RPGs?
Hi,
I was looking through the Archive at all the RPG-classified games. It is quite grim.
The best one seems to be The Bard's Tale. I really want to play through this game very soon. I remember playing the demo and once, and ONLY ONCE, reaching a huge bastard of a Dragon who killed all my party... want to see that thing again and beat it this time! The interface is, by Speccy RPG standards, really great, but the one thing that bugs me is that you need to look up the spell nonsense-names in the manual. It's a shame they are not just listed within the game but I guess that's part of the charm. Between the spells and the maps, I have some printing to do...
There seemed to be quite a lot of over-head, almost BASIC looking RPGish type games. I found one very strange one where you play a dot in a giant map screen setup, and by the final game (ADVENTURE, I think the series is?) it was actually getting quite good, with some Final Fantasy-esque battle system where you take turns running up to and bashing each other.
There was one other one where you had a side-on view of your party, which seemed almost JRPGish. Sadly I seemed to be able to progress via flip-screens without actually encountering any enemies or anything. In fact, implementation I think it is safe to say was a big problem with spectrum RPGs.... a lot of these don't run properly.
Anyone got any recommendations? I'll play through the games I have mentioned later so when I post next I will try to talk more about specific titles.
I was looking through the Archive at all the RPG-classified games. It is quite grim.
The best one seems to be The Bard's Tale. I really want to play through this game very soon. I remember playing the demo and once, and ONLY ONCE, reaching a huge bastard of a Dragon who killed all my party... want to see that thing again and beat it this time! The interface is, by Speccy RPG standards, really great, but the one thing that bugs me is that you need to look up the spell nonsense-names in the manual. It's a shame they are not just listed within the game but I guess that's part of the charm. Between the spells and the maps, I have some printing to do...
There seemed to be quite a lot of over-head, almost BASIC looking RPGish type games. I found one very strange one where you play a dot in a giant map screen setup, and by the final game (ADVENTURE, I think the series is?) it was actually getting quite good, with some Final Fantasy-esque battle system where you take turns running up to and bashing each other.
There was one other one where you had a side-on view of your party, which seemed almost JRPGish. Sadly I seemed to be able to progress via flip-screens without actually encountering any enemies or anything. In fact, implementation I think it is safe to say was a big problem with spectrum RPGs.... a lot of these don't run properly.
Anyone got any recommendations? I'll play through the games I have mentioned later so when I post next I will try to talk more about specific titles.
Post edited by Lebowsk1 on
Comments
with a hard-disk device attached - EXSDOS or +3eDOS loading times are inconsequential as different parts could be loaded as needed, maximizing a graphical output of the system, I have been reviewing BIFROST* to see its viability to make more attractive images, sprites etc.
Oh for the wont of time.....
I entirely agree The Bard's Tale is one of the best RPGs for the Speccy - and I spent many hours of my youth playing it.
However, I'd strongly recommend trying to pick up a copy of the PC version rather than playing the Speccy version - the Speccy version is crippled in a number of ways, and it's generally just a much better experience playing it on the PC.
Hm. I don't know, I might stick with the Spec version unless you can really put me off some more lol.
For the RPGs it's all about the interface... I mean Bloodwych is a mess to me, and Heroquest... ah, Heroquest. A game which would be so much better if it wasn't... Heroquest. If they kept the engine, improved it a bit and released a turn-based tactics game on it which wasn't Heroquest.
... Advanced Heroquest would have been nice!
I can totally understand you wanting to make a turn-based RPG btw. I am not even a halfway competent coder, but I have this desire to make a text-adventure/turn-based tactical game lol. Would probably be a mess but if it ran it'd make me happy at least.
It would be wonderful to see a modern Spectrum RPG though, if someone could make something with a Japanese feel that would be incredible.
There is already one getting developed:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38587
Looks very very good.
- Dragonsbane
- Heavy on the Magick
....and the controls are so awful, that you end up always killing an innocent person by accident, which means that all the good people in the game attack you like the monsters do and finishing it becomes impossible.
So unfortunately it was a sh*te game....pity really :(
The biggest one I remember is that most magic items are essentially the same: for example, instead of the Dayblade casting Mage Flame (MAFL) when you use it, it casts a random magic spell.
Playing it on a real Spectrum was also very painful due to the amount of tape loading needed; that's going to be better on emulators, though. It's also pretty slow on the Speccy.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
Yeah i thought Times of Lore looked great but when i finally played it (on emulator) i was disappointed. The Bards Tale was a lot better but i ended up dying in that game a lot.
I'll need to give Bloodwych a try sometime:smile:
Heavy on the Magick would be my pick too, and it does have most of the trappings of an RPG, with plenty of monster bashing, stats and levelling. Even so, it's perhaps more easily lumped in with the other Gargoyle adventure games like Tir Na Nog in terms of both the graphical style and the puzzle elements.
Dragonsbane was OK for 1984, but feels very dated nowadays. Even compared to the games of 2-3 years later it's very slow and clunky to play.
Was your side on game Heroes of the Lance?
To all intents and purposes LOM and DDR are RPGs
Also I like a lot russian top-down RPG named Monstrland: Testimony of the Ancients, quite interesting plot and exploration of the world.
And of course you should take a look at Viking Quest series, especially Viking Quest 3 - it is available in English. Very nice graphics, non-linear plot, quite big game, a lot of RPG elements - one of the masterpieces, I would say.
Nope, it was actually Mindstone! Good call Arjun. I had a quick look at it and immediately liked the graphics, but I seemed to be able to move very far on the map without any fights, and of course the battle engine of an RPG is probably over half the gameplay so I just gave up on it. Will take another look though.
Heroes of the Lance was a game I played a lot back in the day (without getting very far I might add). The novel came free with the game and it was probably the first book I really enjoyed as a kid, other than the Narnia books. I tried playing it recently but boy is the action side of the game clunky!
I had a quick look at Viking Quest and was very impressed, it seems similar to Flynn's Adventure, the RPG currently in development. I really want to play the translated version, and I think I've tracked down the files, but I'm having trouble loading these .SCL files. I'm using ZX Spin. If anyone knows and can be bothered to PM me the solution I would be very grateful.
Just going to play a bit more of this one: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000977 Graphics are very BASIC but hey, I love Spectrum Safari so might work for me.
edit: agh, forget it, way too slow.
2. Open ZXSpin and "File" - "Open" - Choose this file (can be also zipped)
3. Choose TR-DOS option in ZX Spectrum menu (last one after BASIC 48 )
4. Press R key to see "RUN" command and press Enter
Voila! Quite easy, no? OR you can just use FUSE or Spectaculator, they auto-start TRDOS discs for you.
PS: To select language press any key (except Enter) and press Enter to choose. So for example press Space and Enter after.
PS oops just read the PS. Doh!
But any other tips for the actual gameplay please! I would like to at least play a battle before deciding whether to try and finish the game or not. At the moment I can talk to the guy who wants a leg of mutton, but all the exits are blocked and the only item I can find is a bone. I can't seem to give it to the guy. Also there are some signs I assume you can read, but none of the icons seem to do that. The one that looks a bit like a brain I have found absolutely no use for. Any help appreciated because this looks like a great game!
There is another person in this area, a magician (Gandalf? :)) who will need a horse bone for his experiments. He will provide you some food for that hard-working man. Worker will provide you with a good stick - which perfectly fits in the hole to the right of the bell, blocking the way (use that BRAIN icon). And here you go, next task - find the way to the king, by killing some robbers in the woods - the battle you wanted :)