Replaying Wiz7, or 6, or...

[Skeezix]

Hey everyone [img]smile.gif[/img]

I've often been tempted to go back and play Wiz7 again.. it destroyed virtually a whole summer of mine a decade back. Since playing Wiz8 I've "had the itch". I never did much play Wiz6 (Bane).

Given emulation it seems possible to locate andplay the Amiga version of Bane of Cosmic Forge (perhaps snazzier than the PC version which I think was EGA?), though not sure if characters woudl be transferrable to the PC version of Savant...

I know not many play Wiz 1 through 5 since they're a series and you need to do them all and they're sort of nasty .. or do you?

Anyway, have many of late done the 6,7,8 series in a row? Any tricks to know? IS 6 worth playing these days, or is the UI just too painful to stand? (I'm an emulation author; a lot of games you go back to just make you suffer, though the classics never die....

ie: Wiz7; at the time I used the mouse for the whole works, but I wouldn't be able to stand that anymore.. I'd need to be able to use the keyboard to manage the fights. A shame it woudln't have the "keep last moves" sort of settings like Wiz8 has.

I'll fetch DOSBox and start installing and see how it goes; playing Wiz7 and Wiz8 should be okay; Gold doesn't seem useful.. no real improvements over Wiz7 as far as I can tell? Just not sure about Wiz6 [img]smile.gif[/img]

jeff

[Nightowl2]

Yeah, I consider Wiz 6 worth playing. It was the first Wizardry with true graphics and actual outdoor scenes. The games does get a bit too philosophical at times, and of course the visuals are ancient by modern standards. However, if you can live with that, go for it. Just don't expect it to be a lot like Wiz 8 was. On the othetr hand, changing classes is much more advantageous in this game.

Nightowl2

P.S. The only time you "have" to play in order is Wiz 1 --> Wiz 2, because in Knight of Diamonds, you had to transfer your team over from the first game; you couldn't start a new bunch. Aside from that, you can really play the games in any order you choose.

[Ziggurat]

I have to agree with NightOwl2, Wiz 6 is still worth playing. The graphics are horrible but you get a feel for the game. Just talking about it makes me want to play it again! It has alot of variety like Wiz 7. You will see some similarities in all 3 games (Wiz 6-8). I coudn't finish Wiz 5, maybe I'll try again later. The mazes in Wiz 6 are a bit tough, especially the Dwarven Mines, but not as bad as Eye of the Beholder 1. It's almost as good as Wiz 7 and has similar humor. It has multiple endings, a simplified stat system, some nudity, some frustration (I used the bats in the belfry to pump my party up, a bit time consuming but pays off later).

If you get stuck on a quest or how to get somewhere, you can resort to a walkthru or other hints on the Net. It doesn't have a map system, but you can imagine most of it in your head or can use pen and paper (I never do). I also recommend writing down all hints. You also need MoSlo, a utility to slow down the text messages. Easy to install. Just use "MoSlo Bane" instead of "Bane" (or whatever) to start the game.

[ 07-21-2003, 05:51 PM: Message edited by: Ziggurat ]

[KaneBloodstorm]

Does Wizardry 6 and 7 work on WinXP? I'd really like to play the entire storyline if possible but since I've yet to see anything older than 8 in a store I'm unsure of the sys req. and I have had tons of problems getting older games to work.

[Skeezix]

Originally posted by KaneBloodstorm: Does Wizardry 6 and 7 work on WinXP? I'd really like to play the entire storyline if possible but since I've yet to see anything older than 8 in a store I'm unsure of the sys req. and I have had tons of problems getting older games to work.

There is an application called DOSBox that is a DOS emulator; it runs perfectly on Windows XP (and various Unixes, etc). Its opern source freeware.. good stuff. IT even emulates Adlib and such, so you get thwe true original ful experience, for the rest of time.

Get it from Sourceforge.. do a google search for "sourceforge dosbox" and it'll come up (I just installed it onto my laptop an hour ago, so I recall the google [img]smile.gif[/img]

Run the installer.

Create a virtual disk C.. I created \wingames\dosbox-c

Extract DSAVANT into that. (Dt expects to be in the root directory of its drive, so in my case its \wingames\dosbox-c\dsavant)

Run dosbox and a text window pops up;

Do "mount C: \wingames\dosbox-c"
Do "C:"
Do "cd dsavant"
Do "play"

Voila! You're playing it!

I've got the Wiz7 floppies, as well as the Wizardry Archives Cd, so I'm covered. I'm sure you can find it around on the net.

jeff

[Skeezix]

Thanks Ziggurat and NightOwl2 ..

I may take a stab at Bane; I really loved Wiz7 back in the day, so hopefully I can get over Bane.

Do you know if keyboard can be made to work? I dont' recall keyboard in Wiz7 back in the day, but I see a help card scanned on some of the Wiz7 sites, and that suggests you can cursor around to pick a key. That would be amazing.. Having to click Fight/Fight/Parry/Dodge/Fight/Cast/Fight/Go every combat round is brutal :/

I might just play Wiz8 again though.. easily the best of the bunch, and one of the very best games ever.

OR maybe I'll play Captive or Dungeon Master on the ST.. been having the itch for my retro RPGers [img]smile.gif[/img]

(And never beat Baldurs Gate 2 either...)

I really wish there was an editor for Wiz8 (or even Wiz7) to let us edit the dungeons; I'd love to play the Wiz8 system on user made dungeons.

jeff

[KaneBloodstorm]

Thanks alot for that info. I'll try an get that tonight and test it out with my old Dungeon Hack game [img]smile.gif[/img]

[SecretMaster]

Definately play Crusaders of the Dark Savant, by far the greatest game of the 3 series. And the graphics aren't bad.

[Ziggurat]

A small reminder, if I may: Wiz 5-7 are by D.W. Bradley, who also did Wizards and Warriors. It is a decent game, in some ways harder. I like this game, it is worth a try. He goes for complexity. Unfortunately, this makes the interface difficult. And there are some bugs. It doesn't seem to have the replay attraction of Wiz 8 but they have more messages than Wiz 8 on their board. Part of this may be the bugs, but there are more quests. The graphics are almost as good as Wiz 8, and definately better than Wiz 7. Some people call it Wiz 7.5.

[Skeezix]

Originally posted by Ziggurat: A small reminder, if I may: Wiz 5-7 are by D.W. Bradley, who also did Wizards and Warriors. It is a decent game, in some ways harder. I like this game, it is worth a try. He goes for complexity. Unfortunately, this makes the interface difficult. And there are some bugs. It doesn't seem to have the replay attraction of Wiz 8 but they have more messages than Wiz 8 on their board. Part of this may be the bugs, but there are more quests. The graphics are almost as good as Wiz 8, and definately better than Wiz 7. Some people call it Wiz 7.5.

I picked up Wiz&War just because it was DWBradley, awhile back. NEed to find out if he did anythign else, too [img]smile.gif[/img]

I installed it, and the fish-eye-style of the first person perspective drove me crazy; I found myself disoriented, and being cvhased in real time by various critters.. made the first 20 mins not really fun [img]smile.gif[/img] I'll have to give it another try though.. I just skipped it and went back to Wiz8 [img]smile.gif[/img]

Jeff