At one point there was a kickstarter for a new game from the woman responsible for the Wizardry Series/ Wiz 8 which I backed, but it was taken down:

Brathwaite got her start on the classic Wizardry® series of role-playing games, having worked on every award-winning game in the series, before moving on to work on Dungeons & Dragons®, while Tom Hall's visionary design on Commander Keen™, Anachronox™ and DOOM™ set the standard for character development, world design and over-the-top immersion. We want to get back to our roots and create an old-school game worthy of 30 years of RPG fan devotion.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lootdrop … hal/description

I was really excited for that and disappointed when the kickstarter died. I don't know if anything has become of those plans since then.

Also another game that I don't know if you all are aware of but in 2017 a modern game very similar to Wizardry 6 & 7 was released called 'Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar'. I stumbled across this game in my Steam account saw that I had played it for almost 5 hours and have no idea why I stopped playing it or why it got uninstalled. I remember being pretty excited about this game as well.

I just thought I'd share these games with a similarly interested group.

Shaker: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lootdrop … hal/description
Grimoire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/650670/Gri … ed_Exemplar_V2/

@Shagittarius - nice. Brathwaite also happens to be married to John Romero. There's a nice series of interviews with her on Matt Chat:
https://www.youtube.com/user/blacklily8/searc … y=brenda+romero

GOG also has Grimoire:
https://www.gog.com/game/grimoire_heralds_of_ … winged_exemplar

Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't aware of Grimoire.

Starflight

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-05-10, 17:26:

Also another game that I don't know if you all are aware of but in 2017 a modern game very similar to Wizardry 6 & 7 was released called 'Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar'. I stumbled across this game in my Steam account saw that I had played it for almost 5 hours and have no idea why I stopped playing it or why it got uninstalled. I remember being pretty excited about this game as well.

Grimoire is simply awesome, it's a love letter to Wizardry VII down to even the writing style.

With the Wizardry series we are really fortunate if you think about it:

Wizardry I-VII: Simply amazing from start to finish
From here, you now have three different "Wizardry 8" games, all of which are excellent and worth playing:
Wizardry 8: One of the best RPGs of all time
Wizards & Warriors: Awesome attempt by D.W. Bradley to follow up on Wizardry VII, just without the Wizardry name
Grimoire: Awesome attempt at a sort of "Wizardry VIII" that is closer to the Wizardry VII style.

One day I want to play through all the Wizardrys and all the Zorks in proper sequence. These games go from the early 80s to late 90s and are some of the original games in their genres, but aren't very well knows today.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-11, 02:48:

One day I want to play through all the Wizardrys and all the Zorks in proper sequence. These games go from the early 80s to late 90s and are some of the original games in their genres, but aren't very well knows today.

I definitely recommend playing through all the Wizardry games. Of the early games that all share a similar engine, I especially recommend Wizardry 1 and Wizardry 5.

If you want to play them without mapping everything by hand, this application works very well:
https://www.eskimo.com/~edv/lockscroll/WhereAreWe/

It adds an automap to Wizardry 1-5, M&M 1-5, and even the Bard's Tale games, which automatically fills in as you explore.

Insanely cool 2001 sci-fi racer called "Ballistics". Somehow I missed this gem back in 2001/2002. Incredible sense of speed in this game. Try the demo.

Earlier in the week I tackled a game called Hacx from 1997, one of the last commercial games to be built using the Doom engine. It was unpolished and played nowhere near as well as its progenitor, so I shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

Until today, when I discovered that a 1.2 standalone version had been released in 2010. Plug that into gzdoom and lo and behold, it's a much better state of affairs! It plays like a decent early TC because that's precisely what it is now!

I've been going through Manifold Garden lately; I picked it up because I love first person games with brain-warping environments, and this one DOES NOT DISAPPOINT. The rendering style is simplistic but leads to some gorgeous visuals, the area design is outstanding, the puzzles are really satisfying to solve but not overly obtuse (once you wrap your brain around the geometry you're supposed to do it in), and even just moving through the places it brings you & looking around is unbelievably good stuff. I've been stunned speechless more than a few times on entering a new area. This game could've fallen flat on its face if it were put together haphazardly or not balanced well, but everything is so carefully thought through it really works.

^^ there is only one tower in this area. I'm standing in it.

(Sorry for the low quality screenshots - they're video stills. For some reason I can't get the in-game photo mode to work.)

It's not related to Antichamber, which is an all-time favorite of mine (the developer, engine, and world design are all very different) but it's a good spiritual successor IMHO. It even has really modest system requirements & runs great on my i7 3770+GTX750 2GB. It doesn't seem overly long - I'm only ~5h into it and I'm probably gonna try to finish it on my stream tomorrow - but that's a good thing in my book. Highly, highly recommended.

liqmat wrote on 2020-05-11, 20:38:

Insanely cool 2001 sci-fi racer called "Ballistics". Somehow I missed this gem back in 2001/2002. Incredible sense of speed in this game. Try the demo.

Ballistics2.jpg

Lawnie wrote on 2020-05-11, 22:34:

Earlier in the week I tackled a game called Hacx from 1997, one of the last commercial games to be built using the Doom engine. It was unpolished and played nowhere near as well as its progenitor, so I shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

Until today, when I discovered that a 1.2 standalone version had been released in 2010. Plug that into gzdoom and lo and behold, it's a much better state of affairs! It plays like a decent early TC because that's precisely what it is now!

I'm gonna have to try both of these out, thanks for posting them. Looks like cool stuff.

Started playing Ultima Underworld, it seems a bit challenging for somebody who is accustomed to "more traditional" RPGs 😀 For what it's worth, even Ultima VI feels less clunky in comparison.

One problem I have is that keyboard controls get "stuck" sometimes (e.g. I press W and my characters keeps running forward until I mash W again). I play the game at roughly 486DX50 speeds so this probably isn't related to CPU speed.

ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-05-14, 12:03:

Started playing Ultima Underworld, it seems a bit challenging for somebody who is accustomed to "more traditional" RPGs 😀 For what it's worth, even Ultima VI feels less clunky in comparison.

One problem I have is that keyboard controls get "stuck" sometimes (e.g. I press W and my characters keeps running forward until I mash W again). I play the game at roughly 486DX50 speeds so this probably isn't related to CPU speed.

I've never had that problem with movement and I played it on a DX4/100 and a P90. You say you are playing it at DX50 speeds does this mean you are using DosBox or something else?

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (PC)

Having completed Ultima IV recently, I have decided to play the only Ultima (except VIII, IX and the World of Ultima games) with which I have zero experience.

I was immediately impressed with the writing, both in the manual and in the introduction. I was also happy to see the upgrade to the graphics over Ultima IV; still EGA, but way more detailed and colorful... as I was exploring the coast around Paws and Trinsic at night, I was wondering why a few squares of the ocean on the edge of the screen kept blinking on and off, until I realized, "that must be one of the lighthouses they mention in the manual!" I was nearly awestruck, no joke.

Combat is about a million times better than that in Ultima IV, and I was overjoyed to see that killing monsters gets you honest to God loot! Now combat doesn't feel like all you are doing is draining your resources, which is how I often felt playing Ultima IV.

The concept of the game is simply genius. The way the manual handles it is just superb, with the manual reading like a typical Ultima manual with no hint at what has gone wrong in Britannia, until the very last page where you get the sucker punch of Blackthorne's Code of Virtue "inserted" by the "editor." Reading the corresponding law at the gates of a town never fails to give me a little chill.

I'm only a few hours into this one, but I am really getting into it. Great stuff!

The unofficial music patch is a must for this one, as Ultima V has a fantastic soundtrack. The patch adds the Apple II soundtrack to the game, and also even adds the exclusive Amiga track which plays during character creation.

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-05-14, 14:28:

I've never had that problem with movement and I played it on a DX4/100 and a P90. You say you are playing it at DX50 speeds does this mean you are using DosBox or something else?

No, I'm running it on my retro machine which is equipped with a VIA C3 Ezra CPU. It scales nicely and smoothly from fast 286 up to Pentium II speeds. The game itself is from GOG, I simply opened the game.gog file (which is just a renamed iso) and copied the UW folder to my DOS PC.

I slow it down roughly to DX50 speeds to play Ultima Underworld and Ultima VII (I think DX33 is a touch too slow and "bogs down" in busy areas in U7).

ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-05-14, 16:43:

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-05-14, 14:28:

I've never had that problem with movement and I played it on a DX4/100 and a P90. You say you are playing it at DX50 speeds does this mean you are using DosBox or something else?

No, I'm running it on my retro machine which is equipped with a VIA C3 Ezra CPU. It scales nicely and smoothly from fast 286 up to Pentium II speeds. The game itself is from GOG, I simply opened the game.gog file (which is just a renamed iso) and copied the UW folder to my DOS PC.

I slow it down roughly to DX50 speeds to play Ultima Underworld and Ultima VII (I think DX33 is a touch too slow and "bogs down" in busy areas in U7).

If you have a faster speed setting on your C3, it might help. I played it on a DX2/66 and it was about perfect. It will still play well at slow Pentium speeds, but IIRC, keyboard movement gets a little too speedy once you get over 90-100Mhz. If you use mouse movement, you have finer control of walk speed and it helps a lot when playing on a faster system, but I too preferred keyboard.

newtmonkey wrote on 2020-05-14, 16:16:

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (PC) […]
Show full quote

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (PC)

Having completed Ultima IV recently, I have decided to play the only Ultima (except VIII, IX and the World of Ultima games) with which I have zero experience.

I was immediately impressed with the writing, both in the manual and in the introduction. I was also happy to see the upgrade to the graphics over Ultima IV; still EGA, but way more detailed and colorful... as I was exploring the coast around Paws and Trinsic at night, I was wondering why a few squares of the ocean on the edge of the screen kept blinking on and off, until I realized, "that must be one of the lighthouses they mention in the manual!" I was nearly awestruck, no joke.

Combat is about a million times better than that in Ultima IV, and I was overjoyed to see that killing monsters gets you honest to God loot! Now combat doesn't feel like all you are doing is draining your resources, which is how I often felt playing Ultima IV.

The concept of the game is simply genius. The way the manual handles it is just superb, with the manual reading like a typical Ultima manual with no hint at what has gone wrong in Britannia, until the very last page where you get the sucker punch of Blackthorne's Code of Virtue "inserted" by the "editor." Reading the corresponding law at the gates of a town never fails to give me a little chill.

I'm only a few hours into this one, but I am really getting into it. Great stuff!

The unofficial music patch is a must for this one, as Ultima V has a fantastic soundtrack. The patch adds the Apple II soundtrack to the game, and also even adds the exclusive Amiga track which plays during character creation.

Ultima V is probably my favorite Ultima of them all, moreso even than Ultima VII. To be honest, I would probably play Ultima V on my Amiga, as it was where I first experienced it and I remember graphics and sound to be a lot better too.

Unfortunately, I never quite finished any Ultima game, but I do plan to binge V-VIII and Underworld 1/2 at some point..

appiah4 wrote on 2020-05-15, 05:14:

Ultima V is probably my favorite Ultima of them all, moreso even than Ultima VII. To be honest, I would probably play Ultima V on my Amiga, as it was where I first experienced it and I remember graphics and sound to be a lot better too.

Unfortunately, I never quite finished any Ultima game, but I do plan to binge V-VIII and Underworld 1/2 at some point..

Having finished Ultimas I, III, IV, and VII, I'd have to agree so far. Ultima V, so far, is such an improvement over Ultima IV in mechanics and world (and, imo, even the story) that it's hard to even compare the two even though they are obviously very similar in nature. Ultima VII is a great story with a fantastic world to explore, but the combat is definitely a step down from UV/VI.

The music patch really helps bring the PC version up to the Amiga standard imo, but I can definitely understand if you want to play the Amiga version out of nostalgia (I currently have a game of Demon's Winter on hold on my actual C64, even though playing the PC version would be way more convenient!). 😀

Bruninho wrote on 2020-05-03, 00:51:

About that... anyone know where is the exact forum section for questions related to Wine/Wineskin Winery? I have a few doubts about rFactor 2 on WINE and DX11. If I can't play with DX11 or can't play online, I'd rather revert to an old build with DX9 and play offline.

Going forward... probably PC Emulation. That's where our WineD3D threads ended up at any rate.

Taking a short break from Ultima V, which I am truly savoring! Instead, tonight I played:

Pool of Radiance (PC)
This is one I had for my C64 back when I was a kid. I didn't get far into it myself, but a friend of mine became obsessed with it and he spent several months of weekends at my house finishing it (along with Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception). Good times!

This time around I'm playing the PC version for ease of use, and also because I probably want to eventually bring the same party all the way to Pools of Darkness. With that in mind, I am running a humans-only party, with the exception of a Dwarf Fighter/Thief. It's a suboptimal party for sure (I rolled their attributes honestly, and just took the first decent set of rolls I got for each) and I don't intend to drop anyone to pick up a Ranger or Paladin in Curse of the Azure Bonds.

Really great game! I'm a few hours in, party level 3-4 with the Slums (exception: the troll encounter) and Kuto's Well cleared and a nice stock of low level magic equipment. I'm not a fan of the interface, and it feels especially clunky compared with Might & Magic: Book One (released two years prior to PoR!). It's really annoying to have to use HOME/END to cycle through characters rather than just pressing the corresponding number, like in M&M.

One great thing about this game is that it is quite nonlinear. Once you've cleared the Slums you have several areas you can go, and all of them are (mostly) doable at even a low level.

This game. It is hi-res, texture-mapped 3D, but it's unaccelerated. Naturally it needs a pretty fast DOS machine. I remember it ran choppy on my P100 with all graphical options set to max.

newtmonkey wrote on 2020-05-15, 15:24:

Taking a short break from Ultima V, which I am truly savoring! Instead, tonight I played: […]
Show full quote

Taking a short break from Ultima V, which I am truly savoring! Instead, tonight I played:

Pool of Radiance (PC)
This is one I had for my C64 back when I was a kid. I didn't get far into it myself, but a friend of mine became obsessed with it and he spent several months of weekends at my house finishing it (along with Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception). Good times!

This time around I'm playing the PC version for ease of use, and also because I probably want to eventually bring the same party all the way to Pools of Darkness. With that in mind, I am running a humans-only party, with the exception of a Dwarf Fighter/Thief. It's a suboptimal party for sure (I rolled their attributes honestly, and just took the first decent set of rolls I got for each) and I don't intend to drop anyone to pick up a Ranger or Paladin in Curse of the Azure Bonds.

Really great game! I'm a few hours in, party level 3-4 with the Slums (exception: the troll encounter) and Kuto's Well cleared and a nice stock of low level magic equipment. I'm not a fan of the interface, and it feels especially clunky compared with Might & Magic: Book One (released two years prior to PoR!). It's really annoying to have to use HOME/END to cycle through characters rather than just pressing the corresponding number, like in M&M.

One great thing about this game is that it is quite nonlinear. Once you've cleared the Slums you have several areas you can go, and all of them are (mostly) doable at even a low level.

I love gold box SSI games and finished/played every single one of them but nothing in the world can make me go back to replay Pool of Radiance; the GUI is attrocious and it lacks a lot of ease of life improvements in later entries. If I were to restart today I would dive in with Curse of the Azure Bonds for sure.

It's a shame that the whole series was never ported to the latest version of the engine used in Treasures of the Savage Frontier.

Is there anything to play these games in a better engine these days, maybe like EXULT?