Datei:Wizard of Wor 1.019.100 DUNGEON 85 2022-09-16 by MAC.jpg

Moin Leute,

[I've decided to write this description in English, cause it's also linked with c64-wiki.com, this is hopefully OK for everyone here, otherwise please give me a proper feedback?!]

on September 16th, 2022 I managed to do something, that I probably wouldn't have guessed at the age of 8 - when I played this game for the first time - about 35 years later...

Like many other gamblers, I've returned to the games of my childhood from time to time over all the years.

One C64 game has always had a very special status for me:

Wizard of Wor

As far as I was able to research on the entire net, I may have pulverized the previous high scores - but honestly I can't hardly believe, that I am possibly the very first Warrior, who maxed out this game in a regular run without Trainer - nah, don't think so?!

Nevertheless, I have much respect for the YouTube member Sedatus with 687.200 points, also for PAT with 671.500 points and all other Worlords here on the wiki pages.

Allthough there must be some unknown multiple Worlords Supreme outhere, which have not yet appeared to the surface...

But I am very happy about the fact, that there are more people all around the world still playing the oldschool mother of all shooters.

I have always been a legit player without any cheat-, fake- or other stuff like that - only armed with the Competition Pro!

I also have to admit, that I am not a fan of emulated games. I still love the sound of my working Floppy, allthough this was the original cartridge...

- 1.019.100 points in DUNGEON 85 -

I managed to survive 12 pits and was finally burwored instantly in the beginning of lucky number thirteen.

My first Warrior survived 'til dungeon 34 with 368.900 points (a four pits survival) and was finally killed by a Garwor bite. The second died quite early at dungeon 38 with 416.300 points by a Burwor shot. The third Warrior was certainly the base for my power run apart from the really strong starting player: 842.900 points in dungeon 71 (five pits survival) ended up with a Thorwor bite. So 426.600 points might probably also be the highest score I've always reached with one single Warrior. Maybe the most wicked move to survive I performed at dungeon 46 with 545.100 points (Video Part 2, 7:10 min). It's just my favourite double kill, a bit Bob Munden style, kind of...

At around 950K I had started to feel quite comfortable with two players left, that I would finally manage to reach the million. But some runs of the past (975K, 950K, 970K and so on, one of these runs I had finished with 700K after the first two Warriors and ultimately skrewed it up!) have warned me not to be feel too sure about it.

Wizard of Wor is like playing billiards, the game looks always the same, but every single situation is new and different - you need to find the right spots and you can only study their habits. Like Paul Newman already knew wisely about 9-Ball: "Which is to say, that luck plays a part in [...]" Wizard of Wor, too. :)

So the fourth player was killed by a Burwor shot in The Pit of dungeon 79 with 945.300 points. This moment rains a small drop of sadness, cause as I was a kid The Pit had always been by far the most challeging dungeon of the game. I can still remember the little panic attack in combination with hectic spots all over the face ("Hektische Flecken" - my dad used to call it that way) as I had entered this sacred stage the very first time. But after all these years of more or less constant playing The Pit has become my absolute favourite dungeon of the game, where I got used to not to die. Anyway, I do also regret the fact, that the Wizard of Wor himself didn't appear for a single time in the thirteen pits, my Warriors managed to survive -

"YOU'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD... THE MAGICAL WIZARD OF WOR! HA! HA! HA! HA!" coward!

Anyway during my fifth Warrior's killing spree I got a bit concerned, that I won't make to the million and there were a couple of close calls (For example please don't ask me, what I did to the six Burwors 4,1K away from the million in the beginning of dungeon 83, pure autopilot!). But I was so focused and in the tunnel, that - as I finally reached the 000.000 again - I first finished dungeon 83 before yelling out a "Yes!" and making a fist. Then I was instantly killed by a Burwor bite while trying to enter the pit of dungeon 85 too early like my very first 900K+ run...

I did also some kind of a body count of my entire run, but I did lose 1.000 points anywhere in the calculation:

504x Burwor (462 with double score dungeon, 42 without) 92.400 + 4.200 = 96.600 points

489x Garwor (456 with double score dungeon, 33 without) 182.400. + 6.600 = 189.000 points

489x Thorwar (456 with double score dungeon, 33 without) 456.000 + 16.500 = 472.500 points

78x Worluk (72 with double score dungeon, 6 without) 144.000 + 6.000 = 150.000 points

22x Wizard of Wor (always with double score dungeon) = 110.000 points

The Worluk could only escape five times, this is 5/83 of the possible dungeons, a percentage about 4,15%, which is quite satisfying for me.

But the incredible Wizard of Wor just appeared 22 times on the maze, which is a percentage about 18,26%, could have been more for my taste, especially on The Pit!

I do usually start a fresh run with resetting the game - quick fun with a little help of my cartridge -, so the high score list is cleaned. But I really liked the 666.600 points, I had reached on my first run that day and I was thinking to myself, this result could be some kind of a funky omen. Cause I have had the first flu since three years, had sounded more like somebody from Melmac and not played the entire week. On that Friday evening I was a bit depressed, too, cause I wasn't able to go out on a good mood black metal concert: no ABBATH... :(

As I was a kid I totally freaked out having reached 100K or something once... On August 21th, 2022 I did reach 911.300 points for the very first time, my best score before this run was 674.700 points. This event had inspired me trying to max out Wizard of Wor in a legit run, like I successfully did before some years ago on Yie Ar Kung-Fu... I could only do maybe a dozen runs after my recent high score.

Let me tell you - in Germany we call it: the knot finally seems to have burst... I reached 750K on August 23th, 2022, I did two runs in a row: 850K and 800K on August 28th, 715K on August 30th, 975K on September 4th, 950K on September 7th and 970K on September 9th. So I was convinced to break the one million points sound barrier sooner or later...

As I've already mentioned I stayed with my 666K in the list and wanted to start a perfect run with total focus, went back from the toilet, stumbled over my joystick and accidently started a new game. So I was in a rush, fuxxed up the first Warrior quite early and then instantly killed my other players. This ended up with 35.700 points, but now I am really happy about the comparable high scores, cause it exactly tells the difference between the lousy 35K to my Million Dollar Game Show run with an Extra-Zero in front of "19.100" points!!! It's quite funny to have my personal ultimate high score of this game on the third place in the list...

The quality of this video is okay for me, but I am totally happy to have an entire video of this event. My wife had filmed my very first Wizard of Wor video, my second video was filmed by the chair next to me and the last part is also already uploaded on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/MW3Y0PLsIr8

An extra-special thanks goes out to Sledgie for his support here!

Otherwise I am looking forward to the day I may have the Arcade dream of Bally Midway at home. Then I will attack together with my brother as the perfect Tag Team couple.

Respect to Daniel, he is one of the tuffest players I know...

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