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Amulets & Armor

In My Safe Space
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
21,899
Codex 2012
I completely forgot about that site.
 

Stabwound

Arcane
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,240
This is a surprising turn of events. I had never heard of this game until it showed up on HoTU and even then it seemed like a gigantic turd. Less than 100 sales, wow. Even more shocking is that the guy turned around 16 years later and decided to start updating it.

It would be cool if it turned into a decent game.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
Patron
Joined
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Messages
15,048
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In quarantine
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Even more shocking is that the guy turned around 16 years later and decided to start updating it.

It was because of the Let's Play at Something Awful, which was great and attracted a sizeable audience. Wouldn't have happened otherwise.
 

Admiral jimbob

gay as all hell
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
9,225
Location
truck stops and toilet stalls
Wasteland 2
From SomethingAwful:

LysleShields said:
AA.png

Sit down, young adventurer. There's a tale to be told. It spans 10 years, and while once it was thought the story was over, there's been a recent twist.

What is Amulets and Armor?
Amulets and Armor (A&A) is best described as a first person fantasy crawler designed by the minds of mad Game Masters. The game attempts to retain the feeling of playing tabletop fantasy with friends and a drink in your hand. Originally released in 1997, after a launch without a publisher, fewer than 100 copies of the game were sold, and eventually it faded into obscurity, only popping up on websites hosting abandoned software.

SHOT1.JPG

SHOT1.JPG

SHOT6.JPG

SHOT6.JPG


Why are you here now?
Here is where the story gets interesting. A&A has been available on various sites for a while now and has garnered a small underground following. In October of 2012 Bacter and Mzbundifund began a Let's Play to show off this little-known game. Bacter reached out and contacted me to join in the discussion.

I was pleased to see the growing interest in the Let's Play and the game itself. Mzbundifund and Bacter were doing an excellent job of showing off the game in all its glory (and its many flaws). There were bugs and I winced at each and everyone, but behind it all, they showed the game really has a charm to it that had been forgotten. Because the game had been sold incorrectly, I had always felt it never quite got its day in the sun. I have always desired to bring it out again, but due to its aged graphics, legal issues, and general obscurity, never thought there would be a platform where it would take off.

However, after some rights-wrangling, and some work on my part to bring the aged beast into the new millennium, I am ecstatic to be able to release the game for free.

For Free?
Yup! Now this is good for a few reasons. One is that I can port the game properly to Windows and add a number of bug fixes. These bug fixes and enhancements make the game much more playable than the current "abandoned" versions. It also means that we have the potential to be able to continue development and expand upon the base of the game. It is our hope to add new content sometime down the line, dependent on community interest. For now though, the game is going to be released in as strong a state as possible for everyone to enjoy, with updates as they are found. To commemorate this re-release I also wish to announce a series of contests.

:siren: !!!Contests!!! :siren:

1. Speed Run Contest - Prize $40
For our first contest, we want you to play our game -- and play it fast. !Starting with a level 1 character, see how quickly you can run through ALL the levels of Amulets & Armor. Do you choose the faster Rogue or Sailor, or do you depend on magical means? Do you fight monsters for experience or do you zip past them? Record your runs and upload them to youtube.com, and share with us your high-speed adventures through the levels of A&A. The player who takes the least amount of time will win $40. Unfortunately, we'll be clipping people's wings and keeping them from flying and/or blinking, but everything else is fair game. The speed run contest rules are available at http://wiki.amuletsandarmor.com/index.php?title=Speed_Run_Contest_2013

2. Fan Art Contest - Prize $20
We have seen on the forums there are some talented members out there who are just itching to draw fan art for Amulets & Armor. Now we would like to see you put together a picture using any media you like, add a fun and interesting caption, and post it in the contest area. Make us laugh, make us cry, it's all good. We just ask you make it work- and family-friendly. We'll have the community provide input on favorites and Exiguus Entertainment will pick the winner of the $20 prize.
The fan art contest rules are available at http://wiki.amuletsandarmor.com/index.php?title=Fan_Art_Contest_2013


Why A&A Continues...
Amulets & Armor is a true labor of love. It has some quirks and problems, but we’re working to make it better. Something special was made and we plan to expand upon the game and make it even better little by little. Sure, the graphics are a bit dated, the interface needs a few more tweaks, the character classes are not balanced, but underneath it all, there is a charm not often found in other games. Explore the game and join with others who have also found that charm.

Links
A&A Home Page - http://www.amuletsandarmor.com/
A&A Wiki - http://wiki.amuletsandarmor.com/
Classic v1.01 Game Download (DOS Version, requires DOSBox) - http://www.amuletsandarmor.com/download.htm
DevBlog - http://amuletsandarmordev.wordpress.com/

Yet to try this myself, but it certainly looks intriguing, and I'm sure some here will be interested. Anyone heard of it before, or played it yet? I demand Codex impressions.
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
All the impressions you'd ever need can be found in the SA Let's Play: http://lparchive.org/Amulets-Armor/ Which is, incidentally, one of the best LPs I've ever watched.

(The original SA thread for that LP is even better since you get to see the devs themselves participate in the discussion, but you need SA archives access to read it: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3515004)

SA also has a dedicated discussion thread about the game: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3545328
 
Last edited:

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
The game was already on my 1997 play list, so obviously it must have been discussed here or (less likely) GOG before...
 

Luzur

Good Sir
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Messages
41,385
Location
Swedish Empire
i tried it back in the days, and i dunno what i thought back then, it was kinda like...Daggerfall, but yet not.
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
Watching the LP of it -- pretty interesting little game. Such peculiar details.
 

Severian Silk

Guest
I think the graphics actually look pretty good. Very simple and logical. But whatever...
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
used to love this back in the days, replayed some years later and it was p. bland.
 
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
213
There's been an important update.

9/21/2013 - Classic v1.03 Release

More bug fixes!
Several more bugs have been brought to our attention and fixed!

  • Buying bolts from the store no longer crashes. Archer is now usable again.
  • Shooting mercenaries with piercing bolts no longer crashes.
  • Doing non-magical/physical attacks to Mattan no longer crashes.
  • Rogue no longer takes damage when making multiple jumps on level ground.
  • Switching between look and keyboard mode no longer causes blocks of graphics to distort at last location of mouse.
  • Inn now properly saves character on exiting plus fun messages.
  • Installer changed to force install to C:\GAMES\Amulets & Armor for now. Problems were found with installing to other directories.
  • A&A Launcher now properly updates each time run instead of cache flushes.

Download the latest from the download page.
 

FrancoTAU

Cipher
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
2,507
Location
Brooklyn, NY
This is one of those games that I only knew about because it was on Home of the Underdogs in the late 90s. All I remember from my short play was that it looked nice but was buggy.
 
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
213
The Windows version has the wrong vcredist_x86 installer. You probably need to download Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86) for msvcr100.dll. The character editor also has the dll. The program shortcut tries to open BAN00005.FRM for some reason. I think the installer mentioned reading the readme, but there isn't one.

There's a post on the forums showing hidden stats for characters like extra magic regeneration, speed percentage increase, and melee damage percent increase. Also look at the wiki for more character info. There is no listing of arcane spells so you will have no idea what they are capable of casting but the mage and priest spell lists exist.


The game has Wolfenstein 3d search every wall game play. Death on water, lava, and probably acid makes you lose all the items so no looting enemies, and if it happens to the player, you will likely want to restart the level. Some traps could also make it difficult to recover items.

There's some acid damage that is pretty frequent later on and will destroy one item equipped or in your inventory fairly regularly if you don't have protection from acid. From the Let's Play I've seen so far, there's one series of mazes with some levers inside. If you activate them, it closes off your exit and you need to figure out the new combination to open them.


Trying to navigate rotating tree sprites to get items or move around them is annoying but that only seemed to be a problem in the first level. Slow characters aren't as painfully slow after gaining some levels. The game has simple combat and controls you need to get used to but it is worth a try or at least watch the Let's Play. This video has some nice traps shown off and is a level after the item destroying acid comes into play. If you just want the traps, you could skip to 3 minutes in for the first one.


Controls

Pressing tab goes into mouse look mode which makes moving your character manageable. The left mouse button will attack (or use whatever is in the item slot). Unfortunately, the right mouse button doesn't seem to do jack in that mode. It really should have work like the open door button or have it configurable. The middle mouse could jump (I'd probably still use space though). This should be extremely simple for Lysle to add to the game and definitely help the controls feel better.

In look mode, the open door button will put items on the cursor into your inventory without having to drag them. Look mode doesn't go low enough to pick up items as well as you should. You sometimes need to tab out; then drag and drop the item into you inventory.

Trying to move precisely outside of look mode is horrible. The directional movement buttons move you too far and for several seconds instead of gradually moving you and stopping when you release the key. It does the continual movement even with the walk button held. Trying to strafe the 3 lever puzzle (without look mode) in the beginning is awful with you practically need to hold down walk, strafe, then press the needed directional buttons and the use button.
 
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
213
I guess right click casts spells if you have one ready. It's not very handy for this low magic arcane character who only was able to cast spells after finishing the first (out of seven) quest.

Here's some easily implemented options for Lysle that would help annoyances some people will have.
  • Have all items already identified. Currently, almost everything needs identified which is way too much.
  • Disable acid damage destroying items. Knowing how often this happens can be very discouraging. I also heard it destroys enemy loot which makes acid damage pretty bad when used by the player.
  • Disable items dropping on player death. There's the above issue with death on liquid and some other ways that makes them impossible to retrieve. There's no saves within a level so a play could lose more than a half hour of progress. They would still lose their money not in the bank. This could be exploited but similar games of the era had much worse cheats like god mode.
 

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