DOS Zelda-like shareware game (1995-1998?)

Help locating old / Pre year 2000 games you used to play.
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DOS Zelda-like shareware game (1995-1998?)

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I'm looking for a DOS shareware game that I use to play. Although I played it in the late 90's, it probably was made a few years earlier than that. It felt like it was probably made by a single person. There was no music or sound, but maybe I just didn't have things configured correctly.

The gameplay was very similar to the first Zelda game. It had a 2D top-down perspective. The terrain was tile-based, but the player and monsters moved freely in real time, without being restricted to tile-based movement. The quality and style of the graphics was similar to God of Thunder, but slightly more primitive. The world was divided into small, single-screen areas, and moving to the edge of the screen would take you to the adjacent area.

I don't remember the plot. There wasn't really any plot development in the game itself, but I think there was a text file that described the backstory. You started the game next to your house in a forest or something. Returning to your house allowed you to save the game.

You played as a guy with a sword. You could move in 4 directions, and pressing a key would attack with your sword in the direction you were facing. The sword was basically a line of pixels that extended in front of you when you attacked, damaging any enemies it hit. Enemies would damage you if they touched you. You couldn't move during your attack animation, which made combat difficult.

The basic enemies walked around randomly. There were also snakes that moved in straight diagonal lines, and gray blob things that fired projectiles. In the northeast part of the world there was a dungeon that had red enemies that shot fireballs. When a monster died, it had a small chance of dropping some food that would heal you, or some gold.

There was a store where you could by a shield that blocks weak projectiles, a sword that does extra damage, or arrows, which are useless until you find the bow. Somewhere else, there was a guy that sold lock picks, which were needed to open chests in dungeons. Sometimes the lock pick would break and the chest wouldn't open, but you could buy lock picking lessons to improve your chance of opening chests.

This post is getting kind of long, but I'll mention a few other details in case it helps someone recognize this game.

In one place there was a floating eye monster that moved extremely quickly and had a ranged attack. There was a person nearby that said he would tell you how to beat the eye if you bought the registered version of the game.

You could eventually get a pick axe that could be used in certain places to open up hidden cave entrances. I think most caves contained a person that would tell you something or give you an item.

There was a cave or building or something with a woman inside, and every time you entered the building, she'd say a random sentence made up from three randomly chosen phrases.

I might be remembering this wrong, but I think that when the game first started up, there was a logo screen with a black background where a bunch of rats arranged themselves into letters spelling out the company's name.

I think the file name of the .exe file ended with a number. It might have been a version number. The game directory included about 10 or so files, including a .bat file with the same name as the .exe.
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MrFlibble
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Post by MrFlibble »

The game description sounds very interesting! Don't worry that it is long, you have provided plenty of detail :)

I can't think of any game that fits your description though. I've heard that Robomaze III can be considered a Zelda clone for DOS, but it doesn't look much like your description.

You might also want to check out The Dungeons of Grimlor and its sequel.
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Zelda music Shareware

Post by Guest »

There was a shareware game on the old apogee shareware site. It was zelda the music sounded like Paul Colliers music box lullaby on youtube.

I've been looking for the game recently It was Apogee shareware
It was in the 90's and share ware would anyone know the game I'm talking of?
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Post by MrFlibble »

All Apogee/3D Realms shareware games are available here:
http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html

I don't think Apogee published any Zelda clones though.
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Post by Quadko »

Zelda clone might equal Gauntlet clone, but I don't recall any Apogee games like that - other than ASCII games Caves of Thor and Kroz zeries which really don't match the description.

Maybe check out Mystic Towers? It's isometric, closest I see. The others mostly are either FPS or sidescrolling platformer, at least on the current pages.

The series Ys was similar to that play style, but not Apogee.

I thought there was an old DOS version of Zelda (maybe a knock off, not official), but all I'm coming up with is Zelda Classic, still under development apparently.
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Post by Guest »

I made a similar post in this website:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/i ... clone.html

Although I don't remember the details you mention, I can't deny it may be the same game?

[Edit - Link is relevant. Correcting it so it hyperlinks properly -wardrich]
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Post by Quadko »

That sounds a lot like modern "retro" game 3 Dot Heroes, so I tried looking up the games it was based on. The three I found them mentioning:

The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy Adventure, Dragon Warrior

They are definitely console games, but maybe they got ports or clones, and just maybe it will jog someone's memory. Of course, being very famous games, they have lots of imitators.
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Post by Guest »

Anonymous wrote:I made a similar post in this website:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/i ... clone.html

Although I don't remember the details you mention, I can't deny it may be the same game?

[Edit - Link is relevant. Correcting it so it hyperlinks properly -wardrich]
I'm again the guest who posted this (i cut the url because as guest it refuses to post it. thx to wardrich for fixing it last time), and the user who wrote on tomshardware. I hope that the guest who started this topic (dosgames.com) will read these posts again sooner or later, if so try to see if my other topic can ring a bell. We are probably talking about the same game.
I think I could recall something about the rats mentioned, I confirm about the starting forest (in fact I said the first level background was green) and I may seem to recall the hint about purchasing the full game in order to beat that enemy.
Unfortunately I can't remember most of the details you say, but I won't deny them as well. However the guy movement and the way he attacks has been described basically in the same way. I kinda remember also the monsters walking randomly.

I'll also try to "up" with this message just in case someone else notice and might help
Quadko wrote:That sounds a lot like modern "retro" game 3 Dot Heroes, so I tried looking up the games it was based on. The three I found them mentioning:

The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy Adventure, Dragon Warrior

They are definitely console games, but maybe they got ports or clones, and just maybe it will jog someone's memory. Of course, being very famous games, they have lots of imitators.
Yes, I think the series which it was inspired the most would be zelda, because it had more action elements rather than rpg.


[No prob man :) Fixed this post up for you too :P -wardrich]
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Post by Guest »

Also, I'm sure its not Zelda classic. it didn't have a platform style, but something like zelda 1 for nintendo.

It quite possibly should be a pretty obscure game, if it's still not easy to find it...

As said it definitelly had sound card settings.
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Post by wardrich »

Was the game for sure released by Apogee?
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Post by Guest »

I have now checked the list of games developed by apogee and it isn't present. I would also remember if it was the case because their intro/logo is easilly recognizable in my opinion
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Post by wardrich »

Maybe it was an Epic game? They were pretty prolific during those times and also had a memorable splash screen.
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God, Jesus Christ, is number one!hehe

Post by tienkhoanguyen »

Jesus Christ!hehe

Just a bit of trivia, those intro screens are hard to make from scratch. This is true especially if it contains custom graphics instead of the standard text you see. So I give credits to those developers who implement graphics and such in their intros and such. I am doing everything in assembly and you can see it is hard to come out with new things easily.
God, Jesus Christ, is number one!hehe
Jesus Christ!hehe
Bless Jesus Christ!
Then please bless my mom.
Honour to my mom Huong Thi Vu
Honour to my dad Thuy Binh Nguyen
Love to cousin Carl Anh Cuong Cao Vu
Thank you Jesus Christ.
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Post by Guest »

mhh... I believe epic games are supposed to use module music files with their games? I'm sure it wasn't the case for this requested game, which also supported the general midi format standard, I was using a soundblaster awe 64 and the synthetizer played it like a midi file in windows.
I will check tomorrow epic's list of games but I think it was probably some minor company compared to such big names like Epic.

Also, the topic opener said the npc inside the game would give you hint if you registered the game. Nothing wrong with this idea, it was kinda original, but it might easier come from a little team of developers, maybe? Just speculating.
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Post by Wally »

Could it be Castle of the Winds?
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Post by Guest »

I have checked the list/screenshots of Epic games until/around 1998; it's not present.

No, it's not Castle of the Winds; also I remember it had not an interface "windows based" only, if I can give the idea. Not talking about windows only games, but those with that kind of menus and generally a simple graphic

The game we are searching had not incredible graphic, but it still had its own native interface; I really can't remember if it was supposed a be dos game...I was using windows 98 where generally dos games were still working fine...
MrFlibble wrote:The game description sounds very interesting! Don't worry that it is long, you have provided plenty of detail :)

I can't think of any game that fits your description though. I've heard that Robomaze IIIcan be considered a Zelda clone for DOS, but it doesn't look much like your description.

You might also want to check out The Dungeons of Grimlor and its sequel.
Quadko wrote:Zelda clone might equal Gauntlet clone, but I don't recall any Apogee games like that - other than ASCII games Caves of Thor and Kroz zeries which really don't match the description.

Maybe check out Mystic Towers? It's isometric, closest I see. The others mostly are either FPS or sidescrolling platformer, at least on the current pages.

The series Ys was similar to that play style, but not Apogee.

I thought there was an old DOS version of Zelda (maybe a knock off, not official), but all I'm coming up with is Zelda Classic, still under development apparently.
I forgot to check some of these games but no, they are not that game, sorry
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DOS Zelda-like shareware game (1995-1998?)

Post by G_Hax »

It sounds a lot like Mantra by the Syzygy Cult
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DOS Zelda-like shareware game (1995-1998?)

Post by Rwolf »

The Mantra game you mention originally came out for Macintosh only, not DOS, so I doubt it.
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DOS Zelda-like shareware game (1995-1998?)

Post by SpinalBlood »

Guest wrote: I made a similar post in this website:

*

Although I don't remember the details you mention, I can't deny it may be the same game?

[Edit - Link is relevant. Correcting it so it hyperlinks properly -wardrich]
Hi, I need help in remembering a game title;
there was this game I played around 15 years ago which:

- it was basically a Zelda 1 (nes) clone, similar character, same horizontal/vertical movement, melee-combat with a sword or a dagger. Also the graphic was similar and primitive, and the animation were like the weapon appears and disappears with only 1 frame used
- the first level had this exactly tune as a midi file and the game folder had a "vills.mid" which was exactly like this: 50706.mid

(now the points with vagues memories that might be inaccurate)

- there might have been a letter between z-x-y in the title; I'm pretty sure it was a one-word title
- the title screen was black in the background, maybe the title was red
- the title screen bgm was very weird
- the first level background was green
- I used to run this on a pentium 2 with windows 95 but I can't remember if it was native windows95 or I started it in pure dos mode
- the game was very possibly a shareware
- there was a setup function which I could assign the general midi and the bgm used for test mode was a Beethoven - Fur Elise track

Thanks in advance
Hello, I'm the "guest" user that posted in this topic starting from the first quote. It seems It's not possible to post as guest anymore, and as a new user I can't post links or hyperlinks;

* the original link "crossposted" in my first quote is changed as well but I can't post it now so I quoted the original post instead^, for completeness.

I have found the game:

Zanzi: The Quest for the Mastercrown

This is certainly the one I have played. Notice that I'm still not completely sure if it matches all the things the OP of this topic said, but I pretty much nailed my own rememberings, so if the OP or some other user will read this topic again, they can try with this title.

A full version is probably almost impossible to find, but having found the title itself is still good enough. Speaking of which, I managed to find it because I was able to google a twitter post of this website (nonetheless!) that apparently added the game to its database pretty recently, again can't link it but the tweet is posted on 6:30 p.m. 5/10/2020 with url and details on the game; thank you!!! It was one hell of a search lol
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DOS Zelda-like shareware game (1995-1998?)

Post by MrFlibble »

Hi, and welcome back to the forums! Thanks for letting us know about your game!

Apparently the shareware version is available from here:
https://dosgames.com/game/zanzi-the-que ... stercrown/
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