| Nox Archaist | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | 6502 Workshop |
| Publisher(s) | 6502 Workshop |
| Programmer(s) | Megan Lemmert |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, macOS, Windows |
| Release | 2020 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing video game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Nox Archaist is a role-playing video game released in December 2020 [1] for the then-historical platform Apple II, alongside contemporary macOS and Windows systems. [2] The game was inspired by the early-to-mid Ultima games [1] and The Bard's Tale . [2] The story unfolds in a sword and sorcery setting of a world named Vali: [3] Sent to an island region to investigate a cult, the player character finds companions and undertakes excursions across diverse terrain, encountering NPCs, monsters, and magical hazards along the way. A DLC named Lord of Storms was released in 2023. [4]
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Beginning in 2015, development was conducted by 6502 Workshop, a retrocomputing group headed by programmer Maegan Lemmert. [5] Programming was done in the assembly language of MOS Technology 6502, the original Apple II processor. [6] The 8-bit [7] game engine is tile-based and uses the HGR mode (280 × 192 pixels). [5] The RAM requirement for the Apple II release is 128k. [2]
Following the announcement of the project in 2016, a technical presentation was held at the 2017 edition of KansasFest, an annual event for Apple II enthusiasts. A Kickstarter campaign was launched later in the same year but failed to reach the funding target. [5] A second Kickstarter campaign to publish the game ran successfully in 2019. [2]
Apple II lead designer Steve Wozniak makes a cameo as a non-player character. [1] Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima series, appears as Lord British, his in-game personification from that series. [2]
Lemmert won the 2021 KansasFest Apple II Forever Award for her work on the game. [8]
