old-school games (DOS)

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I found a great website offering downloads of oldie-but-goodies.

Abandonia

I downloaded Champions of Krynn! Good times are here again! They even have links for scanned .pdf's of the manuals so you can get through the old-school copy protection.

I highly recommend DosBox as well. Great program for running these games.

I am thinking of starting M&M:World of Xeen soon as I downloaded that from another site listed in their 'links' section. Hmm, maybe I will beat Champions of Krynn first as I never could accomplish it as a child; one of my 5 1/4" disks corrupted and the opportunity seemed forever lost. No longer!

 

I actually own legit copies of both of those games you mentioned!
If you ever get stuck in Champions of Krynn, just ask. I've beat it many times over.

I'm actually playing Wasteland (1989) right now. Go old-school!

 

I just made it to Gargath. Don't ruin anything for me! Looking back, playing as a ten year old, I can't remember if I ever made it out of Throtl! Now I did it in like three nights!

I never played Dark Knights of Krynn, but I did own the Dark Queen of Krynn. I have fond memories of that last one. I remember the underwater portion where fireballs won't work and lighting bolts act as AOE electoballs! But then when I got to the minotaur continent (is it Tarsis?), I lost track of what I was supposed to do. Didn't beat that one either. Back then a new RPG was coming out like every couple months and many were of quality as well.

Oh, those were the good old days!

I'm definitely going to beat Champions of Krynn this time though!

 

Another excellent abandonware site is at www.the-underdogs.org

 

Yes, The-Underdogs.org is clearly the best one IMHO. I love all the fantasy games there.

 

I remember playing games like the old Golden box games. Also I liked the game Gauntlet, where I would stomp ghosts with my barbarian.

I loved playing the game Exile II when I was a little bit older. I don't remember if it was a DOS game though.

 

Could anyone here help me with Champions of Krynn? Any tips on the battle in the beginning? I always die! I'm having trouble seeing where my enemies come from, I can't cast any spells with my mage, I generally have no idea how the battle system works. Anyone, please help!!

 

Wow! Balor of the Evil Eye is there. I was looking up Celtic Mythology and came accross a review of that game and thought it was cool (are there any other games based on Irish mythology?). If this game was still available, I would surely purchase it, but I shall download it later tonight.

Its got all the gods, sidhe's and everything!

 

Agreed, Dark Queen of Krynn wasn't very instructive on what to do. I had to beat it with the hint book.

ok here comes so Champions of Krynn battle tips. No plot spoilers though for Late-Night Thinker.

Finding the enemy in the wilderness is annoying. They can start anywhere around you, at any distance: north, east, south, west, up close, nearby, or far away. In any combination too. At the start, combat in the overland is almost always far away. You can scan the battle ground with Aim, Manual, and then the arrow keys to look around. But this is a hassle to do for every combat.

What I usually do is position the party in a defensive stance and let the enemy come to me - that way I don't need to seek them out, and it doesn't matter where they are. This works early on, but later if monsters have range attacks or spells, you have to go get them. That should be enough advice to get you started on winning battles.

About casting spells: go to an inn or encamp (rest). Go to Magic, then Memorize. Make sure a cleric or mage is selected - if not, use the arrow keys to pick one. Then a list of spells comes up and you pick the ones you want to memorize. When you are done, it asks if you want to keep your choices, so keep them. Then Rest. The time needed to memorize the spells is already clocked in for you, so hit "r" again to rest. If you are not interrupted, then your spells are memorized and you can then cast them in battle.

As for how the battle system works, each character/monster in battle gets one turn per round. The order is determined by each participant's "initiative" attribute, and some randomness. On your character's turn, you can move a certain number of squares, or perform an action, like Use an item or Attack (same as Aim) or Guard or Cast spells. Once you perform an action, your turn is over. (Except for cast... after the casting time ellapses, your mage gets to unleash the spell as if he got another turn) Equip, or changing equipment does not waste a turn. Once all participants in the battle has had a turn, the round is over and the next round begins.

Good luck! If you need more advice, maybe start another thread to keep things on topic.

 

I own the legitimate version of WoX that was updated to work on newer OS's. I should point out that it does not work on Win XP, even with DosBOX.

 

Oh seriously? Hmrpt...

 

Ah, from old XT times: the Eagle's Nest, Dig Dug (aka Digger), Pac-man, Pipemania, Prince of Persia (1, of course), Prehistoric, Grand Prix Circuit, Arkanoid 2... Bliss.

Or 486 ones: Epic Pinball, Colonization, Dizzy Collection, Dune 2...

 

Grand Prix Circuit... that rings a bell... Wait, isn't it that Accolade game from the late 80's? I used to play that on PC. Bliss indeed

Wait, now I realize I should also have added Prince of Persia to my top5 games! Oh well.

Do that! It's one of the best games of the series, especially once you go the Dark Side (pun not intended)

 

@ Rastor

Do you know of any software that would allow me to play M&M:World of Xeen?

Also...

Has anyone found the original Railroad Tycoon? I devoted whole swaths of my childhood to that game and I would love to track it down.

"All aboard!" 'Chugga chugga chugga chugga whoo whoo!'

(and I just noticed the "track it down" thing...unintentional pun)

 

That's odd. I have the game, and it works with DOSBox under WinXP. Which version is that you're talking about, and what's the exact problem?

 

DosBOX v0.63 (newest) does not accept the CD and the game will not run without it.

It works perfectly fine on any version of Windows except XP.

 

You guys are giving me a sudden urge to play the original Doom.

 

In a cardboard box along with Covert Action and Railroad Tycoon II, all sitting safely on a bookshelf.

 

I tried M&M:WOX and it seems to be working alright. The site I downloaded it from offered a "cracked" copy, so I did not need the CD. I have XP, by the way.

I only played for about ten minutes though as my girlfriend was glaring at the back of my head.

Will try it again sometime...

Edit...

OK, maybe it does not work. It seems to lock up as soon as I try to sign into the tavern. What gives?

Edit again...

OK, got it working. You have to change some settings in the dosbox configuration.

Just follow the directions found here to get WOX working on XP. (I have found the fullscreen direction to be unnecessary however)

helpful poster

[ October 19, 2005, 09:41: Message edited by: Late-Night Thinker ]