On Mar 20 commented on expert front 1941 hitler on ice: “-posing +playing”
On Mar 20 commented on expert front 1941 hitler on ice: “Very nice read. Good Job on this one, looking forward to the next scenario.I remember my elder brother posing then game back in the day, but no details about it”
On Mar 14 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “There is no difference. A standard-definition television is a 15 kHz display - 15,734.26 Hz in the U.S. to be exact. This is the sweep rate for "525/60" video. PAL (Europe and most of the rest of the world) was 625/50 which maths out to 15,625 Hz. I'm a video engineer who was involved in making production gear for TV studios. I started out back in the standard def days so I learned…”
On Mar 14 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “The ZX is a featherweight and would take a lot to crack that very small motherboard. There's not much else to break inside a ZX and the outside plastic case can usually be glued when cracked. If it doesn't fire up, just check to see socketed chips haven't been unseated (some parts may have been socketed when it was refurbed), power is still getting from the input connector onto the …”
On Mar 14 commented on expert front 1941 mud and snow: “I'm sorry to hear about that. Hope that things work out for you.”
On Mar 14 commented on expert front 1941 mud and snow: “I am sadly a bit pre-occupied by personal events at the moment, but a small note to say I really appreciate this Expert mode AAR (even more so than the "Advanced" one with push-over Russians). I suppose I am a minority, wargames are not that popular overall.Also, I don't think you'll win, but you'll do much better than I did. I guess I should have tested "assault"…”
On Mar 12 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “I heard about that! Mainly because the recent update rendered my ROM set invalid and I had to hunt down the new one.TLDR - A security chip was spoofed instead of emulated, and this changes the behavior of certain random events. The end result is that scoring big points is easier than intended - I too relied on gorilla farming when I covered it, which wasn't meant to be a reliable method. I…”
On Mar 12 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “it's interesting you're using as a Kangaroo as a screenshot for this article since until recently the MAME emulation was brokenhttp://forums.marpirc.net/viewtopic.php?t=15630(the Arcade Archives one on Switch has been accurate but they do their own emulation)”
On Mar 11 commented on game 387 rescue raiders: “Rescue Raiders was one of the best strategy games for the Apple 2. I’m a huge fan of the original game and still play it occasionally via an emulator. Moving beyond the first level is where RR shines brightest. Sure its still convoy creation focussed, but later levels require different convoy arrangements to overcome new obstacles.Later levels have large enemy bunkers which start off as only one…”
On Mar 09 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “Thanks for that information! Your chronology makes a lot of sense, though that makes the 1983-1988 era a strange one where almost all games used color, but a lot of users couldn't see it! My own experience with them is from the 1988-1993 era. Apple //e's with color monitors.One thing I don't really have a satisfying answer to, is what's the actual difference between a television…”
On Mar 09 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “After C64, I was an Amiga user in Europe, so I was spoiled by having SCART with RGB inputs. Likewise, other compute(s) I had were PCs with crisp RGB monitors. So as far as I am concerned, the hardware people did their very best to make the pixels as crisp as possible, so that is my ideal to strive for. Now that we have actually reached it see no reason to sully the pixels artificially to some…”
On Mar 08 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “Great series of articles, Ahab. Keep up the interesting work!Apple didn't introduce their own color monitors until 1985, and even then they were considered a luxury given the high cost for at least a couple years. The Apple II line could use color monitors from different makes with a composite input, but that doesn't seem to have been a common configuration. The venerable monochrome Apple…”
On Mar 08 commented on sundog frozen legacy won: “FTL also made Oids, as well as Dungeon Master 2. ”
On Mar 08 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “I think the extra colours derived from artifacting are a feature of NSTC units, so if you are using PAL unit this feature is not possible. Therefore UK designed computers such as the ZX spectrum would never be able to use this feature as they are designed for PAL. ”
On Mar 07 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “My wife brought me a completely refurbed and recapped ZX... the cat recently knocked it off the shelf and I'm not sure if it survived though... Durn cat!”
On Mar 07 commented on unusual mame controls: “I find it fascinating how diverse arcade controls were.”
On Mar 05 commented on superauthenticity pixels signals and: “My first machine was a ZX Spectrum in the late '80s, connected to a black-&-white TV— I imagine up 'til around then that wasn't a super unusual scenario, the kids getting an old b&w set for their games. So maybe I should play emulated games in monochrome!”
On Mar 02 commented on eastern front 1941 springtime for hitler: “I may do your backlog but up it to 50 minimum votes. 30 is still too many games, 50 really hits every box ”
On Feb 25 commented on eastern front 1941 springtime for hitler: “Thanks! Actually, and this might sound funny coming from me, but I think the game struck a very good balance between rule/data transparency and opaqueness. Show the gears of the machine too much and you feel like you're solving an NP-hard problem instead of playing a simulation. The manual, even in the APX version, stresses the importance of encircling and pincer attacks without going into…”
On Feb 25 commented on eastern front 1941 springtime for hitler: “Well, good job!You seem frustrated about the lack of hard data and explanations on how the game works. It's all there in the source code: https://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-400-800-xl-xe-eastern-front-1941-source-code_1792.htmlIt's not just dry Assembler code, it includes Crawford's coding doctrine, Crawford's design doctrine, the structure of the code, the big mistakes he…”
On Feb 25 commented on the not so basic mechanics of wizardry: “Characters and monsters have completely different stats, and saving throws are exclusively a character stat. One of the saving throws is called LUCKSKIL[1] and the only time it ever gets used is when setting it during character creation, and decreasing it during level up. I am just calling it "Save vs. wands" as a matter of convention.I've listed all monster stats in the bestiary…”
On Feb 25 commented on the not so basic mechanics of wizardry: “Also playing the remaster, though I played the NES version via emulator.For the Save vs. Wand - have you considered this may be an enemy save? The scrolls (BADIOS, BADIAL), the rods (Rod of Flame for MAHALITO) and maybe some staffs (Staff of MONTINO) may use a different calculation than the spells, which may trigger that Save vs. Wand. Because no enemies use item-based spells, it's useless -…”
On Feb 22 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “Meant to come back and reflect on this sooner. Starting in version 4, the Z-machine had a separate notion of byte-addressable "low" memory and "high" memory where addresses were "packed". It would be possible for the interpreter, rather than the story file itself, to have a mapping that told it that certain ranges of packed addresses were on different physical media,…”
On Feb 22 commented on eastern front 1941: “Well, you are almost two month in advance vs my campaign, and I finished the game with an almost complete wipe-out of the Soviets, so you should be fine.Crawford felt the first edition of the game (the one you played) was too easy to beat - one of reason for which he added the Expert mode in the 1982 edition:https://youtu.be/JrwlN_VyptY?t=736”
On Feb 15 commented on eastern front 1941 lachend kommt der: “Comparing to my AAR, you are roughly two-three weeks in advance compared to my game on the Moscow-Leningrad front, and on track compared to my game in Ukraine - good job. You should win this.I think you did way better than I did not getting bogged down in the Pinsk Marshes. I had also lost one or two armoured unit at that point. ”
On Feb 15 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “I liked Panzer General but I do have to agree with Maher that its drums-and-trumpets aesthetic feels more uncomfortable than Eastern Front 1941's more sterile approach. For what it's worth, he's harsher on it than I am.Harsher on this still is a post on EF1941 at Arcade Idea, which finds these games about as irredeemable as I find Custer's Revenge, though not as puerile.”
On Feb 15 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “If you're not aleady familiar with them, Jimmy Maher addressed the ethical issues in strategy gaming in two consecutive 2020 articles on his 'Digital Antiquarian' blog, first with Panzer General, then with Colonization.”
On Feb 13 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “The main audience for a 1981 computer wargame would've been tabletop wargamers who had no doubt played as the bad guys numerous times already anyway. ”
On Feb 13 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “That was pretty much what I assumed, but still really helpful - especially for the 2nd set of tables.”
On Feb 13 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “re: playing as the Germans, part of the deal in this time was solo-play was still pretty new, so if you wanted to play as the US rolling over in WW2 for freedom or whatnot ... _someone_ still needed to play the opponent. So it's easier to have a mindset that thinks about just numbers and units and that the sides are interchangeable. having said all that I know _exactly_ what you mean and I…”
On Feb 12 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “Thanks for the link. I cringe when I read my old articles - I had not find a style I liked yet.A lot of work tracking the losses - no wonder it took you hours. Nice to see you destroyed the largest army. I also discovered thanks to you that know militias could not attack - this is cool to know. Another "hidden" difference between units is that non-German units (including Russians) rout…”
On Feb 12 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “I added some column headers. First and last columns are unit names, and Axis/USSR units are aligned to approximate who faces off against who.”
On Feb 12 commented on game 446 eastern front 1941: “I'm having a little trouble understanding your tables. What does each column represent? Do the numbers in the first and last columns just represent the name of the respective unit (e.g. "The 2nd Finnish Infantry Division" or is it 2 Finnish infantry divisions)?”
On Feb 09 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “Sidestepping and running still required key combinations, though, and demand some player commitment that isn't required with modern source ports. Mouselook means your left hand either has access to the directional keys or the space/alt/shift cluster, but not both at the same time. And there's no good way to circle-strafe with the mouse and keyboard unless you had a three-button mouse,…”
On Feb 09 commented on games 444 445 early mindscape: “Reminds me of an Asimov story where an immigrant college professor's imperfect command of english leads to him fearing that his students are plotting to kill him, when in fact they've just discovered this really great series of fantasy novels by Tolkein. ”
On Feb 08 commented on games 444 445 early mindscape: “"This is going to wreck my SEO" - there's a classic sci-fi short story by Gordon Dickson called "Computers Don't Argue". It's about a man called Walter Child who borrows a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped from the library, and through a chain of administrative foul-ups he ends up being arrested for the kidnap and murder of a child called Walter. Or…”
On Feb 08 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “Doom, mentioned above, is an interesting case - the game is still on sale, and there are several different ways to play it exactly as it was when it was new. So in theory modern Doom should be exactly the same as 1993 Doom.But back in 1993 I played it with keyboard controls, because that was how you played action games back then. The standard WASD + mouselook setup didn't exist yet. With…”
On Feb 08 commented on robot odyssey won: “I'm only aware of Robot Odyssey Rewired, but saving works here.https://robotodyssey.online/Just press Esc ingame and you will be prompted to save. Then, if you start a new game, you will be asked if you want to load the save. But make sure you are not in incognito mode!”
On Feb 07 commented on game 365 robot odyssey: “Are you aware of any on-line versions that allow you to save a game before moving on to the next puzzle?”
On Feb 07 commented on robot odyssey won: “There is an on-line version available but it doesn't have the functionality to save a game. Are you aware of any on-line versions that let you save a game?”
On Feb 06 commented on games 444 445 early mindscape: “It's going to be some time before the next entry. Work and personal life demands priority for at least the next week, and the next game is involved.”
On Feb 02 commented on games 444 445 early mindscape: “Your article on Crime and Punishment got me curious enough that I tested the game.I don't think your score gets dinged if you use too many information on the case. As I read the "in-game instructions", the game warns you that taking too many information into account will confuse you and that you should strive to distinguish between "irrelevant and appropriate information"…”
On Jan 31 commented on games 444 445 early mindscape: “Crime and Punishment is very reminiscent to me of Objection! Somewhere along the line I guess someone thought that law students in need of cramming were a viable market segment to design games to exploit and ... there's never really very much "game" there: https://www.mobygames.com/game/32366/objection/”
On Jan 31 commented on games 444 445 early mindscape: “It is hard to imagine two ancestors with less in common. In one blog post you go from assembling cutesy robots to considering sentencing for forcible sodomy. Wow.”
On Jan 29 commented on jet set willy won: “It's amusing to look at old British reviews from the era and see their attitude towards difficulty, I remember most reviews for the original Dizzy poiting out how it's a great game for children because "it's so easy". While hardly impossible, the game is tougher than pretty much the entire NES library.”
On Jan 29 commented on jet set willy won: “This is a fascinating example of one of those UK / US splits, where two similar cultures have a completely different recollection of things. I grew up with the likes of Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner. In fact I can I remember the first time I played Super Mario Brothers. I felt slightly repulsed, because you weren't expected to line up every single jump in pixel-perfect fashion. It felt like a…”
On Jan 29 commented on game 301 early datasoft sands of egypt: “It's probably the use of teal and orange, but the screenshots for The Sands of Egypt are surprisingly lovely for a 1984 TRS-80 game. Even the subtly green paper colour. It's a remarkably good-looking game with some clever touches, e.g. the non-standard picture frame at the "paddle the boat" sequence. You just have to ignore the fact that the pyramids are literally in the suburbs…”
On Jan 28 commented on spellbreaker won: “The box... "depicts" a grue? What does it show, a swathe of darkness?”
On Jan 28 commented on spellbreaker won: “Huh. For some reason I had it in my head that entering the bottom of the sea via the box would give you enough time to pick up the items and blorple out before drowning, but apparently not.”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “By the way, there is an alternate way to pay for the flying carpet that involves trggvat fbzrguvat inyhnoyr sebz gur grzcyr orlbaq gur bhebobebf.”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “I just realized that the cubes are not the faces. They are the vertices.”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “Fair enough, a cube inside another cube is also a popular way to show a hypercube to our limited 3D minds. You're not kidding about 4D geometry; it reminds me of reading the "3-Body Problem" trilogy...”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “It's actually sillier than that, geometrically. There are 17 cubes - the shadow has four, and you have 13. The first cube makes a point, the second makes a line, the third and fourth make it into a square, and the next four make a meta-cube. Another eight make a second meta-cube, and both meta-cubes get shoved inside each other to make a hypercube, and the last cube is placed in the…”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “Congratulations, I doubt I would have the patience to finish this one. My only quibble is with Infocom's writers and fact-checkers: a (four-dimensional) hypercube is typically assembled from eight cubes, not from twelve (just as a 'normal' 3D cube is made of six squares, a 2D square of four lines, and a 1D line of two points). ”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “The Spellbreaker hintbook identifies the No Place with mind, so that might explain the owls (and why the exits from it go to logic puzzles).”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “Missed opportunity to remake the universe into one where all is bread.”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “I'm not sure I understand how to productively drop the box underwater.Scenario 1: I turn into a grouper so I can swim underwater. The box (and everything else) sinks. I dive, wait for it to wear off, then pick up the box and put it back down.Scenario 2: I drop the box and let it sink. I Blorple into the cube and warp to the box. I drown immediately.”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “"This part is copy protection! So late in the game, too. The answer is in the set of trading cards that come in the package."And a particularly nasty one, at that. One time when I replayed the game, I couldn't be bothered to dig out my game box. I remembered most of the names on the cards, if not their specifics, so I picked the one I thought most likely and Belboz accepted my…”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker won: “There's something else you can do with the gold box: drop it while swimming underwater.You can also fill the bottle with water and then use it to cool the lava fragment.In spite of the premise that magic is failing, magic actually becomes stronger for you as the game progresses; the more cubes you have in your possession, the more likely it is for your spells to succeed.”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “I imagine it would work the same way as multi-disk games on any other system. V4 has this ability, though it may require the story file to be "aware." You could probably backport this to V3 by having system-specific interpreter logic that says "if disk 1 is inserted and the data block requested is larger than the number of blocks on disk 1, then prompt the user to insert disk…”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “I'm okay with the Jindak limit. It's an old logic puzzle, and requiring the minimum number of moves is what makes it challenging. But the puzzle really should have explained its rules better, some people might not already know this one, and there's big gaps of internal logic. How are you supposed to know that you're looking for the cube that's different from the rest? Why…”
On Jan 27 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “By the way, I also made the same assumption that the true cube would be more powerful, and couldn't understand why I sometimes messed up. I'm bad at this sort of puzzles, so I would have liked it better if it gave you a few more moves to complete it.The magical value of a real cube (either one you have found, or the one you're trying to find) is denoted as REAL-VALUE. The magical…”
On Jan 26 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “Ah, ok. I never had an Atari so I have no idea what multi-disks would entail. The source code for Infocom's Z-Machine interpreters has been located: https://github.com/erkyrath/infocom-zcode-terpsIt's mostly Greek to me, though.”
On Jan 26 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “I meant in terms of RAM, not disk size. Spellbreaker's "real" filesize is apparently about 125KB, putting it in the same league as Hitchhiker and Wishbringer.The chart is almost certainly release order, except Nord and Bert and Plundered Hearts are switched (Nord and Bert is the bigger game, fourth from the end right behind Beyond Zork).I wonder why they didn't split some of…”
On Jan 26 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “"the median 48KB Infocom game"The smallest Infocom games were about 80 KB. I believe the upper theoretical limit for their regular games would have been 128 KB, but not every platform they supported handled that apparently.The winter/spring 1988 issue of The Status Line had an article ("What about Atari 8-bits and the Commodore 64?") with a chart showing the sizes of their…”
On Jan 25 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “A bit late to the party, but great article. On my side, I love to know "academically" what the games or other pieces of artworks were at release , but the experience should mirror the designer's intention without betraying the nature of the game - so no bugs, graphical artifact, improved UI if possible - what you call "superauthentic". That's why I tend to play…”
On Jan 25 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “From what I remember, I did figure out the compass rose by myself when I played it in the late eighties. The sealed exits in the hub rooms, though? Not a chance. I still don't see how I was supposed to figure that one out.”
On Jan 25 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “Though I think there also is an inbisible trigger in that if you try to blorple the correct cube without using jindak at least once first, it won't work”
On Jan 24 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “Ah - silly me for assuming that the true cube would more powerful than the fake ones. Weird that I was wrong four times in a row! I've solved it now, and funnily enough, the true cube was underweight yet again.”
On Jan 24 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “The point here is that the cube you want is different (either brighter or dimmer) so the strategies you tried only work half of the time.”
On Jan 24 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “Ok... what the hell is going on in the Outer Vault? I know what I'm supposed to do here, but it isn't working.First attempt (that should have worked):https://pastebin.com/uTqtLw3MJindak 1 narrows it down to x1, x2, x7, or x8.Jindak 2 eliminates x1 and x2.Jindak 3 shows it's x8.Blorple x8 -> Nothing!Second attempt:https://pastebin.com/kzXAHRhSJindak 1, once again, narrows it down to…”
On Jan 24 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “Thanks - I have now solved three of the four outstanding problems.”
On Jan 24 commented on spellbreaker monoliths: “You can't solve the two new problems before solving the two old ones.The first old problem involves something you have certainly seen by now, but apparently didn't think was important.Have you tried talking to Belboz?”
On Jan 23 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “I was going more for the fact that I think a lot of people would be more willing to buy a game named Mage than a game named Bureaucracy. The latter is not a word people associate with fun times.”
On Jan 23 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “Hm? Bureaucracy is a great title, as long as you understand that the game is satirical. If not, then it's bad, but not quite as bad as "Mage."”
On Jan 23 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “The question is, is it better or worse than "Bureaucracy"?”
On Jan 22 commented on spellbreaker megafauna: “"I suspect the first two problems don't get solved until I'm near the end"Not quite; you could have solved the first one long ago, and you can deal with Belboz as soon as you get access to him.”
On Jan 20 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “"Mage" is a very bad title and I'm glad they changed it.”
On Jan 20 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “If you play Release 63 of the game, there's a 1% chance that the "version" command (or anything else that causes that text to be printed) will call the game "MAGE" instead of "SPELLBREAKER". That was removed in a later version, though I don't know if it was because feelings had cooled down or if it was simply to reclaim some space for bugfixes because…”
On Jan 19 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “Infocom's marketing department, despite the usual dumbed-down mostly-paper feelies, did this game a great service by renaming it to "Spellbreaker" instead of "Mage" - not only does it describe what happens in the game better, but it's a more tantalizing title to see on the shelf in contrast to the platitudinous "Mage," which could describe a bevy of games.”
On Jan 19 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “I suspected that, but didn't have a chance to verify yet.”
On Jan 18 commented on game 443 spellbreaker: “"The game specifically notes that we've never seen "Blorple" before, but Jindak and Lesoch are new spells too."Jindak and Lesoch are new in the sense that they didn't exist in the earlier games, but they are in your spellbook from the very beginning, while Blorple only appears there after the attack.”
On Jan 18 commented on games 441 442 tank battalion battle city: “Fixed and thank you.”
On Jan 17 commented on games 441 442 tank battalion battle city: “Your first video's title says Konami instead of Namco”
On Jan 16 commented on games 441 442 tank battalion battle city: “"I have no idea how this Japan-exclusive Famicom cartridge got over 50 Mobygames votes - that's not a lot, but it's more than the likes of Balloon Fight and Bomberman. Unlike those, I'd never heard of Battle City before."Battle City was an extremely common inclusion on pirate multicarts, which were a major part of the European NES experience at the time. It's far more…”
On Jan 16 commented on game 370 snooper troops: “I remember playing this game all the time. This and kings quest were my favorite games. I wish they would recreate them”
On Jan 14 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “There's a lot of hand-wringing about how bad digital media is for historical preservation but I think it overlooks the boon that comes from being able to make an infinite number of bit-perfect copies for free. It isn't perfect, but "Oh no the server could go away and it's lost forever" is not that different from "the library burned down and it's lost forever",…”
On Jan 14 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “AI 'remasters' are a bugbear of mine. I know you can just play the original, but why are these things so danged popular? More than half the time they look horrible. It's especially bad when this creeps into film restoration, because they had the option to do a proper 4K scan and release a higher quality product, but they didn't, probably never will, and now the last known good…”
On Jan 14 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “In a recent boon for preservation, I found out today that not only has the former social network Cohost worked with the Internet Archive to back up most (if not all) of its content, but any given Cohost URL will automatically redirect you to the Internet Archive's version.In bad news, I'm disgusted by "AI upscales," as the Toonstruck fan community is trying to get the game…”
On Jan 13 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “I get that there can be a variety of perverse incentives to create a flawed product. Coin-munching design is video games' quintessential example, perhaps spiritually succeeded by microtransactions today. Sometimes a straightforward, superauthentic fix presents itself, such as the option for unlimited credits, but that rarely fixes the underlying problem. A fix like a difficulty balance patch,…”
On Jan 13 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “Yeah, the statistic that VGHF talks of is slightly misleading since we have most games preserved in the form of those rips. It's not ideal, but that's been true of most preservation efforts in human history. We only have most books thanks to people tirelessly copying them over the years. Though it is worth pointing out that some disk rips are bad in ways that people who are ripping them…”
On Jan 13 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “Possibly we should also consider that there are cases where the "as intended" experience is, to be blunt, pathological. There's a whole era in game design where it was common for designers to think of themselves as being in a kind of competition with the player with each party having "defeat the other guy" as an explicit goal that trumps any sense of the player and the…”
On Jan 13 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “I feel like superauthenticity in games often complements the original vision for the game a lot better than it does in purely visual media like film and TV. There are artistic dimensions to choices made for low-fidelity visuals as in your Star Trek example - but it's truly hard to argue that a game with a frame rate floating anywhere from 10-30 FPS, for example, is really doing that as an…”
On Jan 12 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “This debate has also come up in the classical music world with respect to period instrument recordings and other such things.For sure, and I have known people in real life who have said that you shouldn't play Bach on pianos because they didn't exist then! On one hand, forgive me for not owning a pipe organ, but on the other, I can see how knowing about the period-appropriate instruments…”
On Jan 12 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “I'd be very interested to read some serious thoughts on how to make it legal to preserve games from someone qualified to talk about it. I've long felt that there should be copyright exemptions for materials out of general circulation - I'm not arguing for a universal expiration date (nor against!), but it's difficult to see how the copyright on No One Lives Forever serves any…”
On Jan 11 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “This is an interesting topic; one further aspect to this is that I think that we cannot always determine exactly how a game, movie, etc was "intended" to be experienced or what a truly "authentic" experience is. This debate has also come up in the classical music world with respect to period instrument recordings and other such things.For instance, one claim that I see people…”
On Jan 11 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “I agree that this is an important topic and would love to read more from you about it.”
On Jan 11 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “This is a very important topic! I'd say preservation of video games shouldn't be left just on the good will of the developers, who often won't have any incentive to do so. I know at least in some countries dedicated libraries or other repositories are allowed to get copies of all nationally produced electronic materials (including video games) as so-called legal deposits for archival…”
On Jan 10 commented on preservation and superauthenticity: “Interesting thoughts shared, and more of them could perhaps usefully space out posts on games as palate-cleaners. Keep them coming!”
On Jan 10 commented on ultima iv won: “Oh, the overworld/map structure is absolutely inspired by Ultima, and seeing you lay it out like that made me realize it was probably a bit more Ultima-inspired than I initially thought, but Yuji Horii has always cited Wizardry as the primary inspiration for the game. You'll probably see more similarities once you get around to playing it, but stuff like the spell naming system (semi-nonsense…”
On Jan 07 commented on ultima iv won: “I haven't played Dragon Quest (yet!), but what I've seen of it seems to owe much more to the early Ultimas than to Wizardry. You have your open world structure, with towns, a starting castle complete with quest-giving king, entrances to dungeons, all presented in Ultima-style iconographic perspective. You have clues dispensed through NPCs with single-dialog prompts, you have to buy…”
On Jan 07 commented on ultima iv won: “While the Ultima series in general definitely inspired the Dragon Quest franchise somewhat, its main inspiration was the Wizardry series, which was always way more popular than Ultima in Japan.”
On Jan 04 commented on ultima iv won: “Totally makes sense. :) Just curious. Love the blog, keep doing your thing. ”
On Jan 04 commented on ultima iv won: “You may be right. I am not all that familiar with console-style SRPGs and I never played Fire Emblem. For what it's worth, Final Fantasy Tactics, from what I've played (it wasn't much) does strike me as much more similar to Ultimas 3-6 than it does to Famicom Wars, and I understand that Ultima III was popular enough in Japan to be the main inspiration for Dragon Quest.Of course…”
On Jan 04 commented on ultima iv won: “To be honest, I don't think I'd be all that interested in writing a consolidated history, or think that my approach is conducive to that. For instance, think it's safe to say that in 1985, Ultima IV was looking like the pinnacle of the genre (I rated Wizardry higher, but by '85 it was looking pretty dated and its relevance was fading), but the entire history of PLATO is mostly…”
On Jan 04 commented on ultima iv won: “I am still unsure about the connection between Ultima and SRPG games. The inspiration for the earliest games (especially Fire Emblem) seems to have come more from wargames like Famicom Wars and Nobunaga's Ambition rather than Ultima. But I don't know if those wargames had any influence from the other games.”
On Jan 04 commented on ultima iv won: “This is slightly off-topic, but CRPG-related. I've been reading your RPG entries, especially Wizardry and the PLATO-related history. You and CRPGAddict both have quite a bit of info in various posts that evolved over time about the early history of those mainframe CRPGs and the transition to PCs (e.g. the story of Telengard). I'm curious if you've thought of either individually or as…”
On Jan 03 commented on ultima iv won: “If I absolutely had to replay and keep everyone alive, I'd still be the mage and then recruit in descending order of MP (IIRC that's Jaana, Iolo, Dupre, Shamino, Julia, Geofferey, Katrina).Ideally, though, everyone after Iolo dies ASAP.”
On Jan 03 commented on ultima iv won: “As a follow up question, if you were to play again and still maintain the style of keeping all the party members alive and leveled, what job would you start out as and what order would you recruit them?”
On Jan 03 commented on ultima iv won: “Happy New Year and congratulations!”
On Jan 03 commented on ultima iv won: “Congratulations on your hard-won victory! Aside from a few save states, a real "virtue" of this series was showing how someone who was playing the game blind would try to win it, without using any cheap strategies or tricks aside from the ones you discover throigh experimentation - just like it was back in 1985 when we had no money and no time, so it was better to not rush through games…”
On Jan 02 commented on ultima iv won: “I can see the link to SRPGs! Also to Fallout, which has SRPG-ish combat on a hex grid. It's too bad that Ultima never really figured out how to make combat balance work, because the building blocks for solid SRPG-style tactical combat are already here and present. But in the end it winds up being less tactical and more mindless than Wizardry or even Final Fantasy.Ultima IV is the first time…”
On Jan 01 commented on ultima iv won: “Since the white stone is now in Serpent's Spine and reachable via Blink, it's technically possible to win the game without ever stepping foot in Hythloth, but it's highly suboptimal to do so. LB's dungeon is by far the easiest way to reach all three altar rooms and the balron treasure chest room is an easy way to farm gold. The easiest way to get gold, however, is to become an…”
On Jan 01 commented on ultima iv won: “Congratulations! When I played through the first 5 Ultimas during covid, I chose to make a Fighter for a challenge and also not having to need a key to get Geoffrey. I moongated to pick up Mariah for an early balance in fighting and magic. Personally, I think Ultima V is the peak of the series, but I feel more rate VI or VII higher. The combat in the series has always seemed to be an important…”
On Dec 31 commented on ultima iv won: “That's an interesting inversion! I'm not certain it's a good inversion - seems counterthematic, and lots of luck to the poor fighter avatar who gets stuck soloing the abyss without magic or a decent ranged weapon - but it's interesting. Could be seen as anticipating the "singularity" virtue of later Ultimas.Flute of Sheep sounds game breaking, but then the combat aspect…”
On Dec 31 commented on ultima iv won: “Well done!The remake of Ultima IV on the Nintendo Entertainment System, while mostly a very faithful rendition of the original, pulls an interesting inversion with the Abyss - it requires you to *solo* it. Instead of the original PC version game requiring you to assemble a full party before you can enter the Abyss, the NES version instead allows *only* the Avatar to enter.There's also a…”
On Dec 31 commented on ultima iv won: “Congratulations!I may have tolerated much worse UX, but here and with rescue raiders you’ve proven to be more patient than I am: I had started U4 two ago but did not progress very far due to how tedious combats were, as you note. This stopped my attempt to play all Ultima in order!I was happy to follow vicariously your adventures and see them to their end.Happy New Year!”
On Dec 31 commented on ultima iv won: “I never finished this game because I dealt with the combat tedium by simply not recruiting most of the characters. So I did the whole Stygian Abyss with a party of 3 or 4, and then found out at the end I needed to recruit all the characters and go through the Abyss again. I was so mad I never played the game again.”
On Dec 30 commented on ultima iv great stygian abyss: “I think I fell into that Word of Passage trap myself. What a troll!”
On Dec 29 commented on ultima iv great stygian abyss: “I figured in retrospect. The mages' clues at Cove make more sense that way.”
On Dec 29 commented on ultima iv great stygian abyss: “the Balrons cast Negate, making it impossible to dispel the fields protecting themPretty sure it was the xorns doing that. Killing them should remove the negate effect.Congratulations on making it to the end and commiserations on getting kicked out.A mild clue: vasvavgl vf gur nkvbz”
On Dec 28 commented on ultima iv honesty avatarhood and other: “Even before I gained avatarhood, I was always getting the 1-cycle clue regardless of the cycles. So I think this is an Apple II bug.”
On Dec 28 commented on ultima iv honesty avatarhood and other: “I have in my notes from the shrine of compassion “Third, light the candle of love at the entrance to the great stygian abyss” so it seems possible to get the instructions from the shrines. But it might be version differences, or becoming an avatar could screw up the shrine messages. The clue should show on meditating 3 cycles IIRC but that’s also how you become an avatar of that virtue.”
On Dec 28 commented on ultima iv great stygian abyss: “I thought "INFINITY" might be the word of passage and the "pure axiom" might be deducible when the time came. Wrong on both counts!There's one other little thing bothering me. Why does Ultima IV need to have the program disk inserted when you get booted out of the final dungeon? Normally when you leave a dungeon, it just needs the Britannia disk. That it demands the…”
On Dec 28 commented on ultima iv great stygian abyss: “Yup, turns out your list of goals had an important one left unfinished.”
On Dec 27 commented on the ancient art of war making changes: “You need the file "dosbox-warcga.bat" to be pointing to your dosbox-x.exe location, and then you need to run dosbox-warcga.bat. To create a campaign, you go to Make Changes->Make a new campaign, and then follow the ingame instructions.”
On Dec 27 commented on the ancient art of war making changes: “Hallo and thank you. The ancient art of war was a great love. I have the dosbox I can play the game but I can not create my own campaign. I downloaded dosbox -x as you suggested but still I do not think that I understood how I will be able to pla the ancient art of war with all its capabilities. Can you please help me?”
On Dec 25 commented on ultima iv honesty avatarhood and other: “Merry Christmas, Avatar!”
On Dec 25 commented on ultima iv buccaneers den: “The island with Humility and Hylothe on it looks like a rabbit clutching an easter egg. I've never noticed it before - maybe it's only visible on a map made up of screenshots. Maybe it's just me. ”
On Dec 24 commented on the not so basic mechanics of wizardry: “Playing the Xbox remake. I used malor when I accidentally encountered werdna and teleported out of combat. I immediately received the achievement for defeating him. Anyone else see this?”
On Dec 24 commented on ultima iv buccaneers den: “Mine isn't.Example 1:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBsUa0nw_7g_bRHIApfBhwd0yUssmBjjTG7XJvc4C9kW1ykq20zynHrvbxQWY5SamzBJsUtQz3PqZiuL_20LSXSur9bgky07FuNvo0cXUzhlycjLlIEodOzdQckThMVaYbK3OlfawJQgCCRNQpVKULQqJjF6PHx0C9L5bUzFFwe5SqYXuBImz1uAdDg/Example…”
On Dec 24 commented on ultima iv buccaneers den: “"notice how he spells it "Hythloth." Ultima is anything but consistent about how things are spelled."The game is quite consistently spelling it "Hythloth"; it's *you* who've been misspelling it as "Hylothe" for some reason.”
On Dec 22 commented on ultima iv destard: “Sorry, "Zorns." When I said "Gorns," I was thinking of the second-order Xorn ripoff from that Ultima clone "Ring of Darkness" on the ZX Spectrum. I wonder if Garriott would have been bold enough to sue like he did for Questron, if they had used "actual" "copyrighted" Zorns?”
On Dec 22 commented on ultima iv destard: “I wonder how many kids thought Gorns were some kind of giant crab.”
On Dec 21 commented on ultima iv shame: “Pity, I guess it was introduced in U5. One way to save aggravation is to kill off Geoffrey and Katrina (they have the worst ranged weapons) and don't resurrect them. You can still win the game without them and it's a lot faster outside of dungeons as the monsters scale to your alive party size.”
On Dec 21 commented on ultima iv shame: “It does not.”
On Dec 21 commented on the bestiary of wizardry: “It's odd that the vampires use the skeleton graphic, because I'd consider the robed person graphic to be more suitable. Most vampires aren't known for being naked! But I guess since there's a lot of man-in-robes monsters already, they wanted to even out the distribution of graphics between the monsters.”
On Dec 21 commented on ultima iv blue circle: “Blow the horn on the overworld map before you enter the bottleneck entrance to the shrine. ”
On Dec 21 commented on ultima iv shame: “Doesn't Ultima 4 have the Active player feature? You can hit 1-8 to make one of your players the active player and that passes every character's turn unless it's the active player. Hit 0 to disable the active player. ”
On Dec 21 commented on game 409 chaos: “Nice gaming”
On Dec 18 commented on game 84 oubliette: “Thanks for that info! Apart from Greyhawk, I had no idea about all that supplemental material.”
On Dec 18 commented on ultima iv shame: “That would have saved me something! It would cost $693 to buy 99 of them at Paws, so that's a $594 discount. Bigger discount if you buy 99 pearls, craft them into stuff, and buy more. I don't really need more magic at this point, though. I haven't found Buccaneers Den yet, anyway.And I've maxed out all of my virtues by now without ever having to overpay the vendors. Though I…”
On Dec 18 commented on ultima iv shame: “Not that there's much point trying to get each reagent for the cheapest asking price; since it's virtuous to pay extra to the blind sellers, you might as well buy everything where it's most convenient for you.”
On Dec 18 commented on game 84 oubliette: “Thank you for posting this! I came here looking for information on Oubliette's "influence" on Wizardry and you did not disappoint. I can help you out with some historic information about Dungeons & Dragons."Most of these classes did not exist in D&D by 1982."Except for Peasant, there is precedent for every Oubliette character class in Dungeons & Dragons rules,…”
On Dec 18 commented on ultima iv shame: “Pretty sure Buccaneers Den has the cheapest price on Black Pearls. They are only 1gp each there, but you have to fight some sea serpents to get into the shop.”
On Dec 18 commented on ultima iv deceit: “Adding to that, room states reset when you leave a room and come back. Floor states (mainly orbs, energy fields, and loose cash) do not reset when you leave a floor and come back, but they do if you leave the dungeon, and the altar rooms count as leaving the dungeon.But nothing about the dungeons ever get saved to disk. The dungeon disk is read-only. You can't even save your game in the…”
On Dec 18 commented on ultima iv deceit: “I have. Blinking's faster.”
On Dec 18 commented on ultima iv deceit: “I'm curious, have you not run into a ship yet? That's the traditional way to get to a lot of the areas that you're blinking to.”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv deceit: “Oh, man. Origin Systems just surpassed Atari in the tag cloud! And I bet it's not getting surpassed any time soon.”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv deceit: “The dungeons do not save. They reset even when you move out of a room and back in.”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv deceit: “I just finished reading your series on Ultima 4. I am eagerly waiting for the next post.For information, in the dungeons, the fountains "that do nothing" actually cure poison.Possible spoiler, therefore ROT13 encoding: Rnpu gbja, ivyyntr naq fgebatubyq unf rknpgyl 16 vaunovgnagf jvgu n havdhr qvnybthr gerr, naq rirel bar bs gurz ercyvrf gb hc gb gjb havdhr xrljbeqf.”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv cove and other drugs: “(What's wrong with blogger tonight? I cannot even sign with my Google account!)”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv cove and other drugs: “In the NES remake only, Calumny of Yew does specify that mandrake roots can be harvested at midnight. Your observation trascended time...”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv covetous: “Previous comment by me, Abacos.”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv covetous: “Niiice! I am going to play this Apple version. So far, I won Ultima 4 "just" six times on four different systems (the NES remake first, then the Sega, Amiga and Atari ST ports).”
On Dec 17 commented on ultima iv deceit: “Does the dungeon status get saved to the disk, or do they reset every time you leave?”
On Dec 15 commented on ultima iv covetous: “Ouch. I don't remember that room bug when I played Ultima IV back in the day. Apparently it's present in some other versions too. You might find this repo interesting. It fixes dozens of issues (including that one). Be cautious of a couple of mild spoilers.https://github.com/sean-gugler/u4remasteredA2”
On Dec 14 commented on the bestiary of wizardry: “An exception to the rule that they are only encountered once per visit is the Murphy's Ghosts on floor 1. This is because this is not marked as a "fixed encounter," but is a special scripted encounter that follows bespoke rules unique to that spot. So is the WERDNA encounter, though that one is scripted so that it does not trigger if your party already has victory chevrons (new…”
On Dec 14 commented on the bestiary of wizardry: “Fixed encounters will only be ever trigger once per visit to the floor, but if the "Unique" variable is negative, they will be available each time you do visit the floor.Take, for instance, the LVL 7 Fighters on floor 4. The logic is that when you enter a room, check to see if the spot is a fixed encounter. If yes, then if the "Unique" counter is not zero, trigger the…”
On Dec 14 commented on the bestiary of wizardry: “For the encounter locations in the proving ground levels, you mentioned almost all have the "Unique" auto decrementing counter equal to -1 as infinite. Does this mean after defeating the monster at that location, and saving the game, that monster can never spawn there again or it will always spawn? If it is infinite then the level can never be "cleared" and game progresses.”
On Dec 11 commented on ultima iv wrong: “I mean that compared to fights on other floors/dungeons. Skeletons are among the weakest monsters in the game, spiders only a nuisance for their poison (which I can Cure), and I've fought off individual daemons solo near the start with nothing but the initial bonk stick.”
On Dec 11 commented on ultima iv wrong: “It seems quite reasonable to find fights insultingly easy after all that minmaxing”
On Dec 08 commented on ultima iv blatant powergaming: “Ahab: Hey Geoffrey! Touch this orb!Geoffrey: Why? What's it do?Ahab: don't worry about it! It's gonna be fiiiine!”
On Dec 06 commented on ultima iv haughty spirits after fall: “Hahaha! This made my day!”
On Dec 06 commented on ultima iv cove and other drugs: “You can Search multiple times, though you won't get mandrake/nightshade each time. At first I thought there was a limit of 1 harvest per month, and that it was random whether you get anything or not, but I've had to re-harvest mandrake and I have a better idea of what's going on now.It seems that after a successful search, there's a random delay before you can get another, which…”
On Dec 06 commented on ultima iv cove and other drugs: “I remember having time to hit Search multiple times during the new moon phase to get more mandrake and nightshade, but that doesn't seem to be the case with you. Maybe a difference in versions? I've only played on C64 and DOS.Never realized that nobody tells you in game that mandrake must be searched at new moons. Back then it was one of those things that everyone just knew, like how to…”
On Dec 05 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “Seems you start with 50-65 points in each virtue, and you get 2 points of compassion per donation (with an anti-spam cooldown).If you play the game as intended, and donate to the beggars every time you visit a city that has one, you may have to donate up to 25 times before Hawkwind says you're ready to elevate in compassion. And I think there's only four cities that even have beggars.I…”
On Dec 05 commented on ultima iv cove and other drugs: “Since you have now raised the virtue, I tell you it has to do with how combat affects Compassion. Chapter IX talks about how to deal with non-evil creatures while Chapter VIII tells you which creatures those are. Treating non-evil creatures humanely raises Compassion. You seemed to have an inkling when you wondered about letting an orc flee but it didn't look like you had to full picture. ”
On Dec 04 commented on ultima iv cove and other drugs: “I am unsure what clues you are referring to, other than things that I already know.”
On Dec 04 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “I just got compassion elevated, and yes, you can! I assume that this is a cheat - it makes Hawkwind pointless and I don't think the manual mentions it.”
On Dec 03 commented on ultima iv cove and other drugs: “If you read the later chapters of the History of Britannia carefully, you will find the clues needed for the Quest of the Avatar.”
On Dec 03 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “Can you use Ctrl+s in this version to check your virtue levels?”
On Dec 03 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: ““ But I haven't got the stones…”. You just need to man up…”
On Dec 03 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “I could imagine an amusing interpretation of the Avatar as being driven by a mad compulsion to just do as much virtue as possible as quickly as possible.”
On Dec 03 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “That's actually a good design. Spamming virtue actions isn't very avatar-like. Better design, though, would be making compassionate actions available enough that you don't feel like you have to spam them.”
On Dec 03 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “I wish the game told you that about the mandrake. The mandrake harvesting seems very badly designed - it doesn't tell you the precise spot you need to be in (though one of the two can be intuited), it doesn't tell you at all that there's a specific time you need to be there, and you can be in the right spot and search at the right time and still not get any, which could mislead you to…”
On Dec 02 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “I hope you don't consider this a spoiler, but repeated "virtue actions" can't be spammed. You need to walk around a bit between donations, for example.”
On Dec 01 commented on ultima iv how to name your dungeon: “A couple of hints, since it seems you need them:mandrake - you have to be in the right place at the right timecompassion - you have the right idea, but the wrong person to receive your donation”
On Dec 01 commented on ultima iv loaded: “That was interesting about how Blink works. I'd assumed it was a fixed distance and then coming backwards to a walkable square, but the way it's actually implemented does make more sense. Not that I ever used Blink very much. I know a few places where it's useful but I don't think it's ever necessary.”
On Nov 29 commented on game 227 crystal castles: “D'oh. I'm leaving that typo in - well played.”
On Nov 29 commented on game 227 crystal castles: “Bentley Bear is the protagonist, though I understand that the fiddly controls often put the two of you at odds.”
On Nov 28 commented on the ivory deck: “Fixed, thanks!”
On Nov 28 commented on the ivory deck: “The link to Megamania links to Shamus”
On Nov 25 commented on game 36 telengard: “I have not played Telengard at all prior to writing this post, and I have not played it at all since.”
On Nov 25 commented on ultima iv there and back again: “I can't look! You've convinced me I must replay U4 and U5 this next year!But I do appreciate that Smith finally tells you the solution to Ultima III...”
On Nov 25 commented on ultima iv there and back again: “I don't know how they muffed up Serpant's Hold when there was a serpent in Exodus.Also, I'm not sure which is funnier: the idea that you can call a Roper a "Reaper" and that's legally distinct, how utterly lazy the new name is (instead of Strangler or something,) or that Nintendo would put "Ropas" in Link to the Past with zero legal problems from TSR.”
On Nov 25 commented on game 36 telengard: “I gather you have not played this game much. The cubes can be random or take you to the desired level. One of the risks of the game. Your current dungeon level is in the bottom right hand corner. You dont always get rewarded big by killing something big. You need to get your characters personal level to 12 and then you can perform level 5 spells, one of which is self teleportation. This will…”
On Nov 24 commented on ultima iv there and back again: “At least in U5 you could activate that only one character is moving. Don’t know if this is implemented in U4. I think it was just by pressing a number key”
On Nov 21 commented on the lords of midnight won: “It's interesting to read someone approach the game with fresh eyes, yet seriously.At the time, I felt that Midnight was a quite accomplished fantasy world, even if greatly indebted to Tolkien. At least the usual orcs and elves were avoided, and the winter scenario was fairly novel. Granted, having a bad guy named "Doomdark" is a little silly!Generally, you'd collect as many…”
On Nov 21 commented on ultima iv broke but honorable: “I hope they fixed Smith's hint... by changing it to "Love, Sol, Moons, Death! It's the only way to defeat Exodus!"”
On Nov 20 commented on ultima iv broke but honorable: “Ooh! Maybe I will try that!”
On Nov 19 commented on ultima iv broke but honorable: “The odd behaviour you noticed with shrines is due partly to a bug in the game. The intention was for each shrine to give you a different hint when meditating for 1, 2, or 3 cycles, so it should have been genuinely helpful (albeit not strictly necessary) to try all three. However, due to faulty logic they always end up giving you the same hint. As you discovered, the only hard requirement when…”
On Nov 19 commented on ultima iv broke but honorable: “I never beat this, now I want to go back and take another swing.”
On Nov 19 commented on ultima iv jhelom maginica skara brae: “Because Money is the root of evil, breaking into Britannia's treasury and stealing all the gold would REALLY be a sacrifice! Right?”
On Nov 19 commented on ultima iv jhelom maginica skara brae: “That explains a lot. It might be too late for that, though, and it isn't really my style - it feels similar to deliberately playing badly in a game with adaptive difficulty in order to trick it into going easy on you.”
On Nov 18 commented on ultima iv paws yew: “I've heard of UFO 50. It sounds like a pretty neat idea and I can't imagine ever having time for it.”
On Nov 18 commented on ultima iv paws yew: “Not related to Ultima, but I've recently purchased a game called UFO 50, which is a collection of 50 games from a (fictional) defunct company from the 80's. It's interesting, like the devs have built a fictional version of this blog; games later in the chronology iterate on ideas from earlier games in the chronology, and the first game in the collection is deliberately obtuse and…”
On Nov 18 commented on ultima iv jhelom maginica skara brae: “Here's a tip that I wouldn't classify as a spoiler, since it affects only how much time you'll spend playing the game: consider holding off on recruiting too many companions until much later in the game. The reason is that for random encounters, the number of monsters the game generates on the combat screen is proportional to the number of party members. Since combat is…”
On Nov 16 commented on ultima iv paws yew: “Ah, thanks! It's even mentioned in the reference card.”
On Nov 16 commented on ultima iv paws yew: “You have to (Y)ell GIDDYUP to have the horse give you extra speed. (Y)ell again to have it slow down.”
On Nov 16 commented on ultima iv circumnavigation: “I don't think so. Garriott was smart to never completely expose the virtue mechanics and reveal just how basic they really are, and I plan on letting mine develop as organically as the experience permits.”
On Nov 16 commented on ultima iv circumnavigation: “Poison was such a pain. I've forgotten most of the specifics of Ultima 4, but Cure spell being made of garlic and ginseng was so necessary, I'll always remember that.Fun thing: The manual claims that poison fields are violet and sleep fields are green when it's the other way around in game. If you believe the manual, you're up for some surprises.Are you going to make a post on the…”
On Nov 15 commented on ultima iv in trinsic properties: “Enjoying all of these posts greatly! I need to play some Ultima...”
On Nov 14 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “Ultimap is uploaded! Let me know if you find any exciting ways to crash it.https://drive.google.com/uc?authuser=0&id=1rdZGJMw2mvtjEWbp-lUkF2RFUiXJ_uYw&export=download”
On Nov 14 commented on ultima iv circumnavigation: “Wow super interesting read. My last time playing U4 was 4 years ago but didn’t finish it. Your tales wants me to pick the game up again :)”
On Nov 13 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “Looking forward to it. I don't know if it will work with hexmaps, but the good news is that, if it does, I will only need to configurate it once: both SSI and SSG use a standard hexagon-size since Keating found the good balance in Southern Command :).”
On Nov 13 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “Thanks again! Guess you need Windows to run it, so not sure if/when I can test it myself, but I‘m sure TWS also looks forward to it.”
On Nov 13 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “I've been reworking the tool - here's a WIP shot:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAeAjlaTbovXb_ss9MLeTeWr7us_TUP_ZCZthV7GaAbD-0DwUH1amRyEvauTZzYct3smE-0tQJK_pIwtzVYn-Evpe6jgp-_qCApolKubfJiGuEKdwEKXQKoBKImGtYPvq7cAlI6cn86yxAjjEyXnzMK6KtO4-fRkdH72DYnzZ4bCHEdCRtsEarY6RCjw/s1174/untitled.pngTo use this, you'll first need to set the options:Snap path - This is…”
On Nov 13 commented on the road to telengard: “Way, way, way late to this but I'm curious why no one bothered to ask if that source code could have been scanned and made available. This is quite obviously a missed opportunity.”
On Nov 13 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “I had that Suspicion, but just the Shadow of a Doubt. ”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “I live in the state where Psycho is set. We're all like that here lol. The Bates Motel is on the interstate in southern AZ”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “I confess!”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “BTW: Is the title a Hitchcock reference?”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “Thanks! Don‘t want to take too much of your time, but any orientation on how to use it would be much appreciated. I fear I‘m too much of a stupid user and not enough of a programmer / IT whizkid myself to grasp it from the interface screenshot alone.”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “I did intend it to have some multi-game flexibility, but I don't know if it will work too well on hex-based maps. It definitely won't work in games with smooth pixel-offset scrolling. You're welcome to give it a try - I'll have it uploaded later.”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “Ooooh. I like it!Is it universal-ish? As you can imagine, making maps always take me ages, so if I could use it for any Apple game, I could gain litterally HOURS every SSI game!”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “I made myself a tool, called "Ultimap," which crops, splices, and merges screenshots for me. This screenshot may give some idea of how it…”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “Speaking of which - I might have missed it, but how do you create your map(s) for U4?”
On Nov 12 commented on ultima iv east by northwest: “Ha! I did not expect it but I like the snappy format.And I still love the maps. I know they can be tiresome to do, particularly when you try to adjust the pixels but can't avoid having deviations that add up and making it look weird when two parts finally connect.”
On Nov 09 commented on ultima iv rule britannia: “Lord British giving out healing for free? The spirit of the times seems to have infected him.”
On Nov 07 commented on game 440 ultima iv quest of avatar: “Maybe "decorative" would have been a better word choice. Kind of like the stone in Wishbringer - it doesn't do anything, but it works as a bit of physical worldbuilding in the package.I can buy that symbols and art would pop up and coalesce into neat little motifs, but the geometric tidiness of the core system itself strikes me as contrived. For an admittedly imperfect real world…”
On Nov 06 commented on game 440 ultima iv quest of avatar: “You know, are there any "useful" amulets in real life?I don't find it particularly contrived to think that the virtues would be arranged like that as a mnemonic device - remember the famous example of how St. Patrick explained God's triune nature via a shamrock. It makes sense in-universe that religious art would develop motifs, as well as a sort of "logo" for the…”
On Nov 05 commented on ultima iv first steps: “Large maps! I like that!”
On Nov 05 commented on game 440 ultima iv quest of avatar: “Your experience with U4 was closer to mine -- I was surprised to read CRPGAddict's post talking about how much of an influence the game had on him to the point where he was even trying to act like the virtues in real life. To me they were just another gameplay element I had to deal with to win the game.”
On Nov 05 commented on game 346 spy vs spy: “I had this game as a kid for the Sega Master System, got it at a flea market in a bin of cheap old game. I was about eight or nine at the time, it was the late 90's. I never had a Master System, but since we owned a Master System adapter for our Genesis, we'd sometimes pick up stuff like this at garage sales.Without the manual though, me and my brothers could never figure out how to play…”
On Nov 05 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Okay, I did ask around (and also listened to another German podcast). I was basically right regarding Mad TV. Ralph Stock had already developed a few adventure games and wanted to do a trading sim / business sim next, which were popular at the time, albeit one that was, in his own words, "actually fun, and not just looking at spreadsheets the entire time". In the mid- to late 80s, the…”
On Nov 05 commented on ports of entry activision: “Example on dosbox-staging supporting the ReelMagic card: https://www.dosbox-staging.org/releases/release-notes/0.80.0/#reelmagic-support”
On Nov 05 commented on ports of entry activision: “This can now be used via a couple of emulation options, like PCem, 86box and dosbox-staging”
On Nov 04 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Well, you've still got quite a way to go for "The Settlers". ;) For that one, important predecessors would be the games "Historyline 1914-1918" and "BattleIsle" by Blue Byte, which were turned-based strategy games. Combine that with the Mercantile aspect of games like Hanse and the "Real-time cutesy figures fighting another" from Populous - and voilà,…”
On Nov 04 commented on game 440 ultima iv quest of avatar: “I think claims that Ultima IV has sophisticated morality-based gameplay elements are probably conflating the character creation choices in the fortuneteller's tent with the rest of the game. The various scenarios/choices the fortuneteller faces you with are true moral quandaries where there's no obvious correct choice, so they do invite some actual roleplaying in your responses (if…”
On Nov 04 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Yep, that does interest me! Also, for some reason, I had been under the impression that there was a connection between Merchant Prince and The Patrician, but as far as I can tell now there isn't one.I don't know if I'll wind up diving into the world of German trading sims, but if I do, everything you've explained will be invaluable - I'd never heard of Kaiser or Hanse, but…”
On Nov 04 commented on game 440 ultima iv quest of avatar: “I did like the game. I just felt its reputation for sophisticated morality-based gameplay and narrative had been really inflated. I had heard that Ultima IV was all about true roleplaying and character development and made you wrestle with moral dilemmas. One source even said it was more sophisticated than any modern RPG - most feature a one-dimensional karma meter, and Ultima IV featured eight!…”
On Nov 04 commented on game 440 ultima iv quest of avatar: “I found it interesting to read you weren’t that keen on Ultima IV when you played it the first time. I had a similar reaction to it when I played it on my Apple II clone shortly after release. I think one reason why I didn’t appreciate it was because of the morality system. I didn’t find it interesting and I also had a bit of a personal grudge against Lord British. The first Ultima I played was…”
On Nov 03 commented on game 440 ultima iv quest of avatar: “I’ve been playing U4 a bit recently. It is probably the first time I’ve played since 1990 or so after they finally released an MS-DOS conversion in 1988. While now dated… it broke open so many new vistas at the time!”
On Nov 03 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Well, I had to look it up myself now because I couldn't shake the thought. 😅 I can now confirm that Hanse had an influence on the creation of "Ports of Call". I found two sources where Rolf Dieter Klein himself stated that he was aware of the other German economic/strategy games at the time and points out having played Hanse in particular before embarking on the development of…”
On Nov 02 commented on game 439 super mario bros: “Interesting, but also surprising! I thought easy mode had a much better difficulty curve than hard mode - e.g. 3-4 is normally the hardest castle yet, but in hard mode it's the easiest castle yet because the previous ones are difficulty boosted and 3-4 isn't.There are also levels which seem unchanged in hard mode because some of the later levels are meant to be harder variants of early…”
On Nov 01 commented on game 439 super mario bros: “By an almost inconceivable coincidence, right after I read this, YouTube suggested a video for me about dead code in SMB. It sounds like the levels that don't have any visible changes in Hard Mode are the result of a bug - the easy mode already spawns the additional enemies intended to appear only in hard mode.”
On Oct 27 commented on game 439 super mario bros: “Piranha Plants appearing in any pipe goes so far as to apply to the underwater section in 8-4. However, due to Piranha Plants always displaying behind the foreground (or, in other words, only in front of the background color) in order to cause the "hiding" effect, and there being water in the foreground means that it's occluded from view. But if you get off the pipe and swim back to…”
On Oct 19 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Oh yeah, and for completion's sake: the first game in the Anno series, Anno 1602, took direct inspiration from The Patrician, The Real-time strategy-and-production-routes aspect of The Settlers and a dash of the works of Sid Meier (Pirates and Civilization in particular).I also checked again and saw that Kaiser *did*, in fact, see an UK release. From what I can tell, the game was originally…”
On Oct 19 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “That being said, Ports of Call has some semi-lengendary status in German Amiga Circles (I've seen some german Top 20 or Top 30 Amiga games lists that include that game), and I wouldn't be surprised if some later developers were kind of inspired by that game later on. In terms or direct lineage though, it appears to be more of an outlier.”
On Oct 19 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Maybe as some form of cross-pollination... Hanse was directly inspired by Kaiser, The Patrician was a follow-up to Hanse, Port Royale was developed by some of the staff of The Patrician, etc ...I *think* Ports of Call was inspired directly by Hanse, and added a better presentation (especially in the graphics department) and a few twists (like that arcade style harbor sequence). But AFAIK PoC was…”
On Oct 19 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Oh, neat! Would you say Ports of Call is part of that line, or of comparable importance?”
On Oct 19 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “(as an addendum, Kaiser is the linchpin game that led led to the German prevalence on mercantile strategy games - you could say there's a direct line from this game to the later "Patrician" series and the still ongoing "Anno..." Series of games.)”
On Oct 19 commented on game 255 santa paravia and fiumaccio: “Oh man... Reading your playthrough, I've now suddenly realized where one of my favorite C64 games from back in the day got its inspiration from: Ariolasoft's 1984 game "Kaiser". https://www.mobygames.com/game/71050/kaiser/In it, you also need to buy land and grains, and gather influence and money to advance in rank until eventually you're declared emperor of the Holy Roman…”
On Oct 17 commented on game 439 super mario bros: “I actually liked this "Super Mario Bros, abridged" Let's Play. I had never read any and never passed level 2 myself, so it was fresh enough.”
On Oct 17 commented on game 85 wizardry proving grounds of mad: “We can trace the WAD(X) keyset back to PLATO's dnd, which very likely influenced Moria/Oubliette, which Wizardry very obviously takes liberal influence from. I'm pretty sure that Wizardry in turn influenced Ultima Underworld, though I can't say for sure if that had any bearing on modern WASD controls; Half-Life was the first major shooter to use them by default, skipping over…”
On Oct 17 commented on game 439 super mario bros: “Seems that you can also stomp them while ascending, as long as you are higher than them by at least 12 pixels (small Mario is 16px).”
On Oct 17 commented on game 85 wizardry proving grounds of mad: “Also I guess this version is official because of the updated copyright notice mentioning 1981, 1982 and 1983. It would be interesting if some changes on boot disk are backports from Wiz 2/3.Apologies for triple posting.”
On Oct 17 commented on game 439 super mario bros: “A true classic... The only console I ever owned was an Atari 2600, so my Mario time hasn't been great. It is cool to see the entire world structure outlined since I never went through it all.”
On Oct 17 commented on game 85 wizardry proving grounds of mad: “So I tested this mysterious version 6 a little more. A couple things:- You can copy the master scenario using a single drive (it's done with a lot of swapping)- The slime sprite displays correctly on this versionThere's probably more but I'm not knowledgeable enough about Wizardry to catch stuff.”
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