**New Release** REALMS OF QUEST 3 (available for order!)

Discussion, Reviews & High-scores

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GreyGhost
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Post by GreyGhost »

Got my copy in the mail over the weekend. WOW!! I really like this one. I have been playing for a few hours on and off and have gotten all of my characters to level 6-8 despite the encounters with those damn energy draining monsters(with a whole lot of saving to disk and restarting hehe). My best finds so far is a crossbow +6 and boots of elven kind. Is this Program written where making additional maps would be easy? I level editor like Adventure Construction Set or something to that nature would be a welcome addition. Anyways thanks for the great product.

Later,
Rob
Rob
OBSysteme
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Post by OBSysteme »

We've seen on this thread at least one person saying that this game motivated him to buy a genuine vic-20 to play it.

I am under-equiped as well: this game looks so awesome, it might make me:
-create a paypal account
-order my first product (the game) via internet (never bothered before)
-buy mega-cart or some other contraption (I have no ram expanssion at the moment... )

yes, that's how awsome that game seems to be.
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Ghislain
Realms of Quest
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Post by Ghislain »

GreyGhost wrote:Got my copy in the mail over the weekend. WOW!! I really like this one. I have been playing for a few hours on and off and have gotten all of my characters to level 6-8 despite the encounters with those damn energy draining monsters(with a whole lot of saving to disk and restarting hehe). My best finds so far is a crossbow +6 and boots of elven kind. Is this Program written where making additional maps would be easy? I level editor like Adventure Construction Set or something to that nature would be a welcome addition. Anyways thanks for the great product.

Later,
Rob
Thanks! I'm glad that you're having fun with it. That seems to be the biggest complaint -- ENERGY DRAIN :) (which I call a feature, ha ha). But if you look at the D&D Monster Manual (from the 1970s), monsters there can do all sorts of evil and nefarious crap like age you, drain your levels, even a rat can instantly kill you with it's bite if you fail to save vs it's poison attack. My best advice to avoid the energy drain is to have characters with high dexterity and good armor--if they can't get hit, they can't get drained.

As for an "Adventure construction set"-like games development environment, I suppose I could create an editor of sorts for the VIC-20 environment and then it would be loaded into memory. The map would require 8 dunjons and a final dunjon whose locations would have to be changed in the main program.

I've thought about just releasing the source code to the public so that somebody else might make their own RPG game for the VIC-20. I used "makeshift" tools to put in graphics, music, items and such into the source code. For all of these (except the graphics), I used a spreadsheet (even the map) which then used formulas to "8-bit digitize" the data. For graphics, I used the C64's Ultrafont and then outputted the graphics RAM memory into 8-bit decimal numbers with commas after which I copied and pasted this data from the emulator screen to the source code assembly. My own monster graphics were done the same (in Ultrafont). As for saehn's graphics, he did them in Photoshop within 8 bit parameters and then converted them to Koalapad format. I then extracted the raw data to the emulator screen after which I again "copied and pasted" the 8-bit decimal data (separated by commas) to the source code.

So if somebody wants to use my source code to make their own VIC-20 RPG game, they would have to take the above into consideration. I made this game for the VIC-20 because something like it has never been done before.

On second thought, it would probably be better that for the would-be VIC-20 RPG programmer to start their game from scratch as to not be restricted with the parameters of my source code. Certain routines can be used (no point in re-inventing the wheel, so to speak) of course.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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Ghislain
Realms of Quest
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Post by Ghislain »

OBSysteme wrote:We've seen on this thread at least one person saying that this game motivated him to buy a genuine vic-20 to play it.

I am under-equiped as well: this game looks so awesome, it might make me:
-create a paypal account
-order my first product (the game) via internet (never bothered before)
-buy mega-cart or some other contraption (I have no ram expanssion at the moment... )

yes, that's how awsome that game seems to be.
Thanks for the kind words. It's a bit humbling to hear positive enthusiasm regarding this game.

There is a freeware version at Psytronik's site (www.psytronik.net) that can be easily set up on an emulator (and you can try it yourself, if you haven't already). But I think it looks much better on real hardware :)
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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GreyGhost
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Post by GreyGhost »

Some tips for the would be adventurer:

Put your spell casters in top positions in your list of characters. I start out with my priest so he can cast Spiritual Shield to raise armor for the party. Also the priest can cure or heal any party member that may have gotten hit hard or poisoned from the last round. I then use my magic-user next so he can cast Time Delay for an extra attack by each party member(I did notice that having Boots of Elven kind and using Time Delay didn't offer a 3rd attack). The magic-user can cure stone or paralysis. Also have at least two members wielding ranged weapons so they may start taking out the second row of monsters. Don't forget to stock up on any arrows or bullets like I did once. You can't change weapons unless you are at the Main town. Next round, the priest casts Prayer to raise savings throws and the magic user starts with his or her Fireball spell. This spell and some others does a great deal of damage to monsters in the first row. I noticed my magic user jumping in levels with this spell.

I know these techniques can't really be used until you priest is level 5 and your mage is level 9, but it seems to work out great.

Happy adventuring.

Later,
Rob
Rob
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

GreyGhost wrote:Some tips for the would be adventurer:

Put your spell casters in top positions in your list of characters. I start out with my priest so he can cast Spiritual Shield to raise armor for the party. Also the priest can cure or heal any party member that may have gotten hit hard or poisoned from the last round. I then use my magic-user next so he can cast Time Delay for an extra attack by each party member(I did notice that having Boots of Elven kind and using Time Delay didn't offer a 3rd attack). The magic-user can cure stone or paralysis. Also have at least two members wielding ranged weapons so they may start taking out the second row of monsters. Don't forget to stock up on any arrows or bullets like I did once. You can't change weapons unless you are at the Main town. Next round, the priest casts Prayer to raise savings throws and the magic user starts with his or her Fireball spell. This spell and some others does a great deal of damage to monsters in the first row. I noticed my magic user jumping in levels with this spell.

I know these techniques can't really be used until you priest is level 5 and your mage is level 9, but it seems to work out great.

Happy adventuring.

Later,
Rob
An interesting tactic for certain, one which I hadn't considered before. The drawback of course is that the spellcasters in the front get attacked more often, but they are able to cure and revive stunned/stoned/dead characters just before their turn comes up to perform an action.

In regards to "You can't change weapons unless you are at the Main town."....

Actually, you can. If you're moving around, simply press the space bar and you will be in "menu mode" to perform actions for your party (inventory, save game, etc). After you've performed your actions, you can simply press the space bar to go back to "movement mode".
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
OBSysteme
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Post by OBSysteme »

Allo Ghislain:

oh no no no ! I will retain myself... I really want my first experience of the game to be on the real hardware.

Quite busy with all sorts of things.. but I will eventually get down to getting the RAM and the game on disk.
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GreyGhost
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Post by GreyGhost »

Oh, cool. Out of all the buttons on the keyboard, I neglected the space bar. Go figure. Thanks.

Btw, Real hardware or emulated, even though it may be nostalgic on the real deal, this is a cool game none the less.

Later,
Rob
Rob
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

I've been playing Realms III these past few months, trying to build the most powerful party in the history of RPG games, ever.

This is my most powerful character:

Image

Some tips to building powerful characters in your party:

-use the magic thrones in the dunjons early on to up your stats. Try to raise constitution scores early on so that the hit points advance at a higher level. The maximum level for stats is 30 (see screenshot)

-once your party is strong enough, transfer to Dunjon Crawler (the side quest) where the final boss's treasure is actually more generous than in the main game. But recommend that the main game is solved first before doing this.

-as stated in the manual, the quest is restarted and the mazes are randomly generated all over again so that it can be replayed.

I've been trying to find Boots of Elvenkind or the Crown of Might for quite some time, but the treasure reward generator hasn't given these with this party yet.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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darkatx
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Post by darkatx »

Finally gonna give it a whirl on the real thing sometime this month! Will try out those tips for sure thanks! :D
Learning all the time... :)
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