Dungeons & Dragons Games Vol. 7: Hillsfar (MS-DOS)

Developer:

Westwood Associates

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Release Date:

1989

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Systems:

DOS, Amiga, C64, Atari ST, PC-88, PC-98, NES

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This week on Super Adventures, my Dungeons & Dragons quest has reached the year 1989 and I'm playing... whatever this is. It's not a Gold Box game, I know that much, but it is an official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons licenced product and it is linked to Pool of Radiance, so we're back in the Forgotten Realms again for this one.

The game's called Hillsfar and it's by Westwood Associates, the guys who would later go on to make real-time strategy legends like Dune II and Command & Conquer, along with adventure games like Legend of Kyrandia and Blade Runner. I'm considering this to be a good sign. Though at this point Westwood were mostly in the business of porting games to other systems, typically 8-bit titles to 16-bit machines like the Amiga and Atari ST, and they were apparently quite good at it.

Hillsfar itself was ported across to a fair number of computers, though it was released on fewer systems than Pool of Radiance (9) and Heroes of the Lance (13). This means that we've already said goodbye to the Master System, MSX and Sharp X1, which never got another D&D game, and the PC-88 is dropping out here as well. The Apple II and Mac aren't out yet but they both skipped Hillsfar, so their owners missed out on its big selling point: it can import characters from Pool of Radiance and export them into the next game in the saga, Curse of the Azure Bonds. 

All the major Western computer RPG franchises of the time let you import saves, it was nothing exclusive to the Gold Box games. In fact The Bard's Tale lets you import from Wizardry and Ultima III, and then you can import from that game into Deathlord or Centauri Alliance. But what makes Hillsfar different is... actually I have no idea, I haven't played it yet.

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I've always loved the covers of these old RPGs and I was a bit disappointed to learn that a lot of them were recycled from other projects. Like the picture on the Hillsfar box was a painting by Clyde Caldwell originally used for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebook #15: The Vanishing City. That's why it shows a vanishing city. It's still great art though.

Hillsfar's not a Gold Box game in any way, it doesn't use the engine and it doesn't even come in a gold box, but it's apparently some kind of "interactive movie" training ground side story in the Pool of Radiance saga that can be played before and alongside Curse of the Azure Bonds, so it's exactly where it should be in that list on the side. And the launcher has an Import progress button to make bringing your characters over easy.

I've played plenty of expansions that let me go back and forth between the new content and the main game, but it's rare to be able to move characters between different games like they're pokémon. You can't go back to Pool of Radiance from here, that story is over now, but you can visit Curse of the Azure Bonds for a while and then come back afterwards. Though players at the time had to wait a few months for Azure Bonds to get released first.

Wait, why does that say "Ride current character to Hillsfar"? I'm not playing as a horse. Or am I? I should generate a brand new Hillsfar character first just to make sure you can't play as a horse.

Okay, the character creation is pretty much the same as it is in Pool of Radiance, no big shock there. You pick your race, sex, class, alignment and then roll the dice on your six ability scores. There are only four classes still: cleric, fighter, magic-user and thief, so they haven't added paladin and ranger yet. The big difference between the games is that there's no visual depiction of your hero: no portrait or icon. Plus I didn't see any way to modify the ability scores manually to put a bunch of numbers at 18 import a hero from the tabletop game.

Characters you generate here start off already having bunch of experience and levels, but I suppose that makes sense if you can import veteran characters from other games, as it means that your new heroes won't be too far behind.

Hang on, I'm only bringing one character out this time? I'm not making a party of six heroes? That's unexpected. Am I going to recruit some NPCs with actual personalities and dialogue? Because that would be cool.

I'm also starting on the map screen, so that's different too.

It's not telling me the name of the city that the little yellow star is racing down to, but it's the biggest place on the map so I'm assuming that it's Hillsfar.

I did the research and it turns out that this is still basically the Moonsea region, where you'll find Pool of Radiance's city of Phlan, we're just a bit more to the south. That's the Moonsea itself on the right. I love how this is all consistent between games, by the way. It makes me feel like I'm learning about new parts of a world that I've lived in for a while, and that's a different feeling to installing Legends of Chronicles: Origins and wandering around a new fantasy world I've got no reason to care about yet.

It doesn't seem like I have any other options besides following the road, so I'll take my new character down to Hillsfar and see if anyone has any quests they need doing.

Huh?

I had no idea that this was going to be an action game. I knew it was going to be different to the Gold Box RPGs, but I was expecting all those ability scores I just rolled to affect the gameplay in some way.

And who keeps leaving all this stuff in the middle of the road? I'm not the only person who travels these paths, these are the main routes that people take when getting from town to town!

There you go, all that practice I got while playing The Lion King has paid off. Man, I might even be good enough to finish the first level of Back to the Future III right now... nah, probably not.

I restarted a few times just to try out different characters, and it turns out that if doesn't matter if you make a male human fighter or a female elf cleric/magic-user, it's still the same sprite riding the horse. You get the same horse too, though that makes sense as you already have a white horse in Pool of Radiance.

Speaking of Pool of Radiance, I'm going to try out the 'Import progress' button on the Hillsfar launcher in Steam. I've already taken a character out of the party I was playing with, so they're ready to come on over to this game.

Right away I'm seeing one big difference between generated characters and imported characters: Pool of Radiance doesn't let you use lower case letters in their name.

Whoa, I wasn't expecting this guy to pop out of nowhere 3 seconds after I arrived. Do I want to bring a thief with me in exchange for half of the loot? Uh... I suppose that makes sense, seeing as there are only two of us right now. I'm not really planning any theft right now, but I always bring a rogue on the team.

Man, where the hell was this city map when I needed it back in The Bard's Tale? It took developers a while but someone finally realised that this standard '80s CRPG layout with the tiny 3D window in the top left leaves a lot of room for a nice big map on the right.

I still think Fallout and Baldur's Gate had the right idea with their overhead camera. Not that I have a problem with first-person RPGs, but it's hard to navigate when you're dealing with a blocky maze of identical walls and 90 degree turns, and there was no point sacrificing clarity for immersion back when the hardware wasn't powerful enough to show objects or NPCs on the streets.

The only issue I have with the map is that it's unlabelled and it won't let me write notes. You can write notes on the map that comes in the manual, but I can do one better than that...

There's another map in the cluebook with all the names on it! It's not strictly part of the game package, but it was included with the Steam version, and I'm going to use it. The cluebook's also got some short stories in the back to add some extra life to the location. I'm not going to read them, but it's a nice bonus.

There's a fair amount of history to the Moonsea, and the manual talks about how the area went to crap when the elves left their nearby city of Myth Drannor. Monsters and bandits moved into the region and Council of Hillsfar was overcome by corruption before being overthrown by a wizard. I don't know if any of that is relevant to the plot, but it's nice that I was able to learn a bit about where I am.

I also looked up where I should start and the book says that a fighter like me should head to the Fighters' Guild. There it is, up near the top left. Though they hid the front door around the back to confuse me.

When I got there I found that the guild master wasn't in, but I think he might just be hiding until I've finished with the copy protection.

I've gotten a few old DOS games on Steam and GOG now and I'm used to them just working, with the protection removed. Pool of Radiance asks for a code, but it doesn't really need it. This time however I think the game really does want me to get out the codewheel. Or the application that has been provided in place of a codewheel at least.

Alright the guild master has finally revealed himself, just not visually. He must be lurking behind one of the text boxes.

Anyway, Caratacus has a task for me to complete before I'll be allowed to join the Fighters' Guild. All I have to do is master the art of archery. Well, uh, okay then! I'll get right on that.

I think the tiny 3D view in this side game looks better than the one in Pool of Radiance, as it has signs on the walls and stuff. Though if you stand still to look at it, people will keep coming up to sell you  information or healing potions (just 243 gold!) They can sense that 620 GP in my pocket.

Hang on, the door to the archery range is locked? This is an unexpected complication.

The manual says that its opening times are 8 AM to 3 PM, so I'm an hour late and I'll need to find somewhere to wait. I know, I can rest at the Fighters' Guild! So I'm walking back to the other side of the city then.

EVENTUALLY, AT 8 AM

Alright it's morning and I've got a new minigame to play!

I'm controlling the blue crosshair with the arrow keys and I need to move it over one of the targets hanging from the string. The tricky part is that my aim drifts a bit due to the wind (indicated by the windmill on the left) so I need to keep tapping the keys to compensate, though its not so bad right now. There's also a yellow gauge at the bottom of the screen that shows when I'm ready to release the bow string, so I need to make sure that the crosshair is drifting across the target at the moment the bar becomes full.

I managed to hit the bullseye with all 10 shots, so either this is really easy or I'm the reincarnation of Robin Hood. Or maybe I just have good ability scores, I don't know. Anyway I have successfully mastered archery, so I'm headed back across town to join the Fighters' Guild!

The guild master isn't in.

I rested for hours, days waiting for the guy to return, but wherever the guy is, he's not in right now. Maybe I did something wrong on the archery minigame and I didn't actually pass the test. There's not much else I can do but try it again.

Right, the archery is definitely done now. I have thoroughly completed this task. Don't ask me what happens when you shoot the rat, I never thought to try it.

I'd better go save after that. Wait, how do I save the game in this?
 
Okay, I've looked it up and it says that I need to save on the camp screen, same as in Pool of Radiance. But I can't see an option to make camp. Hang on... does it mean that I have to ride my horse back to my camp at the start of the game just to save?

I gotta get to the camp and get my game saved otherwise I might lose my progress and end up having to repeat the same thing all over again!

You might be thinking "That's just the same GIF!" and you'd be right. That's because after saving at camp I had to turn around and ride down the same path again to return to Hillsfar

I have to prove myself in the arena now? What does that mean, become the champion? 

Man, it's not easy to join the Fighters' Guild in Hillsfar. In other RPGs they're happy to accept anyone who knows which way up to hold a sword, while here they want me to slay the Darkspawn Archdemon, stop the impact of Meteor and dethrone God before they'll let me take on the most basic quests.

Seriously, you can import characters who've completed two entire Gold Box RPGs, and they still won't be good enough for the Hillsfar Fighters' Guild. I can only assume they cater to extremely rich clients who demand the absolute best and there's a lot of money headed my way soon. Right after I become the champion of the arena.

Alright, when does this place open?

Damn, I actually won somehow! Nero up there seems satisfied at least.

I can't be too critical about this fighting minigame, because the game came out in 1989, back when even Street Fighter was bad. Also I clearly haven't figured out how to play it yet.

I mean I read the manual and I know the controls: you can attack left and right, block left and right, and do a super attack, but I don't know when to press the buttons. I can't react to the enemy's moves because I can't read them. So I just hit him with a stick until he stopped moving. 

Alright, now that I'm the best archer and also the best warrior, the guild master is finally permitting me to pay the membership fee of 150 GP!

Turns out that my first mission is apparently grave robbing, which seems more of a Thieves' Guild mission to me. Where's that rogue I picked up? I'll give him a spade and he can do it.

My dude's a little traumatised, okay. He's had some bad experiences in graveyards recently.

Pool of Radiance (MS-DOS)

Like the time a skeleton's arms burst out of a grave and tried to pull him in, and the time that 30 ghouls attacked him while he was asleep in their crypt. 

I think the least I should do is save the game first. To my horse!

I don't think I ever properly expressed how grateful I was that Pool of Radiance lets you save anywhere, and you even get a bunch of save slots in case you mess up and need an earlier save. Heroes of the Lance just lets you save anywhere as well. You just open the menu, save, and then get on with whatever you were doing. No display of equestrian prowess required.

Okay I'm back in Hillfar and as usual someone's immediately come over to take a share of my money.

Sorry lady, I've already got a rogue on the team and I don't need another one. At least... I thought I did. The game shows you who you have in your team as an icon above the TIME: and there's nothing there right now. Wow, they must have been good at their job as I haven't got a clue when they sneaked off.

Alright, opening times are 12 AM to 7 AM for the Cemetery, so I'll go for a nap and then I'll go find out what this minigame is like.

Oh, that was easy. The stuff I was looking for was in a chest right next to the door.

This section of the game has the character (wearing a blue cloak now) running around hallways with the arrow keys, looking in as many chests as they can before the time runs out. Unfortunately some of them are locked and I really did lose my thief at some point so I'm on my own with the locks.

My character is a fighter, so their thief skills are next to zero. Even their 'bash it open with pure physical force' skills aren't up to the task. All I can really do here is leave.

Hang on, why isn't it letting me leave? The timer's going down even faster here than it was before and none of the options are letting me quit!

LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT LET ME OUT!!

Crap, the guards are onto me now. I don't think it was because I failed to open the chest, the level timer just got too low. (Incidentally, I checked the NES port and the scrolling is somehow just as bad there.)

The thing is, if I'm interpreting this correctly, you have to wait for the timer to get low before the exit opens. And you can't leave through the front door, you need to go find an staircase that's appeared somewhere. It could be anywhere in the level, there's no arrows pointing toward it, so you just have to run all over the place.

You can step right over the people you're stealing from, they don't care, though running into a guard lowers the timer. Once the timer's gone, running into a guard is a mini-game over.

The guards caught me in the end, but they just took my loot and threw me out. It turns out that's how it usually goes. The next thing I was sent to do was to find evidence in the jail, and that just led to failure after failure. I wouldn't necessarily describes this part of the game as being challenging, as I don't feel like I failed a challenge. I feel like I got unlucky and the exit didn't spawn close enough. I was searching everywhere as fast as I can possibly go!

When you bring a thief with you (or you are a thief), then a lot more of the chests turn out to be locked and you get to play the first lockpicking minigame in videogame history, over and over again. Seriously, the only earlier example I'm aware of is when you solve the combination locks in Tunnels of Doom in 1982, and that's not really the same thing.

Though hang on, is this puzzle actually unwinnable? If I use a lockpick with the wrong shape on a pin then it'll break, but there's no pick here with a completely flat end. On either side.

I really struggled with the minigame at first, as it didn't even occur to me that the handles of the picks were also different heads and they could be flipped around. Figuring that out definitely helped.

But some of the picks are incredibly similar and you can easily use the wrong one by mistake. The game plays a warning sound if you do that, but it also plays the sound if the tumbler is jammed, so if you think you've grabbed the right tool and nothing's happening you'll ignore the warning and keep tapping to unjam it. Oops, it was the wrong pick and now it's snapped.

The problem here is that picks stay broken until you leave the building, so you'll start encountering locks you no longer have the ability to open. Fortunately I have enough HP to survive any lethal security features at least.

EVENTUALLY

I'm bored of running around these badly scrolling mazes, opening chests and getting teleported around by traps, so I've gone down to the pub instead. They've got a bunch of stuff for me to do here, like listen to gossip, gamble, carve initials...

Man, look at all that text. It turns out that '80s D&D games actually can fit their words into the game itself instead of a journal booklet, they just chose not to. Or maybe this game just doesn't have enough story in it for it to be a problem.

I was so bored when I left the pub that when one of those people came over to sell me mysterious information, I actually paid to find out what it was. They took their money and told me... gossip can be heard in pubs.

I tried visiting a bookstore but they subtly hinted I should visit the pub as well.

I'd go back to the pub right now if I could hire another thief there instead of just waiting in the street for one to come find me.

What's annoying is that thieves disappear when you sleep. I went to the jail to make another attempt at getting the evidence, but the lock on the front door seemed unsolvable, so I quit. The game told me I need to wait a day before trying again, so I went to rest at the Fighters' Guild and my rogue slipped away as I slept. Honestly, this game really shouldn't be trying to wear down my patience right now, I have so little of it left.

Though it wasn't all the game's fault. After a bunch of failed attempts to find the evidence in the jail building I finally realised that I'm partially to blame.

You see what happened was, I checked the map in the cluebook and I went to the building with 'JAIL' written above it, thinking that it was the jail. I mean it looked like a jail inside, it had guards chasing me around and boxes of loot everywhere. So I kept going in over and over and over again, looking for the right chest with the evidence inside it.

But if you zoom in on the map there's actually an arrow there pointing to a different building. Man I felt like an idiot when I realised I'd been wasting my time doing something impossible and I can't even blame the game for it! Not that I've had any luck in the actual jail yet either.

Look at those massive scanlines though. That's a legit photograph of a real late '80s CRT television that is, I assume.

You know what, screw the Fighters' Guild, I'm going off and exploring for a while! 

There's a huge map here and I haven't been anywhere yet. Who even knows what kind of minigames could be out here for me to play. I've already won the 'find the hidden trail' minigame, by cycling through each of the possible paths until this message popped up. Honestly, it doesn't seem too hidden to me.

So it's going to be like that, is it?

I found a Rod of Blasting in a box earlier, which can apparently blast through obstacles on the horse stages (while the ammo lasts). Unfortunately it didn't occur to me to try it in the split second I had to react to the arrow coming my way. It might not even work for my class.

The good news is that falling off the horse isn't the end of the world. You can do it a bunch of times before it gets sick of you ploughing into obstacles and abandons you, and when that happens you can just walk. The manual warns that this puts you in danger of being robbed... or worse. But I've never failed enough times for that to happen.

What's a bandit going to do to me anyway? I'm a master archer and the champion of the arena! Plus I'm a skilled enough thief to have swiped four health potions! You know, it's just occurred to me that clerics and magic-users haven't got a lot of minigames that make use of their skillsets.

It turns out that the other locations in the world are timed mazes like in the jail! This is it, this is what Hillsfar is. It's just this, forever.

The hidden trails took me to the shipwreck and the dead dragon, but there's no loot to find aside from health potions, 'knock' rings to magically unlock boxes, a Rod of Blasting and literal garbage. Oh and money, which you can use to buy health potions and knock rings.

Those bushes look like they're out of a ZX Spectrum game, though the system was actually spared from getting a port of this game. Unfortunately Speccy owners missed out on all the proper RPGs as well. I guess trying to put a full Gold Box game on 48K machine with a tape player instead of a disk drive was a bit implausible.

A WHILE LATER

I can't believe I just paid this barmaid 4 GP so she could tell me that the arena is the northwest of the map. I know where the bloody arena is, I've done that bit. I came here because I'm on a case and I wanted some information!

Oh, I eventually found the evidence in the jail and completed the first Fighters' Guild quest. Got 4500 XP and a bunch of money for it. That doesn't sound like much of an achievement, but if the cluebook is right then I just finished a third of the game. Four classes, three quests each. I was actually about to quit the game, but now I'm feeling like I could win this!

The second quest has me chasing a criminal, so I started by pressing 'search' outside the castle gates. The clue I found led me to this pub and now I'm after the next clue.

Clue found!

Okay, so we're trying to clear Jared of a crime before Mordak gets him. It turns out that he used to play down near the shipwreck, so that's a good place for me to... oh no, I was just down there at the shipwreck. That's another bloody maze level. I'm already doing this maze level, I don't want to do another one!

At least if I get caught in here I'll still keep the information I found in the box. I just have to return to the loot I stole and they'll kick me back out into the street. I know the routine very well at this point.

Okay, this is not what I expected. This time the guards threw me into the arena as punishment for my sneakiness, and I had to fight to survive.

Unfortunately they put me up against Morin, who has full armour and actually knows what they're doing. It wasn't exactly a fair fight.

That's it, game over. At least I got a little game over picture, which is more than I ever got from Pool of Radiance.

Wait, I forgot to ride back to camp and save after completing the first Fighters' Guild quest! Well that's great. I was supposed to be training this hero up ready for Curse of the Azure Bonds, now the best they can do is make a cameo as a mummy.

Yeah, there's no way I'm putting this back on, I am done with it. I could try the other classes, but something tells me that my sprite in the arena would look exactly the same even if I was playing as a female dwarf thief.


CONCLUSION

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I made this fake cover back when I thought I could fit the two games into one article and I still wanted to use it somewhere

I think the most damning thing about Hillsfar is that I can say without irony or exaggeration that the lockpicking minigame is the highlight. That's the bit you want to play this for!

That's not even that weird though, as the whole thing is made of minigames. Horse riding, Target Range, Arena Combat, Mazes, Lockpicking, and that's pretty much it seems. I think I've experienced everything the game will ever be. And honestly even the lockpicking has issues.

There could be some mileage in the concept of an RPG saga having a completely different side story that characters can visit between games, and maybe gain a level up. But this is too shallow and frustrating for me to stick with long enough for my character to actually improve. And the idea of playing it six times over to bring my whole Pools of Radiance team through isn't all that appealing! Sure each of the four classes gets different quests, but it doesn't seem like they'd get a different experience. Just hire a thief and every class becomes an arena-fighting, horse-riding marksman with lockpicking capabilities. And no magic.

It definitely does some things right. Finding your way around town is effortless thanks to the map and if you press R it gives you a reminder of your current quest. All the text boxes are actually in the game, so you don't have to keep referring to numbered journal entries in the manual. And it is challenging. Wait, I'll rephrase that: you'll fail a lot. Mostly while you're looking for where the escape staircase spawned. Plus you get to ride a horse around, and not many games in the '80s let you do that.

But the negatives way outweigh the positives for me this time. It's like a game entirely made from padding, with things like opening hours for buildings in there just to waste a little more of your time as you hike back over to your guild to rest. You have to ride all the way back to camp to save! And then back again! Plus you only get three quests per character it seems and everywhere they send you turns out to be another unpleasant timed maze. Those old DOS PCs were not built for scrolling mazes, and the awkward keyboard controls made me feel as if I was playing a text editor. What I mean is, if you press and hold the arrow key you take a step, there's a pause... then the character races across the screen like you're holding down a letter in Microsoft Word. It's a pain in the as...ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. And like a text editor, there's next to no music and all the sound effects are beeps.

I gave the NES and Amiga versions a look and they're just as bad, or worse. You'd think a game with this much screen scrolling would be at its worst on '80s PC hardware, but you get the benefit of the hard drive, plus easy save importing, and the ports are not exactly showing off the power of their respective platforms.

It was never my plan to rank these D&D games I'm playing, because I don't intend to play them long enough to make a fair assessment. But I feel like I've seen enough to come up with a ranking for what I've played so far: 

1. Pool of Radiance (with Gold Box Companion).
2. Heroes of the Lance.
3. The two Intellivision games (or three if you're including Tower of Doom).
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5. Hillsfar. 

Actually I might put Final Fantasy on the NES in first place for D&D games, as it's close enough. Closer than Hillsfar at least.

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Thanks for reading! I don't know if you've got your own opinions about Hillsfar, but this would be a good place to share them. It's a good time for it too.

You could also take a guess at what game is coming next. Maybe it's D&D, maybe it's not. Prepare yourself to eventually be surprised.