Champ Games - Wizard of Wor Arcade - 2600

[+johnnywc]

** The latest demo ROMs can be found in this post.  Have fun!   ** 

 

Hello all,

Now that Mappy is almost complete and awaiting it's release at the Portland Gaming Expo in a few weeks, Champ Games would like to announce our next game... Wizard of Wor Arcade!

For those who may not know, Champ Games started a Wizard of Wor rewrite back in 2007 that was never completed. That code has been resurrected and the current version takes full advantage of the latest technology, including CDF bank-switching for enhanced graphics (created by Nathan Strum) and all the arcade mazes, arcade-like sound effects and speech (created by Mike Haas) using the AtariVox+ (over 50+ phrases!). Additionally, it will support Nathan Tolbert's re-vamped multi-joystick adapter which will allow 2 joysticks to be plugged into one port while leaving the second one free for in-game speech with the AtariVox and high score saving!

 

Special thanks to CDS Games and Nukey Shay for their blessing and amazing work on the Wizard of Wor 2: The Arena hack which provided the inspiration for some of the cut scenes and mazes, and it was also the game that Mike's AtariVox speech were originally developed for.

 

The game is about 95% complete and and will available to play (with Nathan T's multi-joystick adapter and AtariVox+ speech) at this years Portland Gaming Expo. My brother Paul and I will be on hand if you're up for a challenge!

 

Here is a screenshot of the title screen. I will be posting more info as the PRGE approaches, with a playable ROM to be posted sometime after the expo.

 

Edited April 28 by johnnywc
updated title

[Greenfuzz]

Looks GREAT.

[CDS Games]

Great to see this!!!

Nukey did some amazing work with that hack....and we were so close to a finished game!! But in the end, it would still have been just a hack--can't wait to see a new WoW programmed from the ground up with the latest technology.

[Arenafoot]

Awesome work John!

 

Still waiting for that CDS WoW2: The Arena too!!!!

[Jess Ragan]

Hoo hoo, this looks promising! Nice title screen, too!

[+sramirez2008]

Really wish I could attend PRGE again. Last year was a blast. Can't wait to pick up a copy of Mappy and Wizard of War Arcade.

[Reality Studio]

Will be buying this and Mappy complete in box once they are available, thanks for making these!

[Keatah]

Ohh dear.. not again! What are we gonna do with all this greatness?

[MemberAtarian]

Couldn't you make speak built-in, like it was with Draconian? With the AtariVox plugged in a joyport, you lose the possibility of playing 2 players with human speech samples.

Edited September 14, 2018 by MemberAtarian

[+SpiceWare]

Couldn't you make speak built-in, like it was with Draconian?

 

The 5 short phrases in Draconian took 4.5K to store the data, about 9000 samples packed 2 samples per byte. The Wizard is way too chatty (phrase list below the header TRIVIA) to store them as samples in ROM.

 

With the AtariVox plugged in a joyport, you lose the possibility of playing 2 players with human speech samples.

 

It supports a new version of Nathan's slick multiplexer which allows 2 joysticks to be plugged into a single port. Nathan demoed his original version at PRGE last year, Joe Decuir was quite impressed with it.

[MemberAtarian]

 

The 5 short phrases in Draconian took 4.5K to store the data, about 9000 samples packed 2 samples per byte. The Wizard is way too chatty (phrase list below the header TRIVIA) to store them as samples in ROM.

 

 

It supports a new version of Nathan's slick multiplexer which allows 2 joysticks to be plugged into a single port. Nathan demoed his original version at PRGE last year, Joe Decuir was quite impressed with it.

If it supports Nat's quadjoust-thing, then I take back my worries and... Hail to the King, baby.

[+GoldLeader]

Awesome!!

 

If this had existed back in the day, it would have been another must have and would have been a giant seller!

[+Nathan Strum]

AtariVox killer app.

[+TrekMD]

That looks fantastic!

[Atari Nut]

Is this for the 2600?

Edited September 15, 2018 by Atari Nut

[+johnnywc]

Is this for the 2600?

Yes!

Edited September 15, 2018 by johnnywc

[roryjr]

Put me down for both complete in box. Two of my favorite games.

[MemberAtarian]

Because I sold my C64 long ago and I sometimes miss my favorite games (Skramble is at least now avaiable for the VCS ), WoW is another one on my list, next one should be Flimbo's Quest. XD

[PaultheRoman]

Is the ROM for this going to be released, or is it going to be a cartridge only game? I would love to be able to play this.

[+Nathan Strum]

Is the ROM for this going to be released, or is it going to be a cartridge only game? I would love to be able to play this.

 

 

I will be posting more info as the PRGE approaches, with a playable ROM to be posted sometime after the expo.

[MemberAtarian]

I have seen the gameplay video and it's really cool on a real CRT, and I got an idea: As the Worluck appears, can you draw the pf so it's black and every third line is what, and it rolls down? Of course you can't really do a mashed one like on the real one, but a rolling one would look cool as well.

[+Trebor]

Posted under the AtariAge Twitter account...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD_GjdgOAL8

 

Playable demo at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo next month!

[AW127]

Wow, great !!! "Wizard of Wor" is one of my favourite games since my childhood, especially i like the 2-player-simultan-mode. Played and still play the C64-version of the game alot. Looking forward to the new version on the Atari VCS-2600.

[JFD62780]

Forgive me for saying, but I predict AtariVox support to be requested a TON in Stella soon after this release...

 

Even weirder, the voices here are WAY more intelligible than the original! XD

 

Not to mention the title screen ALONE! Best titlescreen for the VCS. EVER.

Edited September 24, 2018 by JFD62780

[Keatah]

IIRC there is a copyright issue with the speakjet roms. so it won't happen.