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| (Source: Intv Funhouse) |
1) 1 - Character Advancement:
2) 1 - Combat:
3) 0 - Items and Equipment:
4) 0 - Story:
5) 0 - Exploration:
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles:
Swords & Serpents (Intellivsion) has the least to do with RPGs. It has a top down view where you explore a labrynth full of hidden treasures. It reminds me of guantlet a bit in that you're constantly searching for the exit while picking up items to increase your score. Most enemies will spawn off screen and run towards you, sword extended. You get the choice of playing as a fighter or wizard. There are no character levels or stats, and most things only take a single hit to die, including your character. I believe the goal is to get to the last level and face off with a dragon, but I'm not compeltely sure about this. Without more depth, this plays out as an arcade style action game.
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| (Source: Intv Funhouse) |
1) 1 - Character Advancement:
2) 1 - Combat:
3) 0 - Items and Equipment:
4) 0 - Story:
5) 2 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles:
Cloudy Mountain, or the original AD&D Cartridge, game seems like a fun action-adventure. It's a little hard to tell since I seem to have run into some sort of copy-protection. According to the manual, the highest level of difficulty restricts starting arrows to 5 shots, and the enemies move very quickly. I experienced a game where I began with 3 shots, and the enemies moved so quickly that I died within seconds of seeing one. It's hard to say if this game was hacked, or I'm just having bad luck with the controls and choosing some hidden ultra-hard mode. Again, with no character levels or stats, no world to experience, and little story beyond what's given in the manual, I'm left wondering how different the RPG genre would have been if games like this stuck around as the defining moments of early console RPGs.
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| (Source: Intv Funhouse) |
1) 1 - Character Advancement:
2) 2 - Combat:
3) 1 - Items and Equipment:
4) 0 - Story:
5) 2 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles:
Treasure of Tarmin, or Minotaur as it's called sometimes, is the second AD&D Cartridge game for the Intellivison. TSR insisted on appending Cartridge to the end of the titles so as not to confuse anyone buying the game thinking it was a new pen & paper module. This one had a lot more promise with the selection of weapons, an inventory to manage, and spells to use in combat. It still lacks character based stats, levels, interaction with the world outside of combat, and anything other than the main quest. It almost has turn based battles, but it only goes as far as having cool downs for attacks. Having the manual is necessary for playing the game.
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| (Source: Intv Funhouse) |
1) 4 - Character Advancement: practice/experience based advancement, stat or level increases, multiple classes or characters,
2) 2 - Combat: character stats used for combat,
3) 2 - Items and Equipment:
4) 0 - Story:
5) 0 - Exploration:
6) 0 - Quests and Puzzles:
Tower of Doom: The game with the most promise out of all the Intellivision games, and possibly all of the older console games, is the first to offer character leveling and stats. However, it gets cut because that's all it has to offer. Combat is simply bashing the enemy with your current favorite weapon, and I easily defeated all enemies (finally dying because I drank a freezing potion instead of a healing one). It has the most in common with rogue-likes with random items and maps (at least what I would guess are random). If it offered just a little more--like turn-based combat, something more to do in combat than just swing a sword, interesting puzzles, or a store between levels--then it would feel more like a dungeon crawl I could call an RPG.
I'm a little sad that none of these games made the cut, and I considered playing through Tower of Doom. I was stuck in deciding what scenario to playthrough and consider the game beaten. Any one of them would probably only take an hour, so I'd have to play the game as a whole I think. If someone wants to convince me to try it out, feel free.
For those interested, all of these games are available through either Intellivision Lives! (Both AD&D games + Tower of Doom) or Intellivision Rocks! (Swords & Serpents). Tower of Doom is available through the Game Room on Xbox Live. If an arbitrary number of people come along that want to see Tower of Doom, then I'll probably play it on the Xbox 360.
I'm sorry that my suggestions didn't bear fruit, but it's nice to see some delving into the history of the proto-console RPG.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any console at this point CAN have an RPG on them. They just didn't have enough memory to save the needed data, the space on the cartridge to hold it, or the ability to save your character. (I thought the NES was the first console to be able to save games, though I could be wrong)
ReplyDelete@Canageek: I'm pretty sure the first commercially released game with a battery backup was for the Epoch Super Cassette Vision. There was also a prototype for ColecoVision, Lord of the Dungeon, with a battery backup.
ReplyDelete@Zenic Reverie: I think you sell Tower of Doom a bit short. Combat can include bartering with the enemy, for example, or missile attacks before you engage. And you have to play far more strategically if you don't start with a super-powered character -- try playing as the Waif and see how long you last! :)
The game has three "fixed" maps with consistent layouts (though the exact location of items within a room will differ), the rest are randomly generated. I think beating the three fixed maps with the Waif, and then completing something like the Grail Quest, would count as beating the game. BTW be sure to get a manual or manual scan, though you'll still have to figure out item functions on your own -- the game gives you cryptic messages, and there are some items whose function I still don't know.
Well, 1 is arbitrary enough for me. I'll get Tower of Doom at some point and give it another try.
DeleteGreat, glad to hear it! If you need a manual scan, the site KentRepairs.com has pretty much every Intellivision manual as a PDF:
Deletehttp://kentrepairs.com/General/Intellivision.asp
Also, the ROM is legally available on multiple CDROMs and compilations put out by the Blue Sky Rangers, so no need to spend $15-25 on a loose cart (or $40-60 on a CIB copy).
If anyone is intrigued by these games and wants to play a modern creation made in their image, Ghosts of Tarr-Minos is a roguelike Xbox 360 Indie Game clearly inspired by the old AD&D cartridges. It's also a genuine RPG (with character progression and inventory management).
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me, I'll have to consider what to do about the Indie and Live Arcade games on the Xbox 360. Maybe they won't even exist by the time I get there though.
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