![]() ![]() The IBM version differed by having an additional skill called Combat shooting which could be bought only when a character was first created. While all versions were nearly identical in terms of gameplay, the EGA PC port had upgraded graphics, although the C64 boasted the best sound. Jeremy Reaban wrote an unofficial (and unsupported) program that emulated this functionality. These later bundled releases were missing the original setup program, which allowed the game's maps to be reset, while retaining your original team of rangers. ![]() Wasteland was rereleased as part of Interplay's 10 Year Anthology: Classic Collection in 1995, and also included in the 1998 Ultimate RPG Archives through Interplay's DragonPlay label. Wasteland was first distributed for the Apple II and ported to the Commodore 64 and IBM platforms in 1988 - it is often (and erroneously) listed as being published in 1987, because that year appears on the title screen of the Apple version. The game was also known for such combat prose as "Rabbit is reduced to a thin red paste" and "Thug explodes like a blood sausage", which prompted an unofficial PG-13 sticker on the game packaging in the United States. Additionally, the paragraphs included a dummy story line about a mission to Mars intended to mislead those who read the paragraphs when not instructed to, and a bogus set of passwords that would trip up cheaters with results that ranged from character sex changes to detonating a bomb. The paragraph books also served as a rudimentary form of copy protection, as someone playing a copied version of the game would miss out on much of the story as well as clues necessary to progress. Because programming space was at a premium, it saved on resources to have most of the game's story printed out in a separate manual rather than store it within the game's code itself. Such paragraph books were a common feature of computer role-playing games of the period. These paragraphs described encounters and conversations, contained clues, and added to the overall texture of the game. One of the other features of this game was the inclusion of a printed collection of paragraphs which the game would instruct the player to read at the appropriate times. Since harddrives were still rare in homecomputers in 1988, this meant the original game discs had to be copied first, as the manual instructed one to do. Returning to areas later in the game, one would find them in the state one left them in, instead of being reset to their original state, as was common for games of the time. Changes to the game world were stored and kept. The game was also one of the first games featuring a persistent world. Unlike those of other computer RPGs of the time, these NPCs might temporarily refuse to give up an item or perform an action if ordered to do so. The initial band of Desert Rangers encountered a number of NPCs as the game progressed who could be recruited into the party. ![]() Wasteland was one of the first RPGs in which all the characters in the party were not mere puppets for the player to control. The game would generally let players advance with a variety of tactics: to get through a locked gate, a player could use his Picklock skill, his Climb skill, or his Strength attribute or he could force the gate with a crowbar - or a LAW rocket. Experience is gained through battle and through use of skills. Characters in Wastelandconsequently have various statistics ( strength, intelligence and luck among others) that allow them to use different skills and weapons. The game mechanics were based directly on those used in the role-playing games Tunnels and Trolls and Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes created by St. Throughout the game, the player explores the remaining enclaves of human civilization, including a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. The party begins with four characters, and through the course of the game can hold as many as seven characters by recruiting certain citizens and creatures of the wasteland to the player's cause. that survived the nuclear holocaust and are assigned to investigate a series of disturbances in the desert. Players control a party of Desert Rangers, a paramilitary group based in the deserts of the Southwestern U.S. Parts of Earth have been turned into a "wasteland" where survival is the paramount objective. The game is set in 2087, following a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. ![]()
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