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Blazing Games - Ultimate Retro Project - Volume 5 - Episode 55

Ultimate Retro Project
Episode 55: Classic Melee Combat

An Arena Combat Game

Page Last Updated: January 26, 2007

Introduction

You are a young warrior-wizard who is down on his/her luck. As you don't have anything, you figure you would take your chances in the Arena. The arena is a multi-stage competition that places upcoming heroes against a variety of monsters. The crowds watching even throw things into the arena which you can gather and keep. There are 11 separate matches, but in order to participate in a given match, you must have won a match in a proceeding category. Of course, you can repeat any earlier category if you don't feel you are ready for the latest category.

Using the Console

Creating text games is interesting, but my goal was also to present the game in a way that would simulate a teletype machine as close as possible. This is why the game uses my console.

My Teletype Emulator is designed to simulate playing the game on an old teletype machine, down to the dot matrix output. Anybody who has used an old printer knows how slow they were. They were also noisy, but out of the goodness of my heart, I decided to leave the noise out.

For getting input from the user, I decided to go with a fancy LCD model, in which what you type will be send to a LCD display for your approval before being transmitted to the machine. Unlike real machines, my terminal is intelligent and will only let you enter something when the program is requesting input. Any other typing is ignored!

Playing the Game

Once you have selected the arena you want to compete in, you are placed in the arena (you are the *) and can then move around , fight, and pick up items using the game commands. The map uses characters to represent objects as follows:

Weapons

• a - Arrow
• d - Dagger
• s - Short Sword
• S - Sword
• m - Enchanted Sword
• M - Magic Swords

Armor

• l - Leather Armor
• L - Enc. Leather
• c - Chain mail
• C - Enc. Chain mail
• p - Plate mail
• P - Enchanted Plate
• o - Small Shield
• O - Shield
• D - Large Shield

misc

• A - Archer Ring
• e - Protection spell Ring
• E - Energy Spell Ring
• f - Heal Spell Ring
• F - Fire Spell Ring
• h - Healing Potion
• H - Extra Heal Potion
• n - Mana Potion
• N - Ext. Mana Potion
• r - Protection Ring
• R - Extra Protect Ring
• W - Warrior Ring
• $ - Spell Scroll

Monsters

• 1 - Giant Rat
• 2 - Orc
• 3 - Skeleton
• 4 - Shadow
• 5 - Golem
• 6 - Hidder
• 7 - Mummy
• 8 - Minotaur

Game Commands

Commands only require the first character to be entered, though you can type in the entire word if desired.

• Help - These instructions.
• North, South, East, Wes - move.
• Inventory - Go to the inventory system.
• Attack - Attack monster (direction prompted).
• Fire - Launches arrow in prompted direction.
• Cast - casts a known spell.
• Use - Uses currently equipped usable item.
• Get - Gets item in prompted direction.
• Player Properties - Character sheet/advancement.
• Map - displays current map
• Rest - rest a round and regain a point of mana.

Inventory Commands

The inventory is a separate mode that has its own set of commands. Commands, as with the game, only require the first letter.

• Ready - equips item so you can actually use it.
• Unready - returns equipped item to storage.
• Info - displays item information.
• Pickup - If there is an item on the ground, picks it up.
• Drop - Drops an item onto the ground.
• Swap - trades inventory slots (to organize inventory).
• List - Displays list of equipped and storage items.
• Exit - returns to game.

Character Advancement

The skill system this game uses is very flexible allowing you to develop your character exactly the way you want that character to be. As you gain levels, you earn advancement points. When you view the Player Properties, you have the chance to spend some or all of these points to increase the skill levels of the character.

To increase a skill, you simply spend the number of improvement points equal to the level you are increasing the skill to. If you want to increase the skill by more than one point, the number of improvement points is equal to the cumulative of all the single point increases. For example, increasing Strength from 4 to 5 would cost 5 points. Increasing Strength from 5 to 10 would cost 40 points (6+7+8+9+10).

Spell System

Before you can cast a spell, you need to learn it. To learn a spell, you need to find the spell scroll in the arena. Set the spell as your usable item (using the inventory command) and exit the inventory system then use the spell. If you do not know the spell, you will be told how likely it is to learn the spell. If you already know the spell, you will cast it from the scroll which will not cost you any mana. Attempting to learn a spell will use up the scroll even if you fail to learn the spell. Once a spell is learned, you can cast the spell any time provided you have enough mana.

The Fire Magic spells cause fire damage to an opponent. The spells from weakest to strongest are Fire Spark, Fire Bolt, and Fire Ball.

The Energy Magic spells cause energy damage to an opponent. The spells from weakest to strongest are Energy Shock, Energy Bolt, and Engergy Ball.

Protective Magic absorb some of the damage you would receive in damage. The spells from weakest to strongest are Shield, Armor, and Field.

Healing Magic recovers health. The spells from weakest to strongest are Minor Heal, Heal, and Major Heal.

System Requirements

This game is requires Java 1.1 or better to run. Browsers that support 1.1 tend to be 4.x or better versions. Windows XP users may have to download a Java plug in to use Java applets.

Clicking on the link below indicates that you agree to the disclaimer (click here to read).

PLAY Classic Melee Combat

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This game is open source with the source code being hosted at ultimateretroproject.dev.java.net

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