06/09/2024: Moving the "found" games to their own section at the bottom so that the list is easier to search.
I thought I would centralize, in this entry, all of the games that we either can't find or that I've found unplayable or unwinnable in some mysterious way. This should make it easier for readers who stumble across the blog to offer hints. I'll remove titles (or otherwise flag them) when we find solutions and add titles as I verify their "missing" and "NP" status.
I appreciate any leads, but please do not take it upon yourself to reach out to the original developers unless you somehow know them personally. Chances are, I've already tried to contact the most promising leads, and I don't want the authors (or people with their names) to get repeated contacts. If you feel you have a promising lead I may have overlooked, please verify with me first.
I appreciate any leads, but please do not take it upon yourself to reach out to the original developers unless you somehow know them personally. Chances are, I've already tried to contact the most promising leads, and I don't want the authors (or people with their names) to get repeated contacts. If you feel you have a promising lead I may have overlooked, please verify with me first.
Finally, this is not the place to suggest new games not on my list. Please see my FAQ for information about that.
Similar Lists on Other Blogs
- The Wargaming Scribe's list of missing games and manuals.
- El Explorador de RPG's list of perdidos.
Still Missing/Mysterious
Adventuremaze (1979, Apple II, Holistic Data Systems). Attested in magazines of the era, this game involved a randomly-generated caves in which the player searched for treasure.
Bandor III (1993, DOS, Magic Lemon). The third game in the Bandor trilogy seems to be lost.
Castle of Tharoggad (1988, Tandy Color Computer 3). Nothing seems to happen upon reaching top floor and killing monsters. See this entry.
City Quest (1991, DOS). This is the full version of a demo called Maze Quest by Tom Sherwood. If it ever existed, no one seems to still have it.
Conquest of Kzirgla (1983, TRS-80 Color Computer). This sequel to Scepter of Kzirgla may not even be an RPG, but I can't find it to verify. Multiple ads and one review attest that it existed.
Crystal Deception (1992, DOS). This Neurosport title, like Majik below, was sold on CD and doesn't seem to have been preserved online. The original author has been contacted and also does not have the files.
Dungeons of Kesmai (1980, CP/M). El Explorador de RPG has a good write-up about this lost CP/M game, attested in magazines of the period, that had six characters exploring a multi-leveled dungeon with roguelike ASCII graphics. The authors, John Taylor and Kelton Flinn, would later form the Kesmai Company and write Island of Kesmai (1982) for CompuServe and Legends of Kesmai (1996) for AOL.
Majik (1991, DOS). This game from Neurosport is often known as Majik Adventure or Quick Majik Adventure after its demo version. Unfortunately, the demo versions seems to be all that exists. The original author has been contacted and also does not have the files.
Shadowkeep 1: The Search (1993, DOS): I can only find demos of this game by Magic Lemon Software.
Swordmaster, The (1985, ZX Spectrum). Many Spectrum databases have this supposed game from Steve Jackson (the British one), published by Adventure International. At least one ad has a contest related to the upcoming game, and it is discussed in several issues of CRASH! Alas, it was either never released or it was lost.
Trilogy (1982, TexaSoft). The game is attested on this MobyGames page, but even that author only seems to have had the box and manual, not the disk (there are no screenshots, in any event). It's supposedly a three-part game of different genres based on Tolkien's works.
Twin Morg Valley (Unknown, Commodore 64). See the bottom of this entry. We still don't know when this was released or what its "deal" is.
Witchcraft (1987, Amiga). The Amiga Hall of Light has an entry on the game, and catalogs of the era attest to its existence. It was developed by Snake Design and sold by Intelligent Memory. That's as much as I can find on the game.
Found/Resolved
Amulet, The (1983, DOS, Numenor Microsystems). Plagiarized version of The Valley.
Can't write juicy expose because I can't get it to run. Every version I
try crashes with an overflow error after character creation. Edit: LanHawk posted his solution below. I'll try it when I get back around to it.
Antepenult (1989/1992, Amiga). This Ultima clone is shown in a YouTube video, but the only download I can find, on aminet.net, is corrupted. Commenter Busca found this one. You have to search for just "Antep."
Caves of Annod (1983,
VIC-20). I doubt this maze-game-with-hit-points qualifies as an RPG
anyway, so I was perfectly happy that the only place I could find to
download it was a sketchy site that I didn't trust.
Dragon Lair (1981, PC-88). Attested by this HG101 article and video, but I can't find a version for download. Edit: A commenter came through with some links, although the game is in Japanese and thus unplayable for now.
Dragon Quest (1983, Atari 800). I've found the game, but only in its 1986 3.14 version, and the "secret door" function (which is the only way to get out and make purchases) seems to be bugged. I cannot get it to locate and open the door in the starting room. This makes playing more than a few minutes functionally impossible. Edit: I guess you have to just keep re-rolling until you get a character of sufficient intelligence.
Dragon Quest (1983, Atari 800). I've found the game, but only in its 1986 3.14 version, and the "secret door" function (which is the only way to get out and make purchases) seems to be bugged. I cannot get it to locate and open the door in the starting room. This makes playing more than a few minutes functionally impossible. Edit: I guess you have to just keep re-rolling until you get a character of sufficient intelligence.
Dragons Shard (1992, DOS). This game, also known as Terradyne, seems to only exist online in shareware versions. I need a full-featured version without the shareware restrictions.
Dungeon (1975, PLATO). A game of this title
exists, and it's possible to load the title screen, but there doesn't
seem to be any way to start the game. (Note: this is not The Dungeon, or pedit5, which I have already played and reviewed. This one is by John D. Daleske et. al.) Edit: This game is highly unlikely to ever emerge. I wrote a BRIEF covering it and am crossing it off this list.
Dungeon (1975, PDP-10). This game by Don Daglow no longer seems to exist. See this Wikipedia article. Edit: This game is highly unlikely to ever emerge. I wrote a BRIEF covering it and am crossing it off this list.
Dungeon of Doom (1980, Apple II). This entry
from El Explorador de RPG covers this game, including screen shots from
someone who owns a copy. However, a digital copy has never been made
available that I can discover. Edit: It was later made available and I covered it.
Dungeon of Ymir (1985,
ZX81). I've tried every version I can find on two emulators and can't
get it running. If someone finds a configuration that works, let me know. Edit: Completed it!
Dungeons of Avalon (1991, Amiga). Culminates in
seemingly unwinnable final battle. If you cheat your characters to high
enough values to win the final battle, nothing happens. See posts here and here. Edit: This mystery was solved elsewhere on the Internet and my entry was updated.
Dungeons of Avalon II (1992, Amiga). My coverage ends at a locked door for which there seem to be no keys. Waiting to play again or for someone else to play to verify what I missed. I have a commenter who has volunteered to hex-edit me over the threshold, but that's not the same thing. Edit: Commenter LanHawk figured out the problem, fixed it, and supplied winning screenshots. See the updated entry.
Dungeons of Avalon II (1992, Amiga). My coverage ends at a locked door for which there seem to be no keys. Waiting to play again or for someone else to play to verify what I missed. I have a commenter who has volunteered to hex-edit me over the threshold, but that's not the same thing. Edit: Commenter LanHawk figured out the problem, fixed it, and supplied winning screenshots. See the updated entry.
Empire III: Armageddon (1983, Apple II). No one seems to have turned up a disk image. Edit: this long-missing game finally surfaced in November 2019.
GayBlade (1992, DOS). Famous lost RPG with LGBTQ themes. Some of my commenters were pursuing some leads, but that was weeks ago, and nothing seems to have turned up. Reviews, box art, and various commentary prove that the game existed, but no one seems to have a copy. See here for more. And this one turned up, too. Thanks again to Lance for helping out.
House of Usher (1980, Apple II or Atari 800). Weird little quasi-RPG from Crystalware. May have some ties to an early Japanese RPG. The only Apple II version I can find is part of a compilation and the House of Usher option crashes. The only Atari 800 versions I can find crash the emulator. I figured out the right configuration.
Knight's Quest (1978, TRS-80). I can only find BASIC versions online. Each one I load onto a disk and try to run crashes with a "Division by Zero" error. Edit: I have enough help to give this one another try.
m199h (1975, PLATO). Perhaps the first CRPG ever written, deleted by PLATO admins. Edit: This game is highly unlikely to ever emerge. I wrote a BRIEF covering it and am crossing it off this list.
GayBlade (1992, DOS). Famous lost RPG with LGBTQ themes. Some of my commenters were pursuing some leads, but that was weeks ago, and nothing seems to have turned up. Reviews, box art, and various commentary prove that the game existed, but no one seems to have a copy. See here for more. And this one turned up, too. Thanks again to Lance for helping out.
House of Usher (1980, Apple II or Atari 800). Weird little quasi-RPG from Crystalware. May have some ties to an early Japanese RPG. The only Apple II version I can find is part of a compilation and the House of Usher option crashes. The only Atari 800 versions I can find crash the emulator. I figured out the right configuration.
Knight's Quest (1978, TRS-80). I can only find BASIC versions online. Each one I load onto a disk and try to run crashes with a "Division by Zero" error. Edit: I have enough help to give this one another try.
m199h (1975, PLATO). Perhaps the first CRPG ever written, deleted by PLATO admins. Edit: This game is highly unlikely to ever emerge. I wrote a BRIEF covering it and am crossing it off this list.
OrbQuest (1981, CP/M). Rare CP/M game derived directly from PLATO Game of Dungeons. No known publicly-available disk images exist. A version surfaced! I'll give it a try soon.
OrbQuest: The Search for Seven Wards (1986, Macintosh). I've been unable to find a place to download this first Mac-only RPG. Edit: A copy surfaced in the fall of 2020, and it's back on my main list to play when I get a chance.
Pits of Baradur (1977, PLATO). This game is attested in this MobyGames entry, but no game of that title or involving these authors exists on Cyber1, and I can't find evidence of it anywhere else. Edit: This game is highly unlikely to ever emerge. I wrote a BRIEF covering it and am crossing it off this list.
Pits of Baradur (1977, PLATO). This game is attested in this MobyGames entry, but no game of that title or involving these authors exists on Cyber1, and I can't find evidence of it anywhere else. Edit: This game is highly unlikely to ever emerge. I wrote a BRIEF covering it and am crossing it off this list.
Seven Horror's (1988, Atari ST). Read my entry
for the full experience. I assembled the seven artifacts I was to find,
and got a three-part code word, but never found the key for the final
dungeon. I lacked documentation on the game in general and was never
sure what I was doing. Edit: commenter Buck found what I overlooked and I was able to win it.
Star Crystal: Episode 1 - Mertactor: The Volentine Gambit (1985, Apple II). It seems that this game was never officially released. Edit: Solved in the comments!
TaskMaker (1989, Macintosh). I've been unable to find a copy of the original version, just the color remake from 1991. Commenter LM came through with a copy directly from the author.
Teldor I, II, and III. GameBase64 attests to this German RPG trilogy, but I've been unable to find copies for download.
I found the CP/M OrbQuest manual here (registration required to download):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newbrainemu.eu/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_details/gid,294/Itemid,52/
On that site I also stumbled upon Nemesis, a 1981 game. The site calls it a text-adventure, but based on the manual it's a very elaborate real-time dungeon crawler (15 character classes, attributes, equipment, spells, traps, lots of monster types, etc). Seems quite interesting.
Nemesis is on my list, but that's yet another emulator I have to learn for one game. I'll get to it eventually, I suppose.
DeleteThe archivist/collector/historian in me is very sad that many of these games are lost, particularly m199h and other PLATO games. I'm very glad your blog exists to do the work of cataloging all of these games before they're lost forever, not just as a Wikipedia-style facts recital but as an honest experience of playing the games as faithfully as possible to their intended form.
ReplyDeleteThe Addict noted recently that he may have some further information forthcoming on the legendary m119h... it would be note to just know if it was a playable game or not, even if it is lost to history. Also... there has always been questions about the timeline for the writing of The Dungeon (pedit5), The Game of Dungeons (DND), and which of these was first. Not too mention a fourth early game in the Daleske Dungeon mentioned above.
DeleteIt may simply be lost in the time of legends!
There's a customer review for a Plato book from one of the developers of Bugs n Drugs. He mentions a printout of the code that was "several feet tall stacked up". Probably wouldn't be of much help even if it still existed (same with the m119h printout), but maybe he could be a source of information, too.
Deletehttps://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RLPQLJ9ROKZP3/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1101871555
The book sounds interesting enough that I might buy it. Maybe the Amazon affiliate program, if it still exists, would also be a way to generate some money from this blog?
The book by Brian Dear is fascinating reading - the name is "The Friendly Orange Glow" (I have no connection here, if I am violating any terms please delete!). It does go into quite a bit of detail on the various Plato games, including the CRPGs, although his dates and timeline are somewhat muddled. Actually... maybe not so much muddled as reflecting the unknowns about which games were made first.
DeleteI do have a good bit of curiosity about the timeline of the Plato CRPG games concerning which came out first and which ones were actually playable productions back in the day.
Dungeons of Avalon, heh. That was the Dungeon Master clone where the players met the Dark Lord at the end, and the Dark Lord won. Even after cheating, the developers apparently didn't put an end screen.
ReplyDeleteI lean towards them doing it deliberately. It was a magazine game, a sketch really, and why not do something crazy like make the Dark Lord win the final battle? I can picture the developers giggling as they increase the Dark Lord's stats until they figure he'll win every time against the strongest party this dungeon can output. By the time everyone figures out the joke and has been had, the next issue of the magazine is out and the matter is forgotten.
These lost games are all very obscure. It's gratifying to know that the list has been so thorough. This blog is a great reference and I hope it gets backed up regularly, along with all the photos and videos. And comments! :D
"an honest experience of playing the games as faithfully as possible to their intended form."
That should be the motto of this blog.
I wouldn't be surprised if someone can unearth some nuggets of gold here. No matter what the game is, it is somebody's favorite. After having been around so long with such good, original content, this blog gets a lot of followers who have a very broad background. I've seen people post about things I never heard of, games they had when they were 8, no matter how obscure or shareware only or limited release within 50 miles of my uncle's house.
" Even after cheating, the developers apparently didn't put an end screen." If you'll recall the discussions, I couldn't get an end screen to appear, but apparently it existed among the game files.
DeleteConsidering there is an endgame I think its either that they forgot to implement the right path to win the game into the game (i.e. there was way of defeating the big bad without or with little fighting and since that wasnt triggered - and it was rendered impossible to reach the end in another way- the end screen didnt appear) or it was one of those nasty 90 copyright protection things in where if the program realized youve played with a copy made the game unwinnable instead of just s stopping it. It was a fad in the 90s, but since this is a magazine game (IIRC) that is the less likely possibility.
DeleteIf anyobe had a walkthrough for this, it would help (but it being a magazine game the chance is low).
I wouldn't call it less likely. I got several games that way which asked for checks in the manual, but without providing the manual or at least a list with the codes, rendering them unplayable.
DeleteOr worse, there was a manual, but that one was translated into German/French (whichever applied to the specific game), but the game was still in English, making the game incompatible with it's own manual.
I had a copy of non-color Taskmaker, but it was on an ancient mac that died about 20 years ago. Wish I had saved it somehow. All I know is that the game had been installed by the previous owner.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've tried them already, but disk images for 3 disks of Star Crystal are on the Asimov archive, tucked away in the Adventure directory instead of the RPG directory:
ReplyDeleteftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/adventure/Star%20Crystal%20(1985)(Ba'rac%20Limited)(Disk%201%20of%203).dsk
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/adventure/Star%20Crystal%20(1985)(Ba'rac%20Limited)(Disk%202%20of%203)[data%20A].dsk
ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple_II/images/games/adventure/Star%20Crystal%20(1985)(Ba'rac%20Limited)(Disk%203%20of%203)(Data%20B).dsk
Mocagh has docs: https://mocagh.org/loadpage.php?query=[publisher]Ba%27rac - likely the images are the same pre-release disks Mocagh mentions, which no-one knows if they hold the full game or not.
Full game or no, they do seem functional. I haven't tried them very far, but in Virtual II it does boot, allows you to start a new game, and responds to typical text adventure commands (INVENTORY, GET ARMOR, etc -- ALL CAPS is required).
Thanks. I really thought I had checked there. One solved already!
DeleteYou should link this page on the right sidebar.
ReplyDeleteThat was always the plan. I just didn't get here fast enough after it posted automatically.
DeleteI am impressed this list is so small, I figured there were a lot more games you found unplayable, I guess I'm just thinking about games that didn't meet your defn of a rpg and conflating the two. Still very nice work with this.
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few more, but I wanted to make sure I was exhaustive in searching for them before I added them to the list. I'll be updating this a lot as I make a second pass (sporadically) through the 1980s.
DeleteAh, that makes sense. It is a testimate to your dedication how thorough you are.
DeleteI guess a game like GayBlade couldn´t be released in our world today as there might be too many offended by it.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIt offended people back then. It was considered by some as evidence of the 'homosexual agenda'. The guy who made it just reskinned another game he'd made and made the things that had made his life crap into enemies, then 'released' is as what he called charity-ware. ie Game is free, please donate to a charity (he specified AIDS-related charities).
DeleteWhile some conservative folks might be offended by it, it would probably be somewhat accepted by the queer crowd. It's an LGBT game made by a gay man in the 90s where the enemies are evangelicals and homophobes.
DeleteThe differnce is that in the 90´s homophobe was still the norm and accepted by sociaty, nowdays the tone have shifted wich makes homophobes stand out and actually be responsible for their oppinion
DeleteAnd the difference is that games were pretty minority stuff in the 90s and stuff like Phantasmagoria 2 (a psychosexual horror FMV from Sierra with, among others, s&m and gay overtones) could not be done today. And this is not anything closer to the popularity of Sierra.
DeleteHomophobes became noisy when games got totally mainstream.
Empire III: Armageddon seems really interesting, hope someone can find it.
ReplyDeleteSurely more people would have been offended then than now as (hopefully!)gay people today are much more accepted (some neanderthals out there notwithstanding!)than they were in the early nineties?
ReplyDeleteReally depends on the exact content - Will And Grace comes across as borderline homophobic today because of the heavy stereotyping, but was considered incredibly progressive when it came out.
DeleteBut don't compare to Will and Grace but to something that has the same place in the subculture, as "Taxi Zum Klo"
DeleteIntentions of the author aside, the game has very politically incorrect humour. Back then the game like this could be seen as brave or "subversive" by the left, now it would probably be criticized for its portrayal of homosexuality. American political debate tends to move between extremes, it seems to me true libertianism never has the mainstream influece. There are of course shows like South Park who will target anybody, but majority of maerican comedy isn't like that.
DeleteThings used to be "controversial". Now it's "problematic".
DeleteThere will always be censors and moralists, no matter the current political climate.
We use "problematic" because it acknowledges that media isn't wholly perfect or awful, and that a technically brilliant work can have flawed elements, or that good intentions can yield bad results, or that an unpleasant person can make great art.
DeleteWe also use it because it acknowledges that they *are* problems. Gay stereotyping *is* a problem, we accept that, and then we talk about the context it happened in, the intentions of the author, whether the game is otherwise a good game, etc.
"Controversial" is less helpful for critical discussion because it invites a polarised all-or-nothing discussion of "is it great, or is it terrible", and then it implies that if the "great" argument wins then the stereotyping isn't actually a problem.
In the future we might find better words than "problematic", and yes, we're using it so much these days that there's jokes to be made about that, but the intention is to invite a deeper and more nuanced critical interaction, not a shallower one.
"Poblematic" has become extremely overused and has become an SJW buzzword to bash anything that isn't ideologically left. Sexy female characters? Problematic. The player can do anything he wants in an open world game? Problematic! Even games like Civilization have been called problematic by now because you can engage in colonialism. The transsexual backgrounds of some characters in Rimworld were recently criticized... despite them having actually been written by backers of the game who are trans themselves.
Delete"Problematic" is used by a certain crowd of people to police content, and that's harmful to art and entertainment because that crowd loves intimidating creators for producing "wrong" content.
I like Greg's rationale for the word, but yeah, it makes me roll my eyes.
DeleteI was pretty surprised when I saw I had an option to declare a 'Colonial War' in Civ. I mean, it's kind of what you do, whether it's given a name or not, but I thought the optics were dicey.
Let's avoid terms like 'SJW' perhaps, as they're nothing more than political snarl worlds that don't really advance the conversation.
JarlFrank, if you're not in the market for critical analysis, or you are but not *that* analysis, then avoid those threads. It's cool. You're allowed to just play the game and enjoy the game and not have a discussion about its politics.
DeleteSome people like having that conversation. More importantly, some people *need* to have that conversation, because it's an important conversation. If you loved games, but every time you sat down to a game you kept encountering some character saying, "Hey, that JarlFrank is a giant douchebag," you'd probably be going, "Hey, why is this here? Is it necessary? Can we have a talk about why games keep doing that?" Everyone deserves to have games that they're represented in, and everyone deserves to have what we call "mainstream" games not be needlessly and casually offensive to them. And getting that right involves conversations, including conversations that sometimes seem trivial, petty, or taking things too far - because that reaction is exactly why the conversation was necessary.
When we have these conversations, we're not coming to take anyone's games away from them. You can be assured that no one is going to stop making great games for straight white dudes any time soon, or any subset of those three adjectives, and in fact if anything the rise of Kickstarter and indie games generally means that you're getting *more* games that directly target the specific intersection of things you like rather than less.
Responding to the specific issues you raise is almost certainly not a conversation Chet wants on his blog. Discussion of how we criticise games is, I think, on topic, but wider political issues probably not. I'd just say that there's nothing about a trans character being written by a trans person that makes it perfect or beyond criticism (although we'd want to be careful in how we approach that criticism as someone who isn't trans themselves). Trans in particular covers a very wide range of identities and backgrounds - it's not a single homogeneous group united in perspective. It's generally better to just listen to people's criticisms, ask respectful questions, and then if you're not convinced just say, "Well, I don't find it a problem personally, so I'll just go enjoy the game, thanks for your time."
(A little research suggests that neither of us are describing the issue around RimWorld correctly, it's way too complicated and off-topic for this blog, maybe let's just drop that topic entirely.)
DeleteI don't doubt that some people have an interest in political analysis of games, for valid reasons. But as the anonymous poster wrote in the comment below this thread here, the term problematic is nowadays often used by radicals who clamor for censorship and want to make an issue out of everything, and push it into the faces of people who just don't care. It's just like back when conservative politicians wanted to censor violence and other controversial content in games, except now it comes from the other side of the political spectrum. Rather than offering constructive criticism, there is this tendency to just call things "problematic" and blame the developer for not having the right mindset, rather than offering ideas on how to fix these perceived issues.
DeleteLet's not continue this thread before it becomes too political, but I'll leave it at "The thing I find problematic is the way the far left is interacting with games, and art and entertainment in general". Right now they're at the same stage as those hardcore Christians back in the 80s who demonized D&D for promoting witchcraft.
I think "problematic" is the right term, while "censorship" is way over the top. People who hate, discriminate against others or otherwise demonstrate misunderstanding without trying to get a correct picture, better shut up, because they add nothing to society. That is not about forbidding somebody to speak, but about living together peacefully.
DeleteThere has never been a handbook of "political correctness" trying to shut up unwelcome opinions, like often claimed. But there is resistance against discrimination and hate and hopefully will always be.
I think we should avoid pretending that criticism comes from one side of the spectrum. When games are released that are perceived to pander to 'political correctness' you can be sure that there will be big complaint threads.
DeleteThe 2013 RPG 'Expeditions: Conquistador' was repeatedly criticised on the steam forums for having an ahistorical number of women as soldiers. It's an ideological battleground out there and both sides are trying to control the narrative and influence future games.
I agree with Greg though, video games as cultural expression feel appropriate for a blog about the history of RPGs, but the particulars of Civ 6 or RimWorld probably aren't :)
*conversations about video games as cultural expression
DeleteCalling something problematic and bashing it are not complete synonyms. The real problem (hah) is that specifically calling out certain works as problematic incorrectly gives the impression that NON-problematic works exist.
DeleteThere is no perfect idea that is free of negative repercussions. And it's worth talking about the potential downsides of any portrayal. RPGs _as a genre_ for example tend to come with a very blase attitude to killing people and taking their stuff. OBVIOUSLY this doesn't mean all RPGs should be banned, but it is worth talking about sometimes.
Re: D&D moral panic of the 80s, I think we would have welcomed the hardcore Christians to the conversation on D&D if they had actually played the games, were basing their concerns on a love of the medium, and were having a conversation about how they could find a place within that medium that represented them.
Delete... noting that Christians in the US aren't a minority, and one arguable answer would be that literally every word on the page represented them to the exclusion of other people. But we probably could have moved past that and worked something out, and while I think the change of demons and devils to tanari and what have you in 2e specifically to accommodate this group was a bit silly, it didn't exactly get in the way of anything and it arguably made that demographic feel more welcome in the medium.
Point is, listen to people, work out what it takes to make them feel included, think about whether there's any reason not to do it other than a kneejerk aversion to change, and then maybe just do it. Making people feel welcome in our hobby feels good.
The tabletop RPG/computer RPG "One Deck Dungeon" uses only female artwork to depict the Player Characters. This has spawned multiple threads on discussion boards for the game, complaining about the lack of choice.
Deletehttps://steamcommunity.com/app/770100/discussions/0/1693788384129538709/
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1721002/why-are-all-hero-characters-game-female
It just goes to show that there are plenty of men cheesed by the lack of choice.
Also, word choice is the equivalent of clothing in an online discussion forum. You may have the freedom to walk around in outrageous or offensive clothing, but don't expect to convince people who are offended by your word/clothing choices to give your thoughts much respect in return.
Eugene was responding to comments that I deleted for offensive language.
DeleteI don't even really understand what this thread is about. Until someone actually advocates for a particular outcome or policy, I don't see why words like "problematic" or "controversial" should bother us at all. I don't see any particular outcome being advocated here.
I am not mad, I am disappointed.
DeleteProblematic? Everything is problematic.
ReplyDelete"I used to endorse a particular brand of politics that is prevalent at McGill and in Montreal more widely. It is a fusion of a certain kind of anti-oppressive politics and a certain kind of radical leftist politics. This particular brand of politics begins with good intentions and noble causes, but metastasizes into a nightmare. In general, the activists involved are the nicest, most conscientious people you could hope to know. But at some point, they took a wrong turn, and their devotion to social justice led them down a dark path. Having been on both sides of the glass, I think I can bring some painful but necessary truth to light."
A number of years ago, there was a sealed copy of OrbQuest: The Search for Seven Wards for sale on eBay. I bid a pretty large amount on it, but ended up not winning. I do collect sealed games, but in this case I probably would have opened it up and tried to archive it. Someone out there has a copy of it, though, and a pristine one at that.
ReplyDeleteThere's a current ebay listing for TaskMaker
Deletehttps://www.ebay.com/itm/TASKMAKER-GAME-FOR-VINTAGE-MAC-IN-GREAT-LOOKING-WORKING-ORDER-AND-IS-COMPLETE/264075010576?hash=item3d7c18e210:g:4joAAOSwy3JcCE-N:rk:2:pf:1&frcectupt=true
Expensive though...
Well, I bought it. I have a Mac SE/30 that I need to fix up a bit, but theoretically I should be able to get the files transferred to PC with a little work. I’d be happy to scan the manual as well. It’s worth noting that you can still buy shareware keys for the game if you search for “Storm Impact Robot Room” on Google. They can only provide the updated color version, though, as has already been determined. As a result, before distributing any files I’ll need to contact them to see how/if they want to proceed.
ReplyDeleteSorry, this is in reference to Taskmaster. I thought I replied to the thread about the eBay sale.
DeleteGuys guys...I´ll be "dad" here a minute and state that we´re only talking about games. Who cares if we get female only character portrayals. Who cares if the gimlet is not perfect. It could be tweaked a little but lets remember that invalidates all the old scores. I´d rather it not be messed up. To me the scoring is not as important as the gameplay, pics, comments, grips that Chet finds in each rpg title.
ReplyDeleteIf you don´t like a game, don´t play it. All female and hate it? don´t play it. Find the gimlet all wrong? Fine, you can comment on each game and give an "alternate" score if you want, or set up your own blog.
have a nice day people! smile! stuff in life ain´t that important!
Thanks Dad. I'm glad you've been around my whole life to let me know what's important and what's not.
DeleteLove
Your son
PS Mum says you missed your last child support payment.
Chet, I would like to make a suggestion for your list above, specifically for the games that are unplayable, unwinnable or "broken". If you could list the version number of the game you are using then we could keep an eye out for a newer version or a patch that might have been released after your version. Provided there is no identifiable version you could maybe list the predominate date of the files or something like that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's a good point. I'll try to go back and add them here soon.
DeleteLoremaster is a 1991 DOS RPG I recently heard about.
ReplyDeleteThere is very little about it on the Internet. All I could find was an incomplete entry about it and a speedrun:
https://videogamegeek.com/videogame/246794/loremaster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZQzss7l5Q0
Someone on Twitch played it (there are more videos, this is the first): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/421852432
Chet, I believe I have a solution for "The Amulet". I haven't played past the initial start screen but I was able to get past the character creation part where you were getting stuck.
ReplyDeleteI ran it in DosBox with no special settings. If the version you have contains the "TIMESET.COM" file then you have what you need. If not, that file can be obtained in the zip file here: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Amulet_The_1985
What you need to do is add "timeset.com" to the "am.bat" file before the line with "amulet00". My "AM.BAT" looks like this:
timeset.com
amulet00
Then start the game with AM.BAT and you should be on your way. I didn't have time to decipher exactly what this does but I am guessing it is setting the system date to something that this game can handle and was expecting.
Good luck!
Thanks, LanHawk. I'll give it a try.
Deletere: Dragon Lair (1981, PC-88)
ReplyDeleteHope you have brushed up on your Japanese.
https://archive.org/download/Neo_Kobe_NEC_PC-8001_2016-02-25/Neo%20Kobe%20-%20NEC%20PC-8001%20%282016-02-25%29.zip/NEC%20PC-8001%2FDragon%20Lair%20%28Fugen%20Electronics%29%2FDragon%20Lair%20%5BFD%5D.7z
There is also this:
https://archive.org/download/Neo_Kobe_NEC_PC-8001_2016-02-25/Neo%20Kobe%20-%20NEC%20PC-8001%20%282016-02-25%29.zip/NEC%20PC-8001%2FDragon%20Lair%20%28Fugen%20Electronics%29%2FDragon%20Lair%20%5Bextras%5D.7z
But all that contains is a text file which contains the following:
Dragon Lair
[Compilation] PC-8001 Game Pack (Disk 6).d88
Best of luck.
Still need Twin Morg Valley? I have a t.64 image.
ReplyDeleteI do, too. The question is whether yours makes any more sense than mine. You have to read the note in the longer entry.
DeleteI realize this probably adds more to the mystery than helps, but I found reference to Twin Morg Valley in the last page of a Hungarian publication.
ReplyDeletehttps://archive.org/details/CoV17/page/n39
1991 issue. If someone can read the Hungarian it might help clarify. It seems to be part of a 1990-1991 ... "unofficial" compilation?
It's a classified ad from a "service" that made and copied cassettes full with pirated games. These were home-made and as unofficial as they came, thus weren't preserved.
DeleteConsidering there are 19 other games on a single 30 minute tape side, I'm fairly certain this is just the same 10 KB "trial version" floating around the net and already covered here.
DeleteFor some bonus trivia, many of the games offered here are actually save states. Cartridges like the Action Replay had the ability to save the computer's memory to a single executable file that could be loaded by anyone. This allowed people who did not own floppy drives to play games that didn't come out on tape, which was pretty much the majority in the '90s. Since Commodore floppy drives were relatively expensive (they cost as much as the computer itself) and not everyone could afford them, these services were quite popular, at least in Hungary.
re: Empire III: Armageddon (1983, Apple II)
ReplyDeleteYou can mark another one off the missing list. This was posted in the last few days.
If your emulator supports .woz format go here:
https://archive.org/details/wozaday_Empire_III_Armageddon
Else get the .dsk format here:
https://archive.org/details/EmpireIIIArmageddon4amCrack
The CP/M OrbQuest has been found and archived:
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/bitsavers/status/1205544892107083777
Thanks! This page has been really successful. I'll give it a shot in the coming months.
DeleteSeven Horror's can be marked as completed! Amazing how many of these games have been located since I last read this page!
ReplyDeletere: GayBlade (1992, DOS)
ReplyDeleteAnd the list shrinks by one. The Windows 3.1 version was uploaded today:
https://archive.org/details/gayblade
About to see what it takes to get this running...
Fantastic news! The in-browser emulator returns an "illegal function call" error so some tweaking may be needed.
DeleteMeanwhile, the list of files in the game directory is quite...piquant.
This was found shortly after I realized I wasn't straight, so it always makes me happy when it comes up.
DeleteSearching "Illegal Function Call" with "Gayblade" has returned this one, single result. Trying to fix the Illegal function call error. Where can I find or What do I have to include in the .ini file?
Delete@James This is the file needed:
DeleteC:\WINDOWS\GBLADE.INI
File Contents:
[GBLADE]
progpath=C:\gblade\
# sound off
# soundon=0
# sound on
soundon=-1
I have it working. Will send Chet the details so he doesn't have to fiddle for longer than necessary to get this running.
ReplyDeleteThe README file had a typo in it for the .INI file reference. This is the file needed: C:\WINDOWS\GBLADE.INI
Its been a long time since I laid eyes on Windows 3.1 in the flesh.
The Knight's Quest version online at Willus runs without crashes.
ReplyDeletehttps://willus.com/trs80/?-a+-1+-p+130061+-f+1+q=knight
(did you add to this list recently? I don't remember seeing Knight's Quest)
It only popped up on MobyGames recently.
DeleteI did a quick google research on Pits of Baladur. First off, your date (1986) is different from mobygames (1977). I assume it is simply your mistake?
ReplyDeleteThis game is also listed on uvlist.net . At first i assumed that they took it from mobygames, but mobygames entry was added in 2019, while wayback machine shows it on uvlist as early as 2010. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20100621080651/https://www.uvlist.net/platforms/games-list/181 ) It is possible that there are earlier archived entries on uvlist with different url, i was too lazy to search further.
Next, there is this Blackmoor guy.
https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/brief-history-of-grid-based-dungeon-crawlers/137576/7
Here he just lists this game amongst other dungeon crawlers
http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/13381/guys-jons-vlog
Here he goes into more detail:
"My best friend made a computer dungeon back in 1976, and I got to help create a map for one of the levels. This was called Pits of Baradur, or simply baradur when entering the lesson name to run the program."
Finally, there is this Irregular Magazine article from 2012 by Griffith M. Morgan III who I assume is Blackmoor.
https://kupdf.net/download/irregular-magazine-spring-2012_5af3d007e2b6f5d5620dfe3b_pdf
"My two friends Justin Grunau and Michael Stecyk programmed The Pits of Baradur (a reference to The Lord of the Rings, which was another of our obsessions at the time). They even let me design one of the dungeon levels."
Hope this helps.
I'm just not sure I believe that undetailed recollections from a single person should be enough to get the game listed on MobyGames. There's no assurance here that the game was finished or that anyone ever actually played it. I tried to submit a new game to MobyGames a few years back and it got rejected because I hadn't supplied a manual cover or screen or photographic evidence that the game existed, but apparently some contributors are allowed to get it listed because the name tumbled out of someone's mouth in a magazine interview.
DeleteI have found another source. Earliest entry of baradur in Wikipedia is this one from 30 November 2005:
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Computer_role-playing_game&oldid=29736085
It was added to wikipedia by Aumakua who appears to be Dirk Pellet, one of co-authors of dnd (1975). I've seen that you have communicated with him in the past. When (if) you talk with him again, you could inquire him about baradur if you wish so since he seems to be familiar at least with the name of it, if not the game itself.
I'm not really convinced by a Wikipedia article. It lists "baradur" along with other PLATO games in the exact order and using the same names that we see on other sites, so I suspect that all those lists came from the same original source.
DeleteWhen I hear from someone who actually played it or see a screenshot or a description of how gameplay worked, I'll be convinced that it existed. As it is, it shouldn't be listed on MobyGames in my opinion.
But even if I did believe, there's really nothing more I can do about it than list it here. It simply doesn't exist anymore.
I would agree with you if not for the fact that it was added to Wikipedia by Dirk Pellet. Unless someone decided to impersonate him back in 2005 which would be weird.
DeleteAs for the list order, seeing how Mr. Pellet is interested in documenting early CRPG history, and how it dates back from 2005, I would assume that he wrote that sentence himself and he is the original source of that sentence. Unless you have seen sources with earlier dates with that sentence of course. The only one earlier I found is only about 2 days earlier on another wiki-like page, added by Aumakua (Dirk Pellet) too.
I understand that there is no option to play it anymore, I just thought that one of 11 earliest CRPGs ever (according to your master list), is worth investigating a bit more than usual.
I have a working version of Mazies & Crazies by Frank DaCosta from his book "Writing Adventure Programs for the TRS-80." Perhaps the only working version on the Net. It fails in your first criteria, but if you are interested give me a shout.
ReplyDeleteI've not been able to find much about it online, but there's a French "Moria 2". This version is the most complete I could find: https://www.tolkiendil.com/telechargements/jeux/moria_2
ReplyDeleteIt's a fairly straightforward rogue-like where you have to delve down 15 floors to defeat Sauron, by throwing a silmaril at him, according to a comment on the above page, before heading back up.
The weird thing is that there's one line in English, when the game is telling you it's building the map.
Maybe it's just a translated version of another game, I have no idea.
You need to eat regularly, failing what your strength will go down.
Walking through pools of water makes your armour rust, reducing its protection by one.
Here's most of the commands, accessible from the '?' command ingame:
[r]evêtir - put armour on
[e]nlever - take armour off
[m]anger - eat
[l]ire - read scroll
[a]bandonner - drop
[E]nfiler - put ring on (you then have to choose right (d) or left (g) hand)
e[N]lever - take ring off
[L]ancer - cast a spell (using a limited-charge wand)
[b]oire - drink potion
[B]randir - wield a weapon
[T]hrow (no French equivalent to that one)
Superher looks awful, but it shoudl qualify as an RPG: https://www.mobygames.com/game/superher
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of videos on YouTube, but I don't know where to get it.
Hi Chester!
ReplyDeleteJust want to say, first of all, thank you for this blog. I read it religiously. I grew up in the Macintosh universe and have been a big fan of your obscure Mac entries. Much agreed on Theldrow, oof.
I wanted to point out that a game on your list, Mechanical Anarchy, from the Macintosh Repository, was a game that I uploaded to the Repository myself, having rescued it from a very old MacAddict Magazine compilation CD. The game was entirely non-existent online and had been for a couple decades. I was very lucky to be able to unearth this strange little game, apparently programmed with SuperCard, a variant of HyperCard (I discovered this by pulling the game apart with ResEdit back in my youth).
Regardless, it's a passable looking Mac shareware RPG for its time (albeit in two color modes: black and white, and an inexplicable 4-color version, both a tad anachronistic for 1993), but it really did not hold up well. The game world is interesting, a bit of post-apocalypse going on, but the gameplay itself is painfully linear, shallow, and the difficulty scales way too steeply. That said, when I was a child I was MESMERIZED by the game, for the same reasons I was mesmerized by Taskmaker, Theldrow, and other arcane Mac gems. I spent nearly twenty years trying to rediscover a copy, purely for nostalgia's sake. I'd search for it in Google maybe once a year if I remembered. I eventually recalled that I'd originally found it on a MacAddict CD, and Archive.org had an extensive archive of coverdiscs from the magazine throughout the '90s. I scoured through the archives on one late night, and I was FINALLY able to score a copy of the game. I felt like I found the Holy Grail. At least, until I played the game! Still, the nostalgia is strong, and Mechanical Anarchy still holds a fond place in my heart, even if it's a bad game. It probably deserves at least a brief.
Anyway, that's my story, I thought I'd provide some context about the game that I rescued from the dusty attics of reality and how much it meant to me, even if it's a bit of a dud. Looking forward to hearing your take on it!
Thanks for your comments, Teegan, and thank you for uploading that game! Whatever your feelings about it, it's people like you who make my work--and the enjoyment of thousands of other players--possible. When that game comes up, I'll find this comment in my pre-game search, so I appreciate it.
DeleteIn your Starflight review you mentioned you were looking forward to playing Protostar war on the Frontier (1993) as this is effectively Starflight 3. Any chance we'll see this added to the list officially? please? :)
ReplyDeleteGood ongoing progress here!
ReplyDeleteYou made a comment on one thread about possibly having come across some more information on the legendary PLATO m119h file at one point, did this ever bear fruit? In one way it would be neat to confirm the existence of the first CRPG ever made. Although, if it is simply forever lost to the misty reaches of time... that is not a bad way to leave it!
It seemed like you had communicated with someone who might actually have an old print out of the game, or could confirm it's existence prior to pedit5... although... reading through various sources... it was never clear the m199h actually existed as a playable game.
Argh. That frigging guy. He told me he had a printout of the file. Every time I asked him about it, the reply was, "I'm in the middle of a move; write to me again next week" or "I'm on vacation; poke me next month." I finally gave up. Then, about three months ago, I decided to give it another try. This time, he just didn't reply at all. The thought that someone has a printout of the file in his garage but can't be bothered to share it with the world fills me with rage. I mean, it's "rage" scaled appropriately to the somewhat trivial nature of this enterprise, but rage nonetheless.
DeleteThere's a number of very rare games where the only known working copy is in the hands of a collector who refuses to dump them. This not only prevents anyone from playing them, it means they'll be lost forever if something happens the the physical medium.
DeleteSeveral of these have been dumped by repairmen who were called in to repair the arcade hardware, which caused a lot of debate in the retro community.
Totes ARRGGGHHHH!!!!
ReplyDeleteWow. Dude could be sitting on an obscure but cool mystery!!!
I agree though... take ten minutes to find it and mail it to someone who will post it to the internet for posterity. Have to wonder if he is legit or not.
I'd say bug him every quarter for a while... I'd so like to know the answer!
Loving the blog for the past ten years!
I've been trying to research Twin Morg Valley (TMV) for far too long so thought I best leave what I got so far (not much). On one website (CSDb) there are several cracked versions of this game and one is by a group called "Gangsters" who were only operating from June 91 to Dec 91 (so the game must be before Dec 1991). The person who wrote the front screen (with the scrolling text) was a member called "BlackIce" and he was also a member of another group called "Eclipse". In your comments you mentioned you couldn't find the company called Eclipse (who you thought wrote the game) and I think that's because the screen you saw was a splash page for the other cracker group and not the company which wrote the game. In this version of the game there is a second screen for TMV which lists other people including someone called "Kyksi Kaksi Skidminakken" whose name is very similar to the character in the game called "Kyksi Kaksi", so I think he is the actual coder of the game (especially as it lists 3 other people who did graphics).
ReplyDeleteDespite the names, can't find anything on any of them so that's my lot for now.
Keep up the good work
Dungeon of Ymir: I got this working and wrote some instructions but may have got 'eaten' by the blogger. Can you check and I can resend.
ReplyDeleteI think Blogger did eat your instructions, as I didn't get any. However, I did get some tips previously from LanHawk, and the game is on my list to try again soon.
DeleteOk. If the tips include using an emulator which supports "WRX" then you should be ok. If you have any problems let me know and I'll repost
ReplyDeleteOn your Master Game list you say for "Super Tritorn" (1986) that you can't find a manual. There is one here (http://www.meits.nl/msxrepository/Super_Tritorn/Super_Tritorn-Manual.pdf) but it's in Japanese so maybe another reader can help you out.
ReplyDeleteIn my childhood i played the german RPG "Odyssee - Kampf der Bruderschaft" which was released 1985 by the german Commodore 64 magazine "64er Sonderheft" (64er special edition) on disk. It has some aspects of a rougelike but cannot compete with commercial games of that era. The battle is rudimentary but it qualifies as an RPG in my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteI recently found out that an english version exists under the name "Odyssey - Battle of the Brotherhood" which was released 1989. This is very late for such a game and don't know who published this game as i cannot find it on Mobygames.
There is a small video on Youtube where you can get an impression of the gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aUrhLiwre4
An interesting fact is, that this game randomizes the game world with a so called "creater" program like in C64 version of "Seven Cities of Gold". The generation takes a lot of time and outputs the world file which is used by the game.
The name of the developer is "Jan Geißelmann" and the publisher of the german version is "Markt & Technik".
Some further information about the game. This is the magazine where it was published:
Deletehttps://archive.org/details/64er_sonderheft_1985_02/page/n109/mode/2up
I bought it together with the disk. But the magazine contained also the BASIC source code of the game and the world creator for people that are enduring enought to type in BASIC for hours.
Only the title of the game is german. The gameplay is english in the version from 1985 too. I don't know if there are differences between the 1985 version and the 1989 version.
To play the game i recommend the 1989 version on gamebase 64. The first version on the disk contains the game, the creator program and english docs.
I have found and played a forgotten game, covered in my site, that I think deserves more attention than it's going to have there.
ReplyDeleteIt is a microcomputer rpg in which you control a party of characters of variable size, with different races, some of them magic users, you select marching order that affects encounters, you find magic items and equip them to the different characters, they gain experience by killing enemies and this improves their attributes, if they are killed you can replace them in the base town, you give them individual orders in combat...
And all this in 1978. I think it checks a lot of "firsts".
It's a Gary Bedrosian game (the author of Lords of Karma, Empire of the Over-Mind and some computer wargames) called The Magic Tower:
https://exploradorrpg.wordpress.com/juegos/the-magic-tower/
Wow. Great coverage. I'll add it to my own list to check out soon, but you were pretty thorough.
DeleteThank you, I'm looking forward to reading it.
DeleteHey, ER. I had a look at it today. I followed your awesome instructions for using the North Star emulator and loading the game. Unfortunately, the UNIVERSE program crashes with an "ERROR IN LINE 140." Did you encounter any problem like this?
DeleteThe VENTURE program still runs, with four characters, but I don't know what its parameters are.
Oh, VENTURE doesn't really work, either. I get "FILE ERROR IN 930" every time I would normally find a magic item. I'm not sure I can call it an RPG anyway, unless attributes like combat skill or morale increase with successful combats.
DeleteIt's still a very interesting game, I meant to add, and you really pulled it out of some heavy obscurity. I wonder how many other games are forgotten just because their platforms weren't popular.
DeleteThank you.
DeleteThe characters earn experience points based in the enemies they killed, and at least their Resistance increases with them when they return to base, if I remember well. I think the game is between an rpg and a wargame.
You hace to follow the instructions in the game page, if you follow the emulator page instructions it does not work. The game disk is programmed to execute from disk unit 1 only, not 2.
I did follow the instructions on the game page. Everything runs fine right up to those two errors. I even input the same values as you did in your screenshots. I don't know why it's happening for me and not for you.
DeleteI'll try again in a couple of days and at least write a BRIEF, I guess. I thought we'd corresponded by e-mail before, but I can't seem to find it. Shoot me an e-mail (crpgaddict@gmail.com) if you get a chance.
DeleteAdom?
ReplyDelete"ADOM" = "Ancient Domains of Mystery". It's on the Master Game List in 1994.
DeleteOn your "Index of Games Played by Title", SSI's "Realms of Darkness" redirects here, but what problem did you face with that one? Or am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteI've started trough AppleWin one version easily available on the Internet Archive. Only issue so far was that there is characters saved on the adventure disk, but you just need to move them to the main hall to return to the boot disk. Haven't gone far, so I don't know if this one is also bugged.
DeleteIn case anyone reads this and has the same question: Chester mentioned here that the C64 versions of Realms of Darkness didn't run for him, and that in the Apple II versions he ran into the problem with the characters being saved on the adventure disk. So maybe the trick about moving them to the main hall would allow him to play it? (Chester, feel free to delete this comment and pretend it never existed.)
DeleteIf anyone wants to try, alternatively there is also a new cracked and "cleaned up" C64 version which was published in February 2021 (Chet's attempts mentioned in the linked entry and its comment section were in 2017). Don't want to include a link here, but it should not be hard to find.
DeleteI tested it a year later and it seemed to work without problems under VICE, including character creation, playing through the initial steps / tutorial explained in the game's manual and restarting a saved game. There is a single savegame, though, so you might consider creating backups.
To understand why it was so difficult to get it to run, see the background e.g. here.
I played, won and documented (here on Strategywiki.org) the game in 2018.
DeleteBack then, I solved the C64 problem by using a specific version of WinVICE, the 1.13a, then pressing PageUp when the error message appeared.
Later, I realized that in more recent versions of WinVICE all you have to do is to change just one default setting (NTSC or something).
The Dark Wars (1991, Atari ST) is listed on your master game list as NP with comment "Can't get character creation or save to work." I took a brief look at this game, and I don't think it's supposed to have any character creation; you start with the one premade character, and then you will randomly encounter NPCs who agree to join your party if you ask them. I didn't try saving from within the game, since I think emulator save states make that redundant anyway. While it doesn't seem very attractive (I lost interest when I realized how tedious it would be to map just the starting area) you should be able to play it.
ReplyDeleteIt's on my list to have another look at.
Delete"Witchcraft (1987, Amiga). The Amiga Hall of Light has an entry on the game, and catalogs of the era attest to its existence. It was developed by Snake Design and sold by Intelligent Memory. That's as much as I can find on the game."
ReplyDeleteFound out two little things about it:
It may exist if someone knows the total size of the program in million bytes.:
http://obligement.free.fr/listejeuxamiga/listejeuxamiga.php?lettre=W&filtre=Orig
Although the size listed as "0,6?" making it look more like a guess.
Snake Design was located in North America
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/games/company/77042-snake-design
So maybe someone there could look at some archives what happened to the company and if it ever released anything else. If it did not, I believe no working copy of this one exits either.
Randomly ran across a YT vid about "Jaunt Trooper: Thunderbolt" release 1993, Windows 3.1
ReplyDeleteI see you have a "Jaunt Trooper: Firestorm" release 1996, Macintosh.
They may be the same game, I couldn't find any vid of a JT:Firestorm
It seems like a small Rogue-like but set in the future.
Chet played the Mac version in 2021, here's the first entry: http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2021/03/game-407-mission-thunderbolt-1992.html.
Delete@Chet: If someone else already wrote that, you can delete this comment.
Right. The Jaunt Trooper version was a re-release with a new title. I'm not sure if any gameplay changed.
DeleteI think you can cross Caves of Annod off the list, I've played it and although it's somewhat roguelike in the style of Commodore PET's Dungeon, it doesn't really meet your criteria. The only thing that improves about the character is its strength, which acts as hit points, and really whether it improves or worsens after a fight seems totally random (although the amount by which it does depends on the power of the monster).
ReplyDeleteI have only found the game in the VIC-20 GameBase or at www.myabandonware.com, but they have the same version and it seems that it does not work correctly and you cannot finish the level (I suspect that you could continue advancing through different levels indefinitely in the style of ZX81's Catacombs).
Huh. Someone must have disseminated it after I added to the list. There's no way I overlooked it on such obvious sites.
DeleteCommenter gamerindreams submitted the following, which I accidentally deleted instead of approving. Not quite what I had in mind with the "Missing & Mysteries" title, but there are definitely elements of both here!
ReplyDelete****
A new game suggestion for you - Aventura I on the Atari ST, an ultima 4 clone
https://www.timeextension.com/features/in-1989-a-teenage-atari-st-dev-made-one-award-winning-game-then-vanished-what-happened
Browsing the April 1990 issue of Journal de Genève, a Swiss newspaper, Hurel saw a piece of news on the Computer 90 Expo: "The Crédit Suisse Software Prize supports either young programmers or young software companies. It will award this year [...] to Jean-Claude Schopfer (Junior prize for Aventura I, gaming software)."
Now this was interesting! A 14-year-old Swiss resident created an amateur game for the Atari ST, won a prize from the bank Crédit Suisse, and then promptly vanished. The title of the game - affixed with "I" - also implied there was to be a sequel. Is this game a forgotten treasure? What happened to the promised follow-ups? More importantly, what happened to Jean-Claude Schopfer?
Aventura I is an RPG which mimics popular games of the time, Ultima IV and Dungeon Master. Hurel played for 10 hours - he's uncertain if it can even be completed, since it gets very difficult near the end. But he drew maps to navigate the dungeons, and analysed the gameplay loop, comparing it to its contemporaries.
I browsed through this just now (the new formatting is helpful, thanks for that), and had a few notes on some games in the Found/Resolved section:
ReplyDeleteStar Crystal: Episode 1 - Mertactor: The Volentine Gambit - This doesn't appear to have been covered, and it's not anywhere on your master list (I checked the .csv in a text editor to be sure). Was it rejected, or just accidentally deleted from your list?
Teldor I, II, III - not clear to me why these aren't on the "Still Missing" side of the list.
Caves of Annod - since the resolution to this is only in the comments, I suggest linking to El Explorador de RPG's coverage to offer more definitive closure.
The Amulet, Antepenult, Dragon Quest, Empire III: Armageddon, House of Usher, Knight's Quest, OrbQuest, Orb Quest: TSSW - all games you've now covered. The entries on this page sometimes end with potentially misleading language, e.g. "I'll try it when I get back around to it" for The Amulet, so I suggest an edit. The links you've added in other updated entries, i.e. the ones that go directly to your posts about the games, are appreciated, but I recognize you don't have a personal assistant to do this kind of grunt work for you!
An aside about Dungeon Shard - any notes about what the shareware limitations are? It'd be helpful to know what to look for/expect, on the off-chance that someone has cracked it (only possible if the full content is already included in the shareware version and just has to be unlocked), but not bothered to remove "shareware" from the title screen.
Generally, if I investigate a game and it turns out to be an RPG, I BRIEF it. But if the source that says it was an RPG in the first place has since repudiated that categorization, I feel comfortable just deleting it. That's what happened to Star Crystal, which was a text adventure.
DeleteLanHawk found the Teldor trilogy and emailed it to me over a year ago. I'll eventually get to them.
I'll think about updating the "Found/Resolved" list with more detailed information when I check a bunch of other things off my to do list.
Sure, sounds good.
DeleteFrom your last sentence, I'm concerned my post may have been unwelcome, which I regret if so. My intention isn't to nitpick your personal notes, but to treat this list as the community resource for "CRPGs and lost media" that, in effect, it is (and which I'm grateful to you for maintaining). As you note, people stumble across this blog, and I expect quite a few have appreciated what they interpret as a definitive list of lost CRPGs through 1993.
No, sorry--I didn't meant to make you feel that way. You're right that the lack of follow up on some of those is confusing. I just have to triage.
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