Sunday, July 25, 2010

Backtracking: Zyll (1984)





  • The ledge continue to the south
  • A sharp downward slope to the west







The IBM PC/XT keyboard.







  1. Some gaming keyboards provide enough function keys at the left side like Logitech G15 (old revision), G11, G110 and G19.
    All of them should be able to redefine the F1-F10 keys to them to make this game more comfy.

    A quick test showed that the G19 indeed works with the game running in DOSBox and the other Logitech keyboards should work as well (the software is practically the same) so that one could play the game in an authentic way.

  2. Wow, what a cool game. Thanks for blogging about it!


  3. Anyone who really wants to play this game should take your tip, Calibrator. Although I liked it, I wasn't into it enough to go buy an external keyboard (I do my gaming on a laptop) to supplement it, but I might if I really wanted to win.

  4. Ha ha! I also wouldn't buy a keyboard for it, let alone an expensive one like the G19!
    But *if* one already has such a keyboard it would be stupid to *not* use it in situations like above... ;-)

  5. Press CTRL-F1 in DOSBox and you get this handy screen:


    It's a keymapper! Why buy a fancypants keyboard?

    (NB, it can be a little irritating using it. I found deleting the original function first makes things go a little more smoothly).

  6. Dammit, Rocket. Where were you a few weeks ago? I think this will come in handy in some future games, though. Thanks!

  7. Regarding AFK in this game, if you're playing with another player, he/she could "stand guard" while you go about your other business. =D

  8. this game is so great. I have been looking for a review on this game for like forever. Thanks for the post up and keep plugin away at it. From what I remember from playing this in childhood, this game was pretty epic til the end. I seem to remember needing to play on co-op mode otherwise there was no way to ever beat that wizard. Pretty tough character. I think the wizard/thief combo was the best.

    1. This is one of those games I wish I'd give more of a chance. I was in a hurry to get through the "backtracking" postings, so I really just blew by it.

    2. Just responding to the could actually kill the wizard Zyll as a solo warrior if you got the magic shield and found at least one extra healing potion. I tried this by accident, had the shield, using a mace, and ran into Zyll unexpectedly. Decided to bash it out - won the fight but was so badly damaged I couldn't actually do anything once I'd killed him. As in even stripping and dropping anything, I was still too badly hurt.

      I *loved* this game as a kid and had some fantastic innovative things as above. The real gem was the two player option on a single PC.

  9. I was obsessed with this game when I was a kid. I know there was a way to change it so a normal keyboard would work with the F keys at the top.

    I believe it was Alt + K ?

    1. Correct! Wow. Alt-K it is. I am super-impressed you remembered that from 25 years ago. I took me a lot of memory wrangling to remember what this came was even called.


  10. I remember watching my two older brothers playing the competitive mode when I was like 6. They even rigged a piece of cardboard with tape to the middle of the monitor, so they couldn't look at each others' screens!

    1. I didn't give this game nearly enough of a try four years ago. I was too interested in "catching up." I need to add it to my replay list and spend more time with in it when I get to 1984.

  11. DOSBox allows you to remap your keys. I simply mapped the F1-F10 keys to the middle columns of my numpad, with F1 being /, F2 being *, all the way down to F9 being 0 and F10 being .

    You really have to because contrary to what you said, the changed F-layout IS fatal, and you proved it yourself. Since it is a real time game, those extra couple seconds that you have to take EVERY time you make a commend can indeed be the difference between life and death

  12. I just came across your blog, and wanted to say "thanks" for the kind words about our game and for keeping Zyll alive.

    There is a "hot key" command (Alt-K I think - it has been a long time) that will change the keyboard layout for the left side to use letter keys, for anyone that doesn't have an antique keyboard.

    The "Pause" command is ctrl-numlock (or FN-Pause on a PCjr!)

    I'm not sure that the "Save" command (Alt-S) will work without a floppy!

    1. Marshal! Always great to hear from the original developer. But I don't deserve any "thanks" for this brief posting. I didn't know what I was doing back then (a longer explanation would get into the details of my blog that no one cars about). Rest assured, Zyll is going to get some proper coverage--with me playing a full game--sometime in the next six months. I hope you check back!

  13. My brother and I played this game a lot when I was 10 yrs old. We would always play co-op mode. I always had a mini heart attack when Zyll or the ghost of King Zanzibar would enter the room. I think there was a tough dragon at the entrance to the castle as well. We didn't need to make a map because we had it all memorized. From what I can recall, a good way to kill these guys was to throw all of your weapons and heavy objects at them - you could throw a bunch of objects quickly and it was quite effective. Swinging your sword took a long time. The game is slow compared to current games because you have to wait each time you walk to a new area. The thief could search different rooms and you could find secret passages that would give you unique objects. I need to try this game again. I wonder if this game could be made into an app somehow?

  14. This is/was such a good game. After reading Ready Player One made me all nostalgic for the 1980s, Zyll is one of the first games I thought of -- many afternoons spent playing this at my cousin's house. It was very well done for the available hardware at the time, and still fun to play.

  15. Suggestions on where i can download the game?

  16. Did you ever get back to this one?

    1. I did, but I didn't like it as much as the first time, and it really isn't an RPG--no stats or leveling. It's just an adventure game that allows two players. I played it for a while and started a post, but I got into a walking dead scenario, didn't feel like starting over, and abandoned it.

  17. Just came across this post. Zyll is one of my favorite all time computer games. I played it a ton as a kid, mostly as two-player cooperative with my best friend from the neighborhood, and can still beat it to this day. Never made a map either, as we also had it memorized. I'm pretty sure we discovered every point item in the game, and the best part was playing as the wizard and discovering Zyll's special scroll, as it gave you access to all the spells (which would let you heal yourself over and over again - just re-read the scroll and the healing spell would come back), and then you could go out and really kick some behind - throw 4 or 5 fireball spells in a row at Zyll himself and he's toast. Same with the dragon, King Zanzabar, and really any other enemy in the game. My other favorite tactic was to use the bottom of the well as a home base - no enemies would ever come into it and so you can just collect treasures and drop them into the well, and ultimately finish the game there. As the wizard, I would always throw the teleport spell inside the well, and then whenever I ever was elsewhere in the game, I could just throw teleport again to quickly get back. Fun stuff!










