Description
The first Wizardry game was one of the original CRPG dungeon crawlers, and stands along with
Ultima and
Might & Magic as one of the defining staples of the genre. You generate and control a party of up to six different adventurers and send them into a 3D vector dungeon to fight monsters and find treasure.
The game takes place in the domain of Trebor, the titular Mad Overlord. Trebor was once only power-mad, but went off the deep end after he acquired a magical amulet of immense power only to have it stolen from him by his nemesis the evil archmage Werdna. Werdna, not quite sure how to use the amulet properly, accidentally causes an earthquake which creates a ten-level dungeon beneath Trebor's castle. To avoid looking silly, Werdna declares the dungeon to be the new lair for him and his monster hordes. Trebor, not to be outdone, declares the labyrinth is in fact his new Proving Grounds where adventurers must prove themselves for membership in his elite honor guard (and incidentally retrieve his amulet in the process). Thus your goal in the game is to descend to the tenth floor of the labyrinth, defeat Werdna, and retrieve the fabled amulet.
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Trivia
The PC version of Wizardry came out three years after the original Apple version, and those three years gave wisdom to Sir-Tech. Users of the original PC version were treated to the following (extensive!) materials:
- Player's Guide (manual)
- Playing Wizardry On Your IBM PC & PCjr (PC-specific guide)
- Instructions and Briefing Materials (an overview of the story)
- A notice on backing up your master disk to a scenario disk
- A note from the authors asking that the user not use "cheat programs"
- Tips on Keeping Your Computer Healthy
- Map Plotting Aid
Notes:
- The "map plotting aid" was a small pad of graph paper--with the first page printed as a partial map of level 1 to get you started!
- The Tips on Keeping Your Computer Healthy were presumably added to help keep generic PC support calls to a minimum. (Back in 1984, there weren't many places to turn to for tech support.)
- The special note from Andrew and Robert was not to politely ask the user not to copy the software illegally, but instead asked that the user not use cheat codes to ruin the playing experience! (Now that's what I call integrity ;-)
The Tips on Computer Care and the Note to Users are reproduced below for historical significance:
Tips on Keeping Your Computer Healthy
We hope you are getting a byte or two out of your computer each day. Here are a few tips on prolonging the life of your software.
Clean Your Disk Drives
Cleaning your disk drives takes only a few minutes and makes them work better. Clean your drives every second week.
Get Your Drives Tuned
A majority of disk problems are caused by misaligned disk drives. Your most valued software could be damaged. So protect your investment—get your drives aligned and speed adjusted at least twice a year at your dealer.
Protect Your Computer’s Power
Computers like a steady power supply. However, large appliances or equipment send spikes down a power line. These power spikes cause memory glitches and can alter software if you were writing to the disk when a transient happened. A surge suppressor such as a Blitz Bug will prevent power surges. At $25 to $50, they are a good investment.
Follow these tips and you will probably never have a problem with your software. Our experience has been that at least 97% of reported software problems are caused by unmaintained computers. Your dealer is in business to support you. If you have any questions, go see him, he will be happy to help you.
Dear Wizardry Purchaser:
Thank you for acquiring the most widely acclaimed game program for the micro-computer. It’s popularity is attested to by Wizardry’s long term standing as the number one program of its class. Among the reasons for Wizardry’s great standing is its exceptional long term playing value.
It has come to our attention that some software vendors are marketing so-called “cheat programs”. These products allow you to create characters of arbitrary strength and ability.
While it may seem appealing to use these products, we urge you not to succumb to the temptation. It took more than four years of careful adjustment to properly balance Wizardry. These products tend to interfere with this subtle balance and may substantially reduce your playing pleasure. It would be akin to playing chess with additional queens, or poker with all cards wild.
It has also come to our attention that some of these programs are unreliable and may even destroy the data. While we repair or replace inoperative disks free within 30 days of purchase, or for a nominal fee of $5.00 anytime thereafter, we will not do so for disks damaged by a cheat program.
With kind regards and our best wishes for many, many hours of fun and pleasure.
Yours truly,
(signatures of Andrew Greenberg and Robert Woodhead)
