Wiz Commodore 64 game

The Wiz Game Review:

Is this the latest Stephen King novel or a set of game instructions? There's enough reading in the blurb for The Wiz to last you a week-well, a couple of days anyway.

And yes, you just HAVE to read it this time. There's no way you'll get away with sitting down and playing the game straight off—you'll end up going nowhere fast.

That's the bad news. Once you've mastered the instructions, you can go on and master the game, which isn't half bad, really. At first glance, it looks like yet another Gauntlet clone—your little Wiz whizzes around zapping creatures, zombies, and anything else that wants to stop him from completing his task.

As every day passes, more and more evil burst through from the dark side. It seems obvious to you, a mere first-level wizard, that the long forewarned meeting of the worlds is imminent. On the Magical Isle, where in places the worlds of light and dark touch, the manifestations of evil are reaching epidemic proportions.

The Council of Wizards is reluctant to act. They see no way of preventing the disaster other than destroying the ancient links between worlds. In doing so, they would lose much of their magic, as two of the four runes from which spells are prepared can only be found in the world of darkness.

Despairing at their greed for magic, you resolve to act alone. You must become a powerful fifth-level wizard, acquire the spell you need to break the links, and separate the two worlds forever.

The council has already learned of your quest and seeks to prevent you from completing it. By their own rules, they are barred from interfering with the magical advancement of a wizard. Consequently, no wizard can refuse to teach you spells of your magical level unless you have been openly hostile towards him.

Despite this, they have other means of obstructing you. Your shielding against attack, normally maintained for lower-level wizards by the fifth-level masters, has been removed. As a result, you are now vulnerable to the power-draining attacks of evil beings.

As if this were not enough, it is rumored that Tracer has been summoned and, should you stay in one place for long, it will find you and come through from the dark side. Once in this world, it will pursue you relentlessly.

You start the game, and you will see your wizard in the center of the playing area. At the top right of the screen, there is a scroll containing your current score, magical power, and wizard level.

At the bottom right of the screen, there is a spell book open at the "Zap 1" spell description.

Wiz Game Modes:

Wiz operates in four modes:

Move and cast mode: This is represented by a Red Medallion. As you move, an arrow will show you your direction on the medallion. By pressing fire or space, you cast the last selected spell. Beware, though, as colliding with evil beings drains your power. Every time you cast a spell, you use up one unit of magical power. If you run out of power, you die!

Prepare spell mode: To move into this mode from Move and Cast, press the space bar. You will now notice that the medallion has changed. It is now blue and has runes in place of direction arrows. To select a rune, move the joystick toward the desired rune. Spells are prepared by selecting the rune in the correct sequence and then pressing fire. As you select each rune, it appears in the scroll above the medallion, and the appropriate rune level goes down. When you press fire, the spell book will display the details of the spell you just prepared. Spells can only be cast by pressing fire when in move and cast mode.

Read spell book mode: Once entering this mode from Prepare Spell mode, you will notice that the medallion has again changed. It is now grey with only three directions marked. By moving the joystick left and right, you can read through the spell book, which contains all the spells you have learned so far, plus the ones you started off with. Wiz only lets you prepare spells currently in the book.

Buy spell mode: The medallion changes again. It is now purple with up to four different symbols. If a wizard is on the screen when you enter this mode, the medallion shows the symbols of the spells he is qualified to teach. There may be up to three. You can preview these spells by selecting the appropriate direction. Press fire, and you will try to buy the highlighted spell. Note that the "Up" option means "buy no spell" and will take you back into move and cast. A preview appears in the spell book and normally shows the name of the spell, the symbol for the spell, the amount of magical power you will use up learning the spell, and the wizard level you must attain before trying. Attempting to buy a spell for which you do not have enough power will kill you! Or failure to buy the spell is indicated by the spell book page becoming blank.

Keep an eye on your score every time you try something new, and you will soon learn the best way to achieve a high score. However, getting a high score isn't just a matter of personal pride; it is the way to higher wizard levels.

Graphics, Sound, and Gameplay:

Not that I'm complaining, you understand, I'm all for it, more value for money and all that. It isn't half hard going for us poor reviewers, though. But enough of this whining, you will by now have gathered that The Wiz is quite a toughie. The plot, briefly. Good guys and bad guys, right. The good guys live on the bright side, the bad guys on the dark side. The bad guys are trying to muscle in on the good guys' territory. The good guys (The Council Of Wizards) are a bit thick and can't see a way out so you (a low-level wiz) take it upon yourself to do the business.

To save the world from doom, destruction, and other pretty evil and undesirable consequences, you must become a powerful fifth-level wizard and discover the spell which will separate the two worlds by breaking the links between them. Spells figure pretty big in this game, what with it being about wizards and such like. The important thing to know is that spells are prepared with runes—kind of ingredients in spell soup. Different combinations of runes give you different spells—no good knocking up a minestrone when a Heinz cream of mushroom is what you're after, get my meaning? To come to the point, two of the runes you need to make the powerful spell which will break the links between the lands are on the dark side—not a pleasant place, but go there you must. Getting there is a question of moving your little wiz fella around the very nicely drawn 3D screen which scrolls in whatever direction when you reach the edge. This is known as 'move and cast' mode (sounds like a novel fishing technique), the reason being that you move around and cast, or fire spells at the various little horrors that attack you. Initially you're a bit short on spells, you can find three of them in your spell book (read spell book mode). These can be added to by going into 'buy spell' mode when a wizard is on the screen. Buying spells drains your magical power, as does bumping into little horrors, so watch you don't kill yourself by going into the magical power overdraft mode. Having stocked up with a few spells, you really ought to try your hand at using them. Nothing for it but to enter 'prepare spell' mode. Well there is something actually, first you'll have to try out 'read spell book'. In this mode, you can flip through the pages of the old recipe book which shows you which combination of runes make the juicy little number you're after. Now you can go for prepare spell mode. Just select the runes in the correct order and hey presto (you'll be impressed), a brand new spell to try out on an unsuspecting sprite. Like I said, it's a toughie and there's a good deal to it. If I explained the lot in detail, by the time you reached the end, you'd be more than halfway through the Hotshots page—yes yes they screamed (ho bloody ho—Dep Ed). The general gist is that you wiz around making spells with runes and casting them at things, admiring the pretty scenery en route, eventually making your way to the dark side to find the two missing runes. There's lots of fancy tricks and confusing complications that are fun to discover and overcome. The trick, if there is one, is to be lightning-fast at buying spells and doing the other things that require you to stand still and open yourself to attack. That's something I haven't quite got the hang of yet. By Christmas I just might get it sussed. Until then... - Ken McMahon