Leaderboard October 2020: Mega Lo Mania & Darkmere

[Biscuit]

It's time to build an empire, breed minions, control life and advance technology, make alliances, then stab your allies in the back as you take over the world and maybe even destroy everything. Who cares. It's Mega Lo Mania! Another hit from Sensible Software.

Meanwhile in a far away land you must discover the secret of the Curse of Darkmere that has been set upon the kingdom. It's a gloomy downtrodden medieval world in need of a hero. One who can go from door to door rooting through people's drawers and shoving everything they find in pockets that are bigger on the inside. Prepare to quest in action adventure Darkmere: The Nightmare's Begun.

My thanks to this months voters and a couple more cool games to try out. Darkmere is another Amiga exclusive from 1994, which is always of interest. The new voting thread will be up on Monday, so look out for that and it would be great if everyone has their say.


Mega Lo Mania
* We are playing three epochs using the following passwords.
* Play as SCARLET and select OPTIONS to load a game.
* Epoch 2 = KMEAKXROPNQ (200 men)
* Epoch 5 = SDOAGLLIVPS (500 men)
* Epoch 8 = SOYAECRZXFE (800 men)
* Complete each epoch and add up the total amount of men remaining for your score.
* Anyone trying to beat the game can use the save game system that provides your own passwords.

Darkmere
* Try to beat the game or just give it a go for the adventurer badge.
* When using ADFs you will need a blank save game disk.


Round Ends: 23:59 (UK Time) on Saturday 31st October 2020 (spooky)


Score Badges:

• Post a screenshot of your score and write it nearby.
• All scores must be achieved during this round without the use of save states, trainers, passwords or any other cheats.
• No continues. No infinite score leeching.

Beat the Game Badge:

• Finish the game during this round and post a screenshot of the ending as proof.
• So long as you are not submitting a score, you can use continues, passwords, and in-game saves. Play the game as originally intended.

Adventurer Badge:

• Play Darkmere during this round and post a screenshot as proof.
• Tell us what you think of the game.

Downloads:

• Mega Lo Mania - ADF 1 - ADF 2 - WHDLoad -
• Game 2 - ADF 1 - ADF 2 - ADF 3 - ADF 4 - WHDLoad -

Full Rules and Hall of Fame - Blog - Twitter


Never played here before? Why not? Chat, play, chill.


Mega Lo Mania

 1,141 Harry
 400 Biscuit
 0 capehorn

Darkmere

 linesmachine
   Biscuit

[RuySan]

Darkmere was one of those games that left me salivating everyone I saw screenshots in magazines. Seemed to be really my kind of game. So after all this time I'll finally try it.

I used to like mega lo mania back in the day, but this day's I have no patience to play old strategy games. It's either the interfaces, the unresponsive clicks or arrows that always annoy me.

[manossg]

I completed Megalomania recently, so I will not participate in this one. A very good game, although sometimes the outcome is just a matter of luck. And I disliked the hibernation mechanic.

Like RuySan, I wanted to try Darkmere for a long time. That time is now!

[linesmachine]

Thought I'd give Darkmere a quick boot up and get used to the inventory system (I was guessing) and controls. 20 minutes in and I only just finished the story, engrossing stuff. Bet the wife makes a reappearance, now I've just started trudging through the towns streets.

Really well put together game, yet to experience much more.

[linesmachine]

Spent an hour or so with Darkermere. Here in the UK it is windy, rainy and grey; very much appropriate to the town in this game!

I've explored all the town, found the blacksmith, opened a few houses. I stumbled into 4 Stenor Street, and the graffitti on the table suggests it is the home of of someone more important. That's where I took this image to show progress.

Some of the graphical touches are really nice, lovely cosy style to the house interiors. The battle system is, so far, awful. I think back in the day you would classify this as an arcade adventure rather than an more trad RPG?

https://ibb.co/Yf71WLx

[Biscuit]

Yes, from what I've seen the combat is not good, lol. But manageable. I'm in it for the exploration and the artwork. Hopefully story and dialogue is fun. The sort of game I enjoy getting into the atmosphere more than anything.

[manossg]

I don't like the save mechanics so far and the controls are very clunky. But very atmospheric game.

[Harry]

Mega Lo Mania: Epoch 2 completed, 131 men left (bonus of 100 men as completion reward not included)

[linesmachine]

Originally Posted by Biscuit

Yes, from what I've seen the combat is not good, lol. But manageable. I'm in it for the exploration and the artwork. Hopefully story and dialogue is fun. The sort of game I enjoy getting into the atmosphere more than anything.

It does have early story and atmosphere, be interesting to see if it maintains the atmosphere and delivers on the story!

I think it’s decent though.

[Biscuit]

Originally Posted by manossg

I don't like the save mechanics so far and the controls are very clunky. But very atmospheric game.

Yeah, the saving limit seems a bit pointless. Will see how I go - might need to look in the manual. I like the way everything runs from joystick but it's a little slow maybe because I'm using an A500 setup.

Enjoying Darkmere anyhow. Made it to the pub at least! Tolk Inn, indeed. I was able to smell everything in there. Very important I smell your drink. It's funny how it warns you about Orcs but nothing else when the flying things are more likely to hurt you. And the rats really die with a bang. Because I didn't want to waste time with saves I've not tried any of the potions yet. Will have to try it with a save state at some point. Nor have I eaten or drank anything suspicious - human flesh!

Even found a copy of Fly Fishing by JR Hartley - boy do I feel old.

Game looks great. I love wandering round isometric worlds.

[linesmachine]

Originally Posted by Biscuit

Game looks great. I love wandering round isometric worlds.

Yeh, this colour palette looks good on the Amiga in a lot of games, but in Darkmere it really comes to the forefront. I like the fact you wander the rather wintry nondescript streets and then really get wowed by the warmth and textures of the interiors like the blacksmiths. The fire effects really give off some warmth.

This is how Heroquest should have a looked.

[Harry]

MLM - men left:
Epoch 2: 131
Epoch 5: 420
Total: 551

[Harry]

MLM - men left:
Epoch 2: 131
Epoch 5: 420
Epoch 8: 590
Total: 1141

[Steve]

Back in 2001 I used to play this game a lot on WinUAE and eventually got in contact with Mark Jones who designed the game and drew all those lovely graphics. We had some great conversations over email and he helped me out in certain parts of the game. Level 2 is like a real maze and it is so easy to get lost or miss important paths - they're well hidden. My advice for level 2 is to make a map of the forest as you're going and check every screen for hidden paths. I never completed the game but will come back to it one day.

[arcanist]

I beat the first Epoch in Mega Lo Mania. I had a couple of questions I couldn't find the answer to in the manual.

Does passive element gathering require idle workers or is it a constant rate?

I couldn't quite match up the amount of wood I'd accumulated - 20.5 - to the number of stone warriors I could field. The game let me create 60 of them. Am I misreading the numbers?

[Biscuit]

Originally Posted by Steve

Back in 2001 I used to play this game a lot on WinUAE and eventually got in contact with Mark Jones who designed the game and drew all those lovely graphics. We had some great conversations over email and he helped me out in certain parts of the game. Level 2 is like a real maze and it is so easy to get lost or miss important paths - they're well hidden. My advice for level 2 is to make a map of the forest as you're going and check every screen for hidden paths. I never completed the game but will come back to it one day.

Good to hear about another dev that's happy to chat with the fans. Cheers for the tip.

Darkmere feels like a really big game world. Especially with some of the houses having loads of rooms. Having seen someone else wander around town for ages I started on a map myself.



@arcanist
Would love to help but I've no idea, been a decade since I played. Will be trying it soon though.

[Harry]

Originally Posted by arcanist

I beat the first Epoch in Mega Lo Mania. I had a couple of questions I couldn't find the answer to in the manual.

Does passive element gathering require idle workers or is it a constant rate?

I couldn't quite match up the amount of wood I'd accumulated - 20.5 - to the number of stone warriors I could field. The game let me create 60 of them. Am I misreading the numbers?

I think it is constant rate up to a threshold. Note: In later epochs, you must build a mine and assign workers (men) to it to gain ressources.

Tip: In the lower epochs, you can hunt the little wandering troops of enemies and thus reduce their people more than you lose. In split islands, try to make an alliance with the gods of the other islands so they can not build further outposts.

[blade002]

This may give me finally an excuse to play Darkmere properly. Although I am in the middle of moving house

[capehorn]

Hmmm... this is the first time I have ever played Mega lo Mania. I'm not sure I've done this correctly...

It looks like I completed Epoch 2, but at the beginning of Epoch 3 I only had 100 men. Does this look right?

[Harry]

You get (only) an epoch completion reward of 100 men. So you seem to have used the 200 men of the password of epoch 2 completely, that makes approximately 66 men per island. Try to do it with less men. (My background thought of the given passwords were that i wanted to make the game more accessible for the players not so familiar with the game.)
Your score is still 0, as you dont have any men left.