[ALL PHYSICAL COPIES SOLD OUT!] Realms of Quest V for the VIC-20 (digital version is available)

[hitfan]

I'm continuing to do some more graphics that expand the lore of the game. I'm hoping to have my expanded slideshows ready in time for when the second batch will be produced, which should be soon.

Some new graphics artwork of Queen Alania and King Titus who are featured on the box cover art:

You'll learn more about the enigmatic Grand Empress, Lady Carmilla Bane--where through the years, she governs as a ruthless autocrat waging endless wars while also implementing social reforms like equality.

 

[hitfan]

8-Bit Guy has posted a review of the game!

https://youtu.be/nIKKuyGoqwI

 

[hitfan]

I addressed 8-Bit Guy's criticisms of the game with the following post I made in the comments section:


A big thank you to the 8-bit Guy for reviewing my game "Realms of Quest V". I got quite a kick out of seeing him set up the dual disk drives in this video. To answer his criticisms:

1) True, there is no overhead tactical combat view. That was a deliberate design choice that follows the classic "blobber" RPG games such as Wizardry and Bard's Tale that also only featured the portraits of the monsters that you would encounter. A party size of 10 players facing 5 rows of monsters that could have up to 15 monsters in each row.

2) And regarding the complexity of the game that might be off-putting to players in the year 2019, it is very much like a 1980s computer RPG game that teenage boys would play back then. But I can understand how this game might alienate the casual fans in that regard. I pretty much programmed almost the entirety of the Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Set and 1st Edition AD&D) rulebook into this game. So I wanted to emulate the computer RPG experience for the actual VIC-20 computer--with disk swapping to boot.

I very much enjoyed watching your video and I liked your allusions to Ultima of which I am also a big fan.


I think my favorite recent image that I created for the Revised Edition was this one:

I'm a big fan of Gothic Horror movies, with the heavy atmosphere. And while my game does not fall in that category, I wanted to make a nod to that with an image that depicts your visit to an Inn.

 

[Grauken]

I enjoy most of 8-bit guys videos, but those two are not drawbacks, but pros in my book

 

[Alchemist]

I pretty much programmed almost the entirety of the Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Set and 1st Edition AD&D) rulebook into this game. So I wanted to emulate the computer RPG experience for the actual VIC-20 computer--with disk swapping to boot.

My interest in this intensifies even more. Definitely will buy this soon!

 

[Alchemist]

hitfan Quick question about this - if I buy the digital download version of the game, does that include a PDF of the manual? I couldn't find clear info about that on the Doublesided Games site.

 

[Grauken]

Should be included, I bought the print version that included the digital download and a pdf manual, so if you only buy digital then it should include at least those two (if not PM me and I help you out)

 

[hitfan]

hitfan Quick question about this - if I buy the digital download version of the game, does that include a PDF of the manual? I couldn't find clear info about that on the Doublesided Games site.

Yes, of course. And those who bought the first version of the game will get a download for the revised edition (1.1)

List of changes:

Lady Carmilla Bane’s portion of the tablet is now located in the centre

The village leaders now give you tangible clues on how to succeed in the game (instead of them saying “We saw orcs marauding in Samunda!”, they will say something quite useful like “Protection from Evil will raise the armor of your entire party during battle!”)

3 magic spells have been modified (Fear, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force)

Minor spelling and grammatical errors corrected

Several graphical slideshow sequences have been added to the “History And Lore” section of the main menu

A death image slideshow sequence has also been added

Various bug fixes and game balance modifications

 

[hitfan]

While version 1.1 is out, I do continue to dabble and refine my work. I've revised and made additions to the Death sequence. These Deities will appear to you when you die:

The top 3 images represent THE CREATOR. The bottom 3 represent the NEW DIVINITIES, that of Courage, Knowledge and Unity.

I'm not going to release version 1.2 until I feel that I can completely stop working on it, which I hope is sooner rather than later.

 

[hitfan]

I just learned that all physical copies of the game have been completely sold out on the Double Sided Games website. Thank you all for your support.

But, I still continue to work on version 1.2 of the game.

Some features that I've added recently:

-Bug fixes
-more changes and corrections were made for the text
-more image revisions
-made screen changes less "glitchy"
-compressed more files so that I could add even more graphical content.
-reduced number of files that load for booting the game (this improves loading times)
-added a digitized map that can be seen in the game
-improved the credits/acknowledgements screen text formatting.
-fixed the road tiles on the map to make them more "round" and less jagged.
-removed TABLET graphic portrait. No more disk loading when you search for the tablet.
-made the in-game Search Tablet chart easier to read (to match what appears on page 34 of the manual)
-changed "Acknowledgements" to "About This Game" to show a slideshow sequence about the features. Acknowledgements are listed at the end of the sequence.
-refactored code so that the game engine uses less memory. I can add some features more easily in the future.
-streamlined select character text display to two outputs: "select player" and "select target"
-the Allies menu allows you to view information about your companions directly from this menu

 

[Darkzone]

Talking about stolen art, the images on the first page of this thread are rather newand surely are not given to public domain. Therefore be careful what you use, because this can turn ugly before a court. Always remember if even the current rights holder is not determined than the artist can make a claim for the art and any derivative of it.

 

[hitfan]

Talking about stolen art, the images on the first page of this thread are rather newand surely are not given to public domain. Therefore be careful what you use, because this can turn ugly before a court. Always remember if even the current rights holder is not determined than the artist can make a claim for the art and any derivative of it.

I've been seeing some comments on other platforms that accuse me of stealing. The following response is not directed at you (I understand yours is a message of caution, rather than one of condemnation).

On the morality of stealing and sourcing art from the web -- I was fairly open from the beginning about what I was going to do, not thinking too deeply about it. I thought that by cropping just the faces and changing them enough that they even become somewhat unrecognizable because of their conversion to the VIC-20 graphics format, that it all flies under the radar. Believe me, I did not make this game for the money -- I've been "paid" in free copies, many of which I gave to those who helped me make it.

There is still a ton of hard work that went into producing 400 images for the game (each of which took anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours for each). The only reward that I might unfairly receive is being perceived as a great pixel artist and having gotten 1300 followers on Twitter because that is what the casual observer will see.

The game is not just pretty graphics--there is a complex game engine that simulates the entirety of the Original D&D/AD&D first edition rulebook. There's 20 cities and 20 dungeons to explore. The real accomplishment was making a game that was close to 1 MB in size for the VIC-20.

The game is completed and I'm putting it behind me, and I'm not going to be doing any more new gaming projects for at least 20 years (the entire experience has been exhausting, but rewarding). The only thing I am doing is improving and refining the current game from time to time, until I am satisfied with the final result. If I do make another classic style RPG, it will be along the vein of Ultima V with tile graphics. I figure that I took the concept of digitizing portrait graphics for a forgotten 8-bit platform as far as I could.

Perhaps some might shame me as an "art stealer". So be it. I have no career in the computer games or graphics industry to have to uphold or defend. I stand by what I did and accomplished.

"If you constantly seek the approval of others, forever you will be their prisoner". -- old Chinese aphorism.

 

[hitfan]

I've been asked by more than one player to replace the runes that represent Alignment-Sex-Race-Class with 2-letter abbreviation characters. So, I finally decided to implement such a feature (that can be selected in the settings menu).

Personally, I prefer using the runes, but that's just me. I will continue to use the rune configuration when I play my own game.

(Hagrath is a Chatocic Male Ogre Fighter, for example).

 

[mondblut]

 

[Darkzone]

Talking about stolen art, the images on the first page of this thread are rather newand surely are not given to public domain. Therefore be careful what you use, because this can turn ugly before a court. Always remember if even the current rights holder is not determined than the artist can make a claim for the art and any derivative of it.

I've been seeing some comments on other platforms that accuse me of stealing. The following response is not directed at you (I understand yours is a message of caution, rather than one of condemnation).

Spoiler

On the morality of stealing and sourcing art from the web -- I was fairly open from the beginning about what I was going to do, not thinking too deeply about it. I thought that by cropping just the faces and changing them enough that they even become somewhat unrecognizable because of their conversion to the VIC-20 graphics format, that it all flies under the radar. Believe me, I did not make this game for the money -- I've been "paid" in free copies, many of which I gave to those who helped me make it.

There is still a ton of hard work that went into producing 400 images for the game (each of which took anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours for each). The only reward that I might unfairly receive is being perceived as a great pixel artist and having gotten 1300 followers on Twitter because that is what the casual observer will see.

The game is not just pretty graphics--there is a complex game engine that simulates the entirety of the Original D&D/AD&D first edition rulebook. There's 20 cities and 20 dungeons to explore. The real accomplishment was making a game that was close to 1 MB in size for the VIC-20.

The game is completed and I'm putting it behind me, and I'm not going to be doing any more new gaming projects for at least 20 years (the entire experience has been exhausting, but rewarding). The only thing I am doing is improving and refining the current game from time to time, until I am satisfied with the final result. If I do make another classic style RPG, it will be along the vein of Ultima V with tile graphics. I figure that I took the concept of digitizing portrait graphics for a forgotten 8-bit platform as far as I could.

Perhaps some might shame me as an "art stealer". So be it. I have no career in the computer games or graphics industry to have to uphold or defend. I stand by what I did and accomplished.
"If you constantly seek the approval of others, forever you will be their prisoner". -- old Chinese aphorism.

It is not if you are open about it or not and it is not about shaming you as an "art stealer". Also it is not about approval of others of your work.
If this ends up in court you can lose quite a lot of money and end up in a very bad position, because this can go even into millions of dollars payment. The artist has the rights to his art and any derivate from this art, so yes therefore they have quite a good court case against you, if they want. Therefore if you want to be on the safe side then go to deviantart and talk to some artists there. They can give you licenses to their works or even make works for you and use only art works that is in public domain. Then nobody will criticise you and you can be even more proud of you work and have a restful sleep that you wouldn't have if you are at least several 100k in debt, because of such a stupidity.

 

[hitfan]

(this is before the series went all woke and shit...)

The first four Realms of Quest games for the VIC-20 (along with Ultimate Quest for the C64) are being re-released by Psytronik Software in one special package. It will be available for pre-sale on January 18, 2020:

http://www.psytronik.net/newsite/index.php/vic/111-realms-quad

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I'm playing RoQ V on my new C64 Maxi (which I purchased mainly because of this game!) and it's an exquisite pleasure! The graphic design is without parallels on the VIC-20 (I don't care if some graphics are "borrowed" as long as the overall aesthetic impression is consistent), the system is complex and full of possibilities and gameplay very rewarding. I created a party almost completely consisting of Elves and Eldar, mainly to avoid ageing - and what a notorious bunch of immortal do-gooders and holier-than-thou paladins and clerics they are! I still have two mortals in my party, a dwarf and a gnome. Just to see how the years take their toll and legendary heroes transform into useless old geezers.
One thing I missed during my first hours: The possibility to scroll through the menus with i/j/k/l. It works really great with party movement so I'd really like to use that controls in cities and menus too (especially as my joystick reacts too fast in this game). Is it possible to implement such an option in the next version?
Anyway, overall a great experience and a tremendous technical achievement! It's my new drug of choice (half a year after I finished Grimoire this is the first game that manages to capture my interest). If there will ever be a third physical release I'll get it. I really want this nifty coin and the cloth map.

 

[hitfan]

I'm playing RoQ V on my new C64 Maxi (which I purchased mainly because of this game!) and it's an exquisite pleasure! The graphic design is without parallels on the VIC-20 (I don't care if some graphics are "borrowed" as long as the overall aesthetic impression is consistent), the system is complex and full of possibilities and gameplay very rewarding. I created a party almost completely consisting of Elves and Eldar, mainly to avoid ageing - and what a notorious bunch of immortal do-gooders and holier-than-thou paladins and clerics they are! I still have two mortals in my party, a dwarf and a gnome. Just to see how the years take their toll and legendary heroes transform into useless old geezers.
One thing I missed during my first hours: The possibility to scroll through the menus with i/j/k/l. It works really great with party movement so I'd really like to use that controls in cities and menus too (especially as my joystick reacts too fast in this game). Is it possible to implement such an option in the next version?
Anyway, overall a great experience and a tremendous technical achievement! It's my new drug of choice (half a year after I finished Grimoire this is the first game that manages to capture my interest). If there will ever be a third physical release I'll get it. I really want this nifty coin and the cloth map.

Thank you for your good and endorsement. As for menu navigation, you might try to use the Commodore cursor keys (marked as CRSR at the bottom right of the keyboard, they control up/down and left/right by using the SHIFT key).

I will adjust the joystick responsiveness in a future update. Moreover, I will allow the use of the IJKL keys for menu navigation as well--thank you for the idea!

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

8-Bit Guy has posted a review of the game!

https://youtu.be/nIKKuyGoqwI

I follow this guys videos extensively. Awesome restorations too.

 

[Grauken]

8-Bit Guy has posted a review of the game!

https://youtu.be/nIKKuyGoqwI

I follow this guys videos extensively. Awesome restorations too.

Yeah, there's something soothing about seeing him take old hardware apart, clean it up and build it back to almost new again

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I'm finding I'm watching more hardware vids now than sofware and games unless its history. The history of exidy, universal etc for arcade machines are fantastic. I want to see pimped out led and modernization of old machines but at their core still being said machine (ie a pet or appleii is still said machine even if it uses sd cards in addition to drives). Watching dream machine 8-bit guy atm.

btw, the reviews of your game were great. Such love in manual, box, extras and the game. AWESOME!

 

[hitfan]

I'm finding I'm watching more hardware vids now than sofware and games unless its history. The history of exidy, universal etc for arcade machines are fantastic. I want to see pimped out led and modernization of old machines but at their core still being said machine (ie a pet or appleii is still said machine even if it uses sd cards in addition to drives). Watching dream machine 8-bit guy atm.

btw, the reviews of your game were great. Such love in manual, box, extras and the game. AWESOME!

Thank you. It took a long time, but I've finally made an epic RPG. The only drawback is that I find myself not wanting to play RPG games much anymore--I'd much rather make them. I still like to read RPG manuals though. Think the manual is the heart and soul of computer RPG games.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Oh, you did a fantastic job on contents. Watching the reviews was just something to drink in. I would have bought a set myself but all of my stuff is in storage except a few laptops. And the storage isnt great but safe enough. I certainly envy the collectors and shelf space they have. I was a huge tabletop rpg fan so that was most of my shelves back in the day. I haven't played in ages but i still like to read (pdf) and once in a while do something to breathe in nostalgia like copying assets to make tilesets (Adventure construction set is one but ultima gave me that idea from others). I love the old games and revisit them via emulation when possible.

After watching the history of commodore computers this work is an awesome feat considering the hardware. Vic-20 and c64 were my first computers via being handed down.

I love to see programmers push old tech to its limits and beyond. Awesome job!

 

[hitfan]

Oh, you did a fantastic job on contents. Watching the reviews was just something to drink in. I would have bought a set myself but all of my stuff is in storage except a few laptops. And the storage isnt great but safe enough. I certainly envy the collectors and shelf space they have. I was a huge tabletop rpg fan so that was most of my shelves back in the day. I haven't played in ages but i still like to read (pdf) and once in a while do something to breathe in nostalgia like copying assets to make tilesets (Adventure construction set is one but ultima gave me that idea from others). I love the old games and revisit them via emulation when possible.

After watching the history of commodore computers this work is an awesome feat considering the hardware. Vic-20 and c64 were my first computers via being handed down.

I love to see programmers push old tech to its limits and beyond. Awesome job!

Thank you!

A third batch of physical copies is supposed to come out soon.. There has been a delay because of the current pandemic situation which is preventing the publisher from being able to receive the necessary materials to produce the third batch of physical copies.

A European magazine that is dedicated to Commodore 8-bit and Amiga computers has done a feature on Realms V. The cover artwork is based on the characters in the game, actually.

It is available in both printed physical and digital versions here: http://ka-plus.pl/en/issue-15/

I myself can't wait to receive this in the mail, pending the current international shipping situation.

 

[Luzur]

Wait hold on, Ultimate Quest for C64? the one named Catacomb? i thought that was an unfinished "demo"