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Topic Review (Newest First)
26-12-2021 07:05 AM
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.
28-07-2013 04:40 AM
tristanzz
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmonster View Post
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.
14-07-2013 12:01 AM
kmonster
Quote:
Originally Posted by tristanzz View Post
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:
Code:
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 ) 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.
13-07-2013 06:40 AM
styoda
Quote:
Originally Posted by pailheadz28 View Post
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/ey...e-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.
07-02-2013 11:24 PM
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!
07-02-2013 05:42 PM
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.

˝Elf Ranger/Cleric
˝Elf Ranger/Cleric
˝Elf 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:
Code:
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 ) and the official rules do not appear to produce these values.
03-07-2012 10:23 AM
yoga
Will be glad to help YOU

Quote:
Originally Posted by yoga View Post

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/

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
03-07-2012 08:22 AM
yoga
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doda Doa View Post
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

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/
02-07-2012 02:40 PM
Doda Doa
Copy Protection

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
02-07-2012 01:19 PM
Doda Doa Does anyone know why every time I enter the copy protection words on the first level it exits the game to dos?
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