Another compilation of BRIEFs too short even for a BRIEF. All I had time for this week--first week of classes.
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| Thanks. Happy to be here. Briefly. |
Cyberworld
United States
Progressive Peripherals and Software (developer and publisher)
Released 1983 for Commodore 64Rejected for: No character attributes or development
Cyberworld, from Denver-based Progressive Peripherals, puts you in the role of a spacefarer trying to seize control of a Drokon warship. As he runs through the maze, which slowly reveals at the top of the screen, he fights aliens and their robots and collects various useful equipment and treasures. Movement and combat are action-oriented; and at least on lower difficulty levels (the game has you choose between 1-10), you can run around enemies instead of fighting them, although I think you ultimately have to kill them all to take over the warship.
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| A monster and a few chests in this room. |
The game is randomized for each new play, and a leaderboard keeps track of the best runs. There are no attributes attached to the character, alas, except a health meter represented as a percentage. In both content and atmosphere (if not the specific interface), the game reminds me vaguely of the two StarQuest titles. Progressive Peripherals and its programmer, Sean A. Moore, were much better known for the puzzle-platformer Wizard (1984) and its Ultimate sequel (1986).
*******
Storm-Tamer
United States
Softdisk (developer and publisher)
Released 1990 for Commodore 64 via LoadStar issue #78Rejected for: No character attributes or development
This title by frequent Loadstar contributor Jon Mattson was written using his Questwriter software. The sub-title screen suggests it is part of a series called The Numehra Saga, but I can't find any other games for the so-called Saga. The game casts you in the role of a tavernkeeper in a seaside village where times are tough. A storm started ravaging the coast some weeks ago and has refused to abate, driving most people from their homes. One night, a disheveled traveler appears at the tavern door, introducing himself as a colleague of your late father, a famous mage. The visitor--calling himself Roth--says that the storm is the work of sorcery, and that to stop it, he needs a talisman that your father collected during his adventures. He sends you to your room to grab the artifact, and he is mysteriously gone when you return, leaving you to head out on the adventure by yourself.
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| A gameplay screen. |
Storm-Tamer seems a pure text adventure with no hint of any RPG elements. It is mostly played with single keys, such as directionals, G)et, and U)se, although some commands require you to type the names of objects on screen or in your inventory. I guess there might be combat in the game, probably activated by U)sing a weapon, but I couldn't find any enemies. There are no character attributes, leveling, or (as far as I can tell) hit points. All puzzle-solving must be through using items since there are no other commands.
And while we're at it:
*****
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| Notice that it doesn't say "RPG Creator." |
Questwriter
United States
Softdisk (developer and publisher)
Released 1990 for Commodore 64 via LoadStar issue #77Rejected for: No character attributes or development; does not come with sample scenario
The Questwriter tool premiered an issue earlier and is also tagged by GameBase64 as an RPG. I looked through the kit's options, and it doesn't really have any consideration of the character at all--no attributes, conditions, health, or anything else that would satisfy my RPG definitions. Moreover, it's just a kit--it doesn't come with a sample scenario that you can play.
******
Questreader / Alchemist's Quest
United States
Softdisk (developer and publisher)
Released 1990 for Commodore 64 via LoadStar issue #79Rejected for: No character attributes or development
Questreader is the companion to Questwriter, meant to play the scenarios written in the former. The issue of Loadstar in which it appears comes with a sample game called Alchemist's Quest, a Zork-like adventure in which you play an alchemist on a quest to rescue Princess Elayna from an evil wizard's curse that put her to sleep.
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| Fighting a troll in Alchemist's Quest. |
As noted above, the scenarios that you can create with the writer are simple text adventures with limited commands. While you can amass an inventory, there are no attributes, experience, or leveling, and thus the game is an adventure game, not an RPG.
******
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| The title means "death" in Latin, which is always a bad sign. |
Obitus
United Kingdom
Scenario Developments (developer); Psygnosis (publisher)
Released 1991 for DOS, Atari ST, and Amiga; 1994 for SNESRejected for: No character attributes or development
Obitus is a nice-looking game whose authors called it, in the manual, "a gripping combination of RPG and arcade action." You play Wil Mason, a modern Englishman, who crashes his Volvo into a ditch in the middle of nowhere. Crawling out of the wreck, he finds his way to a stone tower and collapses in exhaustion. He awakens to find himself teleported to the troubled, vaguely-medieval world of Middlemere. (He's not aware of this, but the opening cinematic shows the tower being struck by lightning and teleported.) He has to solve the land's mysteries and find his way home.
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| Waking up in the tower. |
I got lost in a forest maze immediately upon leaving the tower so I watched some video on YouTube to see if it was an RPG. It has an RPG-ish approach to maze exploration, though with eight different facing directions instead of just four. You meet enemies as you explore, and combat is action-oriented. You click on your chosen weapon and then the enemy. There are some inventory-based puzzles, weapons and armor to pick up, and lots of mazes. There are health and stamina bars but no attributes, experience, or leveling. I suspect it was influenced by Galdregon's Domain (1991), which featured a similar blend of features that didn't quite equal RPG status. None of the people in its credits were ever involved in another RPG.
Obitus is the most well known of these (I recall it being super cheap since I began to buy game magazines regularly, around 1993), and the canon was already "the technology is cool, but the game is not fun".
ReplyDeleteOr at least that is what my friends said. Magazines were weird in their canon in Spain - probably it was mentioned here already but Shadowlands was considered the best crpg in a community-based regular column during several months, even years, closely followed by Dark Heart of Uukrul, and we can agree there is a leap of fun and quality between both.
Begging sorry for my tangent, let me finish saying that I get as excited as when I was 12 every time I see a game labelled as an rpg that starts with "cyber". It is always a disappointment though.
¡I still remember the big amount of praise which both Shadowlands and Dark Heart of Uukrul received at the "Maniacos del Calabozo" ("Dungeon Maniacs") section on the "Micromania" Spanish magazine!
DeleteAnd obitus was quite praised too. I thought it was only available for Amiga back then.
DeleteAbout shadowlands, I remember it was talked a lot in micromania tok but I never played it until relatively recently when I got quite annoyed by it's pathfinding
My experience with Obitus was also that it's beautifully drawn but not fun to play. And I'm a big fan of Psygnosis in general.
DeleteManiacos del Calabozo was great. I found Ferhergon online a few years ago, and he had a blog about book reviews, I did ask him about RPGs but he said he doesn't really play them anymore
DeleteShadowlands got good reviews in British mags too. The lighting technique and puzzles seemed to impress reviewers. I remember it as being interesting at first but eventually wearing out its welcome.
DeleteI know the feeling: there is always this list of game that don't quite qualify but then their name or, worse, Mobygames classification make them look like they qualify, and you know that if you leave them behind you will see the games again in your filters (or in comments/emails) and wonder again and again "I can't remember why didn't I cover this one!"
ReplyDeleteI like the specific mention of the Volvo.
Just noting -- if you don't like the way the volunteers at Mobygames have categorized a given game, you can always make an account there and file a correction to its entry.
DeleteThe plot of 'Obitus' sounds exactly like the near-death hallucinations one would experience after a severe car crash, à la Jacob's Ladder.
ReplyDeleteOddly, I had the same thought, and I wondered if the title wasn't supposed to be a hint about the ending.
DeleteThis is exactly the right way to get those non-RPGs off your list. No need to bother yourself with them any more than what is absolutely necessary to decide whether they contain enough RPG credentials. Also I suspect Gamebase64 to be a rather unreliable source but your verification is still an accomplishment in itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Though these are lesser known games few people care about. It's nice that they get at least a BRIEF. I hope Syndicate and that-1994-game-I-dare-not-mention-in-this-context get the same treatment, but there may be more complaints.
DeleteAs much as I love Syndicate, I don't think it is in any shape or form a RPG or even RPG-adjacent, nor a game that Chet would love.
DeleteI missed the memo about the 1994 game and now I am too afraid to ask.
Had I said it's XCOM/UFO: Enemy Unknown, I would have just gotten comments that it meets all the criteria of the blog ;)
DeleteAh! Of course! We all know UFO is not a RPG, but yes according to Chet's definition it would qualify.
DeleteChet sometimes add another criteria: exploration, but I believe UFO still qualified with it. On the other hand, I think the difference between Tactical non-RPGs and Tactical RPGs is on expendability of your characters. If you immediately reload when you lose someone in combat (or drag his/her body to the cleric, or can't lose him/her in the first place), it is a Tactical RPGs. If you just consider his/her death a setback and a loss of time while you train new soldiers, that's a Tactical non-RPG, even if there is an inventory and character progression.
That's an awful filtering criteria, because there's plenty of unquestionably-RPG games where permadeath is an intended possibility.
Deletei see a few (eg Wizardry), and none of them are at risk of being mistaken with a tactical game.
DeleteI hadn't played UFO: Enemy Unknown in such a long time, but a small YouTube channel I watch (Get Off My Lawn) just played it a few days ago and it all came back. But yes, I'd agree it isn't an RPG in my eyes... But I'm curious how it'll be handled.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xO8C4lFjpg
So, what you're saying is, if you suck at X-COM, it's a RPG? ;p
DeleteMade me chuckle sensibily. By the way : does having terrible luck with the rng (terrible even for the notorius fame of the game) count as sucking? Because that would make X-com my personal most played rpg ever.
DeleteBut honestly while it has some interesting rpg elements it's still a strategy game with a strong managerial side.
Or maybe it is an rpg but it's so dry in those elements that it just very hard for some (like me) to see it as such.
The whole "rpg elements" can be an interesting term to discuss, since the mid/late 90s many games started incorporating parts that on paper should have added more depth to gameplay, like units gaining levels for example (but few if any would carry this progress from mission to mission like x-com)
Or the main character.
"Economy" as defined here on the blog is usually the most overlooked category. Hexen 2 for example as inventory puzzles and character progression but no economy and it's not considered an rpg but an fps with rpg elements. Is it really the lack of a shop that doesn't make it and, say, Dark forces 2, count as light rpgs but fps with extra kinks?
It's the lack of npcs and dialogue with them the discriminating factor? How many npcs does an rpg require to be considered that? Aren't the nations financing your endevour against the aliens npcs? Basically aren't they your quest-givers?
If the only way to progress in a story is to talk to one character where's the difference between wandering aimlessly until you do or talking with them at the end of a level?
Touché, MK :)
Delete@Narwhal/TWS: I recently discovered 'Gladius' (a 2003 game for PS2, was also released for Xbox and GameCube) which looks interesting - described as "tactical RPG" by LucasArts and featuring schools of gladiators in some kind of fantasy setting. Besides battles in different arenas there is also a (limited) overworld, some back- and developing story, side quests, but the focus is clearly on the battles and building a good, balanced school.
DeleteI mention it because your recruitable gladiators can die in overworld fights (not in the arena) and are gone then, while your support cast apparently can't die - but if your hero character is struck down there, it's game over. So it's not that clear-cut.
Gladius is a straight up rpg, a tactical one, but an rpg nonetheless. You play as the character, either Valens or Ursula, rather than some Nameless, faceless commander
DeleteI don't think there's such a thing as good or bad writing, and it's only one screenshot - but the writing of Storm-Tamer strikes me as rather elegant.
ReplyDeleteI got the same impression off of that one screen! Not overly flourished nor full of typos and grammatical errors. I wouldn't have thought that was so notable but I guess standards were low in the mid-80s.
DeleteI agree, Buck. Thanks for pointing that out. The quality of prose makes a big difference in text adventures.
DeleteWhen I added Cyberworld to Mobygames I classified it as adventure/action. Definitely not an RPG. It's not a bad game, though.
ReplyDeleteIn the game in a room called 'Computer Center' you can find a manual, a C64 and 'Gothmog's Lair' - another game by Progressive Peripherals (this can be seen starting here in this 'Cyberworld' playthrough: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ipVlrKzDVK0&t=180s).
DeleteMight be one of the earlier examples of such a cross-reference style easter egg. Didn"t watch the whole thing, so no idea if it's used and for what.
The instructions/manual from the game file as well as other information extracted can be found here:
https://solutionarchive.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=801.
I have a rather sad story about Obitus. Over at TAG at some point I'm going to be playing Innocent Until Caught, an adventure game published by Psygnosis. Well, I decided I should see if they published any other adventures first and saw that you didn't cover Obitus, and thought that maybe it was an adventure game. At which point I discover the primary team behind it worked on another game called The Kristal.
ReplyDeleteNow, the real auteur behind The Kristal was one of those guys, claiming grand claims which I suppose in 1989 people might have believed. He used to be big in musical theatre, and The Kristal was based off a stage musical that was never produced, yet somehow had the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar work on the demos, as well as someone else who was quite famous but I forgot the name of. The lead character was also called Dancis Frake.
The problem with The Kristal as a game was that everyone outside of one Russian website (which also said the game was good) described it as an adventure game. It was not. It was a combination of an adventure with a lot of weird shooting sections and a lot of swordfighting. Pre-Street Fighter II fighting games tend to be a mixed bag, and this was no Budokan. It was also so badly thought out that any deviation from a specific set of actions resulted in the game becoming unwinnable.
After eventually giving up on the game, I was eager to start Obitus. It looked cool, like some weird Elvira-style game. Alas, it didn't take me very long to realize that the game wasn't an adventure game either. It was just some weird early action-adventure game. Also, while researching it, I found out they were in the middle of making a sequel, but because the demo was so badly bugged, they just gave up and got out of game development.
Interestingly, the SNES version has a different story whose specifics escape me. I think it has to do with four princes and four crystals, with one of the princes going after the other three for their stuff.
Dancis Frake, the subsequent founder of the traveling sci-fi dancing troupe, the Jonathan Frakes.
DeleteThe "Kristal" was one of those games, that showcased the graphics and audio power of Amiga computers, at the time. (Like "Defender of the Crown").
DeleteBut I agree, it was a deeply flawed game!! More of a collection of minigames, with tedious object hunting!!!
What is the sad part about this story?
DeleteThat "it was just some weird early action-adventure game" ? Unclear.
Delete...It was clearly not an adventure game either, thus it wouldn't make much sense to play it after similarly not adventure game The Kristal.
DeleteAlso, I would say the most impressive version of The Kristal was the DOS version, which did a voiced intro via PC Speaker.
Right? When I started Morpheus's comment, I thought someone was going to end up dead. Still, a very interesting history. Thanks for telling us about it.
DeleteNow that you have a few years of experience under your belt, how do you feel about teaching? Are you passionate about it, and do you consider yourself good at it?
ReplyDeleteI consider myself adequate and getting better. I like a lot about it and don't hate anything about it, but I wouldn't consider it my "passion." I miss my old job, and if there were more opportunities to do it without being on the road all the time (like I was between 2010 and 2019), I probably wouldn't still be teaching.
DeleteWord. I've been teaching for 6-7 years now and will never describe it as my passion (or even something I particularly enjoy). It's just the price I pay to let me keep conducting fun, cool, utterly-impractical astronomical research.
DeleteI tried playing obitus so many times after being pulled in by its amazing intro music - truly a 80s nostalgia kick like listening to life in a northern town now - but I could never get into the game because of how bad the controls were.
ReplyDeleteBut I still listen to the intro music because it is that good.
adlib
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAlNTn5JFyg
mt32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE1aYy4d9nc
amiga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OzzgiVArWA
Indeed it looks nice but the controls in the woods are some of the weirdest I've seen. It seems as though N always moves forward, E turns right, and W turns left, no matter which way you're facing? But there's an arrow highlighting which way you're going on the very same compass, so if the arrow is pointing southwest, clicking N moves you southwest? Wow. It doesn't help that the turning animation looks like you're sidestepping.
DeleteAnd if I had played the Abbotsleigh road where it seems like what happens is you navigate a run-and-gun gauntlet (where you don't have enough ammo so you have to jump over everything) and when you get to the end you have to turn around and return where you came from, I might have done something unspeakable.
What I mainly remember about Obitus is that Info magazine's Tom Malcolm said it was the best game he had ever played, full stop. He was not exactly a super-reliable reviewer and usually favored games with graphics that showed off the Amiga's capabilities. He also hated any kind of visible statistical mechanics in videogames and frequently ranted against hit points, insisting that less visually immersive game designs were hopelessly obsolete. I like to think that when the first person shooter genre hit a few years later, he was a happy guy.
ReplyDeleteit's funny what people decide are "immersive" factors in game design and what aren't, sometimes they can hold pretty firmly in the general consensus for a time.
Delete'Questwriter' appears to have been paired with another utility called 'Questreader' to create adventure games. According to the manuals from the game files (text version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gs67hN6cVIT5i3EcF6-mKv4AdX-JhLtK/view) it/they contain a demo adventure (I assume it's 'Alchemist's Quest', mentioned jointly with 'Questreader' online) which can be started by typing "demo". Given its obvious lack of RPG credentials I'm not sure it's still worth the exercise for you, but just in case someone else is interested. The solution and a map can be found here: https://solutionarchive.com/game/id%2C9299/Alchemist%27s+Quest.html.
ReplyDeleteSince there have been few Canadian games so far, I'll just mention that Mattson was apparently based in Canada at the time, though not sure if that changes anything, with Softdisk being the publisher (and they're not numbered games anyway).
Another Mattson game, 'Darkhold', is also listed as "RPG" (2D instead of text this time) on GB64. Not sure if it's also on your backlist - based on a screenshot there, characters seem to only have health and a score besides items. There is also a gameplay video on YT with some comments.
If I'm not mistaken, one of the things that made Obitus famous was actually the physical game. It was sold in an unusually shaped box (flatter, longer, larger), and some editions included a tshirt
ReplyDelete(I could be wrong in some of the details, but I don't think it was a "collectors edition")