Realms of Quest IV in the works.

[Luzur]

found on lemon64:

I spent much of 2009 developing REALMS OF QUEST III for the VIC-20. It was also published by Psytronik Software.

I thought it over yesterday and I decided to make a sequel, this time for the C64, hence the name "Realms of Quest sixty-IV". Not sure if that will be the final title, but it's a working one.

Just like Realms III, I start off with a "proof of concept" mockup screen:

You can find out about how I developped Realms III for the VIC-20 here: http://sleepingelephant.com/ip...mp;start=0

You can view a video of Realms III here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DMBlCaDlD8

That game was my first-ever, 100% machine language effort. While I've done games for the C64 before, I've never really used that machine's full graphical and sound capability. I will definitely be using sprite graphics for the monsters.

I know that it will be very difficult to compete with the huge library of already-available RPG games for the C64 that can be downloaded (Pool of Radiance, Ultima IV, etc), but I think that if I use an interface similar that Realms III for the VIC-20 had, it will be very playable.

2010 for me is shaping up to be a year where I will have less personal time available to me, so I envision that the game won't be completed until 2011. I'll probably have more free time starting in September where I can see myself to get seriously started.

As far as system requirements go, only a disk drive + stock c64 will be needed. I want to make sure that the game doesn't use more than 170KB (it should all fit on a single disk side).

I'll post updates as I have them in this thread. Hopefully, I can see this get published by Psytronik again. One reason I'm making a c64 game this time is because I want the package to include games I made for that machine as well (the Realms III game disk also contained 20+ games I had made over the years for the VIC-20).

 

[Luzur]

no interest at all?

FFS and you guys call yourself old school home boys.

 

[Mortmal]

Hey , i just diddnt see it yet!
But its true, manyf codexers are huge hypocrits creaming their pants when looking at the latest ACTION/rpg . They want dragon age 2 , they want mass effect 3 , they want elderscrolls 5 and are delighted at the thought of playing it then pretending hating it on forum. You will have a torrent of posts for anything bioware of bethesda related, a few posts for anything else.

 

[Jaesun]

You are almost as bad of a troll as Jim Profit Mortmal.

 

[Mortmal]

Dragon Age 2 Announced 8545 views, Roguelike Updates - Using More Blue Pills 410 views

Seems like i am on msn with jaesun, instant answers hehe, and no i wont shut up, well sort if going to bed now.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Hey, I'm old school but I'm not old. Fuck that purple shit and its "inentory". Wake me when this fucker figures out how to spellcheck.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

No, Mortmal is mainly correct. There are a few people lurking about that will enjoy this one, such as myself and Luzur, but most of the others are either from a different era, have gone Hollywood, or hate reading...etc etc.

Naturally I am interested as I am one of the main people that bugged him to do a C64 version! It isn't like he is doing it for the money anyway, he just loves doing CRPG's for his Commodores, and that is a respectable mission. Definately buying this one when she comes out.

As for the current look of the screen, read the damn text that he has written. It is a proof of concept screen you dopey horse, and the screen colours are the native splash screen colours of the C64. Teaching the children can be a bore sometimes....

Luzur, have you heard any more about that Ultimate Newcomer version that was supposed to have been out by now?

 

[Zed]

I haven't got a C64
Wish I had, though.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I still enjoy old/old-style games... but there're people who still have working Vic 20s and C64s? Really? Or is there some type of emulation scene?

Actually, if you had a working Commodore, how would you get the program to it? It wouldn't work if you wrote the 5 1/4" disk from a PC since the file would be downloaded from the net, would it? *feels retarded for asking* My C64 and drive are long gone and even if I could find them in storage at my dad's or something, would almost certainly be unusable these days.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I still enjoy old/old-style games... but there're people who still have working Vic 20s and C64s? Really? Or is there some type of emulation scene?

Actually, if you had a working Commodore, how would you get the program to it? It wouldn't work if you wrote the 5 1/4" disk from a PC since the file would be downloaded from the net, would it? *feels retarded for asking* My C64 and drive are long gone and even if I could find them in storage at my dad's or something, would almost certainly be unusable these days.

Yes, we have C64's, Amiga's, etc, all set up and in full working order (Luzur has a lot more than...most people on the planet though. Ask for his photo's nicely). Games can be easily ported using a nifty little device that can be bought or made yourself, then your 1541 c64 disk drive connects to your PC, and with a small bit of free software, you can copy any disk images directly to 5 1/4. Amiga is a little more convoluted in its process, but again not very difficult to do.

And yes, there is also emulation. Try Winvice as a nice starter, and go to gamebase 64 for any disk images you might like to try out.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Thanks for the info.

 

[clockradiospeakers]

Aside from the novelty of being developed for old hardware, are these Realms of Quest games actually worth playing? (That is, how well do they hold up compared to the Phantasie games or early Ultimas, which are cited as influences.)

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Aside from the novelty of being developed for old hardware, are these Realms of Quest games actually worth playing? (That is, how well do they hold up compared to the Phantasie games or early Ultimas, which are cited as influences.)

Yes, though you have to realise that this is the first of them he is making for the C64. The last versions were for the VIC 20, which was the previous commodore machine and had far less power. No way could you have made Pool of Radiance or Ultima IV on it. So, this will be the one to see whether they will compete on equal terms.

What is good about him too is his anal retentiveness. He is a fairly driven guy, and his work shows this, not to mention that he seems to enjoy making the best game, of this type, that he can. He doesn't cite these games as influences; he cites them as rivals, another good sign.

As for whether they are playable to you...only you can answer that. Go and start up Phantasie or an Ultima, Bards Tale, whatever on a C64 (or emulator) and get back to us with the answer.

Edit: the only thing that doesn't sound promising is the game is planned for only one disk side. This may speak against plenty of content, but we shall see what his full plans are as we go.

 

[clockradiospeakers]

As for whether they are playable to you...only you can answer that. Go and start up Phantasie or an Ultima, Bards Tale, whatever on a C64 (or emulator) and get back to us with the answer.

Haha, uh. I have. And I like them (well, less so Bard's Tale), which is why I was asking how this compares.

Anyways, I'll be looking forward to it. If this (the C64 one) is good enough to rival PoR or Ultima IV, I will be goddamn impressed.

 

[kris]

No, Mortmal is mainly correct. There are a few people lurking about that will enjoy this one, such as myself and Luzur, but most of the others are either from a different era, have gone Hollywood, or hate reading...etc etc.

Hate reading? That makes no sense. The amount of "reading" in games like this is minimal compared to the one that I like best and still nothing compared to these modern games we like to complain about.

Unless you count every line of "hits for 10 hitpoints!" as the reading part.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Looking forward to seeing how this goes, myself. I'm hoping it emphasises the puzzle-focusses wing of that genre. Even at the time I could never get all that excited about crunching through mobs, but the map puzzles and logistical challenge (conserving your spells appropriately) of the first few wizardrys was awesome.

 

[hitfan]

Aside from the novelty of being developed for old hardware, are these Realms of Quest games actually worth playing? (That is, how well do they hold up compared to the Phantasie games or early Ultimas, which are cited as influences.)

Yes, though you have to realise that this is the first of them he is making for the C64. The last versions were for the VIC 20, which was the previous commodore machine and had far less power. No way could you have made Pool of Radiance or Ultima IV on it. So, this will be the one to see whether they will compete on equal terms.

What is good about him too is his anal retentiveness. He is a fairly driven guy, and his work shows this, not to mention that he seems to enjoy making the best game, of this type, that he can. He doesn't cite these games as influences; he cites them as rivals, another good sign.

As for whether they are playable to you...only you can answer that. Go and start up Phantasie or an Ultima, Bards Tale, whatever on a C64 (or emulator) and get back to us with the answer.

Edit: the only thing that doesn't sound promising is the game is planned for only one disk side. This may speak against plenty of content, but we shall see what his full plans are as we go.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, everybody! Full disclosure: I've not worked on this much in the past few months since starting it. I would hate for this project to become vaporware as I lose interest in it after a bit of fanfare of having announced it on the lemon64 forum. I don't have nearly as much free time as I did last year as well.

The development of Realms III in 2009 was an amazing 8-month process where I actually worked on this thing for 4-8 hours a day. I even started to feel hatred and contempt for the project, but I worked through this. Afterwards, when it was all said and done, I was mentally burned out.

I realize that I'm limiting myself quite a bit with only one disk side (170 KB), but because I was so used to programming games for the VIC-20, 170KB seems infinite to me. Realms of Quest II was actually a full-fledged RPG that fit in 3.5K of memory. It had a 128x128 world map, 10 dungeons, spells, monsters. While it's true that much of the maps and dungeons are mathematically-generated, it shows that with a bit of ingenuity, one can create worlds with a minimal amount of data. Of course, worlds designed by hand are more realistic and have a certain aesthetic, I believe that it's possible to combine both in order to maximize any space or memory limitations.

Once I can get more free time (and reset my batteries, so to speak) I'd like to go all-out on this project. There are just a few home fires that I need to put out before I can really get started on this.

If I had to honestly assess Realms III in comparison to other CRPG games, I would say that it's plot was slightly more complex than Akalabeth and Telengard (but with the graphics and looks of a Wizardry NES game, but on a VIC-20). You basically have to gather 8 orbs of power and then go to the final dungeon to kill the evil wizard. What I really focused on was adding as many variations of races, classes, items, spells, monsters with a great interface. I'm very proud of the interface, it is even more user-friendly than Pool of Radiance.

So what the game lacks in a detailed plot it makes up for an RPG simulation where you build a party from the ground up. The most exciting part is those thrilling battle sequences where your fresh level 1 party barely survives by the skin of it's teeth. This video of Realms III provides a better explanation of what I'm trying to describe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DMBlCaDlD8

I'm not sure if I can compete with other C64 rpgs as I make my own. But I'm a big fan of the Advanced D&D DM's guide (first edition). I've always wanted to make a game that has much stuff in it as that book (in terms of varieties of magic items, monsters, etc). See the random dungeon generator in that book? Why can't a game generate worlds for you? Why is it that when you solve a game, you can't continue with more randomly-generated quests?

I discovered "Oubliette" (for the C64) last year as I was making Realms III. Don't let the crap graphics and interface fool you--this is a game that is wide in it's scope. Hundreds of monsters, items and spells. And this is all programmed in about 100K. The only drawback, is that it is unplayable because of the terrible interface--if it had a similar one like Ultima IV's or even Pool of Radiance, this game would be regarded as one of the greatest of all time.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

No, Mortmal is mainly correct. There are a few people lurking about that will enjoy this one, such as myself and Luzur, but most of the others are either from a different era, have gone Hollywood, or hate reading...etc etc.

Hate reading? That makes no sense. The amount of "reading" in games like this is minimal compared to the one that I like best and still nothing compared to these modern games we like to complain about.

Unless you count every line of "hits for 10 hitpoints!" as the reading part.

Hate reading? I guess you do, since you picked up on ONE of the reasons I mentioned and ignored the rest. When I outlined this, I didn't just mean this game, but actually any game that would date from the era this game is based on.

 

[Luzur]

Luzur, have you heard any more about that Ultimate Newcomer version that was supposed to have been out by now?

2010 is the year things will happen, according to the website.

http://www.protovision-online.de/games/newcomer.htm

I haven't got a C64 Sad
Wish I had, though.

http://www.tradera.com/Commodore-Amiga- ... _115391202

http://www.tradera.com/2st-commodore-vi ... _115176680

http://www.tradera.com/VIC-20-Commodore ... _115162052

(Luzur has a lot more than...most people on the planet though. Ask for his photo's nicely)

nah, i know other swede collectors who got whole garages full, so im kinda smallfry compared to those, but feel free to look up that "only a codexer would have these." thread somewhere.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

As for whether they are playable to you...only you can answer that. Go and start up Phantasie or an Ultima, Bards Tale, whatever on a C64 (or emulator) and get back to us with the answer.

Haha, uh. I have. And I like them (well, less so Bard's Tale), which is why I was asking how this compares.

Anyways, I'll be looking forward to it. If this (the C64 one) is good enough to rival PoR or Ultima IV, I will be goddamn impressed.

Sorry. I am used to people asking that question around here, and then after trying the game break out with "OMFG! The Graphics!!!! HOW COULD YOU PLAY THIS UGLY GAME BRO!! MY EYES!!!". Just thought I would used my stock answer.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Aside from the novelty of being developed for old hardware, are these Realms of Quest games actually worth playing? (That is, how well do they hold up compared to the Phantasie games or early Ultimas, which are cited as influences.)

Yes, though you have to realise that this is the first of them he is making for the C64. The last versions were for the VIC 20, which was the previous commodore machine and had far less power. No way could you have made Pool of Radiance or Ultima IV on it. So, this will be the one to see whether they will compete on equal terms.

What is good about him too is his anal retentiveness. He is a fairly driven guy, and his work shows this, not to mention that he seems to enjoy making the best game, of this type, that he can. He doesn't cite these games as influences; he cites them as rivals, another good sign.

As for whether they are playable to you...only you can answer that. Go and start up Phantasie or an Ultima, Bards Tale, whatever on a C64 (or emulator) and get back to us with the answer.

Edit: the only thing that doesn't sound promising is the game is planned for only one disk side. This may speak against plenty of content, but we shall see what his full plans are as we go.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, everybody! Full disclosure: I've not worked on this much in the past few months since starting it. I would hate for this project to become vaporware as I lose interest in it after a bit of fanfare of having announced it on the lemon64 forum. I don't have nearly as much free time as I did last year as well.

The development of Realms III in 2009 was an amazing 8-month process where I actually worked on this thing for 4-8 hours a day. I even started to feel hatred and contempt for the project, but I worked through this. Afterwards, when it was all said and done, I was mentally burned out.

I realize that I'm limiting myself quite a bit with only one disk side (170 KB), but because I was so used to programming games for the VIC-20, 170KB seems infinite to me. Realms of Quest II was actually a full-fledged RPG that fit in 3.5K of memory. It had a 128x128 world map, 10 dungeons, spells, monsters. While it's true that much of the maps and dungeons are mathematically-generated, it shows that with a bit of ingenuity, one can create worlds with a minimal amount of data. Of course, worlds designed by hand are more realistic and have a certain aesthetic, I believe that it's possible to combine both in order to maximize any space or memory limitations.

Once I can get more free time (and reset my batteries, so to speak) I'd like to go all-out on this project. There are just a few home fires that I need to put out before I can really get started on this.

If I had to honestly assess Realms III in comparison to other CRPG games, I would say that it's plot was slightly more complex than Akalabeth and Telengard (but with the graphics and looks of a Wizardry NES game, but on a VIC-20). You basically have to gather 8 orbs of power and then go to the final dungeon to kill the evil wizard. What I really focused on was adding as many variations of races, classes, items, spells, monsters with a great interface. I'm very proud of the interface, it is even more user-friendly than Pool of Radiance.

So what the game lacks in a detailed plot it makes up for an RPG simulation where you build a party from the ground up. The most exciting part is those thrilling battle sequences where your fresh level 1 party barely survives by the skin of it's teeth. This video of Realms III provides a better explanation of what I'm trying to describe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DMBlCaDlD8

I'm not sure if I can compete with other C64 rpgs as I make my own. But I'm a big fan of the Advanced D&D DM's guide (first edition). I've always wanted to make a game that has much stuff in it as that book (in terms of varieties of magic items, monsters, etc). See the random dungeon generator in that book? Why can't a game generate worlds for you? Why is it that when you solve a game, you can't continue with more randomly-generated quests?

I discovered "Oubliette" (for the C64) last year as I was making Realms III. Don't let the crap graphics and interface fool you--this is a game that is wide in it's scope. Hundreds of monsters, items and spells. And this is all programmed in about 100K. The only drawback, is that it is unplayable because of the terrible interface--if it had a similar one like Ultima IV's or even Pool of Radiance, this game would be regarded as one of the greatest of all time.

Cheers. I enjoyed RoQ3, though naturally hope for more out of 4, if for nothing else than it having a hell of a lot more resources to pull on.

Glad to see you are checking out other games and seeing what works and doesn't. And I hope you don't burn out! Take a breather when you need it, and throw some things on here and Lemon whenever you feel like it. Have you had a look at Dragon Wars? very good game of this type for the C64. And even though it is on the Amiga 500, a little look at Legend of Faerghail wouldn't go amiss if you enjoy plenty of character building options and skills. Of course, that will be more for Realms of Quest 5 hundred (for the Amiga 500...)

Just kidding. Let us know how you are going, and don't despise your work if possible. Plenty will be looking forward to it.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Luzur, have you heard any more about that Ultimate Newcomer version that was supposed to have been out by now?

2010 is the year things will happen, according to the website.

http://www.protovision-online.de/games/newcomer.htm

I haven't got a C64 Sad
Wish I had, though.

http://www.tradera.com/Commodore-Amiga- ... _115391202

http://www.tradera.com/2st-commodore-vi ... _115176680

http://www.tradera.com/VIC-20-Commodore ... _115162052

(Luzur has a lot more than...most people on the planet though. Ask for his photo's nicely)

nah, i know other swede collectors who got whole garages full, so im kinda smallfry compared to those, but feel free to look up that "only a codexer would have these." thread somewhere.

Thanks for that. Newcomer is one hell of a game, especially for the C64. Though taking umpteen floppies as it does, it ought to be. This will be another purchase when it comes out.

 

[mondblut]

When comes an ENIAC version?

 

[getter77]

I discovered "Oubliette" (for the C64) last year as I was making Realms III. Don't let the crap graphics and interface fool you--this is a game that is wide in it's scope. Hundreds of monsters, items and spells. And this is all programmed in about 100K. The only drawback, is that it is unplayable because of the terrible interface--if it had a similar one like Ultima IV's or even Pool of Radiance, this game would be regarded as one of the greatest of all time.

IIRC, it was this game that had a marked influence in the formation of the likes of Wizardry/Mordor/Demise back in the day.

I too wish you luck in this, as it seems likely to be an interesting sight in terms of what you'll manage to squeeze out of this new architecture.

 

[clockradiospeakers]

Anyone here have scans or transcripts of the manual and spell list for Oubliette? I'd imagine they'd be necessary (especially the spell list) and I'd like to play it, given hitfan's high praise.

And yeah, try not to let yourself grow sick of it, take your time - when you've finished, there will be people eager to give it a shot (myself included).