Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
| Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord | |
|---|---|
Apple II cover
|
|
| Developer(s) | Sir-Tech |
| Publisher(s) | Sir-Tech |
| Designer(s) |
Andrew C. Greenberg Robert Woodhead |
| Series | Wizardry |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, C64, C128, FM-7, Game Boy Color, Macintosh, MSX2, NEC PC-9801, NES, IBM PC, Sharp X1, Super Famicom, TurboGrafx-16 |
| Release |
1981
|
| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first game in the Wizardry series of role-playing video games. It was developed by Andrew Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. In 1980, Norman Sirotek formed Sir-Tech Software, Inc. and launched a Beta version of the product at the 1980 Boston Computer Convention. The final version of the game was released in 1981.
The game was one of the first Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing games to be written for computer play, and the first such game to offer color graphics. It was also the first true party-based role-playing video game.
The game eventually ended up as the first of a trilogy that also included Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds and Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn.Proving Grounds needs to be completed in order to create a party that could play in the remainder of the trilogy.
Starting in the town, which is represented only as a text-based menu, the player creates a party of up to six characters from an assortment of five possible races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Hobbits), three alignments (Good, Neutral, Evil), and four basic classes (Fighter, Priest, Mage, Thief), with four elite classes (Bishop: priest and mage spells; Samurai: fighter with mage spells; Lord: fighter with priest spells, and Ninja: fighter with thief abilities) unlocked once the characters have progressed sufficiently. Good and evil characters normally cannot be assigned to the same party.
After characters are equipped with basic armor and weaponry, the party descends into the dungeon below Trebor's castle. This consists of a maze of ten levels, each progressively more challenging than the last. Classes have multiple spells, each with seven levels, that characters learn as they advance.
The style of play employed in this game has come to be termed a dungeon crawl. The goal, as in most subsequent role-playing video games, is to find treasure including ever more potent items, gain levels of experience by killing monsters, then face the evil arch-wizard Werdna on the bottom level and retrieve a powerful amulet. The goal of most levels is to find the elevator or stairs going down to the next level without being killed in the process.
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