Re: Wraith for the Apple2

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Joe Seeley writes ...
> 
> I was reading through the April/May '94 issue of II Alive the other day and
> read a review for a game called Wraith published by Nite Owl Productions.
> Then, to my surprise, I find that it was written by no one else but John
> Carmack of id fame.  Finally, I find that someone else posted a similiar query
> about the game on 7-26 to comp.emulators.apple2.
> 
> I have several questions.  First, when was this game made?  I dropped out of
> the A2 scene orginally about '90, came back in '95 and never head of the game
> although I am an avid UItima/RPG fan.

     Wraith is a 1990 release.


> I have a hard time believing that John
> Carmack wrote it anytime after doing Wolf 3-D or Doom.  However, I would
> definitely think I would have heard about it if it came out in Apple ]['s
> heydays (up through '89).
>

 
> Second, what is up with Nite Owl, the battery clock replacement folks
> publishing it?  I find this a hoot - literally! ;-) Since when did they
> publish any titles?  This also leads me to believe that it came out after the
> decline began.

     Right. Nite Owl did offer a few other software products-- e.g.
Fonts collections-- but, as you imply, Nite Owl would not be ones first
choice as publisher and vendor. Most likely, the explanation is that
Wraith is an 8-bit hi-res game. It would have been difficult to convince
most late 80's/early 90's A2 game publishers to release anything but a
GS product.


 ....

> Although the reviewer only gave
> it two stars he goes on to say how addicted he became to it and stayed up all
> night playing.

     The game is likely to take several nights. 


>  I guess he didn't like the tile graphics or something.

     The reviewer liked the game and, in fact, considered it superior to
Ultima I and II as well as several other major 8-bit Apple adventures.
However, the reviewer did feel that, by 1990, a commercial release
should offer better graphics and sound than that which was state of the
art seven or eight years earlier.

     Also, the adventure does nothing extraordinary in terms of puzzles,
scenario development, or combats. (For example, puzzles do not compare
to those found in Wizardry V and scenario development does not match a
game like Magic Candle.)  Wraith is fun to play; but, at a time when the
Rating Scale was being defined by several fine GS games, Two Stars (a
"Good") was about the best a hi-res Ultima style game could do.


> I am a
> die hard Ultima genre junkie and would love to get my hands on it.  II Alive
> was selling it for a measly $10.  Does anyone sell it anymore?  Does it come
> with any docs?

 ....


     Wraith comes on a 3.5" diskette with a yellow label showing the
Nite Owl logo and the full title ("The Devil's Demise") in black. It
includes good on-disk docs which you can print out. As far as I know,
Wraith has not been available since Nite Owl folded. Eventually, someone
may upload a 3.5" .SHK version to Asimov or one of the other archives.




Rubywand