Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace
Cybertech Systems released Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace for IBM PC MS-DOS 5.0 in 1992. Spelljammer was programmed by Alexander J. Russell. Spelljammer employs AD&D 2nd Edition rules and is set in TSR's Spelljammer campaign setting of 1989.
Spelljammer displays in 256-color VGA 320x200 and employs a combo of sprite-scaling and rotation, crude digitized graphics and ridiculous pixel art, but the GUI is well-presented and easy to get to grips with.
Spelljammer features first-person space combat in a 2D sprite-scaled viewport (firing, ramming, grappling, shearing) and top-down, phased-based vessel-boarding combat after a ship has been grappled. Vessel-boarding combat features 8-way tile-based movement and 8-way tile-based screen-scrolling.
Navigation of "Wildspace" is conducted via headings and distances. Spelljamming in Wildspace can be conducted automatically or manually.
Spelljammer Feature List
- 6x Ability Scores: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma
- 6x AD&D Races: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Half-elf, Halfling, Gnome
- 6x AD&D Classes: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Mage, Thief
- No Dual-classing or Multi-classing
- Alignment, Hit points, Experience Points (XP), Levels
- Can only level-up characters when docked at ports
- Melee & Ranged Combat, Backstabbing
- 54x level 1-5 Arcane spells & 32x level 1-5 Divine spells
- No spellcasting for Paladins or Rangers
- Armor Class, THAC0, Damage, Saving Throws, ApR
- Spells have range, area and duration stats
- 11x Vessel-types each constituted by 13x characteristics
- Vessels can anchor, turn, increase/decrease speed and Spelljam
- 10x vessel weapons
- 4x vessel viewpoints: bow, port, starboard, stern
- Vessels: assign Captain (Mage), Officers & Crewmen; review cargo & conduct repairs
- Space combat (first-person): targeting, firing, ramming, grappling, shearing, hailing
- Vessel-boarding combat (top-down): attack, defend, move, flee, parley, heal, use item, cast spell, turn undead
- 8x planets to visit
- 22x monster-types to battle
Spelljammer Technical
Spelljammer was distributed on 2x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 3x 5.25" 1.2MB HD floppy disks and installs to hard disk drive via UNARJ 2.1 by Robert K. Jung. The install size is 8.5 megs and consists of 826 files.
Spelljammer requires 1 meg of RAM and supports SMARTDRV.SYS disk-caching, but does not support QEMM memory manager in Stealth mode.
Spelljammer audio supports PC Speaker, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro I/II, AdLib, Roland LAPC-1 and LAPC music and Sound Blaster Pro sound effects.
- Spelljammer Manual: Captain's Guide to Realmspace: 58 pages.
- Spelljammer copy protection: Manual reference.
Overall, I give this one 6/10.
Return to cRPG Reviews.
Return to: cRPG List.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.