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I bought and played this on GOG. It was pretty good but it was hard for me to remember where I was/had been. I ended up downloading a program that mapped the level as I played it and that helped a lot.

For a modern take on this style of gameplay I'd look at Legend of Grimrock 1 & 2. They are great games

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The C64 version is dual screen with automapper:

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/10/new-eye-of-the-be...

I think that one is C128 only.

> I ended up downloading a program that mapped the level as I played it

What's the program? I've never heard of something similar, and sometimes I've wondered if they exists :)

Maybe https://ase.zorbus.net/ ?

Note that at least one EOB game (probably all of them) involve teleportation traps that you're supposed to have to catch by watching your compass as you move - an automapper would instantly reveal that you'd been teleported, spoiling the effect.

It's definitely a different experience playing with an automapper. I played the game with grid paper as a kid, sometimes memorizing the easier levels and sometimes laboriously mapping out the levels as I went. I played EOB2 with the maps in the official clue book, only referencing them when I was stuck.

When I played again with ASE, I found that I was mostly staring at the map the whole time - literally playing the game on the map itself. A lot of the magic was gone.

> When I played again with ASE, I found that I was mostly staring at the map the whole time - literally playing the game on the map itself. A lot of the magic was gone.

I find that with modern games a lot - I spend my time looking at the map and not the world in front of me.

There's also a non-free program called Grid Cartographer which is aimed mostly at tabletop game developers, I think, but it can also be used for playing old RPGs. It supports EOB and EOB2 and a few other games.

http://gridcartographer.com/

Grimrock 2 was probably too hard, I have the same problem with a lot of these games I eventually get to a point where I am aimlessly doing things that may work or things I've missed and after several hours I either give up or check on-line for a cheat. It would be good if there was some code looking for this or a timed thing which drops a hint in-game to make the task more obvious to get to the next step

It was not easy, though I didn't find it too hard. Possibly only the desert and a place with lots of walking mushrooms were challenging. I think it was still possible to find a quiet corner to rest in both. Running away also worked :)

I played EotB about 2 years ago for the first time and stubbornly did it the old fashioned way with groh paper.

Definitely recommend anyone trying it out to use The All-Seeing Eye to automap instead.

> I played EotB about 2 years ago for the first time and stubbornly did it the old fashioned way with groh paper.

So it didn't add anything to the experience do it the hardcore way?

but with automap you miss out on looking down to draw the crossroad you are at only to look up and see a big ass spider poisoning you

It was hard for me too. I remember spending hours drawing immense maps... on the other hand a gifted friend of mind had no problem finding his way through the mazes.

> It was pretty good but it was hard for me to remember where I was/had been.

Back in those ancient times you were supposed to have grid paper and pencil ready to draw the map yourself while exploring :)

I have fond memories of playing this with a friend - taking turns mapping and controlling the game. So much grid paper :) That, and cleaning up the maps when you ended up walking off the edge of the paper (most levels would fit on one to two sheets of a4 grid paper IIRC - but only if properly centered).

There were also maps floating around on usenet(?) and walk-through published in magazines.

I loved Grimrock. Have there been any similar games of comparable quality released since Legend of Grimrock 2 in 2014? I haven't found any that I could get into.

There is Vaporum which I myself actually liked better then Grimrock itself.

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