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Incline Faustus - Old & forgotten RPG from the depths of shareware hell

thesheeep

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Since many, many years I had flashbacks from "that one game" I played on my 486 when I was about 9 years old.
I even remembered the name "Dr. Faustus" or "Faustus" or something like that... No amount of searching will yield anything. Trust me, I tried.

It took me 20 years to accidentally discover the dusty old remains of a shareware disk in its (broken) jewel box somewhere in my old room at my parent's place a few days ago.

So I fired up dosbox, installed Win 3.11, started the disk and there I saw it, in a shareware disk installer as ugly as only the 90s could make them.
I googled the name of the author and the other people written in the (both German and English) readmes, but nothing. Maybe some of you can come up with more - and maybe this is actually known already under a different name.

Of course, I played for a few minutes. To be honest, ancient games "like that" are simply not my taste any more, but it's not shit and I know this will hit a sweet spot for some of you (and I'll point a few abandonware sites to this as well), so there you go.

This is the very definition of forgotten, so you better pour a glass of ye olde whiskey you saved for rare occasions:

Faustus

(c) Copyright 1995 by Harald Buettner

FAUSTUS is a DOS fantasy game that you start by typing > FSTART <.
These four characters belong to the group:
- the elf
- the mage
- the dwarf
- the warrior.
The elf and the mage have some special capabilities (mana).
You can only reach the final with all characters.
If you lose one, all of the others will give up.
You have to fulfill all jobs in order to reach the final.
The current hit and mana points are shown graphically and by worth under
each character. The screens you have already been on are shown on a map
by hitting F10. As far as you go away from the beginning the stronger
the enemies become. You can`t walk on mountains, walls, houses, and rivers.
To win a fight or forfill a job, raises your experience points and brings
you to higher levels. Higher levels will give you more hit points, mana,
courage, skill and so on. If you rest you become regenerated. To eat keeps
you alive. The value of your food is shown in hours at the bottom right
hand corner. Also level, score, used time and gold. But the time is the
most important factor for the highscore. The non registered version allows
you to play about 20% of the total map.
Have fun playing!!!

Took a few screenshots for you (some don't even look bad, while some are butt ugly):
hgFz0QX.png

The eyes even glow yellow in an animation!

xiYHPmA.png

Ugh! My eyes!

lzLxT8z.png

hopw roewur ne

0TN6LbH.png

Before you ask: The characters are fixed.

xZ1jGrQ.png

Running around in the mountains. Not sure why, though.

praJZZV.png

Trading, too!

zLcwqZI.png

The inventory/char/ability screen - all at once!

rzQvAjy.png

Combat screen.

2js2IPh.png

You can rest, too. Note how all eyes except for the char on guard are closed! Unlimited detail!

Can't say anything about the sound as I just don't hear it. Not sure if it's a problem with my dosbox or if the game simply doesn't have any sound. I tested with Descent and there all the sound works just fine so maybe there really isn't anything here.

I must say, the combat system is actually a rarely seen idea:
It is turn-based, but you do not have a turn per character.
Instead you have one turn for your whole party and can determine what each character will do (attack by default) until "ending" the turn. Then each character does his action and the enemies do the same.

Have some goodness from the readme, too (thank this forum for fucking up the formatting):
!!! If you sell anything you'll get half the sales price !!!
WGT = Weight of the weapon
AT = Value that this weapon adds to your attack value
PA = Value that this weapon adds to your parry value
DAM = damage points of this weapon
? = You will find out
+--------------------+-----+---+----+----+----+-------------------------+---+
| W E A P O N |PRICE|WGT| | | | Who may use this weapon |TO |
| | | | AT | PA |DAM | ELF |MAGE |DWARF|WARRIOR|BUY|
+--------------------+-----+---+----+----+----+-----+-----+-----+-------+---+
| normal arrow | 30 | 5| 0 | 0 | 5 | YES | YES | YES | YES |YES|
| red arrow | 150 | 5| ? | ? | ? | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO|
| black arrow | 150 | 5| ? | ? | ? | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO|
| green arrow | 150 | 5| ? | ? | ? | YES | YES | YES | YES | NO|
| knife | 15 | 10| 0 | -5 | 0 | YES | YES | YES | YES |YES|
| mace | 60 | 20| 0 | -3 | 2 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| dagger | 180 | 40| 0 | 0 | 2 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| short bow | 195 | 20| 0 | -5 | 3 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| long bow | 600 | 30| 0 | -3 | 5 | YES | NO | NO | YES |YES|
| sword | 240 | 40| 0 | -1 | 3 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| sabre | 300 | 60| 0 | 0 | 3 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| spear | 360 |110| -1 | -1 | 4 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| ball and chain | 420 |150| 0 | -2 | 4 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| battle axe | 480 | 80| 0 | 0 | 4 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| long sword | 600 |120| 1 | 0 | 4 | YES | NO | NO | YES |YES|
| bastard sword | 600 |140| 1 | -3 | 5 | YES | NO | NO | YES |YES|
| war hammer | 660 |150| 1 | 1 | 6 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| 2-handed sword | 750 |160| 2 | -2 | 6 | YES | NO | NO | YES |YES|
| morningstar | 700 |150| 1 | -3 | 6 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| barbarian axe | 900 |150| 3 | -2 | 8 | NO | NO | NO | YES |YES|
| magic warrior sword|1400 |200| 2 | 0 | 14 | NO | NO | NO | YES | NO|
| dwarf axe |1000 |100| 3 | 1 | 11 | NO | NO | YES | NO | NO|
| large elf bow | 600 | 30| 0 | -2 | 11 | YES | NO | NO | NO | NO|
+--------------------+-----+----+---+----+----+-----+-----+-----+-------+---+

!!! If you sell anything you'll get half the sales price !!!
+--------------------+-----+------+-----+-------------------------+---+
| A R M O R |PRICE|WEIGHT|ARMOR| Who may wear this armor |TO |
| | | |CLASS| ELF | MAGE|DWARF|WARRIOR|BUY|
+--------------------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+---+
| studded leather | 100| 40 | 2 | YES | YES | YES | YES |YES|
| hard leather armor | 200| 70 | 3 | YES | YES | YES | YES |YES|
| chain mail | 360| 100 | 4 | YES | YES | YES | YES |YES|
| full plate armor | 540| 150 | 5 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| mithril shirt | 2500| 50 | 8 | NO | NO | YES | NO | NO|
| red magic robe | 3000| 5 | 8 | NO | YES | NO | NO | NO|
| wooden shield | 90| 25 | 1 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| metal shield | 180| 50 | 2 | YES | NO | YES | YES |YES|
| large steel shield | 800| 75 | 4 | NO | NO | NO | YES | NO|
+--------------------+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+---+
Is that :bounce: or what?

And here is the full package (feel free to upload somewhere else, too):
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=49151902454917184457
or
http://www.filedropper.com/faustus
 
Last edited:

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
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Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,756
It would be interesting to make a list of games that would be better without graphics (other than ASCII characters).

Starting with this one.
 
Last edited:

Infinitron

I post news
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Messages
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I must say, the combat system is actually a rarely seen idea:
It is turn-based, but you do not have a turn per character.
Instead you have one turn for your whole party and can determine what each character will do (attack by default) until "ending" the turn. Then each character does his action and the enemies do the same.

AKA standard 1980s blobber combat.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,228
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Hey, I wonder if we can track this guy down like we did Dr. Dungeon.

Harald Buettner, M. Rossi.

And here are the names and addresses from the readme:

MARION BUCKLEY
P.O. BOX 278
SEARSPORT / ME
04974
U.S.A.

GERHARD GAEBLER
ALEXANDER-DIEHL STRASSE 3
55130 MAINZ
GERMANY
FIDO-Net: 2:245/5542

That's something to start with.

Looks like there is a Marion Buckley from Swanville, a town near Searsport.
 

thesheeep

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
9,939
Location
Tampere, Finland
Codex 2012 Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I must say, the combat system is actually a rarely seen idea:
It is turn-based, but you do not have a turn per character.
Instead you have one turn for your whole party and can determine what each character will do (attack by default) until "ending" the turn. Then each character does his action and the enemies do the same.

AKA standard 1980s blobber combat.
All the games I remember from the 90s did not have combat like that.
And Faust is from 1995, even if it doesn't really look like that.
Guess I'm too young for this shit :lol:
 
Last edited:

Zandig Slaytanic

Educated
Joined
Oct 8, 2015
Messages
58
Some dungeon screenshots.
Was the first dungeon I came across on the overland map. Plays sort of like a party rogue-like

Skeleton of doom :
Faustus-1a.jpg


Automap - after finding the automap diamond :
Faustus-2a.jpg


Found the dungeon exit :
Faustus-3a.jpg
 

Iznaliu

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 28, 2016
Messages
3,686
Will this be covered on the CRPG Addict? Since if it's not on his list, you might want to send it to him.
 

ushas

Savant
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
550
Hey, why not. Looks it can scratch a dungeoneering-on-travels itch. Thanks :salute:
Characters are fixed, but you can change their names.

As it's shareware, shouldn't we expect some stopper? From the readme:
The non registered version allows you to play about 20% of the total map.
If you would like to play FAUSTUS until the final, you're requested to
become a registered user sending us your complete name, address and the
indicated license/registration fee. We hope that you will agree that
the US $15.00 license fee is a small price to pay for this game.
Alternatively, one can mail 20 Deutsche Mark. If you have some leftovers, that's probably cheaper today. :)

Really liking that shopping tabular interface.
Reusing thesheeep's screen:
praJZZV.png

By arrows up/down you browse items, arrows left/right switch party members, and keys +/- increase/decrease amount to buy or sell. Enter to confirm it all... No nonsense.

Stumbled upon a witch!
Faustus1995_witch1.png
Let's choose G. What could possibly go wrong?

Btw. dungeons are mapped automatically, no need of diamonds.
 

ushas

Savant
Joined
Jan 5, 2015
Messages
550
Really liking that shopping tabular interface.

Why? It looks like a cross between a scoreboard and a backgammon set.
Well, perhaps because I don't care so much how it looks as how it works.
Most of the games offer only one axis to move in menus. But then you have to escape to the previous one in the hierarchy to choose different character, or have to buy items individually, etc. All in all appreciating how simple it can become in a simple game. They could put around some fancy graphics, no problem.

What do you have against scoreboards, by the way?
 

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