Wizardry Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord remake by Digital Eclipse - now available on Early Access - coming May 23rd

[Grauken]

"It’s an honor to partner with Drecom to bring the official Wizardry name back to its roots and help make this seminal work available again to a new generation of gamers," said Justin Bailey, Head of Publishing for Digital Eclipse.

Finally I will be able to play this game that has been unavailable for so long.

I sadly have seen some responses with that exact sentiment but without the irony

 

[Jaesun]

https://www.digitaleclipse.com/media/wizardrypartners

Drecom, SirTech, and Digital Eclipse Partner on WizardryTM: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord Revival
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‍Wizardry trademark and copyright holders have licensed the IP to California-based game development studio
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First published by SirTech in the 1980s, Wizardry is a series of Dungeons & Dragons–style video games. With eight main installments released through 2001 and almost forty Japanese spin-offs published to date, Wizardry is one of the most prolific game series ever and is widely recognized as the inspiration for the modern role-playing game (RPG) genre. The series was a World Video Game Hall of Fame finalist in 2023.
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In 2020, Japanese entertainment company Drecom acquired the copyrights to Wizardry 6, Wizardry 7, Wizardry 8, and Wizardry Gold, as well as the domestic and international registered trademarks to the series title Wizardry. SirTech retained the copyrights to the first five Wizardry games. Digital Eclipse, an independent game studio dedicated to video game preservation, has now licensed the registered Wizardry trademark from Drecom and the copyrights to the series’ debut game Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord from SirTech, in order to develop a new version built directly on top of the original Apple II code base.
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"It’s an honor to partner with Drecom to bring the official Wizardry name back to its roots and help make this seminal work available again to a new generation of gamers," said Justin Bailey, Head of Publishing for Digital Eclipse.
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"We’re happy to support Digital Eclipse in their endeavor to restore this iconic game back to its rightful place,” said Yuki Naito, Representative Director & CEO of Drecom. "As custodians of the Wizardry franchise, we’re excited for fans to get a chance to experience the original game."
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An Early Access version of WizardryTM: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord for PC was unveiled on September 15 on Steam and GOG, giving fans of the long-running franchise an opportunity to sample the work-in-progress and offer feedback ahead of the final release. Separately, Drecom has two Wizardry games under development, Wizardry Variants Daphne™ and Eternal Crypt - Wizardry BC - ™.

The Wizardry trademark remains under Drecom's sole ownership, and the title Wizardry™: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord uses Wizardry™ with permission from Drecom.
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Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord has been licensed to Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners Co. by SirTech Entertainment Corp. All rights reserved.

felipepepe were you aware of Drecom and it's rights to Wiz 6-8?

 

[vitellus]

couldn't they just taken the gameplay and made a whole new dungeon instead of rehashing wiz1 and getting rid of half the point of the game (mapping!)?

they could've even taken the maps of the original and flipped them or altered them, collapsed tunnels and so forth of the original proving grounds, maybe a returning threat to llylgamyn thirty five years after the events of part five. "oh shit monsters have started coming from the old proving ground! we need a group to investigate this! send out a missive for some dumbasses to delve the depths!"

how many of us have dumped hours into a dungeon because of something as simple as this?

instead, they're just gonna rehash a map set that is as old as i am?

the more i read about this the more it's...i'm not invested enough to be mad, just...disappointed

 

[felipepepe]

felipepepe were you aware of Drecom and it's rights to Wiz 6-8?

Yeah, I made a tweet about it when it happened, I thought they would do some sort of "Wizardry Rebirth" campaign for the 40th anniversary like they did for the 30th.

And we knew that Wiz 6-8 had passed to Japan in 2006, it's mentioned here, they even show the documents: https://venturebeat.com/community/2013/05/03/wizardrys-wild-ride-from-west-to-east/ Greenberg was still suing the Siroteks at this point, but AFAIK chasing this deal meant he would have to sue a huge Japanese corp in Japan going "you legally bought these, but the Siroteks weren't allowed to sell them". That sounds like a nightmare.

BTW, this "SirTech Entertainment Corp" that Digital Eclipse mentions is a new company, created in 2022 by Robert Sirotek. Sir-Tech Canada went bankrupt in 2001 and closed in 2003.

In the end, a lot of questions still remain... like why didn't the Siroteks also sell Wiz 1-5 to Japan, and what has changed now that made this remake possible. Would be really interesting to hear Greenberg's side on all this.

 

[Jaesun]

instead, they're just gonna rehash a map set that is as old as i am?

What they wanted to do and have done was take the original PASCAL code for the Apple II and make an updated version of it for modern computers and keyboards. And of course graphics. What I have played so far is exactly that. I felt so far they did a good job of it. And even more amusing at the bottom right of the screen you can also see and play the original game as you play it. That part was neat. This project was not a "new" Wizardry 1, but an updated to a 2023 version.

Can always just ignore this and go play the original. I prefer this new version personally.

 

[Infinitron]

Ian and Justin play the NES version of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord! Will they survive? Maybe...

 

[OndrejSc]

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.digitaleclipse.com/media/wizardry-october-2023-patch-notes

WIZARDRY PGMO: OCTOBER 2023 PATCH NOTES​

Early access version 0.2 has arrived with character portraits, mouse support, a Bestiary, and more!

Hello from the Digital Eclipse Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord dev team. We have made significant progress in addressing much of the feedback that we have received over the last six weeks. Early access version 0.2 of Wizardry: PGMO contains some new features planned by our team as well as a few things we added as a direct result of your feedback — so thank you for your patience and support as we improve!
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Here’s what you'll find in this update:
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Full Mouse & Keyboard Support
Our initial release was heavily controller focused, but we promised mouse support in our first update. Now, you can navigate all the menus in the game using your mouse, as promised. We’ve also added keyboard shortcuts to many areas to reflect the button prompts in the original Wizardry game.
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‍Save Slots
Players now have access to five save slots to mark their progress.
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Revised Mini-Map
The mini-map should now better reflect your party’s awareness of their current surroundings. What you have seen is what you know. Still, The Maze can never be trusted, so be sure to have DUMAPIC available to cast whenever you suspect it might be lying to you.
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New Enemy Identification System
Characters can choose to Inspect Enemies during combat to learn more about them (give that back row something else to do than Parry). Your party can now Identify, Observe, and Deduce new facts about the enemies they face. As they do, the information they glean will populate the all-new Bestiary!
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The Bestiary
There’s now a Bestiary that includes profiles and information on all 101 enemies in the game. The bestiary ties directly into our new identification system, providing a means of reviewing what you’ve learned when encountering enemies so that you can better strategize against them in the future.
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A side note to these two features: The original version of Wizardry contained a monumental amount of data, much of which was kept hidden from the player. Under the hood lies a deep, rich system that players would often intuit, but never really directly saw for themselves. Our new enemy identification system, combined with the all-new Bestiary, strives to bring some of that data to light and make the game a richer experience.
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New Character Portraits
Elves, gnomes, dwarves — show yourselves! There are now 20 portraits for every lineage, for a total of 100 portraits.
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Custom Character Portrait Support
If you want a truly personalized portrait, we’ve added a character portrait importer as a direct result of player feedback and requests. Here's how to import your own portraits into the game:

1. Create a 512x512px image (JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF) for your character's portrait. Please note that the final image must be exactly 512 pixels square, and animated GIFs are not supported.
2. Create a CustomPortraits folder in your Wizardry directory:
Steam: \steamapps\common\MURPHY\murphy\Content\CustomPortraits
GOG: \Wizardry\Murphy\Content\CustomPortraits
3. Copy your image files into the CustomPortraits directory.

When you launch the game, visit the Training Grounds and you'll find your custom portraits in their own gallery.
You can organize your images within CustomPortraits into folders, but the game will only recognize subfolders one level deep. For example, the images placed within CustomPortraits\Vampires will be recognized, but any images in CustomPortraits\Vampires\Sparkling will not show up in-game.

To start you off, here are 10 portraits of some of the scarier denizens of the Maze, suitable for your Halloween adventures:
http://bit.ly/wizportraits01

Bug Fixes
We've also included several quality-of-life and bug fixes based on the vast amount of feedback that we have received.

We are actively monitoring the forums at both Steam and GOG, so please continue to post your findings and feedback there — adding your voice in either venue is the best way to reach the team with your suggestions.

If you have reported a bug but you don't see the fix for your issue in this update, don't despair — we're keeping track and will continue to address more issues in future updates. More improvements are on the way, and your patience is appreciated. Thank you and happy adventuring!

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Did that incur a price increase?

 

[lvl 2 Blue Slime]

Is it worth playing or too rough atm?

 

[octavius]

Does it have romances now?
Asking for BruceVC

 

[Casual Hero]

It's still pretty rough, but this is a very nice update. I'm curious just how far the final version will differ from the original; the new identification system brings another completely new set of mechanics to the game.

 

[DemonKing]

I'm curious just how far the final version will differ from the original; the new identification system brings another completely new set of mechanics to the game.

Well the initial Beta was a bit too close to the original, so happy for them to evolve it a bit to take into account the last 40 years of game development (provided they don't add romances, of course).

If you want to go full Old School you can always play the original.

 

[Serus]

I'm curious just how far the final version will differ from the original; the new identification system brings another completely new set of mechanics to the game.

Well the initial Beta was a bit too close to the original, so happy for them to evolve it a bit to take into account the last 40 years of game development (provided they don't add romances, of course).

If you want to go full Old School you can always play the original.

The point in such remakes is first and foremost for me to improve the interface. Also graphics but that is secondary. If the developers want to make their own mechanics then perhaps they should consider making their own game - closely inspired on the original.

 

[octavius]

They could also make things toggle-able, like "Magic in Surprise Round?".

 

[Sacibengala]

They could also make things toggle-able, like "Magic in Surprise Round?".

Yeah, the least they can do is put an option at the start forr you to choose between classic game play and whatever they think is better now.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

One video said at launch you still couldn’t view your character or inventory in the tavern or in but had to go to camp or the training grounds. Honestly, in any of those places full access to stats and inventory would be fine imho instead of juggling places. It has been a while since I’ve played. Seeing they are going to add a bit more interests me enough to eventually purchase. Too bad I missed the discount (what was it 10% off). Le sigh…. Gotta get it before it goes to 39.99 or 69.99.

 

[Jaesun]

Good to see they finally added mouse support. While it was fun and quaint to play the game just like the original (keyboard only) it started to get a bit tiresome.

While I have no idea on what they might do in the future, I personally would be ok with a Wizardry 6 using this same engine (and also built upon source code). Wizardry 6 is just my personal favorite.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Wizardry 1-8 using the same engine? You sure you’d want that?

 

[Jaesun]

Wizardry 1-8 using the same engine? You sure you’d want that?

I said Wizardry 6. 1 - 6 could work in this engine. 7 and 8 are just fine as they are. More detailed, much better graphics than the previous ones.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Gotta go full 8 if you tossing in 6 because of that space arc thing. Can’t just go to the Cosmic Forge and expect to transfer to 7 & 8. You ain’t even a wee bit curious what 7-8 would look like going to a sorta classic engine?

 

[Grauken]

Gotta say some of those monster visuals look pretty cool

 

[Covenant]

Gotta say some of those monster visuals look pretty cool

Is it just me or do dragons always seem far less impressive the more of them there are? Early RPGs were terrible for sticking dozens of them into a single fight, and it generally made them seem boring and not threatening. Two isn't bad, but one is still better.

In terms of the other picture, looks like the new Scream film has gone all-in on CGI.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I dunno, in wizardry I still recall a bad encounter with two zombie dragons just before the encounter with WERDNA that ended that party. I was pretty pissed but my fault for not healing up before hand.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I'm curious if Knight of Diamonds & Legacy of Llylgamyn might get added in.

I checked their website then their FB page to link to 1d ago steam patch notes.

I like the pic but isn't there more I'm not seeing?