Wizardry Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord Remastered
Vložit
- čas přidán 14. 10. 2023
- #rpg #wizardry1 #remastered
Support the channel on Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/michaelsnow40k
Wizardry Proving Ground of the Mad Overlord was first released in 1981 for the Apple II by Sir-Tech. Over 40 years later Digital Eclipse Studios has blessed us all with a remaster for this ancient classic. They dutifully took the original Pascal language and converted it to C++. Adding Graphics instead of the original text-only interface. Monsters now move, the battles are more exciting with moving cameras and music/sound effects. All around they've done a great job resurrecting this long-dead classic. Tell me what you think of it!
Digital Eclipse CZcams Channel playing Wizardry 1 for the NES: • Digital Eclipse Plays ...
Wizardry 1 on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/25...
Wizardry 1 on GOG: www.gog.com/en/game/wizardry_... - Hry
How in the world did a remaster of wizardry 1 slip under my radar? I am getting this right away!
Because they're charging over thirty bucks for Early Access
Are you still trying to finish the original?
Powerful random attribute/s on character creation, otherwise known as getting a crit roll. I played the Hell out of this back in the day. I even have the original dungeon maps, created with my trusty mechanical pencil! Seeing this brings back so many great memories of my days playing Wizardry, The Bard's Tale, The Eternal dagger, The Wizard's Crown, Ultima etc. Good times, good times.
An automap would remove the need for grid paper. This is a prime memory of mine from the early 80s. So good. I've already gotten a pack of grid paper.
You have a map spell you can cast that will allow you the grid like view.
Dear Michael, I just wanted to say that I enjoy your videos above most other creaters. You are uncompromising and sharp in your analysis, but also show your deepfelt appreciation for those games of old. I hope you find the time to do more game reviews or playthroughs with commentary.
Thank you so much!
I played the original on the Mac 512k Enhanced. The Murphy's Ghost grind was a thing I generally didn't attempt until around 4th or 5th level because it's so hard to actually hit. 1st through 3rd levels would be spent hitting up the first three rooms before the hallway door, one to the right of the stairs up to town and the two around the corner. Path back and forth through the door (doors seemed to have a far higher chance of encounter than random steps, but could be confirmation bias at play) until your party gets low, and out of healing, then go up, the cleric stays at the inn to refresh spell slot(s), heals the party, stays again, until party is full. Only time non-casters stay at the inn was when they leveled.
Once you had access to 3rd level spells, you could go to floor 2 and 3 for all the statues and keys to get the Gold Key, which is needed to access the elevator to floor 4 and your next grind: the Monster Allocation Room. This is also where you get the Blue Ribbon, needed to access the elevator to the bottom (next to bottom, actually) floor, and is a nasty encounter with a Ninja that can decapitate, a High Cleric with BADI (instant death), and an Archmage with... was it Lahalito or Madalto? One of those two, big AoE damage. But the encounter was worth a TON of experience, so going in properly prepared you could usually handle it. If you didn't think you could handle it, you could go back to the Murphy's Grind. Also gave you a ton of stuff to sell, the Rod of Conflagration was worth 25k at the trading post, for example. You could easily grind to fairly high levels there, then ignore levels 5-8 and drop all the way down to 9th floor to grind for gear drops.
Oddly enough, I never used a Bishop for adventuring. They leveled up slower, got spell slots slower, got fewer spell slots per spell level, and the Identify ability could backfire if you tried to identify a cursed item, as you had a very good chance it would attach itself to your bishop. I kept one 'in town' to identify loot, and it didn't matter if he had cursed items or not because he never went further than the staircase.
Unless you played wizardry 1 back in the day you wouldn't know how much of a kick ass game it really was.
aw man it shows the original in the corner that is so cute
its good to know that even if we were born in our dads days we would still be playijg good games
@Michael Snow, I'll let you know your RPG Review Playlist is the ONLY one I've saved to my CZcams Library so far. Even more, I suscribed to your wonderful channel today (your long vids on Wizardry7 and Dark Sun are perhaps the best ones ever).
Thanks so much! 😁
OMG this game brings back alot of memories. this game is so good. i would recommend it to all.
Michael, nice review. I like reviews by experienced players of a genre or even the original game if it is a remaster review. You did a good job covering how Wizardry 1 works. In talking about Vim replacing Age, the developers stated was it was difficult to envision a 200 year old human, implying that it was easy to say that for each character, regardless of lineage, they had lived a certain percentage of their life. Samurai and Lords did not get spells at Level 1. They acquire spells very slowly. I just use them as an alternative to Fighters because they got a few bonus spells that could relieve the non-combat burden on my casters. I appreciate how fearful you were to enter Level 2. That’s how it was back when we played the games in the 1980’s. Ah, you got the Wizardry experience when you encountered a group of monsters while you were trying to make your way back to town to heal.
The minimap becomes messed up after you run, get teleported, or switch directions on a rotating square. It is not a bug. The designers intended you to become disoriented after these things happened (one was present during another streamer’s demo), which could happen if you were in the game in real life too. It does get fixed if you cast a Dumapic spell, just as if you calmed down and got your bearings again in real life. Without any guidance from the game you have to discover this by trial and error, which inserts unnecessary complications for experienced players and unnecessary barriers to enjoyment for new players. This raises a larger issue. The game could really use the original manual built into the game itself. A few tips during load screens is not enough. Since the original game could not include in game help, players got a thick, written manual in 1981. Without the manual, in 2024 you are actually worse off than players in 1981, and you stumble around without any guidance at all unless you resort to fan sites.
As to leveling up, this remaster probably carries over the Apple II tendency to trend upward in leveling, even though occasionally the attribute stats could go down. But the Ultimate Wizardry Archives Dos version basically had a bug where the programmers did not port random number generation correctly from the UCSD Pascal code for the Apple II to their Dos-based port, so your odds of gaining stats was equal to the odds of losing stats. I once did an experiment where I had 50 level ups and nearly ended with the same stats that I started with. There was absolutely nothing you could do but save scumming. In fact, save scumming was actually truer to the original programmers intent. They did not create a game with Lord and Ninja classes that they never wanted you to play. Class changes are made easier with this remaster with 1 to 3 guaranteed points to spend. Keep in mind, however, that by version 0.3 of this remaster, class changes cause characters to go back to their lineage minimum stats.
The original Apple II and Ultimate Wizardry Archives Dos versions had only scrolls. I don’t know if the idea of books was from a different port. By version 0.3 they will add accessing inventory at the Inn and even healing without paying for rooms as you requested. I agree that it would be helpful if they included the statistics for class changes in the level up screen, something like what they have at character creation. Hitting M toggles the old graphics between lower right, larger in the center, and off. You may have hit it enough to turn it off. They really need to include a guide to what the keyboard commands are and, better yet, the ability to bind keys to your liking.
The Tiltowait animation is rather underwhelming as of version 0.3.1. Maybe they intend to beef it up in future versions. Some of animations and effects are not done. I agree that Thieves are important, and I am not among the group that feels you should not have one in your party. So I suffer through carrying a Thief around for a long time until they become a Ninja. Yes, those early chests were not very good. Even on Level 9 I would sometimes just get starter gear. It was not until Level 10 were chests were consistently better. Even on level 10, I sometimes got a bunch of worthless scrolls.
Yes, the enemies can cast if they surprise you. Thankfully later they made this a feature that could be disabled. However, you should not be afraid of being surprised by level 1 casters. Recall what spells you had when your casters were at level 1. But definitely turn it off to reduce the chance of party wipes against higher level enemies. For the origins of the name of Murphy’s Ghost and some shops, see OldGameHermit’s interview of Robert Woodhead, one of the two creators of Wizardry 1. You were able to defeat the Murphy’s Ghost faster because your melee characters reached Level 5, where they got a second attack. So they might still miss with one attack but hit with the second one. You could save scum in the original Apple II and Ultimate Wizardry Archives Dos versions if you knew how. But yes, it was not built into the game itself.
I think the encounters with friendly enemies is bugged. I’m playing version 0.3.1 and despite attempts to turn my evil Ninja good, I could not change his alignment despite letting tons of friendly enemies pass. Good and evil characters could not be added together at Gilgamesh’s Tavern, but you could leave the ones who couldn’t join in the maze, then pick them up with the rest of your party when you went to their location in the maze and searched. Of course, if a good or evil character died and was removed from your party, or if you were just starting up the game and loading your characters into a party, you would have to manually reassemble your party again in the maze back in the day. In this remaster they do not automatically remove dead characters, and the new Save slots feature allow you to even resume the game with your party intact.
Your Thief did not cause her own demise by opening a chest with a poison trap. Instead it was a Gas Cloud that poisoned her. You just did not notice it at the time, but figured out the Gas Clouds later.
Edited to correct 2 typos.
An alternative to the "We are leaving!" would be the "Run Away!" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Particularly when fighting Vorpal Bunnies.
Those damn bunnies. 😂
Waiting eagerly for this game to release. looks great so far and I hope they go one to remake the entire series.
I believe that digital eclipse said that if this does well enough they will do the others.
Greetings guys, if your fan runs like crazy and your pc become heated its because this game is uncapped, cap the fps via nividia or your display monitor
It's enjoyable, a good entry to Wizardry for newcomers.
It's easy to miss, but with the Temple of Cant you're supposed to pronounce the 'a' like a 'u'.
the mini map shows just the current area Dumapic spell will show whole map you explored and is not lost
If they end up remastering the whole series up to seventh all the pain of playing 4 will be worth it
One of the earliest commercial RPGs. One of the earliest RPGs for micros. A full seven years after the earliest RPGs, though.
The Bard's Tale had animated portraits in 1985. Not great animation, but it was there.
I've been playing this, and of course, I played the original back in the 80s, and it is STILL an excellent game. You really feel the sense of risk when you go into the dungeon. I played for about 20 hours, and then entered a battle I could not win, and did not run soon enough and they all died. And that was it. I paid for my mistake. There was no second chance. But interestingly, I've created a new set of characters, and I'm approaching the dungeon and their character builds very differently this time. In other words, instead of being discouraged, I'm actually thinking of new strategies, and am enjoying the game still. And for the record, I still have my Mordorcharge card, lol.
Recent update added a bestiary and mouse control along with a bunch of bug fixes. Helps a lot.. awesome game, enjoying it greatly.
I gotta say, i played the original on NES and we had no minimap at all. The minimap resetting is not so bad. Hell, i used graph paper in my day to map the floors best i could. Great video, and yes the threat of death is massive. I bought this one on steam, nobrainer for me. Party wipe? Not long after, but it really does drag you back into the maze. Amazing game.
Just got it today 😊😊
Characters portraits on the battle screen remins me of Tales of the Forsaken Lands.
Wish they were available, along with the English translation for the sequel Busin 0...
bruv, does somebody need to buy you a new monitor or does thsi max out at 1366x768
This looks good. Will be playing this after I finish wiz8. What’s the story with the rebuild? The developers just asked the Japanese IP owner? Any idea?
I swear that fights in the OG game weren't this tedious. Maybe it just feels different with text zooming by.
The PS2 one was Tale of the Forsaken Land. That's still one of my all time favourite games. Labyrinth of Lost Souls had the static enemies and was pretty mediocre. It also had the chance of stat loss on levelling which I always hated.
😮
The original wizardry games had that too.
You should definitely also check out Ludus Mortis,Dungeon Crawler in a Zombie infested Rome.
Your leading a Gladiator School.
For Wizardry,i think i wait a bit.
What also keeps me away from the Game is that it looks like the Dungeon Tiles never change.Atleased based on what i saw.
I understand this from a certain point,but some variety is needed these days in Games like this imo.
That's my only gripe with all modern Wizardry remakes and installments.
Wizardry V for SNES did it many decades ago and it was scary going further into the dungeon just because of that.
As you descended, walls changed and they sometimes looked weird, which only added to the atmosphere.
30:42 Guaranteed resurrection?
No, money down!
Looks nice actually
I would totally get this is they made the sequels as expansion packs, as they are pretty much all the same game from what I’ve gathered carrying over save data. I personally haven’t played it, so I can be wrong, but I feel that making them all in one game would streamline things.
Yeah, 1 2 and 3 are the same game but... the "scenario" does have ae big impact. What monsters you face, what special challenges exists, what bs was incorporated. 2 and 3 were lablled "scenario disks" on the Apple 2 at least.
But for sure, the big work would be generating art for the additional content.
❤
I played w. Since nes many decades ago. I'd give 50$ to purchase this if it comes to switch
Great, youre the most appropriate CZcamsr when it comes to wizardry . Great way to finish my sunday evening ( ´◡‿ゝ◡`)
Dude. The rogue is dying cause shes in the 3rd (melee) slot. She should be 4th and using a bow. Sam, fighter and and another melee for 1-3, a rogue, an arcane caster and a healer for the other slots. Dump as much armor as you can afford or recover on the meat shields. Thry last much longer. Usually. (Disclaimer - they will still die occasionally).
The game doesn't offer a bow for the rogue. I thought ranger was a class but another has happened since 81 82 for me.
Cyan and magenta.
Haven't finished the video, but at 9:15 or so you talk about characters randomly learning spells. In the original Wizardry they could 'read' in the Inn and learn spells that way. Really on the fence on this remaster. I was happy with the upgrade that the Saturn/ps1 received, but this might be a bit too clean/modernized and miss the original feeling, even though its running on top of the original code.
Great videos-in my library as I type. I do have to say though, you should complain so much about the auto map. I still have half the maps mostly memorized and all my old drawings. I suppose it’s all in what you enjoy and such but I think an auto map in Wizardry lacks immersion 🤷♂️
I will get this when the price drops way down. I'm just not liking the new cartoony style and the rooms seem way to large. The original game made it seem smaller and more tomb-like, thereby making the "marching order" seem more relevant. I don't care for how it switches to a new scene during combat. It looks too much like how a JRPG would do it....realizing that Japan did create a lot of Wizardry games. I just feel that the graphical presentation is making it look like a billion other Pixar looking spinoffs. Did the original really say "oof" when you bump into walls or did the devs just play too much Roblox? I miss how the original kobolds and small humanoids looked weird, and not predictable. I got the same vibe from Underworld Ascension which I got very cheep, but have barely touched.
How come I can't play as Lord or Ninja
Can you do a review on a game called Demon Lord Reincarnation? Maybe you can ask the dev for a key. Since you have so many videos about dungeon crawler games, I'm curious to what you have to say about that game. Cheers!
I have that game on my wishlist. I'm going to get around to it some day.
What bug are you talking about? I played this game when it came out religiously. I even skipped a week of school so I could master it. Never once ran into this lopsided bug you mention.
I am pretty much against remastering games, as most offer a graphics upgrade. Really, a game like Baldurs Gate Enhanced, I only bought on sale so I did not have to keep my own journal anymore...I modded out the new content, and I still love the old graphics I would just play in 4:3 mode, but I don't since it does alright. But the early wizardry games are almost unplayable, and you can't even buy them on GoG They just have 6, 7 and 8, I'd love to see them remake 1-6 for sure...I still don't know how I put so many hours in Dungeon Master back in the 80's without a map, but that one feature would save these old games.
Still, I won't be buying this until release, I really am not a fan of unfinished games.