Zeliard (DOS)

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Description

The ancient demon Jashiin has slept for two thousand years. When he awakens, he directs his wrath towards the kingdom of Zeliard, whose rulers of yore have allegedly harmed him. For 115 days, a sand rain devastates the kingdom, turning it into a desert. To complete his cruel revenge, Jashiin turns Felicia, the princess of Zeliard, into a stone. The valiant Duke Garland sets out on a quest to vanquish the demon and restore the princess to her true form. To do that, he must collect the Nine Tears of Esmesanti, which alone can reverse the terrible curse.

Zeliard is a side-scrolling action game with platforming and role-playing elements. The game world is divided into hostile labyrinths, which occupy its largest portion and contain maze-like passages for Duke Garland to traverse, as well as enemies that must be dealt with. Crests and keys must often be collected in order to ensure the progress to the next area. Garland takes damage from enemy attacks as well as the environment (hidden spikes, high temperature, etc.), but suffers no damage should he fall off a platform.

The hero uses his sword to combat the enemies, and shield to defend himself. He can also learn and cast projectile offensive magic. Special items can restore his health, increase the damage inflicted with the sword, grant additional protection, etc. Various types of clothes can be equipped; these can bestow the hero with further enhancements and immunities, such as prevent him from slipping on ice, allow him to jump higher, etc.

The Duke will visit different towns during his journey. In these towns, he can rest, replenishing his health, purchase and repair weapons and armor, acquire potions, and learn magic spells. Currency is obtained by exchanging enemy spirits for gold in banks. These spirits (called "almas") also serve as experience points: after the player has obtained a sufficient amount of them, the protagonist receives upgrades to his health and magic points from a local town sage.

Screenshots

Promo Images

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Alternate Titles

• "ゼリアード" -- Japanese spelling

User Reviews

Get into Zeliard --- because you can	Katakis | カタキス (43211)
Early platform game action.	gametrader (233)	unrated
Nice action-oriented console gaming!	RmM (73)

Critic Reviews

ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Feb, 1991	6.8 out of 12	57
Power Play	Apr, 1991	56 out of 100	56
PC-Spiele '92	1991	4 out of 10	40

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Trivia

Enhanced PC Speaker support

Zeliard had a unique PC Speaker support: It could play music with multiple channels. To activate this, you had to install the game with PC Speaker as the music device. When running the game, use the F1 key to toggle between the following modes:

• Music On; Single Channel
• Music Off
• Music On; Multiple Channels
• Music Off

Graphics

When using EGA the game's resolution is 640x200 instead of 320x200. However, MCGA mode uses 64 colors, whereas the EGA version simulates 64 colors by dithering.

Map

Included with the game was a large poster containing a map of each cavern. While not necessary for gameplay, later levels became quite difficult without it. The map is not quite complete, and omits invisible barriers and doesn't indicate where a door will lead.

Music & sound

A nice feature included (which was still somewhat uncommon at the time) is the ability to select different hardware for music and sound effects. Since sound effects are not supported for the Roland MT-32 (only music), this allows a Roland MT-32 to be used for music, and another supported sound device (such as Adlib or Tandy 3-voice) to be used for the sound effects providing an impressive soundtrack.

Programming

Zeliard was able to have a fairly large smoothly scrolling screen, even on slower computers. This was accomplished by breaking the screen up into a grid, and only redrawing sections that actually changed instead of having to redraw the entire screen for each frame. Sierra used this technique on several other Game Arts conversions, such as Firehawk.

Information also contributed by Servo