Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Manual

62K plays 1981 #RPG

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first game in the Wizardry series of role-playing video games. It was developed by Andrew C. Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. In 1980, Norman Sirotek formed Sir-Tech Software and launched a beta version of the product at the 1980 Boston Computer Convention. The final version of the game was released in 1981.

The game was one of the first Dungeons & Dragons-style role-playing games to be written for computer play, and the first such game to offer color graphics. It was also the first true party-based role-playing video game. It is now listed among the best video games of all time.

The game ended up as the first of a trilogy that also included Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds and Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn.

From Wikipedia's article Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Keyboard controls

NESPlayer 1Player 2
D-pad↑↓←→IKJL
BZN
AXM
SelectShiftB
StartEnterSpace

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

From the manual, pages 9–10

Open the manual at page 9

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Keyboard controls

NESPlayer 1Player 2
D-pad↑↓←→IKJL
BZN
AXM
SelectShiftB
StartEnterSpace

Hotkeys

  • 1 Quick save state
  • 2 Quick load state
  • 3 Change save slot

Gamepads are detected when you press a button. Remap any key from the emulator’s Controls menu (gear icon).

From the manual, pages 9–10

Open the manual at page 9

Emulator help & troubleshooting

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Pixel Verdict

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad OverlordNES

3.0 Good job

Critics 68 · 3 reviews

What the reviews talk about

Key wordsunforgivingintuitivetoughmediocreboringcomplex

What the critics said

  • Computer Gaming World that year praised it as "one of the all-time classic computer games", complex yet playable.

    — Computer Gaming World

  • The reviewers called MacWizardry "a delightful reintroduction of a marvelous classic."

    — Dragon, 1986

  • In 1990 the game received the ninth-highest number of votes in a survey of Computer Gaming World readers' "All-Time Favorites", and in 1991 and 1993 the magazine's Scorpia wrote that "while mainly hack-and-slash, it's still a grand expedition, even today".

    — Computer Gaming World, 1990

  • The editors wrote, "The seminal dungeon romp, this RPG sent AD&D fans scrambling to buy Apple IIs".

    — Computer Gaming World, 1996

  • Electronic Games described Wizardry in 1983 as "without a doubt, the most popular fantasy adventure game for the Apple II at the present time."

    — Electronic Games, 1983· about another version

  • The Macintosh version of the game, known by fans as "MacWizardry", was reviewed in 1986 in Dragon's first "The Role of Computers" column.

    — Dragon· about another version

  • Macworld commented that the Macintosh port's conversion to the Classic Mac OS mouse-driven graphical user interface enhanced the game's charm and streamlined its gameplay; the game mediates actions through "such familiar Macintosh devices as windows, alert boxes, icons, scrolling lists, and so on."

    — Macworld, 1986· about another version

From the Reception section of Wikipedia's Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord article, under CC BY-SA 4.0. The words are the critics'; their full reviews are on the publishers' pages.

Scores

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly NES: 4/10, 7/10, 3/10, 3/10
  • Famitsu 1991 8/10, 9/10, 6/10, 9/10 (FC)
  • GamePro 1990 NES: 20/25
  • Computers Games 1985 Classic

From the review table of Wikipedia's article. The face takes, first that applies: the Metascore for this platform, GameRankings' archived average, our average of the critics (one number per publication, a panel averaged), one review alone, the players' rating. Critics and players are never mixed.

Players' rating: 75/100 · 77 votes

Full reviews

Face key

  1. 1.00+
  2. 1.540+
  3. 2.050+
  4. 2.560+
  5. 3.068+
  6. 3.575+
  7. 4.080+
  8. 4.585+
  9. 5.090+

5.0 Outstanding! · 4.0 Great job! · 3.0 Good job · 2.0 Could be better · 1.0 Wake me up when it's over · A thumbs-up adds half a point. Our own drawings, in the spirit of the faces GamePro magazine used in the '90s.

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