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Cadaver, The Immortal, Hillsfar...

Fowyr

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octavius
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It's the thread for original :obviously: popamole games. Most of them not even cRPGs, strictly speaking, but surely took a lot from them.
Thread is more suitable for General Gaming, but most of people who know about these games probably have more interests here.

So, what do you think about them?

The Immortal, good dungeon crawler/adventure game with arcade combat and without stats.
Cadaver and Cadaver: Payoff, absolutely awesome dungeon romp with hard puzzles.
Hillsfar: retarded red-headed stepchild of Goldboxes.

Heroes of the Lance. Al-qadim: The Genie's Curse and other cRPG hybrids. Bring them on!
 
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Melan

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! I helped put crap in Monomyth
Don't forget Times of Lore, a.k.a. Baby's First Ultima.

Times%20of%20Lore_5.png


(It was a decentish Ultima-lite)
 

Unkillable Cat

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Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
I've always wanted, but never had the chance yet, to play Cadaver. I'll do so when I get around to setting up an Amiga (one way or another).

The Immortal looked real snazzy in those magazine reviews back in the day, but after reading an LP of it some years back I'm not that hot for it.

Hillsfar always felt to me like "Fantasy Games", from the people that brought us Summer Games, Winter Games and California Games.

Heroes of the Lance I played on the Amstrad CPC many years ago, it looked like this and played real slow:

166769-heroes-of-the-lance-amstrad-cpc-screenshot-starting-out.png


Otherwise it felt very similar to playing Shadow of the Beast.
 

CryptRat

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Elvira and Waxworks are the first games which come to mind.

From vague memories :
Obitus was fun.
obitus01.jpg

Darkmere too :
Darkmere-2.png

I need to find some time to replay these games.
 
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octavius
Unkillable Cat
Luzur


It's the thread for original :obviously: popamole games. Most of them not even cRPGs, strictly speaking, but surely took a lot from them.
Thread is more suitable for General Gaming, but most of people who know about these games probably have more interests here.

So, what do you think about them?

The Immortal, good dungeon crawler/adventure game with arcade combat and without stats.
Cadaver and Cadaver: Payoff, absolutely awesome dungeon romp with hard puzzles.
Hillsfar: retarded red-headed stepchild of Goldboxes.

Heroes of the Lance. Al-qadim: The Genie's Curse and other cRPG hybrids. Bring them on!


I really enjoyed Hillsfar, way back when I was playing the Gold Box series of games. Hillsfar was a fun game, it was a bit tough on certain classes (thieves, I think), but it was still fun.

As for your sig, I think it sucks ass and you are truly to be pitied.
 

CryptRat

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I also remember playing a demo of Heimdall 2 and the game looked quite interesting, but I don't think I ever played the full game.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Keys to Maramon.
The game looks cool. Are there any job-related abilities?

If memory serves, the main difference between characters was starting stats and inventory. I think the ranger was best because he had good stats and a ranged attack. Blacksmith was the strongest and had a hammer, wizard was piss weak but had expensive wands, and I think there was a woman, too.
 

resilient sphere

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what Cadaver achieves in graphical eloquence with its 16-colour metallic palette still has to be seen to be believed. Bitmap Bros were miles ahead of the game back then
 

octavius

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Hillsfar never tempted me, with all it's "twitch" mini-games.

Cadaver was a game I missed back in the days, but that I wanted to play, since it reminded me of the great, classic ZX Spectrum game Fairlight. I tried to play it with an emulator some years ago, but I think the controls were too clunky to my liking. On the Cadaver entry on my play list I've just written "Need joystick".
Similarly with The Immortal: "Action game with bad controls".

Actually I haven't played any of the games mentioned in this thread, only tried a couple of them.
Games like Times of Lore and Keys to Maramon look too simplistic to my taste. I actually bought a copy of Maramon, but I don't think I ever opened the box.
 

Mortmal

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One everyone forgot , dragon's breath. You could breed your dragons then attack and conquer settlements with them arcade style.


Moonstone , must play too:


battlemaster, fun popamole with some rpg elements:


Fun and original popamole that means browsing through all the amiga library, try the cinewares games too.
 

Fowyr

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I just finished first level of Cadaver to refresh my memory. It's still as fun as I remember it. It has some bad parts. For example UI could be better and throwing stones are pretty derpy weapon with their arc. Saving games for gold is not my favorite mechanic as well, but I understand its merits. Also it makes all dungeon treasures useful instead of just "1343 points collected!"
Puzzles are interesting, but not too impossible, there is some sort of reason for dungeon layout and there are a lot of obscure things that you could do. Some "side quests" bring additional items, there are several solutions for some quests and, after all, dragon is hilarious.

By the way, does anyone have full Cadaver manual? My version of Cadaver: Payoff requires protection codes and I could not find them anywhere. It's apparently 5-digits numbers in some sort of grid (H 34, for example).
 

ghostdog

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I don't know if they could be called popamole, but certainly rpg-lite:

Veil of Darkness: Action/Adventure with just a fleeing resemblance to RPGs but with a great atmosphere and some neat ideas.

CvfutuH.jpg




Elvira, Mistress of the Dark: Another Action/Adventure with some rpg elements, but this time with a heavy dungeon crawling element. You can die in many gruesome and fun ways.

zFoZfzw.jpg




WaxWorks: By the same dudes that made Elvira, very similar game, but with a stronger horror element and even more gruesome deaths.

YteoAcK.jpg




It Came From The Desert: It has zero RPG elements, but since Cinemaware was mentioned, and this is such a special little game, I just had to mention it. Your goal is to investigate a meteor crash near a desert town and eventually save the town and yourself from the horrific dangers it spawns. It has adventure, action and survival elements and it's pretty non-linear.

it-came-from-the-desert_2.gif
 

Fowyr

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Veil of Darkness: Action/Adventure with just a fleeing resemblance to RPGs but with a great atmosphere and some neat ideas.
Yea, it almost looks like mod for Summoning, only without stats. Protip: don't turn combat difficulty up. It's just not fun due to lack of character and item progression. Most of monsters vulnerable only to one special weapon. Will-o-wisps to torch, skeletons to silver sword and so on.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark: Another Action/Adventure with some rpg elements, but this time with a heavy dungeon crawling element. You can die in many gruesome and fun ways.
Don't forget about Elvira 2 :Jaws of Cerberus with one of the most interesting magic systems in video game history. Spells require material components that literally litter the game. But first you need to think. See this poster? It's component of Fireball, 'cause it requires flammable material. See this tuning fork? It's component for Magic Muscles, that needs three metal items. Have you used it? Lol, man, it's component of Lightning Bolts as well! It needs amethyst and anything fork-shaped. Anything! Oh, you used it? Have I told you that this item used in puzzle? Start new game! Fuck, I love Elvira 2!
 

Kev Inkline

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A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The Faery Tale Adventure by David Joiner, released on the Amiga in 1987, is a real-time RPG that's light on many RPG elements
I have friend who each year up boots his Amiga and plays through this, he's been doing this for the past 20 years. He also casts d100 wih a single die, first tens, then single digits.

I have tried to help him to quit his filfthy habits, but to no avail. Disgusting!
 
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Tangled Tales (Origin Systems) :

Funny RPG lite adventure based on the same UI that Knights of Legend or Times of Lore. Much more engrossing than these last two ones.
 
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Grauken

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The Immortal: not sure which level, I think fourth or so, the octopus always killed me and I never learned how to get past him
Cadaver: always wanted to play this
Hillsfar: never wanted to play this

another popamole game: Entomorph

big disappointment though, as if the designers of it had never played a good game of this type before, and at that point in time it was hardly a new genre (though more strong on console), gameplay is decidedly subpar, terrible controls, awful level design, lots of other stuff , but music was pretty sweet and the world and the main plot was kinda interesting, otherwise I wouldn't have finished
 

CryptRat

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It Came From The Desert: It has zero RPG elements, but since Cinemaware was mentioned, and this is such a special little game, I just had to mention it. Your goal is to investigate a meteor crash near a desert town and eventually save the town and yourself from the horrific dangers it spawns. It has adventure, action and survival elements and it's pretty non-linear.

it-came-from-the-desert_2.gif
Which version would you recommend?
 

ghostdog

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It Came From The Desert: It has zero RPG elements, but since Cinemaware was mentioned, and this is such a special little game, I just had to mention it. Your goal is to investigate a meteor crash near a desert town and eventually save the town and yourself from the horrific dangers it spawns. It has adventure, action and survival elements and it's pretty non-linear.

it-came-from-the-desert_2.gif
Which version would you recommend?
Well, back in the day I played the DOS version and it was fine, but the obvious choice is the original Amiga version that looks and sounds much better.
Do a search for thecompany.pl, you'll find it bundled in an .exe so you don't have to fiddle with an emulator.
 

CryptRat

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Thanks (and sorry for spamming the thread).
 

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