PixlBit

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord came out for PC in 1981, the same year the first video gaming magazine started, Electronic Games. Donkey Kong was out in the arcades and my favorite Atari 2600 game came out, Stampede. But enough history, let's get to playing Wizardry.                          

                              

As you can see, I've been playing the NES version which is almost identical to the original Apple II version I played in the 80's. The only difference I've noticed so far is that Bishops are called Wizards, which I think is a better choice anyway.                                                                                                 

Above is the map of level 1 which I still had drawn up on graph paper from the last time I played several years ago. I did want to start over, but since it was there, I used it.

Just before playing this time, my buddy and I watched the movie Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the millionth time; so I thought I'd create a party made up of characters from it [SPOILER ALERT from here on out].

I listed all the characters given credits in the order they got wacked by The Predator. Here are the first six: Hopper, Blain, Mac, Dillon, Hawkins, Billy.

           

Hopper, granted, is a character already dead when the movie starts, but he's talked about enough that I thought I'd list him as the first guy that was killed by the predator. And what should happen after only a few trips into the maze?

           

That's right, he died first, amazing! I kept to a general rule that I wouldn't revive anyone until I had used up all 10 cast members plus Hopper. Another reason was that it costs a bunch to revive and I wanted to use the meager gold you get in the beginning for equipment. That also meant no cheating by farming gold from character creation.

           

This above was the new team with Poncho, who dies after Billy in the film, in place of  Hopper.

                      

I saw a lot of this screen above in my play of level one. The thief definitely has the most dangerous job in the group. He/she has to identify traps on chests found and then disarm them. This is mostly determined by his/her luck and agility scores, but anything can and does happen.

         

Getting stunned means paralysis and before a cleric gets his Dialko anti-paralysis spell at level 5 or 6, there's only one way to reverse it - pay money at the Temple. Well that was against my rules of no revivals in the Temple, so Dillon had to go and the next one be put in his place.

             

The next to die in the film after Poncho was The Predator itself, so in he goes as the new thief.

             

Ah darn it! But The Predator is resilient and he survived that exploding box, just barely. Kinda like when Dutch got the jump on it with the exploding arrow in the film but didn't kill it.

             

But this one was a killer. Lower level characters in Wizardry do not have the anti-poison spell Latumofis until sometime around level 8 or 9, so all you can do is rush back to the castle town and hope you have enough healing spells to keep the poor sap alive - you lose one HP per step taken.

             

I was way too far from the stairs and with few healing spells left. Looks like The Predator is out, but who's left since no one else dies in the film?

             

Well, there's three characters who survive and so I listed them in order of who leaves the film first. That would be Anna, then The General, and then finally Dutch - Arnold's character. So Anna is the next thief. She's got her work cut out for her.

             

Oh no! But don't worry. Anna survives this one. She may look fragile, but she's a survivor.

             

It's Poncho who takes it in the neck next. Those Scruffy Men are unidentified on this screen. You can use a low level spell to reveal them if you want, but it's inadvisable since you will lose a valuable turn for the character casting the spell, and you need everyone on board for these guys since they are the toughest enemy on level 1. I know from past experience they are Bushwackers and they bushwacked Poncho gorram it all! I guess he couldn't make it.

             

Up next is The General, who along with Anna, you see in the chopper as the nuke goes off in the forest signaling the death of The Predator. He's taking the place of Poncho, so he's got to be a fighter.

I should say that my arrangement of two fighters, one cleric, one theif, and two magic users (here they are Wizards or what was originally called Bishops who use both cleric and mage spells) is an arrangement I've found to be very helpful. You need two pure fightrers, you need a cleric to heal, a thief to open chests, and multiple mages to loft fire balls (Halito) or sleeping spells (Katino) in aid of the front line. The cleric can do double duty as a fighter since he can wield a mace and wear armor. It's wise to do this so you have a spot open for that second mage. Mages are really helpful in the later stages of the game. Here I'm using WIzards who level up more slowly but they have the dispell ability against undead, can identify found items, and plus - you can't have too many cleric healing spells.

                 

Bye bye General. He didn't last long. It's those Bushwackers again. Those guys suck! The one downside to bringing up a new character instead of raising one from the dead for an exorbintant price is that he/she has low HP and is vulnerable until he/she gains a few levels. Oh well, only one left and the star of the show too. That's Dutch!

                 

And holy cow! Look at what happened when I rolled him up as shown above (and I haven't been cheating by rerolling until something good comes up). I rolled a 16 on my bonus and was able to max out his strength and put the rest in vitality. In Wizardry you choose a race which gives you a general spread of abilities. Then you get a bonus number, that's usually between 7 and 9, that you can add any way you want and there-by qualify for various classes. Sometimes that bonus number is high like this just by random. I couldn't believe it happened on Dutch. How perfect!

                

Blain still gets to be leader because of his experience and high HP (due to having 18 in vitality) but with the money I'd earned so far, I was able to get Sturdy Platemail for Dutch and make him AC 0 to give him a little more protection while he levels up. I don't want to lose him; although, now I'm out of movie characters, so I'm going to have to start reviving. You'll notice I revived Dillon to replace Anna (he was cheaper to revive) as thief. 

               

And finally I defeated the troubling Bushwackers for the biggest EP score of the night and signaling my mastery of level one. There's only one place on level one not conquered yet and that's the Murphy's Ghost hidden in a small room. I've been advised to be level 7 to beat it, so I have a level or two to gain by first investigating dungeon level two.

               

This is the look of the team as I shut down for the night. I had some cash to get Sturdy Plate for Blain as well as Dutch and everyone leveled up at least once after that mega battle I had with the Bushwackers. Mac was solid the whole time as cleric, Dillon returns as theif from the beginning, Hawkins and Billy were solid; at level 6, they now have both healing spells and mages spells making it much easier to stay in the maze longer. And Dutch is finally in the group and making big contributions already. I think this could be the team to go the distance. I'll call them Team Predator from now on.