Category: CRPGAddict

The game almost immediately reveals its title to be a double-entendre.               Treasures of the Savage Frontier United States Beyond (developer), Strategic Simulations, Inc. (publisher)Released 1992 for Amiga and DOS Date Started: 20 July 2019            Settling into a Gold Box game is like going back […]

            Prophecy of the Shadow United States Strategic Simulations, Inc. (developer and publisher) Date Started: 24 June 2019 Date Ended: 10 July 2019 Total Hours: 19 Difficulty: Easy-Medium (2.5/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at Time of Posting: (to come later) Summary:Prophecy of the Shadow is a “lite” RPG […]

Any god that teleports me directly from a winning combat to the nearest pub is a god I’m happy to worship.               After defeating the Templar’s fortress, there was only one major quest left in the game: assaulting the temple of Baphomet and foiling his plans for the apocalypse. This […]

An Ultima game would have inscriptions on all these headstones, likely in runic, likely rhyming.             Prophecy of the Shadow has helped remind me that games often have momentary value that exceeds their inherent value. I think such a statement even applies to entire genres of games. I value RPGs […]

Praying to a saint causes direct damage to a demon.            If you were designing a real religious system from scratch, this wouldn’t be a bad way for it to work. The world is governed by a large number of mini-gods, or “saints,” each in charge of a different portfolio […]

               Prophecy of the Shadow United States Strategic Simulations, Inc. (developer and publisher) Released in 1992 for DOS Date Started: 24 June 2019              SSI began as a wargame company, and their best games–principally the Gold Box series and the Wizard’s Crown series–have always reflected […]

The party has gotten strong enough to challenge a demon.         Darklands introduces a combat system that I find hard to call “good,” and yet it’s perhaps a necessary stopover point to a truly good system. It probably took an RPG outsider like MicroProse to think of it. Every other […]

           Bokosuka Wars Japan ASCII (developer and publisher) Released in 1983 for Sharp X1; 1984 for MSX and PC-88; 1985 for FM-7, PC-6001, PC-98, and NES  Date Started: 25 June 2019 Date Finished: 28 June 2019 Total Hours: 6Difficulty: Hard (4/5), but would probably go down to 3/5 with more […]

The dangers of low reputation.             It’s becoming clear that a large part of Darklands is developing the party’s fame. Fame gives the party access to more political and economic leaders, and thus more quests, and thus more rewards, and thus more fame. This eventually leads to the main quest? […]

Sometimes the game is more fun for its gruesome death images than from actually defeating the challenges.            I’ve solved two of the four or more Waxworks scenarios, and started to explore a third, and it’s a measure of the game that I have no idea what to expect from […]

Alas, the mines proved too much for my journeyman party.           We pick up where the previous entry left off:       Sometime after 5 August 1401. Goslar Mines.        Since you can’t check “Party Info” while indoors, I have no idea how much time has passed since the party entered […]

Trying the Atari ST version this time.         Wizard Warz United Kingdom Canvas (developer); GO! (publisher) Released in 1987 for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS; 1988 for ZX Spectrum Date Started: 27 January 2011 Date Finished: 12 June 2019 Total Hours: 10Difficulty: Hard (4/5)Final Rating: (to come […]

The box CamelCases the second “W” but the title screen doesn’t. There’s a similar issue with whether the company is called HorrorSoft or Horror Soft.             Waxworks United Kingdom HorrorSoft (developer); Accolade (publisher) Released in 1992 for Amiga and DOS Date Started: 11 June 2019          Waxworks […]

This session introduced indoor exploration for the first time. Here, the party tries to fight a jumping kobold.              Darklands has given us something of an RPG “first” in that, with the party’s origin, encounters, and quests randomized, no two players will encounter precisely the same game. To be […]

The title screen dives right into the backstory.            Telnyr II: The Golden Chalice Australia Independently developed and released as freeware; republished in Loadstar 192 in 2000 Released between 1990 and 1995 for Commodore 64 Date Started: 10 June 2019 Date Finished: 11 June 2019 Total Hours: 3Difficulty: Easy-Moderate (2.5/5)Final […]

As we’ll see, the game would have been more properly called In the Sphinx.              Beneath the Pyramids United States Crystalware (developer and publisher) Released in 1980 for Apple II, 1981 for Atari 800 Date Started: 10 June 2019 Date Finished: 10 June 2019 Total Hours: 3Difficulty: Easy (2/5)Final Rating: […]