tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post8452253358542650370..comments2024-03-28T23:14:06.156-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: The Seventh Link: Summary and RatingCRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-15081557099491548522022-09-21T23:29:35.551-04:002022-09-21T23:29:35.551-04:00Do you think any of the difficulty with this was b...Do you think any of the difficulty with this was because of the cross class character choice? I figure a giant was probably a better fighter than mage, but from the other comments, maybe it wasn't a big deal.Zack Macomberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18077050078436768492noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-18945649644385453352022-06-27T14:15:46.956-04:002022-06-27T14:15:46.956-04:00Okay, I've never heard of Georgetown and appar...Okay, I've never heard of Georgetown and apparently I grew up in the same school district as it! I am somewhat amused that one of the very, very few games you don't finish is almost certainly the from the closest geographical space to where I grew up, though I wouldn't have been living there in 1989Canageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-48152195451258722672021-01-01T14:48:56.049-05:002021-01-01T14:48:56.049-05:00Thanks, Jeff. I'm glad you weren't disappo...Thanks, Jeff. I'm glad you weren't disappointed with my coverage. The gems don't sound familiar, so I either never found any or never noticed them. It certainly wouldn't have been above me to take a save state, view the gem, take a screenshot, and reload.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-23267436846266087552020-12-31T16:12:26.538-05:002020-12-31T16:12:26.538-05:00Oh, and FWIW, I wouldn't suggest going back to...Oh, and FWIW, I wouldn't suggest going back to Link. The other planets are more of the same, really, and the end-game experience is, um, underwhelming shall we say.<br /><br />-Jeff<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08692818797437404339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-27825380283320758202020-12-31T16:10:07.765-05:002020-12-31T16:10:07.765-05:00Hi Chet,
I saw the article about you in PCGamer, a...Hi Chet,<br />I saw the article about you in PCGamer, and came wandering back and noticed you'd added some more data on Link. To answer your question: no, the towns didn't have names, with the exception of Castle Thoro. (The original notion was that Thoro was the landed colonization ship...).<br />There actually is a primitive auto-map feature: equip a "gem o' seeing" in dungeons, and you'll get a top-down map of the nearby area in the unused bottom-left portion of the screen. If you use a gem in a town, you'll get a map of the whole town overlaid on the inventory screen that goes away when you press a key, and consumes the gem. As Adam pointed out, I apparently hated my players :-). Not sure if I expected people to take a polaroid of the screen, or what. <br /><br />BTW and FWIW I think your rating is pretty fair, and perhaps more than link deserved. I didn't know a thing about game design back then, and that is reflected in the paper-thin NPC interactions, variety of items, etc. I still feel a vague urge to apologize to the players about how bad it was from that point of view...<br />I'm still proud of the 3D dungeons, though :-). Getting a 1.9 MHz 6809 CPU to do that at ~ 1 Hz was a lot of effort.<br /><br />Take care, and have a great 2021.<br /><br />-Jeff<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08692818797437404339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-27125311809541953252020-01-30T12:51:59.685-05:002020-01-30T12:51:59.685-05:00One thing that IS possible is to change the cost o...One thing that IS possible is to change the cost of some items.<br /><br />1K Elir for a potion that raises an attribute 1 point is pretty excessive, but if they were 100 Elir each, that may go far in balancing the game.<br /><br />The code for healing services and buying ships is, regrettably, baked into source code somewhere and not easily alterable.Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-70537535569560247182020-01-30T11:52:44.200-05:002020-01-30T11:52:44.200-05:00My primary obsession with this one was getting the...My primary obsession with this one was getting the maps and content out there. As for playing the game, I hacked the save file to give myself 16K food and Elira. ;)<br /><br />Money, as far as I can see, is the real bottleneck in the game. Chests only give you 11-44 Elira (curiously always in a multiple of 11). Poison, while not as instantly lethal as old Ultima, is still a major pain. You can buy Rods of Curing for 400 Elira, which is 100 cheaper than a healer, but they are one use and burn an inventory slot.<br /><br />The attribute potions are 1K apiece, and if you have your full party of six characters, you could spend a LONG time trying to get attributes raised. I don't think you really need to though; I hacked all my attributes to 50 for my character and the effect on actual gameplay seems minimal. I was playing a fighter though so no idea how that impacted magic use.<br /><br />Once you level up a certain amount, monsters everywhere scale up. At level 11 (which I achieved with no cheating at all) I was getting attacked by Lich Captains, Gorgons, and Evil Knights who do 50hp of damage per hit even with Reflect Armor protecting you. This is where unlike Ultima you actually benefit a bit from the leveling system being in guilds and optional; you can keep your guys all around level 5 until you've gotten the equipment to deal with encounters. Levels are mainly just a reflection of total HP.<br /><br />With dungeon maps, a concerted effort to deep-dive dungeons with energy packs and get them out seems the best tactic. Once you have six packs then you deep-dive again to recharging stations. (The seventh energy pack is RIGHT near a recharging station so may as well get that done right then.)Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-63437705698827741722020-01-30T00:12:06.706-05:002020-01-30T00:12:06.706-05:00It seems unlikely. You know, this would be a great...It seems unlikely. You know, this would be a great topic for a guest post.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-23672257627423837102020-01-29T17:45:07.729-05:002020-01-29T17:45:07.729-05:00I take it that means you won't be giving it an...I take it that means you won't be giving it another try? ;)Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-36038802888270636832020-01-28T11:32:19.557-05:002020-01-28T11:32:19.557-05:00Yeah, the average dungeon level is 22x22. Makes Ul...Yeah, the average dungeon level is 22x22. Makes Ultima III look like a cakewalk.Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-60303482979863908872020-01-28T11:16:05.532-05:002020-01-28T11:16:05.532-05:00Oh, my word--those dungeons. More than 30 screens ...Oh, my word--those dungeons. More than 30 screens per dungeon? That's crazy. I'd still be playing it now if I'd kept going.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-81279368809418839672020-01-28T00:07:32.213-05:002020-01-28T00:07:32.213-05:00http://crpg.adamantyr.com/misc/Seventh-Link-Hint-G...http://crpg.adamantyr.com/misc/Seventh-Link-Hint-Guide.zipAdamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-21662717889406819342020-01-22T17:32:50.083-05:002020-01-22T17:32:50.083-05:00Thanks again for driving this, Adam. It's been...Thanks again for driving this, Adam. It's been really fun to look at all these old maps again.<br />-Jeff<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08692818797437404339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-13086888475015406202020-01-22T01:16:44.748-05:002020-01-22T01:16:44.748-05:00Well I have now both dungeon AND town maps. :) I&#...Well I have now both dungeon AND town maps. :) I'll set them up on a link here in the next week or so. I want to consolidate information on every town and more or less provide a complete hint guide to anyone wanting to play and complete the game.<br /><br />Once I found the towns and got the RLE encoding figured out it wasn't too hard to decode them. I had to hack the world disk to make a dungeon entrance go to various other dungeons to figure out what certain tiles were, in order to avoid having to go down 14 levels to find out. There's some anomalous ones, like monsters that are just "statues" in places.<br /><br />Jeff wasn't even certain the game was winnable, actually. There were letters in Rainbow magazine complaining that the last energy pack couldn't be found. I'm happy to say I confirmed that all seven energy packs DO exist, and there are enough charging units for all of them as well. That said, the dungeons are BRUTAL. Jeff was like "Wow... I must have HATED my players" when I showed him the maps.Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-79522106726602611302020-01-19T14:08:53.684-05:002020-01-19T14:08:53.684-05:00I might give it another try if you're able to ...I might give it another try if you're able to put it together.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-77510132108513502592020-01-16T23:17:39.156-05:002020-01-16T23:17:39.156-05:00After spending a year fruitlessly trying to find t...After spending a year fruitlessly trying to find the original hint guide, I got an urge to go hex editor diving again while I was snowed in.<br /><br />I contacted Jeff and we have found the town maps! I'm working on reconstructing them now.<br /><br />The next phase will be the dungeon maps, which will hopefully provide anyone who wants to play the game to completion an easier path.Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-22933944525907262292019-03-28T17:36:42.083-04:002019-03-28T17:36:42.083-04:00I'd even say Enderal is much, much better than...I'd even say Enderal is much, much better than Skyrim itself since it has more environmental variety, more interesting quests, far superior dungeon design, more interesting exploration (some secrets to find that have no quest marker attached to them!), and much more.<br /><br />Same with Nehrim, the previous total conversion mod the team made for Oblivion. That was also far, far better than Oblivion itself.JarlFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08139422412722665286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-64655656620044994592019-03-28T11:10:37.518-04:002019-03-28T11:10:37.518-04:00Enderal is one of the most depressingly fantastic ...Enderal is one of the most depressingly fantastic games I've played, a total conversion mod for Skyrim that is essentially an entirely new professionally-developed game. I enjoyed it a great deal, and recommend it to anyone who liked Skyrim. Funny to find it cropping up in a case like this one!Natehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08098875250377735658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-13985217054861921712019-03-28T02:58:52.101-04:002019-03-28T02:58:52.101-04:00Darkwood will be a single entry and take 3 hours t...Darkwood will be a single entry and take 3 hours to win, if that, I suspect.<br /><br />I played it in 'computer club' at primary school. It wasn't on any of the handful of computers at my 140-kid school, but was installed in the mac lab at the nearby highschool we'd visit.<br /><br />One of my friends wrote a more tactically punishing version of the 'Darkwood' genre for his capstone IT project at university.Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-89208876087352127812019-03-27T19:11:28.578-04:002019-03-27T19:11:28.578-04:00Whew... persistence is good, but I agree with ever...Whew... persistence is good, but I agree with everyone else. At some point you have to keep moving.<br /><br />You are right on the Bard's Tale effect. I mainly played Ultima, The Magic Candle, and Starflight, along with Wizardy and Phantasie on a friend's computer. After the others, The Bard's Tale became pretty boring quickly. I finally used a character editor and cheat book to win the game so I could see the ending. It was not worth battling through endless dungeon levels and I never even loaded up the sequels.<br /><br />I did completely miss out on Might and Magic... will have to go back and try that one some day.<br />arthurdawghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04269435724709435094noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-36580595053073856002019-03-27T18:43:31.109-04:002019-03-27T18:43:31.109-04:00Visiting another planet might have been a possible...Visiting another planet might have been a possible intermediate goal without finishing the game. But without knowing how long that takes, and the possibility that it's just more of the same - wrapping up now is the right decision.<br /><br />I see your random selection process added an Ultima clone to the end of the upcoming list. Let's hope it's shorter :)Buckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07270991090065636515noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-2560032425742311172019-03-27T16:21:47.563-04:002019-03-27T16:21:47.563-04:00While I like it when you grind out a game, I don&#...While I like it when you grind out a game, I don't think another 30(?) hours of this is going to be worthwhile.<br /><br />As you suggest, for a CoCo owner, this game may well have been the pinnacle, but for this blog it's too much of a featureless plateau.<br /><br />Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-57947825739934612092019-03-27T11:31:29.877-04:002019-03-27T11:31:29.877-04:00I don't blame you for shelving this one.
I...I don't blame you for shelving this one.<br /><br />I've been trying to find a copy of the hint guide but no success so far... Actual copies of the game are incredibly rare too.<br /><br />I have also looked at the game disks in a hex editor to see if I could figure out where the dungeon maps are and decode them. Even compressed, map data would have a certain "look" to it.<br /><br />The data on the dungeon disk is broken up into segments 66 bytes long (22 x 3) with two different 2 byte footers. Unfortunately, the content of those segments just doesn't look varied enough, based on the map of the dungeon level you provided.Adamantyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962009901412877763noreply@blogger.com