ASCII Turbo File

[scribblemacher]

I don't know much about Famicom accessories...

I have a US NES front loader and I play my Famicom games using a Honeybee adapter. I'm a big fan of Wizardry and am wondering if I can use the ASCII Turbo File (or the Turbo File II, I think they have the same capabilities but the TF2 has more memory) to play the Lylgamyn trilogy on my NES with the same party. Will this accessory work on my frontloading NES or do I need an actual Famicom?

[ulera]

The Nes lacks a usable expansion port. Any famicom accessories that require one won't work.

[P]

Chykn was working on an 15-pin EXP Connector adapter for the NES.

http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=8187.0

I have no idea if it has been tested with the Turbo File, but it is definitely for the sake of these kind of accessories it was made. Try asking in that thread.

[crade]

part 2 of this question, which I don't know the answer unfortunately, is once you get past the adapters are the saved parties from the NES version of the wizardry games compatible with the famicom carts?

[ulera]

You mean the games save files? Possibly. If you have a save dumper you could try it but I couldn't tell you if it would work or not.

[crade]

Not sure if it's the whole save files or just a portion or what..  Whatever those "ascii turbo" things use to enable moving your party from one wizardry game to the next.

The games themselves are apparently quite a bit different, so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work.

[scribblemacher]

Not sure if it's the whole save files or just a portion or what..  Whatever those "ascii turbo" things use to enable moving your party from one wizardry game to the next.

The games themselves are apparently quite a bit different, so I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work.

They are? In what ways? I just figured they were the same games, but the Famicom had the dual-language options (and of course Wiz3 wasn't released in the US).

[P]

Oh there are NES versions too? I thought you were talking about the Famicom versions.

If they didn't remove the Turbo File code entirely and if the save files are compatible it could maybe be accessible with a Gamegenie or something.

[crade]

the second game in the NES version is apparently very different and has different maps and is actually the third game in the famicom series.  It might not make sense to transfer your party from the third game back to the start of the second game

[scribblemacher]

the second game in the NES version is apparently very different and has different maps and is actually the third game in the famicom series.  It might not make sense to transfer your party from the third game back to the start of the second game

I wonder if the maps are the same as those used for the PC version.

EDIT: I just fired on the Famicom version via an emulator. I only walked around the first level, but it seems identical to the NES map, which is different from the PC map.

I'm semi confused on the Famicom order here. Wizardry: Knight of Diamonds clearly says "second senario" and Wizardry: Legacy of Ilylgamyn clearly says "the thirds senario". These coincide with the PC releases. So I'm a little confused why people consistently refer to Legacy of Ilylgamyn as "Wizardry 2" when it is the 3rd game in on every other platform and even the Famicom version's box says "third senario". I guess it's because of the release dates of the Famicom versions. I guess you can import a characters into Legacy of Ilylgamyn, which keeps your levels on the Famicom.

On the PC, I think importing into Wizardry 3 just made your characters the ancestors of the party from Wiz1 & 2, and you started at level 1. I might be wrong on that though.

[crade]

  I don't really know, I'm just paroting what I heard.
To be honest, I still haven't been able to beat the first one on either platform so I haven't even touched the second and third.  Someone told me the maps were very different on the famicom version, but they may have just been on crack.

Everyone always says the order of the last 2 is reversed in the famicom version, but I don't know why.

[P]

I would assume it's just a baseless rumour but then I found this: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/70567-wizardry-on-the-famicom/

If this is correct then the third game was released before the second so they could re-balance the game so that people could start a new game with a Lv 1 party on the second game (Knight of Diamonds) without transferring data via Turbo File. Also only a few maps were changed.

Maybe ASCII wrote "Second Scenario" and "Third Scenario" correctly despite the fact that they were released in the wrong order.

[scribblemacher]

Having played both KoD on PC and on NES, the maps are different enough that I'd consider them two different games.

So it looks like I was on the right track. KoD's maps were probably altered in the course of rebalancing it. I'd suspect that there are many monsters that appear in the Famicom/NES version but not the PC and vise versa. This would also explain something that I've thought for years: that KoD is infinitely more polished than the other two games in the Ilylgamyn series. It feels more varied, more balanced, and like it was actually meant to be an NES game.

I should pick up the Famicom versions of the Proving Grounds and KoD, just for an excuse to replay them and compare my maps for the NES version. There's something about these types of games that I just can't get enough.

To be honest, I still haven't been able to beat the first one on either platform so I haven't even touched the second and third.

The 1st game is nails to the wall hard. I've heard that there's a bug in AC in the NES version that makes it essentially useless. In the NES version, you can just hit the reset button when a battle goes wrong, and I did that a lot on the 10th floor. Werdna actually wasn't too hard, but I managed to silence him the first round (something I don't think I was able to do on the PC version). I'm glad I did silence him, because he was trying to cast tiltowait like every other round.

[crade]

I refuse to cheat, but I have gotten to the 10th floor a couple times and slowly started to map the place out, only to be completely wiped out by some monster in like 2 rounds..
Then I tried to keep 2 parties leveled up so I could always go rescue, but they both got zapped at once hehe

AC certainly isn't useless, the characters with good AC get hit much less often than the other characters (if they are in the fighting line).  I have actually spent a ton of time playing the first one.

lol, I have a love hate relationship with that game.

Edit:

Yeah, tiltowait, thats the one they use..  You get a few mages together who get the jump on you ur fubared