Yeah, and in a wise move, the translator brought out the NES port of Knight of Diamonds instead of Legacy of Llylgamyn, thus restoring the proper order. Though I remember the renumbering confusing me when I played the SNES compilation.

So, more notes:

Okay, I finally played the Apple IIe version - But not for long, because playing three versions of the same game risks burnout. Hereafter I'm thinking I will stick to the MS-DOS version.

In just a few minutes of playtime I found that some of the things I thought were only in the NES version (the random starting HP, and a special button for going through doors being just two examples) were actually in the original Apple IIe version.

The Apple version didn't run near as slow or annoyingly as the Commodore port did and was a more enjoyable experience, however I still felt like I preferred the MS-DOS version more just due to some minor conveniences (which I've heard were in the sequels on Apple IIe, and were put into Wizardry 1 when it got ported to multiple platforms) such as being able to Pool gold (yeah, you actually can't do that on the Apple) and getting a convenient list of characters to add to your party (here you have to type in their names).

I'm also still not convinced that the MS-DOS version really does have a levelling "glitch," though admittedly I only leveled my Apple II party up to two.

Bonus Feature:

It's once again time for TALES FROM WIZARDRY!

Curtis the Fighter was having a bad day. The kind of day where he accidentally stepped on the tail of the innkeeper's cat while getting out of bed. Then during one expedition, Zapis Zuli got level drained by a Shade--fortunately level draining seemed to be no big deal since it apparently did not reduce his stats any, so being level 10 instead of level 11 was basically an academic point. Even so, it forever cemented a policy in the party's mind that when Shades show up, THEY DIE IMMEDIATELY, even using Mewo's ability to Dispell Undead if need be. (The reason they don't normally use that, by the way, is because they got no experience points for dispelled monsters)

During that same expedition, he had found a marked tile on Level Six which did nothing except bring up the stats when the party crossed it. That behavior was consistent with what happened on tiles that required a key item to pass, so he wondered which key it needed.

However, it was impossible to get down to level six without either the Bear Statue or the Blue Ribbon--one was required for the main path through the dungeons while the other was needed for the secret elevator. He decided that for this expedition, he'd let Mewo (yes, he got revived), Shreev and Kimbal stay home, while he took some fresh young talent that needed exercise: Zanko the Samurai Dwarf (which we desperately need a drawing of), Luminos the backup Priest, and Deomar the other Mage. Of course, experienced veterans Curtis, Lornar and Zapis Zuli took point.

The tile on level six reacted no differently when Curtis' party reached it with just the Blue Ribbon, so they returned with the Bear Statue and.... same thing, it reacted no differently. Was it programmed to recognize either item? The only way to find out would be to get down with just one key item and then drop it, which would trap them in the maze until they had the Malor spell, so Curtis decided to head back up.

Then Level Five proceeded to **** with him.

Just a few rooms before reaching the ladder back to level four, they encountered some monsters with a treasure chest... which turned out to be trapped with a teleporter. Which Zapis triggered.

Curtis grumbled, but the veterans (and the player) pretty much had level five memorized so it was no problem to find their path back.

Yet, very soon after doing so, they ran into another monster group... with another treasure chest.

With another teleporter trap.

Which got triggered.

Curtis kicked a wall.

"Oh well!" he said frustratedly, "I see we're in that one hallway that wraps around, so I know where to go to get back to the ladder!"

So he led them through, and soon were near the ladder. However, in the same room where they had encountered the first monsters that had 'ported them, they found some new creatures had come to roost. Easily dispatched, these critters also left behind a treasure chest, with yet another teleporter trap.

"You have GOT to be kidding!" Curtis cried to the heavens. But once again, he recognized the area and led them home... except, once again, just before reaching the latter they encountered some monsters in the same damn room and you'll never guess what happened next.

"AAAAARRRRRRRRRGH!"

Curtis' yell matched all their feelings. Seriously, fate was just toying with them now, and worse, they were out of neutralizing potions (one of the monsters had been poisonous spiders) and were seriously beginning to question their chances for survival. But there was nothing for it--they had to just get lucky. They were even starting to think they should just stop opening treasure chests.

Fifth time was the charm, thank borking GOD. Once more they reached the same small chamber in their path which always contained monsters... except this time, it was a group of Shades, just sitting there and smoking hookahs, not bothered at all by the presence of adventurers. Luminos was able to ask if they could pass through, and the Shades were like "Yeah, go ahead" and waved them on by. The entire team thanked them profusely, and made their way out of the level and, within moments, out of the maze.

"Well," Luminos said over a tankard of ale, "This'll at least make for a funny story!"

This has been TALES FROM WIZARDRY. I hope you enjoyed the story. I actually had another one about teleporters that I was gonna post, but that one was simply about the team getting ported to a place they didn't recognize, and I thought this incident--which just happened today, by the way--would be far more entertaining.

Also... having mixed feelings about something. Like I said earlier, I liked mapping the first level, but at the same time I was avoiding mapping the later levels since I don't really need to. But now I'm wondering if I should go ahead and do it just for funzies (and because level seven is actually kind of confusing--for this playthru I'm actually trying to see as much of the dungeon as possible, whereas previously I would take the shortcut to Werdna's lair)....

.... Which reminds me that there's a teleporter on level ten that takes you back to the surface, so no they wouldn't necessarily be stuck if they lost all key items....