New Year's News

 

Happy New Year, Addicts! I don't know about you, but I'm glad to see the end of 2020. In the coming year, I'm looking forward to Zack Snyder's Justice League, herd immunity, finally getting to see live jazz in a club again, and reaching Might and Magic IV and V.

   

I just wanted to note three things as we begin our first days of the new year:

    

1. I finished 2020 with 141 entries. That's fourth-highest among the 11 years I've been blogging, and the highest since 2013. Moreover, those early years tended to feature shorter entries, so I suspect that I wrote more words in 2020 than any previous year. I don't know of any way to count words to know for sure.

2. Part of the reason I managed to complete the year without any long breaks is the mild pressure I've felt from having Patreon supporters. Every time I say something like that, I get a lot of comments to the effect of "we don't care how often you post," and I appreciate them, but I still feel that since I'm being paid for this blog, I need to elevate it slightly higher on my priority list, even when things get busy otherwise. This feeling is just enough to be motivating and not enough to be damaging, so it's a good thing.

   

I'm going to do a better job in 2021 of keeping my patrons updated with "micro-updates" and thinking of better ways to recognize their patronage. As I recently reported to them, their support allowed me to purchase a relatively expensive gift for Irene for Christmas and to make a needed upgrade to my house. These sorts of things help justify the amount of time I spend on the blog.

 

3. PC Gamer featured my work in an article that appeared in the November print edition and was posted online earlier this week.

4. I recently contributed to another Hardcore Gaming 101 "Top 47,858 Games of All Time" podcast on Pool of Radiance. You can listen to it here.

 

Finally . . .

 

Spice up your New Year with Two New Retro RPGs

   

Two frequent CRPG Addict commenters have recently announced games that are go beyond "retro"--they're designed for, and work on, original hardware. The first is Nox Archaist, led by Mark Lemmert, who comments as U3_Guru. Designed for the Apple II, Archaist is set in a peaceful world that has recently seen the emergence of a strange cult. The primary PC, an adventurer trained under the Order of the Nox Archaist, is directed by the queen to investigate. He charters a ship for a nearby island, but it turns out to be run by pirates who throw the PC in the brig. The game begins as it runs aground. 

           

        

Archaist imagines what would have happened if CRPG development had continued on the Apple II for another decade or so. It thus includes plenty of advanced elements that no one had conceived when the Apple II was in its heyday, but that are still technically possible on the platform (at least, the Apple IIc or above; the game does require 128K of memory). Heavily influenced by the Ultima series, it has the tactical combat screen of Ultima III-V (but with a "quick combat" option), the keyword-based dialogue of Ultima IV-VI, and the ability to activate a single party member at a time that only appeared in VI. However, the game goes beyond the Ultima series in character development. Each character has three attributes (strength, dexterity, and intelligence) and six skills (melee, range, critical hit, dodge/parry, and lockpicking), which are improved through training and direct use. Thus, the player doesn't choose a class for the characters but rather defines a class through the use of skills. There is also a set of original spells.

       

Exploring the pirate ship at the beginning of Nox Archaist.

      

The second title is Adamantyr's Realms of Antiquity: The Shattered Crown for the TI-99/4A. It boasts a party of four characters from nine classes, seven schools of magic with 60 spells, a full set of skills and attributes, and also an Ultima-inspired tactical combat screen. I know less about it because I haven't had the chance to play it myself yet, but it looks beautiful. In none of the era titles have we seen such advanced graphics and gameplay mechanics on the TI-99.

       

       

Both games share excellent production values. They come with professional-quality manuals with professional-quality maps and cover art. In the case of Archaist, the cover was designed by ORIGIN legend Denis Loubet. (The game also features a cameo by Lord British, who gave the game his official blessing on Twitter.) 

       

Combat in Realms of Antiquity.

       

I hope to get to them both eventually, but don't wait for me. Purchase Nox Archaist and Realms of Antiquity at their linked web sites. And U3_Guru and Adamantyr, please feel free to comment with any additional game features you'd like to highlight.