My new RPG game for the VIC-20: REALMS OF QUEST III

[CadorBolin]

Posted a second video where the video and sound are more 'in sync' to what is happening in the actual game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DMBlCaDlD8

[Mark1970]

Yes, I run Armchair Arcade along with Matt Barton and Mark Vergeer, each of which also participates in these forums. While we're involved in book and film work, at least a few of us have always wanted to get into game development. There's only so much time, though, and certainly I can at least admire and purchase efforts like this one on the Vic-20!

I (Mark Vergeer) will also want to buy a copy of the final disc game. Like Bill I recently got myself the Vic-20 Megacartridge that features the appropriate memory upgrade necessary for running the disc-based version.

The font used in the game no doubt has been inspired by the Sword of Fargoal series? It obviously is a different font but when I first saw it it reminded me of the Sword of Fargoal game. Which is also a classic dungeon crawler in it's own right.

Looking forward to the game, although games with stats-tables depicting my game character is normally not my cuppa. This is one intriguing release coming up!

[CadorBolin]

I (Mark Vergeer) will also want to buy a copy of the final disc game. Like Bill I recently got myself the Vic-20 Megacartridge that features the appropriate memory upgrade necessary for running the disc-based version.

The font used in the game no doubt has been inspired by the Sword of Fargoal series? It obviously is a different font but when I first saw it it reminded me of the Sword of Fargoal game. Which is also a classic dungeon crawler in it's own right.

Looking forward to the game, although games with stats-tables depicting my game character is normally not my cuppa. This is one intriguing release coming up!

Thanks! Yes, I was inspired mostly by Fargoal and Ultima IV for the font. It was actually designed 20+ years ago with a friend of mine when we worked together on a CRPG for the Commodore 64 called "Ultimate Quest" (not published).

Fargoal is one of the greats for certain, one of the few commercial VIC-20 RPGs (along with Temple of Apshai, Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash and Sorcery).

[ArcadeNut]

Can't please everyone, but there is an option to turn off the music (as I like to do from time to time).

I'd like to point out that the Youtube video is not 100% representative of how the music is presented with the game. Because the Desktop video recorder did not record sound, I just slapped a wav file of a few songs from the game. Whenever something changes (like a sudden encounter) at that point, the music changes.

I think Bach's "Toccata and Fugue" sounds great during an encounter.

People who have played the game either like the music a lot, or they like it at first and then choose to turn it off (an in-game option) when they find it too distracting.

By the way, I used bitmap index compression, at least I think I did according to the wikipedia entry. I wrote a small program to look for 8x8 bit patterns and then re-used them as much as possible.

The second video was much better. Very impressive to say the least. You squeezed a lot out of the Vic.

If the Image is B&W (or just 2 colors), you can use a single byte to represent 128 pixels at a time. You take a byte, the first bit represents one of the two colors (0 or 1) then the next 7 bits tell you how many times it repeats. It works really well for images with large chunks of the same colors.

So with the Vic's full screen, we have 32,384 pixels. If we use the above compression and it was a single solid color, it could be compressed down to 253 bytes. Add a second pass compression on that and we could be down to two bytes

Of course that's not practical, so at worst, you would probably yield only about 50% compression, which I think is where you are at now. However, I would expect higher then that with a 2 color image. Where it starts to have issues is where it switches colors frequently.

[CadorBolin]

JJust to let you all know, I submitted the final versions of the files to Psytronik today.

There should be a free download and digital, disk and premium editions of the game available at http://www.psytronik.com shortly (in a few days)

Here is the disclaimer regarding the freeware version:

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE FREEWARE VERSION
-----------------------------------------------------------
The version of "Realms of Quest III" available freely on the internet is a fully-working version of
the game where you can explore it entirely. The differences between the freeware version and the
commercial version are that the latter has the following:

-36 page PDF or printed game manual which includes a map and drawings (instead of a plain .TXT file)
-intro with graphics and music
-enhanced graphics
-a 16K version called "Dunjon Crawler"
-the following games on side two of the double sided disk:

• Realms of Quest (1991)
• Realms of Quest II (Unfinished Demo) (1993)
• Dunjon I & II (2003)
• Realms of Quest II (2004)
• Ringside Boxing (1996)
• Ringside Wrestling (1990)
• Break-Fast (1988)
• Dunjon Master (1990)
• Haunted House (1990)
• Ice Hockey (1996)
• Meteor Zone (1996)
• Napoleon Simulator (2006)
• Paratrooper (1990)
• Vicfall! (1993)
• Vicfall II (1996)
• Vicside Boxing (2004)
• Worm-Out II (1990)

You can obtain the commercial version of the REALMS OF QUEST III package (and all of the bonus features
mentioned above) from WWW.PSYTRONIK.COM

As well, Realms III is previewed in Retro Gamer issue #68:



I'm finally done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[alexjlopez]

Congrats! I'm looking forward to playing this.

[CadorBolin]

Thanks! Looks like Psytronik has made the freeware version of Realms III available here:

http://www.psytronik.com/main/index....d=68&Itemid=56

The digital/budget disk/premium disk editions should be available soon!

[CadorBolin]

Pictures of the upcoming budget and premium disk packaging are also here:

http://www.psytronik.com/main/index....news&Itemid=18



Thank you Kenz!

[CadorBolin]

Realms of Quest III is finally available! You can order it here:

Premium Edition: http://www.binaryzone.org/retrostore...roducts_id=510

Budget Edition: http://www.binaryzone.org/retrostore...roducts_id=511

(premium means you get a plastic jewel case + 36 page manual, budget is disk-only)

-----------------------------------------------

It was in February of 2009 (this year) that I had announced that I would be making DUNJON III. After a couple of weeks, I decided that this project would instead become REALMS OF QUEST III.

I posted on the VIC-20 Denial forum ( http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/...pic.php?t=3368 ) what was on my mind at the time as I was making this game. There were some setbacks but it was always 3 steps forward with the occasional step back.



(clockwise from upper-left: first mockup "proof of concept" for Dunjon III which would later evolve into Realms of Quest III, party menu graphic, saehn's magnificient splash screen for the intro, and the party traveling on the surface map)



(the above are saehn's enhanced graphics that are included in the commercial release)



(all of my spare time spent on this was not in vain as the above illustrates).

Again, a big kudos to saehn and darkatx (and of course, Kenz the publisher) for their magnificent art.

Would you believe that I originally conceived that it would take me 2 years to finish this project? At the time I started this project, I only had a bare minimum knowledge of 6502 assembly language.

I hope that those who order it get some entertainment out of it. If you'd like a sampler of what this game is like, you can also try the freeware version available here: http://www.psytronik.com/main/index....d=68&Itemid=56