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Akalabeth: World of Doom (DOS, 1996)
Akalabeth: World of Doom |
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Also known as: Ultima 0: Akalabeth
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Akalabeth: World of Doom is the precursor to the Ultima series. Originally released for the Apple II Basic, the game remained mostly unknown until being unofficially ported to the PC by Finire Dragon (being compiled in Microsoft QBasic) in 1996. An official PC port was released in 1998 as an enhanced remake and is included in the Ultima Collection.
This page describes the unofficial Black & White port, which is the main version of the game distributed on GOG.com (the official port is placed as an extra download instead).
Unused Code
In this port, Lord British doesn't recognize any quest progress. This makes the game unwinnable, along with not being able to receive a +1 boost to all stats whenever you kill your quarry (marginal compared to becoming a Lizard Man), and being unable to obtain the Lord title when killing the final opponent.
As the Black & White version from GOG.com includes the basic source code, one can spot the affected lines directly.
7500 IF ta > 0 THEN PRINT : PRINT : PRINT pn$; " WHY HAST THOU RETURNED?": PRINT "THOU MUST KILL A(N) "; m$(ta) PRINT "GO NOW AND COMPLETE THY QUEST!": PRINT : PRINT " PRESS -SPACE- TO CONT."; : DO: q$ = INKEY$: LOOP WHILE q$ = "": CLS : GOTO 1090 7510 PRINT : PRINT : PRINT : PRINT "AAHH!!....."; pn$: PRINT : PRINT "THOU HAST ACOMPLISHED THY QUEST!": IF ABS(ta) = 10 THEN 7900 7520 PRINT "UNFORTUNATELY, THIS IS NOT ENOUGH TO": PRINT "BECOME A KNIGHT.": ta = ABS(ta) + 1: PRINT : PRINT "NOW THOU MUST KILL A(N) "; m$(ta) 7530 GOTO 7060 7900 SCREEN 1: VIEW PRINT: CLS : PRINT : PRINT : PRINT : pn$ = "LORD " + pn$: PRINT " "; pn$; "," 7910 PRINT " THOU HAST PROVED THYSELF WORTHY": PRINT "OF KNIGHTHOOD, CONTINUE PLAY IF THOU": PRINT "DOTH WISH, BUT THOU HAST ACOMPLISHED": PRINT "THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THIS GAME..." 7920 IF lp = 10 THEN 7950 7930 PRINT : PRINT " NOW MAYBE THOU ART FOOLHEARTY": PRINT "ENOUGH TOTRY DIFFICULTY LEVEL "; lp + 1 7940 GOTO 7070 7950 PRINT : PRINT "...CALL CALIFORNIA PACIFIC COMPUTER": PRINT "AT (415)-569-9126 TO REPORT THIS": PRINT "AMAZING FEAT!" 7990 GOTO 7070
The cause is code line 7500 - since there's a hard return at the end of the line, the following indented line is treated as a separate line of code as opposed to being part of the if statement.
Cleanup > Pages missing developer references
Cleanup > Pages missing publisher references
Games > Games by content > Games with unused code
Games > Games by content > Games with unused text
Games > Games by developer > Games developed by Richard Garriott
Games > Games by platform > DOS games
Games > Games by publisher > Games published by California Pacific Computer Co.
Games > Games by series > Ultima series