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 On 02/28/2018 at 10:44 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
It's a day early for me to start 1981 for March but I couldn't resist. I made a '81 music mix for my car, watched a classic '81 movie and played an '81 game, Wizardry.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord: Of all the games I looked up for 1981, this one jumped out as the one I wanted to replay the most. Now, I didn't play this in 1981. I probably played it a few years later when my parents got an Apple IIc. But, I'm doing this retro fest by release dates.
Wizardy is a first-person, turn-based dungeon crawl based on Dungeons and Dragons. You can have a six member party and equip them with weapons and armor. There are ten levels with the final boss in the final room. The graphics are minimal. You have a wire-frame environment and monsters are shown as static drawings only during battles. I've beaten this game many times. I even did a speed run a few years ago with Mark playing it in tandem.
I played Wizardry today on the NES. It's a very good port. Some color has been added but it's essentially the same as the computer version.
I created a party based on the 1981 movie I saw today, Escape from New York, the movie that inspired Metal Gear. Snake Plissken is Solid Snake. I created Snake first as my human fighter. Maggie (Brain's "main squeeze" in the movie) was second, also a human fighter. Cabbie (played by Ernest Borgnine) was third and a dwarf priest. The Girl in the Chock Full of Nuts (really that's her title) as my elven thief. Hauk (the prison's warden) an elven mage. And Brain also as an elven mage.
I was doing fine in level one, carefully returning to the castle when my healing spells got used up, until CFN Girl, the thief, got poisoned and died from botching a trap on a chest. I saved up cash and raised her only to see her die again from another failed chest disarming. Then a second raising failed and she couldn't be recovered. So I created a gnome thief named Rehmey from the movie (he was Duke's second in command). He got hurt from an explosive trap and then poisoned to death. It's tough being a thief in this game. Opening chests is more dangerous than actual fighting. So I created another thief while I waited for cash to raise him. I named this one Slag (the guy who fights Snake in the boxing ring). He managed to survive probably because Cabbie, my priest, had leveled up enough by now to have enough healing spells to save him from poison trapped chests. I raised Rehmey later but stayed with Slag because he was a higher level by the time I did so. With this crew, I beat the level one "boss", Murphy's Ghost.
I ventured to second level and did pretty well. It was when I tried one room on level three that the trouble started. I met some Dragonflies. I lost Brain, my second mage, in the battle. I got out of there quickly to level two. On the road back to level one (and this always seems to happen like this) I got hit with some monsters I hadn't delt with yet, Zombies. They paralyze you. I survived the first round of battle and undid the damage with my priest. But the second round paralyzed half my party, including the priest. I fought on desperately and who should survive? Maggie. Maggie turned out to be my best fighter. She dragged the dead Brain and the remaining four paralyzed characters back to the castle. She was the hero.
It was a good place to stop once I recovered all my characters in the castle. I really love this game, as difficult as it is.
Ranger is gonna love this blog.
I played a little bit of Wizardry, but I preferred its competing series, Ultima, for the overhead view overworld and towns. I guess Etrian Odyssey kind of channels the Wizardry vibe these days. Plus there are a few Japanese developers still making Wizardry games.
Yea, I've picked up a few Wizardy games. There was one for PS2 and another one for PS3. Both were darn hard. Maybe harder than the original.
I've always been curious about Ultima. Somehow I've missed the series.
I never liked Wizardry, but I have to respect it because Final Fantasy drew inspiration from Wizardry and Ultima.
I think the series has always been more popular in Japan. There's a Game Boy collection with Wiz 1-3 on it. I got it but it's all in Japanese, so it's kind of unplayable for me.
Yeah Wizardry is VERY popular in Japan. They still make Wizardry gaems over there.
Where is witchcraft?!
We play wizards sir. This is wizardry. Witches can go play Witchery. 
You tell him, John!
This was my first game other than arcade cabinets. I think I started playing it in 1983 or 1984, but we didn't own the computer or the games and had to give it back when my step-dad's project was done. I bought it later when I was in high school. The headmaster at the time I started was also a Wizardry fan, and he shared the unlimited experience glitch with us. Unfortunately for m,e it only worked on the Apple version and not the IBM version. This game is freaking hardcore, and I spent half the time I was playing counting steps and making maps. Oh, the nostalgia!
I played it probably the same time you did. I think I got that cheat on the Apple IIc version. You need a Bishop to identify a knife and you suddenly get a million XP or something like that. I also had the Mac Plus version of the game later on and a friend of mine hacked it and was able to get all the best equipment to start with. That was fun.
You have to play so carefully all the time. I remember now that on the NES version you can shut the game down while holding the select button to prevent it from saving. That way you can erase a bad adventure. I didn't use any of that stuff this time though. I wasn't going for a long play anyway.
Use the bishop to identify the item in slot 9, which doesn't exist. My best friend had an Apple IIe and he let me spend an afternoon running around with a party of level 99 ninjas wreaking havoc and destruction throught the dungeon. It was a blast.
Oh yea, slot 9. I seem to remember doing level 99 Bishops. All magic user and cleric spells. Mark and I just laid waste with Tiltowaits every encounter. Ha!
The NES version changes the name Bishop to Wizard.
Hey I didn't know that about Escape From New York and Metal Gear. Looks like I need to rewatch this flick. Thanks for the new info!
I heard that several times from podcasts. Seeing the way Snake was dressed and the way he talked in the movie made me really think of Metal Gear. There's no hiding under boxes though. Ha!
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