. People bolder than I am are encouraged to brave them and post trip reports! I disclaim any responsibility for damage to your sanity should you attempt this. Just so people know, both of those games received unrelentingly savage Daikatana-level reviews in Computer Gaming World, and aroused numerous wrathful letters. (Okay, Daikatana is definitely in the same galaxy of bad.) Even those probably cannot match the legendary awfulness of Master of Orion 3. And no, something like the newer Pool of Radiance probably isn't nearly bad enough. It might trash your hard drive, but there was a not-absolutely-hopeless game there from what I've heard. (edit: haha I had this tab open long enough for multiple other people to beat me to it) Genpei Turtle posted:That's actually not a bad LP. I was thinking of doing a Wizardry IV LP myself using the PSX remake in much the same vein (getting killed over and over just to show how much of a bastard the game was but that pretty much shows everything I could. There are actually all kinds of hilarious ways to die in Wizardry 4. It's rather like, say, the Space Quest series in that regard; there are some where the game doesn't even try to be subtle about the "that was really stupid" part. I don't think I've ever seen a collection of those online, though I do have a fairly large number of death screen shots in my personal digital archive. quote:Well, unless I did it using the Arrange version of the game which has New Game+ features and some bells and whistles that make it slightly different than the original Wizardry IV (in some ways easier, in some ways harder) These I'm unaware of, but then again I only know the American Wizardry games. I'm not familiar with most of their adaptations never mind dozens of completely new games. I did listen to some of the music for the Japanese Super Nintendo version of Wizardry VI, and that evoked a sense of "that music is just wrong" in a way not matched by anything I've ever heard, other than maybe the Necromancer theme in the Heroes of Might and Magic II: Price of Loyalty expansion pack. I don't mean bad music, I mean utterly inappropriate. Boldor fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Mar 23, 2012 |
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Mar 23, 2012 17:26
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MadJackMcJack posted:There's something wrong with this picture I never played it and only assumed it was as interesting at the other two.
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Mar 23, 2012 17:40
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Boldor posted:There are actually all kinds of hilarious ways to die in Wizardry 4. It's rather like, say, the Space Quest series in that regard; there are some where the game doesn't even try to be subtle about the "that was really stupid" part. I don't think I've ever seen a collection of those online, though I do have a fairly large number of death screen shots in my personal digital archive. My last runthrough of Wizardry IV PS1 I got eaten by Trebor's ghost before I got a single random encounter in the first room. And that's on Arrange mode which is allegedly easier. I still love the game because even it hates you and will unfairly kill you in a million ways, you know that coming out the gate and without the need to grind, it doesn't take too long to make up for lost progress. quote:These I'm unaware of, but then again I only know the American Wizardry games. I'm not familiar with most of their adaptations never mind dozens of completely new games. I did listen to some of the music for the Japanese Super Nintendo version of Wizardry VI, and that evoked a sense of "that music is just wrong" in a way not matched by anything I've ever heard, other than maybe the Necromancer theme in the Heroes of Might and Magic II: Price of Loyalty expansion pack. I don't mean bad music, I mean utterly inappropriate. New Age of Llylgamyn (which has IV + V bundled together) has an Original Mode and Arrange Mode. Original Mode is the same as the realtime-Trebor-ghost-moving PC version with better graphics. (but you can revert them to the original graphics if for some reason you want to) Arrange mode has some larger differences--in addition to some additional bells-and-whistles flavor text, you have the option of summoning 5 monsters instead of 3, and can actually control them in combat. In each successive New Game+ you get additional monsters that you can summon at each circle, including "boss" monsters from other Wizardry games. And it has an automap, which is surprisingly less helpful than you'd expect. Overall it's still grossly unfair, but a little less so. I've played a bunch of the Japanese Wizardry games and with a few notable exceptions (Wizardry X *cough*) they're all pretty good. The Japanese market really didn't like the 6-7-8 system changes so they tend to stay closer to the 1-2-3-5 systems. Or a mishmash of the two, like having Psionics and Alchemists with their own sets of spells in a Wizardry I style. I'm especially fond of the Wizardry Empire series myself. Wizardry VI SNES was admittedly a low-effort port though. Until its death in the mid-late 90s, the PC-9801 was the platform of choice for Japanese Wizardries. Most games originally on the PC-9801 that got ported to consoles were pretty terrible in their console forms, come to think of it.
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Mar 23, 2012 17:55
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I am a bit surprised that Lands of Lore hasn't been mentioned! Westwood Studios made Eye of the Beholder 1 and 2 in early 90s, especially the latter, The Legend of Darkmoon, being one of the best dungeon romps of the Dungeon Master genre. Westwood split with SSI after the second game, another studio developed Eye of Beholder III (which was to my understanding pretty mediocre). Westwood put their energy in Lands of Lore. In a pretty bold move, Westwood decided to streamline game mechanics quite heavily for Lands of Lore, when compared to SSI's D&D mechanics they could and had to part with. To my feel there's just a right amount of meat in the system, the decisions you make to develop your character feel meaningful. Lands of Lore is also extremely easy to approach, playability and UI definitely were given a lot of thought in the development process. And for a 19 year old game it still looks very pretty. Enviroments and enemies were nice and varied, and story had decent kick to it. You can get Lands of Lore + Lands of Lore II from GOG for $5.99. I actually don't have any experience with the sequel, but the first one has aged excellent. I really think you don't need to give it any age handicap to enjoy it fully. http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/lands_of_lore_1_2
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Mar 23, 2012 18:10
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Lands of Lore might be the only old-school PC RPG I've ever successfully finished (besides Ultima 1, but that was short and easy as hell). Granted, that was back somewhere between 1998 and 2002, but I tried it again recently and it has held up really well. The interface is a lot less painful than most old PC RPGs and there's voice acting by loving Patrick Stewart.
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Mar 23, 2012 18:15
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The pools of radiance remake is in about the same league of bad as Master of Orion 3. Having played both of them, I would actually say that i might have enjoyed MOO3 more, if only because shock and disbelief at just how bad it was kept me playing under the misguided hope that I just wasn't "getting it". Pools of Radience redux however sucked from the moment I got it out of the box. I'm not sure I ever played it for more than an hour or two before forgetting about it. (thank god I never tried to remove it)
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Mar 23, 2012 18:24
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Underwhelmed posted:The pools of radiance remake is in about the same league of bad as Master of Orion 3. Oh, definitely. Nothing excites me more to play a game than having it start out with immense, randomly generated floors in which there is nothing at all to do but walk around very slowly, attacking furniture and (if you're lucky) maybe a few kobolds. In just a few (by which I mean, like, 6) short hours you will be living the high life as an elite squad of level 2 characters! e: Also it's Pool. There is only one Pool of Radiance. There are many Pools of Darkness. Yeah I don't know what happened there either.
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Mar 23, 2012 20:44
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My first RPG was The Bard's Tale 1 on my Apple IIGS. It seemed like such a daunting game at the time. I was always afraid of using any party other than the established default one the game gave you. Brian the Fist, Samson, Merlin, and El Cid with his fire horn. I would always play up until that loving fire horn ran out of charges, then everything would kill me and I'd start over. I remember the strategy guide was awesome too. It was very cryptic and gave you hints in riddles.
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Mar 23, 2012 20:51
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That Wizardry 4 Let's Play link does not work  Rhandhali posted:R.I.P., Strategic Simulations Inc. You were too good for this world. I found an SSI t-shirt for sale back when I decided to assault Google in an effort to see if there were any t-shirts or posters of my most beloved games for me to buy. It is not the world's greatest t-shirt, but it is hilarious enough that I still wear it frequently. There is also a guy who will probably never actually return from exile but whose goal was to make a wide array of professional t-shirts using old 1970s/1980s computer/game/company logo t-shirts: http://abandonwear.biz/ Boldor posted:There are some largely forgotten RPGs that might be in the same galaxy of bad. Something like Fountain of Dreams is too good a game to be like that. I'm thinking of games like Scavengers of the Mutant World and The Red Crystal. "The only RPG released by QQP ..."  QQP has a place in my mind as one of the most awful game companies ever. This is probably entirely unfair, but I bought some strategy game they made, thinking it sounded in the review kind of like Warlords (my favorite!), and the art in the game booklet and in the game itself was so bad that I played it for about five minutes total and quit forever. Looking at the MobyGames page for this game, it looks like QQP's artistic quality control had increased significantly by 1993. Still, King's Bounty and Sword of Aragon are the only games that ever merged RPG and strategy dynamics in a way that seemed to really click, for me anyway. Here are some (sort of) classic PC RPGs that would probably make excellent discussions if I had my druthers: 2400 A.D. Escape From Hell (CrookedB did awesome writeups of both of these: 2400 A.D. Escape From Hell) Legacy of the Ancients Prophecy I: The Fall of Trinadon Questron I/II Fountain of Dreams (not so good, but if not for "Wasteland 2" expectations it would be seen as acceptably fun) Tangled Tales (the "dumbed down for consoles" of the 1980s, still fun though) Dark Heart of Uukrul (I made up "Quarex" when naming my mage in this game  )Finally, can I just say how awesome Adventure Construction Set must have been on the Amiga? I loved Return of Heracles on my Atari, and I thought about buying Adventure Construction Set for DOS when I heard about it, but CGA games were pretty hard to look at even then.
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Mar 24, 2012 00:09
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Quarex posted:Ultima II has always seemed like a myth to me. This may be the first time I have ever seen anyone mention actually having played it on these forums (though I am sure others have). I think between I's remake and III being the inspiration for dozens of other knockoff CRPGs, II just got left in the dumpster (I have even played Akalabeth, and not II). I still have my Ultima I-VI compilation CD (that may itself have come in one of those bundles). I played every game on it at least a little, except for II. It always failed to even install. It was only a couple years ago that I finally found out anything about the game. Speaking of compilations, did anyone else have this?  King's Quest II, Populous, Magic Candle III, Might and Magic III, and The Summoning, which I'm not convinced anyone else has ever played. Good stuff.
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Mar 24, 2012 00:48
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Camel of the Sea posted:I still have my Ultima I-VI compilation CD (that may itself have come in one of those bundles). I played every game on it at least a little, except for II. It always failed to even install. It was only a couple years ago that I finally found out anything about the game. Holy poo poo, I HAD THAT!  I was trying to figure out how I had owned and played Magic Candle 3, and that was it!
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Mar 24, 2012 00:57
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Camel of the Sea posted:King's Quest II, Populous, Magic Candle III, Might and Magic III, and The Summoning, which I'm not convinced anyone else has ever played. Good stuff. The marketing guy in me took one look at that box and went "how the gently caress did they get all those licenses from different companies to publish that all in one place?"
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Mar 24, 2012 01:11
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