KickStarter Nox Archaist - 8-bit RPG for Apple II, Mac, and PC - now with Lord of Storms expansion

[Troglofil]

There's a quest where you should get the orb of fear from the catacombs of Uharod Keep. But where are the catacombs? I found a green door with a permanent guard in front of it. Can the guard be manipulated away? Because if I kill him, behind the door there's a ladder through which I can reach a lower level, indeed containing some orb in a chest.

 

[Jarpie]

There's a quest where you should get the orb of fear from the catacombs of Uharod Keep. But where are the catacombs? I found a green door with a permanent guard in front of it. Can the guard be manipulated away? Because if I kill him, behind the door there's a ladder through which I can reach a lower level, indeed containing some orb in a chest.

Wait till midnight and he'll leave his post for change of shift.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Wait till midnight and he'll leave his post for change of shift.

This kind of stuff is exactly one of the reasons why the game is so fantastic.

 

[sstacks]

This is out now, right? Has anyone played it?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

This looks interesting, I'm going to pick it up at a later date and share my impressions.

 

[680x0]

NGL I hate all CRT style filters, got the Steam build and I guess there are no options to change the filter. Any recommendations on G2G Apple emus that don't have the vaseline filter baked in?

 

[AndyS]

I don't use any filters on AppleWin. It's a fairly straightforward emulator to use.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Luzur]

 

[Infinitron]

Veteran Retro RPG Streamer Lady Ailuros dies from Dysentery in Nox Archaist while exploring ancient ruins.

 

[Butter]

20% off until April 1

 

[Ladonna]

I recently bought this and started playing just to see how good it was compared to Ultima IV and V, and have since put on hiatus the game I was previously playing (Kingmaker). Nox Archaist is the Ultima VI I always wanted for an 8 bit machine. These guys have done a wonderful job of capturing the essence of Ultima V, while improving on the gameplay in many areas. Apparently Lord British has been inserted into the game somewhere, so it will be interesting to see what role he has to play in this.

Being a Commodore 64/128 user and fan, the only thing that sucks is the shittiness of dealing with Apple II graphics and sound. I can tolerate it because the game is excellent, but I constantly think of ways in which the game could have been improved had it been made on a Commodore 128 with the SID chip putting out the sound.

If you enjoyed the classics of the 8 bit era, then this game is a no brainer to buy. The inbuilt emulation works just fine. Hopefully these guys have more RPG's in mind using the same system.

 

[6502 Workshop]

I recently bought this and started playing just to see how good it was compared to Ultima IV and V, and have since put on hiatus the game I was previously playing (Kingmaker). Nox Archaist is the Ultima VI I always wanted for an 8 bit machine. These guys have done a wonderful job of capturing the essence of Ultima V, while improving on the gameplay in many areas. Apparently Lord British has been inserted into the game somewhere, so it will be interesting to see what role he has to play in this.

Being a Commodore 64/128 user and fan, the only thing that sucks is the shittiness of dealing with Apple II graphics and sound. I can tolerate it because the game is excellent, but I constantly think of ways in which the game could have been improved had it been made on a Commodore 128 with the SID chip putting out the sound.

If you enjoyed the classics of the 8 bit era, then this game is a no brainer to buy. The inbuilt emulation works just fine. Hopefully these guys have more RPG's in mind using the same system.

Thanks for your compliments, candor and feedback!

I've had the opportunity to discuss a C64 port with a couple experts and it appears that Nox Archaist is a good candidate. The challenge is to find a C64 expert who has the time and interest to lead the project. I'm looking but so far no luck.

 

[Ladonna]

The challenge is to find a C64 expert who has the time and interest to lead the project. I'm looking but so far no luck.

This doesn't surprise me, unfortunately. Most of the coders for the Commodore systems around today prefer making demo's, side scrollers and arcadey games. The same problem was struck by the makers of Lawless Legends, who from the start wanted a Commodore team to work with them so the game could be brought out in tandem on both systems. They couldn't find anyone to take on the task. Pretty funny when you consider it was the biggest selling 8 bit computer by a wide margin. One of the guys I discussed this with said it was due to the floppy drives being too slow, so I told him that the majority of the people playing it would probably be using emulation, an ultimate cartridge, pi1541, etc and not to worry about quick drive access. A person can dream though.

Do you guys plan on creating a sequel? Or another RPG using the same engine? Or have you done what you set out to do?

 

[6502 Workshop]

This doesn't surprise me, unfortunately. Most of the coders for the Commodore systems around today prefer making demo's, side scrollers and arcadey games. The same problem was struck by the makers of Lawless Legends, who from the start wanted a Commodore team to work with them so the game could be brought out in tandem on both systems. They couldn't find anyone to take on the task. Pretty funny when you consider it was the biggest selling 8 bit computer by a wide margin.

I remember hearing about that. I always assumed the issue was they were trying to recruit somebody before making the game. That's interesting to hear it's more a matter of coders not being interested in RPGs.

One of the guys I discussed this with said it was due to the floppy drives being too slow, so I told him that the majority of the people playing it would probably be using emulation, an ultimate cartridge, pi1541, etc and not to worry about quick drive access. A person can dream though.

Nox Archaist also relies on fast floppy access. In fact, we have custom RWTS that is ~7X faster than the RWTS being used in 1980s Apple II games. As a result, we were able to do things like have code chunks for spell affects like lighting and exploding fireballs loaded from disk into a buffer on the fly when the spell is cast and players on 5.25" floppy don't notice a delay.

After talking with some C64 coders, the conclusion was the same as yours - forget floppy access, and just make it a cartridge game (if it were to be made). I've got a rough memory map for how to shuffle the 128k of Apple RAM into the C64's internal bank and a 1meg Easy Flash cartridge. Seems like it would work.

Do you guys plan on creating a sequel? Or another RPG using the same engine? Or have you done what you set out to do?

Maybe. Certainly the "bucket list" goal has been achieved, but it's possible that we may do sequel.

 

[Ladonna]

Nox Archaist also relies on fast floppy access. In fact, we have custom RWTS that is ~7X faster than the RWTS being used in 1980s Apple II games. As a result, we were able to do things like have code chunks for spell affects like lighting and exploding fireballs loaded from disk into a buffer on the fly when the spell is cast and players on 5.25" floppy don't notice a delay.

The 64 had a number of workarounds for this. From code written fast load routines (that were often packed along with RPG's of the day, otherwise they would have been unplayable), to hardware additions like jiffydos and dolphindos that greatly sped up disk access.

After talking with some C64 coders, the conclusion was the same as yours - forget floppy access, and just make it a cartridge game (if it were to be made). I've got a rough memory map for how to shuffle the 128k of Apple RAM into the C64's internal bank and a 1meg Easy Flash cartridge. Seems like it would work.

If it fits on 1 mb, then a cartridge is the easy way out. If it is more than 1mb, then it becomes trickier. The C64 has ram expansions as well, and a number of late programs would use this as a RAM disk to speed things up as well. All of these are fully catered for in emulation too. Even that machine they released not long ago, TheC64, has all of these options built in. You could go the C128 option, but with the cartridge option, it probably isn't worth the hassle, unless the speed of the C64's cpu is an issue. While the 6502 is basically the same as the 6510 in the C64, you would need experts for the VIC II graphics chip and of course the SID for sound. The in game art itself is already pretty good, so it would really only require a little more colour and some touching up. Checking out the differences with Ultima V for the Apple and the C64 would give you an idea. I will spread the word around, and let people know you might be interested. See if anyone takes the bait.

Maybe. Certainly the "bucket list" goal has been achieved, but it's possible that we may do sequel.

At least you know you have a great engine, with most of the hard work already done.

 

[6502 Workshop]

f it fits on 1 mb, then a cartridge is the easy way out. If it is more than 1mb, then it becomes trickier. The C64 has ram expansions as well, and a number of late programs would use this as a RAM disk to speed things up as well. All of these are fully catered for in emulation too. Even that machine they released not long ago, TheC64, has all of these options built in. You could go the C128 option, but with the cartridge option, it probably isn't worth the hassle, unless the speed of the C64's cpu is an issue. While the 6502 is basically the same as the 6510 in the C64, you would need experts for the VIC II graphics chip and of course the SID for sound. The in game art itself is already pretty good, so it would really only require a little more colour and some touching up. Checking out the differences with Ultima V for the Apple and the C64 would give you an idea. I will spread the word around, and let people know you might be interested. See if anyone takes the bait.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Nox Archaist is 996k, but we didn't compress all data so we can get the size down to a more comfortable margin to fit onto the EasyFlash. All of the code in Nox Archaist is 6502 so I assume the CPU speed of the C64 would be fine.

Thanks for spreading the word around! If it helps for the C64 coders to know how much vetting has been done already for deciding their level of interest, Per Olofsson is the person who did the high level review of Nox Archaist and concluded it's a good candidate for C64 port. He helped me put together the rough draft memory conversion map. He of course would be a perfect person to lead the project but unfortunately doesn't have time.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.6502workshop.com/2021/05/official-nox-archaist-book-of-hints.html

Official Nox Archaist Book of Hints



We are excited to announce the official Nox Archaist Book of Hints is now available for preorder, expected to ship late May!

Click HERE to reserve your copy of the printed coil-bound edition + e-book!

At over 175 pages the Book of Hints is filled with:

• Walkthroughs
• Hints
• Merchant & item information
• Replay tips
• Maps (spoiler and non-spoiler)

Players who just want a hint on a tough quest, players who want a full step-by-step walkthrough and those looking for strategies to spice up a replay will all find lots of useful information in the Book of Hints.



(more sample pages are available on the preorder page)

The text and layout of the Book of Hints are complete. We are running a preorder so we know how many books to order from the printing company.

Click HERE to reserve your copy!

 

[Melan]

They need a tips hotline for the sweet, sweet moolah.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Yeah, wanted to order such a hint booklet myself, but 35 USD shipping seems a tiny bit steep...

 

[Ladonna]

Shipping to Oz would be a nightmare. It might be fun to get an online copy though, to see what I missed out on, and check out what strategies the devs suggest over what I used myself.

 

[mindx2]

Ordered!!

 

[6502 Workshop]

Hello all, thanks much for your support!

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Will there eventually be a pdf-release?

 

[6502 Workshop]

Will there eventually be a pdf-release?

yes, in the next few months.