Had no idea about tools like Grid Cartographer. 8 year old me would have been *floored* to have a tool that helps map out a game. (In fairness, 40 year old me is amazed too.)
Great! I am still working through the Wizardry, AD&D, and Might and Magic RPGs, now I have to get a new game?? I can't resist an RPG on my Apple so I guess I have to get it 😃
@@ericanderson85 But consider getting the box set, you still get Mac and Windows w/ emulator on a USB drive. But you get the physical book, map, and other goodies.
Rikkles has another custom build of the AppleWin emulator called AppleWin Companion (also on GitHub) that displays Nox Archaist party stats and inventory at all times in panels outside of the emulated Apple. Profiles can be made for other games if one knows what memory addresses to monitor. Currently the repo includes profiles for Nox Archaist and Ultima II.
Nox Archaist is a triumph. My copy was shipped the other day and I am furiously clicking on the refresh button on .the postal tracking web page. I don’t have an Apple II myself, but the game works great on the emulator. If I ever do obtain an Apple II, it will definitely be the IIGS!
The Apple II definitely not receiving as much love as the other retro computers out there like the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, so good to see something new come out for it.
I spent countless hours immersed in Ultima V on the C-64. This game definitely fits right in that tradition It also inspires thinking of a similar integration of VICE and grid cartographer. Maybe I need to dust off my copy of U5...
If you do a VICE integration, I'd love to see it. Looks like rikkles integrated the Apple II U5: github.com/hasseily/GridCartographer-Mapping/blob/main/Profiles/ultima_5.xml
this is a great in depth review!! thanks for posting! regarding music: in your "game materials" folder, there is a complete MP3 ambient soundtrack, designed to be looped while playing the game.
Awesome work ! So great to see new games being released on the Apple ][ and other ancient computers. Grid Cartographer is essential software for anyone who wants to create their own maps of this game !
How do you know that you're committed to a game? You find a 5 bit PWM implementation that no one really used and implement it yourself. Epic... now I'm going to have to find an Apple II Robin, sheesh. Gotta love a hack that involves coffee mugs on the space bar ;-) Definitely enjoyed the technical info section. I wish more developers would share details of the challenges and how they overcame them.
For the splash screen Peter and I crammed Bill's 12 screens of DHGR graphics (total of 192KB of data) into 22 KB of disk space. Delta encoding FTW! :-)
@@MichaelPohoreski what compression program did you use? For my own game (Realms V), I used exomizer. It is a 6502 program available on the web. I was able to save about 40% of disk space prior to publication, which made me add even more content to the game!
@@hitfan2000 Sorry for the late reply. I used delta compression encoding the differences per scan line. This brought it down to 28 KB. qkumba pivoted the data and further compressed it down to ~22 KB with LZ4 IIRC. Then Kris added the 5-bit PWM audio code! All I/O on the Apple 2 is memory mapped. The HGR screen 1 resides at $2000 - $3FFF. The DHGR 1 screen uses another 8KB in Auxiliary memory from $2000 - $3FFF. The Apple 2 also has native page flipping. We had three sets of 4 DHGR screens that were animated that could be compressed mostly independently. Due to the Apple 2's esoteric layout of memory a single HGR has 512 unused bytes. A DHGR screen has 1K of unused video memory. Sadly these are noncontiguous "screen holes." Saving a raw DHGR screen wastes disk space we don't have. 12 frames * 1 KB = 12 KB. Mark said I had a budget of 20 - 30 KB. (!!) Since we used page flipping that means frames 1,3, 5, 7, 9, 11 were on DHGR page 1, while frames 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 were on DHGR page 2. I wrote a C program that would generate 6502 assembly program consisting of delta data between 2 images in a custom format. I fed it 14 frame deltas: * logo and frame 1 * logo and frame 2 * 1 & 3, crown * 3 & 1, * 2 & 4, * 4 & 2, * 5 & 7, crown * 7 & 5 * 6 & 8, * 8 & 6 * 9 & 11, eyes * 11 & 9 * 10 & 12 * 12 & 10 Instead of storing the Y value (0 .. 191) I instead stored the DHGR page $20..$3F that had delta data on it. I used $80 as a flag for aux. mem. The format is an array of: * DHGR page (zero is end of data) * number of key-val pairs for this page * an array of byte offset and byte values I then started on the splash screen called LOGO. It was an assembly program that drew the border on both HGR pages, drew the title sprite, drew the logo sprite and eventually the rest of the animated screens. (I had extracted the title and logo as DHGR sprites with my DHGR.BYTES editor. It was rather trivial to add a function to display these sprites.) I then wrote a "sprite compiler" and included it in the LOGO program. At run time the logo program would emit 6502 machine code either to main memory or to auxiliary memory that would draw a DHGR frame delta! (This was later removed since the audio data needed the memory due to the compiled sprites using all of the 128 KB memory.) I also added an animated letter in the top left as a debug option so you could see what frame it is unpacking / compiling. This was actually left in the final product (but changed to an animated cursor) so there was a visual indicator of the loading ever crashed / hung. qkumba then came along and pivoted the data so it would compress better by noticing the byte value could be used as a key. The values were then the full 16-bit addresses the key byte was set to. Fun times. =P
5:06 I know that (Return to) Castle Wolfenstein and Ghostbusters both used digitized sound on the internal Apple II speaker, but I don't know how they did it, though. The method used for Nox Archaist seems to produce slightly better audio. Very impressive. I got my boxed copy a couple days ago. I'm awaiting for my clear Apple II case to arrive so I can just do everything at once.
That packaging is what modern games sorely miss man. These days if you get a game with a map, you're LUCKY af lol And it will be paper. Cloth maps and all the other stuff here is just incredible. I know it's a new game obviously, but it harkens back to the days when this was a pretty standard or at least wasn't rare. Obviously they weren't THIS good lol I mean fucking hell that magic crystal is just nuts.
One feature not demo'd is the ability to swap in the standard Apple font instead of the bitmap "olde english" font, which I find somewhat difficult to read.
Fantastic game! I have a IIC with a floppy emu, so I'll definitely be ordering this. Intrigued to see the 5 1/4" floppy disks - I assume these a new, and if so I'm amazed that they're still being made. I guess the could be "new old stock" disks though.
Well, very tricky. Even though they are the same processor and a lot of the code would be compatible, the graphics are the big problem. The Apple II graphics system is so, um, unique, that porting it to other platforms is a pain. Also, we don't have any C64 experts on the team, so it would be a stretch. Burger Becky is working on a IIGS version that would take advantage of the better graphics, but no plans yet for a C64 version. Thanks for the interest!
@@CT6502 Chris, thanks for your informative reply. Much appreciated. That's a pity. I love old-school RPG's and would happily buy a C64 port, on the basis it's a full port of the entire game, and the prices are kept the same as the Apple II offerings. I don't want to be running PC-based emulators. I don't even have my own personal PC ... I just use my work laptop, but naturally I can't be running games off that. For personal purposes, I only have a Chromebook. I've recently purchased TheC64 Maxi, which is AWESOME for games, and is brilliant for RPG's with its full-size built-in keyboard. Even The C64 Mini can play RPG's fine with a plugged-in USB keyboard. I'm sure there'd be a sizable market for a C64 port of your game, given it's The World's Highest Selling Personal Computer, and there's renewed interest in it with TheC64 Mini and Maxi.
Robin you have so many machines! I wonder how you and other collectors manage the physical storage and practical usage of the machines. I imagine you have boxes you are constantly unpacking and packing?
I keep my most frequently used computers (breadbin 64, 64C, VIC-20, C128) handy; they can be squeezed into a small space when stood on end. But yeah, other more rarely used machines like the IIgs here go back in their original box when I'm lucky enough to have it, or in plastic totes. I've got a fairly big room in my basement for all this stuff, so I'm fortunate. I've got a closet with some big steel shelves for a lot of it, and then more space under my table/bench I record at.
I love the game. I bought it on gog and play the windows version. The Quick reference booklet gives a few commands e.g. changing the graphics mode or Warp CPU. But they seem not to work. Does anybody know a solution?
Please visit the Nox Discord server and they'll be happy to assist. You need to press the keys in sequence. So, to speed up the CPU 100%, press Ctrl-Shift-W. Let go. Now press 3.
I haven't seen a video with an Apple II GS I don't think. And that startup bong hit me right in the nostalgia. I don't think I've heard it since the late 80s, early 90s.
We didn't have those platforms available to test on so I can't say for sure. A free demo version of Nox Archaist is available so if you are setup to write your own floppies from disk images, you could try it out before buying the game.
I haven't heard of any plans to port it, but it'd be fantastic to have a C64 version. It would require either RAM expansion or an EasyFlash cartridge as the game needs 128K of RAM, but it should be possible. The big question is whether anyone would devote the work to it. And maybe the developers want it to be Apple II exclusive? :)
@@8_Bit Thanks for the reply. I understand that the Apple II doesn't get much love, but there are so many of us C64 owners that I feel like it makes sense. I hope they consider it. :)
This looks great! I don't have a Apple Computer, but think about buying this and play it on an emulator. This would be really awesome, if this would get a release on a Commodore128. It would be the best game for the system ever! Thanks for this great review!!! 🖖🏻
Hey, have you checked ( Legend of Blacksilver ) for C64 its a fantastic game, that i and my friend played for many hours, back in 88 i think maybe 89, its was published by ( Epyx ) have played in recent years, still a great game, it would be nice to see that on your channel 👍
5:31 Can PWM really replace having multi-bit PCM? The C64 has fine Pulse-Width control; did anyone ever use that to play digitized sound, vs. the poor-man's PCM from manipulating the volume level? Or do you need to manipulate the pulse width at ultrasonic speeds?
PWM has definitely been used on the C64; there was an article or two about it in C=Hacking magazine back in the early-ish 2000s and many C64 demos have used it since.
This is the most advanced method so far: "At the X'2008 demo party, a completely new method of playing digitized samples was unveiled. The method allows for an unprecedented four (software-mixed) channels of 8-bit samples with optional filtering on top of all samples, as well as two ordinary SID sound channels.[8][9] The method works by resetting the oscillator using the waveform generator test bit, quickly ramping up the new waveform with the Triangle waveform selected, and then disabling all waveforms, resulting in the DAC continuing to output the last value---which is the desired sample. This continues for as long as two scanlines, which is ample time for glitch-free, arbitrary sample output. It is however more CPU-intensive than the 4-bit volume register DAC trick described above. Because the filtering in a SID chip is applied after the waveform generators, samples produced this way can be filtered normally."
If you're booting it off the floppy, then what are you booting it _from?_ Oh, the emulator? It sounds like you were trying to say "FROM the floppy emulator" but just got mixed up.
It's not really feasible to have incremental mapping built into 8-bit RPGs since you'd need extra RAM and disk storage for your own maps; to do it at Grid Cartographer level would double the RAM and disk requirements.
There is literally no extra memory aside from a few bytes here and there. Mark used _all_ 128 KB of RAM. He even used the spare "screen holes" on the HGR page! In case you aren't familiar with "screen holes" on the Apple 2 all video memory is memory mapped to RAM. The HGR page uses RAM locations $2000-$3FFF, and HGR page 2 uses $4000-$5FFF. Every 128 bytes there are 8 that _aren't displayed._ These video bytes are called screen holes. While technically there are a total of 512 bytes "free" per 8K HGR page, it is not contiguous. And Mark used even those. :-)
@@MichaelPohoreski I was really surprised that Nox supports dungeon maps up to 256x256 tiles. Does that mean a whole 64K of RAM is devoted to the map, or is there some paged system involved? That seems like it could get complicated...
@@8_Bit You'll want to double check with Mark but I believe he pages them in on demand. In one sense it doesn't matter if you are on the surface or in a dungeon. :-)
@@8_Bit Each 256c256 maps is divided into 16x16 zones. Only 9 zones are in memory at a time (regional map), and was the player moves toward the edge, the zones are scrolled in (from disk) and out. As Michael notes, this is true of Overworld or dungeon maps, and only a 9 zone region of the map the player is on resides in memory. Complicated? In assembly language, oh, yeah!
@@paulvanderlaak700 One of the things we tried to do with this project was get rid of some of the annoyances of the old RPGs. So the inventory system is streamlined, there are a lot less keys to remember, and character creation takes like 30 seconds. Still might not be your cup of tea, but you could always try again! :-)
All over the world, especially in Islamic countries, there are only 2. In America and other ESG-regulated countries, there seem to be 72 and counting. I wonder if they'd start converting kids into Turbo Teen in the future? Can't wait.
i am going to need to play this. my personal opinion is that they should not have put tutorial in the beginning. i prefer when games like this are total blind
If I want to play on my Apple IIGS using 5.25 floppy, do I HAVE to have two disk drives or can I get away with swapping out disks as required? I only have a single 5.25 drive at the moment.
The boxed, physical edition is still digital, and the drive that the download is on is still physical. Did you mean a download vs. discrete copy instead?
This is the second or third time I've seen someone talk about implementing A* in a 6502 game. Always seems like a ridiculous choice for path finding when you have such limited resources.
Why make such a big deal about it?? Is it triggering you or something? I noticed you didn't seem to have any problem with the "Other" in the gender category even though there are only 2 genders.
I wish someone would make something like this for the C64! I applaud the effort involved, but the Apple 2 graphics are atrocious compared to the C64. I know gameplay > graphics, but it's hard to override the feeling when you sit down to play it just looks bad, and it's not the game's fault.
"The floppy emulator screen doesn't flash in real life"? This _is_ real life. There's a difference between real life and being _in person,_ right? In fact, not everything that's in person is in real life. Think about live, in-person theater performances.
Nox Archaist programmer here. I see what you did with the RUclips title there! :-)
Robin is a real joker, haha
You made such an excellent job! The package itself is so well done! I wish I had an Apple right now! 😁
Dude! Awesome! What you up to now? What's your twitter?
@@rooneye Sorry I don't use twitter.
You can find my repositories on GitHub: Michaelangel007
@@MichaelPohoreski Wonderful work Michael.
Had no idea about tools like Grid Cartographer. 8 year old me would have been *floored* to have a tool that helps map out a game. (In fairness, 40 year old me is amazed too.)
I played the Ultima series all the way. Lots of fun in the 80's.
Nox is like the early Ultimas, without the frustrating UI. It's been improved on practically every front.
Great! I am still working through the Wizardry, AD&D, and Might and Magic RPGs, now I have to get a new game?? I can't resist an RPG on my Apple so I guess I have to get it 😃
I'm not into Apple Computers but I want to play this game!
The digital download includes versions for Mac and Windows "prepackaged" with an emulator so you can just click to run on a "modern" computer.
@@ericanderson85 But consider getting the box set, you still get Mac and Windows w/ emulator on a USB drive. But you get the physical book, map, and other goodies.
Bravely bold Sir Robin...
Rikkles has another custom build of the AppleWin emulator called AppleWin Companion (also on GitHub) that displays Nox Archaist party stats and inventory at all times in panels outside of the emulated Apple. Profiles can be made for other games if one knows what memory addresses to monitor. Currently the repo includes profiles for Nox Archaist and Ultima II.
Nox Archaist is a triumph. My copy was shipped the other day and I am furiously clicking on the refresh button on .the postal tracking web page. I don’t have an Apple II myself, but the game works great on the emulator.
If I ever do obtain an Apple II, it will definitely be the IIGS!
I hope someone's working on a C128 version right now
The Apple II definitely not receiving as much love as the other retro computers out there like the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, so good to see something new come out for it.
I spent countless hours immersed in Ultima V on the C-64. This game definitely fits right in that tradition
It also inspires thinking of a similar integration of VICE and grid cartographer. Maybe I need to dust off my copy of U5...
If you do a VICE integration, I'd love to see it.
Looks like rikkles integrated the Apple II U5: github.com/hasseily/GridCartographer-Mapping/blob/main/Profiles/ultima_5.xml
So many cool feelies in that box!
So many feelies in the box. Intrinsically so satisfying.
I miss the old days when games came with all those goodies
this is a great in depth review!! thanks for posting!
regarding music: in your "game materials" folder, there is a complete MP3 ambient soundtrack, designed to be looped while playing the game.
This looks like a little bit of heaven!
Awesome work ! So great to see new games being released on the Apple ][ and other ancient computers. Grid Cartographer is essential software for anyone who wants to create their own maps of this game !
How do you know that you're committed to a game? You find a 5 bit PWM implementation that no one really used and implement it yourself. Epic... now I'm going to have to find an Apple II Robin, sheesh.
Gotta love a hack that involves coffee mugs on the space bar ;-)
Definitely enjoyed the technical info section. I wish more developers would share details of the challenges and how they overcame them.
For the splash screen Peter and I crammed Bill's 12 screens of DHGR graphics (total of 192KB of data) into 22 KB of disk space. Delta encoding FTW! :-)
*cough AppleWin cough*
**FULL Disclaimer:** I work on AppleWin and helped out Nox Archaist with misc. programming.
@@MichaelPohoreski That’s awesome
@@MichaelPohoreski what compression program did you use? For my own game (Realms V), I used exomizer. It is a 6502 program available on the web. I was able to save about 40% of disk space prior to publication, which made me add even more content to the game!
@@hitfan2000 Sorry for the late reply.
I used delta compression encoding the differences per scan line. This brought it down to 28 KB. qkumba pivoted the data and further compressed it down to ~22 KB with LZ4 IIRC. Then Kris added the 5-bit PWM audio code!
All I/O on the Apple 2 is memory mapped. The HGR screen 1 resides at $2000 - $3FFF. The DHGR 1 screen uses another 8KB in Auxiliary memory from $2000 - $3FFF.
The Apple 2 also has native page flipping.
We had three sets of 4 DHGR screens that were animated that could be compressed mostly independently.
Due to the Apple 2's esoteric layout of memory a single HGR has 512 unused bytes. A DHGR screen has 1K of unused video memory. Sadly these are noncontiguous "screen holes." Saving a raw DHGR screen wastes disk space we don't have. 12 frames * 1 KB = 12 KB. Mark said I had a budget of 20 - 30 KB. (!!)
Since we used page flipping that means frames 1,3, 5, 7, 9, 11 were on DHGR page 1, while frames 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 were on DHGR page 2.
I wrote a C program that would generate 6502 assembly program consisting of delta data between 2 images in a custom format. I fed it 14 frame deltas:
* logo and frame 1
* logo and frame 2
* 1 & 3, crown
* 3 & 1,
* 2 & 4,
* 4 & 2,
* 5 & 7, crown
* 7 & 5
* 6 & 8,
* 8 & 6
* 9 & 11, eyes
* 11 & 9
* 10 & 12
* 12 & 10
Instead of storing the Y value (0 .. 191) I instead stored the DHGR page $20..$3F that had delta data on it. I used $80 as a flag for aux. mem.
The format is an array of:
* DHGR page (zero is end of data)
* number of key-val pairs for this page
* an array of byte offset and byte values
I then started on the splash screen called LOGO. It was an assembly program that drew the border on both HGR pages, drew the title sprite, drew the logo sprite and eventually the rest of the animated screens.
(I had extracted the title and logo as DHGR sprites with my DHGR.BYTES editor. It was rather trivial to add a function to display these sprites.)
I then wrote a "sprite compiler" and included it in the LOGO program. At run time the logo program would emit 6502 machine code either to main memory or to auxiliary memory that would draw a DHGR frame delta! (This was later removed since the audio data needed the memory due to the compiled sprites using all of the 128 KB memory.)
I also added an animated letter in the top left as a debug option so you could see what frame it is unpacking / compiling. This was actually left in the final product (but changed to an animated cursor) so there was a visual indicator of the loading ever crashed / hung.
qkumba then came along and pivoted the data so it would compress better by noticing the byte value could be used as a key. The values were then the full 16-bit addresses the key byte was set to.
Fun times. =P
Brave brave brave brave Sir Robin...
Is that an Ultima reference?
@@cheater00 Monty Python reference.
5:06 I know that (Return to) Castle Wolfenstein and Ghostbusters both used digitized sound on the internal Apple II speaker, but I don't know how they did it, though. The method used for Nox Archaist seems to produce slightly better audio. Very impressive. I got my boxed copy a couple days ago. I'm awaiting for my clear Apple II case to arrive so I can just do everything at once.
Sea Dragon and Castle Wolfenstein use 1-bit audio. Nox Archaist uses 5-bit PWM which is why it sounds cleaner.
That packaging is what modern games sorely miss man. These days if you get a game with a map, you're LUCKY af lol And it will be paper. Cloth maps and all the other stuff here is just incredible. I know it's a new game obviously, but it harkens back to the days when this was a pretty standard or at least wasn't rare. Obviously they weren't THIS good lol I mean fucking hell that magic crystal is just nuts.
Had not a clue about Grid Cartographer. Totally awesome! And Nox actually looks really amazing.
One feature not demo'd is the ability to swap in the standard Apple font instead of the bitmap "olde english" font, which I find somewhat difficult to read.
More fonts are (unofficially) coming soon. (Just need to finish up the font editor for release.)
Oh wow, thank you so much for bringing this gem to my attention. Can't believe I haven't heard of it until now.
Love this game and your comprehensive video. Great stuff!
What Patreon level gets us more dramatization-of-NPC-dialog videos?
You like my pirate voice best?
Couldn't say. Would have to hear more.
Hey it worked for the Critical Role folks! ;)
You always have the coolest stuff on your videos thanks.
I just want to say this is available on Steam aswell. But i would love to play it on an old computer like c64 etc
Fantastic game! I have a IIC with a floppy emu, so I'll definitely be ordering this. Intrigued to see the 5 1/4" floppy disks - I assume these a new, and if so I'm amazed that they're still being made. I guess the could be "new old stock" disks though.
Yes new old stock floppies but they run flawlessly!
Wow I am very jealous of your IIgs! I always wanted one.
On the Apple II, I always preferred Legacy of the Ancients.
Any chance of a C64 port, that's compatible with TheC64 Maxi ?
Well, very tricky. Even though they are the same processor and a lot of the code would be compatible, the graphics are the big problem. The Apple II graphics system is so, um, unique, that porting it to other platforms is a pain. Also, we don't have any C64 experts on the team, so it would be a stretch. Burger Becky is working on a IIGS version that would take advantage of the better graphics, but no plans yet for a C64 version. Thanks for the interest!
@@CT6502 Chris, thanks for your informative reply. Much appreciated. That's a pity. I love old-school RPG's and would happily buy a C64 port, on the basis it's a full port of the entire game, and the prices are kept the same as the Apple II offerings. I don't want to be running PC-based emulators. I don't even have my own personal PC ... I just use my work laptop, but naturally I can't be running games off that. For personal purposes, I only have a Chromebook. I've recently purchased TheC64 Maxi, which is AWESOME for games, and is brilliant for RPG's with its full-size built-in keyboard. Even The C64 Mini can play RPG's fine with a plugged-in USB keyboard. I'm sure there'd be a sizable market for a C64 port of your game, given it's The World's Highest Selling Personal Computer, and there's renewed interest in it with TheC64 Mini and Maxi.
Well, I just bought it because of your videos.
Nice might and magic style map
Robin you have so many machines! I wonder how you and other collectors manage the physical storage and practical usage of the machines. I imagine you have boxes you are constantly unpacking and packing?
I keep my most frequently used computers (breadbin 64, 64C, VIC-20, C128) handy; they can be squeezed into a small space when stood on end. But yeah, other more rarely used machines like the IIgs here go back in their original box when I'm lucky enough to have it, or in plastic totes. I've got a fairly big room in my basement for all this stuff, so I'm fortunate. I've got a closet with some big steel shelves for a lot of it, and then more space under my table/bench I record at.
I love the game. I bought it on gog and play the windows version. The Quick reference booklet gives a few commands e.g. changing the graphics mode or Warp CPU. But they seem not to work. Does anybody know a solution?
Please visit the Nox Discord server and they'll be happy to assist. You need to press the keys in sequence. So, to speed up the CPU 100%, press Ctrl-Shift-W. Let go. Now press 3.
lol this is the first time I've seen an apple ii gs that didn't boot into the gui os I don't remember what's it's called.
GS/OS
I haven't seen a video with an Apple II GS I don't think. And that startup bong hit me right in the nostalgia. I don't think I've heard it since the late 80s, early 90s.
Nice Ulitia IV bro
Very cool!
will it work with the franklin ace or the laser128?
We didn't have those platforms available to test on so I can't say for sure. A free demo version of Nox Archaist is available so if you are setup to write your own floppies from disk images, you could try it out before buying the game.
This looks really cool. Is there any plans to bring it to the Commodore 64? I sadly don't have access to an Apple machine.
I haven't heard of any plans to port it, but it'd be fantastic to have a C64 version. It would require either RAM expansion or an EasyFlash cartridge as the game needs 128K of RAM, but it should be possible. The big question is whether anyone would devote the work to it. And maybe the developers want it to be Apple II exclusive? :)
@@8_Bit Thanks for the reply. I understand that the Apple II doesn't get much love, but there are so many of us C64 owners that I feel like it makes sense. I hope they consider it. :)
Talk to Irene, and sing to her good night.
LOL!
The packaging reminds me of Working Designs'. Were games on the ][ filled with stuff like this?
This game looks so cool, it kinda makes me want an actual Apple IIGS (if they weren't so expensive :P)
This looks great! I don't have a Apple Computer, but think about buying this and play it on an emulator. This would be really awesome, if this would get a release on a Commodore128. It would be the best game for the system ever!
Thanks for this great review!!! 🖖🏻
Hope someone in the future will do something like this but in the style of Might and Magic 1-2 games.
This looks great! No idea they were still making 8-bit RPG's. I hope this gets ported to the C64. I'd buy it for sure.
Huh, what is the Apple II, some obscure business machine Commodore released in Laos?
Nice trolling. Tee hee.
Them are fighting words bub!! 🤣
Think I found a good deal on an Apple IIc. What method would you recommend for copying this game to floppy disks?
Hey, have you checked ( Legend of Blacksilver ) for C64 its a fantastic game, that i and my friend played for many hours, back in 88 i think maybe 89, its was published by ( Epyx ) have played in recent years, still a great game, it would be nice to see that on your channel 👍
Hehe, "MockingBoard"...
Not to be confused with the Mockingbird :-)
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
Are you quoting Bit from Tron? :)
@@8_Bit Yeah but I messed up the yes count
5:31 Can PWM really replace having multi-bit PCM? The C64 has fine Pulse-Width control; did anyone ever use that to play digitized sound, vs. the poor-man's PCM from manipulating the volume level? Or do you need to manipulate the pulse width at ultrasonic speeds?
PWM has definitely been used on the C64; there was an article or two about it in C=Hacking magazine back in the early-ish 2000s and many C64 demos have used it since.
This is the most advanced method so far: "At the X'2008 demo party, a completely new method of playing digitized samples was unveiled. The method allows for an unprecedented four (software-mixed) channels of 8-bit samples with optional filtering on top of all samples, as well as two ordinary SID sound channels.[8][9] The method works by resetting the oscillator using the waveform generator test bit, quickly ramping up the new waveform with the Triangle waveform selected, and then disabling all waveforms, resulting in the DAC continuing to output the last value---which is the desired sample. This continues for as long as two scanlines, which is ample time for glitch-free, arbitrary sample output. It is however more CPU-intensive than the 4-bit volume register DAC trick described above. Because the filtering in a SID chip is applied after the waveform generators, samples produced this way can be filtered normally."
If you're booting it off the floppy, then what are you booting it _from?_ Oh, the emulator?
It sounds like you were trying to say "FROM the floppy emulator" but just got mixed up.
how hard would it be to have a map viewer in game instead of using grid cartographer?
It's not really feasible to have incremental mapping built into 8-bit RPGs since you'd need extra RAM and disk storage for your own maps; to do it at Grid Cartographer level would double the RAM and disk requirements.
There is literally no extra memory aside from a few bytes here and there. Mark used _all_ 128 KB of RAM. He even used the spare "screen holes" on the HGR page!
In case you aren't familiar with "screen holes" on the Apple 2 all video memory is memory mapped to RAM. The HGR page uses RAM locations $2000-$3FFF, and HGR page 2 uses $4000-$5FFF.
Every 128 bytes there are 8 that _aren't displayed._ These video bytes are called screen holes. While technically there are a total of 512 bytes "free" per 8K HGR page, it is not contiguous.
And Mark used even those. :-)
@@MichaelPohoreski I was really surprised that Nox supports dungeon maps up to 256x256 tiles. Does that mean a whole 64K of RAM is devoted to the map, or is there some paged system involved? That seems like it could get complicated...
@@8_Bit You'll want to double check with Mark but I believe he pages them in on demand. In one sense it doesn't matter if you are on the surface or in a dungeon. :-)
@@8_Bit Each 256c256 maps is divided into 16x16 zones. Only 9 zones are in memory at a time (regional map), and was the player moves toward the edge, the zones are scrolled in (from disk) and out. As Michael notes, this is true of Overworld or dungeon maps, and only a 9 zone region of the map the player is on resides in memory. Complicated? In assembly language, oh, yeah!
If i still had my Apple IIe i would have bought it, but alas
Well, you can still play on the emulator on Mac, Windows, and even Linux. Not quite the same experience, but it will look the same!
@@CT6502 Yeah, but still....its not the same. But make it for C64 and im on LOL
Damn, I have only a Apple II+ compatible (that still works).
Nice episode, but I hated this kind of games my whole life. I was a game collector but I threw away RPG’s. 😀
Threw away original copies of RPGs?? Or just pirated disks :)
@@8_Bit of course pirated disks which I got from those many C64 party’s 😜
@@paulvanderlaak700 One of the things we tried to do with this project was get rid of some of the annoyances of the old RPGs. So the inventory system is streamlined, there are a lot less keys to remember, and character creation takes like 30 seconds. Still might not be your cup of tea, but you could always try again! :-)
Gender: Male, female, other... okay, I identify as a fuckasaurus rex
I thought that part was a bit weird, too.
All over the world, especially in Islamic countries, there are only 2. In America and other ESG-regulated countries, there seem to be 72 and counting. I wonder if they'd start converting kids into Turbo Teen in the future? Can't wait.
i am going to need to play this. my personal opinion is that they should not have put tutorial in the beginning. i prefer when games like this are total blind
Apparently it's available on Steam for $25
Now $19.99
If I want to play on my Apple IIGS using 5.25 floppy, do I HAVE to have two disk drives or can I get away with swapping out disks as required? I only have a single 5.25 drive at the moment.
Unfortunately it requires 2 floppy drives simultaneously so that's why I ended up buying the Floppy Emu; I also only have one floppy drive.
@@8_Bit Well I've been thinking about getting a floppy emu for a while; guess I have another reason to now. Thanks!
The boxed, physical edition is still digital, and the drive that the download is on is still physical. Did you mean a download vs. discrete copy instead?
Any support for Commodore 64 users? Can i port over a digital version somehow?
The game will have to be ported to the C64; it's possible but will probably take months of work. Hopefully it'll happen!
@@8_Bit Oh wow, fingers crossed!
This is the second or third time I've seen someone talk about implementing A* in a 6502 game. Always seems like a ridiculous choice for path finding when you have such limited resources.
Emus around the world are offended by your calling them "floppy."
The floppy emu-from the people who brought you the rubber chicken!
@@stevethepocket Glad at least two others (of the 5000+) viewers thought that was funny ;)
I myself am feeling rather other today.
Interesting that Mark used "race" to refer to humans and the other kinds of creatures. I'd think they should've said "species" instead.
That's a standard D&D/RPG term.
Well then, @@CT6502, the industry as a whole would be better off using "species" there.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. I definitely agree - I'm certainly not defending the use of the term, just noting its origins. We can do better.
Haha, @@CT6502, OK, thanks!
Why make such a big deal about it?? Is it triggering you or something? I noticed you didn't seem to have any problem with the "Other" in the gender category even though there are only 2 genders.
I’ll wait for the FTA cracked version on the R.A.B.B.S. ][gs BBS.... ;-) jk of course.
I wish someone would make something like this for the C64! I applaud the effort involved, but the Apple 2 graphics are atrocious compared to the C64. I know gameplay > graphics, but it's hard to override the feeling when you sit down to play it just looks bad, and it's not the game's fault.
Give it a whirl, you'll get over it in about 5 minutes and appreciate the clever ways they have maximized the HGR Apple II mode.
enjoy it for what it is: they spent a lot of effort creating the graphics from scratch!!
"The floppy emulator screen doesn't flash in real life"? This _is_ real life. There's a difference between real life and being _in person,_ right?
In fact, not everything that's in person is in real life. Think about live, in-person theater performances.