Tag: Fantasy Roleplaying

3 out of 5 C64 RPG

Ultima 3

Publisher: Origin Systems

Designer: Richard Garriott

Type: Roleplaying

Platform: Various

Release Date: 1983

Rating:

Once again, the Ultima series takes a slightly different turn. Well, first of all, the game has moved away from a single character to where you now have to create a party of characters so be able to solve the game. Also, combat moves into a specific combat screen where you fight against your opponents, which makes it somewhat better than the previous games where you would run around the world trying to escape all of the nasties. Also, one really interesting thing is that you can choose one of three genders, that being male, female, or other (though the choice doesn’t do much). Oh, and there happens to be this race called a Fuzzy, but I have no idea what it is supposed to be.

So, it looks like you haven’t quite finished your job yet because even though Mondain and Minax have both been killed, it seems as if they have left their computer, Exodus, running. Okay, this isn’t quite like the computer that you happen to be using to read this review, but other it is some sort of supercomputer with some hugely impressive AI component that is controlling a world full of nasty monsters. Anyway, your job is to turn it off, and if you think that it just involves pulling the plug, well, it is a little more difficult than that.

I did eventually manage to complete this game, but I can’t say that it was one of my favourites. I guess it is sort of that type of game that straddles the earlier releases, which are sort of a breakthrough, and the really outstanding games that are to come. Though, another interesting thing is seeing what they took, and what they happened to have left behind when they moved onto the next project. For instance, it seems as if creating a party yourself was eventually dropped in the next iteration.

Still, this was a fun game, even if it didn’t quite reach the accolades of some of the others. It was difficult, but not too difficult, but then again that seemed to be the case with a lot of these roleplaying games, where the early part is really hard, but once your characters reach a certain point, then things start to get a little easier. Still, it was fun when I played it, especially with the fact that the whole purpose of the game is to turn off a computer.

Anyway, you can find details about this game on Wikipedia (which shouldn’t surprise anybody), but there are also entries on this game on the Ultima fandom page, as well as on the c64 wiki page. Oh, and if you want a walkthrough, there is one on the Ultima codex.

Tags Fantasy Roleplaying, Retro Game, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Ultima Series

3 out of 5 C64 RPG

Pool of Radiance

Publisher: Strategic Simulations Inc.

Designer: Chuck Kroegel

Type: Roleplaying

Platform: Various

Release Date: 1988

Rating:

I believe that this was basically the first of the official Dungeons and Dragons games, and it certainly showed it. Mind you, I do remember when it was first released, and it was all the rage, namely because my friends and I loved Dungeons and Dragons, so when an official game was released, we all wanted a copy of it so we could not only play it but see who the first to complete it world be (spoiler – it wasn’t me).

So, the whole idea is that you create a party and then you have to go into this ruined city and clear it out of all of the monsters therein. The first level, for want of a better word, was the slums, and I remember that the final battle in the slums was really, really hard, namely because you were low-level characters and had to fight a bunch of ogres are trolls – gee, that was fun.

The interesting thing was that the next level you had to go and fight undead. Seriously, what is it with fighting undead on the second stage of the game – all of the games seemed to do that for some reason. In fact, I find undead overused, and rather boring

Pools of Radiance was a good game, and rather challenging, though of course being the first of a series certainly showed a lot. Obviously, they were still trying to tweak the game as the next ones were produced. I did manage to complete it, and it certainly did get easier one you managed to get through that really annoying battle with the trolls and the ogres (honestly, who thought that a bunch of first level characters could actually beat them). The game was also open to being mapped as well, though back in those days maps tended to be placed on pieces of papers, which meant that I had a huge graph book full of maps form the various games that I played.

Sure, this isn’t going to stand up to any of the modern games, and in hindsight, it really wasn’t all that great either, compared to the forerunners that really set the scene up. However, it was still fun, and does deserve its place in history.

Anyway, you can find out more about this game on Wikipedia, and of course it has an entry on the Forgotten Realms Fandom wiki. Oh, and you might also be looking for a walkthrough as well, and yes, there is one.

Tags Dungeons & Dragons, Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms, Retro Game, Roleplaying Game

3 out of 5 RPG

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

Post author By thesarkologist
Post date February 11, 2020
No Comments on Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

Publisher: Origin Systems

Designer: Richard Garriot

Type: Roleplaying

Platform: Various

Release Date: 1981

Rating:

As you can probably discern from the title, this was the very first of the Ultimas, a game that ended up not only spawning eight sequels, several offshoots, and one of the first MMORPGs. So, this one takes up right back to the beginning where we can experience what it was like to actually play a computer roleplaying game back in the early eighties, and it certainly does have quite a lot of charm about it, even if it might not be on the scale of Skyrim.

Well, considering that it was originally released on an 8-bit machine, we certainly can’t expect Skyrim, but then again, for its time, it certainly did break a lot of boundaries. In fact, you had a quest, which differs from a lot of the other games at the time, which just involved you descending into dungeons and killing as many monsters as possible until you died. No, this one you had to go on a quest to kill a powerful mage.

The game involved you travelling over multiple continents, visiting multiple towns, and descending into multiple dungeons, mostly to build up your power so that you could then go and deal with that really nasty mage that you are supposed to kill. It was fun when I played it, and it certainly did steal hours of my life back when I was a teenager.

I guess, as I mentioned, it is certainly not something that you could hold up to modern games, but it is great to see what it was like back in the day. Oh, and the game was initially a top-down view, but that changed when you entered the dungeons. This was a format that the game used for most of its sequels, at least until Ultima 6 (as far as I’m aware).

Anyway, not surprisingly, this game appears on Wikipedia (something a a number of other games haven’t managed to do, which probably says a lot about that particular game). Also, I have discovered two wikias from Ultima – the Codex of Editable Wisdom, and the Ultima Codex. Of course, there are plenty of walkthroughs as well, of which this is one.

Tags Fantasy Roleplaying, Retro Game, Roleplaying Game, Ultima Series

5 out of 5 Adventure RPG

The Bard’s Tale

Publisher: Electronic Arts/Interplay Productions

Designer: Micheal Cranford

Type: Roleplaying Game

Platform: Various

Release Date: 1985

Rating:

I still remember when this game first appeared – it was literally a revolution in the style of the Computer Roleplaying Game. Sure, it is pretty basic, but that is what is to be expected for a game that appeared in the 80s. Also, it isn’t as big as some of the other games, fitting on just a single C64 disk, with one side being for the city, and the boot, and the other side being for the dungeons. From what I remember there are only four (or five) dungeons to explore, so yeah, the game isn’t actually that big, though of course, these dungeons are of a decent size.

I’m not quite sure of the story, but you start in the city of Skara Brae (which is named after a small prehistoric city that is located on an island in Scotland – if it wasn’t for Bards Tale, this rather small town, consisting of only 8 houses, would have gone by the wayside), which has been taken over by some evil mage named Mangar. So, your quest is to basically kill Mangar – something that I managed to accomplish back in my teenage years.

Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend playing this game on a C64 emulator because, honestly, it is really, really, really slow, and there is no what to speed up the combat either, and the combat can get pretty long. Sure, there are somewhat faster PC versions, and the graphics are slightly better as well. However, if you really want to play this game they have recently released an enhanced version, which is available on Steam. Yeah, this is something that I am really tempted to check out sometime, though not right away.

While it certainly doesn’t come close to any of the games that I have played recently, this game still has a charm and a legacy, about it that will keep it in the annals of classic computer games.

Anyway, you can find out more about this game on Wikipedia, or you can even check out a wiki page dedicated to it, and the service. Oh, and if you want some hints then a page has been set up for that as well.