Gravity Well v3 in 1995 was the first game I deleted as I beheld it consuming too much free time. I found that the shareware version had two advantages that the retail version lacked; You could not save your session so it felt important not to mess up. When one of the 3 opponents lost all colonies and freighters the game would end, thus you could not just destroy them right off the bat.
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 | The title screen of Blix. It's played via www.shockwave.com. BLiX - Walkthrough, Tips, Review I found this flash game back in 2001 [along with Faceball 3000]. Blix had 300 levels and all the passwords [at increments of 5 levels each] had 5 letter words, i.e. Space, Block, etc. I won the game after a few months. I had the chance to replay it before it was taken off the web some years ago, but procrastinated and missed the opportunity. [rue to the max... sigh.] Download some Blix Audio. 2022, Feb 9th: Some footage of Blix |
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In Super ZZT there are two built in creatures that, though having settings, don't move during in-game. To the left is a dark blue 'Pairer' and on the right is a dark red 'Dragon Pup'. The dragon pup has two settings; Intelligence and switch rate. The roton [rodent?] has the same two settings. It's possible that the dragon pup was going to be what the roton is. The pairer, on the other hand only has 'intelligence'. The shark (which is in ZZT, but was taken out of Super ZZT) also only has intelligence as its setting as well. Having all the insight into what the programmers of Super ZZT were planning these two creatures to have is a goal of mine.
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  For a bunch of save game files by me, clickhere |
Wizardry 8: A Specific Mystery in Trynton.
There is a brazier after climbing the rope onto the higher branches of lower Trynton. This brazier is unlit unlike the rest of the green-flame emitting ones. When clicked on, the familiar message 'A specific item is required here.' appears. As there are countless items in Wz8, I've gone through only a handful. It's possible that the item does not exist in game, or possibly at all. It is believed to be an anomaly, an unfinished mini-quest or simply a bug. There is mention of this at:
www.bigorrin.org/wiz2a.htm#tryn
www.ign.com/faqs/2004/wizardry-viii-walkthrough-575945
www.gamefaqs.com/boards/374906-wizardry-8/49716343
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg/VOAzkfkEkAo
June 16th 2017 Update:
I was using Madgod's Wizardry 8 Cosmic Forge editor and discovered [after 2 hours of searching] that the item required for the "Urn" is the 'Bela Powder' item. This item exists in the game files but not in the game during play. You can, however hack/edit it in the game via Cosmic Forge.
So what does the brazier/urn do? Well, the Bela Powder acts on the unlit urn just as the Incense on the four floating braziers in Trynton's no-magic-zone. The urn becomes lit with a green flame and nothing else happens.
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 | The two RPCs, RFS81, a layman and the banker all fight a raider. Using allied characters. |
   | Anna La'am Can summon Higardi Guards. |
 | A Zelda 2 editor I was messing with. Placing a lava terrain in the death mountain map results in a green marsh swamp when entering battle. |
 | Buggy over world map area with orange town and grey mountains. |
 | An unused hidden/secret single screen area with a red decanter. |
 |  Dark Marsh, no monsters. |
 Collapsing bridges in the palace entry area leave behind residual brick patterns. |  Compressed Text Dialogue [MS paint] |
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 | x |
 1987's Metroid was a wonder all its own. Through out the exploration the color scheme would glitch harmlessly. |  The top or bottom of Brinstar, I can't quite put into words of the area of solid ground. The patterns and shapes convey feelings... Almost like a world all on its own, but you can't reach it. |
| x |
 | Kid Icarus 2-3 [I had pronounced it as 'I curious'] A night theme of dark grey [Chark] rocky ground, with petrified ferns and colorful fluids. |
 | The silver keys are white with a black outline. The only version that does this is the Super Nintendo one. All the graphics are redone, being shrunk and colors added in this version. I should take note of the silver coin GFXs... |
 | Theron's Quest wasn't played by me that much. Apparently it was a flop for some glaring design flaws. One of which is a dull story line that is more of a side quest from the might and magic series. Non of the champions require leveling up nor training. The dungeon design is spartan and dejavu-esque. Even all the creatures are identical. |
 | Deep Dungeon for the Famicom. A Wizardry seriesesque. |
 | For a download of screenshots, icons and ideas; https://mega.nz/#F!DYd3HCgS!0UR8rOJyn-DSQvtVFAN-wA |
 | In The Lost Vikings' factory world, there is a hidden area above accessed by steel pipes. The wood background moves in conjunction with the foreground making it appear as though it was a solid wall filler. I've had a fascination with wood walls in adventures. A whole level could have been this theme. |
 | Descent 2's Vertigo expansion was well worth it. I do, however have some quips about it; Nearly all of the bots recycle the pre-existing SFX. You can't add any of the robots into the Descent 2 Mission Builder. There isn't any specific level theme in any of the maps [D2 had Rock, water, lava, ice, sand...]. The final boss was nearly impervious to attack. |
 | Lode Runner The Legend Returns was highly esteemed. For the first time it thoroughly themed the levels. All caverns of moss, varying rocks, snowy... Super Lode Runner (1987) seen left, added some of their own themes as well years prier. |
Subterrain |
Rome Egypt |
| Hot Ash |
| O |
Darco |
| O |
| O |
Brix |
| Crystal Vegi |
Tundra |
| Valhalla |
| https://youtu.be/jDcaYEm8G4o | Themes |
 | The nuances of dungeon crawling. The tavern at the top with the stairs leading to the first level. The colorful pixelation of the gfx. |
| Lemmings SEGA MS Plumming Theme | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIBYOa-XgRI |
Nuances
| O | Wizardry 8 Blue Potion |
| O | Minecraft Iron Ore, Pigs and Grown Wheat |
 | Mushroom 11. In the way of Valve's Portal, adventures don't have to be all action, puzzle and platforming, it can be about new ways of thinking outside the box. |
| 2023-3-6 Castlevania 1 with CV 2 BGM The sound effect for using an oak stake on an orb is used for collecting the red crystal. Simon's vampire killer begins as a leather lengthened to the 3rd whip power up. One-shot items converted into secondary weapons; Pot Roast takes 10 hearts. Invisibility decanter takes 20 hearts. Rosery takes 10 hearts. |
  | Box World is a Win3.2 puzzler that I would port over to the Atai2600 as a 'Proof of Concept' example demonstrating that the VCS can be utilized even today. My port would have some animation to the graphics and sfx. |
 | Lode Runner The Legend Returns: Non-Peril Edition. All the characters are dispatched in family-friendly ways. Monks capture the bounty hunters with a net and bag, rather than tearing them apart. Extra Lives are replaced with Teleports. Characters are auto-beamed away right before turfs (turves?) close-in. Boms knock out instead of vaporizing. Mix and match foreground\background GFX. Option to have no background or a 2 color gradient. |
 | Bug World, a Super ZZT esque adventure. Dos based, came out in 1998. |
 Try Super ZZT itself right on your own web browser. |  A recreation of ZZT named AEON https://gdaeon.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/zzt/ |
| x | My own fan made Megaman game. Manipulator (Wily) Plasma Man |
| Amiga Man | Turbine Man; Has two propeller fans for hands. Wind rushing left, clouds and specs wisk by while all entities have the appearance of motion. Master's weapon allows player to jump higher. Plasma Man; Shoots charged up plasma shots. Seismic Man; (HUGE!) Master's weapon does massive damage. Can only be defeated by any master weapon. Weapon allows player to slide (MM3) Sub Man; Subzero/submarine. Snow Spray weapon. Each previous robot master defeated unlocks the following stages in order; Under Man; Deeper and deeper. Dirt, rubble, stone. Oxide Man. Abandoned factory. Weapon stuns robots. [Professor Wiles] |
| O | Gamma Guy A ZZT World set in a semi dystopian past in which the player navigates atomic ruins, avoiding sources of radiation indicated by a clicking sound (I.E. #play 1x11x1xx1x1xxx1) from the internal speaker. The score integer acts as a dosimeter. It begins with zero and climbs as the protagonist nears toxic materials, but ever so slowly decreases when in safer areas. Reaching a score of 1000 or higher leads to the player losing HP (indicating ARS) and he must find a medical bay. It begins with the protagonist digging their way to the surface from a bunker. Emerging from reddish turf and rubble, he chances upon a shack offering items and lodging. The owner: "We're rebuilding our town but all contaminated boards must be marked and cordoned off. The disaster? Caused by a uranium asteroid. |
 | In Super ZZT, objects can move or walk towards movable kinds that are held in place by floors or fakes. The effect of the movement made by the smileys trying to go north 'spills over' (or goes through) the boulders and forces the player to step in said direction. Giving the appearance of diagonal movement, but he is walking north and west instantly. | Yet another Super Zzt trick! No word as to if this works in Original Zzt, but it can be | used to simulate Zig-Zag player movement. | December 15, 2008 |
| Item Spam | Might and Magic 3 and 6 through 9, Daggerfall, Wizardry 8. |
 | In Sim City Classic, take a large city and cause several earthquakes to create a post-apocalyptic map. Then, let your imagination run wild with tribal warfare, rebuilding some society. Not pictured are pieces of residential, commercial and industrial buildings and zones that remain even when the center tile has been destroyed. |
| O | In Dosbox, lower the Internal Speaker Freaquency to lessen the high pitch of the SFX |
| O | 3d dungeon crawler creator, stand alone app. includes custom textures used |
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 | For screen shots of SNES's Arcana, Castlevania, Bram Stoker's Drakula, Dungeon Master, Wizardry 4 Gaiden, Wizardry 5, SEGA's Dungeon Explorers, Eye of The Beholder, Lemmings, Might and Magic 2 and 3, Skull Keep, Rygar, click here. |
