Korseby Online - Wizardry

About Wizardry

Vor Jahren einst, kroch man durch dunkle Gänge, erforschte seltsame Welten, die nur durch Striche symbolisiert wurden. Eine Zeit des Denkens, die Illusion erwachte zu neuer Schaffenskraft. Nur noch wenige schätzen diese Tugenden der Uralt-Spielereien.

The Cosmic Forge and the lost 7 years

Actually I've died a lot of ways in Wizardry 6. Below you can see some quite interesting samples of them. The second picture shows the very funny "idiot departure" screen when you give a wrong answer to the encounter. (The screenshot is from the badly translated german version.) The last line suggests to look on the game package to search for help. That was a hoax. I figured it out some days later after spending lots of hours for this riddle.
Maybe that's a reason too why I needed almost 7 years to see one of the end screens of Wizardry 6. (It actually had seven ends if I remember correctly.) It was my first game I have played on a computer and thus was not familiary with computer gaming. I was not very experienced with role-playing games at this time at all. And last of all reasons, I had no solution for the game. 5 years later I found one on the internet.

The Beginning of Wizardry

The Wizardry program is truly magical. It allows your computer to open a portal into a world far removed from todays high tech living. There brave warriors do battle with evil wizards and fearsome monsters for riches beyond compare. It is a place where careful planning and strategy are more important than mere reflexes. You will be able to create and captain a party of stalwart adventurers about whose adventures the troubadours will sing epics for years hence. Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is only the main module of an extensive series of scenarios. Each scenario will take you deeper into the legend and lore of the Wizardry world. The characters and skills that you develop in Proving Grounds will carry forward into the other programs. So hone your talents well, as Knight of Diamonds, Legacy of Llylgamyn, The Return of Werdna, Heart of the Maelstrom, Bane of the Cosmic Forge and Crusaders of the Dark Savant await! In times to come, many other new scenarios will enrich your Wizardry experience and challenge your leadership skills. Wizardry is not just a single game to play and put away, it is Fantasy Role-Playing at its finest with years of campaigning ahead of you. Journey now to Wizardry and let your imagination flow through the screen into a world of magic and adventure. [taken from the manual]

The Wizardry Scenarios

The first five Wizadry games actually were independent scenarios to each other. You could import your old heroes from the predecessors so you haven't to create them again. They came with their own story but they were all the same when it comes to playability. Part 4 and 5 were ported to NES and SNES with enchanced graphics. Part 5 even got more puzzles and should became the most tough role-playing game.

Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Originally released 1978 for Apple it also found it's way to IBM-PCs in 1982. Track town the evil wizard Werdna in his fortress labyrinth to retrieve a fabled amulet. Go where even the Mad Overlord himself fears to tread.

Knight of Diamonds
The legendary armour of the Knight of Diamonds has been lost. The treacherous Davalpus has slain the royal family and blasted the staff of Gnilda, and its rightful heir Alavik, from this world. Without the protective powers of the staff, the city will surely perish.

Legacy of Llylgamyn
Tidal waves, volcanoes and earthquakes are destroying the city. Every day the pestilence sweeping the country is getting worse. You must retrieve the Orb of Arithin to find the cause of these catastrophes. The orb is held by one of the five children of the World Serpent - the dragon L'Kbreth. Take up your skills, seek out the dragon and win from her the powerful orb.

Return of Werdna
After his defeat years ago, where Werdna had lost the amulet, the evil wizard now struggles to find a way out of his own maze. You are Werdna and your worst nightmare came true. All the obstacles, traps and deadly creatures you had set up to protect your treasure and to prevent people from getting into your ten level dungeon, are now there only to keep you from leaving it.

Heart of the Maelstrom
Llylgamyn is in danger once again. Disasters worse than ever before are being inflicted by a magical vortex. The very fabric of reality itself is unravelling into chaos. It holds prisoner the Gatekeeper - whose responsibility it is to watch and preserve the balance between the planes of magic and the natural world. Do you have the heart to challenge the Heart of Maelstrom ?

Bane of the Cosmic Forge

The Cosmic Forge is a magical pen with the unique power to weave written words into the cosmic fabric, making these words come true. Unfortunately it has been abused by evil forces for years, scripting horrors that no man has ever imagined. For a long while now, the King and his Queen have disappeared, and with them the Cosmic Forge. But now you have arrived, all that is about to change.

Crusaders of the Dark Savant

When the Cosmic Forge had been stolen, a previously undiscovered planet was unveiled and rognized as Lost Guardia. The legendary planet of the scientific genius Phoonzang was the secret resting place for the Astral Dominae, the world's only known record of Phoonzang's final and greatest discovery. Race to find the Astral Dominae, for he who finds it shall have the power of life itself.

Wizardry 8

Since the latest and last part of Wizardry only runs on modern high-end machines (and Windows *urgh*), I'm more or less unable to play it. However I played it until I've come to the Swamp. I really dislike that rendered 3D graphics and the story was bad too. I trashed it soon after. Modern games are nothing for me it seems. Where has all the imagination gone ?

Cheating...

If you know what a hex editor is, you can imagine that all attributes and values of the characters are saved in a savegame. If you find the appropriate places of those values you can manipulate them. That works at least for Wizardry 6. (The other ones I haven't tried.)

If you search for the name of the hero, you'll find the apposite places much faster.

number of letters of the character's name the character's name number of letters of the password password race class age alignment characteristics (optimum 524A-524A hex)

Yes we can quarrel about the meaning of cheating. However, it helped me to survive the too hard and too many monsters in "Bane of the Cosmic Forge". Everybody can decide on his own if he wants to cheat or not..