Ye Olde Arpeegees

2016-10-07 11:28:07 pm

Hello all.

I've started running older RPGs, the games I grew up on - specifically, right now, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, on the PC. Doing a quick search over the archives, I'm not seeing a lot of love for CRPGs in general (and understandably so, as everyone has a different machine) but I did see some for the console ports of some of the older games.

So I'm curious. If I were to drop names like Ultima, The Bard's Tale, Wizardry, Legacy of the Ancients, Wasteland... would these be of interest to anyone here? Does anyone want to join me in reliving the distant days of the '80s and powering through some formerly multi-session, multi-day games in a couple hours?

It's really not like getting no interest is going to stop me, of course, but it would be nice to know if I'm not alone, and if I'm not, it would be fun to compare notes.

Thread title:

gammadragon

Edit history:

gammadragon: 2016-10-08 12:12:42 am

2016-10-08 12:09:21 am

Might be magic...

Ultima IV: Quest for the Avatar - Game page / Forum thread

And...

Ultima I - Game page / Forum thread
Ultima III: Exodus - Game page / Forum thread
Ultima Underworld - Game page / Forum thread
Ultima Underworld II - Game page / Forum thread
Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen - Game page / Forum thread
Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven: Game page / Forum thread
Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor - Game page / Forum thread
Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer - Game page / Forum thread
Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero - Game page / Forum thread
Quest for Glory 2: Trial By Fire - Game page / Forum thread
Quest for Glory 3: Wages of War - Game page / Forum thread
Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness - Game page / Forum thread
Quest for Glory 5: Dragon Fire - Game page / Forum thread
Ravenloft: Stone Prophet - Game page / Forum thread
Eye of the Beholder - Game page / Forum thread
Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon - Game page / Forum thread
Final Fantasy III - Game page / Forum thread
Many other Final Fantasy games...

Plus many more games - check the game page:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/gamelist/FullList.html

And you're very welcome to add to the collection!

Ultima IV: Quest for the Avatar - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/Ultima4NES.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/ultima_quest_of_the_avatar__december_9th_2012.html"]Forum thread[/url]

And...

Ultima I - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/Ultima.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/ultima_i_the_first_age_of_darkness.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Ultima III: Exodus - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/Ultima3NES.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/ultima_exodus_nes2.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Ultima Underworld - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/UltimaUnderworld1.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/ultima_underworld_1.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Ultima Underworld II - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/UltimaUnderworld2.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/ultima_underworld_ii_labyrinth_of_worlds.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/MightAndMagic4.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/might_and_magic_iv_clouds_of_xeen.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven: [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/MightAndMagic6.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/might_and_magic_vi_renewed_strategy_on_page_7.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/MightAndMagic7.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/might_and_magic_7_speedrun.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/MightAndMagic8.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/might_and_magic_8_day_of_the_destroyer.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/QuestForGlory.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/quest_for_glory_series__single_segment_all_five_games_combined.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Quest for Glory 2: Trial By Fire - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/QuestForGlory2.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/quest_for_glory_series__single_segment_all_five_games_combined.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Quest for Glory 3: Wages of War - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/QuestForGlory3.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/quest_for_glory_series__single_segment_all_five_games_combined.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/QuestForGlory4.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/quest_for_glory_series__single_segment_all_five_games_combined.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Quest for Glory 5: Dragon Fire - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/QuestForGlory5.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/quest_for_glory_series__single_segment_all_five_games_combined.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Ravenloft: Stone Prophet - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/RavenloftStoneProphet.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/ravenloft_stone_prophet.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Eye of the Beholder - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/EyeOfTheBeholder.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/eye_of_the_beholder_i.html"]Forum thread[/url] 
Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/EyeOfTheBeholder2.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/eye_of_the_beholder_ii_the_legend_of_darkmoon.html"]Forum thread[/url]
Final Fantasy III - [url="http://speeddemosarchive.com/FinalFantasy3j.html"]Game page[/url] / [url="https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/final_fantasy_iii_ds_76.html"]Forum thread[/url] 
Many other Final Fantasy games...

Plus many more games - check the game page:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/gamelist/FullList.html

And you're very welcome to add to the collection!

KrimshTMCI

2016-10-08 01:08:23 am

Thanks for the notes!

Some of those are neat to see - I had all but forgotten Eye of the Beholder. I may try and record an Ultima IV run (PC version; the NES port is, I'd argue, a completely different game) this coming week and see if some interest can be generated, or if I coax some of the fans out of the woodwork.

That being said, I'm still thinking older (or in the case of Final Fantasy, more ... well, "western"). Neat to see Might and Magic up there, but the first three games are missing, seemingly; nothing of the Bard's Tale or Wizardry series... Again, the variability of machines makes this rather understandable - not to mention the rather grindy and somewhat wildly random nature of the games, and the maddeningly dangerous starts that most of them have. Most of them have a merciless quality not really seen in a modern (generally more story-driven) era.

I guess I'm outing myself as an old nuisance already. Kids today, get off my lawn, and all that. Not that I have a lawn.

Thanks for the notes!

Some of those are neat to see - I had all but forgotten Eye of the Beholder. I may try and record an Ultima IV run (PC version; the NES port is, I'd argue, a completely different game) this coming week and see if some interest can be generated, or if I coax some of the fans out of the woodwork.

That being said, I'm still thinking [i]older[/i] (or in the case of Final Fantasy, more ... well, "western"). Neat to see [i]Might and Magic[/i] up there, but the first three games are missing, seemingly; nothing of the Bard's Tale or Wizardry series... Again, the variability of machines makes this rather understandable - not to mention the rather grindy and somewhat wildly random nature of the games, and the maddeningly dangerous starts that most of them have. Most of them have a merciless quality not really seen in a modern (generally more story-driven) era.

I guess I'm outing myself as an old nuisance already. Kids today, get off my lawn, and all that. Not that I have a lawn.

gammadragon

2016-10-08 04:46:06 am

Might be magic...

I was tempted to do a M&M2 run - pretty familiar with it but I was having trouble nailing down a good route. I think I did get something together but wasn't entirely happy with it. I might get back to it in the future sometime.

I played the Ultimas from VI+ so not really familiar with IV, but there are definitely a few people out there who love those older games. Also, as you said, we definitely need some contributions for the older games so there would be some happy faces if you decided to attack those.

LotBlind

2016-10-08 05:51:58 am

One of the simple reasons there's not so many DOS era runs is DosBox was only accepted as an official way to run and record them maybe 2-3 years back, whereas consoles have always been okay. So you can now indeed run lotsa games you couldn't before, even when they're not official GOG/Steam re-releases. Make sure you use the GOG settings though wherever you pick your games up from, so we have a level playing ground for competition.

The very best of luck!

KrimshTMCI

2016-10-08 11:43:39 am

Honestly, I'd love to play some of them as God and nature intended - on the Commodore 64 - but my disks have degraded (and I no longer have a C64). The loading times are brutal, though, and you'd probably get tired of me swapping diskettes. So I'll compromise for everyone's sanity (including my own) and run from DosBox.

Also, I obviously hadn't caught up, since so many older threads talked about DosBox not being viable for competition. Good to know!

gammadragon, I'm not all that familiar with the Might and Magic series (outside the Heroes of... offerings); I've played the first about halfway through and was really enjoying it, but either my life didn't let me finish them or I got distracted by something else. Still have my maps, somewhere.

At any rate, if older game runs will make other people happy, that's just more reason for me to do them. So maybe I can get a something up online this next week before I disappear on vacation.c

presjpolk

2016-10-09 05:46:36 am

HELLO!

What's held me back from doing DOS Ultima is that GOG releases make it really hard to 'reset' the game while recording.

KrimshTMCI

2016-10-09 12:24:06 pm

Yep. Got to close and reopen them, but that was the case for a lot of older games to begin with. The Ultima games didn't even have a way to exit to DOS, you generally had to reboot the system; it's actually easier to deal with it when you can just shut down DOSbox.

I remember having to pull the diskette from the drive and turn off the C64 to reset when things went horribly wrong. On more than one occasion.

GinTatsu

2016-10-10 12:55:37 pm

Rad... They have taken me...

I've got plans for Eye of the Beholder in the future. Also Wizardry 8 steam version of I can figure out how to capture it.

KrimshTMCI

2016-10-16 12:43:45 am

Alas, I'm going on vacation tomorrow. I'll run in November, instead, possibly with the help of my lovely wife on navigation. But glad to start a discussion, anyway!

KrimshTMCI

2017-01-06 12:48:30 pm

Well, November came and went. And I got ridiculously work-busy. And December... well, I'm a church organist by profession. Non-starter, there. But now, 2017 is here, and I have a plan.

So.

If people are interested in discussing such things with me, I'm going to be doing some route testing for a bit, then actually getting down to some serious speedrunning of Ultima IV in a couple weeks. I've got my planned Order Of Things, and going to do the speeding of things by the end of the month. I'd love to hear from people with opinions and concepts and ideas.

LotBlind

2017-01-07 07:30:40 am

If you're starting the planning of a single game now, could you look for/start a thread for it under that section of the forums please? That way anyone interested in it will easier find it.

Feel free to also start a strategy guide for each game, or game series if they share the same engine. The top of the page has a link for some basic instructions. Aside from that I recommend to just copy-paste an existing main/categories page to save yourself effort. This way all your notes are accessible to any future runners. Ask me if you want any help but the wiki's actually pretty easy to edit.

Good luck! The DOS versions of this series really are a huge omission. BTW: you might not have have noticed this run in case there's anything of interest in it.

KrimshTMCI

2017-01-07 02:59:15 pm

Thanks, LotBlind. Before I do any of the above, though, since there are runs for the NES version of Ultima: Quest of the Avatar, should I try to combine my works with that? I'd definitely argue that the various PC versions are completely different games from the NES version - the game plays entirely differently, you have different tools and resources and different ways to go about everything. I'd go so far as to say that they're equivalent in name only, but others may disagree.

LotBlind

2017-01-08 05:37:23 am

I think if the runs will end up on different game pages, they probably are better with their own guides too, and the differences here are big enough to make it so. So when you create the guides, I think you should add (PC) after the name to pre-emptively let people know which version it is.