Added "Telengard" Hacking Article to OC&GS

[ballyalley]

In 1985 Ward Shrake wrote a utility called Telengod so that he could hack all of the attributes of Avalon Hill's Telengard CRPG for the Commodore 64. Today I uploaded an article that he wrote for the Orphaned Computers & Game Systems website. The article is an overview of why he wrote that program. Included are many pictures and, of course, the Telengod hacking utility is now available for download too. This is the first time that the utility has been generally available. You can read the article here:

 

http://www.orphanedgames.com/articles/Telengod/Telengod.html

 

Having trouble remembering that game Telengard on the C64? Here's a picture of the boxes cover; maybe it will ring a bell:

 

Here's is a screenshot hacked stats in Telengod:

 

This is how the main menu of the utility used to hack the stats of the game looks when used:

 

 

Does anyone remember playing Telengod? Did anyone resort to hacking their stats? Has anyone here played Telengod recently?

[Bill Loguidice]

I had a pirated version as a kid and would play it on occasion, but its high difficulty, and, frankly, my access to more sophisticated games at that time, dissuaded me from putting as much time as I might have otherwise put into it.

 

My appreciation for the game (and that specific genre of what are today known as Rogue-likes) has grown a bit more in the modern era. Because it was a BASIC program, it was also easy to port for Avalon Hill, and I've since acquired boxed versions compatible with the following computers: C-64, Heath/Zenith Z-90 H/Z-100, PET, TRS-80 I/III, Atari 8-bit, and Apple II. Each has their own interesting bit of tweaks and differences from the original.

[Ward Shrake]

Thanks, Adam and Chris, for sharing this bit of "new" gaming fun with the public! (And Bill, for chiming in!) I gotta say that while my last-minute pre-release testing period wasn't super-lengthy or detailed, hopefully no super-major bugs snuck through (shouldn't have! seemed to work ok for me) ... and it was definitely still good clean fun running around and killing hi-level beasties with single off-hand swats! It felt good breaking out that pair of programs, and radically increasing character specs to ridiculous levels, after 30 years of not having played with my old "cheating" program. Anyway ... enjoy!

Edited September 4, 2015 by Ward Shrake