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■ Dungeons & Dragons
Just to give you an idea, the first RPG (Role Playing Game) that I can remember playing was Bard’s Tale II and Bards Tale III. Back in those days, there were no automapping. I had to buy gridpapers and drew my own maps. When I graduated to Dungeon and Dragons, Wizardry, Might and Magic III (and its World of Xeen), I was hooked on these games. So, I’ve always had a great fondness for that type of game, and incredibly delighted to find out that these games are still being developed today.

Yep, it’s been a constant summer of gaming, thanks to all the video game sales from Steam and GOG. I recently spent over $100 buying very old games and working my way through the buy list. Since these games are mostly under $16, I’m only spending as much time as I have interests in them.

One of the games that I’ve always wanted to commit to playing is Wizardry, which is a party-based, dungeon crawler based on Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve previously dipped my toes in the water, but have always been turned away by these old games’ crude artwork and clunky controls. No longer! Thanks to the remaster and remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, which came out May 2024, I can finally enjoy this classic game. The original 1981 game looks like it had 16 colors to work with on the old Apple II and Commodore 64 computer. It is one of the first games based on D&D and some people have called this game one of the greatest games of all time.

As I previously mentioned, I’m no stranger to these types of games – having fallen in love with Bard’s Tales II (and part III) on the Apple IIGS. After some hard work of creating my own maps and keeping notes and clues, it was just some of the best time I’ve ever had in my wasted youth!

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord does a great job in bringing the game to the modern age with beautiful graphics and animation. That’s not all, they also brought in quality-of-life things like auto-mapping, controller support, and easier-to-understand rulesets. However, if you are old-school, there is also an option to go back to the old ways should you be hardcore about it. Me, personally, I like the new changes – as it makes the game more accessible to me.

After spending nearly 9 hours (after my second team got wiped out), I think I need to start all over again – and it’s really fun! The game is very rogue-like, as every corner can be a massive challenge. I ran into these stupid rabbits that had instant kill! They literally destroyed my group! It is so unfair, but these were the same rules from 1981. The higher your character’s levels are, the more it will cost to resurrect.

In one of my plays, my first group got destroyed in the second room. Not a problem, I can create a second group to go and retrieve the bodies to resurrect at the temple. Since the characters are level 1, it is free to bring them back. When my group got to about level 7, I was feeling pretty confident and was running through floor two in record time! I felt like I could take on floor 3. I was so wrong! I thought I could take on Murphy’s Ghost. Holy crap, two Murphy’s Ghosts are impossible to beat (at least before I understand the creature).

I think the trick to Wizardry is that you need to understand all the rules. For example, I was paying a fortune to get items identified at the trading post… until I read that my Bishop could do that for FREE! The same thing with unfreezing characters at the temple… if your Priest is high enough, you can simply cast a spell to remove their paralyzed state. Eventually, your Priest can learn resurrect – but I wouldn’t recommend it, as I’ve lost two characters this way. The best way to bring back your characters is to take them to the temple.

As of this writing, I know Floor 1 and 2 like the back of my hands. Floor 3 was a bit of a challenge, until I realized I should only use the hidden doors to avoid the traps. Anyway, when I have more time, I think I need to play around with the Ninja. The game doesn’t allow evil characters to join a group of good, however there is a hack someone came up with. You leave the evil character in the maze. Create a group of goody two-shoes and you can add the Ninja to your group when you meet up with him in the maze! That’s so genius!

I think I’m just too old and frustrated at times … and the game is such a challenge that I’ll probably never finish Wizardry… but, so far, I am having a blast getting my butt kicked sometimes. What a great feeling when you come back stronger and with a different strategy to defeat the enemies. I was on such a Wizardry high that I ended up buying Wizardry 6, 7, and 8 (the last three games)! In fact, I might re-install that last Might & Magic X game I’ve been meaning to play again. I love creating all my characters, all their strengths and weaknesses… they’re my children. Games like The Witcher doesn’t do it for me, because I’m playing someone else’s character. I want to build my own character and bring them to godlike status… maybe that’s why I love the Fallout franchise so much (as you create your own character using the SPECIAL rules).

Anyway, now that I understand the rules and how to play the first Wizardry game, I did look into my game catalogue and noticed I own two Japanese Wizardry games called Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls (2020, PC, North America) and Wizardry: The Five Ordeals (2021, PC, North America). What’s really interesting is that Japan took the Wizardry and went wild! They love the series and kept releasing games in Japan (even when America stopped producing these type of games since 2001).

If you’re new to Wizardry, like I am, I highly recommend getting remake Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, because what it also did was taught me how to play the game by simple tutorial. I really hope they go back and remaster and re-release the second game, because now that I’m addicted, I would love to play the second game.

Some of my D&D games in my game library

P.S. I recently took a closer look at all my old D&D games that I own, and I might explore some older games at a later time. However, fair warning, some of these games won’t run on modern computers and/or the graphics (and limited controls) are so outdated that it is horrible to play. Sometime there are old game bugs that will prevent you from completing the game, etc. However, like I said, the graphics and interface, and so on, that is a big barrier for me.