[Solved] Ultima Style RPG from 1997 or earlier

[Hallfiry]

I remember that I had a game similar to the older Ultima games when I had my first PC. That must have been between 1996 and 1998. As far as I remember, the game already looked old back then, so I guess it was from ~1992. You had your hero (with blond) hair and could walk around the map (I think it was step-wise and not smooth as in Zelda 3). Sadly, I can't remember more

EDIT: I think it was fantasy themed.

[MrFlibble]

Hmm, there are quite a few Ultima-inspired games out there, I guess you're looking for something that resembles Ultima IV to Ultima VII, right?

First off, you could take a look at the following titles:

Ultima I-V

• Excelsior Phase One: Lysandia S
• The Fantasy Worlds of Tamrak S
• Hera: Sword of Rhin S
• The Kingdom of Syree
• The Kingdom of Syree II: Black Magic S
• The Kingdom of Syree III: The Depths of Hell S
• Nerakian Adventure S
• The Rescue of Lorri in Lorrinitron S
• Silmar S
• Sword Quest 1 S
• Untima IX: Descension
• The Walls of Bratock S
• Zorak: The Mountain of Terror

Ultima VI

• Flame Storm: The Bratockian Saga part II S
• The Great Ultizurkian Underland S
• Joyous Rebel L
• Madman
• Ultizurk III: The Guildmaster's Quest S
• Wraith S
• Yendorian Tales Book I S

Ultima VII

• Excelsior Phase Two: Errondor S

Also maybe check out the Exile games but they are party-based, not with a single player character.

[Hallfiry]

Thanks for the list
Sadly it's none of them

I really meant Ultima 1 - 5, since the view was not isometric as far as I remember (but what does my 6 years old I still know...?) and the resolution wasn't very high either, as well as the color depth (maybe 16 colors). I'm quite sure that areas were full colored and not black with some colored dots on it, as some games did it back then.

I don't know if it was party based, I only remember that walking around the map was one character.
A huge problem is, that I can't really remember any written text from the game since I was at the beginning of learning to read
The only thing that I remember quite well, is that it came on a compilation and was in the section "Rollenspiele" (Roleplaying games). The color theme of the compilation menu was Gray-Maroon and it might have been (clean)stone-textured (not cobble).

[MrFlibble]

There are in fact quite a few RPG games from that era, with some pretty obscure shareware titles, some of which were of rather good quality. Apparently, many of these games became near-forgotten when Windows largely replaced DOS, and the developers/publishers did not stay afloat in the Internet era, so even large game databases (like MobyGames) may not include those titles or only have scarce info on them (e.g. no screenshots).

Anyway, take a look at these games:
Aethra Chronicles
Aspetra

Even if it's not them, maybe you could tell what game looks the closest to yours?

One more thing, the game was in English, right?

[Hallfiry]

And again it's none of these games

To be honest, I don't even know the language of the game. It could have been only English or German.

It was pretty close to The Rescue of Lorri in Lorrinitron.

[MrFlibble]

Well, you can try browsing the role-playing games at the Classic PC Games archive, there are many of the more obscure games that can be found at cd.textfiles.com (but not everything of course). Maybe your game is there.

I'm also thinking, could it have been some kind of a roguelike with tile graphics, like Ragnarok or UnReal World?

[Litude]

Unreal World is just an awesome game, I remember being totally hooked to the shareware version of the game. It just gives just a realistic look at how you actually could live in the Middle Ages and it seemed the game just had endless amounts of stuff you could decide to do in the game.

Can't remember how many times I started building a house near a pond of water so that I could stay alive by fishing only to get rejected access to the game because the amount of turns you were allowed to play in the shareware was definitely limited. No matter whether it was the game you're looking for or not, it is an astounding game that you should no doubt give a try.

[MrFlibble]

it is an astounding game that you should no doubt give a try.

Not to mention that currently it uses the donationware model and is thus free for unlimited play.

[Hallfiry]

Finally I found the game. It must have been War Wizard.

[MrFlibble]

Glad you found it! Here's the Wayback Machine copy of the author's page:
http://www.bradmcquaid.com/WarWizard.htm