tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post1680010199141244686..comments2024-03-29T02:34:55.592-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: Game 274: Skariten: Origin of the Adventure (1987)CRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-11007687986533873392023-05-12T13:19:22.032-04:002023-05-12T13:19:22.032-04:00Thank you. I had downloaded it out of curiosity, b...Thank you. I had downloaded it out of curiosity, but you made me dodge the bullet.Tarnykonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-22695637086193314712022-06-28T00:35:34.565-04:002022-06-28T00:35:34.565-04:00We certainly had many of the same reactions. It st...We certainly had many of the same reactions. It still annoys me that I couldn't finish this one. Some day when I have a TV show to binge, I should fire it up and just search every square.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-61961175103259243442022-06-26T22:24:03.535-04:002022-06-26T22:24:03.535-04:00Great review! My mind is blown that you were able ...Great review! My mind is blown that you were able to play this for 7 hours, lol!<br /><br />I've been slowly reading all the old issues of COMPUTE!'s Gazette (digital copies available on archive.org) and checking out the interesting-looking games I never had a chance to see as a kid. Mostly just on YouTube, but as there were no videos of Skariten I downloaded the disk images. I tried playing it and then found this blog while searching for a manual, haha.<br /><br />Miscellaneous thoughts, some of which you already mentioned:<br />- The slick Gazette ad definitely gives the impression of a polished and professional game with cool perspective tile graphics. Although their spelling of "Balistic" was a bad sign, as was the fact they never wrote the name of the game in their ordering instructions - I too could not figure out if the game was Skar(i)ten or Skar(L)ton.<br />- The ominous dragon eyes / monster eyes that open and blink on the title screen are a nice touch. Gave me hope that the rest of the game would be decent.<br />- My hopes dimmed on the character creation screen. The simple choice between Mage and Fighter is okay, but the game implies you have to type out the whole word instead of giving us a classic "(M)AGE / (F)IGHTER" option. Turns out you can type just M or F but you still have to hit RETURN, which is clunky.<br />- They bait-and-switched the size of the game view. The ad looks like full-screen graphics but the actual game only uses 60% of the available space (38x16 cells instead of 40x25).<br />- As you mention the NPC conversation is not only super limited, but the text appears in a scrolling banner. I just want to emphasize that waiting for the default response of "Beg your pardon!?!" to scroll across quickly becomes incredibly tedious.<br />- I died in my first and only combat. I even guessed what the trick was - striking from a short distance away - but I couldn't time it right.<br />- When you die you turn into a cross and apparently just have to power cycle and reload the game - there's no on-screen option to reload or go back to the main menu or anything.<br />- To sum it up: Marketing 9/10, Technical Competence 5/10, Fun Factor 1/10.Abe Prallehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12690170035859756314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-72351685847130184842018-07-12T17:34:41.583-04:002018-07-12T17:34:41.583-04:00I put on a Lets Play of Knights of Xentar when Che...I put on a Lets Play of Knights of Xentar when Chet went through it and they had a similar graphics perspective. Actually, the person doing that LP diedsh that in the settings menu you could turn on a psudo-3D effect which I don't think Chet every mentioned.Canageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-30077548542580028482018-06-07T23:54:14.081-04:002018-06-07T23:54:14.081-04:00It lists the lead developer's dad among the cr...<b><i>It lists the lead developer's dad among the credits as "technical assistant." </i></b><br /><br />It sounds to me like Dad could afford to dole out the $$$ in order to get this game self-published with ads in computer magazines that probably cost a small fortune to put out.<br /><br />I learned of this game yesterday when I was thumbing through an old COMPUTE!'s Gazette magazine and downloaded the game out of curiosity, and then found out that you actually played and reviewed it after I did an Internet search.<br /><br />I could not play it for more than 5 minutes. There's no way that I'm going to give that much of my time to a game that has such horrible gameplay. That being said, I really liked the graphics of the game world. There's the potential for a good game somewhere in there. The first things that come to my mind that would improve the game immensely:<br /><br />-Only half of the C64 screen is used. Use the other half to show a party of characters and to display NPC text properly in it's own window instead of scrolling everything on a single line.<br /><br />-get rid of this "real time combat" that was concocted. The programmers clearly lack the technical skills to pull that off. Better that turn-based combat ala Wizardry would make a far better gameplaying experience.<br /><br />-make the NPC interactions entirely menu-driven if the game is going to be played by joystick. Simply have the player select keywords from a menu.<br /><br />It appears that this game was programmed by a bunch of high school kids over the entirety of a summer vacation. One can see the technical skill that was required to pull off even a shoddy game such as this.<br /><br />Taking it to a commercial publisher to give these young upstarts some constructive criticism might have put off releasing the game by about six months to improve it.hitfanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03585339553144825190noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-57527344900938628122018-05-11T18:51:56.719-04:002018-05-11T18:51:56.719-04:00I went back and took vengeance on quite a few game...I went back and took vengeance on quite a few games from my youth a few years back, so I can sympathize with Commander Coriander.<br /><br />Amusingly, the only one on my vengeance list I ended up skipping was the only CRPG, and thus the one you actually played - Ancients 1: Death Watch, which I thought about taking vengeance on, but my research indicated was just thoroughly mediocre and that I was just not good enough at CRPGs when I was of a single-digit age.Imbannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-44338495780240745892018-05-11T18:24:21.043-04:002018-05-11T18:24:21.043-04:00Thanks the additional sleuthing. This will have to...Thanks the additional sleuthing. This will have to remain a weird mystery unless an original developer comes along to solve it.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-17683129697690649272018-05-09T06:41:52.833-04:002018-05-09T06:41:52.833-04:00I got curious about Twin Morg Valley. It looks lik...I got curious about Twin Morg Valley. It looks like it was an RPG in development that got in the hands of a warez group? Or maybe an abandoned project that was distributed as-is? But there's only a big maze, the stats and equipment seem to serve no purpose.<br /><br />It's a really big maze though. You think you found the edge but then there's a little secret passage that reveals a whole new area. And the designer pulls this trick off multiple times. The complete map is 40x100 squares.<br /><br />The crackers added a 'unlimited keys' cheat mode which ended up being a trap. If you enable that mode, as I did, keys are no longer consumed when you open a door. Which means that you run out of inventory space and can't pick up the special keys for the special doors at the end of the maze.<br /><br />I took a look at the binary but I didn't see anything related to monsters or combat or an ending. I did dump the map: https://pastebin.com/4SescQc6Peternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-21143230081320416572018-01-11T01:09:54.076-05:002018-01-11T01:09:54.076-05:00People would have to be really desperate for a CRP...People would have to be really desperate for a CRPG fix to shell out that kind of money for crap like this. XDKenny McCormickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01553499727945099493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-83873487578003946742018-01-08T01:11:12.079-05:002018-01-08T01:11:12.079-05:00It's about $65 today. So someone thought Skari...It's about $65 today. So someone thought <i>Skariten</i> was worth as much as <i>Shadow of War</i>.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-90590483421570015542018-01-07T00:02:58.438-05:002018-01-07T00:02:58.438-05:00$30 in the 80s is huge! It's like... a billion...$30 in the 80s is huge! It's like... a billion dollars in 2017!Kenny McCormickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01553499727945099493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-27326642037304546542018-01-04T00:38:29.864-05:002018-01-04T00:38:29.864-05:00You're my fellow New Englander? I have a lot o...You're my fellow New Englander? I have a lot of readers who recommend games that they remember fondly but you might be the first to recommend a game for purposes of vengeance.<br /><br />I'm glad I was able to give you some closure. CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-1371485968984224452018-01-03T23:01:28.948-05:002018-01-03T23:01:28.948-05:00Yes! Skariten finally gets its day!
WhenI saw Ska...Yes! Skariten finally gets its day! <br />WhenI saw Skariten appear on your list I got pretty excited.<br /><br />I'm the guy that originally emailed the idea of doing a review on Skariten to you, Chet. I bought this when I was a kid (14 years old) and I was soooo disappointed. My disappointment stuck with me and the day I found your blog I excitedly looked over your spreadsheet O' CRPG's to see if the games from my past were there - the good ones and the bad one. Thank you for roasting the bejeezus out out this tripe. <br /><br />As a kid I was addicted to the Ultima series and had recently finished Ultima 3 on my Commodore 64. I remember the full page ads for Skariten in some magazine my father subscribed to. i remember the perspective screenshots from the ad and the idea of real time combat blew my 14 year old mind.<br /><br />I mowed lawns like crazy to save up for that game and bought it through some mail order catalog. I figured the real time combat would be like EA's Archon and everything else would be fantastic. (Gentle reminder to readers that I was 14 and your average American Indoor Kid.)<br /><br />When I finally got the game I couldn't kill a single thing. NPC dialogue was atrocious. I got nowhere in this game. They spent more time on the manual than on the actual game, and in the immortal words of my sarcastic AP English teacher-<br /> "they said less than they wrote." <br /><br />Obviously, this stuck with me over all these years (I'm 44 now).<br /><br />Thank you for giving this steaming pile of poo it's day.<br />I have a certain semblance of peace now.<br /><br /><br />Commander Corianderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07053000127422243441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-90251095137522457322017-12-30T09:31:07.219-05:002017-12-30T09:31:07.219-05:00Will you be returning to Deathlord?Will you be returning to Deathlord?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01252193725550116129noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-81286389335672905492017-12-30T03:10:13.509-05:002017-12-30T03:10:13.509-05:00In case you need to double-check a word, sanakirja...In case you need to double-check a word, sanakirja.org is a pretty decent Finnish-English online dictionary.Sepponoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-15980843913128542042017-12-30T00:32:05.543-05:002017-12-30T00:32:05.543-05:00I'm not sure I have the stamina to go right fr...I'm not sure I have the stamina to go right from U7P1 to U7P2. P2 itself probably needs to be split into six games.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-51846220317416206082017-12-30T00:31:16.296-05:002017-12-30T00:31:16.296-05:00Yeah, okay, that was pretty obvious. Now I feel st...Yeah, okay, that was pretty obvious. Now I feel stupid.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-65196351930079633552017-12-30T00:28:40.544-05:002017-12-30T00:28:40.544-05:00If you're talking about SpurguX, it's DOS,...If you're talking about <i>SpurguX</i>, it's DOS, not C64, and the platform didn't seem to have any problem with umlauts. Even when they're not represented, Google Translate usually only gets tripped up if there's a valid word in the same language that lacks the diacritic.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-16494646046505722922017-12-29T16:15:57.373-05:002017-12-29T16:15:57.373-05:00You missed the "n" in "economy"...You missed the "n" in "economy" in the rating.Twibathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11872080022551062309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-33814714566850496892017-12-29T07:45:26.364-05:002017-12-29T07:45:26.364-05:00Alternatively you could end '92 with Ultima VI...Alternatively you could end '92 with Ultima VII and start '93 with Ultima VIIB :)Wonkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05147422102351323674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-58226560378385668422017-12-29T03:51:15.761-05:002017-12-29T03:51:15.761-05:00Funny thing is hat I had complitely forgotten that...Funny thing is hat I had complitely forgotten that c64 had @ as default though it's been used in financing and other fields before internet was even heard of.<br /><br />Speaking of c64 and Finnish games:<br /><br />What I can't remember was that did C64 had Ä Ö Å (I know my Amiga had) mainly because those are not German umlauts so your going to have a field day with Google translate and Finnish to guess which Ä Ö and which is A O though natives easily see it from context.Petri R.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-27239630168611496312017-12-28T20:09:51.933-05:002017-12-28T20:09:51.933-05:00By default, VICE maps the numpad to the joystick.By default, VICE maps the numpad to the joystick.Gnomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13920812227941556716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-26622127853731053012017-12-28T16:50:16.007-05:002017-12-28T16:50:16.007-05:00Well 1992 is full of great games, unlike ‘91. I h...Well 1992 is full of great games, unlike ‘91. I hope you enjoy working through it. In fact, going through your master list ‘92 has more games I’m looking forwards to (18) than any other year. Just gotta clear ‘91 first, it’s been a slog!!Mikrakovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-53378023106649991832017-12-28T14:52:23.535-05:002017-12-28T14:52:23.535-05:00I don't know if I'll "bookened" ...I don't know if I'll "bookened" the year with <i>Ultima</i>, since I'll probably end 1992 and begin 1993 with <i>Might and Magic IV/V</i>. But I definitely wanted to start the year with something awesome. CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-69703956157041998952017-12-28T14:29:19.846-05:002017-12-28T14:29:19.846-05:00I just fired up Questron to see how it handled thi...I just fired up <i>Questron</i> to see how it handled things, and it uses the @:;/ cluster officially. But oddly, in the emulator, the numberpad works, too. What I can't figure out is WHY it works. Did the developer account for users who might have an external pad? Or does the emulator map the numberpad to @:;/ by default?CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.com