Thursday, October 29, 2020

Order of the Griffon review and... patch update?

Some of my all-time favorite gaming experiences growing up are with the classic SSI & TSR "Gold Box" Dungeons and Dragons adventure RPGs. I have fond memories of playing through Pool of Radiance which then got me hooked on the D&D world. So much that I read the collected Forgotten Realms books that correlated to the games! 
When I finally took the plunge into my beloved Turbo Duo universe I quickly sought out any and all RPG style games. I picked up Might and Magic III, Beyond Shadowgate, Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest and finally D&D Order of the Griffon! I was completely hooked on the gameplay style with excellent graphics, great puzzling dungeons, and fun strategic battles. BUT! One thing always bugged me about the game that kept it from truly being a top tier RPG for obey.  The EXCELLENT chip tunes had the strangest of bugs...  The music would at the strangest times totally glitch out and stop at the point of any action or sound effect.
   
Like for instance, while you're in a battle the music pumping out of your speakers rocks and gets you into the mood for WAR!  However, once you select an attack or magic spell and use one on an opponent the music comes to a halt.. and you're left.. in silence..  Often for many minutes while you're in a difficult battle. The music glitch even happens at the beginning of the game when you're selecting your party!  I really LOVE the soundtrack and wound up sitting still for quite a while to hear some of the cool chiptunes to completion, but most would never hear them fully with such a weird glitch. It's like, someone at SSI did playtest this right?

It was even pointed out in one of Spida1's more recent Turbo Views episodes in Turbo Views #120!  You can check out the review here:

In GREAT news, thanks to our awesome modder and homebrew community in the PC Engine scene you can check out a fix that was put together that corrects (most of) the music glitches in the game!  No longer do you have to fear that your awesome chiptunes will hault if you're attacking someone in a heated battle!  You can check out the ROM with the fixed game here!

4 comments:

Windancer said...

Loved Order of the Griffon. Beat the game several times. my brother beat the game in 25 minutes

_joshuaTurbo said...

Haha, in 25 minutes!! That has to be a record and should be chronicled in a speedrun! That's epic dude!

Windancer said...

btw spida has made another awesome review of Vasteel. Love that game also. You ever jump on the discord channel to chat?

_joshuaTurbo said...

Hey Windy! Yeah, I'm in discord every now and again. :)