tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post574173390801070060..comments2024-03-29T02:34:55.592-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: Alternate Reality: The Dungeon: Won! (with Summary and Rating)CRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-67636613478412288462022-09-12T22:31:16.661-04:002022-09-12T22:31:16.661-04:00Another bit of information was the music in this g...Another bit of information was the music in this game was produced by Gary Gilbertson, and it was very unique for a game to have a score of this nature at the time .... We used to have a old mail group for Alternate reality but I believe it died out over the past decade ... Also some that happened without much fan fair was when Philip Price and Gary reunited in the mid 90s to create Alternate Realty online or ARO .... they had a webpage some initial concept art ... then .... nothing. The Alternate Realty remake has actually made significant progress ARX ....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-38819022247686323232022-08-18T12:06:09.910-04:002022-08-18T12:06:09.910-04:00I remember this game. I didn’t read any other post...I remember this game. I didn’t read any other posting you had previously to this one, so, I’m not here to criticize or anything. I just happy to run across this blog and wanted to share my experience playing this game. I beat the game itself 2 times playing it regularly as it was intended. It was a long process but fun. After beating it a few times I discover there were some kind of bug/hack that can be applied. I had to replay the whole thing again just to see how it went. I again beat it a few more times running it differently every time. Knowing what I already knew, it did make the game a little more fun and interesting. In total, I believe I beaten this game at least 6 times. <br />**STOP / SPOILERS / HACKS / BUGS EXPLOITS BELOW**<br />**IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THESE HACKS/BUGS STOP**<br />High Stats Hack/Bug<br />1) - Create a character and then Keep killing yourself and you will eventually get your stats down to 0(zero) then it will jump backwards to 255 the max stats line. Keep on killing yourself, eventually you’ll get to all the stats. You can't get them all 255 because every time you die/kill yourself it random picks a stat, the last one will be 255 but all the others will be at least in the 2 hundreds like 21x, 23x, 22x or 24x and so on.<br /><br />Super Power Attack<br />One Punch Kill just like Saitama (One Punch Man)<br />2) - Good/Evil Guilds - go join your preference guild, then go to an alternate alliance guild that you are not a member of and steal from them. In your guild there should be an option number 5 or 6 for money withdrawal but in the other alliance guild you don't see that option. Press option 5 or 6 anyways to steal from them. Make sure you are wielding just your barehand or the weapon you will be using forever. (Once you steal from them you are banish forever. However, you acquire the 1 punch Power Kill. You will be stuck with that weapon. If you change the weapon, you lose that power and can never get it back. I suggest using your barehand.<br />**Tip**<br />If you're going to do this, go and kill the Dragon and then you can LOOT the dragon cave. You should take shortcut teleport back to guild to make a deposit, you might make 4-5 run back and forth before the loot is gone, you better memorize the way there, if you are slow, you'll only end up with 2-3 loot runs. Afterwards you will have enough Diamonds/Gems/Gold that you will never ever finish using.<br />Roynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-11225644484186540072022-04-14T00:01:12.901-04:002022-04-14T00:01:12.901-04:00I thought this deserved some recognition since it ...I thought this deserved some recognition since it gave me a pretty good chuckle: "<i>...even Dragon only gave it 3 out of 5 stars, which is their equivalent of setting the game on fire and urinating on the ashes.</i>"LanHawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11073207178889909708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-31509322502866667102022-02-05T05:52:18.019-05:002022-02-05T05:52:18.019-05:00I missed Philip Price when he was posting on the A...I missed Philip Price when he was posting on the AtariAge forums, and now I missed someone who apparently also potentially knows how to contact him. I've e-mailed (and faxed!) with Philip Price about 15 years ago, but none of the contact details are current, so if anyone knows how to get in touch with him, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know! (I'm in contact with a company which claims to currently own the trademark for his game, and I'm curious to see if he still has any of his old paperwork to dispute that claim.)Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10491131144929578571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-57687802776717308882020-09-14T15:14:14.106-04:002020-09-14T15:14:14.106-04:00I really get annoyed when someone comes along to t...I really get annoyed when someone comes along to tell me how much I "missed" when I still managed to win the game anyway, playing organically, and still gave it a positive review. If there were aspects of the game that I didn't experience, it's partly because of the game's own construction--burying them on the second level, practically ensuring that you won't encounter them until late in the game. Either way, I didn't NEED those things. A good game lets different players experience it differently, and that's one of the reasons AR:TD got a high score.<br /><br />Your comment suggests you only read this entry, not my two previous entries on the game, let alone anything else on my blog. I routinely speak to developers and get their input. Despite what you may think, you having known Philip Price once in Lompoc doesn't translate into making it particularly easy to track him down today. <br /><br />As for the game being "real-time," I'm not sure what definition you're using, but it's not "real-time" by any definition I'm familiar was. Even if it was, it's not true that no other game in its time was doing it, as my reviews of other early 1980s games plainly demonstrates. I feel like I otherwise gave the game and its predecessor sufficient praise for their innovative elements.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-75082767075834379492020-09-14T13:58:09.576-04:002020-09-14T13:58:09.576-04:00The review is done fairly well, but considering yo...The review is done fairly well, but considering you used cheats and hints to finish, you missed a LOT of the content of the game. Some of the things I noticed was you spoke about spells from the Order guild but there are many more spells, some very powerful. <br /><br />Also, for a game of this period there was a ton of different items and abilities, which really sets it apart from many game of that period. You never mentioned that the game ran in real time, no other game did that at this time. Also, it tracked so many things, Speed, Weight, Luck, Temp, Sicknesses, Alignment, etc, etc. Simply amazing. <br /><br />Also, you shrugged off the Dwarven Smithy in the article but never used him as you should have. Razor's Ice was a good weapon which is found on level 1, but a Dwarven made custom weapon is amazing. You can get plenty of gems, jewelry etc, by slaying the dragon. The Dragon isn't super hard to kill if you set yourself up with the proper gear. I don't remember the exact names of gear after all of these years, but my 16th level character had fire resistant breastplate which really helped, Razor's Edge for Cold damage against the dragon and we used Tempural Fugue, to get x5-10 attacks per round to really damage the dragon. Another thing I thought was interesting was your description of Phillip Price and the interactions with Datasoft. <br /><br />Maybe when you write an article like this you should get input from the author's you speak about. I knew Philip personally, and lived with Lompoc CA same as Phillip. You could write another review just on Datasoft after speaking with Phillip and learning the things that Datasoft did to him. Over all, I think Alternate Reality the City and Dungeon were two amazing games for their time. To this day you would be hard pressed to find a game that tracks as many things as AR: The Dungeon. <br /><br />FynFynioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09485484646494232712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-72904392392687983492020-07-28T08:24:18.359-04:002020-07-28T08:24:18.359-04:00Completely fair. I'll admit to being biased a...Completely fair. I'll admit to being biased as I am a bit of a fanboy for both AR City/Dungeon and the Atari 8-bit platform. AR was a bit of a masterpiece on the A8 but the ports were poorly done by comparison. (The Apple colors are also a '1' in my book :) ). If you ever do give AR a retrospective, please consider the Atari 8bit version as that basis :).<br /><br />Speaking of masterpieces, this website is awesome! Love all of the content, and appreciate you giving me more excuses to use my Amiga, Atari ST, and Atari 8bitters :) Take care! Xebechttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13905171338461863247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-49136356931547513202020-07-27T16:06:50.659-04:002020-07-27T16:06:50.659-04:00On the graphics and sound, I doubt it, Xebec. Both...On the graphics and sound, I doubt it, Xebec. Both only occupy 3 or 4 points in their category. The difference between a 2 and a 3 for graphics is the difference between, say, <i>Ultima Underworld</i> and <i>Skyrim</i>. There simply isn't enough variance in graphics and sound between platforms in the 1980s to make a big change on such a small scale--and that's intentional. Graphics and sound aren't really important to me except for the big leaps.<br /><br />Thanks for your recollections otherwise, though. It's nice to hear how different approaches affect one's experience of the game.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-53335399609242744182020-07-26T17:59:20.696-04:002020-07-26T17:59:20.696-04:00Very nice write-up on AR: The Dungeon. I'm cu...Very nice write-up on AR: The Dungeon. I'm curious if you would have reviewed the sound and graphics differently if you played on the (original) Atari 8-bit version :). <br /><br />I don't have much to add other than I did take my City character into the Dungeon, and actually that character felt a little OP at first vs. the easy monsters on the way in. The problem I had was he was extremely encumbered from wealth (hey when you're young you have more time to play these things), so I found my way to the chaos guild, joined up (in the city I just killed everything for experience), and used the locker so I could start moving around. Once I had learned some spells -- temporal fugue, and others.. I had enough wealth to keep charging the crystals and worked my way through the story.<br /><br />I noticed you had really high stats -- I'm under the impression the game levels your stats faster in the Dungeon than the City -- it was possible to get 50+ strength by 'parrying' trolls in the city, but getting other stats much above 30 .. even at level 9-10 was almost impossible. <br /><br />Last fun thing - if you had too many items and the Devourer appeared - you could actually kill him while not losing stuff if you (Successfully) casted that temporal fugue spell every other turn. Of course he'd reappear shortly after.. Xebechttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13905171338461863247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-26818148002169621722017-07-12T10:13:16.717-04:002017-07-12T10:13:16.717-04:00^Ha! Nice Colossal Cave Adventure reference.
My w...^Ha! Nice Colossal Cave Adventure reference.<br /><br />My wife and I got stuck on that puzzle when we played CCA, mainly because we were using an emulator that didn't have a working save feature. Otherwise I certainly would have tried the right answer, just to be a wiseass...PK Thunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14416777230563913195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-30078217766628389212017-07-11T21:12:41.595-04:002017-07-11T21:12:41.595-04:00Hmmm... I don't suppose the basilisk was sitt...Hmmm... I don't suppose the basilisk was sitting on an Oriental Rug was it?tlhonmeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03256644187305759072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-24303014331568334792017-07-11T21:10:53.210-04:002017-07-11T21:10:53.210-04:00In point of fact, the different characters in Shak...In point of fact, the different characters in Shakespeare's plays have different accents which identify their social class. Granted it's always the English accents, even when the people in question aren't English, but then he was writing to a particular audience.<br /><br />In short, if it doesn't rhyme properly and come out in iambic pentameter, you're probably pronouncing it wrong and when you get it right you'll be able to tell whether the person talking was a king, a servant, a jew, or a flower girl off the streets.tlhonmeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03256644187305759072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-38483802257308802392017-07-11T21:05:53.706-04:002017-07-11T21:05:53.706-04:00A number of cultures would bury money with the dea...A number of cultures would bury money with the dead for various reasons. The two coins bit might not be Greek, but I've seen references to multiple cultures that used various objects, including coins to cover the eyes so they wouldn't have a corpse staring at them through whatever funeral rites they performed. (They weren't generally buried with the coins in that position as it's not particularly secure and they're likely to fall out.) Most likely the two practices got confused at some point.tlhonmeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03256644187305759072noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-24896807388763661322017-05-18T19:48:59.267-04:002017-05-18T19:48:59.267-04:00To be fair, most people also hear Shakespeare in R...To be fair, most people also hear Shakespeare in Received English, which isn't close at all to the accent he was writing in. <br /><br />Here is a video on it. Basically, a lot of the times we think his meter or rhymes don't work, we are just pronouncing then incorrectly: https://youtu.be/gPlpphT7n9sCanageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-12921591985476664912017-05-16T05:07:18.578-04:002017-05-16T05:07:18.578-04:00If these aliens share the same reproductive anatom...If these aliens share the same reproductive anatomy as that of humans, I find that the 3rd arm wield much utility...Kenny McCormickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01553499727945099493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-72077561053358874372017-05-02T16:07:15.820-04:002017-05-02T16:07:15.820-04:00I think expecting players to divine the answer fro...I think expecting players to divine the answer from classical mythology, given how often those mythologies conflict, is a little unfair. I'd also point out that you need to give him 2 COPPERS, and there are two other types of coins in the game--gold and silver--so even if the player guessed which number, he'd only have a 1/3 chance of guessing the right coin.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-29634571543316066972017-05-02T15:12:33.762-04:002017-05-02T15:12:33.762-04:00I wonder what the spread is for that reference. In...I wonder what the spread is for that reference. In Shadowgate it was a single coin.<br /><br />I've heard the two coins on the eyes was to weigh down the eye lids to prevent them from opening, as they tend to do.Zenic Reveriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16441583549326102945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-13781004761754821302017-05-01T00:01:49.357-04:002017-05-01T00:01:49.357-04:00If the developers of ARTC had written the entire g...If the developers of ARTC had written the entire game in iambic meter and needed to fudge it a little for artistic reasons, or to get a point across, I'd give them plenty of slack, as we give Shakespeare for occasionally throwing in an extra syllable or changing the emphasis.<br /><br />The four-line stanza used by the gargoyle above is not <i>Hamlet</i>. It's a bit of doggerel in the middle of a computer game; the writer had one job to do, and he screwed it up. CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-41742741518421606632017-04-30T23:12:06.735-04:002017-04-30T23:12:06.735-04:00Fine, then:
To be, or not to be- that is the ques...Fine, then:<br /><br /><i>To be, or not to be- that is the question: <br />Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer<br />The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune <br />Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, <br />And by opposing end them.</i><br /><br />Whether Da-DAH x5 would be a distortion of the first line ("that IS the QUESTion" vs. the more natural "THAT is the QUESTion"), it's clearly an atrocious error in the second ("whe-THER"?) and fourth ("or to TAKE ARMS", maybe "OR to take ARMS", but certainly not "or TO take ARMS").<br /><br />It all falls under the heading of "a little learning is a dangerous thing": bad literature professors and English teachers give a doctrinaire impression totally at odds with the practice of the poets themselves, who were <i>routinely</i> free with their prosody, all the more so in English (which has far more unpredictable and intractable accentual patterns than, say, the famously verse-friendly Italian).<br /><br />Personally I'm more bothered by "it's trek".<br />PK Thunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14416777230563913195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-1465286409949272902017-04-30T22:21:17.094-04:002017-04-30T22:21:17.094-04:00I thought I bought a few rounds and never got anyt...I thought I bought a few rounds and never got anything from that bar. I wondered why it even existed.<br /><br />I didn't have those guild encounters, but i joined the guild fairly late in the game.<br /><br />Thanks for letting me know about a few things I didn't get to experience.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-27103417096935535302017-04-30T22:17:44.083-04:002017-04-30T22:17:44.083-04:00I mean, I could have stood a continuation of the p...I mean, I could have stood a continuation of the plot of KoL, but yeah, I wouldn't have looked forward to another 25 quests.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-23525093285398662162017-04-30T22:16:33.629-04:002017-04-30T22:16:33.629-04:00That's a bad example. While it would sound sil...That's a bad example. While it would sound silly to overstress the "to," it does have the natural accent. Anyway, Shakespeare clearly knew the rules, so when he breaks them, he breaks them artistically. I'm not prepared to say the same of the above.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-12367147090342896012017-04-29T15:26:36.822-04:002017-04-29T15:26:36.822-04:00I remember playing City and being utterly baffled ...I remember playing City and being utterly baffled by it; I never owned it so I didn't play it much.<br /><br />I agree with you that the overall plan for the game may be better in theory than practice. It sounds hard to actually implement, particularly in the late 1980s. Kurisuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00132568197501054206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-7193670308264447182017-04-29T11:17:20.049-04:002017-04-29T11:17:20.049-04:00And if you pronounce "ended" with the ac...<i>And if you pronounce "ended" with the accent on the second syllable.</i><br /><br />Hey, if reversing the accentual pattern is good enough for Shakespeare, right? Most of it doesn't actually go "da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH", unless you really think "to" deserves the accent in "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"<br /><br /><i>Irene just walked by and asked what I was doing, and I said, "I'm arguing with an Australian guy about whether a line of verse in a game is in iambic tetrameter." I expect to hear from the divorce attorney any moment now.</i><br /><br />Marrying someone who'd reply to that statement with approval -- or at least interest -- is something I count among the great achievements in my life. (Maybe the greatest, though OTOH I did make a really good sandwich the other day.)PK Thunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14416777230563913195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-35572875407788913272017-04-29T08:31:03.058-04:002017-04-29T08:31:03.058-04:00By the end of this game, I was surprised to find m...<i>By the end of this game, I was surprised to find myself lamenting what could have been.</i><br /><br />Somehow I was very glad to read this sentence. Had you been completely unsentimental about it, I think I would have been disappointed by this entry, instead of experiencing it as one of your best in some time. There's something awfully bittersweet about the stories that never got fully told, even if they would've inevitably screwed it up in the end.PK Thunderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14416777230563913195noreply@blogger.com