Vampyr: Talisman of Invocation

Post by **SpellSword** » October 30th, 2023, 04:55

Here is a game you may not have heard of:
Vampyr: Talisman of Invocation

► Title Screen

It is a tile based RPG where you control a single character which can be customized when starting the game:

► Character Creation

There are several quests scattered across the game's world to be completed and you can acquire new weapons and armor as well as gain training from NPCs to increase your stats when you have leveled.

► First Town & Castle

Enemies are visible on the overworld map but once contact is made battle takes place in its own map area, and the single enemy tile may have actually been a large group of monsters.

► Random Encounters & Combat

You can also cast an assortment of spells that mostly serve to tip the scale in your favor during combat.

► Firing a magic projectile at skeletons

This game is freeware but required payment for the documentation. I've never seen a copy of the "30-page document" that the authors originally offered as a manual, but I don't remember it being that difficult to figure out how to play it.

From Vampyr's README.NOW File wrote:
VIC AND BRIAN SAY...

When version 1.1 was release in the middle of October, many people complained
that they didn't know what to do and how to play the game. Well, you see, the
reason why we are not providing you with the document is that we want you to
contribute a minimal amount of money for our efforts. Believe me... you can
find answers to every single one of your questions in the 30-page document.
Of course you can live without it; Vampyr is not all that hard to figure out.
But if you really enjoy this game, do us a favor and give the public domain
concept a push. Just think of the fact that you are helping two very
intelligent <ahem> to-be-doctor and engineer to go to college. It's a great
cause! (By the way, Vic is going to University of Virginia. Alumni, you
know what to do.)

The hint book can also help in a big way. It contains almost all the maps and
just enough hints to get you going on all the missions. Vampyr has many
secrets built into it; there are at least two subtle ones that I don't think
anyone has figured out yet. Solving these two "secrets" can be incredibly
helpful to even the most powerful characters. Well, if you haven't found them
yet, or simply don't know what I am talking about, order the hint book and be
enlightened.

(By the way, does anyone know if there's a way to do subliminal messages on
the computer? If not, then just imagine this screen fading in and out with
1/60th-of-a-second intevals. in and out... in and out...)

In any case, If you have a comment or suggestion and have no money, write to
us anyway! We don't mind! (Well...) We'd love to do some more
bugs-squashing!

Well, that's it for now. Enjoy yourselves.

P.S. For ordering information, please use CTRL-I during the game and read
VAMPYR.DOC on disk 1.

P.P.S. Kids, you don't have to consult your parents before sending in the
money!!!

And a final note: DON'T do drugs, DON'T drink and drive, and NEVER EVER let
them see you sweat...

I've included a .zip of all the information I could find in online FAQs/Wikis/Etc but I suggest trying it blind if you are curious as there are a lot of spoilers in the those text files and map images. The version attached to this post should be V2.0. If you've played V1.1 be aware there was a bug that prevented the earlier versions from being won, from what I've read this one should now be completable.

Code: Select all

CHANGES IN VERSION 2.0

1)  The title screen has been improved!  Wow!  I didn't think that was
    possible!

2)  Our talented graphic artist touched up on some of the icons.  The game
    looks much better now!  Good job, Brian!

3)  It has been brought to my attention that the (O)ld Game command is kinda
    flaky.  For example, if you die and end up in Heaven, reloading the old
    game would still leave you with a winged character.  The players statistics
    are not updated either.  These problems have been fixed.

4)  If you are running Vampyr from your 3 1/2" drive B, then I guess you've
    noticed that the game always seems to check for files in drive A.  Well,
    never again!  If you want to run from drive B, so be it!

5)  We really screwed up on combat with the monsters running away.  Everything
    is fixed now.  Those annoying thieves are as good as dead.

6)  Have you ever noticed that you can never hit things that are on the edge
    of the battlefield with a missile?  Well, again, we messed up.  Forgive us.

7)  The lightning bolt problem has been fixed.  If you know what I am talking
    about, good.  If not, don't worry about it.  It's too embarrassing.

8)  A new command! (CTRL-I)  Check it out!

9)  The keyboard buffer is flushed in a couple of places by request.  You won't
    get nearly as many bothersome "overflows" now.  Write to us if there are
    any other special places where you want the buffer flushed.

10) Your weapons should last longer now.  I guess breaking something every
    couple of battles WAS a BIT harsh... oh well.  Just trying to make it
    realistic.

11) Imagine my surprise when I found out that the king wouldn't admit you've
    solved mission #5!  Geez!  What a ******** king!  I have taught him a
    lesson and he should behave himself from now on.

12) The Enemy Disintegration spell was going haywire.  All the dead should
    disappear properly now instead of hanging around.

13) The "Judging" was a bit messed up.  It seems to go into a recursive loop
    sometimes.  Well, I guess the Gods should spend more time squashing bugs
    than frying people.

14) We really must apologize for this one.  Have you ever noticed how your
    skill points seem to mysteriously disappear?  A very very big mistake
    on our part.  Oh well.  I guess good games have to be frustrating
    sometimes, huh?


Special thanks to Ken Humrich for locating most of these problems for us.
Ken also helped with the beta-testing of this new version.  Thanks, dude!

There are a few known bugs still in V2.0 you may need to step around, specifically:

Known Bugs In Version 2.0 wrote:

. While training, you may not get the right amount of stat points. Normally, you get 45 each level. If you need less than that to max out all the stats for that trainer then the game will only give you want you need. For example, if the trainer only does fighting attack and your fighting attack is 80, then you will only get 20 points. To do this, the game looks at each stat that the trainer offers and accumulates in a single byte (8 bits) how many stat points the player would need to max out all those stats. A single byte (which ranges from 0 to 255) is not enough space to hold this sum! Consider this: if all your stats are at 1, and the trainer trains three stats, then in order to max out those stats you would need (100-1) + (100-1) + (100-1) = 99+99+99 = 297 stat points. This is greater than 255 and will overflow to 42! So even though you should get 45 stat points, the game will give you 42. What's worse is that next level you will get (100-43)+(100-1)+(100-1) mod 255 = 57+99+99 mod 255 = 255 mod 255 = 0, so you get nothing!

. Higher charisma increases (not decreases) armor and weapon shop prices. This bug does not affect training cost.

Here is version 2.0 of Vampyr: Talisman of Invocation.
VAMPYR.ZIP

And here is a collection of documents that may make the game easier to play. (Includes Maps, Walkthroughs, Etc)
Vampyr Documentation.zip

The game requires DOS to run so I suggest using DOSBox.

I originally encountered this game on one of those shareware compilation CDs that you may have encounted on store shelves or swimming around the bottom of one of their sale bins. It was pretty fun but sadly due the quest bug in the older version 1.1 I could never finish it. (This is fixed in V2.0) It was the first game I drew a physical map for so it holds a special place in my memories, has anyone else played it?