Legends of the Land
A downloadable game
I started working on this ZX Spectrum game in 1986, when I was in 6th grade primary school. Designing and coding it (I used assembly language at that time) took me more than 3 years, so I only finished it after having started high school in 88/89. By that time, the games market for speccy was in heavy decline. Even though a fairly known publisher at that time, Mastertronic, had shown interest in the game and we started to negotiate about its release, the company sadly went under water pretty soon afterwards.
The game leaked onto internet around 95 when spectrum emulators became more widely available, so I officially released it as public domain then: World of Spectrum.
The instruction manual is included in the zip file. I have to apologise for the game's interface quirks in advance, but try to realise it is now almost 30 years old, and it was made by a 15 year old kid. For example, the only method back then that I could find for slowing down player input (in menus etc) was to play a "magic sound sample", a brief buzz that is played in response to each keyboard input. The menus are also "infinite" and have to be manually scrolled "next page" style.
On the other hand, it was also pretty revolutionary for that time. A brief list of features follows:
- The game sported more than 2500 locations and 10000 possible views. Yes, it was achieved with landscaping technology invented by Mike Singleton. But I improved it by crossing it over with image scale and RLE compression algorithems to conserve a HUGE amount of space that I could then fill up with content. This game had more content than any 8 bit RPG of that time.
- Entirely nonlinear solution. All problems could either be solved strategically (on the field of war), by stealth, or through adventuring means & questing.
- Stealth mechanics allowing player not only fight their way around but sneak as well.
- Open world with survival mechanics. Gather food, build campfires to chase monsters away, travel by boat, horse, ride a dragon, let giants carry you around.
- Spells that alter storyline, help you solving puzzles, turn enemies or even monsters to your side, alter the terrain, teleport around.
- Items that are quest items and weapons at the same time, and may be used in tactical or adventuring part of the game, or both.
- Creating multi character parties and sending them around on various quests. Allowing stronger characters to protect more important ones in battles.
- Night & day cycle with various effects on gameplay and even the storyline.
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OMG, I can't believe you managed to reproduce Mike Singleton's original engine all the way back in the 1980s! It took me half of last decade to make something similar, and then for modern computers. No way I could get mine to work on a Speccy.
Sadly I don't really have the patience or energy for a game like this anymore. I'm still glad you're sharing it with us. Thanks!
Yeah, my engine was a bit simpler than his, it only supported NSWE views and movement. But on the other hand, it had RLE bitmap stretching, which meant I was left with a lot more space for scripting & stuff.
Those times were fun.
But I don’t really expect anyone to have the patience for something like that today. It’s really just an intriguing piece of history now. I mean, even if you know exactly what to do it’s like 12 hours of play or somesuch.
An incredibly ambitious project for the Speccy. I played it years ago. I'm glad you put it up here!
Thanks, I am glad you gave it a try! I know it's quite "rough around the edges."
I've not heard of this before but I feel like I'm reading a description for The Elder Scrolls 0.
Yeah, those were different times and we all tried doing stuff that hasn't been done before... And now, pretty much everything has already been "done before". It's intriguing and maybe a little sad to watch these two different points in time simultaneously.
Indeed. However the older I grow the more I'm fascinated with projects like this (or more recently with games like Nox Archaist or Realms of Antiquity) because I can fully appreciate the pioneer spirit behind it. It intrigues me how it's possible to achieve such projects with the very limited resources of these old computers. That's something I appreciate much more than any triple A production with fancy graphics and whatnot.
Well... it's good for the creator when the medium is limiting. It's a bit why I think most modern CGI movies suck... if you can do *anything* you wish you lose the gravitas. I mean we got some really brilliant games on ZX Spectrum and other 8bit computers, even later 16bit like Amiga & ST... And now you can't fit a texture for a thimble into a 48K. Having to fit a game into a 48K block makes you focused as hell :) And having possibly any resource you can think of... I don't really know what that makes you, probably not focused, needlessly excessive I suppose?
Exactly! There is a connection between limitation and reaching perfection. I remember a thought I once read in a work of Baltic philosopher Hermann von Keyserling: If we have no limits to our aspirations we will stay incompetents in all fields. The more options and possibilities there are the harder it is to perfect yourself. The CGI-technology is a good point. I always wondered why most movies after 2000 seem so cheap and uninteresting to me while in the 90ies there still were some good movies. I'm almost sure it has to do with the excessive use of computer technology and the boundless possibilities it opens. While we can still enjoy 100 years old Chaplin movies I'm almost sure nobody will talk of all the CGI-Superhero-stuff in 10 years.
By the way: I just purchased myself a TI-84+ calculator - simply because I intend to figure out what can be achieved on such a limited device There are tons of games and programs.