Game 544: Blade of Doom (1993)

 

With the title and the company name, it feels like the authors were playing off Doom by id Software. But Doom was released later in the year than the file dates for Blade. It's just one of those weird coincidences.

     

Blade of Doom

Germany

UD Software (developer and publisher)

Released 1993 as shareware for DOS

Date Started: 11 March 2025

Date Ended: 12 March 2025

Total Hours: 4

Difficulty: Moderate (3.0/5)
Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)   

   

In broad strokes, Blade of Doom is a single-character Dungeon Master clone. You run around a dungeon, find keys, open doors, navigate teleporters, fight enemies in real time, collect inventory items, stave off hunger and thirst, and level up. Having just finished Walls of Illusion, I'm not particularly eager for another game of the same type, but there are some interface features that make Blade at least a little more interesting than the standard clone.

     

The game is little-known online, probably because surviving versions (or, at least, the two I found) are unregistered shareware. "UD Software" appears to have been a one-off partnership between Karl Schuster and Uwe Dörr of Walldürn, Baden-Württemberg (Dörr's initials serving as the name of the company). They asked 30 DM, or about 35-40 of today's dollars or euros. More on this in a bit.

    

I don't know what's happening here.

   

After an interesting title cinematic featuring a row of gravestones, a skull, a flash of lightning, some kind of spectral dude whose torso becomes a ribbon of light, and a few digitized words in German, the game brings you to a main menu, on which you can define a different hero for two saved games. I completely overlooked the "create character" option when I first started playing; I just kept hitting "new game" and I guess using the default character. It wasn't until I had this entry ready for publication that I realized there is a character creation process where you can assign bonus points among multiple attributes. 

   

Character creation.

    

Once the game starts, it is instantly familiar to anyone who has played Dungeon Master or one of its derivatives. You have a compass/GTFO cluster that you can use for maneuvering, but thankfully it's replicated on the numberpad. Almost nothing else has a keyboard analog, which is too bad. When you meet enemies, you click the large attack icon in the lower-right hand corner. You start finding items and add them to your inventory while keeping a careful eye on your health, fatigue, hunger, and thirst meters. If enemies damage you too much, you camp for a while to restore hit points. Yada yada.

    

The game begins.

    

But Blades has a few surprises in its interface, if not its content:

    

• Confused about what a button does? There's a separate program (ANLEITNG.EXE) that allows you to click on each button and get a description of what it does. 

       

The game's description of the hit point bar.

     

• The inventory screen has a paper doll on which you directly place pieces of armor. This is rare even for commercial games of the era.

  

Slowly assembling armor pieces.

     

• If you don't feel like going to the inventory screen, you can scroll through the items in your pack in a window on the main screen. 

• The "eye" icon, which takes you to your inventory screen, starts to close as you get fatigued.

• There's no full on-screen automap, but you can get a map of the immediate area by clicking on the "scroll" icon on the main interface. Or you can go into the inventory screen and print an ASCII map of the dungeon level. Explored and unexplored areas, stairs, traps, teleporters, messages, pits, and secret doors are all symbolized.

 

The game's printed map of (most of) Level 3.

         

None of these features absolutely enthralled me, but I found them all at least notable.

   

Beyond that, we just have the variants on the standard Dungeon Master template:

    

• Magic seems to be taken directly from Dungeon Master. You combine two or three runes to make a spell, then select a power. You set up a particular spell in the book, then cast it from the main screen. I've only found one rune ("Reversal") so far, so I haven't been able to experiment much. I don't know whether there are in-game instructions for spell recipes or whether that came in a separate document. 

     

The spell creation interface.

      

• Character attributes are speed, power, knowledge, learning, and endurance, plus offense and defense statistics based on the inventory. These values all start quite small (3s, mostly). You get to increase one attribute by 1 point when you level up.

  

Reaching Level 3.

      

• Combat takes place on the main screen like in Dungeon Master. It's real-time, and it involves clicking furiously on a large attack icon in the lower-right corner or casting a spell. There's a brief "cool down" period but no feedback on damage done. The enemy just eventually dies, or you do.

• Among the first three levels, there have only been five monsters: bats, spiders, lizard men, some kind of viney plant thing, and worms.  

   

One of the stranger enemies.

    

• Enemies are reasonably well drawn and animated, but they always look like they're a square or more away from you. I suppose drawing them small was also cost-effective.

• All doors require keys to open. All keys look the same, but they're not. You need to find the specific key for the specific door.

     

Opening a door with a key.

    

• On the disk screen, the save/load buttons give you no feedback at all, so you just have to trust that they worked and click the option to close the screen. 

• The demo game has no money, although there is a line for it on the character screen.

     

Level 1 was a large 40 x 30. Its primary purpose seemed to be to introduce the door mechanic. The level was full of doors, some with keys right in front of them, some with keys that I had to retrieve from distant parts of the level and walk back. There was one door for which I never found a key, making it impossible to complete the map. 

     

My partial map of Level 1.

      

There were a lot of bats and a lot of items of food, though I learned the hard way that while mushrooms might be technically edible, you probably want to leave them alone. I found my first weapon, a knife, as well as a wooden shield. 

    

A couple of messages talked about JUSTICE (GERECHTIGKEIT), and indeed that was a password to get past a magic mouth. A second one, just before the exit, took another password clued in an explicit message: EINTRITT.

      

I thought we might be headed into Ultima territory here.

      

I went from Level 0 to Level 1 after beating my first enemy, a bat. Bats were the most common enemy, including a whole swarm of them near the center of the map next to a message that warned me I was entering the Realm of Chaos.

   

The first level has at least three messages encouraging the player to buy the registered version of the game. One of them has a square after it that wounds you for half your hit points. I don't know if the two things are connected. Throughout the game, I suspected that other aspects were related to it being a shareware version, but there was nothing I could tell for sure.

     

This message comes up frequently as you explore. That file isn't even in the package.

      

Level 2 was about teleporters; there were about half a dozen sections that I had to map independently. Enemies were the same as on Level 1. I reached character Level 2.

         

A teleporter.

    

Level 3 introduced some new mechanics. The "Walk of the Attentive Adventurer" (as a sign announced) had some spinners that would ensure I kept walking forever if I didn't watch for them and spin myself back in my original direction. Elsewhere, there were pressure plates that opened wall spaces. I never found any illusory walls (the kind you find by bonking into them), but the map legend suggests they're possible.

  

Spiders and worms were introduced as enemies. As in Dungeon Master, worms drop food, but here it poisons and instantly kills you.

      

 A worm attacks.

     

There was an odd puzzle in the southeast corner. "The nest is just what the hungry need," a message announced as I entered. It consisted of six lizard men guarding about as many eggs. In a nearby section are some alcoves with pressure plates, and I thought to weigh them down with eggs, for no other reason than that they were found nearby.

      

When I placed the eggs on the plates, they each spawned a ton of gear--swords, axes, shields, armor pieces, food, canteens—far more than I needed or could possibly carry. 

     

Somehow an egg turned into all of this.

    

The northwest corner had a huge open area with a building in the center. Messages around the center building read: "Get out of here. I don't need a human like you down here. Or do you want to challenge me to a duel?"

     

Sounds good to me.

    

A locked door led into the final area, and I was sure I would meet a boss enemy behind it. I had to go far and wide, through some teleporters, to find the key, but eventually I returned and opened the door. The only thing behind it was another stairway upward.

   

I knew that the dungeon was only three levels based on the number of level files in the game folder, so I was surprised by this turn of events. However, going up the stairway just takes me to a random square on Level 3 that I already explored, so I guess this must be the end of the trial. I think I've explored everything else exhaustively, save a part of Level 3 that's past a square that straight-up kills me every time I step on it.

        

The death screen.

      

In the past, it's been my policy to BRIEF games that I couldn't fully evaluate because we don't have the full version. However, I suspect that in the present situation, there never was a full version. I base this partly on the fact that it doesn't seem to exist online now, and 1993 is pretty late for that to be true. There are also no reviews, no testimonials, no walkthroughs, and no maps on either current or archived sites.

       

Two lizardmen attack at once.

    

Second, there's this paragraph in the accompanying documentation for one of the versions I tried:

      

Mit Blade of Doom möchten wir der Gaming-Community professionelle Spiele zu einem fairen Preis anbieten. Dafür haben wir uns für diesen Weg entschieden und verzichten auf den Vertrieb über Softwarefirmen. Wir hoffen, dass dies durch zahlreiche Bestellungen für die Vollversion belohnt wird und wir diesen Weg weiterverfolgen können.

     

Now, maybe there's some nuance here that I'm not getting in translation, but it sounds to me as if they haven't actually completed the full version, and they're waiting to see if they get enough people interested before they take the time to do so. For the full version, the goal is apparently to collect multiple pieces of a set of arms and armor, including the Shield of the Golden Cross and the titular Blade of Doom. The authors promise that this adventure takes place over 50 dungeon levels: "as far as we know, the largest dungeon currently in existence." Well, yeah. There's a reason for that. If the full version does exist, let's be leisurely about tracking it down. I identified a couple of potential leads on the authors but I hadn't heard back at the time this entry was published.

       

I think the authors are trying to tell us something.

       

Since this seems to be the only version, I'll rate it at a 15 on the GIMLET. There is a lot of potential for it to go higher, but since I wasn't able to experience spells, or very much character development, or more than a few enemies, or more than a few pieces of equipment, I have to rate it as a much simpler game.

Upcoming Games: Warriors of Legend (1993), Talisman (1985), Hired Guns (1993), Realms of Darkness (1987), Pathways into Darkness (1993), Sandor II (1990)

All right, let's give this a try, based on this suggestion by Gnoman. Here's where we can talk about the next six games on the list. This type of entry will not recur if people post spoilers, so please don't do that. What's allowed here are:

    

• Opinions about the game's RPG status
• Tips for emulating the game 
• Known bugs and pitfalls
• Tips for character creation
• Trivia
• Sources of information about the game from around the web

    

There are no hard rules otherwise, but let me encourage you to primarily comment in this forum if you already know something about a game from personal experience and would like to share it. I don't think it would be a good use of any commenter's time to try to act as my unofficial assistant and to load up the comments section with lots of pre-game research. I have my own process for that, which I enjoy, and I'm not looking to farm it out.  

One major exception would be foreign language sources that are in formats not easily translatable. I am very grateful to past commenters who have assisted with things like manual translations. This will allow us to get a head start on that kind of process.

 

Here are the next six games:

 

• Warriors of Legend (USA, 1993, DOS, Synergistic): This is the last title to use the World Builder engine that the company debuted in War in Middle Earth (1988) and used in the two Excalibur games, pluse Conan: The Cimmerian (1991). At first glance, it seems to be a more complex game than Conan, with four characters.

• Talisman (UK, 1985, ZX Spectrum, SLUG): I'm skeptical of the game's RPG status, but a couple of sources list it as such. It's based on the popular Games Workshop board game of the same name.

• Hired Guns (UK, 1993, DOS, DMA): Lots of opinions already that it's not an RPG, but both MobyGames and Wikipedia call it such, so it at least gets a BRIEF.

• Realms of Darkness (USA, 1987, Apple II, SSI): The last few times I tried this game, I couldn't get it to work, but I have lots of feedback on how to solve those problems, and I'm ready to try again.

• Pathways into Darkness (USA, 1993, Macintosh, Bungie): Looks like a first-person shooter to me, but I guess maybe it has weapon skills that increase? Again, worth at least a BRIEF.

• Sandor II (Germany, 1990, Atari ST): An early Motelsoft game that I missed on the first pass, it seems to combine top-down outdoor exploration with first-person dungeon exploration.

   

If all goes well, we'll have another of these entries when Sandor II makes it to the "current" list.

 

Phantasy Star: The Gang's All Here

 

No, I must not let my brother die unavenged. You're not the leader here.

    

All right. The solution to my recent conundrum was to keep pestering the guy at the second-hand store in Scion to sell "secrets" until he finally gave in—it took four tries, I believe. (Thanks to George Grady and thekelvingreen.) I don't know how an era player would be expected to figure that out. In any event, the "secrets" turned out to be a Roadpass, allowing me access to the spaceport from either Camineet or Parolit.

     

The spaceport offered a few new encounters and NPCs:

    

• "Long ago, a spaceship was built in the gothic laboratory." Means nothing to me yet.

• "The governor is in Paseo. He rules all of Motavia." So Paseo is on another planet. Got it.

     

The dialogue cut-off is funny here.

     

• "This is Palma's spaceport." I think I could have figured that out. "From the spaceport, you can go to Paseo on Motavia."

• A storefront offered a passport after I answered some questions: "Have you ever done anything illegal?" and "Do you currently have an illness?" Answering yes to either of these gets you kicked out with the admonition to "come back later." Answering no gets you a passport for 100 mesetas.

      

The passport gets me past a couple of guards and to the northern part of the city map, where there are three shuttles. All of them are bound for Motavia, so I guess I can't visit the third planet until later. Oddly, the shuttle trip doesn't seem to cost any money.

         

That is a planet we're flying into, correct?

   

An animation shows us blasting off from Palma, flying through space, and arriving at the desert planet of Motavia. The shuttles in its spaceport are all heading back to Palma. A few NPCs are present:

   

• "It is said that ant lions roam in the desert." I know what an "ant lion" is in real life. In an RPG, it could be a lot of things.

• "There is a cake shop in the cave called Naula on Palma." Why is there a cake shop in a cave? Why is there any kind of shop in a (locked) cave?

• "Welcome to the Paseo spaceport on Motavia." I'm learning that every town has at least one NPC who tells you exactly where you are, in case you haven't been paying attention.

          

Exploring a new world.

       

I walk past two guards to the exit, where a conveyor belt takes me to a larger city full of more stuff. At the first store I stop in, the clerk offers to sell a "rare animal" for 1 billion mesetas. (Part of me wants to know what happens if you grind for 1 billion mesetas and then say "yes.") When I balk, he offers to trade it for the Laconian pot that someone gave me on Camineet. The animal turns out to be "Myau," a talking cat-looking thing with multiple tails and a vial of medicine that he says will cure Odin. He joins me and bounds along behind me as I continue to explore the city.

     

The manual: "An unusual animal who looks like a cat. He speaks the human language." I still feel some more explanation is needed.

     

He also appears as a party member on my status screen. He's Level 1, with no experience and no equipment. The book notes that there are weapons and armor that only he can use.

       

My cat cannot wield a sword. Cats are so useless.

     

As for the rest of the city:

    

• The armory sells a couple of armor upgrades: thick fur for 630 mesetas (that's for Myau, though I don't know for sure that Alis can't use it) and diamond armor for 15,000. 

• The second-hand shop sells passports, but I'm not sure how you'd get here without one.

• There's a dungeon in town with a locked door.

• "Motavia's governor and Lassic are not on good terms, it is said." Sounds like a potential ally.

• "The governor loves sweets, I hear" and "A gift is needed if you wish to see the governor." Ah, I see. Classic console RPG logic. To gain an ally as part of an interplanetary revolution, I'm going to need to give the governor a cake that I bought in a cave—which of course is the only "sweet" in the solar system, in the only shop selling sweets in the solar system.
  

• "This is Paseo, Motavia's capital." There he is again.

• "It's not possible to pass through ant lion on foot." Wait, what is an ant lion here? 

• "Some intelligent monsters have their own language." I guess that's what the CHAT spell is for. It never seems to work, though.

• "There is a cave called Maharu in the mountain to the north of Paseo." Noted. 

      

We exit the town. There is indeed a whole row of ant lions to the north of the city, and walking into them initiates combat. I soon learn that when you have multiple party members, you specify an action for each character in combat, after which they execute together, just as in Wizardry. Myau is killed immediately, so have to reload. 

    

It soon becomes clear that large parts of Motavia are blocked off by lines of ant lions, which is what the NPC meant by not being able to walk through them. We fare better against some giant scorpions, but other enemies on the map are too tough for us, and I decide it's best to head back to Palma and get Odin so we can all grind together. Yes, I know how that sounds.

      

Alis contemplates a sea of ant lions.

     

A couple of passport checks later, we're back on Palma. We rest up, buy some flashlights, and head to the cave. I notice that with Myau in my party, enemies now frequently attack 3 or 4 at a time, when before they were limited to 2. Myau doesn't fare well against multiple enemy parties, so I leave the caves and spend some time grinding him to Level 5 (and Alis to Level 9) before we try again.

    

We reach Odin and open the medicine, which is called "Alsulin." It turns him to flesh. Alis asks him why he tried to kill Medusa, and he replies that she has the Mystic Axe. He also says he stashed a compass somewhere in the cave. When he hears Alis's story, he agrees to join the party: "I must not let your brother die unavenged."

     

Odin's flesh—and clothing—lose their stone form.

     

Odin also joins at Level 1, though with statistics that I didn't get until Level 4. He also has an iron axe and iron armor, which means I don't have to worry about equipping him for a while.

      

Enemies start attacking us 6 at a time as we explore long enough to find Odin's compass. That should get us through the Forest of Eppi. By the time we get back to Camineet, Odin is Level 3, and I have enough money to buy us both iron shields. 

   

The compass does get us through the forest and to the town of Eppi, where:

   

• The armory sells iron axes, needleguns, and bronze shields. Bronze shields are worse than the iron shields I already bought. The iron axe turns out to be so cheap it must suck. Apparently, only Odin can use needleguns. I can't quite afford one, but I'm close enough that I go back outside and do a little grinding.

      

For when you want to annoy the hell out of a bunch of enemies.

    

• "The governor of Motavia might possibly help you well." Right, if I can get him a cake.

• "Noah lives on Motavia." That's supposed to be my third companion. I should probably try to find him sooner rather than later.

• "Are you looking for a dungeon key?" YES. "I've hidden a dungeon key in a warehouse in the outskirts of the Camineet." I didn't realize it was the Camineet.

      

And then there's the NPC who exists only to tell you the town name.

     

• "Dr. Luveno had a laboratory in the Gothic Forest long ago, it is said." Okay, and from what I heard above, some spaceship was built there. Perhaps finding this ship is the key to more open exploration, untethered to the shuttle schedule between Palma and Motavia.

• "Do you know what the hardest, strongest material in our world is?" NO. "It's Laconia! Arms made with Laconia are the best to have." Ah, that's why the pot was so valuable. I thought it was just from New Hampshire.

     

I have no idea what the "warehouse in the outskirts of the Camineet" is, but I take the chance that it's the dungeon that I initially explored, and I'm right. So this is the sort of game where you can't find things ahead of time; you can only find them when certain plot points have been tripped. 

   

We use the dungeon key to enter the cave Iala, south of Scion, where I proceed to waste about 2 hours Being Stubborn. I have no particular reason to be here, and will inevitably have to come back later for some quest item I haven't triggered yet, but I insist on exploring what turns out to be four 16 x 16 "worm tunnel" levels full of traps, chests, and trapped chests. I have to leave to refresh a few times, and at least twice I overextend myself, get killed, and have to reload from outside. 

     

Using my new dungeon key.

     

In the end, Alis is Level 13, Myau is Level 11, and Odin is Level 10. We have over 5,000 mesetas, and we've found an iron fang, which is one of the only weapons that Myau can wield. Myau got magic points at some point, along with a healing spell called CURE that Alis doesn't have.

      

I'm not sure it was worth the time I spent in here.

     

I now want to go find Noah before I spend any more time grinding or make any more decisions about where to spend money. But I figure I should get the cake before heading back to Motavia. Naula turns out to be the dungeon I thought it was, north of Scion. It's also four levels, but smaller than Iala, and with easier monsters and no traps.

   

And yes, on the bottom level, is, inexplicably, a pastry shop. I have to pay 1,000 mesetas for a shortcake.

     

How do you get ingredients down here? How do you have any customers?

    

The party takes the shuttle back to Motavia. I buy some thick fur, confirm that only Myau can use it, and give it to him. The locked dungeon in Paseo, which we now can open with a key, takes us to a small passageway that leads to an island with the governor's mansion. A guard stops us along the way and relieves us of the shortcake.

     

Is this what you dreamed of doing when you were young?

       

The governor turns out to be refreshingly open about his treason: "I am told you intend to try to kill Lassic. I admire your courage. In the Maharu Cave lives an espar named Noah. I will give you a letter of introduction to present to her [an error, I guess; elsewhere, Noah is called a "him"]. I have faith that you will kill Lassic and return here eventually."

      

I intend to kill Lassic. I don't intend to try.

     

The game automatically has us "rest" in the mansion. In our dreams, we're attacked by a "saccubus" with 255 hit points. It kills us all before we've whittled away a fraction of his health, but it turns out to just be a dream, and we awaken no worse for the wear. I'm not sure what that was about.

    

The map in the manual shows only one cave on Motavia. It turns out we can defeat the ant lions now, but it also turns out that they don't disappear after you defeat them, so attacking them is not the key to getting past them. Noah's cave is accessible without needing to cross their lines anyway. 

      

The map even shows the ant lions.

       

Maharu is a two-level affair that I have to roughly map because there are a lot of corridors and intersections. We find Noah on Level 2. He originally expresses annoyance that we're bothering him, but he changes his tune when he sees the letter from the governor: "We must protect the planets of the Algol system from evil." He recommends first going to the Gothic Forest to find Dr. Luveno; a manhole in the spaceport should get us there.

      

That governor must be a persuasive writer.

          

Noah predictably comes at Level 1, with a wooden cane and a white mantle. The manual makes it clear that he's going to be limited to wands and robes for weapons and armor. He also comes with a "Cure" spell.

    

Before we head to the Gothic Forest, I take the party back to Palma for some equipment upgrades. Alis and Odin get ceramic shields from Camineet, ceramic swords from Parolit, and zirconian armor from Scion. That means with the exception of the 15,000-meseta diamond armor in Paseo, I've bought the best of everything so far. I grind Noah a few levels and then head back to Motavia.

    

The party takes the conveyor belt to the spaceport.

   

I can't find a manhole to save my life. I realize Noah never specified the Paseo spaceport. We fly back to Palma, and there it is in the southwest corner of that spaceport.

    

Soon, we're in another dungeon. It's a quick, completely-linear corridor with only one branch that leads to an NPC saying, "I'm busy. Don't bother me." The dungeon exits into a little walled village full of gravestones and empty houses. After I give her a cola, an NPC gives me the story: "This was once the laboratory of Dr. Luveno. He went bonkers, though, and [is] imprisoned in Triada to the south of here." The second-hand shop sells a magic lantern, so I shouldn't need flashlights in dungeons anymore. Another NPC warns me of a nearby tower with a magic beast who turns people to stone. 

      

I'm not sure that a "magic lamp" is necessary. A non-disposable flashlight would have been fine.

      

Outside, it's clear that while underground, we crossed the river west of Camineet and are now on a second continent. I start exploring, find a passage through some mountains, and follow it to a pyramid-looking structure, which I end this session in the midst of exploring.

     

Yet another dungeon.

     

I'll talk about combat before I go. It's frequent and a bit boring, and I don't mind admitting that I've been cranking up the emulator speed to get through it quickly.  As I mentioned, it draws from a base that goes back to Wizardry: Each party member selects an action, and then you watch as the actions execute, threaded with the enemy actions in some kind of invisible initiative order.

      

Facing off against a new enemy.

      

The problem is that the system really isn't that interesting without spells. For most of the game, none of the characters have had any combat spells. At some point, Alis got FIRE, which blasts all enemies in a party for a few points of damage, at the cost of 4 magic points. Its comparison to a physical attack is not significant enough to favor it over saving those spell points for healing. She also recently got ROPE, which entangles an enemy for a round, so perhaps I'll find that interesting the next time I face a really tough enemy. (CHAT hasn't worked once. Neither has the "Talk" action, even on humanoid enemies). Myau and Noah don't really have anything better.

      

These guys seem cute.

    

Perhaps the bigger issue is that battles are too frequent to micromanage them with spells that may offer a slight edge but don't make a crucial difference in whether you win or lose. I've found that combat is a very binary affair: either the party whomps an enemy or gets whomped by it. If the latter is true, spending another 20 minutes grinding seems to be a better solution than slowing down every combat to experiment with things like ROPE. I think Final Fantasy offered more clear advantages to spellcasting, with a greater variety of interesting spells. I'll report again when I've achieved some more spell levels.

    

More on wherever the hell I am next time.

 

Time so far: 8 hours

The Master Game List

This is a note to let you know about two things. First, I have made a page dedicated to information about the Master Game List. Desktop users will see it among the pages in the upper-right corner. Mobile users will see it in the drop-down menu under the header image.

    

Since I can't allow comments on pages without breaking the "Recent Comments" page and widget, this entry can serve that purpose, and after it publishes, I'll link it from the page.

   

I also want to let you know about a slight change in protocol in how I approach the list. This change is to stop wasting my time with BRIEFs on type-in games and proto-RPGs that do not meet my RPG definitions. This is what I'm going to do from now on:

   

• Put any game that any of my sources lists as an RPG on the master list initially (status of "Unplayed").

• When the game comes up to be added to the "Recent and Upcoming" list, I will do some initial investigation to see whether I agree that it's an RPG. If I agree that it is, I will add it to the "Recent and Upcoming" list, and you can expect an entry.

• If I don't agree that it is, I will see if any other source lists it as an RPG. If at least two sources call it an RPG, I will at least BRIEF it, even if I don't agree.

• If only one source calls it an RPG and I don't agree, I will delete it and move on.

  

These changes naturally don't apply to games I've already played or BRIEFed. There's also still room for exceptions.

    

I've added GameFAQs and the Universal Videogame List to my list of sources, but I think I might just use them as confirmation sources rather than populate my master list with entries that are only in those sources. The list of sources may otherwise change over time, and I'm happy to take nominations for other sources, particularly platform-specific ones that might lead me to find games for undervalued platforms.

 

Again, use the comment section for this entry to discuss anything else about the Master Game List page.

   

Die Prüfung: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

 

Calm down, Harry.

     

Die Prüfung

"The Examination"

Germany
Amos (developer); Kingsoft (publisher)

Released in 1993 for Commodore 64

Date Started: 24 February 2025  

Date Ended: 9 March 2025

Total Hours: 12
Difficulty: Moderate (3.0/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)  

     

During my first session, I solved the first two parts of the titular examination. Afterwards, I was cast outside to find the third test. My masters didn't tell me where to go, but it turns out you can only enter dungeons if you have a reason to be there. After a couple of attempts, I found where I needed to be at "The Hole."

       

As I explored this new dungeon, I became aware that the translators of this "English version" did an abominable job. They simply didn't translate some words, mistranslated others, and used unnecessary colloquialisms that rarely appear in written language. Almost every "you" is rendered as "ya"; almost every "your" as "yer"; almost every "of" as "o'"; almost every "the" as "da"; almost every "because" as "coz." "Want to" and "going to" are always "wanna" and "gonna." There are contractions that we don't actually use in English (e.g. "Who're ya?") and weird obscenities that aren't in the original. Enemies kept calling me "bugger." Repeatedly, I had to look up YouTube videos of the game, find the appropriate place, and look at the original German so I could translate it properly.

      

I have a similar one about this translation.

        

You may ask why I didn't just bring my saved game over to the original German disk. The answer is that I couldn't get the game to save. It's supposed to do so every time you rest, but it never worked. Maybe I screwed up an emulator setting. Whatever the case, I had to rely on save states, and I wasn't about to start over.

       

I don't normally like to show "cracktro" screens, but Armageddon deserves to be remembered for this one.

     

The Hole had an undead theme going on—three levels of zombies, vampires, "carnghosts," "leechdemons," and "varndagals." The battles were alternately easy and hard. I acquired third-level spells during the last session, including "Firestorm," which does around 40-50 points of damage to every enemy on the screen, but at a hefty casting cost. Two castings wiped out parties of zombies but not some of the higher-level undead. I had to parcel my magic points carefully and save some of my points for healing spells and/or "Firewall," which does about 100 points of damage to anyone in the first rank.

     

The toughest enemies in this area.

      

At one point, a ghost asked me if I was "Cendoras." I'm not sure who that is, but his name got me past a number of password checks. Yeah, the dungeon had about six places where I had to enter a word, which of course I had to enter by scrolling the joystick through the alphabet and hitting the button when it was on the right letter. If I wanted to play a console game, I would have picked one from the list.

     

Everything about this screen is annoying.

         

I couldn't get past a party of 9 carnghosts, so I took an alternate path, which brought me to the lair of a friendly gnome. He introduced himself as Arndogas the Wise, which I guess is a name that my character knew, but the translation was a bit unclear as to what it meant. Arnagard later called him "the founder of our magic." After saying he wouldn't compromise the test by helping me, he winked and gave me a "Staff O'White Magic." He assured me, "Wou'll need it."

     

You have to give respect to the "inventor of our view on the world."

        

The staff had four uses and cast a powerful mass-damage spell that got me past the carnghosts and a couple of other tough battles. On a lower level, I found a new best weapon (a fire sword), a new best armor (a trenchcoat), my first shield, several gems, and a lot of money that the game never gave me any opportunity to spend.

   

It turned out that the dungeon was inhabited by a red demon named Garnadas who existed as two entities, meaning I would have to kill him twice. In both cases, he attacked me alone, so he wasn't very hard.

     

That was anticlimactic.

    

Once I had killed both versions of the demon, Arndogas (or "Arndoga") appeared and congratulated me, awarding me 1,000 experience points. I walked back out of the dungeon and returned to the Castle of Wizards.

    

Did I do something that made you feel I lacked self-control?

      

At this point, the game completely glitched. Arnagard was supposed to say something to me, but I just got a bunch of random symbols. I had to look up his (long) speech online and translate it myself. From this point on, a line of gibberish remained at the bottom of my screen.

        

Go home, Arnagard. You're drunk.

        

The gist is that I could tell something was wrong the moment I entered the castle; there was too much activity. Arnagard explained that some hole had opened up in Dorsten Cave. Ternados and two mages named Anderson and Valria went to check things out and did not come back. Through magic, Arnagard could tell that they were alive, probably taken prisoner. "Who captured them? I cannot tell you for sure. Not yet."

   

He said that because of this peril, the fourth and fifth tests would be combined into one: "Go down into the Dorsten Cave, find the dark hole, and free our brothers and sister. Then, with your combined forces, defeat the intruder who held them captive." You won't hear any complaints at this end about making my "examination" four tasks instead of five.

    

I had already found the cave while searching for the Hole, so I returned and entered. I noticed that I had received Level 4 spells at some point: "Push Opponents Away" (a stronger version than the Level 3 one, I assume), "Healing," "Death Breath" (one opponent in melee range), "Fire Magic" (a more powerful "Firestorm," affecting all opponents), and "Lava Rocks" (all opponents up to 7 steps).

      

Entering the final dungeon.

      

The Dorsten Cave was about 7 levels, which sounds like a lot, but they go fast in this game. The walls were full of ominous messages rendered unintentionally goofy by the poor translation (e.g., "A DOZEN MIGHTY WIZARDS EXILED DA CREATURE TO HELL"; "THE CREATURE O'SHADOWS WILL SOON AWAKE").

       

Da Presence O'Evil should have been the name of the game.

         

The gist seemed to be that long ago, some sorcerers of my order had driven a demonic creature off this plane, but he swore to return and now apparently has. Eventually, I found a magic mouth that named the demon as Morangok the Dark, which is a name I had already heard in the first dungeon, an ally of the kobolds there.

    

I don't think that's very "cool," no.

        

Enemies included giant worms called "gloomworms" and "sparnărmers," various kinds of giant rats, orcish-looking creatures called "grandars" (they look like, and I'm sure were copied from, Gamorreans from Star Wars), skeletons, zombies, "spectralghosts," and demons. There really wasn't much to do but just blast them with my best mass-damage spell as many times as necessary, then rest to restore my magic points. Most enemies at this point could attack me from a range, so I couldn't keep doing the early-game strategy of using my weapons against first-rank foes. Even with the best weapon and armor in the game, enemies were capable of swiping away 40% of my hit points in one hit, whereas my own melee attacks never did as much as even a modest spell. I guess that goes well enough with the backstory.

     

Run back to Jabba's palace.

      

The only enemies that gave me a lot of trouble were demons, who could stand up to three castings of "Fire Spell" and still have some hit points to spare. Moreover, they would often kill me before I could even finish those three castings. I had to use a lot of magic-restoring items (gems and magic staves) or mass-damage items like Fire Wands whenever I encountered them, and even then I only won after a few reloads. Fortunately, there weren't many of them.

      

Not quite 40%, but this wasn't the hardest that he could hit.

         

I ultimately reached Level 9. At some point, it seemed unreasonable not to put all of my attribute upgrades into "Mental" so that I could increase my magic points. Equipment upgrades came every once in a while, but they never felt like they really did anything. The game had me continue to find axes and swords long after I had much better weapons; since there's no place to sell anything, I'm not sure what the purpose is. The armor ladder is somewhat amusing; in order, it goes: gown, cape, trenchcoat, leather jacket, "armor" (just that), and weapon skirt.

      

Allocating my last attribute point.

       

There are, as I said, usable items. Magic gems and magic staves restore magic points; "lifejuice" restores hit points. Compasses put a compass on the screen in case you don't want to spend magic points on one. "Slime phials" are like grenades. Wind Staves cast the "push enemies back" spell, but the game crashes after they're used. Overall, items weren't a big part of my game, since the basic strategy—cast the most damaging spell and rest afterwards—never changed.

   

Messages told me that to defeat Morangok, I would need to find a magic sword and unite it with a Sun Gem. I eventually found an area of prison cells and found Anderson dead in one of them, the magic sword Xerador beneath his body.

       

I'd better be careful; Noone is a tricky bastard.

     

Messages said that the Sun Gem was guarded by the King of Rats. I had to fight my way through rats of various types, all mostly dying to one casting of "Fire Spell." After I found the Sun Gem embedded in a wall, the King of Rats attacked me by himself and was not hard to defeat. But afterwards, some kind of black shadow passed over me and stole the gem.

    

One of many rat battles in this area.

        

There was an encounter that I didn't understand on the next level. A message read: "There is only one weapon to stop the dark creature, but no one can touch that weapon without destroying it!" Sure enough, I later found a "magic weapon" sticking out of a wall, and when I tried to grab it, it disintegrated. But since I already had Xerador, I'm not sure what that weapon was supposed to be. 

      

Maybe it's a college fraternity pledge.

       

Miscellaneous notes:

   

• Unlike the other dungeons, Dorsten Cave had some legitimate random battles. I could have grinded if I thought it was necessary. 

• The game precedes most encounters with a line or two of text. I always appreciate a little context for my battles, even when it's a bit laughable.

        

Guess what I encountered a couple steps later?

What else is there to say?

      

• I ended the game with 2,485 gold pieces. At no point in the entire game was there even a hint of a place where they could be spent.

• The game really loved its secret doors in this final dungeon. I had to turn and look at basically every wall.

     

At last, on the lowest level, I entered a great hall. Morangok, in a shadow form, was flying around the room. Ternados and Valria were chained to the wall. The Sun Gem sat on a pedestal. Morangok taunted me and tempted me to take it. Valria (or "Valerie"; the translation has it both ways) gave me a subtle signal not to do so.

   

What happens if I ignore her.

     

I declined to take it, and the narrative took over, describing how, instead, I swung mightily at Morangok with Xerador, but the sword passed through his ephemeral form. Instead, it arced downward and sliced through the Sun Gem and split it into two halves. Some kind of light came out of the gem and sucked Morangok into it.  

      

So the Sun Gem is like one of those Ghostbusters traps?

       

As I freed my two companions, Valria gushed at how I "used the gem, the gate of the worlds, in the right moment!" They explained that the gem is a dimensional gate. "Morangok is on another world now," Valyria said. "Hopefully, nobody is living there," Ternados added.

      

Yep, that was all 100% intention. I totally understand what just happened.

          

The game related how we made our way back to the Tower of Wizards—no, wait, "Da Tower O'Wizards"—where Arnagard reviewed my accomplishments and declared me a "real wizard." On a reload, I took the gem, and it blew up in my face and killed me instantly.

     

Didn't I already live with you?

     

I promise I won't let any of the translation issues affect the GIMLET:

        

• 3 points for the game world. It's not extensive, but it tells an uncommon story (an apprentice wizard taking his final test). 

     

This reminds me of that "Da War a' da Woilds" SNL skit from the 1980s.

     

• 3 points for character creation and development. You get a few options for the distribution of attribute points, and leveling is somewhat rewarding, but mostly because you get more maximum health and magic. The game strongly encourages a particular "build," and I'm not sure whether it's possible to win if you, for instance, tried to create a fighter-type character.

• 0 points for NPC interaction. The game doesn't really have NPCs so much as "encounters," so I gave a boost to the next category.

• 4 points for encounters and foes. Enemies are nothing special. They're mostly differentiated by their range and the power of their attacks. There are no special attacks, defenses, effects, or vulnerabilities. There are a lot of contextual encounters, messages, light puzzles, and yes/no choices, certainly enough to keep things mildly interesting.

• 3 points for magic and combat. There are seeds of a good combat system here. I like the idea of a "combat rank" system and spells that keep all but a manageable number of enemies at bay. The Bard's Tale-inspired spell system is okay except that the nature of battle, and the ease of resting and healing, encourages you to just blast away with your most powerful spells.

       

Lead us, lest too far we wander . . .

     

• 3 points for equipment. As above. You get some upgrades along the way and a few usable items. They don't really feel like they're helping most of the time.

• 0 points for the economy. The game rewards you with gold and gives you nowhere to spend it.

• 2 points for a main quest with no side-quests or optional areas.

• 1 points for graphics, sound, and interface. The ugly graphics, ALL CAPS text, occasional bloopish sound effects, and all-joystick control are worth 0 points. I give 1 to the automap.

      

The best part of the game.

    

• 4 points for gameplay. Though linear and not replayable, it gets some credit for its modest challenge and sensible length. It's not often that a game tells you how long it's going to take at the outset and then lops off some of that time.

    

The final score of 23 is what I would give for a game that shows some promise but needs a little more polish. Certainly, by 1993, there isn't much exciting about a single-character Bard's Tale with mysterious messages scrawled on dungeon walls. 

    

This looks like Zeus is going to smite a couple of miserable dwarves.

     

The game was reviewed by at least two German magazines. The September 1994 Play Time gave it 60% (but had complimentary things to say) while the May 1993 64'er gave it 80%. It's hard not to detect a little favoritism for a native game in reviews that talk about "an extensive combat system" and "lovingly drawn graphics." (I was glad to see that both reviews noted the automap.) But perhaps the phrases "for a budget game" or "for a platform for which no one is making commercial titles anymore" are meant to be understood between the lines.

     

The actual final screen.

      

The authors (Dirk Valkyser and Ralf Kirking) had reportedly intended Die Prüfung as the first of a series, but it never materialized. The authors did release another game called Berania: Estes Buch: Der Kampf (1994), which I understand is a lot larger. I guess we'll see it if I can get to 1994. For now, let's just appreciate that I managed to finish two German games in a row. We'll see if we can continue the streak for the next two games, which, by luck of the draw, also happen to be German. Heiliger Strohsack.