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| Title Screen VGA |
Showing posts with label DOS Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DOS Games. Show all posts
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Planet X3 - Review of a New Real Time Strategy Game for the IBM PC
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Shenzhen Solitaire - A Review of 2017's New Commercial DOS Game
I have a confession to make. Until last month, I have never backed a kickstarter project. I have talked about kickstarter projects on at least one prior occasion on this blog, but I was speaking from afar. The usual excuses apply, the good reward tiers cost too much, the project carried considerable risk or the product offered just was not sufficiently personally compelling to persuade me to part with my hard-earned money. Last month came a game which seemed like a good choice for a kickstarter project, Shenzhen Solitaire. This is a new PC-compatible DOS game for the year 2017. The price was only $10, the game had already been written and was going to be delivered on a floppy disk, so I was sold. (Really living on the edge here in terms of crowdfunding risk here :) It was delivered to me yesterday, so let's review the game.
Friday, April 28, 2017
Reducing Disks on Later PC Game Releases - What is Lost
PC games were often re-released. Even though they may be older, a budget-friendly price can attract a surprising number of buyers. To keep the costs down, often games are released in smaller boxes, sometimes paper manuals turned into electronic manuals. It is not unknown for a game to be released on fewer discs/disks than it was released on originally, without being put onto a higher capacity storage medium. In this blog entry, I will discuss several famous examples where this occurred and what the effect of the disk/disc reduction was.
Monday, December 26, 2016
Community Produced DOS Game Enhancement Hacks
In the past several years, ambitious and talented programmers and hackers have made some substantial improvements to some classic DOS games. Here in this blog entry I will highlight some of the hacks I consider to be the most impressive or most useful. I am particularly interested when elements of a game, such as unique sound effects, that could have been experienced at the time of the game's release in a less than ideal way have been added to the DOS versions of these games.
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of every hack out there. I am not including simple speed fixes or DOSBox compatibility patches. I also am not including any hack which I feel violates the "spirit" of the original DOS code. Some of these hacks are more involved than others, but I wanted to give an overview of what kind of hacks are out there. Some of these hacks are nearly 10 years old, but all were given to an organized community of vintage computer and DOS gaming enthusiasts.
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of every hack out there. I am not including simple speed fixes or DOSBox compatibility patches. I also am not including any hack which I feel violates the "spirit" of the original DOS code. Some of these hacks are more involved than others, but I wanted to give an overview of what kind of hacks are out there. Some of these hacks are nearly 10 years old, but all were given to an organized community of vintage computer and DOS gaming enthusiasts.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Diagonsing and Fixing DOS Games - King's Quest VI and the Sound Blaster 16
On Friday, I sat down at my 486DX2/66 computer and decided to play a little King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tommorow. KQ6 is definitely one of Sierra's best games and it had been a long time since I last tried to play it through. I had the floppy version installed on my hard drive, so I started up the floppy version. Unfortunately, it took the whole weekend to track down the problem and implement a solution for it.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Choices and Tactics for a Successful Pool of Radiance Game
As I am have been playing through Pool of Radiance, I have really come to appreciate its tactical combat and the simple yet intricrate mechanics of a system using the AD&D 1st Edition rules. Of course, not everyone will be able to just simply pick up the game and those that do can be easily frustrated. So I will try to discuss strategies for getting through the game in this post. As I continue to play the game, I hope to be able to expand this blog entry. It will not be a walkthrough or give specifics of how to defeat this encounter or what items to keep from that encounter.
Maxing your stats
For each character you create, you can and should consider maximize their ability scores and hit points. You cannot do this after your start a game, and you will need all the advantages you can get to survive the low levels.
You cannot maximize their starting gold, so you should reroll until you get a good result. Fighters can start with up to 200gp, clerics 180gp, thieves 120gp and magic-users 80gp.
There is a fair amount of tedium in Pool of Radiance, buying and selling, resting and healing and turn based battles with tons of foes
Multi-classing vs. Single-class
Multi-class characters are a defensible choice if all you want to do is beat Pool of Radiance, but you will level up a bit more slowly. If you want to get through the whole tetralogy, you will want single-class characters to avoid level limits. This means a human party. Thieves have no level limits regardless of class, so a fighter/thief is a more justifiable choice than other multi-class characters. However, multi-class characters have to split their experience between their classes, even if they can no longer progress in one of them, so your characters will gain levels more slowly than a single class character. They also must adhere to certain restrictions of each class. Finally, multi-classes halve the HP they receive when they level up, so a level 2 fighter/thief can have a maximum of 16HP as opposed to 20HP for a single class fighter.
Racial benefits
All non-human races should have benefits, unfortunately it is often difficult to tell whether they were implemented in the game. . Elves get a +1 to hit with short and long swords and bows. Elves may be immune to Ghoul paralysis. Elves should also have 90% resistance to sleep and charm spells. Half-elves should have a 30% resistance. Elves and half-elves should also have a better chance of finding hidden objects.
Dwarves should get a bonus of up to +5 to their saving throws against wands, staves and spells and poison, based on their Constitution. They also should get a +1 to hit against goblins, hobgoblins and orcs and ogres, trolls and giants should have a -4 to hit them.
Gnomes should also receive the same benefit to their wands, staves and spells saving throws as dwarves have. They should get a +1 against Kobolds and Goblins and gnolls, bugears, ogres, trolls and giants should have a -4 to hit them.
Halflings should also receive the same benefit to their wands, staves and spells and poison saving throws as dwarves have.
Taking advantage of terrain
Walls and trees can be vital to your party's survival. When outnumbered by enemies that are not significantly weaker than you are, you should maneuver your party to take maximum advantage of impassable objects. You can limit the number enemies that can hit you by utilizing choke points. Monsters cannot move past each other if there is no room. With monsters that take up two or four squares, you can often maneuver them so that one will block the rest, allowing your characters to concentrate their attacks on one character.
Characters can move and attack diagonally, so can enemies. You use this to your advantage with a numeric keypad for the PC version of Pool. If you place your characters in front of or at the mouth of a gap, the enemy will be able to attack you diagonally on your flanks. If you position yourself behind the gap, then the situation is reversed. Consider the following diagrams :
Fig. 1
| |
| |
| |
| |
|---- ----|
|---- ----|
OCFFCO
OOOOOO
Fig. 2
| |
| |
| |
| |
|----CC----|
|----FF----|
OOOO
OOOO
Fig. 3
| |
| |
| |
| CC |
|----FF----|
|----OO----|
OOOO
OO
Fig. 4
| |
| |
| |
| CFFC |
|----OO----|
|----OO----|
OOOO
Key :
C = Cleric
F = Fighter
O = Orc
| - = Wall
In fig. 1, the party is at a disadvantage because eight orcs can attack the characters. Fig. 2 may show an improvement because now only four orcs can attack, but the clerics cannot attack back. Fig. 3 improves on the situation of Fig. 2, now only the two fighters and the two orcs can attack each other. Fig. 4 shows the best situation, all four characters can attack, but only two orcs can attack. Note that walls in this game may only take one tile but effectively create a double wall at a horizontal gap.
Even if the enemy is not a thief, you do not want to be attacked from behind. The enemy will enjoy a +2 to hit if it attacks your character from behind.
Staggering your characters diagonally gives the enemy more opportunities to attack, but it also gives you more holes to place attackers. Having a straight line does the opposite.
Having missile weapon using characters behind the front lines can thin out the opposition before they can even get a chance to attack. You can also kill enemy archers and spellcasters from a distance.
The pathfinding in Pool is decent, but it has its limitations. If you have an L-shaped or U-shaped barrier between you and the enemy you may be able to get the enemy trapped behind it as the pathfinding algorithm fails to find a path it can use to get to attack your character.
Guarding, free attacks and surrender
Guarding is the classic way of having a character do nothing during his portion of the combat round. However, it can also be a useful defensive mechanism. If an enemy advances into the character's melee range, the character gets a free and automatic attack. Additionally, if an enemy tries to retreat or move past your character, your character will get a free attack on that enemy. The enemy can also do this if you move into or out of his melee range. However, if you move into his range before he has a chance to guard, then you will not risk a free hit.
In this game, you do not always need to kill every enemy faced against you. Typically, once you reduce their numbers sufficiently, often the survivors of the monsters will surrender. You won't get the experience or treasure from killing them, but this will end a battle sooner than otherwise. Some monsters like the undead are fanatical and will always fight to the last creature. However, you may be able to do enough damage to a horde that it will surrender even though it still has the advantage of numbers.
Unfortunately, you cannot surrender once combat starts. If you feel like you are getting overwhelmed, you may turn your back and flee to the edge of the map. Depending on how many and how far the enemy is behind you, you may not be able to escape when you reach the edge. Also, if you are engaged in melee combat you will invite multiple rear attacks as you move. If you leave a dying character behind when you escape, that character will be dead and lost forever.
Missile weapons
Thieves are limited to slings and magic-users to darts. Slings have unlimited ammo, darts do not. Slings can do decent damage and have good range. Darts are weak and have a short range. A pure magic-user has a very low THAC0, so the darts may not seem worth the trouble considering how often the magic-user will miss. Clerics cannot use missile weapons at all in Pool.
Bows can fire twice per round and darts can fire three times per round. Long bows have a longer range than short bows, but do the same amount of damage.
If you encounter monsters and are able to select the Advance option, you may wish to consider starting combat immediately. This way you will have a fair distance between you and the monsters. This could give you one or two rounds where you may be able to attack with missile weapons and the enemy will be unable to respond.
The game will allow you to Ready a new weapon every combat round without penalty. So you can shoot your bow until the enemy comes within melee range and then switch to your melee weapon and armor and attack that round.
THAC0 and Armor Class
An unamored character has an Armor Class (AC) of 10, and the lower the number, the better protected your character will be. For your front line fighters, it is essential to maximize their AC if they are to survive. This means plate armor and a shield and high dexterity. At the beginning of the game, you won't be able to afford plate, so you will have to make do with chain or split or banded mail. Even so, your fighters can start the game with a -1 AC, which will make many hits miss. You lose the ability to use a shield with a two handed weapon, but a lower rate of being hit is a worthy trade off for the few extra points of damage you may inflict. In the early part of the game, you should have fighters with a high strength score and you will be facing tons of Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds and the like which tend to overwhelm by numbers. The more attacks you dodge, the longer you will last. So I would not seek out two handed weapons until you start to find magical weapons.
Specific Class Information - Fighters
Fighters acquire the ability to sweep at the 2nd level. This allows them to attack more than one enemy in melee range with less than one hit die in a single attack. So if a fighter is surrounded by Goblins or Kobolds, he can attack as many of them as he has experience levels. Fighters can achieve up to level 8 and gain 1-10HP per level. They can use any type of weapon, armor or shield. They will also gain an extra half of an attack at level 7.
Specific Class Information - Cleric and Clerical Spells
Clerics can only use clubs, flail, hammer, mace and staff for a weapon. Flails are the best, followed by maces. They can use any type of armor and can use a shield. Clerics can only reach level 6 in this game and 3rd level spells. They gain 1-8HP per level. They can Turn Undead, which if successful will make some of or all the undead flee, making the job of killing them safer if more tedious. They can turn Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls and Wights at level 1, Wraiths at level 3, Mummies and level 4, Spectres at level 5 and Vampires at level 6. As they level up, the turning will become more likely to be successful. Wights, Wraiths, Spectres and Vampires will cause a level drain with a successful attack, so you want to turn them as soon as possible. If you lose a level to level drain, you cannot get it restored at a temple, you have to earn the level again or find some restoration scrolls. Even so, the loss of XP can be very painful.
For 1st level spells, Cure Light Wounds is a must, it is the only healing spell a PC cleric can cast in the game. Bless is also a good spell because it improves the THAC0 of everybody in your party by 1. Hold Person is the best 2nd level spell because you can target up to three enemies with each casting of the spell. A held person can be killed with one cruel blow and the attack is an automatic hit. Slow Poison may be necessary when fighting poisonous creatures. You cannot cast Neutralize Poison in this game. Prayer is probably the best 3rd level spell. it is a combination of Bless and Curse.
Specific Class Information - Magic-users and Magic-user spells
Magic-users start the game with four spells, read magic, detect magic, shield and sleep. Each time they gain a level, they can learn one extra spell from any spell level they can cast, but only one spell can be added this way. Magic-users can only reach level 6 in this game and 3rd level spells. They only gain 1-4HP per level. At level 3 you can begin to cast 2nd level spells and at level 5 you can cast 3rd level spells. I would suggest learning Magic Missile, Stinking Cloud, Mirror Image, Fireball and Haste. Magic-users can only use daggers, darts or staffs and can wear no armor and use no shields, so look for bracers of defense.
Because of the hordes of opponents you will seemingly encounter in every battle, area effect spells are usually more useful than single-target spells. Sleep is the best level 1 spell because, like Hold Person, it allows you to kill an enemy with a single cruel blow. However, no saving throw is allowed, and it can affect up to 16 monsters. Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Gnolls, Lizardmen and even an Ogre may be affected. It can affect your characters as well as the enemy, so make sure you do not target the spell at an enemy within a character's melee range. Anchor the spell to an enemy behind the attacker.
Specific Class Information - Thieves
Thieves can use clubs, daggers, darts, slings, short swords, scimitars, long swords and broad swords. They can only wear leather armor but cannot use a shield. Thieves can achieve up to level 9 and gain 1-6HP per level.
If a thief successfully hits with a back stab attack, he does double damage at levels 1-4, triple damage from levels 5-8 and quadruple damage at level 9. A thief gets a +4 to hit with a back stab attack. A thief can only backstab an opponent already being attacked. He must attack in the opposite direction from the opponent's first attacker. More importantly, to avoid a monster turning toward the thief and ruining the backstab, make sure that the monster has attacked before the thief does.
The only thief abilities used in this game are the pick lock, find and remove trap and climb wall abilities. What you can pick you can usually bash with a strong fighter and there are not an overabundance of traps in this game. Climb walls may be used once or twice.
Party composition
You can have six characters you directly control in your party and up to two NPCs or charmed or summoned monsters. Every party should have two front line fighters, two healers, a character with thief abilities and at least one magic-user. I have no love for hired NPCs, they cost money to hire, they take an automatic cut of all treasure, you cannot control them in combat and they do not like to give up items. There are some NPCs that will assist you on a single mission, but that is plot related.
Looking in the Manuals
This game comes with a Rule Book, an Adventurer's Journal, a Quick Reference Card and a Codewheel. The Adventurer's Journal contains the Proclamations, Tavern Tales and Journal Entries, maps and some tables. You will need the Codewheel to translate some elven or dwarven runes at least at one point during the game. Even if you crack the copy protection you should still keep it handy.
If you want to know more about the probable game mechanics, you should have your three volume set of AD&D 1st Edition rulebooks at your disposal. You can find all the rules and tables not explicitly mentioned in the Pool materials there. They can be relied upon except where contradicted by the Pool materials or when its obvious that the game does not implement the rules. You can find more complete statistics for the monsters in the Monster Manual or the Dungeon Master's Guide with a few exceptions. Statistics for the Drider, Mantis, Quickling, Thri-kreen can be found in the Monster Manual II. The other 1st Edition Rulebooks do not appear to be used in Pool.
Maxing your stats
For each character you create, you can and should consider maximize their ability scores and hit points. You cannot do this after your start a game, and you will need all the advantages you can get to survive the low levels.
You cannot maximize their starting gold, so you should reroll until you get a good result. Fighters can start with up to 200gp, clerics 180gp, thieves 120gp and magic-users 80gp.
There is a fair amount of tedium in Pool of Radiance, buying and selling, resting and healing and turn based battles with tons of foes
Multi-classing vs. Single-class
Multi-class characters are a defensible choice if all you want to do is beat Pool of Radiance, but you will level up a bit more slowly. If you want to get through the whole tetralogy, you will want single-class characters to avoid level limits. This means a human party. Thieves have no level limits regardless of class, so a fighter/thief is a more justifiable choice than other multi-class characters. However, multi-class characters have to split their experience between their classes, even if they can no longer progress in one of them, so your characters will gain levels more slowly than a single class character. They also must adhere to certain restrictions of each class. Finally, multi-classes halve the HP they receive when they level up, so a level 2 fighter/thief can have a maximum of 16HP as opposed to 20HP for a single class fighter.
Racial benefits
All non-human races should have benefits, unfortunately it is often difficult to tell whether they were implemented in the game. . Elves get a +1 to hit with short and long swords and bows. Elves may be immune to Ghoul paralysis. Elves should also have 90% resistance to sleep and charm spells. Half-elves should have a 30% resistance. Elves and half-elves should also have a better chance of finding hidden objects.
Dwarves should get a bonus of up to +5 to their saving throws against wands, staves and spells and poison, based on their Constitution. They also should get a +1 to hit against goblins, hobgoblins and orcs and ogres, trolls and giants should have a -4 to hit them.
Gnomes should also receive the same benefit to their wands, staves and spells saving throws as dwarves have. They should get a +1 against Kobolds and Goblins and gnolls, bugears, ogres, trolls and giants should have a -4 to hit them.
Halflings should also receive the same benefit to their wands, staves and spells and poison saving throws as dwarves have.
Taking advantage of terrain
Walls and trees can be vital to your party's survival. When outnumbered by enemies that are not significantly weaker than you are, you should maneuver your party to take maximum advantage of impassable objects. You can limit the number enemies that can hit you by utilizing choke points. Monsters cannot move past each other if there is no room. With monsters that take up two or four squares, you can often maneuver them so that one will block the rest, allowing your characters to concentrate their attacks on one character.
Characters can move and attack diagonally, so can enemies. You use this to your advantage with a numeric keypad for the PC version of Pool. If you place your characters in front of or at the mouth of a gap, the enemy will be able to attack you diagonally on your flanks. If you position yourself behind the gap, then the situation is reversed. Consider the following diagrams :
Fig. 1
| |
| |
| |
| |
|---- ----|
|---- ----|
OCFFCO
OOOOOO
Fig. 2
| |
| |
| |
| |
|----CC----|
|----FF----|
OOOO
OOOO
Fig. 3
| |
| |
| |
| CC |
|----FF----|
|----OO----|
OOOO
OO
Fig. 4
| |
| |
| |
| CFFC |
|----OO----|
|----OO----|
OOOO
Key :
C = Cleric
F = Fighter
O = Orc
| - = Wall
In fig. 1, the party is at a disadvantage because eight orcs can attack the characters. Fig. 2 may show an improvement because now only four orcs can attack, but the clerics cannot attack back. Fig. 3 improves on the situation of Fig. 2, now only the two fighters and the two orcs can attack each other. Fig. 4 shows the best situation, all four characters can attack, but only two orcs can attack. Note that walls in this game may only take one tile but effectively create a double wall at a horizontal gap.
Even if the enemy is not a thief, you do not want to be attacked from behind. The enemy will enjoy a +2 to hit if it attacks your character from behind.
Staggering your characters diagonally gives the enemy more opportunities to attack, but it also gives you more holes to place attackers. Having a straight line does the opposite.
Having missile weapon using characters behind the front lines can thin out the opposition before they can even get a chance to attack. You can also kill enemy archers and spellcasters from a distance.
The pathfinding in Pool is decent, but it has its limitations. If you have an L-shaped or U-shaped barrier between you and the enemy you may be able to get the enemy trapped behind it as the pathfinding algorithm fails to find a path it can use to get to attack your character.
Guarding, free attacks and surrender
Guarding is the classic way of having a character do nothing during his portion of the combat round. However, it can also be a useful defensive mechanism. If an enemy advances into the character's melee range, the character gets a free and automatic attack. Additionally, if an enemy tries to retreat or move past your character, your character will get a free attack on that enemy. The enemy can also do this if you move into or out of his melee range. However, if you move into his range before he has a chance to guard, then you will not risk a free hit.
In this game, you do not always need to kill every enemy faced against you. Typically, once you reduce their numbers sufficiently, often the survivors of the monsters will surrender. You won't get the experience or treasure from killing them, but this will end a battle sooner than otherwise. Some monsters like the undead are fanatical and will always fight to the last creature. However, you may be able to do enough damage to a horde that it will surrender even though it still has the advantage of numbers.
Unfortunately, you cannot surrender once combat starts. If you feel like you are getting overwhelmed, you may turn your back and flee to the edge of the map. Depending on how many and how far the enemy is behind you, you may not be able to escape when you reach the edge. Also, if you are engaged in melee combat you will invite multiple rear attacks as you move. If you leave a dying character behind when you escape, that character will be dead and lost forever.
Missile weapons
Thieves are limited to slings and magic-users to darts. Slings have unlimited ammo, darts do not. Slings can do decent damage and have good range. Darts are weak and have a short range. A pure magic-user has a very low THAC0, so the darts may not seem worth the trouble considering how often the magic-user will miss. Clerics cannot use missile weapons at all in Pool.
Bows can fire twice per round and darts can fire three times per round. Long bows have a longer range than short bows, but do the same amount of damage.
If you encounter monsters and are able to select the Advance option, you may wish to consider starting combat immediately. This way you will have a fair distance between you and the monsters. This could give you one or two rounds where you may be able to attack with missile weapons and the enemy will be unable to respond.
The game will allow you to Ready a new weapon every combat round without penalty. So you can shoot your bow until the enemy comes within melee range and then switch to your melee weapon and armor and attack that round.
THAC0 and Armor Class
An unamored character has an Armor Class (AC) of 10, and the lower the number, the better protected your character will be. For your front line fighters, it is essential to maximize their AC if they are to survive. This means plate armor and a shield and high dexterity. At the beginning of the game, you won't be able to afford plate, so you will have to make do with chain or split or banded mail. Even so, your fighters can start the game with a -1 AC, which will make many hits miss. You lose the ability to use a shield with a two handed weapon, but a lower rate of being hit is a worthy trade off for the few extra points of damage you may inflict. In the early part of the game, you should have fighters with a high strength score and you will be facing tons of Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds and the like which tend to overwhelm by numbers. The more attacks you dodge, the longer you will last. So I would not seek out two handed weapons until you start to find magical weapons.
THAC0 is affected mainly by strength and class. All 1st level classes have a THAC0 of 20. This means that you must roll a 20 on a (virtual) 20 sided die to score a hit on an enemy with an armor class of 0. Male Human Fighters can immediately lower that score to 17 by the maximum exceptional strength score of 18/00.
In this game, regular Kobolds are probably the weakest enemies, with 3 HP and an AC of 7. With a THAC0 of 17, which is the maximum you can have at the beginning of the game, you will be able to hit a Kobold only 55% of the time. The hit percentage gets lower for Goblins, Orcs, Skeletons and Zombies. Unless you find some magic weapons, your THAC0 will not improve until your character is at least at level 3.
Fighters acquire the ability to sweep at the 2nd level. This allows them to attack more than one enemy in melee range with less than one hit die in a single attack. So if a fighter is surrounded by Goblins or Kobolds, he can attack as many of them as he has experience levels. Fighters can achieve up to level 8 and gain 1-10HP per level. They can use any type of weapon, armor or shield. They will also gain an extra half of an attack at level 7.
Specific Class Information - Cleric and Clerical Spells
Clerics can only use clubs, flail, hammer, mace and staff for a weapon. Flails are the best, followed by maces. They can use any type of armor and can use a shield. Clerics can only reach level 6 in this game and 3rd level spells. They gain 1-8HP per level. They can Turn Undead, which if successful will make some of or all the undead flee, making the job of killing them safer if more tedious. They can turn Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls and Wights at level 1, Wraiths at level 3, Mummies and level 4, Spectres at level 5 and Vampires at level 6. As they level up, the turning will become more likely to be successful. Wights, Wraiths, Spectres and Vampires will cause a level drain with a successful attack, so you want to turn them as soon as possible. If you lose a level to level drain, you cannot get it restored at a temple, you have to earn the level again or find some restoration scrolls. Even so, the loss of XP can be very painful.
For 1st level spells, Cure Light Wounds is a must, it is the only healing spell a PC cleric can cast in the game. Bless is also a good spell because it improves the THAC0 of everybody in your party by 1. Hold Person is the best 2nd level spell because you can target up to three enemies with each casting of the spell. A held person can be killed with one cruel blow and the attack is an automatic hit. Slow Poison may be necessary when fighting poisonous creatures. You cannot cast Neutralize Poison in this game. Prayer is probably the best 3rd level spell. it is a combination of Bless and Curse.
Specific Class Information - Magic-users and Magic-user spells
Magic-users start the game with four spells, read magic, detect magic, shield and sleep. Each time they gain a level, they can learn one extra spell from any spell level they can cast, but only one spell can be added this way. Magic-users can only reach level 6 in this game and 3rd level spells. They only gain 1-4HP per level. At level 3 you can begin to cast 2nd level spells and at level 5 you can cast 3rd level spells. I would suggest learning Magic Missile, Stinking Cloud, Mirror Image, Fireball and Haste. Magic-users can only use daggers, darts or staffs and can wear no armor and use no shields, so look for bracers of defense.
Because of the hordes of opponents you will seemingly encounter in every battle, area effect spells are usually more useful than single-target spells. Sleep is the best level 1 spell because, like Hold Person, it allows you to kill an enemy with a single cruel blow. However, no saving throw is allowed, and it can affect up to 16 monsters. Kobolds, Goblins, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Gnolls, Lizardmen and even an Ogre may be affected. It can affect your characters as well as the enemy, so make sure you do not target the spell at an enemy within a character's melee range. Anchor the spell to an enemy behind the attacker.
Specific Class Information - Thieves
Thieves can use clubs, daggers, darts, slings, short swords, scimitars, long swords and broad swords. They can only wear leather armor but cannot use a shield. Thieves can achieve up to level 9 and gain 1-6HP per level.
If a thief successfully hits with a back stab attack, he does double damage at levels 1-4, triple damage from levels 5-8 and quadruple damage at level 9. A thief gets a +4 to hit with a back stab attack. A thief can only backstab an opponent already being attacked. He must attack in the opposite direction from the opponent's first attacker. More importantly, to avoid a monster turning toward the thief and ruining the backstab, make sure that the monster has attacked before the thief does.
The only thief abilities used in this game are the pick lock, find and remove trap and climb wall abilities. What you can pick you can usually bash with a strong fighter and there are not an overabundance of traps in this game. Climb walls may be used once or twice.
Party composition
You can have six characters you directly control in your party and up to two NPCs or charmed or summoned monsters. Every party should have two front line fighters, two healers, a character with thief abilities and at least one magic-user. I have no love for hired NPCs, they cost money to hire, they take an automatic cut of all treasure, you cannot control them in combat and they do not like to give up items. There are some NPCs that will assist you on a single mission, but that is plot related.
Looking in the Manuals
This game comes with a Rule Book, an Adventurer's Journal, a Quick Reference Card and a Codewheel. The Adventurer's Journal contains the Proclamations, Tavern Tales and Journal Entries, maps and some tables. You will need the Codewheel to translate some elven or dwarven runes at least at one point during the game. Even if you crack the copy protection you should still keep it handy.
If you want to know more about the probable game mechanics, you should have your three volume set of AD&D 1st Edition rulebooks at your disposal. You can find all the rules and tables not explicitly mentioned in the Pool materials there. They can be relied upon except where contradicted by the Pool materials or when its obvious that the game does not implement the rules. You can find more complete statistics for the monsters in the Monster Manual or the Dungeon Master's Guide with a few exceptions. Statistics for the Drider, Mantis, Quickling, Thri-kreen can be found in the Monster Manual II. The other 1st Edition Rulebooks do not appear to be used in Pool.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Goofy Things in the Pool of Radiance Gold Box Series
Pool of Radiance was the first time a computer game officially tried to adapt the AD&D rules into a video-game playable form. It is a great game and hugely influential on later games. In fact, I would say it is the Baldur's Gate of the 1980s. It uses the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules and adheres to them pretty strictly. However, for a player brought up on more modern RPGs, Pool has some odd features hearkening back to a time when AD&D was more suited for the tabletop than the desktop. Let me talk about some of the AD&D features in this game and the series of games it spawned :
Currency conversion.
Trying to keep track of your wealth is a real doozy when you have five different types of coins. It makes you feel like you have traveled back in time to the United Kingdom pre-decimalization (240 pennies = 20 shillings = 1 pound, let's not get started on farthings, groats, crowns, marks and guineas). AD&D is slightly less cumbersome, with 200 copper pieces = 20 silver pieces = 2 electrum pieces = 1 gold pieces = 1/5 platinum pieces. Considering that 1,000 copper pieces = 5 gold pieces, you will want to find a way to exchange currency quickly. Fortunately you can do so in the shops. Pool all of your various currencies together on one character and buy something cheap like 10 arrows. You should see only Platinum and maybe some Gold for change in your inventory thereafter.
Encumbrance in coins
Instead of an intuitive system like pounds, AD&D 1st edition uses coins to note encumbrance. The idea is that 10 gold pieces (or any type of money piece) = 1 pound. The amount of encumbrance will slow down your character in combat. Without any strength modifier, less than or equal to 350gp = 12 squares, 700gp = 9 squares, 1050 gp = 6 squares and anything over 1050 gp and you are down to 3 squares of movement a round. Consider that a suit of plate mail weighs 450gp and the game treats copper pieces like gold pieces for weight and you are starting to look at some hard choices.
Strength limits for female characters
Do not play a female fighter/ranger/paladin in a Gold Box game. Even though the sex limit would soon become unfashionable in 2nd AD&D and just about every RPG thereafter, they kept it for the whole of the Gold Box series. There is no balancing rule benefit to playing a female character in AD&D 1st Edition.
Alignment
All nine alignments of AD&D are here, but the selection is almost useless. Only if a magical weapon is limited to a certain alignment or one of the two axes (lawful-neutral-chaos and good-neutral-evil) does it really have an effect on the game.
Money Sinks
These games will throw a lot of coin at you, but it has ways of reclaiming quite a bit of it. Training costs 1,000gp every time you wish to level up and is required to achieve the benefits of a new level. Note that you cannot acquire more than the experience to put you over a second level until you train up.
Identifying items costs 200gp and you pretty much have to figure out which items are magical based on clues like unusual items in a monster hoard or a large selling price. Of course you can always expect items like Rings and Bracers to be magical. Healing gets expensive at the temples and silver items are also not cheap. However, the taverns offer a simple game of chance to help you out in a short money situation and you have an equal chance of doubling your money as you have to lose it. Save and reload as necessary, the game will not punish you for it as in Baldur's Gate.
Class and level limits
In Pool, fighters can advance to level 8, clerics and magic users to level 6 and thieves to level 9. (Why didn't they just name fighters, magic-users and clerics as warriors, wizards and priests. "Magic-user" just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? "Cleric" is just a fancy title for a "priest" and "warrior" is far more evocative than the bland, generic term "fighter".) In Pool, the only demihuman level limit you will hit is the half-elf cleric, who is limited to level 5.
Multi-classing may be a good option for a run through Pool, but your characters will start to feel underpowered if you transfer them to Curse of the Azure Bonds. However, unless you have the patience of a saint, you should try to level up as quickly as possible to get your THAC0 down. You will miss a lot early in the game, and having a high strength or dexterity combined with a low THAC0 score helps, so you need to level up.
In Curse you will hit the level limits for almost every class/demihuman combination, but high strength or intelligence will allow you to increase the level limits you can obtain as fighter, ranger or magic-user. If you import characters to Secret of the Silver Blades, the level limit will seriously start to crimp your style and Pools of Darkness will be a very dark experience indeed.
It seems silly now that no other demihuman other than a half-elf can be a ranger or a cleric, none of them can be a paladin and only elves and half-elves can be a magic-user. Well, in AD&D 1st Edition, the Player's Handbook acknowledges some additional priestly combinations, but not for player characters. Because the Gold Box series did not implement specialist mages, there are no such things as Gnome Illusionists here.
While Elves and Halflings get a +1 to Dexterity and Dwarves get a +1 to Constitution, it does not seem to have any real benefit unless you do not adjust your scores. Nor does raising an ability score to 19 or higher in the Pool series (except for health regeneration, see below).
Four basic character classes
In Pool, you can be a Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric or Thief. Curse, added Rangers and Paladins to the available character classes. It did not add Druids, Assassins, Monks or Bards. Nor did it include the additional classes like the Cavalier, Barbarian or the Thief-Acrobat found in Unearthed Arcana. Nor are Half-Orcs a selectable race and they did not add the subrace choices in the Player's Handbook (halflings) or Unearthed Arcana. In this sense, the game is closer to the 2nd Edition of the Rules, which did not include most of these options within its basic rules. Multi-classing is here from the beginning, Curse added Dual-Classing.
Half-elves have the most multi-classing choices, they can be cleric/fighters, cleric/fighter/magic-users, cleric/magic-users, fighter/magic-users, fighter/thieves, fighter/thief/magic-users and magic-user/thieves. Elves get all those combinations except the cleric combinations, but dwarves, gnomes and halflings only get the fighter/thief option.
Thieves have a wide array of abilities in AD&D, but the the game engine limits them to picking locks, disarming traps and backstabbing. Mages have four spells in the spell book when they begin the game, one of which is the all-powerful sleep spell and acquire one new spell per level.
One particularly annoying feature is the THAC0 improvement. Simply put, no character is guaranteed to see a THAC0 improvement upon gaining a level or two or three or even four. Fighters get an improvement every two levels, clerics every three levels, thieves every four levels and magic-users every five levels. 2nd Edition AD&D had a much better progression rate for most classes, especially fighters who get a one point improvement every level.
Manual inadequacies
Pool comes with a Rule Book, an Adventurer's Journal, a Quick Start Guide and a Codewheel. The documentation of the actual AD&D 1st Edition rules is rather lacking in Pool's documentation. The Rule Book contains character race limit and maximum class level by race table. The Adventurer's Journal contains the money conversion formulas, the spell list, the armor list, the experience tables, the undead turning level requirements, weapons and armor permitted by class and the weapons list.
If you wanted attack and saving throw tables, hit die tables, thief ability and turn undead tables, starting money tables or weapon weights, you had to look to the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide.
Curse's Rule Book contains Pool's tables, updated as need be for higher levels. It also expands the maximum class level by race table to give higher level limits for high prime requisite scores. If you want to know the bonus spells clerics get for high wisdom, the table is here, but that is the only major addition. Curse's experience tables now include the useless level titles.
Secret's Adventurer's Journal gives racial ability score modifiers, the ability adjustments for strength, dexterity and constitution (finally!), fighter/paladin/ranger number of attacks per round, and a spell parameters list. Pools' Adventurer's Journal adds no tables.
Variations from the official rules
In Pool, clerics cannot use slings and thieves cannot use short bows. This is correct according to AD&D 1st Edition rules. Curse allows thieves to use short bows and clerics to use staff slings. Pools allows thieves to wear "elfin" chain mail. This is allowed by Unearthed Arcana.
Pool uses the rules for zero hit points as given in the Dungeon Master's Guide, (death is not instantaneous at 0 HP but you can go to -10HP before true death) but does not have a recovery time.
Weapons and armor that come and go
Armor types available in Pool are Leather, Padded, Studded, Ring, Scale, Chain, Splint, Banded and Plate. In Secret, they simplified the armor by removing Padded, Studded and Splint. Pools added them back and put in Elfin Chain Mail as well.
Weapons in Pool number 46. Curse has the same number, but Secret reduces it to 25. Pools ups the figure to 29. It has been commented that Gary Gygax had quite the fascination with medieval polearms and included every one he could find in AD&D 1st Edition. For the first games, if it was in the Player's Handbook, you would almost certainly find it in Pool. However, if you are looking for a +2 Glaive or Cursed Voulge-Guisarme of Berzerking, you are not going to find one in either Pool or Curse.
Weird Items
In addition to the never-ending variety of polearms, which appear to be completely absent as magical weapons, the other shops sell items that have little to no value in the game. You do not need a holy symbol to Turn Undead. Silver armor serves no obvious point, and silver weapons appear to have very limited capabilities (Wights are the only monsters you should face regularly that could require silver, but you should have magical items by that time.) The jewelry serves no point except as a way to convert heavy coin to a light item you can later sell if you need it. As there is no bank in this game, you will not be able to keep as much coin as you find. You will also find items in treasure hoards that look like they serve some purpose, but usually do not.
At one point during the game, you will find a Manual of Bodily Health. If you use it on a dwarf character with 19 Constitution, his number will not be raised, but he will gain a regeneration ability to restore his health. This makes healing a lot faster for this character, by the time you finish resting to regain your spells, he will likely be fully healed. Note that if your characters die and have to be resurrected through a raise dead spell, you will lose 1 point of Constitution.
Peculiarities of the IBM PC version
In Pool and Curse, all interaction is done by the keyboard IBM PC version. In Pool, you usually use the Home and End keys to select your characters or your items, but sometimes you can use the arrow keys. The Page Up and Page Down keys can usually be used to cycle through a multi-screen menu like the one presented at the weapons/armor shops. It can be a bit confusing, but using the numeric keypad may be a more intuitive option. Using the numeric keypad is utterly necessary to move in combat, the cardinal four directions are insufficient for the isometric views of the combat screens. Later games rely more on the arrow keys to select menu items.
While the joystick was an option of the Commodore 64 and Apple II versions and mouse support was in Pool's Macintosh and Commodore Amiga versions, those control options would only start to be included as of IBM PC's Secret. Oddly enough, the Demo option found in the Commodore 64 and Apple II versions and in the PC version of every game following is missing for IBM PC Pool.
Some of the IBM PC versions of Pool do support Tandy music on their title screens just like every other version of the game except the Apple II version. Unfortunately their music driver was not very good, leading to an odd tone played early in the main track. Also, the music will never finish on the title screen for Pool regardless of how slow your Tandy is. Weirdly, the music also plays when you start a battle in Pool. It does not play music at this point in the Commodore 64 original.
Eventually they got rid of the music, at least as of version 1.2 and 1.3 (which are indicated on the credits screen, earlier versions do not indicate the version number there). The version numbering of Pool is not generally well known due to the lack of version number display. However, there are versions with a START.EXE of 10-26-88 and 12-12-88 according to an old crack .nfo file. I would suggest that these are v1.0 and v1.1, respectively. My copy has a START.EXE of 12-12-88 and does not display a version number but does play music.
Curse is similar except there was also music for the PC Speaker. It always displays a version number and 1.0-1.3 exist. Music was removed as of 1.3 and similar to Pool you could never hear the full theme.
If you want the versions with the music, look for the original retail box versions. Avoid slash releases or any compilation release, especially the ones that come on CD-ROM. I would concentrate on 5.25" double density disks if you really want to maximize your chances.
Between the two 16 color graphic drivers, the Tandy driver is far more speedy to load than the EGA driver. Interestingly, the background color in the combat screens is black for the Tandy but light gray for EGA. Curse's Tandy driver would also use light gray.
To avoid a "PUT SAVE DISK IN C:"or "INSERT DISK 3" error, make sure your directories are correct in your POOL.CFG file. Later games let you delete their .CFG file and let you re-enter the information (graphics and sound type, game save directory and prior game directory typically), but with Pool you must manually edit your file.
There is a lot of plain text in the START.EXE file, including all the copy protection words. Even though Pool's Translation Wheel gives 108 possible combinations (36 x 3), there are only 13 copy protection words While each word can be selected by three combinations of Espruar and Dethek runes, only one combination is ever used, and here is how the word and lines match up:
beware - - - - -
copper - - - - -
friend - - - - -
savior - - - - -
wyvern - - - - -
dragon -..-..-..
jungle -..-..-..
zombie -..-..-..
efreet .........
knight .........
notnow .........
temple .........
vulcan .........
Unless some version added a check in its code, you could simply type in a single word replacement for all 13 copy protection words. Curse was trickier because it only required one letter or number, not a whole word. Each type of line has six characters, making the range of options far greater.
Currency conversion.
Trying to keep track of your wealth is a real doozy when you have five different types of coins. It makes you feel like you have traveled back in time to the United Kingdom pre-decimalization (240 pennies = 20 shillings = 1 pound, let's not get started on farthings, groats, crowns, marks and guineas). AD&D is slightly less cumbersome, with 200 copper pieces = 20 silver pieces = 2 electrum pieces = 1 gold pieces = 1/5 platinum pieces. Considering that 1,000 copper pieces = 5 gold pieces, you will want to find a way to exchange currency quickly. Fortunately you can do so in the shops. Pool all of your various currencies together on one character and buy something cheap like 10 arrows. You should see only Platinum and maybe some Gold for change in your inventory thereafter.
Encumbrance in coins
Instead of an intuitive system like pounds, AD&D 1st edition uses coins to note encumbrance. The idea is that 10 gold pieces (or any type of money piece) = 1 pound. The amount of encumbrance will slow down your character in combat. Without any strength modifier, less than or equal to 350gp = 12 squares, 700gp = 9 squares, 1050 gp = 6 squares and anything over 1050 gp and you are down to 3 squares of movement a round. Consider that a suit of plate mail weighs 450gp and the game treats copper pieces like gold pieces for weight and you are starting to look at some hard choices.
Strength limits for female characters
Do not play a female fighter/ranger/paladin in a Gold Box game. Even though the sex limit would soon become unfashionable in 2nd AD&D and just about every RPG thereafter, they kept it for the whole of the Gold Box series. There is no balancing rule benefit to playing a female character in AD&D 1st Edition.
Alignment
All nine alignments of AD&D are here, but the selection is almost useless. Only if a magical weapon is limited to a certain alignment or one of the two axes (lawful-neutral-chaos and good-neutral-evil) does it really have an effect on the game.
Money Sinks
These games will throw a lot of coin at you, but it has ways of reclaiming quite a bit of it. Training costs 1,000gp every time you wish to level up and is required to achieve the benefits of a new level. Note that you cannot acquire more than the experience to put you over a second level until you train up.
Identifying items costs 200gp and you pretty much have to figure out which items are magical based on clues like unusual items in a monster hoard or a large selling price. Of course you can always expect items like Rings and Bracers to be magical. Healing gets expensive at the temples and silver items are also not cheap. However, the taverns offer a simple game of chance to help you out in a short money situation and you have an equal chance of doubling your money as you have to lose it. Save and reload as necessary, the game will not punish you for it as in Baldur's Gate.
Class and level limits
In Pool, fighters can advance to level 8, clerics and magic users to level 6 and thieves to level 9. (Why didn't they just name fighters, magic-users and clerics as warriors, wizards and priests. "Magic-user" just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? "Cleric" is just a fancy title for a "priest" and "warrior" is far more evocative than the bland, generic term "fighter".) In Pool, the only demihuman level limit you will hit is the half-elf cleric, who is limited to level 5.
Multi-classing may be a good option for a run through Pool, but your characters will start to feel underpowered if you transfer them to Curse of the Azure Bonds. However, unless you have the patience of a saint, you should try to level up as quickly as possible to get your THAC0 down. You will miss a lot early in the game, and having a high strength or dexterity combined with a low THAC0 score helps, so you need to level up.
In Curse you will hit the level limits for almost every class/demihuman combination, but high strength or intelligence will allow you to increase the level limits you can obtain as fighter, ranger or magic-user. If you import characters to Secret of the Silver Blades, the level limit will seriously start to crimp your style and Pools of Darkness will be a very dark experience indeed.
It seems silly now that no other demihuman other than a half-elf can be a ranger or a cleric, none of them can be a paladin and only elves and half-elves can be a magic-user. Well, in AD&D 1st Edition, the Player's Handbook acknowledges some additional priestly combinations, but not for player characters. Because the Gold Box series did not implement specialist mages, there are no such things as Gnome Illusionists here.
While Elves and Halflings get a +1 to Dexterity and Dwarves get a +1 to Constitution, it does not seem to have any real benefit unless you do not adjust your scores. Nor does raising an ability score to 19 or higher in the Pool series (except for health regeneration, see below).
Four basic character classes
In Pool, you can be a Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric or Thief. Curse, added Rangers and Paladins to the available character classes. It did not add Druids, Assassins, Monks or Bards. Nor did it include the additional classes like the Cavalier, Barbarian or the Thief-Acrobat found in Unearthed Arcana. Nor are Half-Orcs a selectable race and they did not add the subrace choices in the Player's Handbook (halflings) or Unearthed Arcana. In this sense, the game is closer to the 2nd Edition of the Rules, which did not include most of these options within its basic rules. Multi-classing is here from the beginning, Curse added Dual-Classing.
Half-elves have the most multi-classing choices, they can be cleric/fighters, cleric/fighter/magic-users, cleric/magic-users, fighter/magic-users, fighter/thieves, fighter/thief/magic-users and magic-user/thieves. Elves get all those combinations except the cleric combinations, but dwarves, gnomes and halflings only get the fighter/thief option.
Thieves have a wide array of abilities in AD&D, but the the game engine limits them to picking locks, disarming traps and backstabbing. Mages have four spells in the spell book when they begin the game, one of which is the all-powerful sleep spell and acquire one new spell per level.
One particularly annoying feature is the THAC0 improvement. Simply put, no character is guaranteed to see a THAC0 improvement upon gaining a level or two or three or even four. Fighters get an improvement every two levels, clerics every three levels, thieves every four levels and magic-users every five levels. 2nd Edition AD&D had a much better progression rate for most classes, especially fighters who get a one point improvement every level.
Manual inadequacies
Pool comes with a Rule Book, an Adventurer's Journal, a Quick Start Guide and a Codewheel. The documentation of the actual AD&D 1st Edition rules is rather lacking in Pool's documentation. The Rule Book contains character race limit and maximum class level by race table. The Adventurer's Journal contains the money conversion formulas, the spell list, the armor list, the experience tables, the undead turning level requirements, weapons and armor permitted by class and the weapons list.
If you wanted attack and saving throw tables, hit die tables, thief ability and turn undead tables, starting money tables or weapon weights, you had to look to the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide.
Curse's Rule Book contains Pool's tables, updated as need be for higher levels. It also expands the maximum class level by race table to give higher level limits for high prime requisite scores. If you want to know the bonus spells clerics get for high wisdom, the table is here, but that is the only major addition. Curse's experience tables now include the useless level titles.
Secret's Adventurer's Journal gives racial ability score modifiers, the ability adjustments for strength, dexterity and constitution (finally!), fighter/paladin/ranger number of attacks per round, and a spell parameters list. Pools' Adventurer's Journal adds no tables.
Variations from the official rules
In Pool, clerics cannot use slings and thieves cannot use short bows. This is correct according to AD&D 1st Edition rules. Curse allows thieves to use short bows and clerics to use staff slings. Pools allows thieves to wear "elfin" chain mail. This is allowed by Unearthed Arcana.
Pool uses the rules for zero hit points as given in the Dungeon Master's Guide, (death is not instantaneous at 0 HP but you can go to -10HP before true death) but does not have a recovery time.
Weapons and armor that come and go
Armor types available in Pool are Leather, Padded, Studded, Ring, Scale, Chain, Splint, Banded and Plate. In Secret, they simplified the armor by removing Padded, Studded and Splint. Pools added them back and put in Elfin Chain Mail as well.
Weapons in Pool number 46. Curse has the same number, but Secret reduces it to 25. Pools ups the figure to 29. It has been commented that Gary Gygax had quite the fascination with medieval polearms and included every one he could find in AD&D 1st Edition. For the first games, if it was in the Player's Handbook, you would almost certainly find it in Pool. However, if you are looking for a +2 Glaive or Cursed Voulge-Guisarme of Berzerking, you are not going to find one in either Pool or Curse.
Weird Items
In addition to the never-ending variety of polearms, which appear to be completely absent as magical weapons, the other shops sell items that have little to no value in the game. You do not need a holy symbol to Turn Undead. Silver armor serves no obvious point, and silver weapons appear to have very limited capabilities (Wights are the only monsters you should face regularly that could require silver, but you should have magical items by that time.) The jewelry serves no point except as a way to convert heavy coin to a light item you can later sell if you need it. As there is no bank in this game, you will not be able to keep as much coin as you find. You will also find items in treasure hoards that look like they serve some purpose, but usually do not.
At one point during the game, you will find a Manual of Bodily Health. If you use it on a dwarf character with 19 Constitution, his number will not be raised, but he will gain a regeneration ability to restore his health. This makes healing a lot faster for this character, by the time you finish resting to regain your spells, he will likely be fully healed. Note that if your characters die and have to be resurrected through a raise dead spell, you will lose 1 point of Constitution.
Peculiarities of the IBM PC version
In Pool and Curse, all interaction is done by the keyboard IBM PC version. In Pool, you usually use the Home and End keys to select your characters or your items, but sometimes you can use the arrow keys. The Page Up and Page Down keys can usually be used to cycle through a multi-screen menu like the one presented at the weapons/armor shops. It can be a bit confusing, but using the numeric keypad may be a more intuitive option. Using the numeric keypad is utterly necessary to move in combat, the cardinal four directions are insufficient for the isometric views of the combat screens. Later games rely more on the arrow keys to select menu items.
While the joystick was an option of the Commodore 64 and Apple II versions and mouse support was in Pool's Macintosh and Commodore Amiga versions, those control options would only start to be included as of IBM PC's Secret. Oddly enough, the Demo option found in the Commodore 64 and Apple II versions and in the PC version of every game following is missing for IBM PC Pool.
Some of the IBM PC versions of Pool do support Tandy music on their title screens just like every other version of the game except the Apple II version. Unfortunately their music driver was not very good, leading to an odd tone played early in the main track. Also, the music will never finish on the title screen for Pool regardless of how slow your Tandy is. Weirdly, the music also plays when you start a battle in Pool. It does not play music at this point in the Commodore 64 original.
Eventually they got rid of the music, at least as of version 1.2 and 1.3 (which are indicated on the credits screen, earlier versions do not indicate the version number there). The version numbering of Pool is not generally well known due to the lack of version number display. However, there are versions with a START.EXE of 10-26-88 and 12-12-88 according to an old crack .nfo file. I would suggest that these are v1.0 and v1.1, respectively. My copy has a START.EXE of 12-12-88 and does not display a version number but does play music.
Curse is similar except there was also music for the PC Speaker. It always displays a version number and 1.0-1.3 exist. Music was removed as of 1.3 and similar to Pool you could never hear the full theme.
If you want the versions with the music, look for the original retail box versions. Avoid slash releases or any compilation release, especially the ones that come on CD-ROM. I would concentrate on 5.25" double density disks if you really want to maximize your chances.
Between the two 16 color graphic drivers, the Tandy driver is far more speedy to load than the EGA driver. Interestingly, the background color in the combat screens is black for the Tandy but light gray for EGA. Curse's Tandy driver would also use light gray.
To avoid a "PUT SAVE DISK IN C:"or "INSERT DISK 3" error, make sure your directories are correct in your POOL.CFG file. Later games let you delete their .CFG file and let you re-enter the information (graphics and sound type, game save directory and prior game directory typically), but with Pool you must manually edit your file.
There is a lot of plain text in the START.EXE file, including all the copy protection words. Even though Pool's Translation Wheel gives 108 possible combinations (36 x 3), there are only 13 copy protection words While each word can be selected by three combinations of Espruar and Dethek runes, only one combination is ever used, and here is how the word and lines match up:
beware - - - - -
copper - - - - -
friend - - - - -
savior - - - - -
wyvern - - - - -
dragon -..-..-..
jungle -..-..-..
zombie -..-..-..
efreet .........
knight .........
notnow .........
temple .........
vulcan .........
Unless some version added a check in its code, you could simply type in a single word replacement for all 13 copy protection words. Curse was trickier because it only required one letter or number, not a whole word. Each type of line has six characters, making the range of options far greater.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Arkanoid and Arkanoid Again
Arkanoid, that timeless classic from Taito, breathed new life into the Breakout-style of gameplay. It was ported to the IBM PC compatible platform by Novalogic for Taito in 1988. What I did not know was that this Novalogic port was based off an earlier port by Imagine.
Imagine was a British software developer in the mid 1980s that went bankrupt. Ocean Software bought the name and used it on a label for several arcade game ports. This port of Arkanoid is the only PC port I am aware of which used the Imagine label. This port was released in 1987. This PC port was ported from the more colorful ZX Spectrum version, which may be why the Imagine label was left on it. It only supports CGA graphics and keyboard controls.
Taito had Novalogic port the game again with the mandate to include better hardware support. Novalogic did not start from scratch, as you will see. They upgraded the graphics to 16-color EGA and Tandy support, which required redoing the CGA graphics. They also included mouse and joystick support and Tandy 3-voice support for music. Sound effects were still PC Speaker based.
If you compare screenshots of the Imagine and Taito versions, you will see many, many similarities. Let's start with the Imagine version of Arkanoid :
Now let us compare the CGA graphics of Taito's version :
And here are the customary 16-color graphics for reference :
Both disks are copy protected, but in very different ways. Taito's executable protected with the Softguard protection. The executable is encrypted and the loader program makes multiple checks for errors on a track of the disk, then if it is sufficiently satisfied that the errors exist, it will decrypt and run the real executable. Imagine's disk appears as a 180KB single sided disk but is really a double sided disk. The executable is located on the second side of the disk. DOS cannot see or execute the executable, but the game's loader reads the data directly through Int 13h read sector commands.
The Imagine port uses tweaked PC speaker music to get more than one voice out of the PC speaker. The Taito port uses simple PC speaker music. The Taito 3-voice music is not particularly more complex or impressive compared to the PC speaker music. However, unlike the Imagine port, the Taito port is not quite as speed sensitive. It is almost certain that the Imagine port was developed on or for an Amstrad PC-1512, which uses an 8MHz 8086 and a built-in enhanced CGA graphics adapter. Both versions quit the game by pressing Esc, then Q, which is weird for PC games but not so much for the small keyboard of the ZX Spectrum.
While neither port will win any prizes for "Best Port of Arkanoid", Taito's version is the better version. Although it only gives you 3 lives to Imagine's 5, the control responsiveness from the mouse, the joystick or even the keyboard of the Taito version is far superior to the keyboard controls of the Imagine version. The Imagine's paddle will frequently jerk to the left or the right when you change direction instead of giving a proper smooth movement. The hit detection between the ball and paddle is more consistent in the Taito version. Finally, the Imagine version does not seem to have the enemies appear from the top of the screen. I could not see them in the first two rounds. Note that the best joystick for the Taito version is one where you can turn the self-centering off, as you can on the boxy Kraft or Tandy Deluxe joysticks.
The real Arkanoid in the arcades used a "spinner", which is a rotary dial. A rotary dial works by phase shifted quadrature encoding. There are a pair of optical sensors on either side of a wheel with spokes and holes. There is an invisible beam between the optical sensors, which are positioned off center from each other. When the wheel is turned one way, the optical sensor sends a signal. When it is turned the other way, it sends a mirror image of that signal. The signal is made up of 1s and 0s sent in a waveform out of phase with each other, and the signal that goes from low to high or high to low first determines the direction.
The rotary encoder used by Arkanoid was a huge improvement over the resistor capacitor design of older paddle control knobs. The resistor/capacitor scheme was never especially accurate because it relied on the tolerances of the passive components which could very widely. Moveover, a potentiometer in a paddle does not have a 360 degree range of movement. A rotary encoder put out a pure digital signal, the only analog element of the design was how fast the player twisted the knob.
Your standard ball mouse uses two rotary controllers. It is by far the closest control to an arcade Arkanoid cabinet as you can get on the PC without buying a MAME controller. Most MAME controllers are USB based these days, and classic computers tend to be rather incompatible with USB controllers.
I thought of adapting an Atari 2600 driving controller to a PC mouse interface, because it is essentially half of a mouse. However, the driving controller puts out a pure quadrature signal. Serial mice collect the quadrature signals from the movement and the button presses with a microcontroller built into the mouse and send them out in byte-packets to the serial port. A bus mouse interface like the Microsoft InPort interface may be possible because it accepts quadrature signals from the mouse and has the microcontroller on a PC card. But an Atari 2600 driving controller only has 16 positions in a complete revolution while your average comptuer mouse has double the number of positions. The 2600 controller would not be sufficiently fine tuned for games that expect a mouse like Arkanoid and Arkanoid 2: Revenge of DOH, or Cyberball Plus.
The Imagine version of Arkanoid that has been given to me to write about came on a compilation package called "La Collection Amstrad PC." This Collection contains four titles distributed by U.S. Gold: World Class Leader Board from Access Software, World Games from Epyx, Arkanoid (originally from Taito) and "Super Tennis". "Super Tennis" shares the disk with Arkanoid and boots to this menu :
I know World Class Leader Board and World Games well enough because they came from U.S. companies, but I was not immediately familiar with "Super Tennis". "Super Tennis" uses French in game and only supports CGA and PC Speaker. Fortunately its limited hardware selection made it easy enough to track its source, which is Tournament Tennis, originally from Imagic and originally in English. Tournament Tennis has some support for CGA composite color graphics, which would have been unheard of for a European developed title, which cannot support CGA composite graphics because of the lack of NTSC monitors. Like Arkanoid, Super Tennis appears to be speed adjusted for an 8MHz 8086 machine.
Here are some screenshots games from Super Tennis :
And here are screenshots from Tournament Tennis as translated into French :
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
HDMIfy your Old Consoles - Console Specific HDMI Upgrades
If you want high quality input from classic consoles to a modern flat screen TV, you need to use an HDMI converter like the X-RGB Mini Framemeister. This converter will take high quality RGB or Component video signals and convert them to HDMI-compatible 720p or 1080p with excellent results and minimal lag. I played with a Framemeister some months ago, and wrote up my impressions of the device here : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/05/fun-with-framemeister.html Unfortunately, some classic consoles have difficulty displaying high quality video signals due to their lack of high quality video outputs. Some enterprising individuals have made mod boards that will directly convert the video to HDMI with less lag than a Framemeister, more features and more reliable results. Here are the projects that, as of the date of this writing, actually have been released in some form to the public.
NES - HiDef NES Mod & the AVS
The NES is one of the most important of the post-crash consoles and one of the few without a native RGB solution. There has been a NESRGB mod board released for two years now, which works wonders with a Framemeister. Before that people harvested 2C03 chips from Playchoice-10 PCBs and made do with the differences in the color palette, compatibility issues with color emphasis and sometimes video jailbars.
Kevtris' HiDefNES mod has already been mentioned in this blog, and it adds a whole host of features over the NESRGB + Framemeister solution. I lay them out in detail here : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/07/analogue-nt-nes-as-luxury-retro-console.html
It is the board found in the Analogue Nt HDMI version and has been sold in pre-modded systems on ebay and on the http://www.game-tech.us/ website. The kit will be available for purchase so you can attempt to mod it yourself. However, it requires desoldering both the CPU and PPU without destroying either chip or the PCB, so it is not a beginner mod. Virtually all the compatibility issues with the HiDefNES mod and certain MMC5 games and the EverDrive N8 have been eliminated through a firmware update, so now is the time to consider taking the plunge.
The only obvious issue is that its FDS audio emulation is less than perfect. The mod will not work in an original Famicom, a Famicom Twin or an AV Famicom with laser-marked CPU and PPU chips.
The basic principle of how the HiDefNES obtains the color values of each background and sprite pixel is the same as used in the NESRGB. See here for my explanation : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/06/nes-hardware-explained.html
There is now a 2600RGB board for the Atari 2600. The 2600RGB board uses similar principles to discover the colors of 2600 pixels as the NESRGB board does for NES pixels. Theoretically, it is quite possible for someone to develop an HDMI mod for the 2600.
bunnyboy, who runs the RetroUSB site, has displayed his AVS replica console at the 2015 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. His AVS has a 72-pin and a 60-pin connector for NES and Famicom games, and is designed as a front loader for the former and a top loader for the latter. It uses a completely new board and an FPGA chip to provide hardware emulation for the NES. It only outputs HDMI video and has separate power and reset buttons in the shape of NES front loader buttons. It has built in four NES controller ports that can be set to function as a NES Four Score or Famicom 4-player adapter. It also has a 15-pin Famicom expansion port for Famicom peripherals.
Because the console only supports HDMI output, it will not work with any Zapper or compatible Light Gun device and it will not work with the Famicom 3-D Glasses. The FPGA inside the console does not emulate any cartridge hardware or expansion audio. Expansion audio from Famicom cartridges is digitized and then mixed with the internal audio. However, because the AVS uses an FPGA, it can load updated firmware to fix any compatibility issues. Reports from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo were very positive, one person said the system ran Micro Machines correctly, which is a hard game to get right. bunnyboy is also designing wireless RF controller without lag to go with the console via an controller port adapter.
The console can only be powered through its USB port. The console has a scoreboard reporting function via the USB port, it will save high scores for certain known games and report them to NintendoAge. The idea is that you play a supported game, the high score is saved and then you plug in the system to your PC and it send the score to NintendoAge. The AVS only supports 720p while the HiDefNES can do either 720p or 1080p. The AVS is not for sale at the moment, but bunnyboy is aiming for a just under $200 price point. The best place for updates seems to be here : http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=92557
N64 - Ultra HDMI
No N64 natively outputs RGB, but some early consoles can be modded with a simple amplifier board. Most consoles, however, have a video encoder chip that only outputs composite and s-video. These consoles require the N64RGB board. This board acts like a custom DAC, taking the digital signals from the N64 and turning them into analog RGB video. This will make it truly Framemeister worthy, although the s-video output from the N64 is pretty good compared to composite video. PAL N64s need a special cable to boost the S-Video signal from the console, NTSC N64s can use standard Nintendo or 3rd Party cables.
Today, if you want to bypass the Framemeister option, you can have an UltraHDMI board installed in your system. It works with NTSC and PAL framerates (up to 1080p for both) and not unlike the HiDefNES it comes with filters. The Ultra HDMI filters can simulate a CRT TV. Without the filters the lag is truly negligible, with them there is about a frame of lag. It supports all standard digital SD and HD resolutions, as shown here : http://ultrahdmi.retroactive.be/
The mod is very involved because you have to solder a flexible mylar-like ribbon cable to the finely spaced pins of the surface mounted graphics chip, the Reality Co-Processor (RCP). The RCP sends out 7-bit digital RGB values along with sync information. This allows for direct digital to digital conversion to the 8-bit RGB values HDMI supports without quality loss. The kit uses a mini-HDMI cable and only needs a small hole cut into the back of the N64. Because the mod is very tricky and not for the beginner, the board and kit is being sold only experienced mod kit installers. If you want your N64 modded with the Ultra HDMI, you need to send it to someone. This site is authorized to perform the mod : http://www.badassconsoles.com/ultrahdmi/
Game Boy - hdmyboy
In one sense, it is not too difficult to obtain a good quality HDMI image from a Gameboy. You use a Super Gameboy or a Super Gameboy 2 (for accurate speed) on a SNES that supports RGB and send the video and audio through a Framemeister. Alternatively, you can use a Game Boy Player and a Gamecube with the component video cables through the Framemeister, but that requires running custom software to make the Game Boy Player output at a true 240p speed.
Some time ago, there was a Kickstarter for a product called the hdmyboy. The campaign is archived here : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/507669971/hdmyboy-a-full-hd-power-up-for-your-game-boy-class
This is a fully assembled kit that you insert between the two halves of a DMG-01 Game Boy. It adds half an inch or so to the height of the console when laid flat. It has an HDMI cable port and can support 720p or (preferred) 1080p.
Unlike the NES and N64 mods, this mod is easy to install. It requires no soldering. All you have to do is unscrew the shell, remove the ribbon cable that attaches the LCD PCB to the CPU PCB and insert that ribbon cable into the hdmyboy. The hdmyboy comes with a NES controller attached internally so you can control your Game Boy. It essentially becomes a consolized Game Boy at this point.
The Game Boy's LCD can only support four shades of one color, its video signal is fundamentally 2-bit digital monochrome signal with sync information. This information, along with mono audio, is available through the ribbon cable. The hdmyboy converts the digital video and the analog audio and sends it through the HDMI cable to the TV. The hdmyboy only supports mono audio because only a mono audio signal is necessary for the single speaker connected to the LCD PCB.
Unfortunately the Kickstarter campaign was not successful. However, the hdmyboy team still has some prototypes left here : http://www.hdmyboy.com/play/. They are very expensive however, (a bit too expensive for what it does) but should represent the best solution to obtain true Game Boy output without using an emulator. If they try another Kickstarter campaign again, then hopefully more people would be willing to contribute and get the price of this fine idea down.
Given a 1080p display, the hdmyboy can by default do 7x nearest neighbor scaling to give razor sharp graphics at the Game Boy's original aspect ratio. It can also do 12:7 scaling to give razor sharp widescreen graphics and occupy almost the whole screen if you prefer. Like the Super Game Boy it has 32 color palettes available to colorize the graphics. While the Game Boy's sprite and background tiles have 10 valid palette selections to choose from, the Super Game Boy (unless the game is enhanced) and hdmyboy only apply colors based on the actual color value of the outputted pixel.
NES - HiDef NES Mod & the AVS
The NES is one of the most important of the post-crash consoles and one of the few without a native RGB solution. There has been a NESRGB mod board released for two years now, which works wonders with a Framemeister. Before that people harvested 2C03 chips from Playchoice-10 PCBs and made do with the differences in the color palette, compatibility issues with color emphasis and sometimes video jailbars.
Kevtris' HiDefNES mod has already been mentioned in this blog, and it adds a whole host of features over the NESRGB + Framemeister solution. I lay them out in detail here : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/07/analogue-nt-nes-as-luxury-retro-console.html
It is the board found in the Analogue Nt HDMI version and has been sold in pre-modded systems on ebay and on the http://www.game-tech.us/ website. The kit will be available for purchase so you can attempt to mod it yourself. However, it requires desoldering both the CPU and PPU without destroying either chip or the PCB, so it is not a beginner mod. Virtually all the compatibility issues with the HiDefNES mod and certain MMC5 games and the EverDrive N8 have been eliminated through a firmware update, so now is the time to consider taking the plunge.
The only obvious issue is that its FDS audio emulation is less than perfect. The mod will not work in an original Famicom, a Famicom Twin or an AV Famicom with laser-marked CPU and PPU chips.
The basic principle of how the HiDefNES obtains the color values of each background and sprite pixel is the same as used in the NESRGB. See here for my explanation : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2015/06/nes-hardware-explained.html
There is now a 2600RGB board for the Atari 2600. The 2600RGB board uses similar principles to discover the colors of 2600 pixels as the NESRGB board does for NES pixels. Theoretically, it is quite possible for someone to develop an HDMI mod for the 2600.
bunnyboy, who runs the RetroUSB site, has displayed his AVS replica console at the 2015 Portland Retro Gaming Expo. His AVS has a 72-pin and a 60-pin connector for NES and Famicom games, and is designed as a front loader for the former and a top loader for the latter. It uses a completely new board and an FPGA chip to provide hardware emulation for the NES. It only outputs HDMI video and has separate power and reset buttons in the shape of NES front loader buttons. It has built in four NES controller ports that can be set to function as a NES Four Score or Famicom 4-player adapter. It also has a 15-pin Famicom expansion port for Famicom peripherals.
Because the console only supports HDMI output, it will not work with any Zapper or compatible Light Gun device and it will not work with the Famicom 3-D Glasses. The FPGA inside the console does not emulate any cartridge hardware or expansion audio. Expansion audio from Famicom cartridges is digitized and then mixed with the internal audio. However, because the AVS uses an FPGA, it can load updated firmware to fix any compatibility issues. Reports from the Portland Retro Gaming Expo were very positive, one person said the system ran Micro Machines correctly, which is a hard game to get right. bunnyboy is also designing wireless RF controller without lag to go with the console via an controller port adapter.
The console can only be powered through its USB port. The console has a scoreboard reporting function via the USB port, it will save high scores for certain known games and report them to NintendoAge. The idea is that you play a supported game, the high score is saved and then you plug in the system to your PC and it send the score to NintendoAge. The AVS only supports 720p while the HiDefNES can do either 720p or 1080p. The AVS is not for sale at the moment, but bunnyboy is aiming for a just under $200 price point. The best place for updates seems to be here : http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=92557
N64 - Ultra HDMI
No N64 natively outputs RGB, but some early consoles can be modded with a simple amplifier board. Most consoles, however, have a video encoder chip that only outputs composite and s-video. These consoles require the N64RGB board. This board acts like a custom DAC, taking the digital signals from the N64 and turning them into analog RGB video. This will make it truly Framemeister worthy, although the s-video output from the N64 is pretty good compared to composite video. PAL N64s need a special cable to boost the S-Video signal from the console, NTSC N64s can use standard Nintendo or 3rd Party cables.
Today, if you want to bypass the Framemeister option, you can have an UltraHDMI board installed in your system. It works with NTSC and PAL framerates (up to 1080p for both) and not unlike the HiDefNES it comes with filters. The Ultra HDMI filters can simulate a CRT TV. Without the filters the lag is truly negligible, with them there is about a frame of lag. It supports all standard digital SD and HD resolutions, as shown here : http://ultrahdmi.retroactive.be/
The mod is very involved because you have to solder a flexible mylar-like ribbon cable to the finely spaced pins of the surface mounted graphics chip, the Reality Co-Processor (RCP). The RCP sends out 7-bit digital RGB values along with sync information. This allows for direct digital to digital conversion to the 8-bit RGB values HDMI supports without quality loss. The kit uses a mini-HDMI cable and only needs a small hole cut into the back of the N64. Because the mod is very tricky and not for the beginner, the board and kit is being sold only experienced mod kit installers. If you want your N64 modded with the Ultra HDMI, you need to send it to someone. This site is authorized to perform the mod : http://www.badassconsoles.com/ultrahdmi/
Game Boy - hdmyboy
In one sense, it is not too difficult to obtain a good quality HDMI image from a Gameboy. You use a Super Gameboy or a Super Gameboy 2 (for accurate speed) on a SNES that supports RGB and send the video and audio through a Framemeister. Alternatively, you can use a Game Boy Player and a Gamecube with the component video cables through the Framemeister, but that requires running custom software to make the Game Boy Player output at a true 240p speed.
Some time ago, there was a Kickstarter for a product called the hdmyboy. The campaign is archived here : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/507669971/hdmyboy-a-full-hd-power-up-for-your-game-boy-class
This is a fully assembled kit that you insert between the two halves of a DMG-01 Game Boy. It adds half an inch or so to the height of the console when laid flat. It has an HDMI cable port and can support 720p or (preferred) 1080p.
Unlike the NES and N64 mods, this mod is easy to install. It requires no soldering. All you have to do is unscrew the shell, remove the ribbon cable that attaches the LCD PCB to the CPU PCB and insert that ribbon cable into the hdmyboy. The hdmyboy comes with a NES controller attached internally so you can control your Game Boy. It essentially becomes a consolized Game Boy at this point.
The Game Boy's LCD can only support four shades of one color, its video signal is fundamentally 2-bit digital monochrome signal with sync information. This information, along with mono audio, is available through the ribbon cable. The hdmyboy converts the digital video and the analog audio and sends it through the HDMI cable to the TV. The hdmyboy only supports mono audio because only a mono audio signal is necessary for the single speaker connected to the LCD PCB.
Unfortunately the Kickstarter campaign was not successful. However, the hdmyboy team still has some prototypes left here : http://www.hdmyboy.com/play/. They are very expensive however, (a bit too expensive for what it does) but should represent the best solution to obtain true Game Boy output without using an emulator. If they try another Kickstarter campaign again, then hopefully more people would be willing to contribute and get the price of this fine idea down.
Given a 1080p display, the hdmyboy can by default do 7x nearest neighbor scaling to give razor sharp graphics at the Game Boy's original aspect ratio. It can also do 12:7 scaling to give razor sharp widescreen graphics and occupy almost the whole screen if you prefer. Like the Super Game Boy it has 32 color palettes available to colorize the graphics. While the Game Boy's sprite and background tiles have 10 valid palette selections to choose from, the Super Game Boy (unless the game is enhanced) and hdmyboy only apply colors based on the actual color value of the outputted pixel.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
PC 16 Color Showcase - The Secret of Monkey Island
Released on or about September 18, 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island was LucasArts' last 16-color PC Adventure game. Like its previous SCUMM engine games for the PC, it runs on CGA, Tandy, EGA, MCGA, VGA and Hercules graphics. It comes on eight 360KB disks or four 720KB disks and you can play it without a hard drive if you want to torture yourself. Like LOOM, SoMI will support two floppy drives and the room assignments for each disk usually make sense.
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| The Dock - 16 Color Version |
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| Scumm Bar - Hercules |
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| Scumm Bar - CGA (16 Color Version) |
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| Scumm Bar - 16 Color Version |
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| The Dock - 256 Color Version |
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| Mancomb Seepgood |
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| Estevan, a.k.a. One-Eyed Frank |
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| Captain Smirk, the Sword Trainer |
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| Demo Title Screen |
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| Demo Troll |
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| Software Toolworks PC CD-ROM Version Menu |
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| PC CD-ROM Version |
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| Carla, the Sword Master |
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| Governor Elaine Marley |
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| Guybrush Threepwood Closeup |
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| The Voodoo Head |
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| Copy Protection 16 Color Version |
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| Copy Protection 256 Color Version |
So, why play the 16-color version when you can enjoy 256 colors and CD Audio without copy protection or speed limitations? Well, the Roland MT-32 soundtrack is available here and sounds very good, so you are not losing much in the audio department. The graphics should detract nothing from the game's humor or well-constructed plot. However, you should really play it in this format to appreciate the gorgeous 16-color artwork made for the game. 16-color artwork is hard to do well, but LucasArts had some of the best graphics artists in the business working for them. I have peppered this post with their work, so let me leave you with some of their breathtaking panoramic backgrounds. (LucasArts was doing these since Maniac Mansion, but Sierra did not embrace them until King's Quest VII!)
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