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Dmitry Usmanov.
HEROES OF THE LANCE (Uld, TSR.Inc, Strategic Simulations Inc)
For a long time, the land of the Spear, named for the shape of the rocky mountains that surrounded it, was a benchmark of wealth and prosperity for the entire world. For many generations, it was ruled by the Mishakel dynasty, who lived in a huge royal castle. The Mishakels earned the love and loyalty of the people through their wise governance - for the long millennia they were on the throne, the land of the Spear was untouched by diseases, natural disasters, or other calamities. Few knew that the secret to the happy life of the land of the Spear lay in the Talisman of Power - the magical Disk of Mishakel, the first ruler of the land.
But everything comes to an end, and so did the carefree existence of the inhabitants of the land. Suddenly, from chaos and darkness, Khisant - a huge dragon, the leader of an entire army of evil - came to the land. The king ruling at that time stood against the dragon, but it turned out that neither swords nor axes could harm him, and arrows simply bounced off his hide. Many evils perished in that battle, but for every one killed, two new ones appeared, and soon all the warriors were torn apart by the dragon's army. Khisant himself defeated the king and seized his talisman...
Hard days came for the land of the Spear: The Dragon settled in the former royal castle, from where he only occasionally flew out to feast on another human sacrifice.
All the inhabitants of the land paid Khisant tribute in gold and jewels, which the greedy dragon piled up in his palace. The people dared not even murmur, and then eight brave souls decided to venture into the palace, destroy Khisant, and restore their former life with the help of the Disk of Mishakel.
The team consisted of:
GOLDMOON
Goldmoon: a priestess, daughter of the chief of the Kvi-Shu clan of the land of the Spear. Goldmoon is betrothed to Riverwind, and she possesses the Staff of the Blue Crystal. It is unknown how great the powers hidden within it are, but they are only accessible to Goldmoon.
STURM
Sturm: son of a knight from the land of Solamnia. Sturm is the Bright Blade, a top-notch fighter who learned the art of war in the desert from Flint. By his code of honor, Sturm despises ranged weapons and fights with his two-handed sword in close combat.
CARAMON
Caramon Majers: a trained warrior, he gained his experience traveling with Flint and Tanis. Armed with a dart and a longsword, he is undoubtedly a valuable member of this expedition.
RAISTLIN
Raistlin: brother of Caramon. His remarkable talent for magic pointed him on his path in life. Like all young mages, Raistlin underwent the Test, which strengthened his abilities but diminished his physical power. During this harsh trial, he mastered the Magic Staff.
TANIS
Tanis Tantalos: better known as Tanis Half-Elven. He is a master swordsman and archer; his mixed heritage has made Tanis a deadly fighter. He is the true leader of this expedition.
TASSLEHOFF
Kender Tasslehoff: the Clattering Foot. He possesses a strong curiosity, especially towards the belongings of others. To call him a thief is to inflict a deadly insult upon him, but he truly cannot understand why people are irritated when he takes their property. He fights using a slingshot.
RIVERWIND
Riverwind: an outcast from the Kvi-Shu clan, he is recklessly in love with Goldmoon. With skills acquired during his wanderings, he wields a bow and a longsword. Together with his beloved, he seeks to uncover the secrets of the Staff of the Blue Crystal.
FLINT
Flint: born and raised in the land of the Hill Dwarves. Flint the Fireforge is a master of his craft, a fearless fighter, and a loyal friend of the elves. He kills enemies with throwing axes, and those few who survive are met with the death of his battle axe.
As you may have guessed, you are presented with a classic version of D&D (Dungeons & Dragons), written in the "FANTASY" genre by three major software companies. The resulting program I would, for example, unhesitatingly place in the top ten best games for the SPECTRUM, alongside such masterpieces as "ELITE" and "LASER SQUAD". The game is distinguished by beautiful graphics with many fine details, the perfection of the plot, and the breadth of possible paths to reach the finale. All together, this gives a very vivid result: you will see for yourself that "Heroes of the Lance" is very enjoyable to play.
So, after loading the program and familiarizing yourself with the authors' names, you will be shown a kind of "dossier" on all members of the expedition: you will see a portrait of each character with a brief description (these characteristics, in free form, are presented for your attention a little higher). Next, in the original version of the program, there was a question about the properties of the characters (as a protection against unauthorized copying), the answer to which could only be found in the game manual. In our version, the query means nothing; enter any number, and you will enter the control menu:
Kempston
Sinclair
Keyboard (Q,A,O,P,K)
Navigation through the menu is done with the cursor keys, and ENTER selects the control.
After this, the first block of the game loads, and you are presented with the outer halls of the former royal palace. At the bottom of the screen is a compass showing the cardinal directions, and to the right of it are the portraits of the game's heroes with indicators of each of their life force.
Controlling the heroes is quite simple: besides basic movement, characters can jump (to do this, press "to the side" + "FIRE"), and if your hero has ranged weapons (arrows, axes, magical fire, etc.), you can use these weapons by pressing "FIRE" + "to the side".
You can navigate using the compass: if the letter representing one of the cardinal directions begins to flash, it means there is a passage in that direction, and you can enter it by tilting the joystick up or down. Sometimes, in the labyrinth, you encounter chasms. Try not to fall into them: a character who falls into a chasm cannot be restored by any spell.
To overcome them, it is best to use Raistlin - he can fly with the help of his staff and moves significantly farther than anyone else can jump.
The entire palace is filled with various monsters - goblins, ghosts, zombies, and other evils. They vary greatly in appearance and character (some stand still, others guard territory, and some pursue unwelcome guests). But they are united by one thing - they all desire your death.
You can shoot at them from various weapons at a distance, but if you approach them closely (the inscription "COMBAT" lights up under the compass), then you will have to fight with melee weapons. In battle, the "FIRE" button is not used; by tilting the joystick forward and diagonally, you can strike at the torso, head, or legs of the attacker (the latter is especially important for fighting tarantulas).
If you step back, the distance will gradually increase, and you will exit combat mode.
If you press "SPACE", the main action menu for the characters will appear:
1. Character select
2. Magic user spells
3. Clerical staff spells
4. Use
5. Take
6. Give
7. Drop
8. Save game
9. Restore game
Let's take a closer look at these options.
1. Character select. You can rearrange the characters as you wish: first, select the first character with the yellow cursor (he will be marked in blue), then the second, and they will swap places.
Why do this? The arrangement of heroes in the game is very important; look - the portraits are arranged in two rows of four. The first row consists of those whose portraits are at the top. Behind them are those whose portraits are at the bottom.
The character whose portrait is first in the top row is the active one; you control him at the moment.
It is clear that those in the front row are at greater risk when attacked by the enemy. Therefore, in battles with monsters, injuries are received not only by the one you control, but also by the other characters. The second row is less exposed to danger.
When selecting characters, it is necessary to remember that Raistlin and Goldmoon must always be in the front row; without them, magic and the power of the Holy Staff cannot be used.
During the selection of the first character for exchange, his name and a series of histograms are displayed on the screen, showing:
Strength - physical strength
Intelligence - intelligence
Wisdom - wisdom
Dexterity - dexterity
Constitution - constitution
Charisma - charisma
Hit points - health points
2. Magic user spells - magical spells that you can use if Raistlin is alive and in the front row.
2.1. Burning hands
2.2. Charm
2.3. Sleep
2.4. Web
2.5. Magic missile
2.6. Detect magic
2.7. Detect invisible
2.8. Final strike
2.1. Burning hands. Initially, this spell does not work, but in the nooks of the first level, you can find a magical scroll. It needs to be given to Raistlin and he must read it (use). Raistlin will memorize the new spell: a magical fire of much greater strength than usual will shoot from his staff, and it will fly along a convoluted trajectory. Unfortunately, the spell only works for Raistlin and only once.
2.2. Charm. In constant battles with monsters, you will have no chance of survival unless you call upon higher powers for help. With this spell, you cast a charm on the opponent, and he turns to stone.
2.3. Sleep. A spell that casts sleep on the opponent; it is practically analogous to the previous one, just on some monsters one works better than the other.
2.4. Web. After using this spell, a magical web envelops the monster. The spell affects all opponents, but it triggers much less frequently, as it requires a lot of free magic (which then slowly accumulates again).
2.5. Magic missile. This spell stubbornly refused to work for a long time until I discovered a hidden scroll on the seventh level.
After giving the scroll to Raistlin, I received a new weapon for him: a magical missile bursts forth from his staff, sweeping everything in its path. It only triggers once.
2.6. Detect magic. In the labyrinth, you encounter all sorts of magical items - rings, various potions, and much more. All these items are invisible to the naked eye, but with this spell, you can detect them.
2.7. Detect invisible. A spell similar to the previous one, but it reveals not magic, but hidden treasures.
2.8. Final strike. This spell works only for Raistlin: he breaks his staff, and black forces burst forth from it, destroying absolutely everyone nearby (including the heroes themselves).
3. Clerical staff spells.
They fully manifest only if the Staff of the Blue Crystal is held by Goldmoon (of course, she must be in the front row), but some spells may work if the staff is in the hands of other initiates. If anyone else tries to take it, they risk burning their hand.
Here are these spells:
3.1. Cure light wounds
3.2. Find traps
3.3. Cure critical wounds
3.4. Deflect dragon breath
3.5. Protection from evil
3.6. Hold person
3.7. Spiritual hammer
3.8. Prayer
3.9. Raise dead
Let's examine them in more detail:
3.1. Cure light wounds.
Slightly increases the hero's energy, but requires little power from the Holy Staff.
3.2. Find traps.
In the labyrinth, traps are often encountered - these are mechanisms that trigger when the hero steps on a certain floor tile. A heavy stone slab falls from the ceiling. They are not visible to the ordinary eye, but with this spell, traps are marked by a small flame above the dangerous area. A detected trap still triggers; it must be either jumped over or asked Tasslehoff to disarm it. By the way, Kender Tasslehoff flawlessly detects and disarms any traps, even invisible ones.
3.3. Cure critical wounds.
If you are in dire straits, use this spell, and energy will sharply increase. How much it increases depends on how much power is left in the Holy Staff; if necessary, use this spell again. The energy of each character only increases to the limits granted to them from birth.
3.4. Deflect dragon breath.
This spell is used both to neutralize the fire of small agile dragons and to protect against Khisant himself.
3.5. Protection from evil.
After using this spell, the hero becomes invulnerable to attacks from monsters for a while.
3.6. Hold person.
The effect of this spell is similar to that of charm or sleep, but it acts very selectively (for example, very rarely do tarantulas stop this way). It should be noted that the effect of immobilizing spells continues as long as the object of the spell is within the line of sight of the acting character.
3.7. Spiritual hammer.
The purpose of this spell remains unclear; however, it may help to defeat the ghosts that are abundant in the third, fourth, and sixth levels.
3.8. Prayer.
With a prayer, you can ask the Holy Staff for a bit of luck in battle - your hero temporarily becomes stronger, his defense tougher, his attack faster, etc.
3.9. Raise dead.
If one of the heroes receives a fatal wound, life still lingers in him for a few seconds (in this case, his portrait is enveloped in a light haze). While his soul has not completely left his body (the inscription R.I.P. crosses his image), you can try to resurrect him with this spell. It is best to do this with Goldmoon herself. The spell greatly depletes the Staff of the Blue Crystal.
A person resurrected this way is better kept somewhere in reserve: he will no longer be able to carry heavy loads, and his strike will no longer be the same.
Just don't forget to heal his wounds with the appropriate spell after reviving him. Interestingly, if danger threatens Goldmoon herself, and her powers are waning, Riverwind substitutes for her. Love is indeed a great force...
When using the spells of the Holy Staff, it should be remembered that it can become completely exhausted, as happened to me in the tarantula labyrinth. After desperate attempts to rectify the situation, I found nothing better than to save the game to disk and turn off the computer. When I loaded the game again, the staff began to work again.
4. Use (use item).
All items encountered in "Heroes of the Lance" can be conditionally divided into three groups: magic, treasures, and weapons.
Treasures are not used in any way, but they give extra points, so the mission is one thing, but improving your wealth never hurts. Treasures include coins, pouches of gold, various chalices, gold bars, gems, and much more.
Magic helps in the fight against monsters; it is very hard to find, just like the hidden treasures. Sometimes it makes sense to "illuminate" a suspicious area with a spell to find various potions, rings, or scrolls. When used, an explanatory inscription appears, such as: "your defense has improved," and their effect lasts significantly longer than that of spells.
As a rule, there is still some hint for hidden items: a solitary statue or cupboard, a dead end that is vigilantly guarded by some creature, etc.
Weapons: If a hero throws an axe or dart at an opponent, it can be picked up and used again. For bows in the labyrinth, arrows can be picked up in quivers; moreover, other weapons can be found there, such as swords or shields.
Tasslehoff does not need to replenish ammunition - he can gather stones anywhere, and as for Raistlin and Goldmoon, they can be ignored altogether - they shoot magical flames.
5. Take (take).
By selecting this option, you can take any item that is in close proximity to you - whether it is lying on the floor, hanging on the wall, or is completely invisible - it does not matter.
6. Give (give).
With this option, you can pass items from one character to another.
7. Drop (drop item).
8. Save game (save game).
Saving the game state to disk.
9. Restore game (load game).
An unpleasant feature of this option is the inability to exit it "safely." If it is accidentally selected (and it is, unfortunately, located next to the "EXIT MENU" option), then whether you want to or not, you will have to load the last save.
Briefly about the peculiarities of the game levels:
* On the first level, you can become quite rich by stuffing your pockets with various treasures; you can discover the first magical scroll from magic. Your task is to exit to the second level through a round hole in the wall.
* On the second level, I recommend you check out the alchemist's laboratory - you will find something interesting. For the first time, you will encounter a chasm that you need to jump over to proceed.
* The third level is unusual; it has not one exit, but two: to the sixth and fourth levels. From there, you can choose the routes 3-4-5-8 or 3-6-7-8. They are essentially equivalent, choose according to your preference.
* The fourth level: Here you can find magical rings to strengthen powers. To reach the exit, you will have to fly over several chasms.
* The fifth level is a gigantic tangled maze in the form of underground burrows, which has been taken over by many spiders - tarantulas. Their bite is very dangerous, and killing them is quite difficult. Sleep and charm spells work well on spiders. Look for places where the ceiling has collapsed and blocked the passage - such debris often contains precious stones.
* The sixth level is another huge maze, although of a completely different kind than the fifth - the road constantly branches out in all four cardinal directions, full of chasms and traps. On this level, you will mainly have to move as Raistlin, as he is the only one who can fly over such huge chasms.
* The seventh level is littered with treasures that are worth picking up. I advise you not to immediately enter the large wooden doors - they lead to the eighth level. It is better to explore the seventh first. On this level, you can find another magical scroll.
* The eighth level is the finale. You can enter here, but you cannot exit. The "Save game" and "Restore game" options do not work here, and this is where the lair of the dragon Khisant is located. He will try to burn you with his breath (I hope you haven't forgotten how to avoid this). The dragon cannot be killed with any weapon or spell except "final strike," and as they say, it's too early for us to die...
There is a way out: Approach the dragon with Goldmoon and throw the Holy Staff of the Blue Crystal at him. The dragon, a spawn of darkness, will clash with the forces of light hidden in the Staff and explode, and with the death of the dragon, his lair will begin to collapse. You need to find the legendary Disk of Mishakel within seconds before the ceiling collapses, or it will be too late.
I hope you will be able to find this disk and restore the happy life in the land of the Spear and beyond.
- - -
And finally, I would like to say a few words about the fate of this program in our country.
"Heroes of the Lance" appeared to us in a version disketted by the Moscow hacker WALSOFT. I do not know whether WALSOFT himself spoiled this game or if it had already reached him in a "broken" state, but all versions of the program distributed in the markets "froze" when half of the levels had already been completed.
Subsequently, WALSOFT himself russified his "broken" version of the game, but he did so very inaccurately: some words and expressions can still be understood, say "rotik" means dart, "spell of evil" means "hold person," but some are translated completely incorrectly. For example, try to guess what "Bright Light" means "Cure light wounds," and under the heading "item list" hides the option "use." Naturally, this program also did not work.
But this version of the game was not left alone either. The "KSA software & ANDY 2" team took on the task. They took WALSOFT's russified version, packaged it, added music to the loader, and russified the characters' characteristics. Here they really showed themselves...
First of all, they renamed WALSOFT to "WALFACK," probably due to their deep knowledge of the English language; and, of course, with such knowledge, they began to translate the text. If the first characteristics can still be called a translation, then further they apparently competed with each other "who would outdo whom": the Kvi-Shu clan turned into the good father Kvishus, the father-in-law of Riverwind; Tanis mourns for his drowned wife, and Flint, besides being "the friend of the elves" (learn, guys, Russian - it will be useful in life), is also "the world champion in high diving on his ears from a springboard."
Well, it is clear that the kids were having fun as they could... But why release a mutilated program for sale?!!
I searched for a working version of the program for a long time, but to no avail.
So it would have remained, impassable, gathering dust on my disks, if not for the help of the editorial team of the magazine "SPECTROFON"...
FROM THE EDITORIAL TEAM "S": Indeed, after digging around with this game for some time, we managed to restore its original version. The thing is that "HEROES OF THE LANCE" is a multi-level game, and even back in the days of hacking the cassette version, one of the hackers got confused in the downloads and did not notice how an error crept into the game. To notice it, one had to pass at least five levels. But now all our readers have a fully working version of this wonderful game.
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Contents of the publication: Spectrofon #06
- Экспретиза - Дмитрий Усманов
Review of 'Heroes of the Lance' for ZX Spectrum, focusing on gameplay mechanics, character roles, and the challenges faced by Russian gamers due to faulty localizations.
- Дебют - Дмитрий Усманов
The article reviews two arcade games for ZX Spectrum: 'The Munsters' and 'Star Paws'. 'The Munsters' combines arcade action with adventure elements, focusing on creating Frankenstein, while 'Star Paws' challenges players to hunt cosmic birds with limited resources. Tips on gameplay mechanics and controls are provided.
- Экзамен
Summary of answers to Spectrofon #05 tasks, winners Sergey Semenov and Andrey Shkolnikov. Detailed solutions for 'ROBIN OF SHERWOOD' adventure game tasks. New challenge in 'HEROES OF THE LANCE' awaits responses.
- Обзор
An overview of recent software releases for ZX Spectrum on the Moscow market, discussing Elite-2's protection removal, Hero Quest's save issues, and a comparison of game charts from Moscow and Omsk.
- С миру по биту
Discussion on mail volume, software protection issues, and TR-DOS versions. Challenges in standardizing ZX Spectrum hardware. Invitation for collaboration on standardization.
- Система
Discussion on data bus instability when connecting a music coprocessor and an effective schematic solution from Moscow radio amateurs.
- Реклама
Advertisement for acquiring the SPECTROFON magazine, collaborating with authors and distributors, and purchasing hardware and software for ZX Spectrum.
