I miss old SSI games and all the beauty and wonder they brought me as a child. Perhaps it’s more of the feeling of playing old MS-DOS games and that no worries feeling of playing games all summer long when your parents are out working; no cares in the world but that of the evil dragons and goblins of an RPG world. Secret of the Silver Blades arrived in May of 1990, developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc (SSI), a company we covered in our gaming history back in TD Gaming Podcast Episode 9.
Secret of the Silver Blades is actually the third in a four-part game series which was eventually packaged in the Gold Box editing of the SSI games. It was a continuation of the game Curse of the Azure Bonds and the first in the series: Pool of Radiance. The cool part of the series was the leveling system where each would let you level to a certain limit just like most modules in D&D games, this game let you get to level seven which means a Mage could use the cool Delayed Blast Fireball spell which was one of my favorite magic spells in D&D (yeah, I’m a dork.)
The graphics were a whopping 16-colors, with slight graphical improvements over the other two prior games. This game didn’t have an overworld map like the others, going full first person for the length of the game. Another great enhancement was the ability to use the arrow keys to navigate menu’s without the need for “hot keys” like older SSI titles, given the game is very much menu-based for combat, equipment and inventory management it was very handy to have the use of those nice little arrow keys.
You create your party and start adventuring in a game engine very similar to all the games before it, so introduction to game mechanics was minimal, you could advance your characters further in level and, most importantly, import characters from previous games. The D&D world is really a character-driven game environment and you grow fond of your characters and understand the best ways to battle with them, importing is key and still, today, is a big part in well done RPG expansions (Guild Wars is a great example). Unfortunately, many games fall short of character import and it kind of blows away some of the magic of an RPG.
One of the frustrating issues with Secret of the Silver blade is the limitation on levels for the Cleric, because they can’t level up past 7 they can’t get the good ressurection spell, only allowed to use Raise Dead which lowers your characters constitution by 1 (much like the traditional D&D rules). However, given its a video game and not a paper-dice based game, the raise dead penalty is annoying, so it was easier to save often and re-load when you died to try again and avoid the penalty. I do recall their being some scrolls or something to get back your constitution penalty… but it’s been awhile I might be making that up.
Anyway, a well done series, classic RPG and helped build a foundation for games like Morrow Wind and Oblivion in my opinion.
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@ Paul not being available:
I think it is because nobody sent any hate mail 🙂
@Xbox 720 with Halo 4 launch in 2012:
I’m a bit confused. Won’t this cut down sales for the existing 360-Kinect combo? I mean I understand that Kinect is a peripheral, but still, the 360 was not yet milked up dry.
But then again, we’re talking about end 2012; hardware did evolve (heck, we’re at DX11 now), and it would be a pity to just let it go and not use it in a console.
Jordan, don’t get me wrong, the article does sound as fanboy-ism, but it makes a bit of sense.
It could be that while 360 remains a DX9 machine, the 720 would be DX11 or higher.
@ PS4 also in 2012, with embedded Kinect-like motion control?
Now this makes sense on its own: PS3 hacked, Sony getting sued over it. Thing is, it also makes it more likely for the XBox 720 to come out around the same time. Somehow, these two pieces of news support each other …
@Crytek says Kinect development is “really, really easy.”:
😀 Sooo, Microsoft is really good in terms of exposing something as a framework to develop upon … who would expect that from a company that does operating systems for a living 🙂 …
@Sony working on new PSN redesign?
… really? They’re redesigning the network just to enhance the looks of it?
@Questions over alleged early close of Sony’s Welcome Back offer
Bwa ha ha ha ha :))
Please tell me this is just a rumor, and Sony is not closing the offer earlier than they announced 🙂
Jordan, I did get my hands on those kind of crackers, that come in pairs and some chocolate cream in between. Half of a pack would last me until noon 🙂
Jonah, to me the 360 is just a “consolized” PC. The hardware abstraction layer (sets of functions being called by the game software) for both of the consoles should be the same, minus the differences in DirectX versions. So I can see the 720 playing 360 games easy.
Plus, Microsoft (until windows Vista at least) was very, very big on backwards compatibility.
Jonah, closed MMO is not the way, in the eyes of Lucas Arts. It will create a precedent: sanctioning a (now) fan based game as being OK to use one of the best selling IPs.
IPs are expensive assets. You don’t just give them away.
QOTW:
Ah … dunno …
I don’t have a long online history, so all the games that I liked to play can still be played.
There are a bunch of NES games (two player games) that I’d like to play with my brothers, but then again, the latest emulators allow network play.
I must be quite lucky … or young :P.
@outtakes:
Jonah, speak slower … no need to rush 🙂
btw, you’ll love this:
http://www.moddb.com/members/henley/blogs/oh-my-my-accent-is-sexy
Press play, and hear Dave working his way around coop 🙂
Hey guys, just wanted to say before I respond, thanks for the copy of Duke Nukem, can’t wait to see if this thing lives up to all the negative hype.
Xbox 720 w/ Halo 4 – Seems very soon to be launching another console. I expect them to tell about it at E3 next year, but probably bring it out at E3 2013 and release it later that year.
PS4 2012 – I would say the same thing for the PS4 as I did for the Xbox720, talked about next E3, shown the year after and released then. Also, when they say built in Kinect-like motion control, could that be the Move. I haven’t seen anything on the Move since it came out so I don’t really know if it is up to par with the Kinect.
PSN Redesign – Don’t really see the need for one. That’s all I really have to say. Unless they have something amazing, they should focus on some other things…like security maybe. Just an idea. Actually one more thing, Jordan commented on how cluttered the menu system for the PS3 was, but I think that they did a pretty good job compared to Microsoft. The dashboard is nearly filled with advertisements as soon as you log on.
Welcome Back – Like Jordan said, why would you wait the whole month to try and redeem. If you were actually into gaming enough to know about this, or to even own a PS3, I would think that you would attempt to redeem your “free crap” as soon as possible. But, the blame cannot be put on the consumer, Sony screws up, again.
They did however fix their mistake, something that they are getting better at doing.
QOTW – Man, I honestly cannot think of a game other than this one computer game that I played when I was like four. It was something about like sorting socks, and now that I actually remember what the game entails, I’m not too sure I want to play it. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to go back to shooting people.
Also, those outtakes were hilarious. “Jonah, don’t hurt yourself.” Oh, the frustration that must of been felt.
Hello Fellas,
In regards to the question of the week, I was madly in love with an old game based in DOS by Sierra. I would play it on my uncle’s shiny-new-“speedy” 486 PC. It was Disney’s The Black Cauldron (based upon the animated movie of the same name). The game came on several big 5.25″ floppies, slow to load, but to a 9 year old boy was awwwwesome. Ahh, the halcyon days of youth.
@Paul,
Hope you get better. It’s hard to send hate-mail to you when you’re so darn likeable (via another Nintendo fan-boy). BTW… has anyone else noticed how much Paul sounds like Andy Bowman from the OXM podcast? It’s uncanny!
@Will, regarding outtakes
Well, if you ask me, Jonah shouldn’t rush it. The show is recorded as an mp3, a few seconds more will not mean any kind of penalty.
Jonah, or who ever gets to read my comments, feel free to trim them a bit. I think I got carried away with the one for this episode at least.
Ya, wasn’t really telling him to rush it, just thought it was funny. I think it would be kind of cool to hear the outtakes from the show. I know its already a relaxed show, but I think that throwing them in wouldn’t harm the show.
Also, I just re-listened to the podcast and I realized that I mis-quoted Jordan. I thought he said the XMB was cluttered when he actually was talking about the PSN, which I will not disagree with at all.
Hey guys,I was just listening to the podcast from July 3d and was pleasantly surprised to hear my own name being read up and subsequent comment..I had to rewind that just to see if I had heard right:P As to the 360/PC compability,I was mainly referring to most games coming to PC being console ports these days and thus having their native 360 gamepad controls intact with it..an example of this is FIFA 11 where me and my brother can use both of my 360 gamepads to play 2 player game..as for the WOW counterpoint..touche..but there are ways around that as well,namely Xpadder where you can plot the keys into Xbox/gamepad button counterparts so you can play WoW with it.
However most of the PC games coming out now are console ports and does support especially the 360 pad in particular,what sparked my previous comment was when you were bringing up the conviviality of not having to sit in front of a 15 inch screen..i was just trying to make a counterpoint saying that you for the most part dont have to…sorry for the rant and thank you for including me into a great podcast:)
sorry July 6th*