Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Legend of the Red Dragon---LORD


So you all might not know this...but one of the most nearest and dearest games to my heart is Legend of the Green Dragon (I play on http://www.lotgd.net). Anyways, the game is an all text-RPG and actually spawns from the game called Legend of the Red Dragon [LORD] which was developed WAAAAAAAY back in the day.

I will put the history down below...but to make a long-story short, the original Legend of the Red Dragon was an old BBS game that could be purchased off of a Gameport website for 15-dollars. But the problem with it was that at some point, my computer was so advanced that it could not play it (or so I thought).
So I fought and fought with the ZIP Folder trying to get everything extracted and trying to get it to run, and it refused.
Then I found a way to play it online with Java hosting...and well, a lot of things happened. I found a horse for one (yay for finding random mounts), then I ran into a bunch of merry-men. At one point I even went to rescue a prince inside some castle, and it turns out that it was a HOLL (A human/troll mix) which violated my body and left me crawling away with only 5HP. Totally graphic for those who have such an imagination. Anyways...for those of you who are interested, you should visit http://www.lord.nuklear.org-play.html and here's a bit of history for you then:

  • Legend of the Red Dragon LORD:
[taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Red_Dragon ]

Legend of the Red Dragon (LORD) is a text-based online role-playing video game, released in 1989 by Robinson Technologies.[1] LORD is one of the best known door games.[1][2] The player's goal is to improve his or her skills in order to defeat the Red Dragon which has been attacking the village. The software is compatible with DOS, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2.
LORD was created by Seth Robinson of Robinson Technologies and is currently maintained by Michael Preslar. Robinson began to write LORD in Pascal to run on his Bulletin board system. As he did not have access to other door games such as Trade Wars, he needed something that would occasionally bring people back to the BBS. The first version of LORD only featured the chatting and flirting systems. Over time, Robinson incorporated features that he had seen work well in other games: for example, the restricted number of turns per day, and the concept of random events, came from a futuristic casino game. Eventually LORD became a mixture of action and romance.[2]
Initially only intended to run on his own BBS, Robinson eventually received offers from users who wanted to run it on other systems. After the first sale, word-of-mouth advertising increased its popularity.
LORD was a successful game, and by 1993 many BBSs had active communities of players.[2] Over the next few years, MUDs began to overtake BBS door games as the multiplayer online format of choice,[2] and in 1998 Robinson sold the game and its sequel to Metropolis Gameport. He went on to write other small games for PC and mobile platforms. His final release of LORD was version 4.00a.
Metropolis Gameport contracted Michael Preslar on January 8, 2001, to continue the game's development. The most recent version of LORD (4.08) was released in 2009 (via the DOSEMU patch archive). According to Preslar, further updates to the LORD software are planned, including a web application and versions for ELF-compatible Linux and Unix systems (completed but available only to beta testers).

[edit] Gameplay

The premise of LORD is that a Red Dragon is wreaking havoc in a town where the player has recently arrived. Multiple players compete over a period of weeks to advance their skills and to kill the dragon. In order to achieve this goal, players must face combat to gain experience. Once they have gained enough experience, they must face their master at Turgon's Warrior Training and advance in skill level. Advancement presents stronger enemies and masters; a player must reach level 12, the final level, before challenging Turgon himself and attacking the dragon.
As a BBS game, LORD uses a text-only interface.[1] Later versions of LORD made use of RIP (Remote Imaging Protocol) graphics, and required the use of a RIP client to view.
Players select a character class, choosing from among Death Knight Skills, Mystical Skills, and Thieving Skills. While a player is training in a particular skill, s/he is subject to random events in the woods for that particular skill, which provide opportunities for advancement. Eventually, players may master all three skills.
Players can take a certain number of actions every day. Actions could be to fight monsters in the forest, attack other players or to attempt to slay the Red Dragon itself. In addition, every day a player can send a "flirt" to another player character which may range from a shy wink, to sex, to a marriage proposal. Sex may result in contracting sexually transmitted diseases, and female characters might become pregnant.[2]
There are three non-player characters located at the Inn: Seth Able the bard, Violet the barmaid, and the unnamed Bartender. Seth Able the bard will sing a song for a player. Once a day, players can listen to Seth's song and receive a bonus, such as the doubling of one's bank account, or additional forest or player vs. player fight opportunities. The Bartender provides services and information to any warrior who can pay him in gold or gems, but provides nothing for free.
Male players can also flirt with Violet, and female players with Seth Able (named after Robinson[2]), in a fashion similar to flirting with other players. Success is based on the player's charm points. A marriage to Violet or Seth may last one day or two months or more; unlike player-player marriages, the software may terminate these bonds at any time. During marriage, offspring are possible, and these bring sometimes surprising benefits to warriors.
LORD allows many players to play simultaneously, in BBSs that support it. This allows real-time player-versus-player battles.
LORD features several in-game message boards, as well as a limited electronic mail system, which allow players to converse. Players may use the mail system to send flirtations to other players of the opposite sex, propose trysts, or marriage (only marriages lead to the conception of children).
The registration system let all players play right up until level six, then it wouldn't allow players to get past to level 7 until the program was registered. Users often sent in funds for that very purpose.


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