Wizard (computer game)

Infobox VG |title=Wizard

1983's "Pinball Construction Set". The square "album cover" boxes were a popular packaging concept by Electronic Arts, who wanted to portray their developers as "rock stars."]
developer= PP&S, EA, Various
publisher= Electronic Arts
designer= Sean A. Moore, Stephen Leudders
engine=
released= Wizard 1983,
Ultimate Wizard December 31st, 1986
genre= Platform game
modes= "1 to 4 Player Alternating"
ratings= N/A
platforms= Commodore 64
media= 5¼" disk
requirements=
input=Keyboard and joystick"This article is about Commodore 64 game, for the Atari 2600 game by Chris Crawford see Wizard (video game)."

"Wizard" was a video game developed for the Commodore 64/128, released in 1983 by Electronic Arts, and written by Sean A. Moore and Stephen Leudders for "Progressive Peripherals and Software" (PP&S) out of Colorado. It was later modified and re-released as Ultimate Wizard.

Gameplay

Each level contained keys, and the object involved getting Wilfrid to get the key to move on to the next location. Each level also required a different spell to find the key, and every key found gave him a finite amount of times he could cast the spell. Some spells cast projectiles, which could either kill or freeze enemies, while some would teleport Wilfrid around, either by turning him to a non-corporeal "shadow" or by instantly moving him to his starting point.

Plot

The player character, Wilfrid, is a wizard in purple robes, and his enemies include witches, knights, giant insects and other various monsters.

Development history

"Wizard" was a product of the "Construction Set" era of 8-bit home computer games started by Bill Budge's "Pinball Construction Set". The game was created contemporaneously with the Epyx release Jumpman. Stephen Leudder stated that it was a coincidence, and that he felt "Wizard" could have been more successful if "Jumpman" had not been released first. There are many notable similarities between "Jumpman" and "Wizard". Both share a platform game format with a sequence of differently-configured single-screen levels to complete. However, while the object in "Jumpman" is to collect each "bomb" on the level, the object in "Wizard" is to collect a key and take it to a lock. The game also featured surprises that would be triggered by collecting bonus items in each level.

"Wizard" was groundbreaking in many ways; it included a construction kit that allows creation and play of user-created levels. However, the kit lacked the ability to add any special treasure-collection effects to the levels, as they were implemented by hard-coding their effects directly into the game program.

Ultimate Wizard

Craig Smith and Aaron Hightower teamed up to make an improved construction set in their homes in Dallas, Texas. They communicated with Sean and Stephen to understand the memory layout for the levels and then set out to create an advanced construction set better than the one included with the original game. The original set had remnants in its code alluding to features that had been disabled, likely due to their instability or lack of documentation.

PP&S took the code from Craig and Aaron, and released an expansion pack. The expansion pack included 50 new levels from a competition held by the company specifically for the expansion pack. None of the new levels had any advanced features because of the limitations of the original construction set. Electronic Arts, including Paul Reiche III, used the Construction set created by Aaron and Craig to create a whole new set of levels. The Construction Set made by Craig and Aaron was also included by EA, as were the levels from the original game and from the expansion pack.

Innovative Features

"Wizard" had some very innovative features compared to other platform games of the time. For one, unlike "Jumpman", it had a construction set. In addition, "Wizard" also had many spells that could be utilized. The sound was notably better as well, this due to Sean and Stephen's previous experience in sound creation outside of the video game field.

References

External links

*moby game|id=/ultimate-wizard|name="Wizard"
* [http://www.armchairarcade.com/aamain/content.php?article.24 "Early Commodore 64 Platformers: Jumpman, Spelunker, Ultimate Wizard, and Pharaoh’s Curse"]
* [http://www.lemon64.com/index.php?mainurl=http%3A//www.lemon64.com/reviews/view.php%3Fid%3D163 Ultimate Wizard reviewed by Jason Compton]
* [http://www.geocities.com/svipdaag/vidgames/wizard/wizard.html The Ultimate Wizard Website (fan site)]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxDvRyOGyFk You tube video of Ultimate Wizard Demonstration]