Wizard's Crown
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| Wizard's Crown | |
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| Developer(s) | Strategic Simulations, Inc. |
| Publisher(s) | Strategic Simulations, Inc. |
| Designer(s) | Paul Murray, Keith Brors |
| Platform(s) | Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II, Commodore 64 |
| Release date | 1985 |
| Genre(s) | RPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Wizard's Crown is a 1985 top-down computer role-playing game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). It was released for the Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II and Commodore 64. Its sequel, Eternal Dagger, was released in 1987.
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[edit] Gameplay
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, game development by Chuck Kroegel and Jeff Johnson, and the rulebook created by Leona Billings.
Wizard's Crown features a 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 left (shielded) side, and not from the rear and right (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 and skills using Intelligence points. The classes are Thief, Ranger, Fighter, Priest and Sorcerer, each possessing a distinct set of skills and any of which can be combined together into a single character. Up to eight characters could be created in a single party.
Experience is spent directly on skills, attributes and life points. When a skill level is very low each fraction of experience spent developing it can result in a rise from 1 up to 8 skill points; this upper limit gradually lowers until it's very hard to get any increase at all past the 100-skill points mark. 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] Reception
A review in Computer Gaming World admired the game's use of injuries and bleeding in simulating combat. However, the review also felt there was far too much emphasis on hack and slash, with only a few trivial puzzles and almost no interaction between the party and anyone else beyond buying, selling, and killing.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Scorpia (Sept-Oct 1986), “Wizard's Crown”, Computer Gaming World: 24-25
