Talk:Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Firsts
Wizardry was one of the first games with scenario and character editors (Ultima was another), allowing an underground mod community to form. Many of these scenario editors can be found online today.

It was also, afaik, the first computer game to be published in a box, and the first game to have a public beta-test. Madoverlord (talk) 11:38, 23 January 2009 (UTC) (disclaimer, I am one of the authors of the game)


 * The article currently claims that the game was "the first [D&D style RPG] game to offer color graphics" and also cites a source for that claim - the link to which, however, is permanently dead (Crigger, Lara. "Chasing D&D: A History of RPGs". 1up.com). At the same time, section "Reception and legacy" cites an article by Jimmy Maher ("Making Wizardry". The Digital Antiquarian) that states that the game shipped in September 1981 - however, "Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness" shipped already in June 1981 (according to the Wikipedia article on that game), and certainly also featured color graphics. So is the claim about Wizardry being the first RPG game to feature color graphics wrong? 2001:9E8:8A00:6300:921:B62B:849F:A285 (talk) 11:18, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

No vector graphcs
11 Aug 06: The game is not in vector graphics, they're simple hi-res graphics that were native to Apple II BASIC and other languages/formats.

Experience tricks
Since the trick with the 3rd floor is mentioned, might it also be worth mentioning some of the insane experience tricks possible on the 10th floor? (Namely, Frost Giants/Poison Giants insta-dying to Makanito with 100% success) UOSSReiska 05:37, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

There is a Wizardry used on NIN playing as well.. I see it's not mentioned on here.. just the net role play. Wondering if the game would be played on the new WII coming out?

Errors
The explanation of the history of the game, while sourced, is somewhat in error. The original BASIC version of Wizardry was written entirely by Andrew Greenberg and featured a 2D top-down dungeon display. It was entirely playable and in fact was written for his college friends to play.

At about the same time, I (Robert Woodhead) was starting development on a PASCAL-based dungeon game, tentatively called "Paladin". By pure chance, I heard of Andrew's game, and we got together to compare notes. We quickly decided to join forces and do a new game in PASCAL, since the PASCAL p-system had numerous advantages (advanced data structures, a very compact code representation, and the ability to overlay segments of code that could share global data structures).

Andrew was largely responsible for the game data-structure design, the scenario itself, and (using his friends) the playtesting. I did most of the actual programming of the first game. The first code written was actually the scenario editors, which were completed by the fall of 1980. Then development of the scenario and the actual game that would run it proceeded in parallel for about the next 9 months.

Wizardry was officially released at the first AppleFest in Boston in the summer of 1981, using a beta-test scenario called "Dungeons of Despair", which was not at all balanced but was designed to test out all of the game features. To my knowledge, it was the first home computer game to be beta-tested, although it was the game engine that got the beta, not the final "Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" scenario.

Madoverlord (talk) 11:53, 23 January 2009 (UTC) (disclaimer, I am one of the authors of the game)
 * Someone should do an interview with you and Andrew (e.g. via email) and then publish this interview somewhere that counts as an acceptable "source" for wikipedia. Then the information could be cited in the article.  P.S. thanks for providing me and my friends hours and hours of enjoyment during my high school years!  Funkyj (talk) 18:29, 23 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I would like to insert a P.S. here that Trebor Sucks!--2601:205:4103:3AD0:39A6:CBBA:CE47:864D (talk) 00:41, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

An interesting article about Sir-Tech and Wizardry
Perhpas a capable writer can use that article as a source for adding a bit on the historic perspective of the game and it's innovations at the time — Preceding unsigned comment added by Almogo (talk • contribs) 21:48, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Lack of Character Save created need for under the counter/after market products
Most notably, a character editor that would allow users to build custom characters loaded down with experience points, spells and unique booty. Absolutely necessary if a user wanted to explore the lower levels of the dungeon without spending hundreds of hours building up a character only to have it killed off... 52.119.118.14 (talk) 15:15, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Copy Protection scheme created more problems than it solved
The original copy protection relied on a defect in the floppy disk media at a known location (like a scratch or laser burn). This was extremely fragile and subject to failure as the oxide on the floppy was damaged and eventually flaked off. Users had to send the floppy back to the manufacturer to get a replacement. It was common for users to attempt to bypass copy protection just to be able to enjoy the game. (early Apple ][ copy protection schemes for games is a whole topic for discussion as there was a certain amount of "shooting yourself in the foot" for the manufacturers who used these schemes when legitimate users wanted their money back because a game did not work) 52.119.118.14 (talk) 15:15, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Wizardry
There was an anime (OVA) made based on this in 1991. 86.41.149.167 (talk) 00:04, 4 December 2019 (UTC)

Reviews
207.229.139.154 (talk) 01:19, 8 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Games #38