Video games - Wizard's Crown

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	Video games - Wizard's Crown

Wizard's Crown is a 1985 top-down computer role-playing game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI). It was released for the Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II and Commodore 64. Its sequel is Eternal Dagger, which was released in 1987.

Wizard's Crown is a remarkably detailed game for its age. While the graphics are typical for games of the era, the extensive combat, injury, character advancement, and magical equipment systems rival those of games made ten years later. The object of the game is to rescue a magical crown from Tarmon, a wizard who sealed himself and the crown in his laboratory 500 years previous.

The game design and programming was done by Paul Murray and Keith Brors, and game development was done by Chuck Kroegel and Jeff Johnson.

Wizard's Crown featured an excellent, detailed tactical combat system, which influenced SSI's design of the subsquent, highly successful AD&D Gold Box series. For instance, shields would block attacks only from the front and right (shielded) side, and not from the rear and left (unshielded side). Spears could attack two squares away, Flails would ignore the defender's shields, and Axes had a chance of breaking shields (this could get annoying as you would have to keep replacing your characters' shields; even the best magical shields such as the 'Wizards Shield' would eventually get broken).

There was an option for 'quick combat', with regular combat taking anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes (or more!) per encounter.

The class system was based on a point buy system, with the unique feature of 'buying' classes using Intelligence points. The classes were Thief, Ranger, Fighter, Priest and Sorceror, each possessing a distinct set of skills. Interestingly, Rangers could use only Spears and Bows -- they could not use Swords (which leads us to believe that Aragorn was a 'Fighter-Ranger' in this game!).

The experience system was also novel, with no levels! Instead, experience was spent directly on skills, attributes and life points. The maximum skill level was 250.

The game was also memorable for its magic weapons, for example, the Storm Longsword or Doom Battleaxe. There were two special series of weapons which could be enchanted to become progressively more powerful. The 'Magic' series of weapons did pure magical damage and progressed under the names of 'Magic, Frost, Flaming, Lightning and Storm'. The 'Life Blast' series of weapons was the most powerful in the game. They did direct life damage, and progressed with the names 'Dark, Doom, Soul, Demon and Death'.

Play Tips

The best way to earn money for training and item enchantment is to sell loot taken from encounters. The price paid by merchants is a percentage of the item's fixed value, based on the best Haggle skill of any character in the party. Thus, maximizing this Haggle skill as quickly as possible results in the best return on the effort.
On the road north of town, the party will frequently encounter merchant caravans. Do not ever attack these caravans. If one is attacked, the merchants in town will never give more than 50% of an item's value when selling.
Magic items are idenfied by the sorceror in the party with the highest Evaluate Magic skill. Items that are not evaluated do not reveal their magical properties, if any. The sorceror can try again to evaluate the item with a higher skill. Unlike Haggle, Evaluate Magic only works for items in the loot pool or stored at the inn, or for items being carried by the sorceror. Thus, before sellling non-evaluated items on other characters, it is best to transfer them to the sorceror for one last attempt to identify their special properties.
Non-magical items with special uses, such as Bandages or '50-feet of Rope', must be evaluated before they can be used. There are also non-magical weapons (such as a Sharp Dagger) that must be evaluated to identify them as different from standard weapon varieties.
The first dungeon is the Thieves' Guild in the new section of town. While in this dungeon, some or all party characters may be pickpocketed, losing all money carried by those characters. To avoid this issue, transfer all the money to one character. Then, only if that character is pickpocketed should the game be reset without saving. Alternatively, purchase high-value items like Plate armor to store in the Inn. If the party's best Haggle skill is near 250, as much as 98% of the items' values can be returned when sold.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Wizard's Crown ]

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