No one seems to have turned up a disk image. I'll try it when I get back around to it.Įmpire III: Armageddon (1983, Apple II). Every version I try crashes with an overflow error after character creation. Can't write juicy expose because I can't get it to run. If you feel you have a promising lead I may have overlooked, please verify with me first.Īmulet, The (1983, DOS, Numenor Microsystems). Chances are, I've already tried to contact the most promising leads, and I don't want the authors (or people with their names) to get repeated contacts. I appreciate any leads, but please do not take it upon yourself to reach out to the original developers unless you somehow know them personally. I'll remove titles (or otherwise flag them) when we find solutions and add titles as I verify their 'missing' and 'NP' status. This should make it easier for readers who stumble across the blog to offer hints. I thought I would centralize, in this entry, all of the games that we either can't find or that I've found unplayable or unwinnable in some mysterious way. This would be a good time to start organizing your arguments. I don't have the answers to this conundrum yet, but sometime this year we'll have a discussion about potential revisions to the GIMLET that better take these factors (and others) into account. I'm concerned that the GIMLET's purely additive system will result in relative scores that I balk at, like Might and Magic IX ranked higher than Might and Magic III or a bore-fest like Kingdoms of Amalur outperforming Pool of Radiance. Mediocre games from the 2000s will end up getting much higher scores than excellent classics just because they have more of everything-more NPCs, more character options, more history and lore, better graphics and sound, and so forth. So far, it hasn't been a huge problem, but I think it will become one as time marches on. The considerations aren't entirely absent, but the GIMLET definitely rewards more of everything rather than good balance among the three axes. The final thing I'll say about breadth, depth, and immersion is that my GIMLET doesn't reflect them very well. I'm going to make a push to win this in one or two more entries, before I get started with Star Control II, which will require a large devotion of time this weekend.

This makes the land somewhat exhausting to explore, which is why I'm now using the maps that Jeff provided with no shame.Īn interesting environment, and yet the town has no more depth or character than any other town. The towns have the same identical services and one or two lines each of useful dialogue. There are some interesting graphical vignettes in the outdoor area, including doors in the middle of mountain ranges, archipelagos connected by bridges, towns at the end of mazes, towns with lakes in the middle of them, and so on, but none of this interesting geography leads to any depth in gameplay. I need it to continue exploring the town, although I don't know if you can take it with you when you leave. One of the towns sold a 'flying disk,' but it's a bit above my price range. In one of them, I got a third character, a cleric named Tharon. I used the boat to reach previously-inaccessible land areas and thus visit a few more towns. They're best used to eliminate enemies you don't want (e.g., anything that causes poison) so you can spend your hit points and spell points on easier and more lucrative prospects. After slaying the pirates in combat, I was able to board the ship.Īs in Ultima III- V, the ship has cannons that can be used to mercilessly wipe out approaching enemies, but doing so offers no experience or gold. Back on the surface, I soon encounter what I most needed: a pirate ship. I think the developer intended a larger, stronger party before tackling the dungeons. When I last blogged about the game, I had explored a couple of dungeon levels but was worried about overextending myself. In short, the game's breadth far exceeds its depth. While an Ultima player has lots of side-quests and sub-quests to accomplish (find the mystics, find the runes, learn the words of power, meditate at shrines, etc.), the Seventh Link player has a much simpler quest with fewer stages. And yet in the entire game, there is less dialogue than a single Britannian town. Elira alone-let alone the three other planets-is as large as Britannia (from Ultima IV), has almost as many towns and dungeons, and its towns and dungeons are larger. The problem is a reduction in content accompanied by an increase in size.

The game is mechanically sound: Noyle did a good job replicating the basic experience of Ultima III and IV, including combat, while arguably improving the economy and inventory system. If you haven't been paying attention, developer Jeff Noyle paid a visit in the comments to my last entry and offered some tips and maps, which motivated me to keep going with the title. This thesis gelled as I play The Seventh Link.

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