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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Midway’s been around the industry for years, has decided to lay off up to 90 people and cut the Criminal project from their lineup. This is a long term plan of cost reduction by the board of directors to get down costs and keep the company running smoothly.
Great episode of Politacast guys (It’s a joke Dan Q would get.)
@Microsoft buying Mojang: A lot seems to have happened or at least gotten confirmation of since the last comment I made. I am glad that Notch sold the company to a buyer that is likely going to do as Jonah mentioned “You go do your thing over there and just make us money”. I remember people having similar reactions to Disney buying Marvel “All our characters are going to be ruined and Disneyfied”. From what I have seen they seem to also be doing the “You do your thing and just make us money”. Microsoft has a confirmed money making game, I don’t think they will ruin that recipe.
One of my friends had suggested that Notch just should have released the source code of the game to the public and turn profits over to charity. My thought on that was that might be “morally” right for Notch but then puts all of Mojang out of a job, which to me is worse than “selling out”. I have no doubt in my mind that Markus cares very much for his Mojang staff and has insured their continuance to work in this deal with Microsoft. I think that Jeb, Dinnerbone and the rest are very passionate about minecraft and want to continue it’s development.
Speaking of passionate Phil Spencer put on a minecraft theme on his twitter page (probably a PR thing but I’d like to think he really is into Minecraft). He’s also stated in twitter that the Youtubers doing videos of Minecraft will be allowed to continue doing what they are doing. I also do know the feature updates will continue as well. He also released a video that stated how important and valued their audience is for the game and that they will listen to said audience. So I’d like to think he really does care about the game and it’s audience and not just the dollar signs.
The thing though I’d like to ask you guys about is people are concerned about Mods and if the game will switch to different programming code than the current Java based one it is on now? People feel if it switches to C++ they won’t be able to do their total conversions of the game. It’s a minor thing to me but I know it’s a major thing to others. Microsoft doesn’t seem too against modding in general since I can find mods for Halo and Fable.
@Conservatives: Politicians really need to keep their noses out of the gaming industry. People seem to love to scape goat as Paul pointed out; everything has been blamed except for the actual causes of these problems. They don’t seem to understand the issue and rather point fingers or sweep it under the rug. The fact that we have Cosplaying women get assaulted at cons, to Youtubers getting death threats means we have a problem here. It’s not the games it’s how we are behaving as a Society as a whole. So yes I pity this woman for not having enough self-reflection on what’s going on around her.
@Violent video games for Ice cream: What do they think we’re all 8 or something? Again another story of a group of people not really fully aware of the situation and what’s causing the problems.
@Game streaming: I don’t much like this idea either I agree that having a feeling of ownership over the game is what I like.
@QotW: So long as bonus content is small stuff like sound tracks or some character skin, it’s fine. A lot of times these pre-order bonuses are never attainable other wise and I’d had the feeling of an incomplete game if I am missing out on a feature. I also don’t like the piece meal feeling of it all being diced up. I just got the full Wasteland 2 and the start-up screen has a joke about DLC with this robot thing and $60 for it.
@Microcraft
I don’t really see a problem here. It’s just successfull business. I think Microsoft knows better then to mess with the much loved brick-stacking formula and will just throw money it’s way. As for Notch, the guy should be respected. It takes a real leader to care for his employees.
@Back to the Stone Age
For fear of choking on my own malice, I will restrain myself from writing too much on the subject. The woman has a belief and has every right to express it. But attacking other groups for their beliefs is politics, undermining her claims. Telling women not to play games is much like saying to an African-Caribbean football player subjected to racial abuse to leave sports (a huge European issue). I disagree with her opinion.
@violent games will make you cream
This initiative would be good in UK, as the price of Ben&Jerry’s here is atrocious. Still, I don’t see the point of their argument. In a country that is proud to send its young men to shoot foreigners, attacking violent video games sounds hypocritical. And pointless. It’s not like it will prevent the young from being exposed to the violent medium.
@QOTW
I pre-ordered quite a few games in my time. Mostly multiplayer games. But I never let bonus DLC dictate where or how I order them. I get the game where it is cheapest or most convenient. I don’t bother with any fancy special editions, as to me the disk is what’s important and extra feely tat is not worth my limited resources.