Chaos (video game)
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Developer(s) | Julian Gollop |
Publisher(s) | Games Workshop |
Designer(s) | Julian Gollop |
Platform(s) | ZX Spectrum |
Release date | 1985 |
Genre(s) | Turn-based tactics |
Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
Media | Cassette |
System requirements | 48K ZX Spectrum and above |
Input methods | Keyboard |
Chaos — The Battle of Wizards is a turn-based tactics computer game which was released on the ZX Spectrum in 1985. It was written by Julian Gollop and originally published by Games Workshop.
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[edit] History
Chaos was written by Julian Gollop, based on his designs for a traditional card game. The Chaos card game was in turn inspired by the early Games Workshop board game Warlock. He was an avid card game designer but then saw computers as a way of hiding game rules too complicated for pen-and-paper scenarios. Thus the board used in the card game became the tiled map in the video game.[1]
[edit] Gameplay
In Chaos, players take the role of wizards who vie with one another to win the game. The aim of the game is to be the 'last wizard standing' by destroying all other wizards. The game allows for anything between two and eight wizards, any of whom can be human or computer controlled. The level of the computer controlled wizards must be selected, ranging from 1 to 8. Higher levels improve the computer wizards' combat statistics, but does not improve their artificial intelligence. Computer controlled wizards do not cooperate; they will attempt to kill each other as well as the human players.
Chaos is a turn-based game. Each turn, every player in order selects and casts a spell, then moves their wizard and any summoned creatures.
[edit] Spells
Each wizard is given a random selection of spells at the start of the game with which to defeat the other wizards. Spells are either Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic, and have a difficulty value expressed as a percentage chance of success when cast. A spell can only be cast once, with the exception of the "Disbelieve" spell which is always available to every wizard. New spells can only be acquired via the "Magic Wood" spell.
During the game, the type of spells cast affects the subsequent difficulty of other spells. Casting many lawful spells results in a more lawful environment, which in turn makes other lawful spells easier to cast. The same principle applies to chaotic spells. Spells of the opposite alignment are not more difficult to cast however. Neutral spells are unaffected either way, and are always cast at the same difficulty percentage. This feature has a big impact on the strategy of the game, as a viable tactic is to cast lots of easy spells of a certain alignment, in order to make it easier to cast the more powerful spells of that alignment.
Spells fall into various categories and have various ranges.
[edit] Creature spells
These summon creatures that fight for the wizards. Some creatures are harder to cast than others, generally speaking the more powerful the creature the harder it is to cast. Creatures can be cast as an "Illusion", with a 100% chance of being cast, with the disadvantage that they can be destroyed if another wizard casts a "Disbelieve" spell at them. Creature spells always have a range of one, this is to prevent a wizard casting a powerful creature right next to another wizard and killing him easily. Creatures can fall into one or more of several categories:
- Undead creatures, such as Ghosts, Spectres and Zombies can only be attacked by other undead creatures or by spells and magic weapons. Dead creatures that have been raised with the "Raise Dead" spell also become Undead.
- Flying creatures, such as Bats, Dragons and Manticores.
- Rideable creatures such as Centaurs, Horses and Unicorns, can be ridden by wizards. Flying mounts such as the Pegusus and Gryphon are also available. Any attack against the wizard/mount combination is directed at the mount, which must be killed before the wizard can be affected, increasing the wizards survivability. A particularly powerful mount is a rideable creature that has been raised from the dead, effectively making the wizard undead also.
- Armed creatures, such as Centaurs, Dragons and Elves. Centaurs and Elves are armed with bows, dragons with fire, and can launch an attack on a target several squares away at the end of their turn.
Creatures have attack and defense ratings which govern how effective they are, move ratings which control how many squares they can move a turn, manouvre ratings which govern how easily a creature can break off combat and magic resistance for governing defence against magical assaults. Flying creatures movement ratings govern how many square they can fly. Wizards also have these ratings, as well as a magic rating governing how many spells they initially have.
[edit] Full list of creature spells
- Mortal Creatures - Elf, Gorilla, Lion, Bear, Dire Wolf, Fawn, King Cobra, Giant, Orc, Ogre, Crocodile, Giant Rat, Goblin, Hydra.
- Undead Creatures - Zombie, Ghost, Skeleton, Vampire, Wraith, Spectre.
- Flying Creatures - Bat, Eagle, Harpy, Green Dragon, Red Dragon, Golden Dragon.
- Ridable Creatures - Horse, Unicorn, Centaur.
- Ridable Flying Creatures - Pegasus, Gryphon, Manticore.
[edit] Object spells
Object spells create objects on the board. They are :-
- Magic Wood. Automatically creates up to 8 trees around a wizard. Any wizard can enter a tree and will receive a new spell after a random number of turns. Magic trees also provide a certain amount of protection.
- Shadow Wood. Allows a player to place up to 8 trees up to 8 squares away, as long as they are not adjacent to each other. Shadow Trees are treated as creatures, however they cannot move. They can attack anything that moves next to them, although they cannot harm undead creatures.
- Gooey Blob and Magic Fire spread randomly once cast. Any creature engulfed by one of these objects is trapped (Gooey Blob) or destroyed (Magic Fire). A wizard engulfed by a Gooey Blob is killed. Gooey Blobs can be destroyed by attacks, though fire cannot. If a Gooey Blob disappears or is destroyed the creature can move again. If cast early enough, these spells can be very powerful as they spread across the board. In the original Spectrum version they do not trap/destroy your own creatures or wizard.
- Wall creates four 'blocks' of wall. They can be flown over and cannot be cast directly adjacent to the casting wizard - this is to prevent a wizard walling himself into a corner, making him immune to all non-flying attacks. However, enemy wizards can be trapped in this way.
- Dark Citadels and Magic Castles last for a random number of turns. When a wizard is inside one of these buildings they cannot be attacked.
[edit] Attacking spells
- Magic Bolts and Lightning can be used to attack other creatures (including undead creatures) and wizards. Lightning is more effective but has a shorter range.
- Vengeance and Decree allow one attack on an enemy creature or wizard and Dark Power and Justice allow up to three attacks. They are less effective on creatures with stronger magic resistance. A successful attack on a creature destroys it, a successful attack on a wizard causes all of their summoned creations to vanish, though the wizard is not destroyed.
[edit] Wizard spells
These directly affect the wizard who casts them and can be used to increase effectiveness.
- Magic Armour and Magic Shield provide increased defense by 4 and 2 respectively from attacks, including spells.
- Magic Sword and Magic Knife give increased combat ratings by 4 and 2 respectively. They also allow attacks against undead creatures.
- Magic Bow gives a wizard ranged combat with attack 2, range 6, including against undead creatures. It also allows hand to hand attacks against undead.
- Magic Wings allow the wizard to fly.
- Shadow Form increases the wizards movement to 3, increases defense by 1, and means that the wizard can move past enemy creatures without becoming 'engaged to enemy'. Shadow Form ends if the wizard attacks in hand to hand combat.
[edit] Miscellaneous spells
- Law and Chaos spells increase the law or chaos level in the game. They come in various levels, increasing the level by either one or two points.
- Raise Dead allows a dead creature to be reanimated under the wizards control. The raised creature retains all the powers and abilities it had in life, and in addition is now also undead.
- Subversion attempts to steal another wizard's creature, but will always fail against a creature which is an illusion.
- Disbelieve can be used against illusionary creatures to destroy them. This spell does not disappear after use and is always in a wizards spellbook
- Turmoil is a very rare spell only obtainable from a Magic Wood. This causes all objects and creatures on the screen to be moved to a random location. This can cause the game to crash if there are a large number of objects on the screen, such as Magic Fires or Gooey Blobs.
[edit] Turn Sequence
Each (human) wizard takes it in turn to view the board (if desired), examine their spells and select one to cast on the next turn (selecting a spell is not compulsory). Typically, the other human players look away during spell choice to avoid unfair advantage. Once all players have chosen their spell, they attempt to cast them in order.
Whereas the human players select their spells before each turn begins, the computer wizards actually select their spells during the play stage of each turn. This is not documented, although it becomes apparent in play, as the computer wizards often cast spells that would have required foreknowledge of the other players' actions. For example, a computer wizard might cast a 'disbelieve' spell immediately after a human player has conjured a powerful creature, or the computer might fire a 'Magic Bolt' at a player-summoned creature when no targets were in range beforehand.
Once all spells have been cast, surviving wizards take it in turns to move themselves and any creatures under their control (unless they are 'engaged'), and attack other wizards/creatures.
[edit] Combat
Other creatures or wizards are attacked by either moving into them, or flying onto them. Moving or flying next to an enemy creature automatically 'engages' them, and allows for an immediate attack. If an attack is successful the enemy creature disappears/dies and the attacking creature moves onto its square. Flying onto a creature allows an attack, but the flying creature remains in place unless it succeeds in killing its target, in which case it takes its place as above. Only defending creatures can be killed, attacking creatures are safe until attacked themselves.
Success depends on the attacking creature's combat rating vs. the defending creature's defense rating and a certain amount of randomness. Some creatures have ranged combat, allowing them to attack other creatures from afar, so long as there is a clear line of sight. An undead creature can only be attacked by other undead creatures (or magic weapon equipped wizards), but can attack both undead and non-undead creatures itself.
Any creature equipped with ranged weapons automatically has a chance to use them after movement and/or combat. They can fire at any creature in range (even allied ones, or their own wizard!) with no risk to themselves.
Once all wizards have taken it in turn to move and fight, the turn sequence starts over from the beginning. For human players, no actions are compulsory, they may simply skip any actions they do not want to take. Computer controlled wizards will ALWAYS move, unless in a Magic Wood / Castle / Citadel, even when it is not in their best interest to do so. Likewise all computer controlled creatures ALWAYS attempt to move each turn.
If a wizard is destroyed, all his creations immediately vanish also.
[edit] Critical reaction
CRASH awarded Chaos 8 out of 10 in issue 16[2], praising neatness of presentation, efficient sound effects, pleasing sprites and concluding that it was a very good multiplayer strategy game. Criticisms included the sparseness of the initial playing area, lack of status report for the wizards and information on how much damage was being dealt. The reviewer also felt there could have been a wider range of missile attack spells.
In the final issue of Your Sinclair (issue 93, September 1993), Chaos was listed at position 5 of the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games Of All Time. The same issue featured a Chaos play-off between various staff members and contributors: Rich Pelley, Steve Anderson, Craig Broadbent, Chris Buxton, Jonathan Nash (then editor), Jonathan Davies, Jeff Braine and Steph (an inflatable shark, filling in for an absent Stuart Campbell).[3]
The September 2006 issue of GamesTM magazine listed Chaos at position 44 of the top 100 games of all time. This made it the second highest rated Spectrum game, behind Manic Miner.
[edit] Trivia
- The rarity of the Turmoil spell was due to a bug that caused it to appear only once every 64 games; however, in Julian Gollop's words: "...that's probably a good thing."[1]
- An unofficial Chaos "conversion" was released for the Atari ST. Written by Martin Brownlow, the game was released by hacking group D-Bug on Disk #173 and featured the previously missing spell "Teleport", as well as a new creature based on the alien from the Alien films. It also included 53 audio samples from numerous film and television sources, including Highlander, Blackadder and Red Dwarf.
[edit] See also
- Lords of Chaos (the sequel)
- Total Chaos; a long-standing series of updates.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Edge magazine, issue 114, pp. 96--99, September 2002; The Making of Chaos
- ^ Chaos review, CRASH issue 16, May 1985; retrieved from Crash Online
- ^ Your Sinclair, issue 93, September 1993
[edit] External links
- Chaos at MobyGames
- Chaos at World of Spectrum
- Chaos at the Open Directory Project
- Chaos — The Battle of the Wizards — A tribute site
- Chaos Online — A tribute site
- A USENET message describing the internal structure of Chaos and naming the missing spells.
[edit] Original game
- Chaos (Spectrum Emulator) — Java based Spectrum Emulator running the Original Chaos Game.
- Flash Chaos — Browser based version of the original game made in flash.
[edit] Remakes
- Chaos Funk – a faithful remake.
- Chaos Groove - currently available in demo form, work ongoing (July 01st 2007).
- Cyber Battles – a sci-fi themed, multi-player online remake.
- Realtime Chaos – A realtime multi-player network version of Chaos.
- Chaos Reborn – A somewhat unstable remake.
- Anarchy — A remake using a 3D game engine.