The "How I came to purchase Eschalon" thread

[mdev]

Hi all,

I'm most interested in about how others came to purchase this game. Here's my take:

I got curious about Eschalon: Book I because of the size of the demo. Seeing an RPG demo of about 60MB in size being listed in between multi-GB data piles, I decided to have a look at some screenshots - After which I downloaded the demo.

Running into the demos world's end at different spots, notably in Grimmhold, realizing, that I spent about two hours with the game, I spent the Basilisk site a visit.

Reading the forums made me have a look into the purchasing options. Beeing able to pay online, download the full version instantly and continue my quests without deleting my savegames "pulled the trigger".

I bought it on the spot .

Not just for the game itself and the easienes of obtaining it, but also for the mere fact, that Basilisk did not take any obvious protective measures. Purchase, download, install, play. I trusted in Basilisk having a good product, and am trusted by Basilisk to be a fair customer.


Need to get back to those Goblins now. Just found a bow. But before that I should try out my new Cartographer abilities. And buy some arrows. Before that, I really should try and get better bargains by raising that one skill. I might be able to buy some recipies for potions, instead of stumbling over them. And I need to find and read more books to learn the one spell I need the most: Cast more time to play.

I could go on about the game itself for quite a while, but that would be very off-topic for the thread I'm trying to start.

mdev

[Aresius]

I didn't actually purchased it yet, but when I come to it, it'll be the deal of the year. I just found a little article in the news, and the demo. It was 60 MB, so since I'm an RPG fan, I tried.

Now I can't stop playing this game. That suprises me, because I didn't found any good RPGs since 2002 or so (BG2, Arcanum, Wiz8).

[Sakar]

First heard about Eschalon at Octopus Overlords and saw that it was right up my alley as an 'old schooler'. When BW announced its release I made the purchase sight unseen and have been enjoying it almost every night since.

[zer]

key words "old skull. turn based. skill heavy" Need no more.

[Saxon1974]

I have been following it for well over a year now and I honestly don't remember where I first heard about it.

However, the thing that first hooked me was the it said "This is not another Action\RPG". I thought, THANK GOD!

[sapper_astro]

Saw it thrown about on the Codex, tried demo, didn't mind what I saw. Waited around a bit until I had a little spare money to burn, then bought it.

[aunsoph]

I stumbled upon this tread at the Penny Arcade forums:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=42113

And after playing around with the demo a bit, went ahead and purchased the full version. I guess I was somewhat lucky to spot it too, considering how fast everything in the Games & Technology forum gets dropped from the first and even second page.

[mai]

First heard about EB1, when found this thread over a year ago: http://www.old-games.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=12333. Played most part of CRPG top-list, never was a die-hard RPG fan though. But kept an eye on it. I was extremly sceptic about this project, changed my mind when first played the demo, then bought the full version.

[GSV3MiaC]

Saw it mentioned over on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, and followed the trail back to the website .. oo, months and months ago.

I enjoy these sorts of RPGs (if you like Eschalon, and you haven't found them yet, Spiderweb software has several in a similar vein). I suspect Spiderweb and Basilisk games are similar sized outfits (one man, a dog and maybe the odd spouse). 8>.

[Rune_74]

I have been follwing the game for awhile and I'm a huge fun of rpg's just don't get enough time to play whenever I want. I beta tested the game and bought a copy:)

[Sakar]

Saw it mentioned over on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg, and followed the trail back to the website .. oo, months and months ago.

That old Usenet group is still kicking?! Wow, gonna have to check in. I thought Usenet had been thoroughly beaten into the dust by web forums by now...

[Rumtruffle]

Hi, just bought the game after playing the demo for an afternoon.

Liked what i saw and thought i would support the devs by purchasing.

[Rollor]

I've no idea how i discovered it I've been here quite some time now :/.. Even though I haven't played all those all games, the game still looked very cool. I only played the demo until i could borrow some money to by thr full version, which I now have got no time for .. Damn real life

[Grayth]

Well, I've been lurking around this site about 2 days less than Rollor.

Having played most of the Ultimas, Wizardry's, gold box SSI games, The Bard's tale games and many others I definitely had to try this one.

So far it is definitely worth the money and wait. That "life" thing does get in the way though. I'm only like 13 hours into the game and have a long way to go yet.

That's another nice thing. You can just pick up the game for an hour and play it. Put it down and then pick it up again later.

[Aganazer]

A week ago I was driving to work. It was a typical morning. I was still half asleep dreaming of my morning coffee. All of a sudden, BAM! Something bounced off the hood of my car and cracked the windshield. Wide awake, I pulled off the side of the road and looked for what had hit my car.

What I found shocked me. On the side of the road was a small man with black hair and dark skin. He wasn't moving so I called 911. The police showed up first. The officer told me the man was dead. I explained to the police officer that I didn't hit him. I showed him the damage to my car and he seemed reasonably convinced that it wasn't a case of vehicular manslaughter. He told me I could leave. While the whole thing seemed very strange, I figured it was the last I would hear of it.

A few days later I got a call from a police detective. He wanted to ask me a few questions about the morning that I found the dead guy. He explained to me that the man was from a small island in Micronesia and had been missing for a few days. He wanted to know if I had been to Micronesia or if I knew anyone from there. I didn't and told him so. He wanted me to explain to him why the man had died of hypothermia before he ever hit my car. I had no idea what he was talking about. How could the guy have died of hypothermia when it wasn't even cold out?

While in the detective's office I noticed that the dead guy's name was John Elimo. I looked up the name on the internet and was surprised to find that he had a listed telephone number. I called the number and a woman answered. She could only speak in Micronesian, but she eventually found someone that could speak english. It turns out that I had found John Elimo's house and was speaking to his daughter. I didn't want to tell her that I was the guy that found her dad's body. I asked if her dad had planed to come to America. He wasn't but had contacted a company called Eschalon Immigration Services about possibly moving their family to America.

I looked up Eschalon on the internet and could only find BasiliskWrangler's game. I bought the game anyway and have long since forgotten about John Elimo and his recent demise. It was a strange week, but I'm glad that it happened.