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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Portable Xbox
@Microsoft Beginning Work on Xbox 720:
From the type of jobs listed there (lots of VLSI there), it looks like it will take a good couple of years before it is close to becoming a prototype.
@AAA Titles and Indie Games Matter:
… that’s so ambiguous. I don’t get the point here. As Derrick mentions, any ‘middle’ game can be turned into a AAA game. Some fail, but some succeed. Is it about marketing muscle?
Was Valve’s Portal a middle game?
@Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Not Coming Til 2012:
I don’t get it, again. Maybe I’m dumb, but I think it’s about milking it, because:
– the units are there (see the multiplayer, which is already playable)
– some balancing is already done (again, see MP)
– normally, the script should be done already; we’ve seen a fragment of it in the first game, and, for the entire thing to be coherent, the script should be done.
– all remains is to make maps.
@Netflix Coming to 3DS This Summer:
Funny, I know a bank that issued a warning regarding the value of stock shares of Netflix, on account of Facebook trying to penetrate the video streaming market.
I guess expanding to other devices will give them a stronger foothold on other platforms Facebook is not yet threatening.
Yet.
@Question of the week:
Man, tough one! I’d go for Mission Impossible for NES. I couldn’t find how much it actually took to develop, unfortunately. My estimate is about one year.
@Microsoft Beginning Work on Xbox 720:
From the type of jobs listed there (lots of VLSI there), it looks like it will take a good couple of years before it is close to becoming a prototype.
@AAA Titles and Indie Games Matter:
… that’s so ambiguous. I don’t get the point here. As Derrick mentions, any ‘middle’ game can be turned into a AAA game. Some fail, but some succeed. Is it about marketing muscle?
Was Valve’s Portal a middle game?
@Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Not Coming Til 2012:
I don’t get it, again. Maybe I’m dumb, but I think it’s about milking it, because:
– the units are there (see the multiplayer, which is already playable)
– some balancing is already done (again, see MP)
– normally, the script should be done already; we’ve seen a fragment of it in the first game, and, for the entire thing to be coherent, the script should be done.
– all remains is to make maps.
@Netflix Coming to 3DS This Summer:
Funny, I know a bank that issued a warning regarding the value of stock shares of Netflix, on account of Facebook trying to penetrate the video streaming market.
I guess expanding to other devices will give them a stronger foothold on other platforms Facebook is not yet threatening.
Yet.
@Question of the week:
Man, tough one! I’d go for Mission Impossible for NES. I couldn’t find how much it actually took to develop, unfortunately. My estimate is about one year.
Hey, one question: did you guys consider making a profile also on moddb or maybe indiedb? You could post the podcast there as well. Might get some extra listeners.
And if you need help maintaining the profiles there, I can lend you a hand.
Hey, one question: did you guys consider making a profile also on moddb or maybe indiedb? You could post the podcast there as well. Might get some extra listeners.
And if you need help maintaining the profiles there, I can lend you a hand.
@Microsoft beginning work on Xbox 720
Yeah, from the wording of those ads, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready anytime soon. I’d say 2013 at the earliest.
@CliffyB says only AAA and indie games matter
I disagree with good old Cliffy B. There’s games that would probably be considered middle of the road games that I love and that still make enough profit. An example is Sam and Max. You wouldn’t call that a AAA game, but it’s not an indie game either. It is still an awesome game, however, and was quite successful.
@Netflix coming to 3DS
Too bad Netflix isn’t in Australia. This was kind of expected though, since Netflix is on pretty much every other tech device.
Also, Nintendo making a loss on the 3DS? I find that very strange. Unless they’re just trying to smash the NGP straight off the bat, then put the price up with a revision later on once they’ve “beaten” the NGP. I dunno, how reliable are the sources of the rumour Jonah? 😛
@Will Wright making a new game
As far as “game-making legends” go, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier and Will Wright seem to be the ones that everybody knows. Then there’s a heap of ‘lesser’ gaming legends, like Peter Molyneux, Gabe Newell, Hideo Kojima and good old Cliffy B 😛
@QOTW
To be honest, I first started gaming on the SNES, so I didn’t really play any ‘old school’ games. Except some on MAME.
@Microsoft beginning work on Xbox 720
Yeah, from the wording of those ads, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be ready anytime soon. I’d say 2013 at the earliest.
@CliffyB says only AAA and indie games matter
I disagree with good old Cliffy B. There’s games that would probably be considered middle of the road games that I love and that still make enough profit. An example is Sam and Max. You wouldn’t call that a AAA game, but it’s not an indie game either. It is still an awesome game, however, and was quite successful.
@Netflix coming to 3DS
Too bad Netflix isn’t in Australia. This was kind of expected though, since Netflix is on pretty much every other tech device.
Also, Nintendo making a loss on the 3DS? I find that very strange. Unless they’re just trying to smash the NGP straight off the bat, then put the price up with a revision later on once they’ve “beaten” the NGP. I dunno, how reliable are the sources of the rumour Jonah? 😛
@Will Wright making a new game
As far as “game-making legends” go, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier and Will Wright seem to be the ones that everybody knows. Then there’s a heap of ‘lesser’ gaming legends, like Peter Molyneux, Gabe Newell, Hideo Kojima and good old Cliffy B 😛
@QOTW
To be honest, I first started gaming on the SNES, so I didn’t really play any ‘old school’ games. Except some on MAME.