tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post6368416483058703394..comments2024-03-28T15:25:30.216-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: BRIEF: Dungeon Quest (1990)CRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-55890365108806417092021-12-17T11:06:28.696-05:002021-12-17T11:06:28.696-05:00I'm not saying that EGA would be anachronistic...I'm not saying that EGA would be anachronistic at all, but the style is. I played many games of that era in EGA, but this game evokes early home computing in many ways.Iffy Bonzooliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07519858732154180575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-85567324600818100782021-12-16T11:45:33.652-05:002021-12-16T11:45:33.652-05:00320x200 was the standard resolution for PC games i...320x200 was the standard resolution for PC games in 1990, and would remain so for a couple more years to come. VGA graphics (i.e. 256 colors instead of 16) existed in 1990 but were not exactly the common standard yet. So yeah, it makes sense for a 1990 game, especially an amateur one, to be 320x200 in 16 colors. That's not nostalgia, that's a common albeit non-cutting-edge PC from that time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-30921508681710821232021-12-16T10:44:35.338-05:002021-12-16T10:44:35.338-05:00I've played the original Exile trilogy and the...I've played the original Exile trilogy and the first set of Avernum remakes.<br /><br />There is definitely a difference in the number of monsters in the random combats, where it was intentionally balanced towards a larger party. They also had a wider range of skills and abilities to cover, making it harder to cover everything with fewer.<br /><br />That said, it was considered an ironman challenge to try and get through the game with only 2 characters; they will level up much faster but inventory space becomes a much bigger limitation.Kellandrosnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-70921621987823508002021-12-15T21:51:14.085-05:002021-12-15T21:51:14.085-05:00I've not played Exile, but I played through bo...I've not played Exile, but I played through both its remakes. I think Avernum comfortably tops the gimlet, but how much did Avernum improve on the original? Should you play Exile with the full party of 6, or is it better with 4?Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-15113212422142465432021-12-15T20:36:54.711-05:002021-12-15T20:36:54.711-05:00It definitely looks like it was designed for a leg...It definitely looks like it was designed for a legacy computer system. That tiny viewport, the overly-ornate all-caps font, the stark colors, even that off-black background.<br /><br />But it was released in 1990. maybe they were really leaning into a nostalgic early 1980's look? I feel like people weren't quite all that nostalgic for it, yet.Iffy Bonzooliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07519858732154180575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-13645698108636869642021-12-15T20:09:37.970-05:002021-12-15T20:09:37.970-05:00As a fan of FPS games, I really appreciate oldscho...As a fan of FPS games, I really appreciate oldschool 3D graphics like Quake 1, Unreal 1, Half Life 1, etc. They're usually very clear and easy to read.<br /><br />Modern 3D graphics often overuse special effects to the point that the environment becomes hard to read and you end up not spotting enemies in situations where one second can decide over life and death. JarlFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08139422412722665286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-16471392814259239722021-12-15T18:52:20.911-05:002021-12-15T18:52:20.911-05:00You might think these shareware rpgs are all terri...You might think these shareware rpgs are all terrible... but you're only 1 year away from exile, a shareware rpg that might actually go on your top rpgs listmarkyholhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06367939941545677316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-25918534159978857012021-12-15T16:45:39.822-05:002021-12-15T16:45:39.822-05:00Everything being upper-case also makes this look l...Everything being upper-case also makes this look like the game was originally written for a not-PC, like Wizardry I or Pool of Radiance.<br />Jeearrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05233320295907517418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-29945879177668184882021-12-15T12:52:34.177-05:002021-12-15T12:52:34.177-05:00This is the kind of game where you can see all ene...This is the kind of game where you can see all enemies and objects in their squares. You can see 4 squares ahead of you. If they show nothing, there's nothing there.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-24404378527810258242021-12-15T12:42:54.196-05:002021-12-15T12:42:54.196-05:00I stand by the statement. The graphics of Dungeon ...I stand by the statement. The graphics of <i>Dungeon Master</i> don't do anything additional for me. They depict what they claim to depict and they don't cause any confusion. Sure, they're a bit amateur, but they're not completely laughable like we've often seen in shareware titles.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-64635620576713906862021-12-15T06:09:04.251-05:002021-12-15T06:09:04.251-05:00Dude, he called the *more* than acceptable, and th...Dude, he called the *more* than acceptable, and that's only valid when compared to 'Wizardry's' wireframe dungeons. BESTIEunlmtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-5525842203922872432021-12-15T05:55:14.914-05:002021-12-15T05:55:14.914-05:00The graphics are very clear. I get the impression ...The graphics are very clear. I get the impression they are drawn by an amateur in MS Paint, but nevertheless by someone who understands interface design well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-67778668915961631582021-12-15T04:45:00.213-05:002021-12-15T04:45:00.213-05:00I love the graphics. There is something I came to ...I love the graphics. There is something I came to appreciate more and more which is games that make it very easy to tell what objects are what, which is an interactive one, which is a background one, and the shape of them all. There are people who think that this is not realistic, but give me all gamey colours for a game, please. Yeah, that is my whole comment.Risingson Carloshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08915480026187953569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-22510863554535350822021-12-14T21:45:10.662-05:002021-12-14T21:45:10.662-05:00I love colour schemes so you may want to pull up a...I love colour schemes so you may want to pull up a chair for this one.<br /><br />Yeah, it's one of those games that continued to use EGA and the default palette, which had better support across multiple graphics cards than the option of picking the other 48 colours that an EGA card "should" be able to display. It also worked really well for porting the game to computers such as the Atari ST and Amiga, as seen with the Gold Box games, because the graphics will directly port to those computers without needing colour reduction or other changes. The EGA look would also prove to be a boon for the unreleased handheld Atari Lynx port of Eye of the Beholder.<br /><br />Some games, such as Gold Box and Commander Keen 4 the next year after this would make the graphics at least have convincing depth and detail even with this palette, but yeah bad palettes such as this and the 4-colour CGA ones don't aid the artist. It can be really hard to stick out graphically when you don't even have the luxury of picking your own colours to set the mood.<br /><br />Though that's not to say that all VGA or Atari ST/Amiga-exclusive games look good - they can get very stuck on the "realistic" grey or brown look that only serves to be boring, use bad colours such as the main RGB/CMY colours (lemon yellow gradients anyone), or just plain flat construction paper cutout-looking art (Moraff's Dungeons of the Unforgiven) that doesn't use the extra colour choices well to add realism, texture, or depth.<br /><br />I will extend an olive branch and say that I do feel for all the amateur developers such as this guy and Moraff. Using these ugly colours or having to make a 256-colour game all on your own are both tall asks, and just because I don't like the end results doesn't mean that the authors weren't bold for trying.<br /><br />There were no tools like gramaz.io/chromaticity that used Lab/JAB/JzAzBz and had any good indicators of the qualities of the colours that you were picking, such as lightness or saturation, and it was correspondingly hard to make good gradients that used 256 colours (or even 32!) well. RGB also has really ugly "primary" colours in my opinion, all 3 (or 6 if we include yellow, cyan, magenta) being highly saturated and eye-watering, almost never corresponding to any realistic object. If you want to make a good gold colour in RGB you can't just make a white-yellow-black gradient - the lemon yellow problem will rear its ugly head again. You have to carefully manipulate the red and green proportions relative to one another (a higher red proportion than green, for a start) so it's "yellow-bordering-on-orange" instead of lemon-yellow, and decrease the saturation by adding equal amounts of all 3 colours so it looks a metallic amber instead of marigold - and make sure to keep these proportions the same for the lighter and darker colours.<br /><br />All this math to do as a single developer before you've even gotten to actually DRAWING the stupid gold coins! Pixel art is a lot harder today than most give it credit for, but it was ESPECIALLY so back in the eras in which it was most relevant. For every "ugly" or "bad-sounding/soundless" game from way back when, I have to remind myself how hard it was to even get them to the states that they were in - especially for games belonging to smaller developers such as this one and whose games didn't cost as much, deserving higher leniency.P-Tux7https://www.blogger.com/profile/03201162995038006540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-63035460490561767502021-12-14T21:03:10.152-05:002021-12-14T21:03:10.152-05:00I mean, you can see what the sprites are supposed ...I mean, you can see what the sprites are supposed to represent. That makes them acceptable by default! JarlFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08139422412722665286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-90584595068229717682021-12-14T20:31:08.435-05:002021-12-14T20:31:08.435-05:00The thing that jumps out at me with this one is th...The thing that jumps out at me with this one is the graphical style.<br /><br />It doesn't feel like a PC-oriented design.<br /><br />It's like someone took a design aimed at one of the 1980s 8-bit home micros and upgraded (for certain values of "upgraded") the colours.Martinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-62097685683609868222021-12-14T14:24:17.869-05:002021-12-14T14:24:17.869-05:00Really was expecting more imagination from a game ...Really was expecting more imagination from a game called Dungeon Quest.Mentohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12666135395522594894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-25953951451209583582021-12-14T13:46:20.795-05:002021-12-14T13:46:20.795-05:00That automap screenshot shows that you really need...That automap screenshot shows that you really need ROOMS to break up the monotony of worm tunnels. It's nice when a Dungeon Master-style occasionally gives you space to waltz. Maybe the designer learned their value in the speculative full version.Man of Stonenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-63644044945156483222021-12-14T06:39:47.632-05:002021-12-14T06:39:47.632-05:00"The textures, monster graphics, and spell an..."The textures, monster graphics, and spell animations are more than acceptable." <br /><br />LOL, they're not. I understand we're operating from completely different vantage points regarding graphical presentation though.BESTIEunlmtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-9885534488246865832021-12-14T05:38:30.289-05:002021-12-14T05:38:30.289-05:00"so you don't have to walk down every dea..."so you don't have to walk down every dead-end corridor just to complete the map."<br /><br />B-b-but that's where the most interesting encounters usually are. Just imagine what you can potentially miss by not walking down the whole corridor? How can you even sleep at night not knowing?PetrusOctavianusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-70110835165511631202021-12-14T01:15:50.403-05:002021-12-14T01:15:50.403-05:00The graphics are a bit... rough, but I notice that...The graphics are a bit... rough, but I notice that it uses the Dungeon Master aspect ratio (roughly the golden ratio), and the DM camera position with the camera roughly 3/4 from the floor to the roof. Wizardry and friends had the camera in the center, and the walls were square, which ends up looking a lot less natural.<br /><br />Some good decisions there, though it may just be a matter of taking influence from the right source.Iffy Bonzooliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07519858732154180575noreply@blogger.com