Ultimate Wizard Video Overview for Commodore 64

[ballyalley]

I don't usually post into the Commodore forum here on AtariAge (I think that this is my first time), but my friend Chris and I created a short video overview, about thirteen minutes long, of Ultimate Wizard for the Commodore 64, a game written in 1984 by Sean Moore and Steve Luedders for Progressive Peripherals & Software. This Jumpman-like game was published in 1986 by Electronic Arts. If you're a Commodore 64 fan, then you've probably heard of this game. This is not-quite-my-first-time playing it, but it's obvious in this video that I'm not familiar with this game anymore.

We created this video as a test to see how good it would turn out. All our comments are off-the-cuff. This isn't perfection, but it was fun to make and, I hope, to watch too. Chris and I are astonished at how the quality of the C64 emulation held up in this video when "captured" using OBS Studio. Along with Adobe Premiere Elements and Audacity, we were able to put this video together pretty quickly.

You can watch the video on YouTube :

You can also watch or download the video from Archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/UltimateWizardCommodore64ElectronicArts1986

If you have memories of play Wizard, then please post them here, as I'd love to hear about them.

Adam

[+cvga]

Thanks for posting that. I did enjoy the video and had never played that game before. I really enjoy Jumpman so this is certainly one to watch for!

[Casey]

One of my favorite games from back in the day. I could only play so far though before a bad sector on this disk prevented the game from advancing to further levels, but this game was a lot of fun.

[ballyalley]

One of my favorite games from back in the day. [...] this game was a lot of fun.

 

Yes, I liked it. I'll be returning to it sometime soon.

 

Adam

[+wongojack]

I never played or heard of this game BitD, but I have played it now. I REALLY like Jumpman, so this game is right up my alley. I wish I had played it back then.

 

As a comment on the video - I don't usually finish watching videos where the players obviously have not played the game and don't understand how to play. I know there is value in seeing someone discover a game for the first time and figure out the nuances, but I just don't really enjoy those videos. I'd prefer to maybe see some of that, but mostly I'm looking for a deeper explanation of the features and nuances.

[ballyalley]

I don't usually finish watching videos where the players obviously have not played the game and don't understand how to play. [...] I'd prefer to maybe see some of that, but mostly I'm looking for a deeper explanation of the features and nuances.

 

I feel the same way; I don't like "Let's Play" videos very much. This video was an excuse for my friend and I to practice using OBS Studio to try to record emulation. I had played Wizard before making this video. I first played it in 1986 when someone from school came over with the game. He knew I liked Jumpman, so he wanted to show me the game. I thought he was going to let me copy it, but he wanted to use it as "trade bait." I didn't have anything for him... so that was that; I didn't play it again until the 2000s, and only then for a short while. The game controls great, but it's not Jumpman. It does look similar to it, but it's also different (but not by much). I'd call it more of a look-alike, rather than a play-alike.

 

The Wikipedia page has this to say about Wizard's comparison with Jumpman:

 

"Wizard was created contemporaneously with the Epyx release Jumpman. Steve Luedders stated that it was a coincidence, and that he felt Wizard could have been more successful if Jumpman had not been released first (company size and marketing resources being a significant factor). Both share a platform game format with a sequence of differently-configured single-screen levels to complete, much like the earlier Miner 2049er. However, while the object in Jumpman is to collect each "bomb" on the level, the object in Wizard is to collect a key and take it to a lock. The game also featured surprises that would be triggered by collecting bonus items in each level, much like how collecting certain bombs in a Jumpman level caused various effects to the level itself. Additionally, both games feature a very similar "death sequence" for the player upon losing a life, where the character (Jumpman or Wilfrid) tumbles down to the bottom of the screen, then sits with "stars" circling his head."

 

I don't see how Wizard could have been created without seeing Jumpman first; there are far too many similarities between the games. Could this really be a case of co-evolution?

 

Adam

[BydoEmpire]

For whatever reason, this is a game I never saw back in the 80s. I got a chance to play it this weekend (SD2IEC) and really enjoyed it. I'll definitely be coming back for more.

 

 

I don't see how Wizard could have been created without seeing Jumpman first; there are far too many similarities between the games.

 

Totally agree, I don't know the history but they're really, really similar. It would be very ... strange... if they were truly independently developed.

Edited November 13, 2018 by BydoEmpire

[+wongojack]

 

I don't see how Wizard could have been created without seeing Jumpman first; there are far too many similarities between the games. Could this really be a case of co-evolution?

 

 

Yeah, no f'ing way they are NOT related. It's more likely that Steve Cartwright never played Astro Blaster before making Megamania or David Crane never played Frogger before Freeway (hint - not very).