Currently playing: Nox Archaist

July 31, 2011

Demon's Winter - Temple of the High Priest


In the last post my adventurers had reached the Knights island and was trying to complete several tests that would prove us worthy of getting the orb. We completed the tests successfully and was finally given the orb. With the orb secured we returned to the Ice caves and the altar. There the Ancient One spoke to us and said that in order to defeat Malifon we must bind him with a certain spell. But in order to reach his place we first had to uncurse three places in his domain because every move would otherwise cause incredible damage for every step. For that we was given an uncurse spell.

I let my wizard Merrilon be bestowed by godly powers and was given the God Runes together with an increase in spellpoints so I now had 200. The voice also said we should seek out the ancient city of Asaht which is the city of the Ancient One. We immediately set course for the Ancient city as our first place before tackling Malifon. I needed new provisions and repairing of my ship. The problem now was that every other temple in the world was destroyed. Not that I had much use of them anyway but I feared the coming of the Demon's Winter which I've heard about and so I felt I couldn´t loose more time.

When we entered the city of Asaht it turned it hosted a church of the Ancient One. I figured I should convert to that religion, but I didn´t know really why since I have not understood the effects of the religious system in the world so far. Naturally I let Merrilon convert but he hadn´t enough intellect points. Argh...I didn´t even know it was needed. I let my Ranger convert because I was worried I had to convert someone to that faith. And why not ? Every other religion was now destroyed so what could I loose ? I was afraid that letting my Ranger convert to the religion would not let the wizard be granted the God´s runes. Because the voice in the Ice caves said it would cost 100 spell points to cast a single spell. No one in my group had so much points and I was afraid I´ve just let the Ranger got the runes but my wizard with the spellpoints. Fortunately I was wrong and it seemed my Wizard got the runes already in the ice  caves and not after having visited the city of Asaht.

My wizard also gained a few extra levels (much needed). We resupplied and also found Spirit Runes to give to my Paladin further in the north. A much needed improvment since I lacked all possibilities of healing for my group.

Before we went for the volcano island, I knew there was another island in the eastern part of the map that I wanted to explore so we set sail there. We stumbled into an old womans hut which offered us to sleep. I turned her down and she whispered a blessing for the Ancient Ones. So after awhile we slept there but was awoken in the middle of the night.

The lack of friends in this game makes you sceptical to all offers
We left the hut and found a new area in the mountainious region containing some sort of dungeon. The dungeon had some sort of ringing bell and we rang in the bell. The effect was not obvious. We left the dungeon and searched around and found a bridge where som giants guarded a ship. They attacked and we slew them.

The fights in this area was much tougher. There is much variation in the quantity of foes in the random encountes. Meeting a group of 14th level wizards and 14th level fighters are not that fun because you never know what nasty spells they could use against you. You have to fight every 20-30 step or so and must preserve the strength for the really important fights. You must also be strong enough to get back to your ship and survive the long voyage to a friendly harbour. So my tactic was mostly to flee from the fights to preserve my strength. Only when the enemies was to near or relatively weak, would I fight them.

Anyway, we took the boat we found and sailed south and went through an entrance that led to some sort of huge cathedral or temple. An evil one that is. A voice demanded us to say the name of the one having access to the temple. We tried Jesric and that worked.

The search of this comples led us to the Crystal room where a crystal ball spoke the voice of the Ancient One and said we where doing well. Hurrah! At last some credits for our efforts of saving the world and a sign of we being on the right track.


 After a while we came to the inner temple. We had to show the amulet from Jesric to be able to pass and met another evil minion of Malifon a guy named Eregore. When we entered his room he mocked us and let his minions attack us. We disposed of them and then he got some respect for us and wanted us to advance forward, which we did.

Now came a special moment in the game where you got several full screen texts of the dialogue that transpired between us and Eregore. He had contact with Malifur through a black mirror and was shocked to hear that Malifur had got hold of the Shard of Spring which meant he could destory the world. It now occurred to Eregore that he would perish as well and so he finally killed himself. This was quite and interesting encounter. Malifur mocked us and destroyed the shard so the whole earth shoke. We left the temple and was back outside again, only this time the Demon's winter had arrived. Everything was covered in snow and cold. Every city was destroyed. 

I got a little panicked. How would I be able to heal my self, repair my ship, get new provisions and gain levels ? I was quite weak after my trip down to this temple and in no way would my provisions last the rest of the game. What if I didn´t have any hunter skill with me ? I sailed past several ruined cities but I thought that perhaps the holy city of the Ancient One would not be destroyed. And it wasn´t! I was so glad because in there was healers, train guilds and pubs where you could buy supplies and repair the ship. I naturally saved the game.

I think I never had been so happy as when I found out there was one city intact
My group was now at level 9 and money was stable but I was still not able to find anything special to buy. Besides, magical items costs a lot. At least 5.000 gold crowns for a normal magic weapon if you can find it. Our next target was to get to Malifors domain. Perhaps next post will be the final one. It depends how much and how hard it will be.

Oh, and before I forget it. It is very important which races you begin the game with. The dwarf have night vision. I don´t know how the game would have been without one. Would it be complete darkness at night ? Do I have to light torches or use magic all the time ?

The elves have sense magic which means that sometimes when you find items you get a text saying some magic aura is detected. I never understood it was the elf's skill that detected that until later in the game but I believe it is very crucial IF - and only IF that is successfull on every magical item found and not only from time to time. To identify something is expensive (75 gold).

July 30, 2011

Demon's Winter - Ice caves

My group headed far north and found colleges of Fencing, Berserk and Armoured skin. I got fencing for the Ranger and the Barbarian and Armoured skin for those who needed. Now I was ready for my next task. I decided to travel to the northwest part of the map and stumbled upon an Ice Cave.

I met a Yeti which was not much of a trouble and then suddenly a huge Ice dragon that blocket my way. I let my Wizard cast a 40 pts Column of fire on him and he died. Not much of a fight, but you have to be on the safe side. Who knows what evil powers that dragon had. The small complex turned out to hide the Collegue of Ice runes. My wizard already had that magic school so I returned back to my ship. Instead I am looking for shamanism for my barbarian.

I continued westward and discovered an Ruin. That turned out to be an evil temple.

Temple of Evil
 I soon met Jasric, the evil priest I have heard about in a Pub somewhere. He attacked immediately and I easily defeated him. He had a heavy amulet showing he was a high priest of Malifur (the imprisoned dragon). I found a caved in entrance to an ice-hall which I could not get past but I also found an ice door. Though it read it was susceptible to fire it turned out I had to use an icicle to force the door open. Inside was an ice altar. I used a prayer scroll I found in the cave on it and a voice was heard...

Now the main mission begin it seems

The voice said Malifur the dragon is imprisoned but the spell has worn weak and so I have to find a mean to bind it again. I should seek out the knights in the norteast for help it said and then return back to this cave with some item. I have earlier found out that Malifur seems to be imprisoned under a volcano in the southeast.

By the way, I used magic torch for the first time and suddenly my view was extraordinary good. I haven´t ever used a torch or lantern. Now my mapping will go much easier.

I recommend you use a light source for easier orientation
Now that it felt like the main quest was starting seriously I returned to my ship and headed eastward where I found the Knights domain. There was some sort of spirit that guarded the orb which was located behind a secret door and it said that it might be able to give the orb to me but only if I pass the tests. What those tests was it didn´t say. I searched around the area and found several secret doors through the walls. Each led to a corridor that ended in room. Each room contained a test for each class you had in your group. Regardless of class, each class character had to fight a certain foe to show his prowess. The fights was always one-to-one fights and was relatively easy though my Monk almost died.

Demon's Winter - Perspective

This is just a very short comment on Demon's Winter so far. I will return with a full review if and when I complete the game. I have now played for roughly 10-12 hours and my group are at level 8. I still lack a lot of skills and spell schools mostly because it is very costly to travel around the world looking for such places. If you can´t afford it right on when you see it, it will take awhile until you can return.

If you don´t immerse yourself into the game, the manual and the box and just look at the screenshots then I understand that you think "Who the hell would wan´t to play such an old crappy game in 2011 ?"

The thing that keeps me hooked is the enthusiasm and atmonsphere created by the manual and the game box. I love to be able to wander around freely with hardly any directions. The driving factor is of course to constantly build-up your group with more experience, better equipment and skills. You can feel the progress. At level 1 I found tha game quite hard but already on level 2-3 I felt that I was slowly progressing and able to survive more and more combats without returning for healing. The monsters are different for different regions of the game. Where you start I think there are about the same kind of enemies you meet regardless of your level. I like that kind of system.

The maps are ok and the dungeons as well. There are not very often places of interest but enough to keep you going. I like the day/night cycle. When the night approaches your vision is limited and it is harder to navigate but you could go on if you wish. If you go on for too long you will be forced to sleep eventually and use your provisions unless you have any character with the hunt skill.

My conclusion is so far that the game is better than anticipated before I started. I had it to my Amiga 500 in 1990 but never got the grips of it and lacked the manual. For me manuals are crucial. Not only to fully understand the game but also to get immersed into the game and the atmosphere.

Well, time to go back to the game....

Demon's Winter - With a purpose

My group are now in level 8. I have travelled around the sea visiting some islands to the far east. I found a spring that healed all of my characters on an otherwhise empty island. A little more east of that island there was an entrance to some tunnels but they quickly got to hard for me to continue so I returned to the mainland to have my ship repaired and wondered what to do next.

It was then I decided to go for the hidden city of Qoorik. When planning such expeditions you must be sure your ship is in good shape and that you have a lot of provisions. I went to the town of Idlewood to use as a base, my ship anchored nearly. The problem with Idlweood is that there are no healers in town which means I have to take my ship to another town - and risk it being destroyed at the sea. This will be challenging I thought.

As I ventured below I hade to begin mapping seriously on draw paper. The levels was quite huge. My explorations took me through some underground mansion and with some small puzzles here and there. Mostly to reveal hidden doors that led to some clue.

This was the first bedroom I´ve ever seen in Demon's Winter

Finally I discovered some sort of smithy with a grinning troll that offered me a weapon to destroy Xeres. I took it and thought to have it identified. Why the troll so eagerly worked on such an item I wonder....Perhaps the living conditions underground with Xeres aren´t that good after all ?

The troll offered me a weapon designed for killing Xeres

I found the battles in the first level to be more easy than to my venture to the Dwarven mines in the northwest. The only thing worth mentioning about them is that you eventually find a Dwarven smithy which can enchant your weapons. But it is so incredible expensive that I don´t think I will ever afford it.

I think I went down four levels in Qoorik. There where some interesting things going on. I found a secret garden with a healing fountain. There where some mazes in the Graveyard you had to get past in order to reach the underground river where the ferryman awaited. He weanted my black coins found earlier in this complex, to take me to the other side. Several times I had to backtrack my way back to Idlewood to sell and identify stuff but mostly to take the ship to Woodhaven so that I could resurrect or unbind my characters. Most of my money was spent on keeping my group healthy.

I have discovered that it is quite easy to flee from a combat (including sea combat). It is well worth doing that when you are travelling deep into complex or need to travel far. You cannot afford to injure your group for random encounters but save them for the real ones to come. For example. I hated Slavers. They had an uncanny ability of summoning elementals from time to time. When they appeared they where probably the toughest opponents I´ve met so far, hitting me almost at every try.

Before entering Xeres personal domain I was warned by a Salamander:


Deep down I found Xeres himself meeting me into a duel at level 4. He was flanked with some salamanders and gargoyels.I struck him down with Merrilons Column of fire. The other minions was quite easy, but not before they killed Legio with a single spell.

Xeres did not have that many hitpoints


After Xeres death a peacefulness finally entered and Idlewood could be seen in the distance. At least I had accomplished something. But as the Demon said, it will not affect the destruction so I have to find out what to do next.

My plans right now are to heal up, reequip myself and identifying my items. Then I will set out to get fencing, berzerking and armoured skill to the other fighters in my group if I can afford it. After that I will try to navigate to new undiscovered islands and continue the adventure there...

July 28, 2011

Demon's Winter - Getting stronger

Since I have vacation I have been able to play for 5-6 hours since the last post. I was still then at level 1. I finally found the Guild where you can gain a level for free if you have enough XP. When you gain a level you always get more hitpoints, spellpoints and three new levels of some other skills. Everything seems to be random. But according to the manual the amount of hitpoints and spellpoints should be based on your endurance and intellect.

The funniest moment in any game...

So what about the main quest ? To tell you the truth, you get very little help. I know Malifur is in the volcano in the south east. He can not free himself so he hopes his minons will achieve their hideous goals. I am still looking for Xeres but have no clue of where he might be. There was a rumour about a hidden city somewhere which I will investigate.

After having gained one or two levels I felt I was getting to grip with my constant deaths and dared to venture further down in the dungeouns I had found.

The first dungeon I entered was a underground tunnel that led to an island with a temple. The temple seemed looked like any other temple from the outside but by using a password I found on a note somewhere else I managed to get in to its dungeons below. That was scary but exciting. The major rooms are described in the game to give you some atmosphere. It is not often so when you get some texts to read you know it must be important in some way.

The passage below the sea
It turned out the tunnels below the sacred Temple hosted cultists devoted to the evil Xerses. I even met their leader and slained her. That was quite an easy fight and she was alone. But to find her I had to zig-zack myself of a floor full of traps. That was the first time I decided to draw maps of where I am. Another difficult part of the complex was the paths that made you see only the hex you was in. So I had do map every single step on paper to get the maze in front of me. But the rewarding was well worth it. I got a few crystal magical weapons and armour somewhere deep within these halls. I didn´t know of their effect and I could´nt identify them because it said they already was identified. The only mark that showed them different from other items was a certain mark I now know symbolises they are magical. In combats I discovered that the short sword actually could chill your oppnonents but I am not sure of what that effect really mean. I suppose it works like a chill spell and can decrease the enemies fighting capabilities.

Things of interests only show up after you Inspect the room
It took me awhile to understand the difference between look, examine, view room and inspect. But now I know that Look only looks for traps, examine only take a closer look of something you have seen and inspect actually is the option to use to highlight interests in the room as shown above. You can then mover,examine or use objects against the thing you find. For example, I had to crush glass shield that imprisoned a man with a hammer I found elsewhere and then use a potion on him to get him to talk. He then revealed some hints...but not very much.

After the first dungeon my goal was to get more gold so I could better equip my group and also make some money to spend on skills. There are a lot of places where you can learn skills but I want to only let a character get a new skill if he absolutely need it or it will improve the groups chances of success. The games uses the value for the characters intellect to buy skills in the game. Skills have different prices depending on which class that tries to learn it. A wizard pays the least for magic skills and more for weapon skills for example. There is however full possibility of any character to get any skill. This kind of system is very appealing to me and I like that part in the game. What I don´t really understand is that if you buy to many skills so you reach you intellect level, then you cannot learn any more skills until you have risen enough levels and been fortunate to have been bestowed new intellect points. Something that can take a lot of time and efforts. So I am very pecky about who get which skill now in the beginning.

A boat is neccessary to travel between the islands
The world is quite large. The game says it is 32 times larger than ite predecessor Shards of Spring. Much of the world is water though. When I had enough money to buy a ship (costs around 600 gold) I started to explore other islands. I had no idea where to go. When travelling at sea you get into sea combats just as often as if you where travelling on land.

One huge advantage of travelling with boat is that the fights are much quicker and you get a lot of expericence points. But, you don´t get any gold. So by travelling around I quickly got enough experience to raise another two levels. But the fights forces me to go back and repair my ship and that is very expensive. Now I try to evade and run away from the battles since you don´t have docks in all cities and there is a risk that you reaches a continent without a dock with a ship that has so few hit points left that you cannot survive to come back again. That means you are stuck forever! I don´t want fall into that trap.

You always need more gold...
There are only a few different weapons and armours in the game but they could be varied by the endless amounts of magical properties. Magic items are extremely expensive. So much in fact that even if I am in level 7 right now, I cannot afford to buy any. Most of my money goes to reviving dead or binded characters or to repair my ship.

I have now played long enough to better review this game.

What I like:

  • The skill system, where every skill is available to every class but at different costs. Also there are quite a few skills and five or so magic shools. Barbarians have shamanism.
  • The few but good descriptions of different locations. That´s what creates atmosphere and the feeling of you having stumbled into something important in contrast to the
  • Difficulty seems to be good balanced so far. Despite me being at level 7 I still have the same problem of too little gold and too much to spend it on. New skills (teachers could be expensive), better equipment or repairing your boat.
  • I like the randomness of the items available at the merchants, as well as their prices and their abilities to lie about items capabilities.
  • For some strange reason, I have played for 8 hours now and even temporarily halted Drakensang - River of Time because of this game which is over 20 years older.
  • Fights allows for some tactics used. You get bonuses to strike from behind and you can flee. You must also decide wether to save your move points to be able to defend better or to use them to attack more often.
What I don´t like so far:

  • Too many battles, almost always occuring after around 40 moves unless you stumble inte an important location. It could get a little tedious. I would rather have fewer but stronger opponents. I haven´t even fully utilised my single wizard because that takes time. I just want to get rid of the small battles to be able to move on to my greater goals.
  • Almost every item you find is accompanied by the? symbol which means it COULD have some special properties but i almost never has (at least not from random encounters). It costs a lot of gold (75) to have them identified.
  • Skills separate identification by types, like weapons, potions etc That is a waste of skill points in my opinion.
  • You could get stuck on an island with a boat of only 1 hp. If you have saved on that island without a dock you can´t buy a new boat or get away in any way and since there is only one save slot you could get stuck forever.
  • Only one save slot. They could at least have allowed for a few more. You never know when you save underground if you ever will get out alive. If you save by mistake in a very bad situation you have no way of managing to get out and continue the game.
  • Monsters, at least the ones to meet certain death by the group, should be able to flee if everything seems lost. Instead they fight to the death. It only gets frustrating trying to kill a few thugs when your powerful enough.
  • The A.I could have been better. Monsters don´t attack together and divide their numbers. They might go for the weak ones but often one at a time. You often win by concentrating all your characters at one enemy at a time. Something which is very common even in SSI:s goldbox games.
  • The cumbersome interface. It is quite horrible in the beginning. Why am I not able to sell severla items at once ? Now I have to repeat the whole sale process for every single item. SELL -- > Who --> Choose item --> Confirm price --> repeat....you get a loot of loot after a while and it is quite tedious to get rid of it.

July 27, 2011

Demon's Winter - Starting a new adventure

Before I begin, let me tell you of my gameplay style. I do not like to cheat or use walkthroughs unless I am really stuck or if it is no fun anymore. After all, we all have a life and career beside this hobby and we can only put so much time into it. I think I am quite a normal player in that regard. I save regularly and often. Everytime I am stuck and need help I feel I have failed and that drains the enjoyment of a game. I use the games built in rules to maximize my survival chance. For example, if it allows me to re-roll my statistics I do that until I am satisfied. I am sure I will have enough of a challenge in any time. Just wanted to state that. I do not follow the strict rules of CRPG Addict in this case. All the credit to him though for his excellent blog.

I have read half the manual for the game and have to say it is really well written. SSI was always great at writing manuals. It is full of tips and hints and really tries to build up the atmosphere for the game. Ten classes, 30 skills and at least as many spells divided into several schools makes for varied gameplay. How it works in practice remains to be seen though.

It took me one hour to roll-up my group of five adventurers for Demon's Winter. I both love and hate the ability to re-roll statistics for the characters. Love it because patience is rewarding and hate it because my expectations are so high that I very seldom live up to them and gets frustrated about not being able to complete my character. My group consisted of:

Karon, human ranger
Merrilon, elf wizard
Gnarl, troll barbarian
Legio, dwarf monk
Denvall, human paladin

It was very hard do decide which classes should go inte the group. There are 10 classes to choose from. The more unique being scholar and visionary. The visionary class has easy access to skills such as view land, view mind, view room and view item. It enables the visionary to see a larger view of the surrounding area and also to read merchants mind to decide if they are lying or exaggerating the wares capabilities. That must be the first time a game let the merchants really try to cheat you of certain items. I have never come across it anywhere before.

Paladin and Wizards are always mandatory when I create groups. The monk was choosen because I´ve read somewhere that the skills they utilise (karate and kung-fu) are very efficient and well implemented in the game. And besides, I don´t think I´ve ever had a monk in my team before. The barbarian was throwned in because of the skill berserking which increases the probability of a doing a critical hit to 25 % instead of 10 %. That will come in handy I hope.

The Ranger have the skill hunt which means you don´t have to pay as much for food. Yes, you need food when travelling around in the wilderness and in the dungeons. With this skill you can get it without having to visit a town (not all towns sells provisions by the way).

I have to say that I am quite impressed of the 30 or so skills this game has. They are quite broad and not very similar one to another. It seems every class could be teached every skill in the game but certain classes pay less intellect points for doing so. For example, it is much cheaper and easier for a Ranger to learn the axe skill than it is for the Wizard.

What do we know about the background and story ? Not much actually. You know that blood-thirsty kobolds have been sweeping across the landscape plundering and burning the defenseless villages. The goblins led them with cries of "Praised be our master Xeres". Well, that´s about it really. We have at least one clear enemy.

With the group ready to go I started my adventure into the unknown....
I started out in the Wilderness somewhere. I have no clue where I am or what I am to do. So I go along with the group and managed to survive the first few battles. But I got bold and ventured to far away from known civilization and was suddenly overpowered by a lot of thugs. As you can se below, my Wizard boldly tries to fend them off while the rest of the group is slained. The reason the Wizard is so long-lived is that I used the spell Armour and the enemies have it hard to pierce it for my death to come...

Merrilon the wizard fights for his life...


The outcome could only be one....

Mr. Death has taken his toll
I realise I have to be more careful and so I try to spend most of my gold on equipment like daggers and small axes. A few selected members even got cloth to protect them with in combat. I then run around trying to build up more gold to buy enough provisions. While at the Pub in one of the cities I learn a few rumours from other adventurers...

This the first information I can find. Jesric, an evil priest, has embarked on a quest for some powerful crystal and works for someone named Eregore. It doesn´t help me much but in another city I meet an old woman complaining about her home having been burnt down by the marauding Kobolds to the south. I immediately prepare myself to investigate the matter....


Inside the Kobold camp
The Kobold camp is very near the city and I managed to sneak in and looks around. There are a lot of tents inside the camp and I have to investigate each and everyone. The kobolds are often acting in groups of four. Very managable by my group and eventually I wipe them out. In the last battle though, I meet 2 kobolds, 2 orcs and the Kobolds leader which I eventually kill. There is no loot or other interesting stuff in the camp. I managed to free a imprisoned woman who was harassed by the kobolds.

It seems the Kobolds are just puppets of yet another power that control things from afar. Who that is, is yet not known to me but it seems they worship someone (or something) called Xerxes.

After having cleared out the camp I return to investigate the world around me and stumbles upon a College of View land. That means they can teach you the skill if you have enough intellect points and can pay for it. The price asked for is ridiculous for the time being so I have to decline the offer and search elsewhere....

Scattered around in the land are colleges ready to teach you skills....if you can afford it
 So what are my first impressions after a couple of hours play ? Well, I like it so far. I am struggling to get gold and experience points to be able to advance in levels so I dare to enter some of the dungeons I´ve found so far. The gold are needed for the greedy merchants. There are a lot of different items to buy, or rather different enhanchements of the items. A dagger could be a dagger, a well-made dagger, a dagger +1 or inscribed with powerful spells or charges. And there are even more variations.

I fear the combats will get tedious over time but they offer some tactics which I´ve not seen in other games from this time. For example, you speed skill determines how many moves you have during your turn. You could spend those moves by moving, attacking or dodge. Every attack costs 3 pts. For every move point you left unspent you get -1 to hit from opponents if you choose to dodge which also ends your turn. That kind of tactical considerations is a move into the right direction. What I don´t like though is that you cannot see how wounded your opponent are and when there are several opponents of the same kind in the battle it could get confusing.

I will continue my exploration and return here to report my progress and my observations. I am just now waiting to reach to level 2 with my group. I don´t really know what will happen then but hope I will get more hit points at least.





July 26, 2011

My first revisit - Demon's Winter

I created this blog to be able to revisit classical CRPGs. Right now I am halfway through Drakensang - River of Time and have to finish that game before starting my new blog with serious efforts.

I have always wanted to try out Demon's Winter from SSI. It seems it was originally released for the Apple II and came 1988 to Commodore 64 and IBM PC. In 1989 it was released to the Amiga platform. It is obvious by the graphics that the game was ported without any use of the capabilities of the Amiga. But the sound is even less used with the occasional blip-blop.

However, as you all know the graphics and sound in CRPGS is not primarily what made them so immersive and entertaining. It is the feeling and depth and the always present character building and leveling, the exploration of the unknown and the hope that somewhere, someplace there lies a chest with that certain magical weapon you need to swing the tide...

Look at the back cover below. There was a certain appealing text that accompanied these games which made you drool over them. Ok, ok, that might be explainable  by my meager age at that time but anyway.



I had it to my Amiga 500 but never understood how the game worked and did not have any manual to go with it (yes, it was long before Internet came to the rescue). I will either try it out with DosBox or with an Amiga Emulator like WinUAE. That depends on how much efforts it takes to get it to work and how much it differs in quality.

I remember the graphics was very bad so I will probably go for the DosBox version.

I loved the SSI brand when it existed. They produced a lot of high quality RPGs and strategy games.

However, having installed WinUAE and downloaded Demons Winter and loaded the game from floppy I quickly started to roll up one character named Rolf just to try out the Amiga version.

After around 30 steps in the wilderness I met a group of spiders. I am sure the pictures of them will probably pass as giant ants or whatever other creatures there might be out there....










Having found a city I immediately went to the temple only to be met by this holy guy. I was quite astonished about the image compared to how the spiders looked.

Amiga version
I noticed the game loads from the floppy when entering or leaving places. I forgot that delay in the Amiga version so I will try out Demons Winter on DosBox as well before I decide to start upp my new party of adventurers. Below is the same guy in the PC version. Not much difference but the aspect radio and resolution is better in the Amiga version and the Amiga version has mouse support.

 
Pc version
In the next post I hope to have created and started up with my new party. I have to read the manual first though so I get to know the game first. I hate playing games without the proper and complete manual. In those days the manual was what you really payed for when buying the game. Especially so for games from Microsprose. But that is out of the scope for this session since they did not do any RPGs (if not counting Darklands that is).