Kingdom of Kroz
Encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Zork
.
The Kroz series is a series of video games created by Scott Miller
. The first episode in the series, Kingdom of Kroz, was released in 1987 as Apogee Software
's first game. It was also published on Big Blue Disk
#20. The story of the game places the player as an archeologist searching for the priceless Magical Amulet of Kroz in the mystical Kingdom of Kroz. The object of the game is to survive numerous levels
of attacking monsters.
collects gems as he goes; each time a monster touches him, he loses a gem and the monster dies. The character's main defense consists of whips which can be used to kill monsters and destroy certain walls; however, each whip can only be used once. Some levels are generated randomly; these tend to be rather chaotic, and essentially consist of a mad dash through waves of attacking enemies to pick up valuable objects and/or escape to the stairway. A major part of the game is careful conservation of gems and whips; sometimes it is better to allow an enemy to take a gem rather than use valuable whips that will be needed to break down walls blocking the exit.
ing game, Rogue
. Scott Miller tried to create a game that had some of the elements of Rogue
, but with less randomness and more reliance on the abilities of the player than on luck. Miller, fond of including backwards words in his games, came up with the name by spelling Zork
backwards. (Many people have also interpreted "Kroz" as a pun on Oz
.)
The original Kingdom of Kroz game took top honors in the game category in a programming contest in 1988, and came out number two overall. An homage
to the game can be found in one of the cheat codes used to activate God Mode
in Duke Nukem 3D
,
, using various characters
in the computer's character set, as well as different colors, to present a "graphical" environment. This is not quite ASCII art
, because it used the proprietary graphical characters of the IBM PC character set as well as standard ASCII characters, and also depended on the setting of foreground and background colors for individual characters; such a combination was sometimes termed ANSI art
, but that is a misnomer in this case because the ANSI escape sequences were not used.
. It was later expanded to consist of seven episodes, with only the first episode distributed as shareware, and the rest available commercially. The episodes are:
Although Kingdom of Kroz was the first episode released, it was later marketed as the third episode in the series (as Kingdom of Kroz I), with episodes two and three moving up one place.
In 1990, an enhanced version of Kingdom of Kroz was released as Kingdom of Kroz II, which became the shareware episode of the series. Kingdom of Kroz II was quite different from the original version, and incorporated 21 different levels, many of them from later games in the series, especially from The Lost Adventures of Kroz. The original Kingdom of Kroz I stopped being distributed as shareware, but was still available commercially. For a time, the series consisted of seven commercial episodes (including the original Kingdom of Kroz I), plus an enhanced version of one of them (Kingdom of Kroz II) distributed as shareware. During this time, to be able to buy the commercial episodes, the shareware episode had to be registered first.
In 1991, the other two episodes of the first trilogy were enhanced to their "II" versions, and the original Kingdom of Kroz I stopped being available, being replaced by its enhanced version.
Episode 8: The Underground Empire of Kroz was planned to be released in March 1991, but it was cancelled.
The original Kingdom of Kroz was written in Turbo Pascal
3.0; later games were written in Turbo Pascal 5.0. At one point in time people could buy the source code of Kingdom of Kroz for $190, Return to Kroz for $350 and The Lost Adventures of Kroz for $950. Later the source code of Kingdom of Kroz II was for sale for $400, Return to Kroz for $300 and The Lost Adventures of Kroz for $500.
The games were discontinued in 1999, and are no longer sold by Apogee. In March 2009, the whole Kroz series was released as freeware by Apogee. The source code was also released under GPL.
Zork
Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language...
.
The Kroz series is a series of video games created by Scott Miller
Scott Miller (programmer)
Scott Miller is an American entrepreneur best known for founding Apogee Software, Ltd. in 1987.- Personal life :...
. The first episode in the series, Kingdom of Kroz, was released in 1987 as Apogee Software
3D Realms
3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...
's first game. It was also published on Big Blue Disk
Big Blue Disk
Big Blue Disk was a monthly disk magazine that was published by Softdisk Publishing starting in 1986, getting its name from the nickname for IBM, "Big Blue". It carried various games and applications for DOS as well as reviews and various extras. Some of them were freeware or shareware, or demo...
#20. The story of the game places the player as an archeologist searching for the priceless Magical Amulet of Kroz in the mystical Kingdom of Kroz. The object of the game is to survive numerous levels
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
of attacking monsters.
Gameplay
The player characterPlayer character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
collects gems as he goes; each time a monster touches him, he loses a gem and the monster dies. The character's main defense consists of whips which can be used to kill monsters and destroy certain walls; however, each whip can only be used once. Some levels are generated randomly; these tend to be rather chaotic, and essentially consist of a mad dash through waves of attacking enemies to pick up valuable objects and/or escape to the stairway. A major part of the game is careful conservation of gems and whips; sometimes it is better to allow an enemy to take a gem rather than use valuable whips that will be needed to break down walls blocking the exit.
Inspiration
The Kroz games were inspired by an earlier dungeon crawlDungeon crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...
ing game, Rogue
Rogue (computer game)
Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
. Scott Miller tried to create a game that had some of the elements of Rogue
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
, but with less randomness and more reliance on the abilities of the player than on luck. Miller, fond of including backwards words in his games, came up with the name by spelling Zork
Zork
Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games and an early descendant of Colossal Cave Adventure. The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, and implemented in the MDL programming language...
backwards. (Many people have also interpreted "Kroz" as a pun on Oz
Land of Oz
Oz is a fantasy region containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fantasy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...
.)
The original Kingdom of Kroz game took top honors in the game category in a programming contest in 1988, and came out number two overall. An homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to the game can be found in one of the cheat codes used to activate God Mode
God mode
In health-based video games, god mode, infinite health or infinite life, is a game mechanic or cheat that prevents a playing character from being harmed, sustaining damage, and ultimately, dying...
in Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by GT Interactive Software. The full version was released for the PC . It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II published by Apogee...
,
DNKROZ.Technical implementation
The game was implemented entirely in the text mode of the PCIBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
, using various characters
Code page 437
IBM PC or MS-DOS code page 437 is the character set of the original IBM PC. It is also known as CP 437, OEM 437, PC-8, MS-DOS Latin US or sometimes misleadingly referred to as the OEM font, High ASCII or Extended ASCII....
in the computer's character set, as well as different colors, to present a "graphical" environment. This is not quite ASCII art
ASCII art
ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters...
, because it used the proprietary graphical characters of the IBM PC character set as well as standard ASCII characters, and also depended on the setting of foreground and background colors for individual characters; such a combination was sometimes termed ANSI art
ANSI art
ANSI art is a computer art form that was widely used at one time on BBSes. It is similar to ASCII art, but constructed from a larger set of 256 letters, numbers, and symbols — all codes found in IBM code page 437, often referred to as extended ASCII and used in MS-DOS and Unix environments...
, but that is a misnomer in this case because the ANSI escape sequences were not used.
Distribution and episodes
The game was originally distributed as sharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
. It was later expanded to consist of seven episodes, with only the first episode distributed as shareware, and the rest available commercially. The episodes are:
- The Original Kroz Trilogy:
- Episode 1: Kingdom of Kroz (1987) (aka Kingdom of Kroz I, aka Kingdom of Kroz II), containing 25 levels
- Episode 2: Caverns of Kroz (1988) (aka Kroz, aka Caverns of Kroz II), containing 40 levels
- Episode 3: Dungeons of Kroz (1989) (aka Kroz II, aka Dungeons of Kroz II), containing 30 levels
- The Super Kroz Trilogy
- Episode 4: Return to Kroz (1990) (aka Shrine of Kroz, aka Castle of Kroz), containing 20 levels
- Episode 5: Temple of Kroz (1990) (aka Valley of Kroz), containing 20 levels
- Episode 6: The Final Crusade of Kroz (1990), containing 25 levels
- Episode 7: The Lost Adventures of Kroz (1990), containing 75 levels
Although Kingdom of Kroz was the first episode released, it was later marketed as the third episode in the series (as Kingdom of Kroz I), with episodes two and three moving up one place.
In 1990, an enhanced version of Kingdom of Kroz was released as Kingdom of Kroz II, which became the shareware episode of the series. Kingdom of Kroz II was quite different from the original version, and incorporated 21 different levels, many of them from later games in the series, especially from The Lost Adventures of Kroz. The original Kingdom of Kroz I stopped being distributed as shareware, but was still available commercially. For a time, the series consisted of seven commercial episodes (including the original Kingdom of Kroz I), plus an enhanced version of one of them (Kingdom of Kroz II) distributed as shareware. During this time, to be able to buy the commercial episodes, the shareware episode had to be registered first.
In 1991, the other two episodes of the first trilogy were enhanced to their "II" versions, and the original Kingdom of Kroz I stopped being available, being replaced by its enhanced version.
Episode 8: The Underground Empire of Kroz was planned to be released in March 1991, but it was cancelled.
The original Kingdom of Kroz was written in Turbo Pascal
Turbo Pascal
Turbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment for the Pascal programming language running on CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS, developed by Borland under Philippe Kahn's leadership...
3.0; later games were written in Turbo Pascal 5.0. At one point in time people could buy the source code of Kingdom of Kroz for $190, Return to Kroz for $350 and The Lost Adventures of Kroz for $950. Later the source code of Kingdom of Kroz II was for sale for $400, Return to Kroz for $300 and The Lost Adventures of Kroz for $500.
The games were discontinued in 1999, and are no longer sold by Apogee. In March 2009, the whole Kroz series was released as freeware by Apogee. The source code was also released under GPL.