textfiles/games/REVIEWS/wzrd.rev

 WIZARD DUEL (SNEAK PREVIEW)

 For a computer gamer, there are certain perks to living in Silicon Valley. 
Not only do most national software retailers have stores here, but several game 
developers also have their headquarters right here within easy driving 
distance. When Karl Buiter invited me to go visit him at Tsunami Productions in 
Redwood City and take a sneak peek at the new game they were working on, I 
eagerly accepted.

 Tsunami Productions is a game development company founded by Joe Ybarra. To 
anyone who follows the computer gaming industry, Joe Ybarra requires no 
introduction. He was the co-founder of the hugely successful Electronic Arts 
and was personally responsible for producing a large number of best selling 
games. 

 When asked why he founded Tsunami Productions, Joe replied that he had always 
wanted to be involved in a hands-on environment in the game design end of the 
business. Tsunami will develop complex games with depth in story telling, 
strategies and simulations and will not be limited by the confines of specific 
genres. Initially Tsunami will develop games for the MS-DOS and SNES platforms, 
with other 16-bit cartridge systems and CD-ROM as potential possibilities.

 Helping Joe in his efforts are Karl Buiter, who has several successful 
role-playing games such as SENTINEL WORLDS 1 and HARD NOVA to his credit, and 
Mike Moore, who produced CIRCUIT'S EDGE for the Infocom label and was the 
designer and producer of the very popular Activision solitaire game SHANGHAI 
II. There are also several programmers and graphics artists, all working 
together on Tsunami's first product. Judging from what I was shown that day, 
this is a group of considerable talent, and Tsunami Productions will be a force 
to be reckoned with in the game design business. 

 Tsunami's first game, WIZARD DUEL (working title), is the brain child of 
Joe Ybarra, who got the inspiration from an Avalon Hill board game titled 
WAR OF THE WIZARDS. In the computer game, the player has to enter six 
uniquely different arenas, or realms, and defeat the evil wizards and their 
minions that dwell in them in order to restore peace in the magic world. 

 In order to succeed in defeating the evil wizards, the player must learn 
how to mix magical potions in order to cast various magic spells. There are 
five kinds of ingredients found in each potion. The actual ingredients and the 
amounts you use in mixing the potion will control the various properties of the 
resulting spell ranging from the type of spell it will cast to its duration, 
effective radius and intensity, etc. A significant part of the game (and fun) 
is going to the laboratory to experiment with various potion formulas and 
fine-tune the recipes of your favorite spells. As Mike explained, "It's like a 
giant chemistry set without the mess."

 To gather clues and ingredients, the player has to make frequent trips in 
the real world ("the mundane world," as it's known in the game). Famous 
locations such as the Stonehenge and the Sphinx appear as digitized scans of 
real photos. There are plenty of Non-Playing Characters (NPCs) for you to 
meet and interact with. I was surprised to see that NPC portraits were also 
digitized scans. And I was even more surprised when Karl told me, after a loud 
chuckle, that the portraits were actually hand-drawn paintings. They were that 
good!

 Each arena/realm has its own unique terrain and characteristics, some of which 
will even affect your selection of magic spells. For example, you will be 
overly optimistic if you try to cast fireballs and expect them to be effective 
in the water realm. I saw quite a bit of the fire and water realms, and I must 
say that the graphics were excellent. The view was presented as an oblique 
overhead, but remained fairly close to the ground. The characters were twice 
the size of those in ULTIMA VI, and they showed a lot of painstaking details. 
Supporting only 256-color VGA, the artists really made good use of the entire 
palette. Each screen was like a beautiful painting, with lush landscapes and 
realistic figures. 

 The game is full of animation. Everything from the movements of all the 
characters to flowing water in a river are smoothly rendered. But what really 
stole the show for me were the many unique magical effects. You see, in this 
game, you don't just cast a spell and then read about what happens. You get to 
see the full results of all of your spells, complete with digitized sounds 
effects. The game did not have all the effects finished at the time of the 
demo, but I was _really_ impressed at what had been achieved so far. My jaw 
must have dropped a foot when they showed me the effect of the rock spell. You 
just have to try it and see for yourself.

 For the CRPG fan, this game has a complete plot, a main quest, and various 
side missions important to the story. For the strategy/war game fan, the 
program boasts individual AI for each evil wizard with full movement controls 
allowed in combat. Although magic is the main attraction here, other physical 
weapons are available and they do have certain advantages that will justify 
their use. Finally, simulation fans should not feel left out. Concocting 
various spell potions and deriving formulas for new spells promise to be an 
enchanting experience. Mike mentioned that he might decide to bury an Easter 
Egg or two in there as well.

 Karl told me that they expect the game to be released around Thanksgiving. It 
will support 256 VGA _only_ and all major sound cards. Memory requirement will 
be somewhere between 450K to 580K and expanded memory will be utilized, if 
available. A fast machine (>10MHz) is recommended to do justice to all the 
special effects in this game. Please note that all these hardware data are 
subject to change as the game is being further developed.

 I consider myself a fairly experienced player in adventures and CRPGs. I am 
not easily impressed by dazzling graphics and clever sound effects. But what I 
saw of this game really blew my socks off. While I was there, I also saw a 
self-running demo which they had used at CES. Of course, I immediately 
encouraged Karl and Mike to upload it to GAMPUB. Folks, take a look at this 
demo when it becomes available. You will _not_ be disappointed!