The Realm of Nauga


Realm of Nauga intro screen #1 Realm of Nauga game screen #2
Realm of Nauga intro screens #1 & 2

Realm of Nauga intro screen #3 Realm of Nauga game screen #4
Realm of Nauga intro screens #3 & 4

Realm of Nauga intro screen #5 Realm of Nauga game screen #6
Realm of Nauga intro screens #5 & 6

Realm of Nauga intro screen #7 Realm of Nauga game screen #8
Realm of Nauga intro screens #7 & 8

Realm of Nauga intro screen #9 Realm of Nauga game screen #10
Realm of Nauga intro screens #9 & 10

Realm of Nauga intro screen #11

Realm of Nauga intro screen #11

Sample randomly generated forest map (4x3 screens)

Realm of Nauga forest 1-1 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-2 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-3 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-4 screen
Realm of Nauga forest 1-5 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-6 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-7 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-8 screen
Realm of Nauga forest 1-9 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-10 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-11 screenRealm of Nauga forest 1-12 screen

Realm of Nauga game screen #1 Realm of Nauga game screen #2
Realm of Nauga game screens #1 & 2

Realm of Nauga game screen #3 Realm of Nauga game screen #4
Realm of Nauga game screens #3 & 4

Realm of Nauga is low resolution graphic RPG flip screen game that came from the August 1982 issue of the Chromasette tape magnazine (it was written in September of 1981, and is very impressive for it's time, being mostly BASIC with a few ML subroutines). The game features 4 skill levels and uses the right joystick to both move and pick up objects, and then keyboard for things like attacks (you have both a sword for up close combat and bow and arrows for shooting at a distance), getting your player status, etc. The players mission is to retrieve the King's Scepter, which guarded by the Nauga whom you can not destroy but simply slow down. There are objects to pick up on the way, including some special ones that are needed to access some parts on the map (a rope to be able to climb through trees, a boat to go on the water, a key to open the door to the next forest). Each forest (there are 3) consists of 12 screens (4x3) of a larger map, of which you only see 1/12 of at any given time. The maps have critical things appear in the same spots every game (like the lake shore on level 1) in certain forests, but otherwise the maps are partially randomly generated, as are the positions of weapons, items, monsters, potions etc. in the game.

In the first forest, the monsters will chase you down (although they can not cross over water or through trees) for hand to hand combat. In the second forest they are able to fire arrows at you, negating your previous advantage of being able to pick them off from a distance... now they can return the favor. The third forest has no regular forests, just the Nauga itself, which teleports between each screen within the map to follow, and can only be stunned and not killed. It can fire from a distance as well. On this level you better have a lot of healing potions and arrows; you will need them. Magic helps too (even if it is somewhat random as to which spell you actually cast; the 3 spells randomly chosen from when you cast one are Freeze Monsters, Teleport within entire forest, and Teleport within current screen). It should be noted that neither the Nauga nor the regular monsters can move through trees and water, but they can fire through trees while your arrows will get stuck in them (you can pick them up again). You can also somewhat hide in trees or water; the monsters will not "see" you and will then move randomly instead of honing in on you. The game noticeably speeds up in forest 3, so you have to rush to find the Key, and then find the door to exit the forest, before the Nauga kills you.

The game does run a little slow (it's a bit better with either of the Coco 1/2 or Coco 3 speedup POKE's), but for a game programmed (mostly) in BASIC in 1981, it's quite impressive.

Title: The Realm of Nauga

Author: Thomas E. Stephenson (written September 1981)

Publisher: Chromasette

Released: August 1982

Requires: Color Computer 1,2 or 3, 16K RAM (cassette) or 32K RAM (disk), joystick

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