Realmz: "Abandoned Freeware" RPG

[Red Fortress]

Realmz: "Abandoned Freeware" RPG

Well this is most peculiar case.

Realmz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realmz) is indie Mac/Windows RPG from 1994, with official scenarios/expansions being released up to 2002.

It was developed by a guy called Tim Phillips and published through his company Fantasoft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasoft).
(He also published some games for other Mac Indie Developers, including the original Exile Trilogy by Jeff Vogel.)

In November 2008, Tim Phillips released the full version of Realmz (Mac & Windows) as a free download. Plus the registration numbers for the commercial scenarios/expansions made available to everyone on the Realmz Yahoo Group.

However, Fantasoft's website has since expired.

Links:
Realmz Wiki Page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realmz)
Fantasoft Website (Expired) (http://ww2.fantasoft.com/)
Archive of the Site (http://web.archive.org/web/20110717190003/http://www.fantasoft.com/)

[RRS]

Fantasoft Website (Expired) (http://ww2.fantasoft.com/)
Archive of the Site (http://web.archive.org/web/20110717190003/http://www.fantasoft.com/)
https://fantasoft.powweb.com

Thanks for pointing us to this title, I don't recall it. Moby's doesn't have an entry about it either.

[MrFlibble]

Wow, the game looks really neat. I haven't heard about it before too (this may be attributed to my general lack of knowledge in the RPG genre though), but it seems to be all right :D

[RRS]

I haven't heard about it before too (this may be attributed to my general lack of knowledge in the RPG genre though)
...or to the fact that it was primarily a Mac game, and shareware to boot.

[Red Fortress]

A list of the Scenarios:

1. City Of Bywater (developed alongside Realmz by Tim Phillips) [Code Available]
2. Prelude To Pestilence (1995, Sean Sayrs) [Code Available]
3. Assault On Giant Mountain (1995, Tim Phillips) [Code Available]
4. Castle in The Clouds (1995, Jim Foley) [Code Available]
5. Destroy The Necronomicon (1995, Tim Phillips) [Code Available]
6. White Dragon (1996, Jim Foley) [Code Available]
7. Grilochs Revenge (1997, Sean Sayrs) [Code Available]
8. Twin Sands of Time (1999, Sean Sayrs) [Not Released?]
9. Trouble in the Sword Lands (1999, Pierre H. Vachon) [Code Available]
10. Mithril Vault (1999, Tim Phillips) [Code Available]
11. Half Truth (2000, Tremordred) [Not Released?]
12. War in the Sword Lands (2000, Pierre H. Vachon) [Not Released?]
13. Wrath of the Mind Lords (2002, Pierre H. Vachon) [Not Released?]


Evidently, the idea behind them was something similar to the later “Premium Modules” for NWN.
Third party created new Official Campaigns, which were sold through the Fantasoft Website.

All the Registration Codes for them (except the 4 in red) were posted around the same time the game became free...

[MrFlibble]

Haven't tried it out yet but the graphics looks really fine. Reminds me of Warlords II deluxe edition somewhat, but it seems to be even better :) Nice old school stuff ^_^

[Edit] Found functional download links for the PC and Mac versions, plus some extras:
http://digiex.net/downloads/download-center-2-0/games/8324-realmz-full-download-divinity-scenario-editor-windows-mac-os.html

[MrFlibble]

Okay, the downloads at Fantasoft official website's mirror (https://fantasoft.powweb.com/) only seemed not to work because they forgot to update their links at the downloads page (https://fantasoft.powweb.com/downloads.html). The correct links should be as follows:

Realmz v7.1.2 Demo for Windows (https://fantasoft.powweb.com/Files/Realmz%20PC.zip)
Realmz v7.1.2 Demo for MacOS (https://fantasoft.powweb.com/Files/Realmz%207.1.2.sit)
Realmz Version 7.x.x to 7.1.2 Update for Windows (https://fantasoft.powweb.com/Files/Realmz_7.1.2_Update.zip)
Realmz Version 7.x.x to 7.1.2 Update for MacOS (https://fantasoft.powweb.com/Files/Realmz_7.1.2_Update.hqx)
Realmz Version 7.1.2 to 8.0.7 Update for MacOS (https://fantasoft.powweb.com/Files/Realmz_7.1.2-%3E8.0.7_Update.sit)

[ancestral]

Welcome everyone to a game called Realmz.

Realmz is a top-down party-based tactical computer RPG heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and many other RPGs of the time. (So much so that early versions had artwork ripped from TSR and features like character alignment and the actual D&D ability score names.) What set it aside from other RPGs was the open-ended world and the scenario editing tools which let users create and also sell their own scenarios.

Anyway, time has not been good to the game. It runs poorly in Windows, and not much better on the Mac side (not at all in Mac OS X). The interface is cluttered and can be confusing for new people. The scenario editing tools are pretty tough to slog through, but was still powerful at the time, being able to add and edit monsters, items, spells, even races and characters.

Tim has pretty much fallen off the face of the earth. I know he was in central Wisconsin and then moved to Florida, then who knows. Not much is known about him; a person named “Skip” had assumed maintenance of the web site. A few years ago he opened up registration codes for the core game and a few of the default scenarios.

People have wanted to port Realmz but lingering copyright issues will probably prevent that from ever happening; art was done by other people and many of the scenarios are contributions made by others. You may also notice some resources were shared between it and Spiderweb’s Exile series. (Fantasoft was once a publisher for Spiderweb’s early Exile series. Jeff Vogel I’m sure knows more about this relationship.)

Tim had also released a game called New Centurions which was like Realmz but in a Sci-Fi setting. It is very hard to find these days, but if you do find it, I’d love to see it here.

A great place to still talk Realmz is at the Realmz Castle Yahoo! Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/realmz/).

[MrFlibble]

Hello ancestral! I understand that you have been closely involved in development/production and/or the fan community, right? Have you known Tim Philips personally?

[ancestral]

MrFlibble, I have been an avid fan of the game and on the fan mailing list for at least 15 years (and before it moved to the Yahoo group) though never a contributor. Mostly I was a bit too young to be able to contribute at the time ;-)

There are still some folks around on the Yahoo group who used to contribute. If you have questions feel free to poke them.

It’s quite odd, but no one knows what happened to Tim. I don’t think most people knew him personally. There were no game forums or any direct contact other than email. He’s never appeared nor communicated to anyone, except Skip Meier, who took over maintenance of the site and registration code system. I know he knows something, how much who knows, but remains enigmatic and protective of his personal affairs — which I can respect.

He’s hinted that Tim had lost interest entirely and still remains aloof. Honestly I can only speculate that this is perhaps due to a sudden life change (debilitating health due to an accident, illness, family issues, etc.)

In the end it almost doesn’t matter. The content is still copyrighted, but the game is free to download, play, and distribute. Some people have had success running the game in Mac emulation software (in fact, I’m trying to load it using Basilisk but running into disk image issues).

[RRS]

Phew, MobyGames has finally approved my entry on Realmz:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/realmz

ancestral, feel free to expand it with more details.

[MrFlibble]

Nice, thanks for adding that to the Moby's database! ^_^

[MrFlibble]

Hmm, I remember the new site mentioned the registration code files that are required to unlock the full version, but now they seem to have disappeared.

The download links to the shareware versions on the other hand, which were broken, are now working.

I take it the game is again sold as shareware?

[Red Fortress]

I don't know.

If they are for sale again, the Dev could at least :oh: have posted a site update to clear up the situation...

I've still know a few places where the old codes show up, but I won't post the links unless this gets cleared up.

Just to be on the safe side...

[thenotoriousteo]

OMG Realmz...

I must have wasted so many hours playing this game in 1995 on a Mac then again in 2003 on a PC in college (when I could pay the reg fee).

What a GREAT RPG. Very easy to learn, provided long hours of entertainment. Use the character editor to make supermen so you can blast through the game, or play City of Bywater and grind your stats in the arena. Spider tower, red dragons, City of Waterford wow lots of memories. I will say this - Trouble in the Swordlands is the BEST scenario - very long, lots of NPCs, very creative plot, unique beasts and weapons... I never registered WitSL - the PC version had a bug in the demo so I didn't want to register something I couldn't play.

I'm so thrilled to find other "old school" fans out there.

[thenotoriousteo]

FYI - it looks like Realmz and Win 8 x64 don't get along. I'm setting it up on a Win XP x32 VM (I know it ran on XP). VMWare is my package of choice. I'll post any difficulties I encounter on this thread.

[thenotoriousteo]

FYI - it looks like Realmz and Win 8 x64 don't get along. I'm setting it up on a Win XP x32 VM (I know it ran on XP). VMWare is my package of choice. I'll post any difficulties I encounter on this thread.

OK if you are installing on XP SP3, you're gonna have to run the installer a bunch of times. Ignore the errors that cause it to abort. Just keep running it. It took me 14 times, but I now have Realmz that runs.

Also, I found my old disk and have the character editor!