Game 524: Enchantasy: The Quest for the Eternal Grimoire (1993)

 

That's a nice title screen for a shareware game.

       

Enchantasy: The Quest for the Eternal Grimoire

United States

EGA Computing (developer); Orion Innovations (publisher) and/or Point of View Software (publisher) and/or published as shareware.
Versions released between 1993 (maybe 1992) and 1996 for DOS

Date Started: 8 July 2024

    

Enchantasy is yet another Ultima clone (with some Magic Candle influence), but at least it's an Ultima V clone. We don't see a lot of those. It doesn't fully replicate the Ultima V interface, but it has the keyword-based dialogue, the tactical combat, and a reasonable attempt at the graphics, including cute touches such as the character sitting in chairs when he walks over them. Commands are all called by a single letter. It doesn't have the object interactivity (e.g., moving things, playing pianos, working clocks) that Ultima V does, but you can't ask for everything.

         

The story begins with a letter.

         

The game is set in a somewhat generic fantasy kingdom called Savallia. The backstory is that you are a wizard's apprentice named Eradan (the name is changeable), abruptly summoned to the Mage Guild of Keldar by Rudimon, the Council Master. The game begins at the gates of the city, where most NPCs tell you that Rudimon is waiting for you. When you find him, he delivers the bad news: After a thousand years of peace (since the Darklord was defeated in the appropriately-named War of the Darklord), monsters and "evil humans" are suddenly roaming everywhere, searching for something, slaughtering innocents along the way, including two retired members of the Mage's Council. Rudimon thinks that they're searching for the Eternal Grimoire, an all-powerful, indestructible spellbook that was corrupted by the Darklord and buried after his defeat. Since the peaceful kingdom lacks any kind of military force, Rudimon instructs you to gather up to three of your friends and start the subtitular quest.

I just want to know if it's a herald of the winged exemplar.

         

There are several mysteries to the game's background:

      

• Author: The author is given on the title screens as "Rick Abel." The developer, "EGA Computing," stands for Eric G. Abel. I do not know whether "Rick" is a nickname for "Eric" or whether it is a separate person, almost certainly a family member. To add to the confusion, both "Richard Abel" and "Rick Abel" appear among the list of playtesters. [Ed. Mr. Abel spelled his name "Erick" and went by "Rick" or "Ricky." He died in 2022 at the age of 68. The Richard Abel listed as a playtester is his son.]
  

       

How many Rick Abels are there?

      

• Publisher: A lot of sites, plus one magazine article, give the publisher as Point of View Software of Irvine, California. The title screens give it as Orion Innovations, a name that belongs to several modern companies, none of which seem to have anything to do with video games. No publisher name appears in any of the files that accompany the game, and it's clear that this release, at least, was shareware. It seems likely that the game went through several publication strategies during its lifetime.

      

Nice logo. The company doesn't otherwise seem to have existed.

      

• Date: The archived AOL Members web site for the game says that it was first released in 1992. However, it is described as an "upcoming" game from Point of View Software in a January 1993 issue of a computer magazine. The copyright screen says 1991-1996. Whatever the date of the original release, this version is definitely a later one, with the files having modified dates as late as 1996.

• Character creation: The shareware version won't let you start a new game or create a new character. You have to use the default starting save. I don't know if the registered version allowed you to create a character other than a mage or one with different statistics.

    

The shareware version also comes with a limitation that allows you to save the game 5 times before you have to pay. Nine years ago, commenter VK (before he was "formerly" known as such) sent me instructions for hacking this up to over 32,000. That works, but the game still gives you a bunch of screens demanding that you register every time you save--and you only get one slot. 

        

This is going to get annoying.

      

The default character begins at Level 1 with a strength and dexterity (the only two traditional attributes) of 3, 12 hit points, and 10 magic points. Each character has six skills: weapons, bows, magic, lockpick, language, and first aid. Eradan is oddly proficient in weapons (3), less so in language (2), not so much in magic (1), and not at all in the others. His spellbook starts with "Minor Healing" and "Fireball"; I suspect the game is going to follow the Ultima tradition of conflating arcane and divine magic. The character starts with 95 gold, 3 keys, 10 arrows, and 3 lockpicks.

     

Rudimon has nothing to say except his long exposition, but there are many other NPCs in Keldar:

   

• Stanton, a visitor who has been to the town many times. 

• An unnamed woman who is sick and wants some healing ointment.

• An unnamed woman who wants me to find her little boy, Joey.

       

      

• Luke, a child and friend of Joey's who says the boy has been missing for about a week. He thinks Joey may have wandered into the dungeon, where monsters got him. He also tells me that a friend of mine said he'd meet me at the Royal Castle, just a little ways down the road.

• Martha, a woman who suffered an attempted robbery for food at the hands of Harry, a beggar. The game has me interrupt the event, which was kind of interesting. 

       

Ultima never did anything quite like this.

      

• The aforementioned Harry, who I chase into his house. He says to ask Joe about his story and claims that hunger will make a man do anything. After I hear from Joe, I return, and he says what he stole from Duke Hawthorne is a treasure map that Harry gave to his friend Boris in Tiernan, far to the south.

• Joe, another beggar hanging around the docks. (He is distinct from "Joey.") He says Harry is hiding out under an assumed name because he stole from Duke Hawthorne and is on the run.

• Jack, who has recently come back from digging for gold in Jack's Cave. No one in town believes him. I'll need a shovel from the general store if I want to be able to do the same.

• A guy reading in a library who just admonishes me to be quiet.

• Penelope, a babysitter for mages, is obsessed with an abandoned house in town. She wants to know where the family went. The house seems to be the one that Harry is squatting in, but I can't get anything out of him about the family.

• Rockley, who manages the little graveyard. He warns me not to dig.

• Bonner, who makes reference to a recent pirate raid.

• Witt, a man staying at the inn who is writing a book about a magical whale north of Kadaar. If you have a fog horn, you can summon the whale and travel to otherwise inaccessible places. Witt thinks the horn is in Udim, far to the south of Keldar, beyond the Forest of No Return. Only residents of Udim know the safe path through the forest.

              

Getting some information about the forest.

       

NPC dialogue works like Ultima IV and V. Everyone responds to NAME and JOB and keywords that they use. Each NPC has a stock response to anything you ask that isn't in their keyword list. It appears you have to type full keywords, not just the first four letters. They often ask yes/no questions or your name.

     

One feature unique to this game is the ability to call up a notes page in the middle of dialogue, either to write down something an NPC tells you or to reference it in another conversation. It saves the results in a file called "GAMENOTE.S" that you can open in a text editor. It's cute, but it takes a while to save each line, and I think I'll probably use an external notepad.

        

An innovative note-taking feature that I probably still won't use.

        

Unlike Ultima V, it doesn't appear that most NPCs go anywhere (in fact, there's no day/night cycle), but they can disappear and appear in other places. For instance, Harry isn't in his house until I foil the robbery.

        

There are also services, including an armory, a wholesaler who has nothing for sale, a training academy, a library (the only book I find is a retelling of "Jack & Jill" called Presley and Pauline), a healer, a temple, a tavern with slot machines, an inn, and ships that travel to the cities of Macino and Hazlett. I buy a staff and cloth robe at the armory and food at the general store; I actually start taking damage from starvation before I find it. I burn about 16 food total just running around town, and I can only afford about 50.

        

I'll have to analyze this more later.

      

I don't see anything that looks like a dungeon entrance within the town, but there are some locked doors. Having no lockpick skill, I can't pick them. Trying involves some sort of little minigame that I don't quite understand. But it appears keys can sometimes unlock doors when you can't pick them. You can also K)nock at locked doors, to which someone sometimes responds, asking for the name of the person you're looking for, a dynamic that had to have been inspired by The Magic Candle.

    

Eventually, I head outside. The iconographic map shows a 13 x 9 area, and I start to groan at the thought of creating my own map of the terrain. But then I notice a M)ap command in the V)iew menu, and--glory of glories!--it opens a clear, detailed map of the world. It appears that the game world consists of several islands. The starting island is called Thule (as opposed to Ultima--ha). If my own position is marked on the map, my colorblindness is preventing me from seeing it, but Keldar is labeled, and I can see a road heading west to what looks like a castle. Man, do I wish I could make contact with Rick Abel because I would double his shareware fee.

     

This is going to make it harder to ever map a top-down RPG again.

      

It's not long before combat comes upon me. You don't see enemies in the environment; you just suddenly get taken to the combat screen. In this case, I face a magician and a giant wasp. I cast "Fireball," and the game automatically has me target the mage, but I can cycle between all foes with the SPACE bar. It takes me two rounds to kill him, in between which he hits me with a spell of his own. The giant wasp starts closing in, and I run out of magic points on my third casting. I switch to my staff and manage to kill him. I gain 8 gold. More on combat next time.

       

Targeting the magician with a "Fireball" spell.

        

There's a useful "Assess" command in combat that shows you monster statistics. 

        

I just wish I could figure out how to switch between monsters.

      

I don't feel great about my continued survivability in combat, so I head south and then west along the road to the castle, hoping my friend is a fighter. Another battle, this time with a ghost and a magician, comes along as I travel. Unfortunately, my melee attacks fail to prevent my death at their hands, and I have to reload from within the town. On my second attempt, I win one battle with a skeleton and warrior bear and a second against a giant wasp and giant rat. I finally make it to the castle. Later, I note that my hit points seem to have regenerated on their own but my spell points have not.

   

A woman named Meredith greets me as I enter the castle. Her friend Jennifer asked her to watch for me. Jennifer would like to see me in the library. I meet Jennifer, who drops the news that the king has just died! She's concerned that his evil brother (the aforementioned Duke Hawthorne) will try to claim the throne, and she has further concerns about the prince that she won't voice in public; she asks me to meet her later in her rooms.

      

You really buried the lede there, Meredith.

      

In the same room, a guy named Naldo tells me that the king had the dungeon sealed, but there's a secret way through the conference room.

   

I meet Jennifer upstairs and she says the prince left her a note that concerned her. She tells me that it's in the plant. The game has a S)earch option that lets you search furniture and other features. I've already used it a couple of times to find extra keys. The note says that the prince has gone to "aid the Underground" at the request of his closest friend Jamal. I actually find Jamal's note in the prince's locked room next door (I unlock it with keys). It reads: "I'm afraid the situation has gotten worse. We have tried to solicit the help of the Mage Council but they have not taken our warnings seriously. Your help is needed. Meet me at the mountain."

    

The throne room is empty. In a study, the king's advisor, Uriah, tells me that the king's tiara is missing; they suspect it was stolen and taken to the dungeon. Guards have gone to look for it, but they report being blocked by magical fire. He asks if I'll help and I say yes. 

        

Why not me?

      

A book on the table clarifies the land's succession laws, which favor the prince unless he is unwilling or unable to take the crown, at which point it passes to the Duke.

   

The secret door is identifiable by a break in the normal wall pattern. Before I go exploring the dungeon, I'd really like to get someone else in my party. I find him in the kitchens: my "best friend," Jared. He does turn out to be a fighter, and he comes equipped with a short sword. He mentions that Rodell (a third friend, it seems) will meet us in Macino, but he doesn't know where Shyra is.

       

I think the game is more excited than I am.

       

We enter the dungeon. Dungeons in the game are top-down, not first-person. But the guards weren't lying. Two steps into the place is a whole sea of magic fire, and we have no way to get past it for now. 

       

Well, we did our best.

        

This seems like a good place to wrap up the first entry. I'll move on to other cities next time and try to round out the party. It seems promising so far--it doesn't have everything that Ultima V had, but it has a few surprises of its own to compensate.

Time so far: 2 hours