Going Old School (Wizard's Crown)

[WayAbvPar]

Wild hair induced me to search out and download Wizard's Crown. I had a pirated version as teen that crashed all the time, and I have always remembered the combat being especially fun, so I wanted to give it a try. Downloaded a DOS emulator and found a flickr album that had the whole manual scanned, and I was off.

My left hand hurts after 2 straight days of playing (probably 15 hours total- I played while I was working in another window Mon and Tues!)- the whole thing is keyboard based, and the most used combat commands (A, S, and D) are all left-handed. The storyline and overall plot are pretty threadbare, but the turn-based combat is fun as hell. I gimped a few characters at the beginning, so I looted them and had them leave the party and then replaced them with identically-named upgrades. Still have a couple of gimps left, but I am too far along with them to give up now.

Turn-based combat is fun tactically, and I love that the advancement scheme is based on allocated XP to skills rather than leveling up. Almost every character ends up being multi-classed, so you can choose a main and backup for pretty much any useful skill. Haven't gotten too far yet- a short trip to the ruins stretches the limits of my party. Were I to do it again I would crank up the strength on my sorcerers high enough to use bows, since they get pretty useless when their power is drained.

Overall it has been a really fun stroll down memory lane. I am hoping I can stay with it long enough to finish it, or at least get near the end game to satisfy my curiousity (since my game always crashed/bugged before I could finish as a ute). If you can get past the eye-meltingly primitive graphics, it is worth some time.

[Fargull]

I absolutely love the game, but it did become overly easy once you mastered the build your own weapons of DOOM.

[Tebonas]

Hey, this thread made me want to play Demons Winter. I rushed to the "Ye olde games" cupboards. Sadly, 5 1/4" is no longer a disk format available at my household. 

[WayAbvPar]

I bet you can find it on an abandonware site. I had to sign up for a survey site to get 'credits' to download WC, but the minor inconvenience has been dwarfed by the fun I have had playing it. I never did try the sequel (Eternal Dagger)- might give that a spin next.

[Trippy]

God I loved that game. The first CRPG I played (and still one of the few) that did loot drops right (monsters dropped what they were wearing/fighting with, imagine that). And having the two extra party members from the Wizardry-norm 6 (which is still with us to this day) and having polearms and other weapons that could reach 2 squares made for interesting formations and tactics.

[Murgos]

I remember wanting to play this game when I was 13-14 but I either never had the money or, once I did have the money, something else got my attention.

I'm tempted to try it now but I'm not sure I can summon the :effort: to put the uber hours I know it needs into it.

[Furiously]

Yea the drops in this were wonderous, I just worry it would be like going back to the old gold box dnd games.  I'd rather remember how fun it was.

[Furiously]

And damn you for making me think about getting darklands...

[Tebonas]

Mmmmh, Darklands. I still have the original manual with the listing of all the saints somewhere. I think that was the first sandbox RPG I played. I loved finding the Waldschrat to get a few more years out of one of my old geezers.

[Murgos]

Darklands was great, particularly as it was just on the edge of the CD conversion, so you had to catass just to get the game installed.  Let's hear it for the days of 20 something double sided 3.5" disc installs!   

[Yegolev]

I have a Darklands CDROM. I mean a real one.

[Teleku]

Aaaaaand now I need to go re-install darklands.  Such an awesome game.  The whole alchemist in place of magic thing was fucking great.  I'd make potions all day long.

I'd say it's the game I'd most love to see a modern remake of, but I know what ever company did it would just fuck it up.

[Ingmar]

Just to put a plug in for a friend here, you might find you enjoy Natuk (http://www.proudft.com/natukabout.html) if Wizard's Crown is your cup of tea.

[WayAbvPar]

I will totally go for Darklands when I get done with WC. That game was incredibly fun...too bad it was also a bug-ridden POS. Where are the good party-size RPGs these days?

ETA- Natuk looks like it might be fun too. Bookmarked for perusal.

[koro]

I have a Darklands CDROM. I mean a real one.

I have one too. Black and maroon-colored?

I love Darklands to pieces, and I loved how the combat was similar enough to the later Infinity Engine games that I could transfer from one to the other nearly seamlessly.

Just wish it was a bit easier to find some of the more commonly-needed alchemical components.

[raydeen]

Just to put a plug in for a friend here, you might find you enjoy Natuk (http://www.proudft.com/natukabout.html) if Wizard's Crown is your cup of tea.

Haven't tried it out yet but it seemed to install and launch quite nicely in WINE for all the Linux heads out there, (I was at work and right after I got it launched a shit load of computers came in from repair. Figures.  )

[raydeen]

To go along with the Darklands love, I had the floppy version (and loved it - took two tries to get a decent copy though, first copy had a bad floppy). The other games that hold a similar special feeling in my heart are the Realms of Arkania (Das Schwarze Auge.) games. Them Germans know how to do the serious RPGs.

[Tebonas]

Yep, Maroon with the Alchemical symbols for copy protection inside 

[koro]

I got my CD of Darklands in one of those "5 in 1" packs that an old store had for a song during a going out of business sale. It never actually had the alchemical symbol copy protection sheet in it, so after I got sick of guessing them I borrowed a book from the library that had various old alchemical symbols and hand-copied most of them until I managed to get all 20 or so right. I kept that paper for years on end until I finally lost it, by which time you could find a .pdf of the ones that Darklands used online.

[Tebonas]

Ah, ye olde copy protections. I think I still know some of the symbols for Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds by heart. Without using the code wheel! 

[Jain Zar]

Ah, ye olde copy protections. I think I still know some of the symbols for Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds by heart. Without using the code wheel! 

I recently went through the first 2 Krynn games before the absurd difficulty curve got to be too much of a pain and I needed a break.

Each game the interface slightly improved (Gold Box being a take off of the TWO Wizard's Crown games), but the fights just got dumber and dumber culimating in the first fight of the 3rd Krynn game being against 4-5 Blue and Green Dragons all with enough HP to potentially kill an imported PC in 1 hit, 2 tops.  Good thing I couldn't get the damn importing to work.  Making new dudes with max HP almost makes up for losing a level or two and a couple good magic items.

And I actually have code wheels for those two. 

I was doing some retrogaming, but I am in the gaming blahs again for home play.  Even though I have DOSbox, VMWare Fusion which can pretty much make my 2.8 dual core iMac run Win XP games as if it was a 400mhz Celeron, Wii VC, and Magic Engine so I can replay all my old Turbo CD titles.

I tried getting into Might and Magic 3 and there was no OOMPH there.

I dunno.  I want to play some old school RPG, but my drive is missing.  Must be time to go back on the Zoloft and get some damn enthusiasm. 

Grab a classic and fucking GO.