Nox Archaist: Kickstarter Preview Video

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6502 Workshop have released a short teaser video ahead of the launch of their second Kickstarter campaign for Nox Archaist:

And if you’re new here and haven’t heard about Nox Archaist before, the 6502 team have helpfully included the following description alongside the video:

Nox Archaist is a tile-based, 8-bit, sword-and-sorcery role-playing game modeled after the iconic games of the 1980s. Our goals for this project are to capture the retro-gaming experience from the 1980s and explore what might have happened if commercial RPG development had continued on 8-bit computers to the present day.

Nox Archaist will be playable on both original Apple II hardware (128k enhanced Apple //e, Apple IIc, and Apple IIGS) and modern Mac and Windows PCs through emulators. We are developing Nox Archaist from scratch, in assembly language, on real Apple II hardware. We’re talking handmade quality bits here. All 8 of them.

The Kickstarter campaign for Nox Archaist — which will solely be used to finance the production of a limited run of physical copies of the game, complete with attendant feelies (e.g. a manual, a cloth map, and other such goodies) — will kick off on May 2nd.

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10 Responses

  1. Chris Freeman says:
    April 10, 2019 at 11:23 am

    Looks like what I’ve wanted for a long time.

  2. Cambragol says:
    April 11, 2019 at 4:47 am

    Looks fantastic. Missing the simplicity and magic of games like this. Where have all my feelies gone?!

  3. Mark Lemmert says:
    April 12, 2019 at 4:39 pm

    Thanks for your interest!

  4. Cambragol says:
    April 15, 2019 at 4:11 am

    I see the Kickstarter is coming up…would this game be suitable to 7-10 year olds? Who love Ultima IV/V? Or is it more geared to adults?

    • Mark Lemmert says:
      April 15, 2019 at 6:33 pm

      Thanks for your interest! I personally would be comfortable with children that age playing it, but I wouldn’t presume to judge as it comes down to each parents perspective and values. Here is some information that will be posted to the Kickstarter page on this topic. Does that help?

      “While Nox Archaist contains some swearing to help convey the personality of certain NPCs, we have included the option to turn off adult language in the game settings. There are dark tones in the storyline, such as mention of demons and devils. There is minimal 8-bit blood and gore.”

      • Cambragol says:
        April 16, 2019 at 11:55 pm

        Thanks for the info. As you correctly state, it is up to each parent’s perspectives and values. Your information does give me a little more insight into the story/setting. Demons and devils were a regular part of Ultima IV lore, so not that dark then. Your info certainly does help.

        I am still on the hunt for a working Apple IIc, which will give your game the proper context for my kids. They want to experience the swapping of disks. They actually own the original boxed sets for Ultima IV and V, and the feelies, along with the disks, are treasures for them. They have played the games through emulators, but they really want to use their actual disks. They feel or sense some king of authenticity in that I think. Your game will certainly share that.

      • Mark Lemmert says:
        April 17, 2019 at 6:43 pm

        You’re welcome, I’m glad it helped somewhat. That is awesome your kids are giving 8-bit games a chance!

        Good luck on your Apple II hunt, I too find that helps provide a more authentic experience.

        For playing Nox Archaist, some info you may want to know is that two floppy disk drives are required and the graphics has been optimized to a color monitor or CRT TV. As you may know, an Apple IIc comes with one built in disk drive and a 2nd external disk drive can be added but I think the external drive may be harder to find and more expensive than floppy drives for an Apple IIe.

        For Nox Archaist, an alternative on real hardware to floppy disks is a CFFA card which allows some games (Nox is one of them) to be stored on a USB flash drive and avoid floppy disk flipping. Since the CFFA is a card that goes into a slot, an Apple IIe is required for that, no IIc option unfortunately.

  5. Dean says:
    April 25, 2019 at 10:25 am

    Will the game support Mockingboard sound?

    FYI, I played Ultima 2, 3, 4, and 5 on a Franklin Ace 1000. The big difference, besides being a Apple ][e compatible, was that, standard, it had a 10 key and 128K ram. The original Apple ][e only had 64K ram and you had to buy a add-on for the ‘original’ ][e to add a 10 key.

    Looking forward to this game. Thx