this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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PC gamers spend 92% of their time on older games, oh and there are apparently 908 million of us now (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 2 months ago by tonytins@pawb.social to c/games@lemmy.world
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[–] tal 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Realmz was out about the same time as Spiderweb Software's games (Exile series, later re-released as Avernum series). Both were popular RPGs for the Macintosh (though I believe both had Windows releases as well).

While I did play and enjoy Realmz back in the day, I personally preferred the Spiderweb Software games. More complicated interaction with the world, and I preferred the writing. Less-pretty, though the Avernum re-release was isometric and had new graphics. Have you ever tried them?

I don't know if I can recommend them in 2025, but if you're still enjoying Realmz, I figure that the Spiderweb Software stuff might also be something of interest.

EDIT: The current Steam sale, which runs for another two days, appears to have a bundle of all of their games on sale for 60% off. I didn't personally enjoy the Geneforge series as much as the Exile/Avernum series, and the Avadon series is considerably simpler, and didn't really grab me. But a lot of the games are also on sale individually, so...shrugs

EDIT2: It looks like Realmz has not seen a Steam release; thought I'd check to see if it was on Steam too.

[–] icecreamtaco@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I got that bundle at 92% off and it took me 2 years to finish. It was awesome

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Me and my friends, we would play together by each getting a character and then taking turns during combat moving each of our characters.

I might buy that bundle on just your recommendation. I never tried those but if its vaguely like Realmz, I want to try it, since I pretty much only play on my steam deck these days.

[–] tal 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Me and my friends, we would play together by each getting a character and then taking turns during combat moving each of our characters.

Hah! That's some hardcore effort to make that game multiplayer!

I never tried those but if its vaguely like Realmz, I want to try it,

I mean, there were a bunch of RPGs in roughly that genre out in those years; IMHO, Realmz and the Exile series were the best out on the Mac.

goes poking around

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasoft

Hah! I didn't know this. Back when Jeff Vogel

the Spiderweb Software guy

was just starting out, Fantasoft, the company that did Realmz, published the first three Exile games too.

goes through the rest of the list

I don't think that anything else they published were RPGs, though I've played some of the non-RPG games.

[–] tal 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It looks like there were also a bunch of scenarios released for Realmz. I'm trying to remember...I definitely remember playing City of Bywater. I don't know if I've played the other scenarios, though.

If you haven't played them and can round them up, might be that you've only played about a fraction of the content out for Realmz, if what you're after is Realmz-like stuff. :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realmz

While new scenarios were released throughout the game's history, also typically packed along with the game in the next Realmz release, the game ultimately ended up with 13 official scenarios:

  • City Of Bywater (developed alongside Realmz by Tim Phillips)

I've definitely played City of Bywater.

  • Prelude To Pestilence (1995, Sean Sayrs)
  • Assault On Giant Mountain (1995, Tim Phillips)
  • Castle in The Clouds (1995, Jim Foley)

I seem to recall the above names, though I don't remember the scenario content, if I did play them. Nothing after this rings a bell at all.

  • Destroy The Necronomicon (1995, Tim Phillips)
  • White Dragon (1996, Jim Foley)
  • Grilochs Revenge (1997, Sean Sayrs)
  • Twin Sands of Time (1999, Sean Sayrs)
  • Trouble in the Sword Lands (1999, Pierre H. Vachon)
  • Mithril Vault (1999, Tim Phillips)
  • Half Truth (2000, Nicholas T. Tyacke)
  • War in the Sword Lands (2000, Pierre H. Vachon)
  • Wrath of the Mind Lords (2002, Pierre H. Vachon)

EDIT: There's also apparently a pretty-inactive Realmz subreddit at /r/Realmz. No GOG Realmz release either, though. Some abandonware sites appear to have it.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’ve definitely played City of Bywater.

    Prelude To Pestilence (1995, Sean Sayrs)
    Assault On Giant Mountain (1995, Tim Phillips)
    Castle in The Clouds (1995, Jim Foley)

Same. I also definitely played City of Bywater, and I know I had both Assault on Giant Mountain and Castle in The Clouds (this one was giants right?)

[–] tal 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I'm stretching my memory too far. I remember the City of Bywater world map, but I can't even remember the world maps for the other scenarios, if I indeed played them.

This abandonware site appears to have a Windows release:

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/realmz-bce

I have no idea what scenarios might be included, and I'm always a little leery about running binaries from random sites outside of a VM

abandonware can be a vector for malware

so I don't know if I should recommend using it, but it's there. There are serial numbers to activate what looks like all the listed scenarios in a comment there, so maybe it comes with all of them.

The company appears to have been defunct for the past 20 years, so I suspect that there isn't going to be any legitimate re-release.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

This abandonware site appears to have a Windows release:

Yeah I downloaded it while we were chatting. I'm going to try and get it running after work.