Matt Barton, co-author of Vintage Games (reviewed here) does a series of Youtube videos called “Matt Chat” where he covers games of interest from all years (from World of Warcraft all the way back to the focus of Matt Chat #40, and the reason I decided to do this write up, Sword of Fargoal).
Some background information about Sword of Fargoal, this is not Final Fantasy 12 or anything of the sort, SoF is oldschool to the point that many of you that watch the MC #40 will probably be turned off by it (which would be a bad thing). What is so great about a game that literally has no animation for the characters on the screen? Barely any sound effects and very sparse graphics that make you wonder why they aren’t better probably won’t change your mind. If, that is a big if, you give SoF a chance though, let it take you by the imagination you will be rewarded many times over. SoF is an RPG of sorts, you have creatures to fight, gold and other loot to pick up and this really powerful sword at the bottom of this dungeon you are attempting to delve into deeper and deeper (SoF is similar to Rogue and other games).
The graphics being bare leaves quite a bit to the imagination of the gamer which will help players get sucked in even more. Along the top of the screen of the original SoF game is your player information, hit points, experience points and amount of gold acquired. This area also acts as the status bar, when you fight a creature, it’s type will be shown here, when you find loot, it is listed here too. When you start a level, you are presented with very little other than a screen that is all shaded in and this small area around your character that you can see. Moving around the dungeon will reveal more of the level, just be careful, there are monsters in that darkness (and lots of loot and the rest of the game).
This episode of Matt Chat features gameplay footage of the Commodore Vic-20, Commodore 64, PC remake and even the iPhone release (don’t get your hopes up, the graphics are understandably kept simple, though dated).
The other great thing about this episode is that Jeff McCord did an interview with Matt and reveals some very interesting tidbits about SoF, his early programming career and how he survived in Palo Alto early on.
If you want to find out more about the wonderful game of Sword of Fargoal then definitely check out Matt Chat #40, opportunities to hear from the creator of a game like this don’t come around often. To Jeff McCord, you rock.
Matt Chat is a weekly gaming show hosted by Matt Barton and released on Youtube. To read more of Mr. Barton’s work check out Armchair Arcade (where they have many more things planned for Sword of Fargoal and Mr. McCord).
For more information, updates and links to the history check out the homepage of Sword of Fargoal.
