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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i dont think improving prisoners IQ’s is a smart idea the inmates might become so smart from playing brain train & prison break that they all break out. lolz
i dont think improving prisoners IQ’s is a smart idea the inmates might become so smart from playing brain train & prison break that they all break out. lolz
Well, you solo-ed as a couple, you managed to handle the podcast just by yourselves.
@Tiger’s Scandal: I could have bet they’d drop him. Ehh …
@Flash hackers and WoW:
Links should be seen as vampires: clicking on one is like inviting a person in the house. But! If that link is malicious (equivalent of the person being a vampire), they will be able to get in at any other time they want.
As for flash being an open door for hackers … I heared that the file formats themselves are prone to become hacking friendly.
@Onlive Gaming:
Dunno about it … You basically get two lags:
(1) from sending your input to the machine
(2) from getting the video response to you.
To be honest, the reason why they do not allow WiFi is because of this extra latencies. And WiFi, although it may have bandwidth, it also has higher latencies. Add that to the already existing two ones and people will hate the experience.
As for not being able to play shooters, well … they claimed it would make it possible to play Crysis on netbooks.
You mentioned playing casual games (Plants vs. Zombies): do you really need a rendering cloud for that?
So, ahem, FAIL! It is still cheaper to spend 100 USD on a reasonable/good graphics card. And you only pay that price once. It’s not another subscription.
@Scottish prisoners learning via the Nintendo DS:
Read ivan’s post.
Jennifer, you’re right. It somehow alters the idea of inprisonment being a punishment. I mean you get food, a shelter, TV and even video games. All you have to do is take stuff from stores …
@question of the week:
Yes, it’ll change their lives, in terms that they now get to play games while in prison.
But that’s it.
Loved the ending! It happens to me too, not being able to stop laughing.
Well, you solo-ed as a couple, you managed to handle the podcast just by yourselves.
@Tiger’s Scandal: I could have bet they’d drop him. Ehh …
@Flash hackers and WoW:
Links should be seen as vampires: clicking on one is like inviting a person in the house. But! If that link is malicious (equivalent of the person being a vampire), they will be able to get in at any other time they want.
As for flash being an open door for hackers … I heared that the file formats themselves are prone to become hacking friendly.
@Onlive Gaming:
Dunno about it … You basically get two lags:
(1) from sending your input to the machine
(2) from getting the video response to you.
To be honest, the reason why they do not allow WiFi is because of this extra latencies. And WiFi, although it may have bandwidth, it also has higher latencies. Add that to the already existing two ones and people will hate the experience.
As for not being able to play shooters, well … they claimed it would make it possible to play Crysis on netbooks.
You mentioned playing casual games (Plants vs. Zombies): do you really need a rendering cloud for that?
So, ahem, FAIL! It is still cheaper to spend 100 USD on a reasonable/good graphics card. And you only pay that price once. It’s not another subscription.
@Scottish prisoners learning via the Nintendo DS:
Read ivan’s post.
Jennifer, you’re right. It somehow alters the idea of inprisonment being a punishment. I mean you get food, a shelter, TV and even video games. All you have to do is take stuff from stores …
@question of the week:
Yes, it’ll change their lives, in terms that they now get to play games while in prison.
But that’s it.
Loved the ending! It happens to me too, not being able to stop laughing.
Okay, there was an error in my previous story about the Adobe exploit – it was 2 years ago that this exploit was going on. I did a search for “World of Warcraft” and keyloggers and got that tech thread – which was at the top of the forum. The keyloggers used some other exploit – I don’t know how, because my account wasn’t active when this happened. The hacker also used an Authenticator to lock me out (!).
I got everything restored, and my character was there with all his equipment, including the guild gems I’d socketed.
Blizzard is sending me an Authenticator, and my opinion is this: why not include an Authenticator in all boxed copies? Just charge $29.99 instead of $19.99 for the boxed copy and save everyone a world of pain. It’s easier if something is included rather than having to spent $7 + S/H for the device. Make it more mandatory than optional.
Okay, there was an error in my previous story about the Adobe exploit – it was 2 years ago that this exploit was going on. I did a search for “World of Warcraft” and keyloggers and got that tech thread – which was at the top of the forum. The keyloggers used some other exploit – I don’t know how, because my account wasn’t active when this happened. The hacker also used an Authenticator to lock me out (!).
I got everything restored, and my character was there with all his equipment, including the guild gems I’d socketed.
Blizzard is sending me an Authenticator, and my opinion is this: why not include an Authenticator in all boxed copies? Just charge $29.99 instead of $19.99 for the boxed copy and save everyone a world of pain. It’s easier if something is included rather than having to spent $7 + S/H for the device. Make it more mandatory than optional.
lol XD the end of the episode was very funny
lol XD the end of the episode was very funny
Well, if you want prisoners to be unruly and beligerent, just give them bread and water, and use thumbscrews and pillories to keep them in line – or did you ever hear of “Attica” before?
It won’t matter – ex-cons will never get a break, even when they get high school or college diplomas while doing time.
As for Diplomacy, I seldom say this, but you’re playing it WRONG. Diplomacy is about making deals. For example, you ask for help and promise future help – then screw them to the wall if you see a chance to win. Fail, and they’ll team up with people to screw you. That’s why the PC version didn’t do well – you can’t simulate that correctly online.
I ran a play by postal mail baseball league. I’m currently in a play by upload-download file baseball league now, in fact.
Well, if you want prisoners to be unruly and beligerent, just give them bread and water, and use thumbscrews and pillories to keep them in line – or did you ever hear of “Attica” before?
It won’t matter – ex-cons will never get a break, even when they get high school or college diplomas while doing time.
As for Diplomacy, I seldom say this, but you’re playing it WRONG. Diplomacy is about making deals. For example, you ask for help and promise future help – then screw them to the wall if you see a chance to win. Fail, and they’ll team up with people to screw you. That’s why the PC version didn’t do well – you can’t simulate that correctly online.
I ran a play by postal mail baseball league. I’m currently in a play by upload-download file baseball league now, in fact.
Yes, I did mean staving my face in. I expected to have a sudden desire to grab the nearest blunt object and bludgeon myself.
Moving on, the DS won’t help the inmates. How many people get Big Brain Academy or Dr Kawashima, and try to get addicted to it, only to leave the cart gathering dust.
I’m sure the prisons already have access to those things made of paper. I think they call them books! And I’m sure its only a matter of time before the occasional visitor isnt smuggling crack in, but Mario Kart.
Yes, I did mean staving my face in. I expected to have a sudden desire to grab the nearest blunt object and bludgeon myself.
Moving on, the DS won’t help the inmates. How many people get Big Brain Academy or Dr Kawashima, and try to get addicted to it, only to leave the cart gathering dust.
I’m sure the prisons already have access to those things made of paper. I think they call them books! And I’m sure its only a matter of time before the occasional visitor isnt smuggling crack in, but Mario Kart.