Grand Wizard of Wor

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Cleverly and I both had the week off (we're coincidentally starting new jobs in a few days) so he dropped by today to play some games, help me get the Vision Pro on my Ms. Pac setup correctly, and convince me to get a Wizard of Wor that was posted on craigslist.

I had just been plugging the Vision Pro into a power strip and turning it and the game on at the same time. Depressingly ghetto! He had a device that makes getting crimped pins out of molex connectors easier, which I totally have to grab ASAP.

We took his car to get the Wizard of Wor. If you're on Denver craigslist, the same guy is selling Galaga, Track n' Field, Tempest and Asteroids. The Tempest is actually the Irish one! I had no idea that was a legitimately different rev of Tempest - I just thought the guy dropped a silver coin door on his because somebody at some point kicked in the original one.

The guy had new side art for WoW, which he included, so I was thrilled. When I was bringing it over to Cleverly's car, I took a close look at the side as it currently was, and, well:



The swastika to the upper-left is kind of messed up, so it's good that the guy took a deep breath and really nailed it on his second attempt. You hate to be the guy who can't carve one into a game until like his fifth or sixth try. The wizard making the "heil Hitler" salute with his hand is some wonderful syzygy.

Anyway! I, obviously, can't wait to put the new side art on. Though I haven't unrolled it yet, so for all I know, when I do I'll find out that the wizard on the new art is in blackface.

[Flack]

Before you put the new side art on you should cut out a small Hitler mustache and stick it on the wizard there to complete the effect.

I always liked that game, btw. I never played the arcade version until I was an adult, but it's one of the first games my friend had on his C64 and we used to play it for hours, "pretending" to "accidentally" shoot each other. OOPS I GOT YOU AGAIN MY BAD HEE HEE.

[AArdvark]

When I was teaching my young'un to load the game into the C64, i wrote a simple batch program called 'wolf game'.

he could read it and press '1' and it would load and run.

(note on spacebar: I am tired of back spacing and will hit the long one but will ignore it from now on.)

he could load it at eh age of six. and usually beat me at it.

now Iwantpixof the game i spent major bucks on at putt putt

THE
DO-DO-DOOOOOOOOO!
AARDVARK

[AArdvark]

and nmone of theat nazi crap

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I always liked that game, btw. I never played the arcade version until I was an adult, but it's one of the first games my friend had on his C64 and we used to play it for hours, "pretending" to "accidentally" shoot each other. OOPS I GOT YOU AGAIN MY BAD HEE HEE.

Yeah, I look forward to having some people over to see if the game descends into a mad battle of evening scores and perceived slights against the other human player.

I'm guessing that it will.

Follow-up from earlier in the thread: so I loaded the DOS game that I had mentioned up-top. It's terrible. What the hell was I thinking?

- It doesn't begin with a proper Wizard of Wor map
- The wizard's voice is absent. KINDA THE WHOLE POINT HERE
- The sounds for when the player dies are really, really stock
- The red and yellow monsters weren't going invisible.

I mean, for a guy's first attempt at a game with animation or something, it's okay, but it doesn't scratch the WoW itch. I'm all about re-engineering arcade games, but bring some new ideas to the table and extend the gameplay.

[Flack]

Yeah, I look forward to having some people over to see if the game descends into a mad battle of evening scores and perceived slights against the other human player.

That's what happened every time I played it for sure. Just like Joust. It always starts with one player accidentally killing the other, followed by that player then killing the first player on purpose and pretending it was an accident. Pretty much at that point it's on. Then at some point someone calls a truce. Never trust the guy who calls truce, he's just doing that so that he can kill you. If the person you're playing with calls a truce, agree and then immediately kill that person. Trust me, they were going to kill you anyway. Strike first, strike hard, no mercy sir.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I'm going to try to keep track of my highest score here, since it does not save the high scores, and I am not aware of any kits.

I got 27,800 just now. The blue guy was CLUTCH. He killed the first three dudes that provide for a double-score dungeon... and then he killed the wizard himself! First time I had seen that, and the game does do something special when the wizard is shot inna mouf, which was a nice touch.

[Flack]

The 1984 Arcade has a giant white board with printed out mini-marquees. They keep a "permanent" record of high scores (they erase them periodically). I considered doing something like that in my arcade.

I also considered something PC based. I wrote a prototype at one point in time. It would cycle through marquees and display the top 3 high scores ... it was crap (because I wrote it). A friend of mine started writing a better version but we never finished it.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

50,400 just now, with me elbowing the blue guy out of the way in the early boards so I can get those points.

The Wizard is making almost regular appearances at the end of the boards now.

(I also got 20,575 on Faster, Harder, More Challenging Q*bert. It was a good day!)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

In the end, I traded this to JC forum user cleverlyj for a cocktail Donkey Kong. We're both happy with how it worked out. Jim was able to restore all the problems with the Wizard of Wor, Flack was able to move and not have another freaking game he had to worry about, and I like Donkey Kong on a cocktail just fine.

But that was WoW's fate.

[Flack]

What's funny is, I was going to give WoW to my friend Jeff, who just moved out of state and would not have been able to take it anyway. So yeah, it did work out for the best.

/sound of Pac-Man dying.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I am picking this game up back sometime this week. This exact game, which went from Cleverly to the 1UP. This is the first game I've bought in like 5 years I think. Lemme check.

[Tdarcos]

he could load it at eh age of six. and usually beat me at it. [deleted]
now Iwantpixof the game i spent major bucks on at putt putt

and nmone of theat nazi crap

'Vark, while the gist of what you are saying does get through, I'd like to recommend you avoid posting when drunk or high. You're not good at it.

[Tdarcos]

Yeah, I look forward to... the game descend into a mad battle... against the other human player.

Then at some point someone calls a truce. Never trust the guy who calls truce, he's just doing that so that he can kill you. If the person you're playing with calls a truce, agree and then immediately kill that person. Trust me, they were going to kill you anyway. Strike first, strike hard, no mercy sir.

Oh, I think here is a way to guarantee the truce holds. Guy who calls a truce slaps down $20 or $100 and asks for a matching amount. First one to kill the other regardless of reason (unless the loser intentionally ran into the winner) loses. If no shenanigans occurs each gets their money back.

[Flack]

Even after 11 years, my jokes hold up.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This game is now again in my possession.

[Flack]

Awesome! For a minute there I was WORried!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

My wife and I had today off. We took a couch to her friend that lives in Colorado Springs and then drove north a few towns, where I bought this game (again) from my friend Jon.

I used to do this all the time. Used to pick up games, bring 'em home, set them up. I loved it. I loved getting the games. I loved everything about this hobby, which to some degree is more about the feeling of freedom you get in acquisition. It certainly isn't because of the scores I get.

The sun was shining so brightly. It was so nice out. It was nice to do this with my wife, I don't know if we'd done a game run before.

I played a game after we got it and the game was as fun as I remember. More, even, I had forgotten that the game puts a computer-controlled dude on the other side trying to shoot monsters if you try it single player.

What a wonderful day.

[Jizaboz]

Awesome!

"I AM THE WIZARD. YOU ARE NOT."

I think it is both weird and totally cool that this game uses the theme from Dragnet of all things.

[Tdarcos]

"I AM THE WIZARD. YOU ARE NOT."

Gauntlet had the answer to that one:
"Wizard needs food, badly."