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BydoEmpire

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  1. BydoEmpire
    After being in the mood for some turn-based CRPG gaming for a few months, and listening to the latest Armchair Arcade podcast that had a recap of the SSI Gold Box series, I decided to fire up my Amiga 500 and start Pool of Radiance from scratch. It's a game I played on the c64 back in the day, but I never got very far. I know I never finished it. I don't even know how I got the Amiga disks, but there they were... it's the only version I haven now, so I thought it'd be fun to give it a shot and see how my memory of the game matches the 2011 reality. What holds up well? What's really annoying?
     
    I thought I'd blog about my experience playing this classic and look at both what still works, and what could have been done different. Sometimes I'll reference modern games, sometimes I'll compare it to peers. And awaaaay we go...
     
    MECHANICS
    I'm playing on an Amiga 500 with 1 meg of ram, one disk drive, and a Commodore 2002 monitor. I do have a second drive for my Amiga, but it seems to have died. The disk swapping isn't too bad - once you get the game going you really only have to swap when saving the game, and that makes sense. During character creation, there was a lot more swapping but not unbearable.
     
    The initial load time was a little long, but for an RPG like this I didn't think it was too bad. I had to find a code wheel online, because I no longer have it. Fortunately, www.lemonamiga.com has all the docs, although it took a few times to get used to reading the PDF instead of an actual code wheel to find the symbol combination properly. Man, I don't miss code wheels at all. Better than modern DRM, though? Hm... that's another story...
     
    CHARACTER CREATION
    Even though it seems antiquated and no games do it now, I actually liked the simulated dice rolling, waiting to get good scores for my characters. I look at it like a minigame. Do I accept the guy with 17 STR/17 CON, or do I keep rolling to try to get an 18 STR. And if I get that fighter, do I accept a low CON and DEX? Or do I hit it big and get a couple of 18s? I didn't like that I kept rolling 18 INTs when I was trying to make my thief, though. I wish you could pick class AFTER you rolled the scores, since that's the time consuming part.
     
    One thing that kind of sucks about Pool of Radiance's character creation was picking your portrait heads and bodies. It didn't filter based on race & gender, so when I made my male half-elf fighter/thief I had to scroll through a bunch of female wizard options. And the load times for each portrait part (head and body) was just annoying enough to get on my nerves. Not terrible, just annoying.
     
    The icon customization was pretty tedious as well, but also kind of fun. I wish there was a little bit better interface, having to click (or type) all these options several menu levels deep was less than ideal. In general I'd say my biggest gripe with Pool or Radiance is the clunky menus. Compared to other games it makes you jump through a lot of hoops to do stuff.
     
    PRINT MANUALS +1
    I printed out the adventurers' journal and read through the whole introduction - the history of Phlan, basically, and it added a lot to the experience. The involved setup for the story in print was much more satisfying than the few minutes of FMV for, say, Dragon Age, who's plot was full of holes from square one. You can just do a lot more with a few pages of text, and the backstory and history really sets up the game. And I don't want ot read pages of text on a monitor, it's just uncomfortable. It does seem odd to have to look up journal entries, though. I'm sure there was an issue putting that text in the game, but from a user's perspective 20 years later it seems a little odd because each entry is short enough to be comfortably readable on the monitor. Some journal entries have maps, too, so I guess that's better suited to the manual.
     
    INTO THE GAME
    I could be missing something, but once I created my party I didn't see a way to replace the characters I originally chose with new ones. I actually ended up starting the game from scratch, remaking all new characters because the party I first created wasn't ideal. I wish I could have kept some of those guys and replace them with others, but I didn't see a way to do that. Again, maybe I missed that. If so, please let me know!
     
    One thing I wasn't looking forward to was mapping. But to my surprise (and fault memory), Pool of Radiance has a map mode of each area ready for you - just hit 'A'. At least, there's a map of Phan and the slums. Not sure about other areas yet, but so far the automap is nice.
     
    Now, onto the meat. I still love the turn-based combat. Compared to modern RPGS like Dragon Age, where you have to really be on your feet, turn-based RPGs are a lot more fun for me. The top-down style perspective adds a layer of depth that "3d" contemporary RPGs like Wizardry and Might & Magic didn't have. You can strategically place your characters. Without that level, combat isn't as satisfying or... visceral. You really see what's happening to your party since you see them. I do wish there was an easier way to scroll around the area to see the position of everyone, especially when you surprise a group of monsters and they're a ways away from your party. You can try to target them by cycling targets backwards, but it's not as convenient. I can't wait until my magic user gets higher level and I can start playing with area spells (I did put half my party to sleep once because I didn't target correctly, heh). In all, after a few hours I dig the combat just as much as I remember. It's a style we haven't seen much of lately, and I miss it.
     
    So far I've fought a few parties of orcs, kobolds and goblins. I've had some success, and had some characters get knocked unconcious. The difficulty seems just about right for the start of the game, although I wonder what will happen when I run out of platinum pieces to rest up at the inn? I guess I'll have to take my chances camping in the slums or outdoors...
     
    Okay, that's some good. Here's some bad: my biggest, and virtually only gripe is with the interface. Lots of keypresses bringing you through several layers of menus to do things like memorize spells, or buy equipment for your party. This should be pretty automatic, but you've got to press a lot of buttons to get your whole party ready to rest. Same for switching weapons in combat - you have to 'V'iew your character, then choose 'I'tems, then un-'R'eady your current weapon, then scroll down and 'R'eady the new one. Then 'E'xit, 'E'xit, 'Exit' to get back to the fight. Finally, the Amiga version really should have supported the mouse more. You can select menu options with the mouse instead of typing the letter, but you can't do things like pick targets during combat. None of this is a dealbreaker for the game - I got used to it after an hour or two - but it is one area I think games have really improved in. It seems to take a long time to do anything. Hopefully I'll get automatic with this the more I play.
     
    GRAPHICS AND MISCELLANEOUS
    Graphically it's not winning any Amiga awards. You can tell from the presentation and the interface it's a port. That said, it gets the point across. I liked some of the animated monster intros when you run into them. I do not have speakers hooked up to my Amiga, but I hear the intro tune is good. Like I said earlier, the only disk swapping is when you save, and that's not bad compared to some other Amiga games I've played recently. The load times between various map sections isn't bad, either.
     
    Okay, that's it for my first impressions. I played the game a few times over the course of a couple hours, so I'm really early on. I still haven't finished clearing the slums. It's a time consuming game and my free time is limited, so I'll be updating whenever I have something interesting to post. It's definitely addictive. If I didn't have a toddler at home and a demanding day job I could easily see playing this all night.
  2. BydoEmpire
    I was just starting to really get into it. I was originally worried about how much grinding would be needed - I mean, the D&D ruleset doesn't exactly let you level up quickly. My mage with 3hp was always a sitting duck as well. However, I made it in and out of several treks through the slums, and even completed a fetch quest for a wizard named Ohlo.
     
    I levelled up my fighters and clerics (I had 2 of each in my party), and only needed a few XP more for my magic user. I decided that my Fighter/Thief was just a bad choice, because those dual class characters take so long to level up. It only took a few play sessions to get almost everyone to level two, and I only had to restart a few times. That's not bad. I also started getting some nice magic items - a Bracers of AC 6 and Ring of Protection +1 - perfect for the mag -and a few enchanted swords and bows. Good times. I like the fact that you don't really know what you have right away. It adds some mystery and suspense.
     
    I also like how the map view doesn't really show you everything. I stumbled on that wizard by chance, and had to find my own way to the rope guild based on his instructions (it's SE of here). Most modern games would put a waypoint marker on the map, or show the door to his room in a different color or something. The fact that you don't see details is kind of a plus in some ways because it makes you explore. You can't just look at a room and say "that floorboard is a slightly darker brown, of course there's something in there." In PoR you just have to walk around, search, and see what happens. In a way, the lack of detail makes for a more realistic game.
     
    On the downside, the interface still seemed clunky after a couple weeks. You can't just cycle through your players when at a shop, to see what each one has, you have to back out, pick the new guy, then go back into his "view" screen. And of course, it hits the disk every time it has to load a player picture. If they had an option to not see the pictures by default, it wouldn't be nearly as bad.
     
    Another frustrating aspect is that if you're in a hopeless encounter (like a half-dead party getting attacked by 20 orcs), there's no option to quit. You either have to reboot (ugh) or bide your time while all 20 orcs attack your party, and hopefully kill them quick so you can reload.
     
    On that topic, I do like how you can save anywhere you can camp. It's a long enough process that you don't just save every few steps, taking the consequence out of exploration (like trying to bash down the door I should have left alone), but it's convenient enough that I don't have to sit there and tool around trying to find a save point. I'm busy, I don't have tons of time for gaming, so when I'm done I need to be able to save, quit and stop playing.
     
    Anyways, I trekked back into the slums, killed a few more kobolds (including one big party that was a great strategic battle) and got enough XP for Wyzria to hit level 2. I sold a bunch of stuff, levelled her up, got my new spell, and started walking back to the slums to explore deeper.
     
    *beep*
     
    Guru Meditation Error.
     
    Huh? Crap, game crashed. Well, it wasn't that long since I saved - I think I did it right before I levelled up my mage. So I power cycle the Amiga.
     
    *unexpected disk error 103 - unable to load program*
     
    Huh? Let me try again.
     
    *unexpected disk error 103 - unable to load program*
     
     
    Well, apparently my disk is fubar'd. I can no longer boot the game at all. The internets say error 103 is "out of memory" but I'm not sure how that could be booting from the PoR disc. Something got really screwed up. I don't think the boot disc was in the drive at the time, so I'm pretty confused... I may keep poking around with things - if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. But for now, my adventure has come to an end. Too bad, since the game was just getting good.
  3. BydoEmpire
    I'm a big fan of the Retrogaming Roundup podcast, and there were a bunch of games that were kind of fun to see and play at Funspot either because I heard about them through RGR's "It Came From MAME" segment, or they were talked about in a Top 10 (a couple months ago was Top 10 Atari Coin-Ops, for instance).
     
    First of all, Quantum is indeed awesome. I'd never heard of this until UK Mike picked it for the Top 10 Atari coin-ops and I was blown away. The monitor in the cab they had looked brand-spanking new. The game is gorgeous, addicting, challenging and fun to play. Thanks for the tip UK - I'm not sure I would have played it if I hadn't heard about it from RGR, but I probably put as much into Quantum as any other game there.
     
    They also had an Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe side-by-side. During the Top 10 Atari coin-op debate I was siding with UK (which is rare for me): Asteroids is a little simpler and I always thought that worked for it. Asteroids Deluxe felt too frantic. Playing them side-by-side, though, I have to say I had more fun with Asteroids Deluxe. It helped that the high score on the machine was fairly low, so I had to keep putting in tokens until I got the top spot (Asteroids' high score was out of reach for me). After playing both again I'm much more torn between them. Sometimes your memory of games doesn't quite match the reality. Asteroids is great, no doubt, but Deluxe ramps up the action a little quicker.
     
    Finally, I was pleasantly surprised to see this It Came From MAME Gem:

    It took a couple games to figure out, but I actually had a pretty good time with it, and did get to the "girl in the tub" scene once. You're right, SoCal, those red monkeys really target you! Tough game, and pretty bizarre, but it was fun to play.
  4. BydoEmpire
    The second reason Funspot was so awesome was that not only could I replay games of my youth, or try out games I always wanted to play; but having 200+ games there were a lot of games I never even heard of. There were two arcades in my hometown, but neither one was huge, and like I said before, I was too young to drive to them so I didn't see everything. I discovered a lot of cool titles at Funspot - check these out in MAME when you get a chance.
     
    I'll start with my favorite - Pulsar by Gremlin/Sega. This is a tank maze game, which seems to have been inspired by Tron. The goal is to grab the numbered keys from the top of the screen and use them in the corresponding locks at the bottom of the screen to escape the level. You can get them in any order, but you get bonus points if you use them in numeric order. Of course, there are enemies floating around the maze - some shoot, some don't. There's also some kind of enemy base which looks like a cloud that floats around spawning enemies, and you can take that out. The coolest thing, though, is that the maze continually changes. Every 5-10 seconds or so some walls disappear and new one reappear. There's always a path to and from the keys and gates, and it's done in a really cool way. The rhythm is there, and I never felt screwed by the walls, it just added an extra dimension of risk - can I get the key back in time before the next change, and if the maze did change, do I risk taking route A that leads me past the enemy spawner, or route B that's longer but safer? Graphically it wasn't anything to write home about. It looked nice and moved quickly, but the tank, enemies and maze are all pretty pixely. Finally, this isn't a plodding tank game - you and the enemies move really quick. The game was an absolute blast, and I put a bunch of tokens into it. SoCal, you should check this out for It Came From Mame.

     
    Atari Force - Liberator was another cool game, which seemed like an unofficial sequel to Missile Command. You control a targetting cursor with the trackball, and shoot from four ships on in the corner of the screen. The twist is that the enemy missiles come from bases on a rotating planet, and their trajectory orbits around the planet. There are also enemy satellites that launch missiles back at you as well, and those are trickier since they're shooting from orbit, you have less time to intercept them. The gameplay was almost more frantic than Missile Command, and the arcing trajectories of the missiles and rotating planet added a lot. I didn't quite get the plot in the couple of games I played, so I'm not sure if the missiles were always aiming for your ships, or if you had to protect some targets on the planet, but it was still a fun twist to the Missile Command formula. Definitely worth a few plays.

     
    Sega made a pretty decent Galaga clone called Cosmic Alien which I thought was a lot of fun. The graphics were very good and the gameplay was solid. Not a groundbreaking title by any means, but if you want to try out a different bottom shooter this one is solid. Check out that marquee artwork - how could you not put a quarter in?!?!

     
    I was intrigued by The End. It looked like an arcade version of one of my 2600 favs, Spider Fighter, only the enemy bugs try to take bricks from the bottom of the screen and spell out 'The End' at the top. The game ends if they complete the letters or wipe out all of your bug/crab-like ships. Unfortunately, it didn't play that great. The screen was cramped, and it went from being too easy to too hard in the blink of an eye. Worth checking out, but I didn't think it was all that much fun.

     
    I tried out a mechanical pin as well: Grand Slam. There was actually quite a bit going on in the playfield, and I thought it was fun. No idea if this is common or not, but I'd never seen one before and it was definitely worth a few plays.

     
    I don't have a pic, but I also played the gun game Cheyenne. The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't remember seeing or playing it. It looks like one of the earliest scrolling-playfield gun games. You're trying to protect the driver of a wagon against both outlaws and Indians trying to take him out. I put a few tokens in, and never made it very far. The game was fun, but it was TOUGH. The enemy bullets were little X's which didn't move that fast, but they were tough to hit. Fun game, and worth checking out, just be prepared to die a lot.
     
    So that's it - there were a bunch of other games I'd never heard of, but those are the ones that grabbed me. Pulsar in particular was great, I'd love to own one. Definitely check them out on MAME>
  5. BydoEmpire
    What was the most fun for me was (re)discovering the real arcade atmosphere and the arcade games themselves. I've always been more of a home gamer - I'd rather put the $5 towards a cartridge than spend it on a few minutes of fun. Don't get me wrong, I like arcade games, but I always played home games more. Didn't help that I wasn't even a teenager during the arcade heyday, so getting to and from the arcade wasn't easy, and nowadays it's just a lot cheaper. Funspot made me remember the huge gulf between the coin-op and home ports, and just how freaking cool and fun arcades are.
     
    Playing Asteroids, for example. I never noticed the amazing deep bass of the thrust sound. It hits you in the arcade. The home ports play similarly, but they don't recreate that chest-rumbling sound. Same for MAME - I've played Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe in MAME cabs recently, and neither of them had the amazing thrust sound. It's cool to be able to play those games emulated, but the experience isn't quite the same. Not to mention the gorgeous vector graphics which are hard to reproduce at home. The monitors on Funspot's Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone and Quantum looked brand new. Completely sharp and clear - they looked stunning (especially Quantum, but more on that later).
     
    I played Super Hang On in the sit-down cab, and while I loved Hang On on the SMS and Genny, it's just more fun sitting on a motorcycle leaning left and right. Of course there were games like Battlezone, Sub Hunt and Sub Roc, which just come alive in the cabinet with the periscope - you can't replicate that at home. It was so fun to play for real.
     
    I was also blown away by some of the 3D background artwork in games, which you just can't get at home. I had a Warlords cocktail in my hometown arcade, but Funspot had a standup cab with an amazing 3D background behind the playfield that was just gorgeous. It made the castles recede into the distance underneath the game artwork - completing the top-down view. I love Warlords, and it just looked incredible. There was another game where there was full artwork on the inside three panels of the cab. It was a cityscape that wrapped around and really drew you in. Can't remember which game, but it was really cool. This pic is from a cool game I'd never heard of - "Video Pinball." It was a b/w game with a gorgeous, glowing 3D-ish pinball playfield on top of the screen. Honestly it didn't play all that great, but it looked really freaking cool.

     
     
    Another cool aspect of the "arcade experience" was that one of the isles of games strongly smelled like a pizza parlor. Not sure why it was just that one isle, perhaps some of the games there came from a pizza parlor, but it was instantly recognizable and to me was synonymous with arcade gaming. A lot of the games I played growing up were in pizza places.
     
    Sort of along those lines, you can't beat walking into an arcade and hearing Lita Ford, Van Halen and other 80s rock. It totally brought me into the experience.
     
    To sum up, Funspot sort of reminded me why arcades and coin-op games are so cool. In the rare event I play a coin-op game now, it's in a laundromat or airport or something. Being in a real arcade like this was a different experience.
  6. BydoEmpire
    I posted this as a thread over at the GameGavel forums here, but I figured this would be a good way to kick off my new AA blog as well. I thought people here might enjoy it.
     
    My wife's parents moved to NH a couple years ago, and ever since I've been itching to take a day and drive up to Funspot. Finally got a chance over Thanksgiving - here's my report. I have a lot to talk about so I'm going to break it up into sections. First, here's what you see walking into the place:
     
    The Wall of Champions:


     
    I had to get a shot of Billy Mitchell's perfect Pac Man game. In my opinion, this is by far the greatest achievement in gaming:

     
    Now, here's a few shots of the main hall of the arcade room:


     
    Some memorabilia:

     
    Here's me next to a Computer Space (the first one I've ever seen in person), although it wasn't working:

     
    I'll be updating this thread with a lot more pics, and a lot of thoughts about arcade gaming and what this trip meant to me. I had an absolute blast and would go again in a heartbeat. I spent about four hours there - enough time to do everything I wanted, but I could have certainly gone back and "dug deeper."
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