Eye of the Beholder 1

[Kosta]

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/98)

[Omuletzu]

I have tried every game in the "eye of the beholder" series and i can't seem to grasp one aspect of this game:attacking.It's kind of embarrassing, but i haven't been able to find out how you attack.To bad because this game seems real interesting.I've tried the setup file but nothing.It seems that the controls are predefinite.If so can anybody type down a list of controls? :?

[Kosta]

I believe this was discussed in a topic before... There is a key you have to press if I recall right. Well, I mika will drop by soon and tell us hopefully :)

[Omuletzu]

Well i hope he answers soon because this game seems promising...REAL promising

[LotharGR]

If i remember correctly, to attack, you arm a weapon to the character and press the left ( or right? can't remember ) mouse button on the weapon picture in the hand of the character.... The characters in the front ( the two characters in the top of the char. list ) can use any weapon, but the character in the middle row and the 3rd row can use only spears and bows ( i think ). In EOB 3 there was a large button "Group attack" i think also, that forced all the characters attack at once.

[mika]

Thats it. You need to put a weapon into a persons weapon slot and then right-click on that weapon to use it. The people have to be able to "reach" the target so if a target is on the left hand side - only the left-front person can hit them. The left-back person must have a ranged weapon or use magic to do any damage. If there is one beast attacking, it usually stands in the middle so that both left and right people can hit him - considerate isn't he ;)

[Omuletzu]

okay thanks a lot mika, hope this works.

[KALABALIK]

Originally posted by Omuletzu@Apr 26 2004, 03:04 PM
I have tried every game in the "eye of the beholder" series and i can't seem to grasp one aspect of this game:attacking.It's kind of embarrassing, but i haven't been able to find out how you attack.To bad because this game seems real interesting.I've tried the setup file but nothing.It seems that the controls are predefinite.If so can anybody type down a list of controls? :?

USE THE MOUSE?

[TheVoid]

Thanks for help.....but I think Omuletzu got over the problem some months ago...... :D

[>>JDFLIWEU)OTU]

I love this series. Another GREAT SERIES was Lands of Lore.....the first one was the best in my opinion......still have it too LOL!

[iron maiden]

does anybody know how to get out of the first dungeon
i found 4 keys used 3 and running in circles now :crazy:

[scorch3000]

Here's a tip for you all. In the first level, you find a scroll in a hole in the wall towards the levels end. Place a dagger in the hole to complete a bonus quest, and receave a new magic dagger (no magic powers, just 2X more powerfull then normal daggers)

[El Pollo]

When I created the characters for my party I was able to adjust all their attributes to their maximum value. Is this an original feature of the game or is it cracked ?


I've also a nice Hint for you :

In the second level there are strange holes in some of the walls (I think 4 at all). Put a dagger into each one of them. Then go back to all of the holes and under each one you will find a big food ration. This is very useful as food gets rare in the later levels.

[Nathan]

A friend just gave me the Forgotten Realms Archives for Christmas (which includes all the Eye of the Beholder titles), but he didn't have the manuals for the games so I don't have any of the copy protection codes. Can anyone tell me where I might be able to find them? I specifically want the ones for EOB 1, 2, & 3.

[Mad-E-Fact]

Originally posted by El Pollo@Nov 24 2004, 04:29 PM
When I created the characters for my party I was able to adjust all their attributes to their maximum value. Is this an original feature of the game or is it cracked ?


I've also a nice Hint for you :

In the second level there are strange holes in some of the walls (I think 4 at all). Put a dagger into each one of them. Then go back to all of the holes and under each one you will find a big food ration. This is very useful as food gets rare in the later levels.
A lot of the old AD&D games had the option to modify your stats, so you were actually able to fine-tune your chars as you saw fit, instead of relying on the dices alone. Of course it's quite boring when you run around with a party of maxed out super-humans. ;)

[Nick-Nitro]

hi all iv been playing these games sinces i was nine food is only important untill your cleric can develp to skill leveal 5 when you will be able to use the spell create food try and seach every level very carfully aspecaily one with thoes stupided telaports on the darwfan levels do no attack the dwarfs there is a clirick there that can raies dead very usefull when you meet the horrible spiders that poisen and parilise your party

[sid]

heres a link to find the answers to the eob 1, 2 + 3 copyprotection:


http://members.tripod.com/~stanislavs/games/eob1.htm

[hellokits]

The manual doesnt work.

[Servius]

I am having the same problem with the copy protected codes. And can't seem to find a web site that has the manual for the game other then for the gameboy or snes. If someone knows of a website that has the pc version of the manual and could post it on this forum I would be grateful. :ok:

[Guest]

Originally posted by Servius@Feb 10 2005, 08:05 AM
I am having the same problem with the copy protected codes. And can't seem to find a web site that has the manual for the game other then for the gameboy or snes. If someone knows of a website that has the pc version of the manual and could post it on this forum I would be grateful. :ok:
hmmm. I just typed a 'K' and everything went fine.
Just type 1 letter.
I dl-ed it from Abandonia.

[Servius]

Thank you very much, it actually worked :w00t: :cheers: :Titan:

[Sebulba]

Copy protection codes:-

Hope these help.


--------------------------------------------------
symbol | Line | Word |
SHIELD | 1 | 2 | RANK |
SHIELD | 3 | 3 | WEAPONS |
SHIELD | 4 | 2 | CERTAIN |
SHIELD | 4 | 3 | SHORT |
SHIELD | 5 | 1 | REAR |
SHIELD | 6 | 2 | AWAY |
SHIELD | 6 | 6 | LINE |
SHIELD | 9 | 2 | CAN |
SHIELD | 10 | 2 | ATTACKS |
EGG | 1 | 3 | CLERICS |
EGG | 3 | 1 | PUMMEL |
EGG | 3 | 4 | MYSTIC |
CROSS | 1 | 5 | DUNGEON |
CROSS | 2 | 2 | CURSOR |
CROSS | 3 | 6 | FEATURE |
CROSS | 5 | 1 | INFORMATION |
CROSS | 6 | 3 | DISPLAYED |
CROSS | 7 | 1 | BELOW |
BOOK | 1 | 1 | AROUND |
BOOK | 3 | 2 | CAREFREE |
BOOK | 6 | 1 | GNOMES |
ARMOR | 2 | 1 | HOUND |
ARMOR | 3 | 3 | DISTURBING |
ARMOR | 4 | 2 | FLAMING |
MACE | 1 | 1 | WEALTH |
MACE | 4 | 3 | OFFICIAL |
MACE | 5 | 3 | WIZARD |
FLAIL | 3 | 3 | USING |
FLAIL | 4 | 3 | FITNESS |
FLAIL | 5 | 3 | TOUGHNESS |
--------------------------------------------------

[Parkingtigers]

This game was responsible for one of the most anti-climatic gaming experiences of my life. I loved this game, it was like Dungeon Master (though not quite as good) but with better graphics. I remember playing it every night for 2 weeks, ignoring all others so that I could crack this one. That's the way all the best games you ever loved were played right? Anyway, I finally reached the end ...

*SPOILER WARNING*








The final boss is not recognisable as a boss. There was this tiny little room, with a beholder in it (and how was I to know it was *the* beholder eh?), and after many frustrating attempts I managed to kill him. And he was tough. Turns out you are supposed to use a certain wand to knock him back into this spike trap to kill him, cheers for not letting us know that in advance you buggers ... still I did kill him though. But here was the kicker: SSI were too cheap to pay for the extra disc, so while you got a lovely animated intro to the game, upon killing the final boss you just got a page of text saying you've won and were given a reward! Imagine how I felt after 2 weeks of solid adventuring, to kill the final boss without recognising him and then getting a pitiful page of end story and dumped out into DOS without even a by your leave. So sad ... I can remember now how it felt to sit there, so disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, it is a great game and I look forward to looking at it again with a nostalgic smile on my face, but boy they really kicked me in the dangly bits all those years ago. I never finished that many games, I mean who does? But when I did, I wanted it to at least match the rest of the game in terms of content and style.

[KrVoLoK]

Originally posted by Nathan@Dec 3 2004, 01:17 AM
A friend just gave me the Forgotten Realms Archives for Christmas (which includes all the Eye of the Beholder titles), but he didn't have the manuals for the games so I don't have any of the copy protection codes. Can anyone tell me where I might be able to find them? I specifically want the ones for EOB 1, 2, & 3.
Try eMule or any other p2p app for 'eye of the beholder rulebook'. ;)
Anyways, EOB is one of the best RPG games ever. :ok:

[HELLCHILD]

THANK´S FOR THE GAME ABANDONIA!WORKS FINE AND I CAN EAVEN PLAY IT AT WORK AT THE NIGHTSHIFT, BUT AFTER A WHILE IT GETS BORING.WHAT I DO NOT LIKE THAT IN THE GAME THERE IS NO CASH AND NO TREADING INVOLVED, THAT THE BACK CHARAKTERS THROW ALL THE STAFF THEY GET HANDS ON AND THAN YOU HAVE TO PICK IT UP ONE BY ONE FROM THE FLOOR. ALSO WHAT I DO NOT GET WHY IN THE HELL THE PARTY HAS TO SLEAP SO LONG TO GET RESTED EAVEN WITH 2*HEALERS IN THE GROUP? :Titan:

[Thorax]

I Just finished the game and I am so happy :Brain: . Though the ending was quite out of it's place, the experience that this game offered me was superb. About the teh final boss, well for me it was quite easy to deafeat him (no spike trick) without having any supernatural characters. Anyway this game is a true classic :ok:

[pailheadz28]

Ok here's a stupid question and I know it.. but I used to play this back in the day when I had my 286/12 :)

So I figured I'd load up dosbox and play 1 and 2 again (didn't care for 3). But I can't seem to get EOB started and for the life of me I keep remembering a batch file when I used to play it. But after installing it I don't see one and just running eob doesn't do anything.

Hell I still have the 5.25" disks and the box/manual/hint book for it :)

Any suggestions? :)

[hessekopp]

what you mean with "dont know how to attack"?

just click on your weapon with the left (or right) mousebutton and ---- CHAKARAKA :Titan: you may slice n dice the enemy back in their graves!! yahhoooo. oh i think i have to play it once again right now.

have fun!! :cheers:

PS. dont forget to pou your archers and mages in the second line. otherwise the will crush you.

[Guest]

Nice game ! :cheers:

[Tom Henrik]

Added some scans of the original game-box. Thanks to Drozdal for suppling them :cheers:

[Talin]

I am having the same problem with the copy protected codes. And can't seem to find a web site that has the manual for the game other then for the gameboy or snes. If someone knows of a website that has the pc version of the manual and could post it on this forum I would be grateful.*

Replacementdocs.com is one great spot for manuals :Titan: :blink:

[Shifter]

What's the deal with being able to completely max out all stats when creating characters?
(Sorry if this was already mentioned)

Edit:

Sorry I went through the topic, and found the answer. Sure is odd that you can do that :P I prefer rolling, with maybe a few points to upgrade o.O

[Siquarius]

This game is a classic, just liek all the Eob series.

Only problem with this one was it was far too easy to complete.

The ending was terrible, but in all these games, its not the ending that is the fun part its the going through the game itself, and id recommend this to anyone who loves this kinda game (captive style eob style etc..)

[IceSaint]

This was the absolute first game I ever played, pissing my pants as a 2 year old playing on my daddys lap. Now Im 18, and I want to go back and finish what I started - can anyone email this... NO - the game is ESA protected!

Thanks!!

[Guest_yog]

OLD BUT GOLD GAME! :angel:

[punch999]

Icesaint I am sorry but we cant help you with finding ESA protected games.

[Old School Gamer]

A great classic, but I never liked RPG that didn't have to option for turn-based mode for combat. I CAN'T multi-task.. :wall: too well. It's a good game, but I need turn-based combat. :blink: I'm getting too old, and my reflexes aren't that fast anymore.

[Guest]

I have been playing EOB1 and when I go to exit up the stairs I am asked for copy protection.
I have the manual and try to type in the corresponding word but no letters appear?
Is this normal? How do I type them in... very frustrating.

[Xanathar]

I beat this game for the first time in the far 1992 using the Amiga 500, and in that version there was a beautiful ending movie, showing your party returning to the Lords of Waterdeep, that seemed to believe not you had completed the quest, until you showed them the eye of the beholder, cut from the body of the final boss, shooking all of them :blink: . You can imagine how disappointed I was when recently I finished again this game on my PC, and all I saw in the ending was a window with some text. I thought: "What the f**k? I must have missed something", but then I red on the internet that the ending movie would have required another floppy disk, so they decided to cut it from the PC version :angry: . Although this, I think this game is a classic, together with his sequels.

[Guest]

Does anyone have any idea how to get this game to work on Windows XP? Well, I can get the game to work with sound and everything w/ DOSbox, but whenever I try to load or save a game it says I need to load the disk or something and then crashes. Help!

[WolverineDK]

http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=13168

very interesting indeed, what this man is beginning to do, he is trying to make the DAESOP engine, the graphics engine that is used in Eye Of The Beholder games, and "Dungeon Hack" games into a windows compatible version, so "we" all can play them with sound and all. Some time in the future, but he is saying, that he need some helping hands with programming and such. And some people to encourage him to develope it more , so it won´t get iced in the future.

Anyway that was my post :)

[WolverineDK]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(WolverineDK @ Dec 20 2006, 04:42 PM) 272206</div>
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=13168

very interesting indeed, what this man is beginning to do, he is trying to make the DAESOP engine, the graphics engine that is used in Eye Of The Beholder games, and "Dungeon Hack" games into a windows compatible version, so "we" all can play them with sound and all. Some time in the future, but he is saying, that he need some helping hands with programming and such. And some people to encourage him to develope it more , so it won´t get iced in the future.

Anyway that was my post :)
[/b]

Sorry for bumping my own post. But the other thread, is getting more and more interesting.

[guest]

I would like to talk about the 'interrested tips' that werre given before I wish to know if they are all listed somewhere?
I did both of these and got my fighter lvled-up with a message: 'you have found the secret quest for this lvl. So i assume they are 1 secret quest per level...none of the faqs I saw had that information.

By the way there is another very interresting serie called: Ravenloft feathuring 2 dungeons crawlers games look like a lot to EOB but better spell range and. multimedia support

[abasni]

I do remember a few of the 'Special Quests'. One was to collect daggers near the start of the game, if you put one into an alcove, you got a pretty cool dagger in return with a nice curved shape to it. I can't remember exactly where, but I know it was in the Sewer Levels... so 1-3 I'm thinking. I hope that helps for a start!

[Digital_Jedi]

I have been playing EOB1 and when I go to exit up the stairs I am asked for copy protection.
I have the manual and try to type in the corresponding word but no letters appear?
Is this normal? How do I type them in... very frustrating.

Same problem.... anytime i get to the stairs to go down on level one it opens the security check question and either the game freezes or i cant type in the box. Anyone else with this issue?

Wonder if its the new DOSbox version?

[slickman07]

Hey, where is the download now button? Is the game no longer available for download or something?

[The Fifth Horseman]

It's not.
That might change, however, as several members of our staff are re-checking the status of all currently non-downloadable games.

[Elround4]

For some reason the download selction is replaced with a "no 90!" thus am unable to download this game. Making matters worse this is the same for the other EOB games. Does anyone know how to bypass this and download the game? : (

[dosraider]

http://www.abandonia.com/en/faq

[boravr6]

Problem with the save game.

When i try to save it says it cant find "EOBDATA.SAV insert disk 6"

Any ideas?

[_r.u.s.s.]

well, is file "EOBDATA.SAV" present in the directory or any subdirectories of the game?

[boravr6]

No i dont seem to have that file. tried to just create one but it didnt work :(

[_r.u.s.s.]

well wherever you got that game, redownload it or something

[boravr6]

trying a new source now... in the event it doesn't work, any chance i can get that single filr from someone? :whistling:

[Luchsen]

No.

[_r.u.s.s.]

trying a new source now... in the event it doesn't work, any chance i can get that single filr from someone? :whistling:
there

http://www.sendspace.com/file/znach2 (alternate link http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FU9C5DLZ)
i created an empty test party with random names and attributes just to test it out

i don't see what's wrong with sharing saves, luchsen

[Luchsen]

You could've said that it is an only-savegame file. :rolleyes:

[boravr6]

the save file worked like a charm! many thanks r.u.s.s !!! :thumbs:

[_r.u.s.s.]

np :)

[Xzar]

This topic is back, good timing.
'Cause, I made a speedrun about this favorite game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihj-wDJ3IJY

see ya

[_r.u.s.s.]

that's nice video man! woah my eyes are not fast enough for it, you apparently know what's the deal in the game

by the way, can i ask you, did you use the dosbox default recording thingy or you went for some other specific program? did you reencode the video after? because i tried uploading another video i made in dosbox and youtube totally screwed my encoding in which i saved it

[Xzar]

Thanks. :)
Still some faults in the run, for example, fireball missed and hit only 1 enemy, and so on.
It's possible finish in 9min. with my walkthrough.

Yes, i have used "dosbox-0.72", but recorded with "camstudio 2.0".
Didnt know yet, that dosbox has a record option.
And at least, encoded/convert with "TMPGEnc-2.524.63.181-Free" resp. "VirtualDub-MPEG2".

see ya

[Luchsen]

YouTube never screwed a DOSBox 0.72 video for me. It has a mega library of codecs and reencodes the DOSBox one quite decent (even though the real pixel genuine thing is by far better).


This topic is back, good timing.

Swinging my hands and speaking in syllable style like the pope: You can post in this thread anytime you want.

That's nice of me, isn't it? :amused:

[_r.u.s.s.]

it does support mega library of "codecs" but it always resizes/compresses videos very lame. though i don't blame them, with the ammount of videos it's kinda difficult to have processors for everything

anyways, thanks xzar

[WolverineDK]

It would be awesome, if JMB also got hold of the cluebooks to the other Goldbox games Such as Pools of Darkness and all the others.

[Geezer]

It would be awesome, if JMB also got hold of the cluebooks to the other Goldbox games Such as Pools of Darkness and all the others.

Which of the gold box games are abandoned? As far as I know the only ones on site are the Krynn games. By the way, the links to the clue books for those games don't seem to work. I have the clue book for Curse of the Azure Bonds but that might be all. I'll check.

[WolverineDK]

Which of the gold box games are abandoned? As far as I know the only ones on site are the Krynn games. By the way, the links to the clue books for those games don't seem to work. I have the clue book for Curse of the Azure Bonds but that might be all. I'll check.

Hmmm Sir, there is a private tracker known as underground-gamer.com (where I am banned because I screwed them over with faking the upload for kicks) where there is a 3 part torrent with all clue books to all SSI RPG´s .
And there are also cluebooks for ALOT of SSI AD&D games. I am not proud of screwing them over for faking the upload, but when you consider that there upload speeds were a joke (1+ kbits at max most of the time) then you feel it sucks. But Sadly I had to delete the torrent and a load of other great SSI things, because I got a virus that was close to screwing me over then you delete and scan the heck out of your pc like I did.

[Geezer]

I believe that most, if not all, the SSI AD&D games had clue books for sale. I was only stating that you won't find them here unless the game itself is on the site. I honestly do not know what the abandonware status of those games are to know whether they qualify.

[red_avatar]

YouTube never screwed a DOSBox 0.72 video for me. It has a mega library of codecs and reencodes the DOSBox one quite decent (even though the real pixel genuine thing is by far better).


Dosbox is really great for uploading vids like that. It's very easy to record what you want and once you've done that, Youtube will have it online in no time.

[Subcommander_TPol]

Hi there.

EOB was one of the first games I played, and it was a great adventure... For now (after a cupple of years, more than a decade... ) I use it via Linux in a DOSBox. But when the copy protection ask me a word, Im not able to enter any kind of word. The problem is that the game doesnt recognize any key pressing. It seems to be stopped completely... :( What Im doing wrong? Is there some special DOSBox+Linux Issue???

Im glad for any kind of hint to fix this problem.

[Subcommander_TPol]

Hi there.

EOB was one of the first games I played, and it was a great adventure... For now (after a cupple of years, more than a decade... ) I use it via Linux in a DOSBox. But when the copy protection ask me a word, Im not able to enter any kind of word. The problem is that the game doesnt recognize any key pressing. It seems to be stopped completely... :( What Im doing wrong? Is there some special DOSBox+Linux Issue???

Im glad for any kind of hint to fix this problem.

The copy protection now is gone... I dont know why...

1. I run the command "CONFIG -writeconf dosbox.conf" in the DOSBox.
That must done because Im using Linux and the config file must be created.

2. I switched in section [dos] keyboardlayout to my local language, and now a can pass the leader in sewers without copy protection... Thats strange...

[Maxor127]

One of the first games I remember buying with my own money. I loved SSI rpgs and the graphics for this looked awesome, but I was disappointed with this because the combat lacked the tactical elements of the Gold Box games, plus I thought it was incredibly boring being in a sewer/dungeon the whole game. I like cities and character interaction in my rpgs.

[senhorlampada]

Yay! It's available again! :D

Probably I'll download the maps! Last year I threw away my grid papers with all the maps I wrote down playing this game! :D

It sure helps so you don't get lost!

[rabadi]

And I love the post title: "And then there was one... (http://www.abandonia.com/en/node/26877)" which is a play on "And then there were none..." :thumbs:

[ianphillips2347]

This is a game I've always wanted to play so glad I've finally had a chance to play it but, I've never been so lost in my life :confused:lol

[rabadi]

If you are stuck, check out the cluebook here (http://www.replacementdocs.com/download.php?view.1463).

[Maxor127]

Now that I think about it, I think when I played it back in the day, I got bored and frustrated and just started wandering around as fast as I could and tried going lower and lower, skipping lots of things I probably had to do until I finally stumbled upon the beholder by accident and somehow killed it and won the game.

[Abandoned Witch]

One of my favorite first person RPG's.

[Fleabass666]

Game is classified in the Action genre; I guess it should be classified in RPG, like its sequel (Legend of Darkmoon).

[Paco]

Game is classified in the Action genre; I guess it should be classified in RPG, like its sequel (Legend of Darkmoon).

o_0 moved back to RPG.

[Fleabass666]

Strange... changing the English version's genre to RPG cleared all tags in the translation, and set them to Board Game (or the corresponding translated tag)... :(

[Doda Doa]

Does anyone know why every time I enter the copy protection words on the first level it exits the game to dos?

[Doda Doa]

On the first level, after I enter the words to the Copy protection it quits to dos. Anyone know why? I've tried googling it but I can't find anything

[yoga]

On the first level, after I enter the words to the Copy protection it quits to dos. Anyone know why? I've tried googling it but I can't find anything

:smile2:
Hi, dear Doda Doa,

Pls try this link.

The readme from the file named Patcher (under Programs) looks like it might do the trick.

http://www.dust-bin.com/

[yoga]

:smile2:
Hi, dear Doda Doa,

Pls try this link.

The readme from the file named Patcher (under Programs) looks like it might do the trick.

http://www.dust-bin.com/

:whistling:
Hey, Doda Doa,

Before 5 minutes i tried the above link, which i found in Inet.
I DL the game and started. I choose Fighter, Cleric, Mage and Thief.
I hope You are using Camp, the Memorize or Pray. Nice.
I reached the ladder (before ladder You will find an yellow arrow). Then I saved my progress. OK.
I exit the game.
Then I DL the file Patcher.zip from this link. Then I Unzip this file in my folder C:\>games\Eye. The file produced 3 files. One is named Go.bat
Then i again started the game using DOS-Box version 0.74. Now i started this file Go.bat. It opened an window to choose what game You want to use. Scroll down and point Eye of the Beholder. Enter. Now You will be prompted to show the path. Mine was c:\>games\Eye . Ok. The protection is out. So now please use no file Eob.exe to start the game, but Start.exe
Well, i used my save file just before the ladder and now i moved to ladder.
Yes, i entered the level 2.
Voilaaa
Luck!!

If You have more questions, pls. do not hesitate to ask me. I like and played this game before years ago.
If some question is very special, pls use PM.

yoga aka the brave

[tristanzz]

Having played EOB2 so many years ago, I decided to get this one here. I made a party that I can eventually transfer to and continue with the sequels... always wanted to do that. It's great fun! If you've only played one of the sequels, I strongly recommend going back and starting here. There are items in EOB1 you can get nowhere else, and they can be transferred.


Having gotten through EOB2 with the typical 2 fighters, 1 mage, 1 cleric setup, I tried a janky multiclass team with 1.

½Elf Ranger/Cleric
½Elf Ranger/Cleric
½Elf Mage/Cleric
Elf Mage/Thief

Yeah... this party levels slowly. But all that means is that you have to do lots, and lots, of killing. I cannot say I'm too bothered about the issue. I mean, isn't that the whole point of games? Killing?

The manual advises that RANGERS have an interesting capability in the game, and I think players overlook it. When wearing Studded Leather or less, they can attack with weapons in both hands without penalties. Having a slew of spellcaster levels spread the party means it gets lots of utility spells, too. I haven't verified anything about the rangers. I don't know what the normal penalties are for using two weapons, and I don't know what counts as light armor (just leather and robe? Scale? Banded? Maybe it's broken and Plate works fine?). It will take a lot of testing.



-----

Other stuff I noticed:

After a long key puzzle and battle with skeleton warriors across levels 7-9, the party gets their choice of reward. The +3 Shortsword is the best sidearm (2-weapon fighters love it), the +3 Bracers stack with magical armor bonuses, and the Ring of Wizardry gives the wearer 2 bonus 4th-level and 1 bonus 5-level mage spell slots. They can memorize the extra spells and freely transfer the ring to another mage in the party.

The loot in EOB1 is far better than EOB2. This must be because they didn't expect to make two sequels. All the crucial weapons and armor can be transferred to the sequel.

I am flummoxed, bamboozled, and perhaps even slightly confused over how many hitpoints multiclass characters gain. When it levels, a single-classed Fighter, Ranger, or Paladin gets d10+Con Bonus. Multiclass characters behave strangely.

Testing level advancement on a Mage/Thief with 16 CON (giving the maximum allowed bonus for non-martial classes) yielded the following MAXIMUM hitpoints possible for each increment of leveling:

Thief Mage Exp Max HP
3 2 2,500 17
4 3 5,000 24
5 4 10,000 31
6 5 20,000 38
7 6 40,000 45
7 7 60,000 49
8 7 70,000 52
8 8 90,000 56
9 8 110,000 59
9 9 135,000 63
10 9 160,000 66
11 9 220,000 69
11 10 250,000 73
11 11 375,000 77

No effing clue what the logic is behind these values. It's some kind of average, but I can't figure out the formula. I even consulted my brother's copy of the 1977 AD&D Players Handbook (no collectible value, we colored in it when we were kids :picard:) and the official rules do not appear to produce these values.

[Doomz]

THE ALL-SEEING EYE

The All-Seeing Eye is an automapper for the PC MS-DOS versions of the first two Eye of the Beholder - games, meant to be used with DOSBox on a Windows PC.

http://personal.inet.fi/koti/jhirvonen/ase/

A very valuable tool!

[styoda]

Ok here's a stupid question and I know it.. but I used to play this back in the day when I had my 286/12 :)

So I figured I'd load up dosbox and play 1 and 2 again (didn't care for 3). But I can't seem to get EOB started and for the life of me I keep remembering a batch file when I used to play it. But after installing it I don't see one and just running eob doesn't do anything.

Hell I still have the 5.25" disks and the box/manual/hint book for it :)

Any suggestions? :)

if your trying to play this on a newer computer using dosbox i find you must first create a file on your c drive i use eob1. second you need to move your eob contents out of the zip file you got it in from

http://www.myabandonware.com/game/eye-of-the-beholder-15e

"yes this is the download link if you need to get it."

once that is unzip and in your new created folder you need to do this

third you need to mount the drive when you start dosbos by typing

mount c c:/eob1

second you need to switch to that drive once its mounted by typing this

c:/

now all you do is type

start

and it will come up asking you if you like to register, dont bother doing so the registering website is gone. answer the few questions about graphics sound card ect. i generally use option 4 option 2 and y for the 3 questions and after a moment you will be in and able to play.

[kmonster]

I am flummoxed, bamboozled, and perhaps even slightly confused over how many hitpoints multiclass characters gain. When it levels, a single-classed Fighter, Ranger, or Paladin gets d10+Con Bonus. Multiclass characters behave strangely.

Testing level advancement on a Mage/Thief with 16 CON (giving the maximum allowed bonus for non-martial classes) yielded the following MAXIMUM hitpoints possible for each increment of leveling:

Thief Mage Exp Max HP
3 2 2,500 17
4 3 5,000 24
5 4 10,000 31
6 5 20,000 38
7 6 40,000 45
7 7 60,000 49
8 7 70,000 52
8 8 90,000 56
9 8 110,000 59
9 9 135,000 63
10 9 160,000 66
11 9 220,000 69
11 10 250,000 73
11 11 375,000 77

No effing clue what the logic is behind these values. It's some kind of average, but I can't figure out the formula. I even consulted my brother's copy of the 1977 AD&D Players Handbook (no collectible value, we colored in it when we were kids :picard:) and the official rules do not appear to produce these values.

Your thief/mage gets 3 (=6/2) HP when leveling up as thief and 4 HP (=4/2+2) when leveling up as mage. I suspect that's because you have 16+ con and get the +2 HP con bonus when the second class reaches a level.

[tristanzz]

Your thief/mage gets 3 (=6/2) HP when leveling up as thief and 4 HP (=4/2+2) when leveling up as mage. I suspect that's because you have 16+ con and get the +2 HP con bonus when the second class reaches a level.
There it is. I'm sure that explains it. Thanks.


In other news, I did some testing with ranger and fighter weapon swings. Hit-and-miss rates seem bugged. They appear to be the same regardless of class and armor worn. I thought rangers were supposed to hit more often than the other classes when dual wielding, but I ran a little script that logged hundreds of swings and it didn't pick up a significant difference.

[AndrewJFisher]

My friend had 'Beholder on his Amiga in '92, I think it would've been my first RPG experience or at least of leading a party around a maze/dungeon, top down or first-person view and fighting as a group, turn-based or real-time. Most of my RPG experience now is turn-based combat, 'Beholder is one of the few I've played with real-time combat. Also new things like hit points and leveling up. At home I had an old PC with a 4-colour CGA card, I had just gotten a Sega Master System and knew about games like Phantasy Star and Miracle Warriors, was curious about these console JRPGs, but interestingly I didn't really play an RPG till I had a Sega Mega Drive in '97, I mean I loved Landstalker and those sorts of RPG-lite, adventure games with stories and length so that you'd have to save and come back to it. I rented Shining Force from the video store expecting it to be the same and finding out it was turn-based combat I was ready to give it up and return it early, but then I decided it was a chance to finally learn how to play and maybe appreciate an RPG. Luckily Shining Force is one of the best RPGs and it sort of broke me in. The next RPG I tried(again console JRPG for Mega Drive) happened to be the best game ever Phantasy Star IV:The End of the Millennium. After completing that I was like "What have I been missing out on all the time I've been passing over RPGs?". Sadly not much. For a start I think all the previous PStar games in the '87-'90 period fall far short of PStar 4. I wasn't that impressed with Shining Force II either, I think the only RPG that came close to PStar 4 and Shining Force is Shining in the Darkness, first of the Shining Force games I suppose, but not with the newish chequerboard, battlefield combat system, it was of the old, small party, dungeon descent/ascent system, first-person view like 'Beholder, but turn-based combat.

I finally played 'Beholder this year, downloading it off GOG and with the help of guide maps from the internet I stuck it out to the satisfaction of seeing Xanathar, the ugly eye-monster, crushed in the spike trap, then a "can't be arsed doing a decent job after so much effort expended on the game" text-message ending(the Amiga version had a decent animated ending clip). I'd thought 'Beholder was a bit of a milestone game and maybe worth my playing right through. I did try without a guide at first and got about halfway through, but I wasn't going to waste time drawing maps and muddling around, I found a good guide that showed me where the good armament and magic was to make fighting easier, how to get past traps and locked doors.

I felt, even with guide, the game is a bit of a muddle-through, combat is quite hit and miss(literally, your strikes can miss a few times in a row), some of the magic spells seem useless(raise dead seemed clearly the most essential spell!), there's a lot of useless junk lying around the mazes except you don't even know how useless it is until you use the orb of power and the Oracle of knowledge late in the game. I think the worst part of the game is dungeon level 4 where you get trapped in the spiders' lair, you get poisoned and die quickly unless you use either the slow poison spell or a cure poison potion, but if you run out of slow poison spells, you can't refresh them because resting will cause anyone poisoned to die, even slow poisoned. There are only a few anti-poison potions around, if you run out while still trapped with the spiders' there's not much you can do to survive, using hit and run to avoid getting poisoned is slow and hard.

So I did think the game is quite similar to Shining in the Darkness, strangely both games were released in March 1991 I think. Shining is of course Japanese and anime, I think console JRPGs were always more child friendly than computer RPGs and Shining, though repetitive, sometimes boring dungeon descent/ascent like Wizardry or Rogue, there's a good story holding it together, after making progress in the labyrinth, you're rewarded with story progress back at the castle or nearby village, with cute, animé, cartoons.