Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

In Progress Let's play King's Bounty (1990) for Mac!

circuit breaker

Educated
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
77
Status: FINISHED

PART 1/3
PART 2/3
PART 3/3

Let's see if there is interest in this...

https://www.mobygames.com/game/kings-bounty

Why the Mac version? Simple. At the time, Macs had much better graphics and sound. Also, there's the nostalgia factor, because I only played the game on Mac.

This game is the prequel to the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

E2n1TtU.png


ZHAT5eY.png


YLI8x1z.png


Story: The enemies of King Maximus have stolen The Sceptre of Order, we have to get it back.

The sceptre is in an unknown location. To find about more about this location, we need to find and fight villains on four different continents. Each defeated villain yields a missing piece of the puzzle map. (See 'Artifact/Dig' feature of Homam) Not all pieces are required to find the sceptre. It costs time to look for the sceptre in a certain map location, 1 week IIRC. Each movement on the map costs 1 day.

We need to choose a class.

YDBYXtW.png


Here are the available classes, with descriptions from the game manual:

N.B.: All classes except Sorceress have to learn spellcasting at a specific location on the map. This costs gold, 3k IIRC.

Knight

Starting troops: BEST
Leadership: GREAT
Starting gold: GREAT
Income: GREAT
Spell power: MEH
Advancement rate: FEH

Altogether: EASY

Paladin

Starting troops: OK
Leadership: GREAT
Starting gold: EXCELLENT
Income: EXCELLENT
Spell power: PROCLICK
Advancement rate: BETTER

Altogether: NORMAL

Sorceress

Starting troops: HOT GARBAGE
Leadership: WEAKSAUCE
Starting gold: BEST
Income: HIGHEST, but plateaus out to lower level than other classes with promotions.
Spell power: PROCLICK
Advancement rate: QUICK

Altogether: HARD

Barbarian

Starting troops: STRONK
Leadership: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Starting gold: BEGGAR
Income: WALL STREET (not the highest, but best scaled with promotions)
Spell power: LOLWHAT?
Advancement rate: QUICKEST

Altogether: HARDEST

Which shall we play as?
 
Last edited:

tindrli

Arcane
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
4,465
Location
Dragodol
dont remember about sorceress for the win but it was great fuckin game back then.. just great. now that im thinking i cant remember finishing it ever. but then again i was very young had 10 years and probably i got it in 91 or something. maybe in start of 9 and in 92 war started so no electricity. will follow. thanx for sharing
 

Chaosdwarft

Learned
Patron
Joined
Oct 8, 2019
Messages
272
Location
Old outpost in the middle of Iberia
Story: The enemies of King Maximus have stolen The Sceptre of Order, we have to get it back.

So we are playing the plot of Tintin and the Scepter of Ottokar?

Maybe If I follow this AAR I will finally get why so many people like this series. I vote for Barbarian of course, nothing beats a HARVARD BUSINESS graduate. Am I right?:martini:

As a second choice, the Sorceress will do to fill those quotas.:greatjob:

And as a third choice, the Paladin, because DEUS VULT.:whiteknight:
 

circuit breaker

Educated
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
77
I count two votes and one maybe-vote for Sorceress, so that's what I will be playing as.

There are roughly three phases to a game:

Scouting
Discovering passage to the three continents we don't start in
Discovering in which castle each villain is holed up, as well as which castles hold only monsters
Discovering suitable dwellings to recruit from
Discovering artifacts that aid in our quest
Discovering treasure chests that yield gold, leadership, spell power, an income increase or spells
Discovering suitable towns to buy spells in

Combat
Smashing some villains in the face (yields gold, a bounty, favour with King Maximus which counts towards promotions and increased income if leaving troops in the castle)
Occupying castles that contain only monsters (yields gold and increased income if leaving troops in the castle)
Destroying roaming bands of monsters (yields gold)

Searching for The Sceptre
Apprehending a villain and discovering artifacts unlocks a piece oi the Puzzle Map. Not all pieces have to be unlocked to be able to search for the Sceptre in a spot. Each search takes a week.

Why not do them all at once?

An army has upkeep that can consume a sizable chunk - or even all of - a hero's income. If you don't have enough income to pay the upkeep, troop stacks end up leaving you. Very bad. So it's better to scout as much as is possible with a very small army, and then move your later, full armies only as much as is necessary.

Phase I - Scouting

We begin our journey in the southwest of Continentia, in front of King Maximus's castle:
4shk2hN.png


These are our starting troops:
3gfhB6U.png


Peasants are probably the worst troops in the game. Sprites are extremely fragile. They can fly.

This is our character:
V0HVjqe.png

She has terrible leadership, but great commission. We will start raising leadership through chests shortly. Commission can be raised using certain treasure chests, or by getting promoted by the King.

We visit King Maximus at the castle:
zEL35qV.png


We recruit 6 Pikemen as these are strong, sturdy troops.

Exploring the nearby town of Hunterville, we rent a boat:
RSD0sQG.png

end6eZ7.png


We find a treasure chest that raises our income:
YQCy856.png


...and another chest that can get us gold or leadership. I always pick leadership, since gold can be had in other ways, but leadership not really:
w2xGKfl.png


We find our first spell:
015Gu6u.png


Time Stop can be used to... stop time, preventing it from passing. Very useful in desert areas or when travelling between continents, where each move costs 1 week!

Enemy sighted:
nOZdLe3.png


Each continent has its own icon for roaming troops.
There are always 3 stacks in such an army.

Entering the town of Quiln Point, we purchase a Teleport spell and gain information about a nearby castle:
jx7b1xN.png

WniuGWt.png


Teleport is a combat spell used to move a troop stack to any unoccupied spot. This can be used to move a slow-moving troop to the enemy frontline, to whisk away a friendly shooter stack that is under direct attack, or to transport a stack across a blockade.

We then find the town of King's Haven, purchase a Raise Control spell and look for info:
4Z3VJfo.png

2SqdjwW.png


Raise Control is an adventure spell that temporarily increases your Leadership. Useful when attacking villains which have gigantic/great troop stacks.

We discover our first dwelling:
kf8GjQI.png

dDv5NON.png

Unfortunately, Sprites are not of much use as they are too fragile.

Across the river, however is a more interesting dwelling:
Mj0sZAK.png


Gnomes have lots of hitpoints.
That's it. :)

Some more info gained:
nN19qGV.png


We sight another dwelling:
nZwUael.png

C3TULTE.png

Meh.

Week 1 passes:
9GRmJt3.png


Some more info:
LdhLejW.png


Full map discovered:
jsPrJjc.png

E5fSwJ1.png


We sight our first desert tile:
n1oz1ek.png

I usually avoid it like the plague as it costs too much time to move through.

We recruit some Skeletons:
AZoV1qk.png


We find our first artifact:
Q4nXwAl.png


Puzzle map tile is revealed:
PP3PIJR.png


Hmm. Allright. A coastal area.

Some more info gained:
JSAZCS4.png


A town with Resurrect:
MwOvTk5.png


Too expensive at the moment. Can be used to resurrect troops in combat.

Info:
V5dYifF.png


Peasants recruited:
mh1l6Ic.png


Week 2 passed:
wkD24xt.png


We find a town selling the Fireball spell, and promptly buy two. Great!
OhcqCNY.png


Important info, as Murray the Miser is the first villain:
Ee7Tgc7.png


CIqks9z.png


Some Sprites join us:
yw21SWO.png


Week 3 passes:
4p9ZOm4.png


We get a free Lightning spell from a chest:
ItDsIiQ.png


Some more info found:
rnS4fqN.png


We learn the troop composition of Murray the Miser's forces:
cACvzEa.png


We find another artifact - the last on this continent - the Articles of Nobility which give an income increase. I forgot to take a screenshot, but here's the updated Puzzle Map:
Okc8vzB.png


Week 4 passes:
tDsOpFn.png


UaO0Bh7.png

This castle is in the desert, so we won't have to deal with it.

Passage to the next continent found:
tDV4eoW.png


Spell capacity chest:
ppVM8C9.png


More info:
xZnmgpl.png


Pretty good dwelling:
X1nT8iS.png


Nomads can move two squares per turn and have decent hitting power.

We conclude our exploration of Continentia.

Army:
gK9WQ73.png

Not much for now.

Character:
McNejUf.png


We've more than doubled our leadership.

Note: While exploring, I will find tons of treasure chests. I won't always show that unless I gain some interesting stuff. Most chests are just gold-or-leadership ones.
 

Tiospo

Learned
Joined
Aug 1, 2018
Messages
129
Amazing game! it's 2019, and its still cool, compared to games that are made ourdays.
 

circuit breaker

Educated
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
77
We continue by exploring Forestria, Archipelia and Saharia.
tAywekr.png


We arrive in Forestria:
UO4drpF.png


I used to think this guy's shield was a bubble:
DvpnIQs.png


This treasure chest reward demonstrates why it's wort exploring all of the continents first:
OLGdLoa.png


We find some dwellings:
byOaTDJ.png


And a town as source for the Turn Undead spell, very powerful:
urk72GJ.png


Artifactin':
BJ5VwyH.png


Y81YEn4.png


Passage to Archipelia:
j77eeYU.png


jSapCP9.png

Can be used to copy stacks.

9YeRsLU.png

Pretty good. Barbs are tough and have 3 moves per turn.

ihffwLy.png

Meh.

GuGFvxz.png

Can be used to... resurrect fallen troops.

Finally, a dwelling to get excited about:
A0nEXg6.png


1lIV2gK.png

Nrn2hcB.png


Another artifact found:
B5RgAym.png


DZAfp6w.png


Druids - very nice shooters:
55GsdCe.png

But you can see the problem with having too high leadership here: Not enough monsters to recruit.

p3HlGKO.png


Very nice:
T2nbvED.png

Archmages are shooty troops that also fly.

Forestria mostly explored:
E5SJPRy.png


As you can see, our Leadership has more than tripled.

Off to Archipelia!

a7DHMVk.png

Full map. Good.

jXYBCjN.png

O_o Great!

Current army:
hs3zdiz.png


Another artifact found:
rW8LKW3.png


vxhFYbE.png


e3zZPPr.png

Trolls regenerate their considerable hitpoints at the end of a turn.

More Conans:
SCtBlK1.png


Druids:
LPpR7M3.png


Passage to Saharia:
TkUeaV9.png


Orcs & Wolves:
TulFZFs.png

sWYdBCo.png


Artifact:
6HvYuo2.png

pgyHOrv.png


More spells:
nSmhIJT.png


WlfApwr.png

Ghosts are very dangerous. They increase in numbers as they kill enemies, so are terrible troops for us as they can get out of control, meaning that our Leadership is too low compared to the amount of Ghosts.

Current army:
ukpVsBJ.png


End of Archipelia:
VGPicBn.png

Look at that Leadership!

Off to Saharia!
wkLtVQA.png


Having an army of only flyers allows us to fly, and reach this otherwise unreachable treasure chest:
vXi4byf.png


Rewards here are huge:
sXTEOWJ.png


zyXuwyM.png


YcZBHIr.png

Gnomes would only slow us down at this point.

0MJCpUG.png


UlC9OAb.png


TfduPSg.png

Vampires regenerate hitpoints and numbers, but only up to their original total (unlike Ghosts).

More spell power:
HLqSmme.png


Full map:
0IKPE7j.png

wrEiI7j.png

As you can see, Saharia is a bit special, with a band of desert protecting the rich inner areas. This is why flying is so useful here.

VK3Ut8j.png

A56xUr0.png

Excellent!
Demons are a bit broken... They have a special ability that halves the quantity of an enemy stack. Dat's rite, any stack.

Another spell power increase:
z2avR3S.png


More spell capacity:
MSuCvWT.png


Artifact:
jr8qlZc.png

pPie9xw.png


g0vGEkx.png

O1R7V1v.png


Giants:
4dR7zyQ.png

Very good shooty troops.

Conclusion of the Scouting phase:
8vIlfyg.png


We have 2 choices:
Try to dig for the Sceptre now. Yes, you can actually win the game without apprehending a single villain :D
KILL ALL VILLAINZ! Dig for the Sceptre later.
 

circuit breaker

Educated
Joined
Apr 27, 2019
Messages
77
Eh, who am I kidding? Of course we're going to apprehend all of the villains, and then dig for the Sceptre!

It's pointless to recruit too many troops to kill weak villains, so I begin with a small force:
ZsratpN.png


I take along some token troops, e.g. Militia and Pikemen, not so much to use in combat, but to garrison conquered castles.

Murray the Muiser's peasants run away scared at the sight of fearsome dragons:
TyEWD0c.png


Baron Johnno Makahl's troops fare only marginally better:
BzgLkBz.png


(I skipped screenshotting Hack the Rogue and Princess Aimola as they were similarly uneventful...)

I quickly melt Dread Pirate Rob's face:
Q4nXJYX.png


Time to face Canegor, final villain of Continentia:
gwGy6QQ.png


But first, I obtain a forgotten promotion, (marginally) increasing my leadership and income:
BKA6bId.png


Canegor's troops:
rdklNLD.png

Ghosts and Knights are a deadly combo, but I am past the point of caring. I just melt everything.

And get promoted again:
0BT7l9G.png


Char sheet after finishing Continentia:
lD0I71C.png


Forestria villains:
Sir Moradon the Cruel:
S6Rx9Oo.png

A shitty force. Too few Pikemen, Knights are too few.

Prince Barrowpine:
o82YpLO.png

Much more decent.

Bargash Eyesore:
JILhTpE.png

Giants are dangerous, but melted quickly with some Fireballs.

Rinaldus Drybone, final boss of Forestria:
Wwpkn3v.png

Powerful forces, but a few Turn Undead spells melt them awa-*record scratch sound*:
zA0eXek.png


Er... oops. Let's increase the memory a bit:
BTzavjX.png

And Rinaldus melted.

Moving on to Archipelia, first villain is Ragface:
BNAWaje.png

Turn Undead.

Mahk Bellowspeak:
aFaMKJc.png

40 Giants O_o I end up losing almost all of my Demons:
9W24PdW.png

Actually, Demons are expensive and the halving effect is very random, so I don't mind much.

5 villains left:
j15aHVz.png


Auric Whiteskin:
E486UNs.png

Well... less giants. Lots of Gnomes, but... meh.

Final boss of Archipelia:
95ifIWY.png

FztatVH.png

Knights and Dragons are dangerous, but not enough at this point. Fireball melts Knights away.

3 villains left:
sHvUBEL.png


Final promotion:
fwTZT9d.png


Char sheet after Archipelia:
v1ZxgJV.png


First villain of Saharia:
QPjBeXi.png

Note that I have had to recruit all of the troops I could find to compensate.

JUlln7w.png

I killed his Demons using my Dragons, then used my Demons on his 5k peasant stack.

Puzzle map:
Rl0RZNz.png


Urthrax Killspite is next:
y1bj7xx.png

BQmzU63.png

Ruh roh...

Basically, I cast Freeze on his Knights so that they couldn't move, used my Dragons against his Demons, and then kept moving my troops around (all of them fly except for Giants, which have 3 moves) while whittling down his Knights stack with Fireball.

End of battle:
PEWvUxi.png

GCDFc40.png

NsVHrOg.png


Now, only Arech Dragonbreath is left.

NsVHrOg.png

zgn6Sy8.png


The thing to know about Arech is that his troops are powerful.
Very powerful.
He has something like 50+ Dragons.

To make this work, I had to buy something like 100 Clone spells, then enter combat against some puny stack left somewhere, then cast Clone a lot while evading the enemy troops. Tedious, but worth it. Earlier, I mentioned that too high leadership means you don't get to use it much, because high-level monster dwellings have too few recruitable monsters. This is what Clone mitigates.

Final forces:
F8MSV8c.png

This army already cost something like 300k gold/week, which is why I don't have a fifth stack.
Dragons are immune to magic, so I couldn't clone them.

As usual, I took out the Demons stack first:
zgb8q5E.png

Archmages have only 2 shots per battle. After those were expended, I used them to take some pain.

I completely ignored the largest Dragons stack while taking out the rest, and kept casting Clone during combat to regain troops:
FBIA4Tt.png

ObTM5dC.png

oHzptEF.png


Fully revealed puzzle map:
BcIOCFJ.png


Here we are:
jvbF5H8.png


And we won:
l8MNvjE.png
 

SteamRPG

Barely Literate
Joined
May 31, 2020
Messages
2
Enjoyed this article.
Found it trying to solve a problem
I earlier pulled my G3 powerbook out the the closet and though I have 8.6 and v9.1, I cannot get Kings Bounty 1990 to save games
KB runs fine but it crashed and I tried to reload a save and it was only the original character available
Tried in both 8.6 and 9.1 to save but it does not
hence interested in your setup

Back in the day KB was running on sys 6+ or maybe System 7

What is your setup for running this?
thanks
 

SteamRPG

Barely Literate
Joined
May 31, 2020
Messages
2
OK cannot locate the edit button for my previous post to update but

Kings Bounty Saves under OS 8.1 and 9.1 (Actually 9.2.2) SOLVED

The game does not save it in its own folder where Kings Bounty is at
it drops the saves LOOSE in the root directory
ie you open the MAC HD disk icon and it is RIGHT THERE above or below System Folder, Applications or whatever Catagory folders were setup etc
IE Macintosh HD>Hulda the Sorceress (saved game)
KB cannot save games neatly in like MacHD >Kings Bounty>Hulda the Sorceress
it is messy but at least it saves and loads those saved games again
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom