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deepthaw

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Posts posted by deepthaw

  1. Posted

    When I was a kid playing Karateka on my 7800, I found out I could get my 7800 to make cool noises and screen garbling during the game by sticking a piece of metal in the expansion port. That eventually fried the sound on my 7800. It was still more fun than Karateka.

  3. Posted

    To clarify: Im playing pac-man on a console with 8-way sticks and approach an intersection from which down and right are both valid directions. I move the stick to down/right, what happens and why? Does it act differently if I move it from down or right to down/right?

  4. Posted

    Just curious (since some folks here have probably dealt with it for real):

     

    How do games restricted to 4-directional movement (pac-man) deal with handling input from an 8-way stick where diagonals (two directions at once) can happen?

     

    I can think of several ways (priority algorithms, simply ignoring diagonals, etc.) but figured somebody could explain firsthand.

  5. Posted

    The author of Wizardry has talked about the influences behind Wizardry, some of which are hard to find, but the most visible precedent for Wizardry, is the immense influence that the games on PLATO had, in particular, Oubliette, Avatar, and Moria. While I do not have a copy of Oubliette on my system, I do have a copies of Avatar and Moria running. Here it is running on the Amiga.

     

    attachicon.gifavatar_amiga.PNG

     

    -Thom

     

    I've seen discussion that accused the authors of not giving enough credit to Oubliette or any credit at all. I don't know enough about it or the backdrop of Wizardry's creation to know how justified that is.

  6. Posted

     

    My overall impressions:
    Wiz 1:
    GREAT game, even today. It's balanced perfectly; if you explore each floor, you'll typically be just strong enough to move onto the next floor. If you play carefully, you're never really in any danger of a party wipe. In contrast to its brutal reputation, It's pretty fair overall. The dungeon layouts are great... easy to remember with lots of shortcuts.

     

    I've not yet suffered a full party wipe, but have had several close calls. You really do have to play it careful and know when and how to GTFO when the time is right. But that's part of the charm. It's so much based around the "expedition" as a metagame, something that later games have moved away from (with being able to rest/save at arbitrary times.) As a player of tabletop RPGs, the same has been true there - D&D of the 70's was heavy on mapping on resource management, while the modern iteration has made that aspect much less prevalent.

     

    That's neither good nor bad - just different IMHO.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted · Edited by deepthaw

    It's been a long time since I played the original Apple II versions. The only ones I've played within the past decade are the NES and DOS versions. I have a translated SNES rom buried somewhere (it may actually be on my SD2SNES), but I never put any real time into it. I really need to change that, because it looks so awesome.

     

    My recollection is that it's generally better to switch classes early, so you can start leveling up and getting the enhanced abilities. However, it depends on how far you are into the game and what you're doing. My stepdad would grind levels for days to level up a character just to change the class when the character got to a high level. I think you keep half your HPs from your previous class, so that was how you got big HP totals.

     

    I enjoyed the PS3 Wizardry game, because I'm a savescumming little cheat.

     

    I never knew the DOS version had a bug. I think I played it a fair bit, but the NES version was just more accessible.

     

    I've been playing the SNES translation, it's pretty nice. I've gotten more of a handle on class changing, and here's how it works:

     

    Your character resets to level 1 in their new class and their stats are reset to the racial minimum (ouch.)

    They keep all hit points they've earned to date, and gain 1HP a level until the HP they'd gain by leveling up in their new class would exceed their old maximum.

    They keep all spells they knew, but their spell points are reset to one per level per spell known.

    There's some kind of other rule that has to do with keeping more spell points if you switch from one spellcasting class to another, but I don't recall it.

    They age by some amount.

     

    So changing class really only serves two purposes: To access classes you can't access at the start of the game (Lord & Ninja), or to pick up extra spells.

     

    Thus far, I've only changed my dwarf fighter to a samurai but I plan on having my mage & priest switch classes so they can start learning spells from the other class if I've not finished the game by the time they've learned all their spells. I also have a fighter I'm grooming to hopefully become a lord; once again it's dependent on stats increasing the way I want when I level up, so we'll see how that works out.

     

    In addition: The NES had its own bug. AC for the players didn't work so armor served no purpose. That's fixed in the SNES port.

  12. Posted

    thanks guys, hehe! :)

     

    I guess my hopes had exceeded my expectations for the device- i was really hoping that games like Ridge Racer and Tekken wouldn't be 15% slower (or similar) because like Deepthaw said the ones that I'm interested in are like that.

     

    That being said.. I've been poking around and seeing what the hacking/emulation scene is for this. If I can put isos on the device, those PAL version are gonna get whacked for their NTSC brethren, hehe.

     

    Ridge Racer runs at the correct speed - it just doesn't run quite as well as on original hardware. Tekken 3 runs at 83.33% speed.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

     

    Aha! That'd be fantastic if you were able to check that out. I read a passing comment from someone on another site along the same lines, but it was much vaguer.

     

    If it's possible to get low lag via Input 1 (I'm guessing) that changes everything. :) It's a very decent TV in other aspects.

     

    It looks like you have the 1080p version vs my 4k version, so I don't know if this applies to yours: I have to use HDMI5 and turn on game low latency mode to get the best input lag. RTings doesn't say the same thing about yours, but I suspect it's worth a try especially if you're seeing 100ms or so. Since yours only has three HDMI inputs I guess you just have to try each one to see what works best?

     

    https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/d-series-1080p-2016

  14. Posted

     

    Sadly my TV, despite being cited as a low-lag model on several sites (which is a big part of why I purchased it!), seems to have 100ms minimum lag. :(

     

    I can't imagine what it would be over analog inputs, but over HDMI it's very noticeable, and turning on "game mode" bizarrely seems to make it worse. It's a Vizio D series, for what it's worth (D50-D1). They recently pushed a firmware update, so maybe I should try again.

     

    I think I have almost that exact model (D50u-D1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016C64ENE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1)- the trick is that only one of the HDMI inputs has the excellent input lag. I'll see which port I'm plugged into when I get home...

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    again, apologies if this has been beaten to death, but say I'm 'average Joe gamer' (which most of the time, I qualify, lol) and I buy the Mini.

     

    How does the Mini *play* in its current state? If I buy one, turn it on, launch up a game, would I be able to reasonably play the games as they are? Not looking for perfection, but do the games at least play OK?

     

    I mean, yeah, I can watch the review vids on YouTube, but I can't separate the ones dogging it just because it's popular to dog it versus not.

     

    The games are still playable. It just happens that the games I'd personally be interested in have performance problems that would kill my interest.

     

    It's unacceptable to me that they'd sell us slowed down versions of games, but also probably true that most people won't actually notice.

    • Like 2

  18. Posted · Edited by deepthaw

    Ah, so apart from the Merry Season, it's also Open Season on Sony. No surprises there.

     

    I don't have a Classic, nor intend to buy one, but I'm 100% sure that it's nowhere near as bad as the predictable, hysterical Internet snowball hate-machine would have it.

    The crux "argument" here seems to be "but it's not a Nintendo Mini!". That reasoning comes with all the strings attached, such as unability/refusal to acknowledge the problems with licensing or emulating 3D on necessarily-weak hardware. You know, the ones Nintendo did not have to deal with. In this narrative a really solid line-up becomes a Z-list abomination and the fact that millions of people have played PAL games before and lived to tell the tale is quickly forgotten.

     

    No - the crux of my argument is that it's running PAL versions when nobody in this country played them which is selling an inaccurate product. I played the hell out of the Tekken series, and I can tell immediately if the game is at 83% speed or whatever. And millions of people did play PAL games, and a *lot* of them knew there was something wrong with them.

     

    If you spent your childhood growing up on Sonic in the US, would you be happy if a Genesis classic suddenly had this:

     

    • Like 3

  19. Posted

     

    Huh, I did not know about the bug. I played the DOS version - maybe that's why I was never quite able to beat it :)

     

    Well, it's not known if it's a bug or a design decision. The assumption that it's a bug due to other versions not being so prone to stats decreasing at level up.

  20. Posted

    Well let me add to the chorus....this series was too hardcore for little Wheels bitd.

     

    At the risk of being politically incorrect, there's probably a reason the series is still going strong in Japan but died everywhere else.

  21. Posted

    No idea what platforms each of the games is available on, nor which platforms are the best to play the games on.

     

    To expand on it:

     

    Wizardry I - III are collectively referred to as the "Llylgamyn Saga" and are honestly nothing more than expansion packs to Wizardry I. They're identical gameplay wise, and even required you to import characters from the previous game to play on Apple II. The best way to play them is probably the Super Famicom port. Avoid the DOS version because it has a bug where your characters tend to lose attributes way more than they should when they level up, which makes the games even more difficult than intended.

     

    Wizardry IV is stupidly brutally hard and obtuse and apparently nobody likes it. You play as the villain from the first game and collect monsters to fight for you - the enemies are based on characters that plays of I-III mailed to the developers. A tip as to how impenetrably difficult the game is: you can't even leave the starting area unless you get some priests to join you, and one of them casts the spell to reveal secret doors during combat, so you can find the door you need to leave.

     

    Wizardry V is the last of the "classic" games and was apparently pretty badly dated at release. Best version depends on whether or not you want to experience the original keyword dialogue system. Super Famicom again is the best console port, but removes the need to type in keywords for interaction with NPCs.

     

    Wizardry VI through VIII are what I consider the "next generation" of Wizardry and are honestly Wizardry games in name alone. D.W. Bradley took over at this point and the games got even weirder. Gameplay systems were overhauled and the graphics finally moved out of the late 70s/early 80s. PC version is the best for these probably. They have no story connection to the previous games and feature spaceships, aliens, computers and all kinds of other gonzo shit. You can transfer your party from game to game in this trilogy to tell a convoluted but technically cohesive story.

    • Like 3

  22. Posted

     

    I never got into the Wizardry and Ultima series.I didn't really get into RPGs until the more accessible JRPGs on the NES, Genesis and SNES.

     

    I got into RPGs via Ultima and Dragon Warrior on the NES. I played the hell out of Wizardry on NES as well, but never really groked how I was supposed to play it (drawing a map seemed so tedious to young short attention span me.)

  23. Posted

    The Wizardry series is one I never played when I was younger. I got sucked into the Ultima games and played those, as well as other RPG-style games such as Alternate Reality on the Atari 8-bits. I remember watching a friend of mine playing Wizardry games on his Apple IIe. Would be fun to play those in order, and I know there are a ton of them. No idea what platforms each of the games is available on, nor which platforms are the best to play the games on. Would have to do some research.

     

    ..Al

     

    From my reading, the best way to experience the original Wizardry trilogy is how I'm doing it - the Llylgamyn Saga version for Super Famicom. It already has options for English text, but there's a translation patch that changes what little Japanese remains into English. It's quite authentic to the original experience on Apple II, but with quality of life improvements and much upgraded and tasteful graphics and sound. What's neat is it has options to revert some of the stuff to how it originally was (wireframe dungeons, coordinates instead of automap for the Dumapic spell, etc.) Difficulty is still there though, which is important.

    • Like 2

  24. Posted

    I'm replaying the original Wizardry games - this time via the Llylgamyn saga version released for the Super Famicom. Having a surprising amount of fun, I never really had the patience as a kid to play the games "properly." It has the nice graphics and music of the NES versions (upgraded to kind of 16-bit) and the Dumapic spell works as an automap rather than just giving coordinates (once I refill my mechanical pencil, I hope to not rely on it as much.) It includes the original trilogy of games although I'm not sure how transferring characters works (the NES version of Wizardry Knight of Diamonds was rebalanced towards starting at level 1 rather than requiring an imported party from Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord - don't know if that still is true here, but it has some kind of data transfer functionality in it.) When people say it's the best way to replay the original trilogy (if you don't demand the authenticity of the Apple II version, that is) they're not kidding.

     

    For those who remember tips for the game, one of my fighters just reached the attributes necessary to switch to samurai. Is this something I want to do immediately or let them grind out fighter levels for a while still? I know my spellcasters I want to let build up a healthy reservoir of spells known before switching, but my melee types?

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