Wizard's Crown

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The Wizard's Crown cover was typical for SSI games of the era, with images that could not be replicated on home computers of that time, but, instead, represented imagery that the user would have to imagine as suggested by the game.
The Wizard's Crown cover was typical for SSI games of the era, with images that could not be replicated on home computers of that time, but, instead, represented imagery that the user would have to imagine as suggested by the game.

Wizard's Crown is a 1985 top-down computer role-playing game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). It was released for the Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II and Commodore 64. Its sequel,Eternal Dagger, was released in 1987.

Wizard's Crown is a detailed game for its age. While the graphics are typical for games of the era, the extensive combat, injury, character advancement, and magical equipment systems rival those of games made ten years later.[citation needed] The object of the game is to rescue a magical crown from Tarmon, a wizard who sealed himself and the crown in his laboratory 500 years previous.

The game design and programming was done by Paul Murray and Keith Brors, and game development was done by Chuck Kroegel and Jeff Johnson.

Wizard's Crown features an detailed tactical combat system, which influenced SSI's design of the subsequent, highly successful AD&D Gold Box series.[citation needed] For instance, shields block attacks only from the front and right (shielded) side, and not from the rear and left (unshielded side). Spears can attack two squares away, Flails ignore the defender's shields, and Axes have a chance of breaking shields.

There is an option for 'quick combat', with regular combat taking anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes (or more) per encounter.

The class system is based on a point buy system, with the unique feature of 'buying' classes using Intelligence points. The classes are Thief, Ranger, Fighter, Priest and Sorcerer, each possessing a distinct set of skills.

Experience is spent directly on skills, attributes and life points. The maximum skill level is 250.

The game is also memorable for its magic weapons, for example, the Storm Longsword or Doom Battleaxe. They are two special series of weapons which can be enchanted to become progressively more powerful. The 'Magic' series of weapons does pure magical damage and progresses under the names of 'Magic, Frost, Flaming, Lightning and Storm'. The 'Life Blast' series of weapons are the most powerful in the game. They do direct life damage, and progress with the names 'Dark, Doom, Soul, Demon and Death'.


[edit] External links

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