Few questions about Lords of Chaos

[Port_H]

Hi, Amiga fans.
On my old ZX Spectrum 128k computer, I enjoyed playing Lords of Chaos and even more Laser Squad. About Lords of Chaos, I think the conversion to Amiga resulted on a more enjoyable game than the Spectrum version, although I think there are still on the Amiga version certain game aspects that could have been improved and are flawed in my opinion. For instance:

1. When you walk over fire (for instance, fire set by a dragon) you aren't damaged (differently from the Spectrum version?), you're only damaged if the fire spreads to your position after you finish turn.

2. When you kill any enemy creature with your Wizard using a throwing weapon or a bow, you don't get double experience points, you get them only if you kill the creatures with the Wizard in a melee attack or using a killing spell.

3. Also, if the enemy creatures die from a fatal wound caused by your Wizard or any of your summoned creatures you get 0 Exp. points! It sucks when you deal a good series of blows which even though were not sufficient to kill the enemy creature, leave it extremely close to death, then, as soon as you end that turn, it dies from the wound and you get 0 Exp. points!
One funny thing I discovered: If you hit an enemy with your wizard in a melee attack, and in that same turn one of your summoned creatures finish killing it, you still get the double victory points!

I could enjoy more the game if I wasn't so damn perfectionist, trying to kill all of the major enemy creatures and the opponent wizard directly with my wizard in melee or with an attack spell to achieve a greater score of Experience points! In order to do that, I save game using WinUAE snapshots and reload saved games frequently, which is kind of boring... Nevertheless I still enjoy playing it and right now I'm playing at level 2. But getting straight to the point, the reason which led me to start this thread was 2 little questions:

1. When you select one of your creatures, what means the rightmost purple graphic bar, just next to the blue Defence bar? This is missing on the Spectrum version of the game.

2. I'd like to have some help with the 4 button puzzle on level 2 - the room with the pits that disappear and reappear. I placed 3 creatures standing on the first 3 buttons (from left to right), creating a path between the pits for my leftmost creature, which was a vampire, to almost reach the end of the room (he had not enough action points to reach the end), but then one of my other creatures stepped out of the button, and a pit must have appeared just in the position were my vampire was, and he vanished without notice (and without making a sound) !

[StrategyGamer]

In Total Chaos AGA you can sacrifice a creature by making him jump into a pit. The creature dies but the pit fills up. Maybe that trick works in Lords of Chaos also?

[Port_H]

No way. As soon as a certain button is pressed (or a combination of buttons), certain pits reappear on the floor and if one creature was standing over one of those pit positions, it instantly disappears. The pit under it isn't filled, it only disappears again if another button is pressed. That is, only the buttons make the pits appear and disappear, they are not filled by sacrifices.

I found that the button puzzle is not a big of a challenge anyway, as long as no creature standing over the buttons leave their positions until another creature crosses the path created between the pits and reaches the other end. To make the necessary pits disappear to create a path is by trial and error by making creatures step over the buttons.

[Port_H]

Although I still think this is an addictive game for fans of the type, I found some more oddities (beside those I already mentioned in post #1), things that could and should have been corrected:

1. The enemy creatures are incredibly stupid! For example, simple mortal creatures attack my undead creatures without using enchanted weapons, thus without any chances of harming them at all! They should flee instead! Perhaps they only take into consideration the Defence and Combat stats of the opponent?!

2. If one enemy creature moves into the position where my invisible Pixie is (accidentally attacking him), then my Pixie losts his natural invisibility for turn after turn indefinitely. I don't know if he ever recovers lost invisibility during the remaining turns!

3. I killed a wounded Demon with my wizard by throwing him a bomb vial. That yielded me 0 Exp. points!

[Port_H]

Another question. In Scenario 2, I found the Slayer weapon, but I'm not able to enchant it. When I tried to do it, the Slayer didn't changed its name to Magic Slayer, and my Combat stat after casting 'Enchant' on myself with the Slayer in use remained the same as before.
I verified that the Slayer itself is already a magical (enchanted) weapon, capable of damaging the Undead. However, the Lords of Chaos .pdf manual mentions these 2 weapons on the Weapons table, the SLAYER and the MAGIC SLAYER each one of them featuring different stats:

WEAPONS TABLE

WEIGHT; COMBAT; DEFENCE; THROWN COMBAT; RANGED COMBAT

(...)
SLAYER 9; 12; 4; 8; 0

MAGIC SLAYER 9; 30; 12; 16; 0

All magic weapons, except for the Slayer, have double the

Values for combat, defence, thrown combat and ranged combat.

Is it possible to find any MAGIC SLAYER anywhere on the Amiga version of the game? Why can't I convert the SLAYER to MAGIC SLAYER when I cast 'Enchant' on it?

Hey H,

I'm sure all the points you raise are valid but I have to say I never noticed them and they didn't affect my enjoyment of the game.

It is an old game and made for the speccy so the AI is bound to be simplistic. Playing it at the time you would have thought it was pretty good.

Pixies are rubbish, I thik the AI can see them anyway. They only really work in a 2 player game.

Yes you don't get XP for wounds but you dont have to kill the whole monster with your wizard. Just use him for the killing blow.

The puzzle is just trial and error, doesn't take too long to figure out by using cheap units.

Can't remember about the slayer, its too heavy to beuseful so I always ignored it. Yeh it should have been the uber item so you could say it should weigh less.

I think you have to be a bit forgiving to these older games, they were made on a shoestring budget with no publisher support. Their sucess however lead us to better and better games like X-com so try not to let the minor niggles get to you too much.

Bill

Port_H,

I got your email, thanks for that. To those who don't know me, hi! I'm joenumpty, the long-time webmaster for a Julian Gollop's Lords of Chaos tribute website.

Regarding your questions, here's some of the answers you're looking for:

31-10-08 11.09am
1 - Walking over fire. The environment mechanics in LoC happen after your turn, when you get the "Independent Creatures" turn. It's the way the game was designed.
2 - The ranged/thrown weapon "bug" not giving double experience points is well known. Melee combat is always more risky than Ranged combat, and it always made sense to me.
3 - Dying from a fatal wound not giving any experience points is equally well known. The creature is assumed to have taken its own life, so it makes perfect sense to not reward your wizard.
Also, regarding points 2 and 3, LoC has always rewarded aggression over defense/defence and it's just one of those things to accept. Sorry.

2nd 1 - My LoC website you visited contains the Amiga/Atari differences from the 8-bit version (i.e. Spectrum) guide. The purple bar is Magic Resistance.
2nd 2 - That puzzle is easily solvable and I have the notes on it somewhere. I seem to remember using pixies (because they're invisible) and being able to solve it in 4 or 5 moves. My original LoC box is in my loft somewhere, so once I've negotiated the giant spiders who live there, I'll metaphorically dig it up. Also, that puzzle was changed in the 16-bit version for the very reason you mention. They just couldn't do anything about the "infinite carry bug" because that was a limitation of computers ten years before Y2K that nobody thought was worth fixing until 1999.

06-11-08 18.14pm
1 - Like I said above, LoC rewards aggression and I'm sure based on that, the AI is calculating a successful attack based on those stats you mentioned. But if the enemies can't hurt you, why is that a problem?
2 - Again, this is by design. The bestiary in LoC is finite, so if an enemy bumped into one of your pixies then it makes perfect sense for them to know both what and where he is. Maybe he got some mud or blood or him which makes him easier to track?
3 - Like I said above, this is well known. The bomb vial was new to the Amiga/Atari version and it's most likely a bug that you don't get any experience points from it. I'd have preferred Julian and Nick to have left in the super potions from the 8-bit versions because I was never a big fan of bomb potions. Considering point 1, it's probably quite lucky those enemies you mentioned who attack your undead without enchanted weapons weren't aware that bomb vials can hurt them.

07-11-08 14.09pm
1 - My LoC website you visited contains the Amiga/Atari differences from the 8-bit version (i.e. Spectrum) guide. In that A4 scanned page, the Slayer is just listed as "Slayer" and there is only one of that weapon in that scenario. I always felt you got the Slayer way too late for it to have been of any usefulness.

So I hope those answers help you? In closing, I agree with BrillBill in that you have to be very forgiving to those older games, particularly those approaching 20 years old because I don't remember ever not enjoying LoC. However, I did always find it more fun to play multi-player LoC with school friends where you'd take a turn, leave the room, send your friend in, repeat until someone won, which could take several hours.

As for their shoestring budget, I remember the back page of the LoC manual having a page you needed to cut out, to send to Julian's company at the time (long before Codotech) with a cheque or postal orders (because I wasn't old enough to have a bank account at that time) to purchase Expansion Kit One. It doesn't get more shoestring than that and is most likely why we never got Expansion Kit Two even though I bought both the Spectrum and Amiga EK1s.

And don't worry, I'll keep an eye on this topic even though I've not updated my website in about two years. I'll see what I can do over xmas and if I can find the Scenario 2 solution, I'll upload it.

Joe
ALOC webmaster

Found it! And thank goodness for Magic Attack in my loft just a few moments ago!

The Scenario 2 pit section is something like this:

TC-D
OOOO
OOOO
OOOO
OOOO
OOOO
4321S

The "T" is a troll, I believe he has a non-echanted bow.
The "D" is a dwarf and he has an enchanted (magic) bow.
The "C" is a locked treasure chest which will require a light blue key to open.
The many "O" are the pits which you need to traverse to get the locked treasure chest.
The "S" is a scroll which gives the clue "Tread on the buttons to close the pits".
The "1", "2", "3" and "4" are the numbered buttons mentioned in the clue.

My notes give some math formulas of 1x2x3x4 = 24 possible combinations. As this was over a decade ago, I'll just give what I wrote down to be the quickest solution. As I mentioned in my earlier post, use pixies because they're invisible and won't set off the Troll or Dwarf by the treasure chest. So the solution is:

a - move a pixie on to button 1
b - move a second pixie on to button 2
c - move a third pixie on to button 3
d - move a fourth pixie on to button 4
e - move the third pixie off button 3

As you'll have already realised, this requires 4 pixies, therefore you'll need a level 3 pixie spell (3+2+1 = 6). The pits now give a path, I've used "X":

OXOO
OOXO
OOXO
OOXO
OOOX

So there you go. Hope that helps!

Joe

[Port_H]

Thank you, Joe and Bill for your replies. Joe, one can see that you're a true and dedicated LOC fan, your replies are very thorough. You must have had many moments of enjoyment playing this game.
I hope you didn't think that I was underestimating this great game as that was not the case. On the contrary, I'm enjoying playing it right now and I surely intend to keep playing it. I was only bringing up some aspects that could be improved to make this good game even better than it is, and which might possibly be worth considering if someone took the work of creating a remake of this, or a new game inspired on this one.

Originally Posted by BrillBill

Pixies are rubbish, I thik the AI can see them anyway. They only really work in a 2 player game.

I have to disagree with this. The enemy creatures do not see them, what happens is that sometimes the Pixies happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, which means sometimes they're in the way of the enemies who stumble upon them, and unfortunately from that moment on, they become visible to the enemy and an easy (and weak) target.
I found them to be very useful for searching ingredients, they're also good for throwing weapons because they can fight at a distance without being spotted and they're excellent archers, especially if you give them an enchanted bow! Using a Pixie with an enchanted bow or an enchanted Axe (as a throwing weapon) I was able cause serious damage and kill Vampires, Spectres and even Demons. I found that their low Combat rating doesn't seem to affect damage done with bows. Also they can walk through narrow passageways full of enemies without being "Engaged by enemy", avoiding that way the need of attacking in melee.

Originally Posted by BrillBill

Yes you don't get XP for wounds but you dont have to kill the whole monster with your wizard. Just use him for the killing blow.

That's what I'm trying to do, at least for the major enemy creatures which yield the greater score

Originally Posted by joenumpty

2 - Again, this is by design. The bestiary in LoC is finite, so if an enemy bumped into one of your pixies then it makes perfect sense for them to know both what and where he is. Maybe he got some mud or blood or him which makes him easier to track?

OK, but if it's that so, why doesn't that argument function for both sides? I mean, even if I wound an enemy Pixie using a weapon, it remains invisible to me, I'm still not able to see it unless I use a Magic Eye spell, which only works for the current turn!

Originally Posted by joenumpty

3 - Like I said above, this is well known. The bomb vial was new to the Amiga/Atari version and it's most likely a bug that you don't get any experience points from it. I'd have preferred Julian and Nick to have left in the super potions from the 8-bit versions because I was never a big fan of bomb potions.

Yes, me too, I'd prefer them to have left the Super Potions. However, I'd not prefer having only one potion effect at a time: in the Spectrum version, when you drink a potion the effect of it replaces the effect of any potion you had drinked before, it was not added to it. The Amiga version corrects that and makes more sense.

Originally Posted by joenumpty

Considering point 1, it's probably quite lucky those enemies you mentioned who attack your undead without enchanted weapons weren't aware that bomb vials can hurt them.

??? Sorry, I didn't get this point. Can you rephrase this? I'd love to understand what you meant.

Originally Posted by joenumpty

As you'll have already realised, this requires 4 pixies, therefore you'll need a level 3 pixie spell (3+2+1 = 6).

I solved this using 3 pixies only, not 4. Don't ask me how, though. It was by trial and error.

[CongealedWallrs]

This thread is really interesting! I am still obsessed with and playing Chaos for the Spectrum and ST (won't mention the a-word) and this thread has made me decide to take the plunge into Lords of Chaos. I have avoided it because it seems like it requires more prolonged playtimes to get through it and I like short-ish games.

I also LOVE your Lords of Chaos webpage! Good stuff, Joe! It is awesome and is a wonderful shrine to the Chaos games! I didn't find much Chaos info out there, except for your site.

I suppose this is irrelevant to all of your questions but as a result of them I am surely going to play LoC properly. I have waited long enough, it is time to become a Lord of Chaos

[Port_H]

I'm glad to know that this thread has made anyone start playing this game, even if it's only one person!

Take a look also at this Lords of Chaos Website: http://www.halifaxwallace.freeserve.co.uk/
It has some useful information. For instance, there's there a good map to Scenario 2 which proved itself useful to my game
Thanks to it, I was able to find the Slayer weapon before killing the Demon in the room with 3 locked doors and even before killing Elbo Smogg and his final horde, but now I'm running against clock to be able to reach the portal on time before the last turn arrives! Using the "Infinite carry bug" I'm able to carry all of the treasure (all except 4 emeralds) of the 5 chests containing the biggest haul, as I found only 5 chest keys on this level. If I can get to the portal on time after killing Elbo Smogg and his final summoned creatures, I'll finish this level with a extraordinary score of more than 950 Ep. to spend however I want!

Note about the "Infinite carry bug" (you can read about it on http://www.geocities.com/amigalordsofchaos/): It also works if you have only 1 point of weight limit left when you fill vial. That is, the carry limit doesn't have to reach 0 before you fill vial as is described in the site. Note however that after it take effect you must not drop any item, at least not before you pick up something heavier than the object you want to drop, or else the bug ceases and you are subjected to weight limits again. Have fun

[Shoonay]

Great site you've got there joenumpty, really makes me wanna play the game from the first in the series.

This is becoming quite the interesting topic!

Firstly, to CongealedWallrs:
Thanks for your positive comments about my LOC tribute website. I did plan to make a page for Chaos but the only decent Spectrum emulator is not freeware, like WinUAE (for Amiga) or Steem (for Atari ST). I did include a link to an online Java version of Chaos but if you want the actual game dump, the World of Spectrum website has that for free and is a most excellent resource for 8-bit games generally. About your "prolonged playtimes" comment, yes some LOC levels will take you up to two hours to complete but there is an in-game save facility as well as the modern bonus of save states. You should avoid it no longer because you're missing out on some tremendous gaming.

Secondly, to 5hoon4y:
Thanks also for your positive comments and I can only stress again that you should really take the plunge and play the game. There were only five levels in the game anyway. The zero level that is also uniquely on my website doesn't allow you any wizard editing and is quite the challenge. You will also not be able to transfer your wizard data over to the main game either. But it's all we had for a few weeks until LOC was released proper, so I was grateful for that opportunity.

Thirdly, to Port_H:
Thanks for your positive comments too, I have been a dedicated fan of LOC since it was first released. And to reassure you, I did not think you were underestimating the game at all. I'm sure if Julian and Nick (the true Lords of Chaos) were to ever see this thread, they'd agree that with hindsight there were probably things they could have done differently but because they didn't, it's what makes LOC all the more endearing.

As for the ongoing Pixies debate, the invisible enchanted bow strategy was quite common in the day, particularly in multi-player games and yes, their invisibility did prevent the "engaged with enemy" issue. As for the AI "knowing" where the pixie is, yes it is unfair that you have to use a Magic Eye spell to see him but as the computer is both the enemy and in charge of the AI, it's just one of those things.

Regarding my comment you didn't understand, my point was that your undead get attacked by enemy creatures without enchanted weapons, i.e. your creatures don't get hurt. So to make comment clearer, I was suggesting that you were lucky those enemies were unaware that bomb vials can damage your undead. But like I've said several times already, the AI's not perfect and even in the modern Final Fantasy universe, enemy AI is not remotely comparable to playing against another person. For example, in Final Fantasy there's an ability known as "Block Arrows" or "Archer's Bane", which means a bow attack is blocked. Yet the AI still prefers to target enemies with that blockable ability in preference to those who it could damage.

As for your solving the Scenario 2 pit problem with only 3 pixies, I do believe you but I do not believe there can be a solution more efficient than the one I described. After all, with five horizontal rows, the minimum number of steps on and off ought to be five, which is what my solution is. So kudos to you for working it out by trial and error. Somewhere the great empirical scientists like Archimedes, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, etc. are all smiling at you.

And finally, the infinite carry bug not being zero... I believe bomb potions weigh 1 unit more than consumable potions, so that's probably why your remainder of 1 works. Have to admit, I hadn't really noticed that before but next time I get around to playing LOC, I will test that and if you're right (and I don't doubt that you are) then I'll credit your discovery on the ALOC website because that will help a lot of new people who are discovering LOC for the first time when they come across my site via Google or Wikipedia.

[Port_H]

Originally Posted by joenumpty

Regarding my comment you didn't understand, my point was that your undead get attacked by enemy creatures without enchanted weapons, i.e. your creatures don't get hurt. So to make comment clearer, I was suggesting that you were lucky those enemies were unaware that bomb vials can damage your undead.

Ah, OK, I thought you were trying to make some sort of reasonable argument to give a meaningful logical explanation to the 0 Exp. points earned when you kill enemies using Bomb vials, which was the point you were discussing.

Originally Posted by joenumpty

And finally, the infinite carry bug not being zero... I believe bomb potions weigh 1 unit more than consumable potions, so that's probably why your remainder of 1 works. Have to admit, I hadn't really noticed that before but next time I get around to playing LOC, I will test that and if you're right (and I don't doubt that you are) then I'll credit your discovery on the ALOC website because that will help a lot of new people who are discovering LOC for the first time when they come across my site via Google or Wikipedia.

Nope, it has nothing to do with bomb potions (which weight 4 points just like the consumable potions). I uploaded to The Zone! one savestate which demonstrates well that the "infinite carry bug" works both with carry limits of 0 and 1: search for LOC_infinite carry bug.uss as I'm probably not allowed to link to it. In it, the Wizard mounted on Pegasus has carry limit of 1 and is about to fill vial. The Skeleton next to it who is mounted on a Gryphon has carry limit of 0, and several keys in inventory, each one weighting 1 point, so you can drop one key (carry limit becomes 1) and then fill vial or you can fill vial with carry limit on 0. Also the Gold Dragon has infinite carry limit.

I finally ended level 2 with the superb score of 970 Exp. points! It was done in extremis because the last gems were picked up just before entering the portal on the final turn of the game! That is, in order to kill all the major enemy creatures and Elbo Smogg with my wizard doubling the score for each kill and collect the most valuable pieces of treasure available on this level, I had to utilize all the 47 turns available for this level and exploit at maximum most of the turns, wasting the minimum Action Points possible. It was an hard task, especially considering the fact that there wasn't one piece of Sulph on this Scenario (it must be a rare event to have 0 Sulph appearances on this level), so I couldn't make a Speed Potion. For instance, most of the last kills had to be done using spells like Magic Bolt and Magic Lightning (this one allowing to dispatch 3-4 creatures in one blow) to avoid at all cost many melee combats in the last turns which would cause Stamina to drop to critical levels and consequently Action Points being halved on the next turn. And near end I needed many Action points for my Wizard not only to combat, but also to change-drop all the non-treasure items and pick up all the gems collected by my Gold Dragon on the central cavern where biggest haul lied. I also had opportunity to kill Elbo Smogg earlier, but I left him for the last turns. That way, he could summon a new bunch of creatures including a Vampire and a Skeleton that I killed near end and I could earn significantly more Exp. points. Those are all game tips that you can follow.
Now I'm satisfied and ready to move on to Level 3, but not before spending all those Exp. points editing Wizard to my liking.

Challenge proposition

If anyone here is able to get a score higher than 970 on Scenario 2, please let me know! I challenge-thee! For this challenge purpose, it is not valid to use savestates made by others! Also it is not valid to play Scenario 2 with any Wizard other than a level 2 Wizard built from a previous game on Scenario 1, but I think the game doesn't allow it anyway. Note that I took advantage of the "Infinite carry bug" which I do not consider to be cheating, since the bug is there in the original version of the game for anyone who wants to use it, and it could happen accidentally during a regular game even if you didn't know how to trigger it

EDIT: I have just uploaded to The Zone! one savestate made on the penultimate turn. It is called LOC2-end1.uss. To achieve 970 Exp. points, you'll have to slay the wounded Sketeton with the Wizard (for instance, using the Slayer) then change mount in that same turn and move on to approach the last gems conveniently drop next to the portal - choose the most valuable gems, you can't pick up all of them.

[Port_H]

Originally Posted by joenumpty

I did plan to make a page for Chaos but the only decent Spectrum emulator is not freeware, like WinUAE (for Amiga) or Steem (for Atari ST).

Joe, why do you say that the only decent Spectrum emulator is not freeware? I have been using latest version of ZX Spin (v0.666). The version available for download from http://www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html#pcwin was outdated until recently, so I downloaded ZX Spin directly from http://www.zxspin.com/. This emulator is freeware and seems to me to be a pretty good emulator, not inferior in any way to Spectaculator. Have you tried latest version of it?

[Port_H]

Now I'm playing at Scenario 3, and I discovered another thing still related to the "infinite carry bug". For some reason I don't understand, the filled vials on this level weight 3 pts., and not 4 pts. like they did on level 2. Consequently, in order for the "infinite carry bug" to work on this level, your carry limit really must be 0 before you fill vial, the carry limit of 1 doesn't work anymore if the filled vial weights 3 pts.
Also, on this level I found Ninja Stars weighting only 2 points instead of the 4 points described on the weapons table of the LOC manual. Perhaps this is another difference between the Spectrum version and the Amiga version of the game.

[CongealedWallrs]

I'm still getting my arse kicked on level one. Its a different type of challenge to Chaos but it is actually becoming more and more appealing.

Chaos is more like a mix of boardgame and gambling in a fantasy setting with almost Chesslike rules. Lords of Chaos seems almost like a fantasy RPG but with turn-based strategy gameplay. A little like an RPG/fantasy Command & Conquer? Maybe not.

Honestly, I am still playing more Chaos than LoC. Maybe that will not change. I have been looking for a Chaos substitute for ages and have tried:
Archon (and Archon II)
Lords of Chaos
Total Chaos (which is awesome but I can't play it on my mobile system, so I need some altenative).
I even tried some other Games Workshop games but they were shocking.

I guess there just isn't another game like it out there If anyone knows of a tactical game with boardgame elements, almost like a card game then let me know. Sorry to be so off-topic but I thought maybe people who view/contribute to this thread might be good people to ask. Maybe I'll make a new thread.

To answer some questions that have been outstanding for a while...

@Port_H:

1 - Re: Bomb Potions - these were an addition to the 16-bit (Amiga/Atari) version of the game and don't operate like the regular potions because they're effectively weapons. Also, because some potion vials weigh 4 units rather than 3 units, it's not mathematically surprising that if a full vial weighs 1 unit more, then the 0 limit can be increased to 1. The absolute bottom line is that "if filling an empty vial breaks the weight limit threshold", then the "infinite carry bug" still applies. Again, this is due to the changes that the Gollop brothers made when converting the 8-bit code (Spectrum, C64) to 16-bit code (Amiga/Atari).

2 - Re: high score on Scenario 2, Elbo Smogg's Dungeon - if you get lucky with the treasure chests in the "secret area" that are guarded by the dragons and the actual "guardian" then it is possible to break 1000 victory points for the scenario. My best score is 1050 but I do know someone who's achieved 1120. Both scores were obtained without any data manipulation whatsoever.

3 - Re: Spectrum emulators - the last version I tried of ZX Spin wasn't as flexible as the Spectaculator emulator for my purposes. As well as wanting to play older software, I feel that the multiface/POKE facility is simply better in terms of using old YS Tipshop POKEs and also creating my own brand new ones. I appreciate you bringing my attention to the new version of ZX Spin and I'll check it out when I get the opportunity.

4 - Re: differences between the 8-bit and 16-bit versions of Scenario 3, Ragaril's Domain - I wasn't aware the vial weights had changed from the previous scenario. Have to say that I can't remember ever getting a Nitro ingredient from the forest around Ragaril's HQ. I shall keep an eye out for one when I play that again. Also, regarding the Ninja Stars, you're correct: the "Changes from the 8-bit" document does not mention the change in weight compared to the 8-bit version. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I will update the website when I get a moment.

@CongealedWallrs

1a - The trick (if there is one) to Scenario 1, The Many Coloured Land - is simply to leave the starting room as quickly as you can and cast flying creatures who can pick up the random equipment and ingredients that are lying around. Vampires and Harpies are good for this, although I like to cast some Bats as well because their greater distance makes them good scouts when trying to locate Torquemada. Arguably the best ingredient your aerial troops could find would be Sulph, for Speed Potion. Due to the limited number of turns in Scenario 1, maximising your actions is the way to go.

1b - Also, in the centre of the four rooms is a square-ring-shaped room which has treasure chests and is protected by two Giant Spiders. The two doors to this central room are locked, as are all the treasure chests. So when your Vampires and Harpies do their aerial reconnaissance, make sure you can find at least one gold key (door) and hopefully at least four light-blue keys (treasure chests). Because the Giant Spiders are very dangerous to your level one wizard, I like to keep some powerful undead in reserve because non-undead creatures who can not hold enchanted weapons are unable to hurt the undead; Spectres are probably best although Demons would take out the Giant Spiders quicker.

2 - As for turn-based games similar to Chaos/Lords of Chaos, there's always Laser Squad which was also by the Gollop brothers and like Lords of Chaos had an expansion kit too. Another turn-based game I used to play back in the day on a real Amiga was Gremlin's Space Crusade and just like LoC and LS, it had an expansion pack too called "The Voyage Beyond". Gremlin also did Hero Quest too, although I thought SC/TVB were much better in terms of gameplay, particularly the later levels of TVB which reminded me of the Alien films.