| Kroz | |
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| Developer(s) | Scott Miller |
| Publisher(s) | Apogee Software |
| Designer(s) | Scott Miller |
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS |
| Release date | 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Maze |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Input methods | Keyboard |
The Kroz series is a series of video games created by Scott Miller. A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual that creates Video games A developer may specialize in a certain video Scott Miller is an Entrepreneur and former Game programmer. Miller is the founder and CEO of Apogee Software, Ltd 3D Realms (legal name Apogee Software Ltd) is the name of a video and computer game producer (not publisher and developer based in Garland Texas, a suburb of A "game designer" is a person who designs Video games or one who designs traditional games such as Board games Video Games Designer A video game designer Scott Miller is an Entrepreneur and former Game programmer. Miller is the founder and CEO of Apogee Software, Ltd In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) See also [[Game classification]] Video games are categorized into Genres based on their Gameplay interaction A maze is a complex Tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route In video gaming, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. Scott Miller is an Entrepreneur and former Game programmer. Miller is the founder and CEO of Apogee Software, Ltd The first episode in the series, Kingdom of Kroz, was released in 1987 as Apogee Software's first game. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) 3D Realms (legal name Apogee Software Ltd) is the name of a video and computer game producer (not publisher and developer based in Garland Texas, a suburb of It was also published on Big Blue Disk #20. Big Blue Disk was a monthly Disk magazine that was published by Softdisk Publishing starting in 1986 getting its name from the nickname for IBM, "Big The story of the game places the player as an archeologist searching for the priceless Magical Amulet of Kroz in the mystical Kingdom of Kroz. The object of the game is to survive numerous levels of attacking monsters.
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Technical implementation
The game was implemented entirely in the text mode of the PC, using various characters in the computer's character set, as well as different colors, to present a "graphical" environment. IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. IBM PC or MS-DOS Code page 437, often abbreviated CP437 and also known as DOS-US, OEM-US or sometimes misleadingly referred This is not quite ASCII art, because it used the proprietary graphical characters of the IBM PC character set as well as standard ASCII characters, and also depended on the setting of foreground and background colors for individual characters; such a combination was sometimes termed ANSI art, but that is a misnomer in this case because the ANSI escape sequences were not used. History Typewriter art Since 1867 typewriters have been used for creating visual art ANSI art is a computer artform that was widely used at one time on BBSes.
Gameplay
The player character collects gems as he goes; each time a monster touches him, he loses a gem and the monster dies. A player character or playable character (PC is a Fictional character in a Video game or Role playing game who is controlled or controllable The character's main defense consists of whips which can be used to kill monsters and destroy certain walls; however, each whip can only be used once. Some levels are generated randomly; these tend to be rather chaotic, and essentially consist of a mad dash through waves of attacking enemies to pick up valuable objects and/or escape to the stairway. A major part of the game is careful conservation of gems and whips; sometimes it is better to allow an enemy to take a gem rather than use valuable whips that will be needed to break down walls blocking the exit.
Inspiration
The Kroz games were inspired by an earlier dungeon crawling game, Rogue. A dungeon crawl is a type of role-playing adventure in which heroes navigate a Labyrinthine environment battling various monsters and looting any treasure they may Rogue popularized the Dungeon crawling computer game dating back from 1980. Scott Miller tried to create a game that had some of the elements of Rogue, but was less random and relied more on the abilities of the player than on luck. (See also: roguelike)
Distribution and episodes
The game was originally distributed as shareware. A roguelike is a member of the role-playing video game genre that borrows its name and gameplay elements from the 1980 computer game The term shareware, popularized by Bob Wallace, refers to Copyrighted commercial Software that is Distributed without payment on a trial It was later expanded to consist of seven episodes, with only the first episode distributed as shareware, and the rest available commercially. The episodes are:
- The Original Kroz Trilogy:
- The Super Kroz Trilogy
- Episode 7: The Lost Adventures of Kroz (1990), containing 75 levels
Although Kingdom of Kroz was the first episode released, it was later marketed as the third episode in the series (as Kingdom of Kroz I), with episodes two and three moving up one place. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar) Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar)
In 1990, an enhanced version of Kingdom of Kroz was released as Kingdom of Kroz II, which became the shareware episode of the series. Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Kingdom of Kroz II was quite different from the original version, and incorporated 17 different levels, many of them from later games in the series, especially from The Lost Adventures of Kroz. The original Kingdom of Kroz I stopped being distributed as shareware, but was still available commercially. For a time, the series consisted of seven commercial episodes (including the original Kingdom of Kroz I), plus an enhanced version of one of them (Kingdom of Kroz II) distributed as shareware. During this time, to be able to buy the commercial episodes, the shareware episode had to be registered first.
In 1991, the other two episodes of the first trilogy were enhanced to their "II" versions, and the original Kingdom of Kroz I stopped being available, being replaced by its enhanced version. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar.
The original Kingdom of Kroz was written in Turbo Pascal 3. Turbo Pascal is a complete software development system that includes a Compiler and an Integrated Development Environment (IDE for the Pascal programming language 0; later games were written in Turbo Pascal 5. 0. At one point in time people could buy the source code of Kingdom of Kroz for $190, Return to Kroz for $350 and The Lost Adventures of Kroz for $950. Later the source code of Kingdom of Kroz II was for sale for $400, Return to Kroz for $300 and The Lost Adventures of Kroz for $500.
The games were discontinued in 1999, and are no longer sold by Apogee. Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar)
Episode 8: The Underground Empire of Kroz was planned to be released in March 1991, but it was cancelled.
Trivia
- Miller, fond of including backwards words in his games, came up with the name by spelling Zork backwards. Zork was one of the first Interactive fiction Computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. However, many people have also interpreted Kroz as a pun on Oz.
- The original Kingdom of Kroz game took top honors in the game category in a programming contest in 1988, and came out number two overall. Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar)
- A "homage" to the game can be found in the cheat code used to turn the God Mode in Duke Nukem 3D (DNKROZ)
References
- Documentation inside Kingdom of Kroz and Kingdom of Kroz II
- Digital Apogee catalog distributed with shareware episode
See also
External links
God mode is a state in some Video games wherein the player character is invulnerable to damage Duke Nukem 3D is a First-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. ZZT is an ANSI -based computer game, created in 1991 by Tim Sweeney, of Epic Games (then Epic Megagames who later The Thor Trilogy (also known as Caves of Thor) is a maze Video game published in 1989 by Apogee Software (now 3D Realms MobyGames is a Website devoted to cataloging computer and video games, both past and presentDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic