Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Really Obscure RPGs

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
There's a specific English version of Walls of Illusion, I assume it's the only translated one.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,048
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.

vorvek

Augur
Patron
Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Messages
169
Location
Tempest
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Is Rol Crusaders (1995) considered obscure? I remember seeing it in quite a few magazines in the old days, but being a Spanish game I don't know what kind of release it got outside.
PD: It's a boring piece of shit.



I'd also consider Magic & Mayhem pretty obscure, even considering it was made by Mythos. At least, I never heard it mentioned

Magic%26mayhem_screenshot2.JPG
 

V_K

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
7,714
Location
at a Nowhere near you
PD: It's a boring piece of shit.
Could you elaborate? I never saw the English version, all the abandonware places only had the Spanish one (back when I bothered to look that is, which is some years ago), and I don't know the language.
EDIT: looked at the video. I'm pretty sure google translate wasn't a thing in 1995, yet the English translation looks like it was made by it.

I'd also consider Magic & Mayhem pretty obscure, even considering it was made by Mythos. At least, I never heard it mentioned
Magic and Mayhem
I might be wrong on the obscurity of that one - it's a Julian Gollop game after all - but I don't see it being talked about all that much here.
Right there on the 4th page and almost verbatim :lol:
 
Last edited:

vorvek

Augur
Patron
Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Messages
169
Location
Tempest
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Could you elaborate? I never saw the English version, all the abandonware places only had the Spanish one (back when I bothered to look that is, which is some years ago), and I don't know the language.
EDIT: looked at the video. I'm pretty sure google translate wasn't a thing in 1995, yet the English translation looks like it was made by it.

I never played it back in the day, when I tried it a few years ago I got bored during the first area. It's just very repetitive. However, I recall something that's no in the video; every time you kill an enemy, you get a cool rotoscoped animation of their death that stops the action and takes the whole screen. There didn't seem to be a lot more to the game; stats wise it looked like a mess when creating the characters, as if not a lot of thought was put into the character system itself.

I'd also consider Magic & Mayhem pretty obscure, even considering it was made by Mythos. At least, I never heard it mentioned
Magic and Mayhem
I might be wrong on the obscurity of that one - it's a Julian Gollop game after all - but I don't see it being talked about all that much here.
Right there on the 4th page and almost verbatim :lol:

Fek, I went through the whole thread before posting. Must have skipped a page.

Wanted to post The Fall: Last Days of Gaia, but somebody had posted it already. However, nobody posted THE GREATEST MAIN THEME IN THE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMS.

 

jhanson

Barely Literate
Joined
Jul 8, 2018
Messages
4
Hey, I saw The Scent of War I. - Damn Those Demons mentioned on here so I thought I'd sign up so I could comment. I wrote that game with a friend of mine when I was in high school. The download link on my website has been busted for a while, but I just fixed it. No guarantees that it will run, or be fun even if it does. Anyway, the website is jhanson.com.

If you have any questions about the game or anything, I'd be happy to answer them. In short, I made it for a school project in 1995/1996 and ended up uploading it to a bunch of BBSes (because I'm old) and eventually some early gaming websites as shareware. It sold a few hundred copies and paid for our beer in college.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Thanks.
Note - There is a known bug that causes some save files to not load correctly on certain non-US systems. This was present in the original game, and is probably still there now.
I get this error, but manually replacing the ","s by "."s in the save file seems to make it load fine.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
What's the combat like in Scent of War?
If it's blobber style, Ultima V style, or better, it sounds worth a try. I assume it's turn based?
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
That looks like the typical shareware trash from the 90s. Also, some of the pics are repeated.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Let me relay Enrymion 's suggestion for The Earth Lords ("registered" version available here) because after exploring around the first town and some part of the first dungeon I think it's a good game.

Encounter rate is high but you can flee. As a warrior combat is not that much to talk about, it's not particularly bad nor good.
Battlefields can be interesting. In the second one here I can't reach the enemies, a good architect skill (some points + the good tool) could probably do the trick, in the first one I can use missile weapons (actually my magical wand) to target creatures upside the hole that can't fight back.
I think you can stumble upon battles with enemies fighting each others.

The reason why I like the game is that it's heavy on stats. You've got freedom about allocating your points (you can buy spells, although I'm playing as a warrior, there are 9 races and classes to choose from) :
You've got 40 equipment slot that you'll especially fill with various utility items which will help you swim, climb...

And those various stats are used.
In the first dungeon there's what appears to be a shortcut to the upper floor via climbing, my climbing skill is to low despite owning claws so I needed to use a jump book (single used jump spell) to jump upside a hole further. You may notice that there's also a note I cannot read there.
There are also place I can't go to outdoor, I can now swim due to my flippers but I can't cross the forest, and the map I found seems to lead into the mountain that I can't climb because of my poor mountaineering score.
Also got my first magical sword, up to there I needed to use a rechargeable wand to attack creatures immuned to non-magical damage.


There's ton of stuff to spend your gold on, including levelling-up whose cost significantly increases and recharing various tools.

The game is hard. There's an undergroung floor in the first dungeon with ghosts which currently are too hard for me. The world appears to be big. Monsters on the map to the east of the first town aren't that hard, but the ones in the castle there are strong. My character is currently at level 10 and the trainers in the first town can't get me higher, but I can't reach a next town without dying (nor fleeing).
 

jhanson

Barely Literate
Joined
Jul 8, 2018
Messages
4
There are a few cheats build into Scent of War if anyone is interested. i used to send these to anyone who registered. There might be more but these are all I can remember.

1. When you create a character, enter the name as "AURA OF PROTECTION" There will be a Hit Points button available on the stat rolling screen that lets you set your HP up to 255.
2. Also on character creation, there are two red ovals near the top of the race selection screen. If you click one of them (I can't remember which one) it'll give you a special race and allow you to choose a special class that only goes along with that race.
3. On the main menu, if you highlight the Exit button and hit Ctrl+Alt+F1, it'll open a cheat menu that lets you start at different points in the game and play as special characters, one of which is me.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom