Octopus Overlords

Was wandering around YouTube the other day and came across some interesting vids.

Might and Magic 6 & 7 had been both my number one game and number one RPG for a long time until Gothic 2 game out. But I still have very very fond memories of Might and Magic and would most likely put in a pre order If they would ever do another (REAL) one. Some of the things that grabbed me about the series were the bright colors. Might and Magic was not about earth tones. I also liked how you can level up and up and up (I'm talking to your Fallout). I loved how they added the ability to fly; I much prefer that to fast travel. And I also loved the music. Vocals were sparse in the game but they did not go cheap on the full orchestrated sound score. Some of the tunes in the game were so amazing, it was hard to believe that they were actually composed for a game.

Here are two of my favorite tunes from the series (with my names)

Heaven
Celeste
the soaring violins make me think fluffy clouds, the male choir has me thinking angels

and Hell
Arena
I love how at 1:22, it brings to mind the phrase "the devil has the best beat"

The musical pieces in the game were usually perfectly suited for where ever you were in the game world. Mucho respect for music guys Rob King and Steve Baca making a fun game great.

I've played M&M6 multiple times and never completed it. My wife bought me the original game then a few years ago I found the collector's version at Big Lots and got that. I loved the game but I guess I just suck at them. I either got stuck or got tired of playing. Now days the graphics bug me, the whore that I have become. But for their time they were amazing. I still remember looking repeatedly at the box art for The Magic Candle in Software Etc each time I'd go to the mall around 1991 or 1992 or so.

On M&M6 I recall running out of gold a lot too. Heals and potions I think. I loved to fight too much.

One of the first RPGs I ever played on the PC (and definitely the first one I ever finished) was Might & Magic 3. One thing I really loved about it was the map. Fog of war tile by tile until you had explored it. I loved going row by row and column by column exploring, never knowing what was in the next square.

Still have very fond memories of that game and can still remember some of the NPC soundbites.

I jumped into the Might & Magic series with Might & Magic 4 & 5. They were the first two games I actually completed. I loved uncovering the map and the combat system was a blast. Unfortunately I bought Might & Magic 6 a week before I discovered Ultima Online. I never went back and tried to play Might & Magic 6 after that.

I think Wizardry 8 comes close to capturing some of the Might & Magic feeling.

-Hrnac

YellowKing wrote:One of the first RPGs I ever played on the PC (and definitely the first one I ever finished) was Might & Magic 3. One thing I really loved about it was the map. Fog of war tile by tile until you had explored it. I loved going row by row and column by column exploring, never knowing what was in the next square.

Still have very fond memories of that game and can still remember some of the NPC soundbites.

I loved the "I see you have the key" sound bite from MM 4 & 5.

-Hrnac

I have fond memories of M&M too! I'm glad I'm not the only one who like all sorts of aspects of the games including the music! M&M was part of my Golden Age of Gaming - where I'm not saying the games were all that awesome objectively but they sure felt that way. I was ten or eleven, the games came to me as part of a trade for other stuff (I thinkl I gave away a much-played Centurion Defender of Rome game) and in those days, I played a game to the bitter end. Then played it again. And again. Then invented my own rules and conditions and played it again.

Today, I mostly look at how pretty a game is, briefly consider if I want to figure out the effectiveness of this or that troop or tactic, play a little, and move on.

(For years, I'd see shrink-wrapped used copies of M&M games at ElectronicsBoutiques, but I'd always pass on them. I'm generally not so much into nostalgia, at least not enough to spend money on it, but maybe I should have made an exception for the M&M games. I just have a strong suspicion that I'd no longer enjoy 'em and I'd probably think (of my 10-year-old self) "What was I smokin'?")

So I doubt I go back and ever play the series again.

Every time I've ever gone back to a "classic" game from my younger years I've ended up being disappointed. So I've stopped retro-gaming. While intellectually I know graphics shouldn't matter, I inevitably wind up growing bored within a few minutes.

If I could find them still available and cheap enough, though, I'd be tempted.

Another series I absolutely loved was the D&D Eye of the Beholder series. First game I ever had a sound card for. The opening cinematic with rain and thunder coming down absolutely blew me away.

The one I spent a lot of time on was Might & Magic VII.

There was something about Might & Magic that just really clicked for me. It was fun. I wouldn't say that it was a good game, exactly, but there was just this sense of fun about playing it that I really don't think I've had from a roleplaying game since.

Partly, I think it was tone - I am SO BORED of RPGs where you have to rescue your beloved wife/child/cute pet hamster and save the world from the ancient predictable evil. I mean, okay, yes, M&M was all about saving the world from evil - or cursing it with evil, if that was what floated your boat - but that wasn't how it started. You never set out as the chosen hero who is the only one who can save the world. You set out trying to buy cucumber sandwiches for your Mum's garden party, or going on a scavenger hunt or something, and all the saving/damning the world kind of happens by accident.

And I loved that. Because, quite honestly, I don't play RPGs because I want to save the world. I play RPGs because I want to punch dragons in the face and nick their treasure - and it was great to have a game that was honest about that. It never tried to make you feel guilty for doing something interesting, instead of what you were supposed to be doing.

And the whole balance of the game seemed to fit into that light-hearted tone, in a way that's very hard to describe. Man I miss New World.

Good point. They managed to make fantasy light-hearted without descending into Piers Anthony levels of parody. That's a very hard thing to balance but they pulled it off.

Everybody knows gog.com offers M@M 1-6 as a pack for a 10 dollar download, right?

I also miss New World Computing. But for games like Planet's Edge.

I also loved Centurion Defender of Rome. I rented and played it to death many times on my Sega Genesis...16 bit!!

YellowKing wrote:..... Still have very fond memories of that game and can still remember some of the NPC soundbites.

One of the guys I worked with at the time was playing the Might and Magic 4/5 with his daughter. His daughter loved the little didys they used when ever you would enter one of the shops. So after a while one of the Might and Magic soundbite we used to use to greet each other on occasion was:

"Welcome to the guild"

I tried to find it on the web but no luck.

I tried really hard with M&M 6 and 7 but could never get into the series. I always got bored after a few hours.

But then I really never got into any of the "classic" RPG series. Only one Ultima got significant time. Only one Wizardry got significant time. Those two M&M's were the only two I really did much with. At least I played all the games in the Eye of the Beholder series!

Everybody knows gog.com offers M@M 1-6 as a pack for a 10 dollar download, right?

You just made my weekend.

rmielech wrote:Everybody knows gog.com offers M@M 1-6 as a pack for a 10 dollar download, right?

I've had that for a while.

Epic fail story: I started a game of M&M 1. I remember watching my brothers play it as a kid. I roll up a party and run off to explore. I'm an RPG veteran, what do I have to worry about? I run into a pack of poltergeists in the first town who proceed to slaughter my whole party...

YellowKing wrote:

Everybody knows gog.com offers M@M 1-6 as a pack for a 10 dollar download, right?

You just made my weekend.

Do they work on 7x64? I bought the M@M complete pack of 1-6 years ago and couldn't get it to work on ME, much less XP, Vista, 7, 7x64.

I'd think about dropping $10 for 1 -6 if it works on 7x64. M@M III was one of my favorites back in the day.

While it doesn't explicitly support Win7 on GOG, I ran across some forum posts from folks saying they were running it fine on Win7/x64. For $10 I'm willing to take the chance.

Played MM6-7-8 to death and it seems to run just fine for me...

YellowKing wrote:While it doesn't explicitly support Win7 on GOG, I ran across some forum posts from folks saying they were running it fine on Win7/x64. For $10 I'm willing to take the chance.

I've been running it on 7/64 with nary a hiccup.

M&M from GOG runs great on my Win 7 x64. And I've tried them all.

While GOG does not officially offer Win 7 support for a lot of games, I have played quite a few on win 7 and run into no problems (at least, none not already present).

LordMortis wrote: Fri Dec 03, 2010 4:45 pm

YellowKing wrote:

Everybody knows gog.com offers M@M 1-6 as a pack for a 10 dollar download, right?

You just made my weekend.

Do they work on 7x64? I bought the M@M complete pack of 1-6 years ago and couldn't get it to work on ME, much less XP, Vista, 7, 7x64.

I'd think about dropping $10 for 1 -6 if it works on 7x64. M@M III was one of my favorites back in the day.

14 years later, I'm thinking it's time to go back and see if I can enjoy this. I've bought M&M no fewer than three times and yet haven't played it since it's initial release. I'm in the mood for this sort of thing and we'll see how long I'll stay in the mood for a game from the mid to late 80s to begin with. I'ma start with 1 and see where it goes....

I played through and completed Might & Magic X - Legacy close to when it was released. I recall enjoying it, but it looks to have mixed reviews now on Steam.

I thought Might & Magic X was fine. Never understood the criticism with that one. I remember some grumbling about the DLC and access to it. But overall, I thought the game came close to capturing a similar feel to previous titles. I liked it and played maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the game. Will probably give it another shot someday.

Anyway, I've tried various titles again over the years, and haven't gotten extremely far with them. They all have gameplay that is quirky and sometimes that hastens my wandering off to other games. I most recently re-tried MM1 and it was a little rough. I know MM2 is extremely similar.

MM3 had the UI overhaul and some people love that title. For me though, my favorites were 4 and 5. I loved those Xeen titles, though the leveling is wonky these days, with the split world gameplay. It remains the only one (or two) that I beat.

I remember playing a LOT of MM6 and getting pretty far, but don't remember a lot about it. I vaguely recall trying to replay it got frustrating quicker than I thought it would. Likewise, I know I played 7-9 at various times (probably release) but I thought it was annoying when they converted to freeform movement. And wasn't 9 like buggy or half-baked?

Regardless of my lack of progress/completion - it's still one of my favorite series of games.

Yeah 9 was a disaster. And to this day the only PC game I've ever physically thrown in the trash out of frustration.

World of Xeen along with Might & Magic 6-7 are still some of my top RPGs ever. A remaster of any / all would be insta-buy for me.

... And M&M one might be right out. The screen reads scroll too quickly for me to read and I can't find a way to slow them down. There is no NEWS for me to remember my direction. And finally spell casting doesn't give me a list of spells so I have to page through a pdf back and forth from sorcerer to cleric. If this were a different age, I'd go through to relive the game anyway but that's a bit much for me. I guess I'll move on to 2 and if it's an identical UI, then I'll go to 3...

I looked up the Might and Magic bundle on GOG and bought it (MM 1-6). I tried starting at MM 4&5 but I don't know if I can handle the graphics. Which is weird because while looking up old school RPGs I found Moonring (free on Steam) which has worse graphics. However, I must say that Moonring has a pretty nifty auto-notes system and it does have an in-game minimap. I also like how Moonring doesn't make you read a whole lot of backstory and feed you exposition; you have to find out about the world through scraps of paper and short conversations with NPCs.

After I finish Moonring I may end up going straight to MM6 or buying A Quest that Became Legend, which is a party-based RPG inspired by the Might and Magic series.