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Name That Game!
Tamin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Good evening, and welcome to Name That Game, Apple IIGS* Edition!
Up first: A top-down tile-based RPG with simplistic combat (walk into enemies), a rudimentary shop system (stand on shop tile, purchase equipment [and possibly items]), and that old standby, the boat.
As stated, most of the combat involved walking into enemies. The boat, however, could fire a projectile in any of the cardinal directions. Of the shareware 'module', the most common enemies were skeletons and spiders; others existed, though they do not spring to mind. Traps were a major obstacle, invisible blocks could block progress, and some doors may have required keys. Chests may have dropped from enemies in addition to being placed in the world.
The game did not feature scrolling of the active area. The tiles were very basic. I do not recall if enemies respawned upon leaving and re-entering an area, though I have faint memories of farming the first group of skeletons; this may simply be because I played it so much.
Each shop had a separate tile. More expensive weapons and armor were simply better.
There was a HUD of some sort, at the bottom of the screen; though what it showed is beyond me: gold, perhaps? Possibly a list of commands that were usable: pressing 'F' to fire the projectile (assuming that's the correct key) would first update this with a "choose a direction". Unless my memory is lying to me.
In the spoiler, we have a loose interpretation of the first two screens of the game. It's as correct as my memory allows:
The colors are randomly chosen in this example.
The black simply denotes a given area (board? section?); the yellow is a hut with a [in light-blue] door; the dimensions are a guess, but it contains skeletons. And possibly a staircase heading down. The blue is river, and the gray are mountains. The reddish-brown are shops. Armor and weapons, certainly, and most likely items.
It was definitely not Explorer/GS (though, if you were guessing that, kudos), as that game included classes, magic, and a host of other things, including much more complex tiles.
* I am nearly positive it was a IIGS game, but lack any evidence** to support that claim. It could easily be DOS; certainly no later.
** given the amount of evidence I have, I may have invented the thing out of whole cloth in a fever dream.
Up first: A top-down tile-based RPG with simplistic combat (walk into enemies), a rudimentary shop system (stand on shop tile, purchase equipment [and possibly items]), and that old standby, the boat.
As stated, most of the combat involved walking into enemies. The boat, however, could fire a projectile in any of the cardinal directions. Of the shareware 'module', the most common enemies were skeletons and spiders; others existed, though they do not spring to mind. Traps were a major obstacle, invisible blocks could block progress, and some doors may have required keys. Chests may have dropped from enemies in addition to being placed in the world.
The game did not feature scrolling of the active area. The tiles were very basic. I do not recall if enemies respawned upon leaving and re-entering an area, though I have faint memories of farming the first group of skeletons; this may simply be because I played it so much.
Each shop had a separate tile. More expensive weapons and armor were simply better.
There was a HUD of some sort, at the bottom of the screen; though what it showed is beyond me: gold, perhaps? Possibly a list of commands that were usable: pressing 'F' to fire the projectile (assuming that's the correct key) would first update this with a "choose a direction". Unless my memory is lying to me.
In the spoiler, we have a loose interpretation of the first two screens of the game. It's as correct as my memory allows:
The colors are randomly chosen in this example.
The black simply denotes a given area (board? section?); the yellow is a hut with a [in light-blue] door; the dimensions are a guess, but it contains skeletons. And possibly a staircase heading down. The blue is river, and the gray are mountains. The reddish-brown are shops. Armor and weapons, certainly, and most likely items.
It was definitely not Explorer/GS (though, if you were guessing that, kudos), as that game included classes, magic, and a host of other things, including much more complex tiles.
* I am nearly positive it was a IIGS game, but lack any evidence** to support that claim. It could easily be DOS; certainly no later.
** given the amount of evidence I have, I may have invented the thing out of whole cloth in a fever dream.
Tamin on
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"Oh you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
-Lewis Carol Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
I'm looking into Phantasie.
Typhoon of Steel looks too modern. This was very much swords / possibly sorcery.
Dundledorf's Castle?
Sunk cost fallacy, anyone?
Someone found this thread? I so rarely check my profile that I almost missed it.
Thanks for the link!
Sadly, that's not quite right. It's a damn sight closer than the others that I've found, though. The tiles seem to be about the right size and the avatar feels closer, at any rate. But the 2088 suggests "sci-fi", and this was very much fantasy.
I don't think the feedback system was that detailed (I certainly don't remember any menu bar), and the box at the bottom would have been horizontal. In addition, standing on a shop-tile would replace the information in this box with the shop menu - which keystroke buys what, cost of the item. Normally, this box may have detailed things like current equipment and keystroke information (to change equipment, attack, i.e., a menu of sorts).
Lastly, as of today (odd timing, eh?) I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't a graphical roguelike. I just can't remember if the game had permadeath or not.
Other bits I've been thinking about for the past two years:
- It may have been part of a diskmag. I know we received Softdisk (and possibly Big Blue Disk), though the disks have long since been lost or thrown out... against my will, mind.
- Either the shareware module or the actual game may have had "tomb" or "lair" or something conveying depth and / or creepiness.
- I'm only pretty sure, but I don't think it was released by a company. I think it was what we would call "indie" now.