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www.hardcoregaming101.net/mightandmagic/mightandmagic.htmI just started MM1 or as it is known: Might and Magic Book One - The Secret of the Inner Sanctum on DOS. I vaguely remember, that I have actualy seen this game in early 90s. Didn't really knew, that there were so many platform versions of this game. Prior starting to play MM1, I came under impression, that D&D influenced this game serie(as I did read something like that somewhere), but MM1 to me brings back flashback of different memories of text dungeon crawling and also MUD. Also skill system is completelly diferent from D&D - names might be the same, but this can not be trademarked anyway, because these are basic statistics - to me biggest mystery in MM series is LUCK skill. There is only one place in www, where it is more explained about M&M mechanics:
sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/mechanicsM&M had something, where D&D from dungeon crawling games went to other path:
just like in text crawling games there were 2 types of leaders strong and healthy might and proportionally strong magic leaders with lesser health force, that was transferred to magic force. I did like M&M way of "multiclassing" in MM6, on archer example, where my archer was next to Knight swordbearer(paladin had hammer or something else), who dealt proportionally weaker hits(but couldn't use some knight only weapons), was also good shooter, and also dabbled in some magic - if my sorcerer was dead he was the one who would have to cast wizard eye, to get out of dungeon... D&D went complex way of restricting players in creativity, also D&D games have level cap and after MUD, where my pal was proud, that he had achieved(without any final goal - it was just unachievable statuss to others that required many years to achieve) some high levels in some evil wizard D&D is unbelievably restricting - MM to MUD players was more appealing game. D&D - not, because smart, creative players with great imagination do not want to play by books of others, but create their own stories. I like Tolkien and Lord of The Rings, but there are hundreds of stories out there, some of them deal with magic, also hobbits and other creatures in different ways and my inner child requires to write my own story.
(ALL here relates to DOS system, as I'm playing it on DOSBox.)
If you start with default team, first knight hero *HAS* money: 200. Also extra items, like shield. Though I might be wrong there as I'm playing abandonware version, which could contain changed data, but I guess everyone now would play the same version. And there are many text games from 80s, where you start without money so it was not a biggie.
It seems, that this game restores all monsters, when you go to Inn, and quit. I'm not sure there, but when starting game again, all non-random monster places are repopulated. Could be that also treasures are replenished as well. Also some of the quests repeat, once you have finished them, so there are endless ways to level up and gather worth - this game is very big and I had to do the same thing, when I played MM6 - write big game map on paper with travel opportunities and other notes.
I could not see in save file, that it stores any extra game data - there is data only for heroes and their items, skills, xp and so on - probably also information about quests. This is actualy smart and simple way of dealing with big environment - game stores in memory how it dealt with monsters locally and forgets when you go out - if you are into this type of text crawling(I could not see any coordinates in game - is there any key?), especially applies when you get lost: teleport, slide, avalanche to other place or drop down somewhere in dark place and if you don't have torch, you are just mudding...
You could "cheat" in this game - going(dealing with random encounters only) out to some place where are treasures, taking them, bringing back to inn, taking rest of game and gathering them again(as they have bneen restocked) in next time. In Sorpigal outdoors there was one unguarded treasure spot. So good luck amassing wealth...
I do find this very biased. I liked the idea in M&M, that player with actions can change attitude and became good or evil(lFallout also comes in mind as good example) unlike in D&D, where you *HAD* to play according to your role without any chance to twist a plot. First of all common sense and history lessons shows, that people who were fighting for higher goal(especially all totalliarian socialist-communist utopians), also made later grave sacrifices and D&D with new classes have went M&M way with anti-paladin(so what is it exactly?). Also I find defining Lawful chaotic or neutral in D&D as restrictive system to gameplay, also it does not relate to human society. I know one group who are living by by their own laws and honor - thieves, mafia and big criminals. In D&D they are mostly chaotic... And druid neutrality in D&D is so wrong(the problem here is that D&D Druids aims to take over all RL Druid specifications) - also there are many paganic traditions all over the world, that would be considered as druidic in game environment, and the game would change differently if after hunting and taking animal, player would have to leave something as valuable in forest... or even if you find something, or if you just would not take things, because they are not yours... unless you pay for them to owner. And Druids in no way were neutral towards people - they were part of society, when it had to live with nature and obey it's rules. In my eyes Druids are good/lawful, but D&D thinks otherwise...
The game was from 80ies and plot for player was in title. Also if I remember correctly, crawlers and MUDs were not about plot - they were about exploring, fighting countless battles and surviving them in score of levels - also getting back to some place to store accumulated result(which meant countless tries and errors in exploring world) and in this game you were just another andventurer who explored world, fought monsters for glory and upon some quirk of fate(as opposed to self-prophecied messianistic adventurer in most games) he was the only one who was asked for help and was strong enough to deliver help.
I would really like to see any well-grounded(for comparisional and educational research) article of how much D&D or other games influenced M&M or how much M&M influenced other games and that would also mean pointing out differences. I do realize, that dnd in computer games was introduced earlier than any other modern RPG games, but there were similarly themed dungeon crawlers, that had modern, medieval and also sci-fi themes. They all are forgotten now. I would find that M&M has similar GUI as many other RPG and other genre games, but that is the restriction of software GUI and how it evoluted in this field. M&M there is similar to all other games - RPG or not, not to mention skill systems. Basic statistics names come from RL and they will be as similar to others as much as synonyms or similar meanings, because they describe similar RL statistics, that are expressed in digital form. M&M has different game mechanics - unlike 99% of D&D games there is no restrictions in level counts, so it is good, as player defines goals. Character types initially came from books - there were knights, paladins, sorcerers, wizards, mages, druids and so on and M&M has gone classic way, that already was defined in other games. The only thing that could be taken from D&D(crawlers) could be about initial races statistics and resistances, though they seems were not blindly copy-pasted, but followed the same dungeon crawler logic, where cyclopes or giants had extra health and strenght and some had magic immunities, so... please if someone mentions that M&M follows simplified D&D RPG rules, please explain where, because it should naturally come to game mechanics, but it is not the case here. IMHO M&M, especially MM6 has more complex RPG rules - in MM6 good/evil attitude worked fully in that each temple restored some alignment if you donated to temple(especially helpfull, if you called armageddon and local population died out because of that) - I do not remember if MM6 had local attitude change because of that, but MM IMHO went different route there from D&D. So the only thing in common between D&D(crawlers) and M&M is similar idea of initial classic race statistics bonuses in beginning of game. Not even resistances or extra abilities. It has completelly different RPG game mechanics and try to create today new RPG game withgout copying, but thinking on your own and then compare how much it will be from D&D and what is not. And to be honest here - classic monsters, even some abilities(like medusa, werewolf, etc.) will have similar ideas in any game, if its source comes from ancient myths, legends and folklore.
All in all description of MM6 is somehow weak. MM6 had huge impact on RPG players of PC in late 90ties. It was spatially big game - not to mention dimensionally. Also MM6 dimensionally probably was as big as MM7 and MM8 combined.
Somehow I feel, that MM7&8 map dimensions were somehow smaller, though this could be illusion and mind trick. It would took some time before there would be as good 3D Windows RPG game as M&M6. Look at the rest of 1998 RPG Windows games - DOS at this point was graphically unappealing and even Baldur's Gate, just as Diablo wasn't 3D - it was all plain sprites and drawn local area screens and unmovable object sprites, that could be seen from only one angle - no 3D at all. MM6 stands out as first RPG game with such huge true 3D world and it seemed that it was created with online game in mind, but even for single player it was succesful implementation with many beautifully done technical challenges, where you could properly use spell "fly". I do have good memories, but I really hope that there are some high-res pack out there or will be, as default terrain unlike in MM7&8 is just unbearable to my eyes. As for properly 3D skinned character RPG - it took some time before they in next RPG(nonMM) games gained some nice polygons, so whining, that MM6 was not fully 3D, is just as bad as receiving latest graphical card and wishing that it was even better... After MM6-7-8 I played comparably good(to MM series) Wizardry 8, that was published 3 years later(in 2001) - it had some nice polygons on female opponents... but that was cool then, but at that point it wasn't even achievement in game development milestones, as it was with MM6.