Wizards of Yore

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#1

It’s been a while but hopefully I’m back to it now. This is an early alpha build of one of my current projects, a remake called “Wizards of Yore”:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1668516/yore/wizards4.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1668516/yore/wizards3.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1668516/yore/wizards5.png

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1668516/yore/wizards7.png

The game is essentially a remake of the Spectrum game “Chaos” in which you control a wizard against up to 3 computer controlled magic users. Each turn you select a spell to cast (summon creature, fireball, etc), cast it and then move any creatures you have on the battle field (including yourself). You objective is to destroy the other wizards. Most of the spells are explained in game or should make sense as you use them and experiment.

This is a very early build in which I’ve got the game mechanics basically down. Originally I borrowed graphics from an old version of Chaos but now I’ve replaced them with the wonderful tile-set from Oryx over at the TigSource Assemblee contest. Since I don’t have or don’t understand the original source code the logic has been based on disecting other ports of the game - hopefully I’m not too far off. The text and names of course come from the original paraphrased where needed. This current version is just getting working, the interface still requires much tweaking to make it smooth to play - however, the computer can still give you a bit of game at least :slight_smile:

You can try the applet/android/iphone versions over at:

http://wizards.legendsofyore.com

I’d be interested in bugs, ideas and anything else… especially news of which platforms it works on and how it responds on various hardware. In addition, if any fans of the original game could point out things that arn’t right and we’ll consider them for update/refinement.

Many thanks in advance to anyone that gives it a go,

Kev

#2

This is great by the way :slight_smile: What it mostly needs at the moment is… more stuffs!!111!!1 And UI feedback.

Cas :slight_smile:

#3

Is this LOFI gfx that I see?

#4

I don’t know if that’s from the original game, but if I’m near to a target, I cannot move, just attack .

#5

Fairly interesting. Maybe I’m not old enough to appreciate this remake, but the gameplay feels kind of dull and archaic to me. :confused:

#6

Worked great on my galaxy, no bugs and v easy to play. Controlling the creatures was a bit hard, when I tapped on them the menu would come up instead of the square select movement boxes. So cool how you’ve got it working on so many devices. Great work. 8)

#7

Woo, Chaos! As soon as I saw the king cobra sprite, I knew it was a Chaos remake! I spent many an evening playing this game in my yoof, probably my favouritest 8-bit game of all time.
I played this version a few times, and I must say I rather enjoyed it. I think this kind of game is perfect for the mobile market.
I love the sprites, they’ve got buckets of character. I especially like the bobbing head animations.

A few (hopefully constructive) comments:

  • The first time I played, I started with 8 spells. In the original you started with more spells, between 13-17 I think. More spells = more fun!

  • In the original, one of the advantages of flyers was that they did not need to move next to an enemy creature to attack it; they could attack their target by moving directly on top of it from a few squares away. This was a great way to pick off enemy wizards with a long range flyer like an eagle.

  • Spelling mistake - ‘maneouvre’ should be ‘manoeuvre’

  • Diagonal moves should cost more movement points. I think each diagonal move cost 1.5 movement points in the original game, with remaining movement points rounded up if necessary. e.g. lion (movement 4) could move 3 squares diagonally (1.5 + 1.5 + 0.5); giant (movement 2) could move 2 squares diagonally (1.5 + 0.5)

  • Apart from the main player, it’s not obvious which creatures belong to which wizard. In the original, you could press keys 1-8 to make the corresponding wizard and his creatures flash. Maybe when the player moves their mouse over an enemy wizard, you could animate that wizard’s creatures?

  • Sounds - probably already on your to do list - when selecting spell, when casting spell, when moving, etc etc

  • The multiplayer was the best thing about the original. Maybe it’s impossible to recapture the magic of 8 sweaty kids crowded round a rubber-keyed speccy, hoping the heat sink doesn’t konk out and the dodgy saisho tape player doesn’t chew the knocked-off Chaos tape (1.99 firebird budget range). ee bah gum, them were the days smokes pipe to music from the Hovis advert

/relurks

#8

Thanks for the feedback.

Thats because you’re engaged with the enemy - if you try to move away (press a square that isn’t highlighted) it should tell you that - if not, bug.

Yeah, as mention from the wonderous Oryx tileset at Tigsource.

Fair enough, any suggestions to improve the classic?

Hmmm… maybe I’ve got the hit box wrong for the menu button or something. I’m also going to try some average of touch locations to try and guess what the user is going to be doing at the time - might make it easier on the phone.

Thanks dapy!, knew there had to be a Chaos fan out there. Taking all the point on board - you’ll probably have to right click (or long press on a phone) on the wizard to show their creatures. Sound ok?

Was there really a diagonal movement penalty in Chaos? I’ll work it in.

Cheers again for any past or future feedback!

Kev

#9

Just a suggestion, I know it violates the classicness, but I think it’d fun to be able to summon a green fat android to the battlefield !

#10

LOL, that is so going in! ;D

Kev

#11

I got so excited when I say the tiles, I posted before clicking to the game. I love that tileset!

#12

Cool little game. I have never played Chaos before. I played a couple of games and here are my thoughts.

  1. I summoned a whole bunch of monsters, was moving them around, and then in the 4th turn the enemy mage fired a green bolt at me from all the way across the screen and killed me instantly. I was like WTF???

  2. It’s a bit hard to understand how combat works. Do creatures have hit points? Perhaps having messages that describe what is going on in text format might be useful. For example: Red wizard summons a giant. Eagle claws at green blob but misses. Etc.

#13

Thing is this game is desperately crying out for proper modern user interfaces and multiplayer online stuff …

Cas :slight_smile:

#14

Sounds good to me!

I dusted off my old speccy emulator to check - yep, there definitely was a diagonal movement penalty.

In fact, you can play the original in an online emulator here:
http://www.zxspectrum.net/

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this! :slight_smile:

#15

Ditto with Veggie Patch, haven’t had time to do the updates yet, probably this afternoon. However, I did push it to android market as is so updates should be easier:

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.newdawn.chaos.game

Kev

#16

Update to 1.0.10…

  • New bonus monsters
  • Flying attack
  • UI restructure
  • Fixed button response
  • Text bugs fixed on android
  • More spells
  • Various bugs from android market deployment

Feedback richly appreciated as always,

Kev

#17

I wanted to test it but

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.newdawn.chaos.game.Chaosgame
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadClass0(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
at org.newdawn.touchapi.applet.TouchApplet.start(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: open HTTP connection failed:http://wizards.legendsofyore.com/org/newdawn/chaos/game/Chaosgame.class
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.getBytes(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.access$000(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
… 10 more

#18

Sorry, should be fixed now

Kev

#19

New version v1.0.13:

  • Couple of new spells
  • Fixed some typos
  • Right click/long press on a wizard to see which creatures belong to them.

Kev

#20

Archon?!?!? Is that you?!?!