So, I did manage to get the old Cauldron of Loot. It suffered from a lot of crashing under dosbox until I cranked the cycles down below the default, and tried running it on version 0.68. It really is an interesting game. You proceed through a "dungeon" (there is no map) fighting monster after monster, each of which gives one item of "loot". This goes into the eponymous cauldron, which actually acts as your health; you lose when it is empty and monsters destroy your items. Using items, including weapons, destroys them very quickly as well, and you can also sell items for gold which will be used to automatically refill your cauldron. The plot of the game is mostly told through tooltips which appear when you do something very specific- for example, kill a goblin with a stone, and the stone will break open revealing a note that gives you a hint as to which item you need to "examine" in your inventory (which also destroys the item) to proceed.
The CGA graphics are nothing impressive even for 1987, but at least the interface is simple. You've got your main buttons below, Weapon, Monster, Cauldron (your inventory), Dungeon, and Loot (for quick selling/and buying). You've also got the keep/sell buttons by your cauldron: you have to sort out your loot very quickly, the game is actually real time and monsters will not stop attacking you while you decide which items to examine or weapons to use.
I'm interested to see the character classes, as the old game had little in the way of actual character stats. Since I haven't found this game online anywhere I'd upload it, but you know toady's policy on "abandonware".
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Topic: CAULDRON OF LOOTS (Read 11636 times)