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"Save games"

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Conferences Wizardry(r) 1-7 Conferences Wiz 1 - The game that started it all (Public)
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ShadowCrust (373 posts) Click to EMail ShadowCrust Click to send private message to ShadowCrust Click to view user profile Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-24-00, 07:02 AM (Pacific)
"Save games"
I read the manual for the Ultimate Wizardry Archives thoroughly (sorry for being not genuinely English and having no dictionary at the hand) and noticed there was no option to save one's game in Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. Only when leaving the game while having your party in the dungeon the game will remember where you left next time you're starting. In W7 I rather excessively used the save and restore function, as is encouraged in the manual (save often, save early).

So I'd like to know if there are any WI Veterans who created a new party to retrieve their old party lost in the dungeon. If all your characters happen to die in the 10th level, how will you be able to get them back at all? Are you preparing several scenario disks so when this "worst case scenario" happens you will quit the game and put in the saved scenario?
It seems quite complicated for me, even if I have played Bard's Tale (Destiny Knight), where at least you could save your party in the guild and had the option "quit" or "save and quit" when unhappy with the outcome of a battle.
I miss the "quit without saving"-feature in WI really badly, even if you have to be more "honest" when playing.

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admin (124 posts) Click to EMail admin Click to send private message to admin Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-24-00, 08:27 AM (Pacific)
1. "Manual backups for Wiz 1"
Yes, I have come to depend on restoring a saved game too, a feature that is just not there in Wiz 1.

So, what I did, was replaced the icon that the UWA created with a call to a batch file that:
1) copies the existing (savegame) file to a backup copy
2) then runs the program

This way, should I have an undesirable outcome during my adventure, I can quit and go take my backup copy and start again from that point.

It's saved me a few times, especially since I tend to screw up a lot of things in testing my editors. And my editor for Wiz 1 would solve your prblem too - it would allow you to "revive" your characters.

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elrond (83 posts) Click to EMail elrond Click to send private message to elrond Click to view user profile Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-24-00, 10:41 AM (Pacific)
2. "RE: Save games"
The thing I used to do any time something bad was about/already happened was the 3 fingered salute. Of course this was back in the days before windows when Wiz 1-3 ran on their own operating systems. Why would I do this? Well, I noticed that if you basically exit right after the unfortunate event occurred, it wouldn't get saved. So basically if one of my party members bites the dust, or gets some levels drained, i would instantly reboot. Now in the days of UWA and Windows, you can just alt-tab out, right click on the dos prompt window thingy, and force it to close. This way my party would still be stuck on dungeon level whatever, but would not have sustained the major damage. This was also useful for leveling up, since if you did this while in the Adventurer's Inn, then you could more or less pick and choose your stat modifications. Kinda like reloading saved games in wiz 6,7 to get better increases. This was extremely annoying back in the days though, since it involved several reboots to get a configuration that i was happy with.

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ShadowCrust (373 posts) Click to EMail ShadowCrust Click to send private message to ShadowCrust Click to view user profile Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-25-00, 07:03 AM (Pacific)
3. "Disaster"
I tried out the same strategy Rick has suggested, I made a wiz.bat that would copy my save1.dsk to a backup-directory, and then I created a backup.bat that would copy the backup-save1.dsk to my wiz1-directory if something terrible happened down there in the dungeon.
Everything went very well, I explored the first floor, came to the Monster Allocation Center, quit the game as usually, restarted with wiz.bat and found my party confronted with not one inevitable encounter, but two, where the latter was a battle against men in armor, a mage, a priest and a high ninja. I didn't have the slightest idea of a chance against them, and every time I tried to run I was going to sleep and slaughtered immediately. I reloaded and tried about 20 times when I finally gave up and created another party with the oath to backup my backups next time so this will never ever happen again (hopefully).

It's fun playing but only with the appropiate assurances

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admin (124 posts) Click to EMail admin Click to send private message to admin Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-25-00, 09:50 AM (Pacific)
4. "Well, you can make it iterative"
You can have as many backups as you want. Say you want three backups (instead of just one), then have your .bat file:

copy backup3.dsk backup4.dsk
copy backup2.dsk backup3.dsk
copy backup1.dsk backup2.dsk
copy save1.dsk backup1.dsk

then start the game.

The other thing to do, is always leave the game when you are outside the dungeon, then you won't have the problem you had.

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cahshadow (26 posts) Click to EMail cahshadow Click to send private message to cahshadow Click to view user profile Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-25-00, 08:12 PM (Pacific)
5. "back ups"
What I did was everytime something good happen or my characters went up levels I would exit the game and manually copy the save game file and paste it into another folder I named Wizardy1\saved games (wiz2\saved games, wiz3\saved games). I would also rename the files to match the time/location of the game. By renaming the files you can have as many saved/back up games you want.

cahshadow

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ShadowCrust (373 posts) Click to EMail ShadowCrust Click to send private message to ShadowCrust Click to view user profile Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-26-00, 03:15 AM (Pacific)
6. "shared sorrows are half the sorrows"
I do know there are many possibilities to be really sure to avoid the troubles I have ah encountered , but I'm just too lazy to do so. When I have recovered from the shock of losing my beloved characters, I will make a separate backup copy of every level I have more or less finished, but nothing more. In the first time I played W7 I got burned to ashes by the Magna Dane and his fellows, because I was numb enough to save behind the bars, so next time I created a new savegame after almost every step. I ended up with savegame.640 or something, this time I'll be more of the risky sort and rather complain here about my bad luck
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cahshadow (26 posts) Click to EMail cahshadow Click to send private message to cahshadow Click to view user profile Click to check IP address of the poster
Jan-28-00, 12:18 PM (Pacific)
7. "RE: shared sorrows are half the sorrows"
I dont mind the complaining and I know what it is like to play for hours to have your party surprised, all characters turned to ashes and no current saved game/back up.

cahshadow

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