First off, kudos to Ben and Andrew for a most excellent game!

I usually dislike platform games, but I've been hooked on Ferazel since I got the demo. I can see Ferazel being one of those titles that Windows users get upset over not having!

A few potential bugs have been nagging me, and I wanted to know if anyone else has reproduced these.

1. Colors are sometimes a bit off at the intersection of two textures. I've noticed this most where water and rock meet, and the resulting red kind of looks like blood on the rock under the water. (minor)

2. In "Central Caverns," the "acid walk" powerup always regenerates. (maybe not a bug or related to the "resetting" of items and objects after saving/loading that had been noted here before). (minor)

3. I've had the application bomb on me a number of times with an address error that requires a restart. I've tried giving the Ferazel app more memory, but it still happens. I haven't observed a pattern in the crashes other than I'm usually hitting the attack/fire key. Macsbug reports the following error:

PowerPC unmapped memory exception at 20B458F0

It very well may be a function of my system and extensions, but I haven't been able to isolate the culprit yet. Very frustrating when you're going towards the savepoint and boom.

4. Ferazel's air bubbles will float through the rock texture (at least part way). (minor)

My system specs are:

"beige" PowerMac G3/266 DT
MacOS 8.1
160 MB physical RAM
Voodoo 3 2000 video card
Kensington Mouse and Mouseworks drivers

Even with the few minor nits, I think Ferazel is great and probably Ambrosia's best game yet! $30 is very reasonable, the electronic manual is nice and concise, and I appreciate not having to buy then throw away a big fancy box that contains a tiny CD.

How's that for a product endorsement?

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I haven't had any of those bugs, but I have had a unique one of my own that I wonder if anyone else has had. I have problems with buying things. When I try to buy 5 fire seeds from that one guy in Iceconoclasm, he says I don't have enough money, even though I do. When I try to buy 20, it works, but I get 20 escape rings instead! When I went back to buy potions from Rojinko, I got TREE TRUNK spells instead of magic potions, and nothing at all for health potions!

Does this sort of thing sound familiar to anyone?

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I haven't had the adress error, but I have had an intermittent error type 41. Giving the game more memory also didn't help. The game just vanishes and I get taken back to the Finder - odd, since edrror 41 is "the Mac can't find the Finder". However, the machine is frozen and I have to do the three finger salute.

Cathy

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Rilla,

I have had that problem with potions, right down to the tree trunk thing. I haven't tried purchasing fire seeds, so I don't know if I was affected that way. Starting from a game saved prior to the purchase and trying again worked for me.

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--JB

"Miren al pepino. Que suaves movimentos. Es como montequilla en un chango pelon." -- Larry the Cucumber

The regeneration the powerups is a feature. (See documentation.)

I have a baffling problem: I am stuck in the Western Reaches, even though I got 100% of the enemies and secrets. When I exit at the very end I turn up at the beginning! The documentation says that sometimes it is necessary to return to an earlier level by using arrow keys. My arrow keys do nothing of the sort. I can see by the map that the levels are non-linear, so it appears that it is necessary to return to Central Caverns to be able to go to the next level. If this is so, it isn't working. I see that some of you have managed to go on somehow. Any ideas?

Grandalf

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I've got some major bugs to report on top of the previously mentiond bugs that will have jason eating like a king. first of all there are 2 places in flash freeze where you can get stuck. the first is near the begining where there is an ice wall. if you grab the tiny ledge under it and pull yourself up, you go through the wall and get stuck behind the ice wall. second one is right before the part with the swinging swords where you dig down to get a multi-crystal. there is only a one square entrace that I managed to get through and couldn't get out again. one of the largest errors ist that in iceconoclasm where there is a vertical passage covered in spikes with an invincability nearby, I can't grab the spiked walls when I have invincibility on, thus preventing me from completing the level. one last thing is that at the end of "out of the frying pan", there is a switch under some rock that can't be cracked except by a fire seed. It may not be a bug, but it sure is a bad thing when combined with the merchant error.
not to say that ferazel's wand isn't the greatest game yet though
oh, and the resetting acid powerup isn't a bug. I't supposed to be like that.

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"Sometimes I think that the surrest sign that there intellegent life elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
-GeX

(This message has been edited by GeX (edited 02-01-2000).)

Grandalf wrote:
**The regeneration the powerups is a feature. (See documentation.)

I have a baffling problem: I am stuck in the Western Reaches, even though I got 100% of the enemies and secrets. When I exit at the very end I turn up at the beginning! The documentation says that sometimes it is necessary to return to an earlier level by using arrow keys. My arrow keys do nothing of the sort. I can see by the map that the levels are non-linear, so it appears that it is necessary to return to Central Caverns to be able to go to the next level. If this is so, it isn't working. I see that some of you have managed to go on somehow. Any ideas?

**

Central Caverns has TWO exits. One of them leads to the Western Reaches, which you've found. Now you need to go back to CC and find the other exit which will lead to another level. Make sense?

---Zelda

I found a good spot to illustrate what I meant with the odd colors.

In "A Scent of Peril" at the very beginning, you blast your way to through a "crumbly" wall to go to the right after a sign tells you to. A little further to the right is some water. Right at the bit where the water gets deeper and all the way to the right (where the water ends) are examples of what looks odd to me.

Maybe it's supposed to be that way?

Looking carefully at this screen, I also noticed that the small bubbles in "rapid" water also tend to move a little ways through the rock texture.

In any case, only a minor concerns.

Thanks for the head's up on the regenerating powerups, Grandalf. I guess I didn't Read The Friendly Manual closely enough. :redface:

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Zelda's comment is right on the money. The problem is, there seems to be no way to go back through Central Caverns. The instructions say arrow keys do it, but mine do nothing, so I just keep going around in circles in Western Reaches. :frown:

GeX, I was having trouble with the 'getting stuck at the multi-crystal' thing in flash freeze, but I figured out that if you jump at the opening just right then you will pop through. I spent about a minute jumping at it before I got through, but it IS possible to get both multi-crystals without having to reset. Just spend a minute or so jumping directly at the hole until you pop through.

"Life is like a box a chocolates. You never know which one has 'crunchy frog'."
-Me

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**** Davies wrote:
Zelda's comment is right on the money. The problem is, there seems to be no way to go back through Central Caverns. The instructions say arrow keys do it, but mine do nothing, so I just keep going around in circles in Western Reaches.:frown:

Ohhh..I think I may know the problem. Are you using the actual arrow keys? That is worded so incorrectly!! I can see why you would think that you were supposed to use the arrow keys. In your game controls...what is your setting that moves you around? I forget what the default settings are because I've changed mine. The 6 key moves you right and the 4 key moves you left or whatever they are? Use those. Not the arrow keys. I hope that helps.

---Zelda

yea... I eventually figured that out too, it's just alot of people will have trouble with that and it didn't seem normal not to be able to have a 2 hole opening, so I racked it up to buggyness

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"Sometimes I think that the surrest sign that there intellegent life elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
-GeX

(This message has been edited by GeX (edited 02-02-2000).)

I just received my full copy of Ferazel's Wand 1.0.2 in the mail Monday! Boy, was I excited! I played for a while then ran into a few bugs...

1.) When my PowerBook G3 400 OS 9 began to run low on power, the game blinked, the screen turned black, then the computer crashed. I think this happened because of the low power warning that the finder puts up when it goes on reserve power. When this happens, the screen dims, and a small floating dialog box comes up telling that you are on reserve. (I had to reboot.)

2.) When I got curious and tried to load a saved game state from the demo, I received a message that Ferazel's Wand 1.0.2 was out of memory and could only press "Ok", at which point the program quit. While not really a true bug, it was annoying and should be dealt with more appropriately. How about, "Saved Game States from the Demo are Not Compatible with the Full Release"?

3.) When on the second level, I got a "Sorry System Error Occurred, Timbuktu, Error Type 10". I've never seen this happen before. It might not be the game's fault, but I've never seen errors from Timbuktu before.

4.) When I rebooted and resumed on the second level, I played for 15 mintues or so, then the menu bar appeared and I got a "Sorry System Error Occurred, Ferazel's Wand, Error Type 41". I clicked restart, then got a "Sorry System Error Occurred, Ferazel's Wand, Error Type 10", then again clicked restart, then got a "Sorry System Error Occurred, Ferazel's Wand, Error Type 10" at which point the computer completely froze.

5.) Also, I noticed an area where fireballs flew through a wall, yet I could not break the wall or walk through it. This was in the second level. I have screenshots.

6.) I seem to be getting numerous crashes related to background processes. These manifest as Type 10 errors and nearly always bring the system to a grinding halt.

Honestly, I'm afraid to continue playing at this point! I hate to complain about such a great game, but I want to make sure these problems are brought to Ambrosia's attention for a future revision of the game.

-d

Thanks for the prompt response, Zelda! I was using the normal left-right keys (4 and 6) BEFORE I checked the documentation and found the mention of the arrow keys. No luck. I exit the level, return to the big map, and any attempt to go anywhere from there just returns me to where I was, at the start of the Western Reaches. Obviously lots of other folks have been able to go on from the Western Reaches, but how, exactly, did they manage that feat? Youth wants to know!

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Grandalf wrote:
**Thanks for the prompt response, Zelda! I was using the normal left-right keys (4 and 6) BEFORE I checked the documentation and found the mention of the arrow keys. No luck. I exit the level, return to the big map, and any attempt to go anywhere from there just returns me to where I was, at the start of the Western Reaches. Obviously lots of other folks have been able to go on from the Western Reaches, but how, exactly, did they manage that feat? Youth wants to know!:D
**

You have a bug me thinks. If you're using the proper controls on it and can't get back to Central Caverns by using either the move up or move right control, then something is wrong. I would try going back to a previous save and going through the level one more time to see if I could get it to work...if I couldn't, I'd tell Ambrosia. :frown:

---Zelda

Zelda-

Thanks again! I started to think the same thing, sort of, like perhaps one of the saved games has become corrupted. (I doubt that the CD itself has a bug, since the rest of you are forging ahead with no problems.)
It's a somewhat troublesome attempt at a solution, but perhaps if I go back to a much earlier point and play through to the end of Western Reaches, again saving at the appropriate points, the final saved game will not be "confused" and will grant me the privilege of moving on! Especially since I bought two CDs, one for my 11 year-old Granddaughter Elizabeth, already an astute and rabid Ferazel fan! I'd hate to have to return them just when interest is at a fever pitch!

Grandalf

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Grandalf-
Could you send me a copy of your saved game? I'd like to take a look at it here. Just send it as an attached file to help@AmbrosiaSW.com.

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David Dunham / tech support / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

dfbills-
Games saved in the demo can't be played in the full version. This should have been noted in the docs, sorry.
As for your other problems, try trashing the Ferazel prefs, then increase the memory allocation. For testing purposes, try enabling only the Mac OS9 All extension set. If the problem persists, then contact me at help@ambrosiasw.com.

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David Dunham / tech support / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

David, Zelda, et al:
It's working! I went back to the beginning, branched to Eastern Reaches, then transferred back to the earlier levels with no problem. Sorry for the fuss and furor. :redface: But, I am relieved that I can go on with the game! (The best, by far, of any I have played with.)

Grandalf

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GeX said:

one of the largest errors ist that in iceconoclasm where there is a vertical passage covered in spikes with an invincability nearby, I can't grab the spiked walls when I have invincibility on, thus preventing me from completing the level.

OK, so now I once again think this may not be a bug. Or at the least, it's a different bug than we think. Because I have just gotten going in The Ends of the Earth, and very near the beginning of this level there is another one of these vertical spiked tunnels. In this case, however, there is no invincibility sphere to be found. There is a small spot you can Tree Trunk in this case, but the tunnel is too high to climb out of that way (the tree disappears too fast). So I'm back to thinking we need the Ice Wall spell. If there's a bug involved, I bet it's in the placement of that spell.
Jeesh! All that work collecting Xirchons for this! Time to go back and explore the Icy Caverns more thoroughly.

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--JB

"Miren al pepino. Que suaves movimentos. Es como montequilla en un chango pelon." -- Larry the Cucumber