Cave Wizard  (Preview)
Platform: Commodore 64
Region: PAL
Gametype: Licensed
Release Year: 1997
Programmer: Martin Kristensen
Musician: Thomas Bendt
_________________________

Cave Wizard
1997 Unknown

Status: Preview, Findability: 5/5
Coding: Martin Kristensen
Graphics: Martin Kristensen
Sound: Thomas Bendt

A wonderful looking platform game, which looks very much like a 16-bit console game. Probably in the same league as Mayhem, with a touch of the style used in Yoshi island. It was originally developed to prove that hi-res graphics without colour clash could be done on a C64.

The game plays ok, though a lot is missing, and it seems the game’s creators have emphisised more on the graphics than they have with anything else.

The preview consists of one fairly big map, which you can scroll along, before it gets to a blocked end, where the map may normally loop.

Also within the preview are some lovely coloured hi-res overlayed creatures, including a rather cute large blobby character, all done up in a nice hires overlaid effect.

Although very promising, the game was stopped here and that was the end of it. The developers ran out of steam on the C64, and moved onto pastures new.

Check out Creator Speaks for more info about what happened and how the game was born.

Wonderful eye candy, which sadly remains a walk in a gallery…

---

Martin Kristensen speaks about work on Cave Wizard (From CSDB)...

"This is an early iteration of an experimental hires game I worked on from 1993-1997. This preview was released sometimes in the end of 1994 IIRC, as a proof-of-concept to convince some gfx'ers that it was possible to make a hires game on the C64, which didn't have the colorclash look known from the Speccy.

When I originally got the idea for the project I tried to get some gfx'ers involved, but everyone I talked to were nay-sayers, insisting that it would never work. So I had to try making some graphics on my own, and put together a simple "game" (well, more like a "walk in a gallery" like Games That Weren't called it) to prove them wrong.

It didn't result in very much feedback from interested gfx'ers, but around the time it was released, the Profile team dropped their "Liberation" project, and Kring/CML joined my project instead. We continued to work on it on and off for some years, until our interest for the C64 ran out sometimes in 1997.

A few years later I got the interest for C64'ing back, and considered whether I should continue working on this game, but after looking at the source code I decided not to, since it was way too messy. If I was ever going to give game development on C64 another shot I would prefer to start all over.

Some later iterations of the project, which don't look anything like this, can be found as Beep Boy Preview and Blockman 64 Preview. "


http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/cave-wizard/
