|
By Alan Hewston |
“Fight me! I am the
Wizard of Wor!” Per your request here’s a popular title that my predecessor
already reviewed. See Retrogaming Times issue #8 for Doug's Many Faces of
Wizard of Wor. BTW, congratulations go out to Doug & Elizabeth Saxon, who were
wed in November.
Wizard
of Wor (WOW) as noted in the Digital
Press guide is one of the best simultaneous 2-player home video games from the
era. Inside the dungeons of the Wizard of Wor, you became a Worrior whose goal
is to defeat the Wizard by going deeper and deeper into his dungeon. But you
never defeat the Wizard - he keeps coming back and the levels repeat with no
end. WOW is similar to Berzerk, in that you move within the realm of a powerful
being, and enter his many screen-sized mazes (dungeons) and shoot at his
minions. But that’s where the comparison ends. All movement by Worriors and
Worlings is limited to only
4 directions and you cannot
exit the maze, but must defeat all the monsters to advance. There is an escape
door that opens and closes randomly, but always in the same place on screen. It
works like the tunnel in Pac-Man, but anyone can use it, after which it closes
again. The most significant feature is that of 2 player simultaneous action.
WOW may have been the maze shoot out game - which in that era, culminated with
the 4-player game Gauntlet.
Each level begins with the
Worriors outside of the maze with 10 seconds to enter willingly, or be forced
into the dungeon. You only fire one laser blast at a time, until it hits a
wall, Worrior or Worling. So plan each shot carefully. There are about 17
different maze patterns, 14 of which are random. [I only found 16 of them on
the C64 and Bally - got tired replaying] The other 3 mazes are special dungeons
used at levels 4, 8 and 13 (11 on Bally). Level 4, “The Arena” has an open area
in the middle, level 8, “The Worlord Dungeon” has only 6 sets of walls to hide
behind, and level 13, “The Pit” is composed of NO walls, and nowhere to hide.
An extra life is awarded to you the first time that you reach the Arena and the
Pit. The levels repeat, and so every so many levels you reach the Arena and
then Pit again. There is no time limit, but each level becomes increasingly
more difficult with the monsters reaching their top speed sooner and sooner. To
help you on your mission, you have a radar screen that displays the locations of
all Worlings, visible and invisible. The name or number of each level is also
provided.
OK so what is a Worling?
They are your enemy, and 4 of the 5 species of Worlings appear in every
dungeon. Six Burwors (blue) await you inside each maze – but they are slow and
always visible. As you vanquish the Burwors, they are replaced by Garwors, who
when defeated will be replaced by Thorwors. Garwors (yellow) are faster and are
NOT visible unless you are in the same corridor. Thorwors (red) are smarter and
faster still and likewise not always visible. As the levels increase, more
Garwors and Thorwors will begin play along with the Burwors. Once all of the 3
basic Worlings are destroyed, the Wizard’s winged beast, the Worluk appears
(actually starting in level 2). The Worluk does not intend to stay very long
and makes his way to an escape door – ending the level. If it’s shot, you’ll
earn a “Double Score Dungeon” – the next level. After Worluk is gone, the
Wizard himself may engage you in a battle to the death. Of course he never
really dies, just shows up later on. The Wizard only shoots in two directions
fore and aft, but he’s firing constantly. He teleports in, moves for a few
seconds and then teleports back out. After a brief delay, he teleports back in
again, usually a bit closer to one of the Worriors. As with the other Worlings,
if you shoot the Wizard, he and his shots vanish and can no longer harm you.
Shooting the Wizard will also yield a Double Score Dungeon.
For more information on
Wizard of Wor see:
http://147.208.187.228/popopedia/shows/arcade/ag1169.php
Arcade Game Designed in 1980
Bally Midway (Tom McHugh & Dave Nutting)
Classic Home releases: Apple
II (Jorn Barger), Atari 2600 & 5200 (CBS), Commodore 64 (’83 CBM) and Atari 8
bit (’84 Roklan, Joe Hellesen & John Wagner). Rumor Mill: CV & INTV (CBS
announced plans), Vic 20 (CBM – unreleased). Unlicensed: Bally Astrocade (’82
Bob Ogden)
Categories: Gameplay,
Addictiveness, Graphics, Sound & Controls
CBS had an offer similar to Activision. Mail in a photo of your TV screen
(Atari 2600) with a high enough score to receive in the mail a Wizard of Wor,
“Worrior” medal.
Disqualified: Apple II (N/A)
Once again I apologize for not having this system. Most likely it’ll be the
only classic system I'll never find a cheap stash. Plus, I have no more room to
add a disk-based system in my overflowing game room.
Disqualified: Bally Astrocade (42)
This system was often the odd man out - never having the rights to make an
official release of a popular arcade game - but sometimes went ahead anyhow:
Making the only home versions of 280 ZZZAP and Dog Patch (with same Bally
programmer from arcade to home?); and also very decent versions of Galaxian,
Space Invaders, Clowns, Sea Wolf, Space Fortress and Muncher (this last one was
involved with the various Pac-Man lawsuits). Anyhow, many people consider "The
Incredible Wizard" not only the best home version of WOW but also the best
Astrocade game ever made - so I've got to include it here. As the only
Astrocade entry in this column, I'll do everything but give it the medal it
deserves.
The Gameplay is very nice
(8), and includes all the major elements save for a pause. Also missing are the
names of the special levels, and the Worluk and Wizard do not show up on the
radar. This is the only version that offers 3 levels of difficulty. 3 of the
above mentioned 14 generic mazes are slightly altered on the Bally version.
Maybe Bally is correct & the C64 & Ataris are wrong? The most significant
difference is that only the Astrocade gives you a Quadruple Score Dungeon if
both Worluk and Wizard are shot. I’ve forgotten/did not check if the arcade did
this or not. An extra life is earned for every Pit encountered, which occurs
every fourth level after the first one. The Graphics are wonderful (9), the
best of the lot, with the most detailed and colorful sprites. The Sound is nice
(8), in fact the effects are second to none. But quite noticeably missing is
the heartbeat (for lack of a better term) of the Worlings. The racing heartbeat
adds tension and drama to the game as it beats faster and faster. The Controls
are superb (9), but only once you’ve become comfortable with them. This may
take some time, and they are harder to fix and keep in working order than most.
The Addictiveness is great (8), but loses a bit due to the controls and lack of
a pause button.
Have Nots: Atari 2600 (34)
Only the Atari versions were released by CBS. The Gameplay is fine (6) adding
the A/B switch to give the game 2 levels of difficulty – the others do not.
But the Gameplay is missing too much; no pause button, and only 2 dungeon maze
patterns – making it very boring, very fast. Why didn’t they add (CBS famous)
expanded RAM to give us a few more patterns or at least the Pit. Other
differences are: having no timer and 20 seconds to enter the maze, instead of
10; the escape doors are not random, but open and then close every three
seconds; and the extra life is earned at 10K - since there is no Pit. The
Sound is OK (6) but all effects are weak, or completely missing. The Graphics
are decent (6), er uh, boring, but do not detract from play. The Controls are
perfect (10). The Addictiveness is fine (6) but suffers from the boredom of
only 2 mazes. A great 2600 game, but a big step down from the rest.
Bronze Medal: Atari 5200 (40)
It is weird that this version was made by CBS, and the 8 bit version by Roklan.
Could this be the only exception to the 8 bit and 5200 games all being the
same? Well the games do appear to be the same, save for CBS on the title
screen here. So all 8 bit scores apply, save for the Controls which are
impressive (8), for the 5200, and the Addictiveness which is enjoyable (8).
This is the only version that my Worrior went right through a Worling - probably
due to the analog “features” of moving, stopping, firing and switching
directions that only the 5200 can offer.
Silver
Medal: Atari 8 bit (43)
It misses the gold, probably due to lesser, albeit, pretty good Graphics (7).
They’re just not as sharp and detailed. The Gameplay is superb (9) with all of
the elements in place, and adding a choice of starting lives 3/5/7 – unique to
this version. Too bad they did not offer a change in difficulty, and/or a way
to select different starting levels. After the first Pit, there is another one
every 6 levels. The Sound is impressive (8), and as in all versions, the Wor
national anthem (also heard on Pitfall) is played before each level. The
Controls are perfect (10), and the Addictiveness is great (9) – so you can count
on playing this version many more times. The 8 bit port is available on cart
and I’m pretty sure it was originally on disk as well.
Gold Medal: Commodore 64 (44)
To be honest, I expected this to get a better score. Digital Press reports that
this version was programmed to include the voice of the Wizard, but only heard
if you have the "Magic Voice" add-on device. Darn, that doesn’t help too many
of us. The Amiga version did have the voice of the Wizard. The Sound is
outstanding (9), and would be a 10 if the Wizard’s speech were Included. The
chirping of the final few Worlings (also found on the Bally) is somewhat
haunting. The Gameplay is very nice (8), and includes all the elements seen
elsewhere, save for any option for number of lives or difficulty. The Graphics
are crisp (8), a very close second only to the Bally. The Controls are flawless
(10). The Addictiveness is fantastic (9), and you’ll love to try just one more
game. This version is available on cart and disk, but since my cart is not
working, I could not verify if they are identical. (See C64 Tapper)
OK, now if CBM would have
programmed WOW to allow you to alter the background colors, as they did in Omega
Race (another Bally/Midway title), just imagine playing invisible Wizard of Wor.
Every level would look like the Pit. You’d really have to fire a lot to see
where the walls are to find the best place to “hide”. I betcha that would be an
easy hack job to do, and hope that if someone does it to write and tell me, I’d
love to have that version on disk. Wouldn’t everyone? How about a Wizard of
Wor construction set?
=======
With apologies to those Amiga
fans out there. I'm only covering the official (licensed) home releases on
these classic (joystick era) machines: Apple II, Atari 2600, 5200, 7800 & 8 bit
computers, Colecovision/Adam, Commodore 64, Vic 20, Intellivision, Odyssey II,
TI 99/4A, and Vectrex. Other systems either came out after this era, (NES, SMS,
ST, Amiga, PC's), or did not have many official releases (Bally Astrocade, CoCo,
APF, Emerson and Fairchild), or were overseas and hard for me to review
(Sinclair Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad, and Fountain). Sorry if I've yet to cover
your favorite game, but some versions are harder to come by and I really do not
want to rely on emulation. Good news is that one of you is going to help expand
my frugal Amiga collection, so maybe some day I’ll do a Many Faces of in the Bit
Age Times.
Come back next month when I
review the Many Faces of Gorf, (another Bally/Midway title split by the same 3
companies, CBS / Commodore CBM / Roklan), on the C64, Vic 20, Atari 2600, 5200,
Atari 8 bit and joined by Colecovision.