Thursday, May 23rd 2024

Digital Eclipse's "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" 3D Remaster Now Available on Consoles & PC

When it debuted on the Apple II in 1981, SirTech's Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was the first game to recreate a pen-and-paper, Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing game for home computers. As the first party-based RPG, it directly inspired enduring series such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Demon's Souls.

SirTech published seven Wizardry sequels over the next two decades. In the years since, the series' popularity has persisted in Japan, with a number of additional sequels and spin-off games released only in that market. As of 2024, the Wizardry franchise encompasses more than forty titles.
...Like You've Never Seen It Before
Digital Eclipse, a studio dedicated to the historical preservation of video games, has licensed the registered Wizardry trademark from Japanese entertainment company Drecom and the copyrights to Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord from publisher SirTech, to develop a new version built directly on top of the original Apple II code base.

Digital Eclipse's remaster preserves the appeal of the classic while also incorporating modern graphics and improved party management, navigation, spellcasting, and combat.

While the remake may look, sound, and feel completely new, the original Apple II game is under the hood -- you can even view the original interface while you're playing.

Craft your own party of adventurers and head into the labyrinth at the behest of the mad overlord Trebor, in search of the amulet stolen by the evil wizard Werdna. Battle challenging monsters, avoid hidden traps, and find your way through the dungeon for the ultimate showdown with Werdna himself.

New Key Art by Jun Suemi
To commemorate and celebrate the first new release of the original Wizardry game in over twenty years, we commissioned legendary artist Jun Suemi to create a new key art illustration, which we're happy to reveal today for the first time. Long-time Wizardry fans know Suemi-sensei for his wonderful character designs that have graced numerous Wizardry titles over the years, including the Famicom conversion of the very first Wizardry. Upon submitting the completed piece, Suemi commented, "It's been a long time since I've had the opportunity to illustrate for Wizardry, and working on this piece brought many wonderful memories flooding back."

Key Features
  • Beautiful new graphics & animations for a game that, by necessity, only offered rudimentary visuals, now with the power of Unreal Engine.
  • User-selectable options that allow players to tailor the gameplay to their liking, including popular options from the console editions of the game. Players can also choose no new options at all to experience the original, more challenging, gameplay.
  • An in-game Bestiary that records key information on enemies as they're encountered and offers strategic advice on their strengths and weaknesses.
  • A lush musical soundtrack from composer Winifred Phillips, including some fan-favorite themes from Wizardry history.
  • A controller-friendly interface, with a one-button shortcut for fast combat choices.
  • Fully localized into English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and German.
www.techpowerup.com/img/8UrXxA4P6SPI8PrG.jpg
Source: Digital Eclipse
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8 Comments on Digital Eclipse's "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" 3D Remaster Now Available on Consoles & PC

#1
Cheeseball
Not a Potato
Runs perfectly on the Steam Deck.

Also runs really well on the Minisforum V3.
Posted on Reply
#2
Lew Zealand
Still have my original boxed set from 1981, along with Wiz 2 and 3.

How to drive sales in the 1980s: make your copy protection so good that kids save their paper route money to actually buy the games instead of copying cracked versions from friends. Honorable mention goes to Ultima as got I, III-V in boxes as well. U II was too weird for me to splurge on... OK the school library had it to check out so I got my fix there.
Posted on Reply
#3
Bones
Still have my copy for the NES I got new long ago.
What's weird is I still have the required path to Werdna memorized, from the labyrinth entrance to kicking his ass along with all else needed to do for leveling up and items needed to get there.

That is IF they didn't change the maps and other things some of you know I'm referring to with the above.
Posted on Reply
#4
Bigshrimp
BonesStill have my copy for the NES I got new long ago.
What's weird is I still have the required path to Werdna memorized, from the labyrinth entrance to kicking his ass along with all else needed to do for leveling up and items needed to get there.

That is IF they didn't change the maps and other things some of you know I'm referring to with the above.
They give you the option of the original maps or the tweaked maps to choose from when you start a new game.
Posted on Reply
#6
Divide Overflow
Brings back many memories of typing out tiltowait. :)
Posted on Reply
#7
Bones
BigshrimpThey give you the option of the original maps or the tweaked maps to choose from when you start a new game.
Now that's cool - New, different ways to go dungeon crawling. :cool:
Posted on Reply
#8
Vayra86
See, now this is the kind of game worthy of remaster lol.

This ain't a graphics upgrade, its like a time machine. And this is exactly why I bought a Deck, too :D Perfect stuff. Chrono Trigger was good fun on it too
Posted on Reply
Dec 7th, 2024 22:01 CST change timezone

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