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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@PSP Go Price Goes Back to $200 After 3 Days
I honestly don’t know what to believe. Looks like a mistake. Good point from Jonah, now every person (that cares about it) will wait for the price to go down :).
@Industry Struggling With Casual and Mobile Game Market:
All industries that sell information or information services (be it music records, movies, games, communication services) get affected by how the information technology evolves.
There’s also a need to follow the social trends, not only the technology, and this is where some industries lack behind. I don’t see record companies doing what Nine Inch Nails did:
https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11947
@Gamer Loses $1800 In Games from Steam:
… that’s dumb. If you were caught once, why the heck would you try it again?
Now, another question: did Valve just take preemptive actions? Because if they did, that can turn bad for them.
Now, if you really want to sell a game you own on Steam, make one Steam account for each game. Then sell only THAT account.
@Netflix vs. Facebook: Jennifer, very good point there, with the interests of the said bank 😀
And no, Jonah, it was not the ‘Tom Cruise Mission Impossible’, it was the TV series Mission Impossible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMDthmydL1c
Carmack is more interested in the game engine rather than the game itself. Tim Willits is the ‘game’ guy from Id, along with John Romero.
@Question of the week: I’d go for GDC as well, because I’m more interested in how games are made, and because I’m not Average Joe 😛
@PSP Go Price Goes Back to $200 After 3 Days
I honestly don’t know what to believe. Looks like a mistake. Good point from Jonah, now every person (that cares about it) will wait for the price to go down :).
@Industry Struggling With Casual and Mobile Game Market:
All industries that sell information or information services (be it music records, movies, games, communication services) get affected by how the information technology evolves.
There’s also a need to follow the social trends, not only the technology, and this is where some industries lack behind. I don’t see record companies doing what Nine Inch Nails did:
https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/11947
@Gamer Loses $1800 In Games from Steam:
… that’s dumb. If you were caught once, why the heck would you try it again?
Now, another question: did Valve just take preemptive actions? Because if they did, that can turn bad for them.
Now, if you really want to sell a game you own on Steam, make one Steam account for each game. Then sell only THAT account.
@Netflix vs. Facebook: Jennifer, very good point there, with the interests of the said bank 😀
And no, Jonah, it was not the ‘Tom Cruise Mission Impossible’, it was the TV series Mission Impossible:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMDthmydL1c
Carmack is more interested in the game engine rather than the game itself. Tim Willits is the ‘game’ guy from Id, along with John Romero.
@Question of the week: I’d go for GDC as well, because I’m more interested in how games are made, and because I’m not Average Joe 😛
@qotw
i would totally attend comic con to see monster hunter armors and stuff
@qotw
i would totally attend comic con to see monster hunter armors and stuff
I was searching for a good gamming podcast for mounths and finally found it, tks guys, really great show
I was searching for a good gamming podcast for mounths and finally found it, tks guys, really great show
@PSP Go – I am ashamed to admit that I have owned not just one, but three PSP’s. At this point Sony seems to be cranking out system after system without putting enough in it. It seems like the only thing they do it make it slimmer.
@Gamer Losing 1800 – If he wants to sell his account he should find someone privately not announce it. I think that people will never read the ULA no matter how short it gets. Its just that part of the registration where you click the check box and hit next.
@PSP Go – I am ashamed to admit that I have owned not just one, but three PSP’s. At this point Sony seems to be cranking out system after system without putting enough in it. It seems like the only thing they do it make it slimmer.
@Gamer Losing 1800 – If he wants to sell his account he should find someone privately not announce it. I think that people will never read the ULA no matter how short it gets. Its just that part of the registration where you click the check box and hit next.
cmon derrick record the podcast already i cant live without your podcast
cmon derrick record the podcast already i cant live without your podcast
It’s not going to happen for about a month, will explain in an episode will post this week with outtakes.
It’s not going to happen for about a month, will explain in an episode will post this week with outtakes.
A month is fine, as long as nothing bad happened to you guys.
A month is fine, as long as nothing bad happened to you guys.
Unfortunately it wasn’t good news at all. My son was diagnosed with Leukemia a week or so ago and we’re working to get him better. Spending a lot of time in the hospital with him and we’ve not got time to record anything until he’s able to come home.
Unfortunately it wasn’t good news at all. My son was diagnosed with Leukemia a week or so ago and we’re working to get him better. Spending a lot of time in the hospital with him and we’ve not got time to record anything until he’s able to come home.
Fuuu …
Sorry about the news, I was hoping for something “we won a one month trip to Hawaii” kind of thing …
Anyway, family comes first.
Fuuu …
Sorry about the news, I was hoping for something “we won a one month trip to Hawaii” kind of thing …
Anyway, family comes first.