Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17 - Playable Demo Found!

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Hallfiry
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Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17 - Playable Demo Found!

Post by Hallfiry »

EDIT: PLAYABLE TECH DEMO!!! [EDIT:] Link fixed.
(I've just found out that the french guys from abandonware.org had already found the demo 2 years ago.)

About the demo:
There is no sound.
Using Demo.bat or RUNWITCH.BAT will play 3 gameplay recordings.
The arrow keys move the character, but only for debug purpose.
Correct movement:
Up: A
Down: Y (maybe Z)
Right: P
Left: O
Inventory: I (Use A,Y,P,O to navigate)
Cancel: ESC
Swing Sword/Interact: Space
W: Test message
Tab: "Command Entry Station" (Teleport and Variable manipulation)

Pressing F4 followed by F2 calls a map of the current location.
F8 pauses the game, F9 unpauses it.
F6 draws a debug grid,
F7 draws Z-indices(?) above enviroment sprites (trees, etc.)
F5 calls a sprite viewer, F6 switches the sprites.
F3 closes F-menus.

Self-Running demo:


On one of my old CDs (I think it was an issue of Power Play), I found a (damn rare) trailer for the unreleased RPG Witchwood by Team17:




Image
(Source: Power Play 6/95 and Joystick 10/95)

Image
(Source: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=11028 and Amiga Games 11/94)

Image
(Source: PC Player 5/95)

Image
(Source: Secret Service (#24) 5/95 )

Image
(Source: Amiga Concept #11 1/95 and also Amiga Joker 1/95)

Image
(Source: Joystick #64 10/95)

Image
(Source: Joystick #64 10/95)

The game uses an easy-to-use script language for dialogs/shops/etc. The extension of these files is .con (maybe "Conversation").
Many of these scripts feature additional information like design goals or implementation details.
Examples:

Code: Select all

;	****************
;	**            **
;	** Sweet Shop **
;	**            **
;	****************
;
;


;* Characterization
;* ================
;*
;* This is the bloke who does the Mr Kipling advert. Can the actors do this
;* voice and get away with it? Put in a but of Richie Benno(? not sure what his
;* name is but he used to do the cricket commentry on TV & radio but he died).
;*
;* He's a jolly old soul.

Code: Select all

;	*************
;	** Barmaid **
;	*************


; Pip can buy ale and some lunch at the pub.

;* The barmaid will be the stereotype busty wench from the old hammer films with just a
;* dash of Barbra Winsor.
;*
;* All the barmaid's innuendos will go straight over Pip's head as he is an innocent
;* sort of chap.
;*
;* If Pip should buy three Pints of ale in one visit to the Pub then in the software,
;* 's' characters in Pip's speech will be replaced by 'sh' (except where 'h' naturaly
;* follows 's').
;*
;* If Pip should drink too much then his speech will become slurred, therefore
;* All of Pip's dialogue should be recorded TWICE.
;*
;* =====================================================================================
;*
Last edited by Hallfiry on Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:02 am, edited 18 times in total.

MrFlibble
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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17

Post by MrFlibble »

Looks kinda nice :) I don't remember Team17 did any RPGs at all, did they?

Hallfiry
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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17

Post by Hallfiry »

MrFlibble wrote:Looks kinda nice :) I don't remember Team17 did any RPGs at all, did they?
They made one in the same year (1995, and release was 1996), that looked like a cheap copy of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It was named Speris Legacy and I guess they canned Witchwood, because it was too similar to that game.

MrFlibble
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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17

Post by MrFlibble »

Never heard about that one, but then again, it's not for IMB PC, and I hardly know games that were released exclusively on non-IBM-compatible home computer systems.

z180
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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17

Post by z180 »

There were a lot of games exclusive to more gaming oriented computers sometimes available on multiple platforms but not for DOS, sometimes because PCs were not liked on games market
and developers went from 8-bit to 680x0 systems.

Ultima I-V and Bard's Tale I-IV(IV renamed to Dragon Wars) and Wasteland were first coded for Apple II and then for other systems.

A group of Atari 2600 programmers used their skills to make a MacOS looking OS for C64.
Stephen Elop….I curse you, that after your death your soul will be forever trapped in the sourcecode of Windows and one day Microsoft will fall because of that virus code!

Hallfiry
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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17

Post by Hallfiry »

I added 2 new screenshots to the first post :)

EDIT: Playable tech demo available for download! (See first post)

As always I'm tring to convert the maps. This is the current state:

Image

Delacroix
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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17 - Playable Demo Foun

Post by Delacroix »

It may be possible, albeit not mentioned directly on Bjorn Lynne's site, but apparently he made a soundtrack for Witchwood:

http://www.lynnemusic.com/witchwood.html

It's not labeled as an OST for that game, but he made soundtracks for Team 17 in the past (Worms, Alien Breed 3D) and this album title... well.

He later returned to make a sequel to the album, in 2003:

http://www.lynnemusic.com/returntowitchwood.html

Some of the Witchwood-related tunes were later used in Siege of Avalon it seems.
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Hallfiry
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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17 - Playable Demo Foun

Post by Hallfiry »

Delacroix wrote:It may be possible, albeit not mentioned directly on Bjorn Lynne's site, but apparently he made a soundtrack for Witchwood:

http://www.lynnemusic.com/witchwood.html

It's not labeled as an OST for that game, but he made soundtracks for Team 17 in the past (Worms, Alien Breed 3D) and this album title... well.

He later returned to make a sequel to the album, in 2003:

http://www.lynnemusic.com/returntowitchwood.html

Some of the Witchwood-related tunes were later used in Siege of Avalon it seems.
It IS the soundtrack for the game. He mentioned it back in 2008 (Or something). I forgot to mention that here :(
Interestingly I can't find the trailer theme among the tracks from the Witchwood album. Maybe because it belonged to the Amiga soundtrack?

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Re: Witchwood - Canceled game by Team17 - Playable Demo Foun

Post by Hallfiry »

I recently talked with Bjorn Lynne about the Witchwood trailer theme. This is what he had to say:
Bjorn Lynne said:
[...]I've ever heard that music before. It must have been something that has been sourced elsewhere, maybe before I started work in Team17. I started there in April 1995 and one of the first things I did was to work on the music for Witchwood.
So - I didn't compose it.[...]

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