*ALL PHYSICAL COPIES ARE SOLD OUT*: REALMS OF QUEST V (Digital version is available)

[ral-clan]

Okay, so I have a dwarf fighter in my party.
I bought him a broadsword at the market. The manual says fighters can use broadswords. However, the game does not allow me to equip this to him, even when I remove all his other weapons and armour to make room.

There is no checkmark beside the broadsword when I try to equip it to this fighter character.

[Ghislain]

I can assure you that if the player is a fighter, you should be able to equip them with a broadsword, provided that the Weapon slot is empty first. I am able to do it myself:

[Ghislain]

Back in April, I was running out of disk space on side three of this game. So I implemented file compression to make it fit there. And then, I decided to compress everything--the rationale being that smaller files would load faster. This left me with about 300 blocks of free disk space across four disk sides.

Now that Double Sided Games is going to ship a revised edition of the game in a few weeks, I'm working on adding a few slideshow sequences that provide more story and context for the game. These will be entitled:

-Days Of Old
-The Dark Times
-The Civil War
-Our Grand Empress
-Castle Rivaria

And I also include a death sequence when your entire party dies.

The following are a few excerpts from the sequence called "The Civil War":

Maybe I'm laying it on a bit too thick with the political subtext. Keep in mind that these slideshows are propaganda of the party line of the "government"--there's a lot of shades of gray, "heroes on both sides"/"pox on both of their houses" and things aren't all what they seem.

[orion70]

Yep I think there's a lot of political context here, but this (and "grey" heroes/behaviors) contributes to the deepness of this superb, surprisingly complex game. My fellow Denialers, don't miss the big box reprint

[tokra]

Hmm, not too happy about a second edition with more content. That kind of de-values the first edition. Hopefully every customer will at least get a digital download of the the second edition or maybe an option to "upgrade" the original box to the second edition for a small fee...

[Ghislain]

Hmm, not too happy about a second edition with more content. That kind of de-values the first edition. Hopefully every customer will at least get a digital download of the the second edition or maybe an option to "upgrade" the original box to the second edition for a small fee...

The box. the map and its contents will all stay the same. Changes to gameplay (which improve it) are documented in one small paragraph in the new manual. The major additions that I'm speaking of in regards to new content are really slideshow vignettes that take place outside of gameplay. They will be accessible from the main menu as follows:

For another sneak preview, here's the latest image that I worked on just last night for the "Our Grand Empress" segment:

And of course, it's a no-brainer that the updated game files and disk images be made available to those who bought it the first time around. If you don't hear anything from the publisher, contact me personally and I'll make them available.

I was starting to make these changes about a month after the game was released (I'm on my second playthrough of the entire game). When the second printing was announced, I offered to the publisher my updated version (which was still in-progress) for him to distribute. He was reluctant at first and then he thought about it, and he said OK.

Maybe in cases like this where a game gets produced and distributed in physical format, that it would be better to not mention publicly about any changes or dabbling that I might be doing. This is also why I insisted that the game be primarily an SD card-based game with floppy disks to satisfy the unspoken rule of "vintage computing convention" that it can run on original hardware from the 1980s. It certainly weighs on my mind that people would understandably might get upset or feel ripped off. But in fairness, it would bother me to know that the improvements and additions that I'm making are not being made available.

Why should the players of Realms Of Quest V be deprived of this image that they will be greeted with once their entire party gets killed off in the new edition of the game? (which can happen sometimes in my game, but hopefully not too often):

I hope the people will like these changes. If people want to keep playing the original, by all means, they should. That I continue to refine and add to my game shows how much that I enjoy working on it, in spite of it taking close to three years of my life now. That wasn't the case with Realms III and IV where I just hated working on those games in the final weeks leading up to their releases. I never felt the need to update or revise those games. But I never felt satisfied by the results. With Realms V, I feel that I've gotten closer to some level of satisfaction, but I'm always going to see something that I can change or improve when viewing my own work.

I'm reminded of the following aphorism:

"A work of art is never completed, only abandoned" - Da Vinci

[Ghislain]

Yep I think there's a lot of political context here, but this (and "grey" heroes/behaviors) contributes to the deepness of this superb, surprisingly complex game. My fellow Denialers, don't miss the big box reprint

Thank you for the endorsement! How far along are you in the game?

[orion70]

Just experimenting . This is the kind of game deserving more than a casual play now and then, so I'll stick to it better in the next prolonged holidays (Christmas?). But I already surprised friends with its incredible level. They couldn't believe their eyes!

[Ghislain]

Just experimenting . This is the kind of game deserving more than a casual play now and then, so I'll stick to it better in the next prolonged holidays (Christmas?). But I already surprised friends with its incredible level. They couldn't believe their eyes!

As you probably already know, I created a section in the manual called "Quest for the Tablet" that pretty much gives a broad outline on how to solve the game in the long term. In the short term, you can exit the castle and then fight random monsters to gain experience and gold.

I'm continuing to do some more graphics that expand the lore of the game. I'm hoping to have my expanded slideshows ready in time for when the second batch will be produced, which should be soon.

Some new graphics artwork of Queen Alania and King Titus who are featured on the box cover art:

You'll learn more about the enigmatic Grand Empress, Lady Carmilla Bane--where through the years, she governs as a ruthless autocrat waging endless wars while also implementing social reforms like equality.

[Ghislain]

The 8-Bit Guy has posted a video review of Realms Of Quest V on his Youtube channel:

[siccoyote]

The 8-Bit Guy has posted a video review of Realms Of Quest V on his Youtube channel:

I clapped when I saw that thing I know!

And no offence to 'Fire' but I did think that looked a bit simple for a commercial big box release.

[Ghislain]

I clapped when I saw that thing I know!

I think the video review will certainly help get the word out. This game is quite unique for the VIC-20.

I addressed 8-Bit Guy's criticisms of the game with the following post I made in the comments section:

A big thank you to the 8-bit Guy for reviewing my game "Realms of Quest V". I got quite a kick out of seeing him set up the dual disk drives in this video. To answer his criticisms:

1) True, there is no overhead tactical combat view. That was a deliberate design choice that follows the classic "blobber" RPG games such as Wizardry and Bard's Tale that also only featured the portraits of the monsters that you would encounter. A party size of 10 players facing 5 rows of monsters that could have up to 15 monsters in each row.

2) And regarding the complexity of the game that might be off-putting to players in the year 2019, it is very much like a 1980s computer RPG game that teenage boys would play back then. But I can understand how this game might alienate the casual fans in that regard. I pretty much programmed almost the entirety of the Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Set and 1st Edition AD&D) rulebook into this game. So I wanted to emulate the computer RPG experience for the actual VIC-20 computer--with disk swapping to boot.

I very much enjoyed watching your video and I liked your allusions to Ultima of which I am also a big fan.

I think my favorite recent image that I created for the Revised Edition was this one:

I'm a big fan of Gothic Horror movies, with the heavy atmosphere. And while my game does not fall in that category, I wanted to make a nod to that with an image that depicts your visit to an Inn.

[siccoyote]

Hmm, not too happy about a second edition with more content. That kind of de-values the first edition. Hopefully every customer will at least get a digital download of the the second edition or maybe an option to "upgrade" the original box to the second edition for a small fee...

I know this is an older comment but if everyone who got the first version gets a digital version, can't they just re-write the floppies with the updated version. I assume there are no physical updates.

[Ghislain]

Hmm, not too happy about a second edition with more content. That kind of de-values the first edition. Hopefully every customer will at least get a digital download of the the second edition or maybe an option to "upgrade" the original box to the second edition for a small fee...

I know this is an older comment but if everyone who got the first version gets a digital version, can't they just re-write the floppies with the updated version. I assume there are no physical updates.

I believe the publisher sent a mass email to everyone who bought the game with a download of the new update and the manual.

List of changes:

Lady Carmilla Bane’s portion of the tablet is now located in the centre

The village leaders now give you tangible clues on how to succeed in the game (instead of them saying “We saw orcs marauding in Samunda!”, they will say something quite useful like “Protection from Evil will raise the armor of your entire party during battle!”)

3 magic spells have been modified (Fear, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force)

Minor spelling and grammatical errors corrected

Several graphical slideshow sequences have been added to the “History And Lore” section of the main menu

A death image slideshow sequence has also been added

Various bug fixes and game balance modifications

[orion70]

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