Pug and Gorath watch an alien sunset as this session begins. I normally offer a winning screen at the top of the "won" posting, but there isn't one.        This session begins at the opening of Chapter VIII: "Of Lands Afar." Gorath and Owyn have used the Book of Macros to teleport to a strange, alien world, looking to rescue Pug, who is searching for his kidnapped daughter. As we arrive, Owyn discovers that he cannot sense any magic, so he cannot cast any spells. He explains that as a magician, he doesn't actually possess any power: "Al ..read more

My final map of the galaxy.            I'll return to a slightly more chronological narrative to recount this particular debacle, which put the number of hours for the sequel a little past the original.      This entry is very long, and I'm not sure anyone is going to care to read all of this, so here's the summary: I discovered that this part of the galaxy used to be ruled by a race called the Masters who used the Clathrans as their enforcers. The Masters were dependent on a wide Dual Space Interphase, so as it continu ..read more

  We were just talking about that. That's two obscure references in one title. What do you think?       The Power Stones of Ard II: The Five Towers of Trafa-Zar United States Three C's Projects (developer and publisher) Released in 1990 for Tandy Color Computer 3 Date Started: 10 January 2025          I had curious feelings when I saw this game coming up on my list. Its predecessor, The Power Stones of Ard: The Quest for the Spirit Stone, was one of the most maddening games I've played for this blog. I got stuck a ..read more

  James, displaying a talent for extreme sarcasm.        At the end of the last entry, I expressed a desire to start wrapping up Betrayal at Krondor, and I was happy to see that the game agreed with me in the opening moments of Chapter VII: "The Long Ride." The action switches to Locklear, James, and Patrus, but they're not just outside Northwarden. They're all the way down in Dimwood Forest (and for some reason, it's the middle of the night). If I try to go north, I end up in endless battles with large groups of pirates and Moredhel spellcasters. At ..read more

This is not the sort of game that can be told in screenshots.        I'm going to abandon the day-by-day account of my space travels in favor of a more summarized entry, particularly because most of this session involved a lot of backtracking to places I'd already been. Suffice to say that in about 180 turns, I finished exploring the part of the galaxy that I could explore, visited every planet but two, logged all of their trade goods, bought all of the weapons and armor (both ship and personal) that they had to offer, made new allies, read about 75 page ..read more

          Sword Quest 2: Tale of the Talisman United States NGS Software (developer and original publisher); GT Interactive (later publisher) Version 1.1c released in 1993 for DOS Date Started: 31 December 2024 Date Ended: 7 January 2025 Total Hours: 8 Difficulty: Easy-Moderate (2.5/5) Final Rating: (to come later) Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)            Summary:   A decent DOS clone of Dragon Warrior (1986) for the NES, with ideas that go back to Ultima. The game features a single ..read more

My explorations this session. See the final paragraph for an explanation of the map.        As this session opens, Gorath and Owyn are on the other side of the mountains from where the game began. We are on the edge of the great wood known as Elvandar, where the Eledhel—the good elves—live. We've come all this way looking for Tomas, who might know something about the Book of Macros, which might in some way help Pug find his abducted daughter, Gamina. What the abduction has to do with the game's primary threat—the invasion of the Kingdom of the Isles by t ..read more

  Part of the region explored this session.     Irene told me flat-out the other day that she didn't see returning to The Clathran Menace in the near future, so I put Corin Stoneseeker in suspension and continued with just M. J. Turner. When we last checked in with him, he was on Unaria after a visit to Dosia, the planet's twin.      A lecture on the history of the two planets explained some things but left a lot of mysteries. Unarians and Dosians were part of one race about 70,000 years ago, but something caused them to divide and to be placed ..read more

          Sword Quest 2: Tale of the Talisman United States NGS Software (developer and original publisher); GT Interactive (later publisher) Version 1.1c released in 1993 for DOS Date Started: 5 December 2024         We've seen plenty of console RPGs influenced by computer RPGs—that directionality is sensible, since computer RPGs came first. We see less of the opposite. Nonetheless, Erik Badger's two Sword Quest games for DOS were clearly influenced by Dragon Warrior (1986, AKA Dragon Quest) for the NES. These ..read more

This might be the first time in CRPG history that a PC acknowledges he's screwing around instead of doing the main quest.          This session begins in Chapter 6. The Moredhel legions have been temporarily defeated, but a new (or perhaps allied) threat has arisen. Magicians from the Tsurani Empire have kidnapped Pug's adopted daughter, Gamina. Pug has gone looking for her, leaving only a cryptic message about the Book of Macros, a master wizard whose actions have shaped the history of the kingdom. The quest to find more information has taken ..read more