Orda: Severnyi Veter / Horde: The Northern Wind

[chanfort]

I just read the whole interview with Google Translate help as well as comments. Looks very interesting. I was previously searching for articles about Horde which would be written in English but I guess there is much more in Russian.

Anyways, they mentioning that there were created 7639 sprites, so I guess that's where units are . If you find that other interview, post it. Thought could be good to collect all info at some point from the web about this game but could be a bit challenging

[MrFlibble]

I wish I kept track of the sources, although admittedly I didn't find a lot of stuff anyway. There wasn't a lot of publicity for this game, it was branded as "Russian Warcraft" and being released in 1999, it was aready quite a bit dated by that time's standards. 7th Bit Labs dissolved soon after the release of Horde II, and its successor Antitank developed one title, Talisman (an RPG in a medieval fantasy setting based on Slavic folklore), and then also shut down as far as I know.

That is to say, there wasn't enough interest in Horde in the first place to generate a lot of interviews of other materials like that.

[djsys]

Maybe you can find good sounds here https://www.lucidsamples.com/free-sampl ... -pack.html

[joeljpa]

Great to hear. I just started recording and uploading videos for Horde: Northern Wind. This will be slow and detailed walkthrough. The first video is already made:

It take 2 hours and about 40 minutes for the first map walkthrough. Map 2 and 3 are also already made and I will upload them soon.

I used 720p resolution for YouTube and original screen is 795x595 pixels if somebody would be interested to achieve best pixel on pixel quality (YouTube seems to be stretching video to fit computer screen resolution and this affects watch quality). I find out that only Chrome and Safari were playing video with 720p, while on Firefox it was playing just with 480p. So make sure that you running on 720p.

Other 6 maps of NW I will make in upcoming days or a few weeks. So, Horde fans, get ready for long sessions with Horde on YouTube!

Hi, chanfort or anyone else who can help me out.

I'm in process of attempting to my playthrough of this game for nostalgia sake but intend to try to pass it on my own (AKA without spoilers). I'm right now in the center most map and dared see only bits of your walkthrough on youtube (no doubt it would be helpful and thank you for your effort!). But as I said, I just want to do it without spoilers and on my own, or keep trying till I give up.

So my question is: Is it possible to pass the game without cheating or without technical help due to it having bugs? From what little I saw you play, I did see you backing up your save file and having even having control of an enemy mage? I may not know much about the game so forgive me if that was part of it (I didn't read spoilers remember and never actually passed the game, only reached the dragon as a kid). Another reason I ask this is because the CD I played it with as a kid, that version used to crash at the Dragon cave map when we activated the lightning thingy. I did see some discussion here regarding the English version of the game being buggy to begin with. So is it possible? Or should I give up and view the spoilers and your walkthrough.

[MrFlibble]

So my question is: Is it possible to pass the game without cheating or without technical help due to it having bugs?

Hi. I was able to beat the original Russian DOS version without cheating of any kind, unless backing up your saved games counts.

I'm totally not sure if I beat it the way the developers intended, but from what I read in old dev interviews and beta testing reports, the game is "kind of" non-linear and may have more than one path to victory.

Unless the foreign Windows releases introduced bugs of some sort, it should be beatable as well.

It's even possible to beat Horde 2, and that one is positively bugged and screws up the main quest at some point. So I suppose the first game can be beaten as well.

I did not get to control a mage at any stage in the game, but some years ago I re-played some of it in DOSBox, and among other things I tried to capture Teimour's base in the top right corner map, by not building my own settlement and forcing him to surrender. This may have enabled to control the two mages he has on that map, but I'm not sure -- I wanted to get the entire bas back then, but the castle was destroyed before he surrendered (bashing the castle is one sure way to make the AI plead for mercy), and I was unable to repeat this the second time.

[joeljpa]

Thanks a lot for your really helpful reply!

Kind of non-linear..I'm all the more intrigued. I've also seen comments here or on youtube saying how even after playing so much, experienced players like you still learn new things about the game.

Yea my English version running on Windows 10 set to compatibility mode Windows 98/ME seems to be working 95% fine. Let's see then, I've got to play for nostalgia sake already for so many hours so I'm more than happy already. Passing the game smoothly would just be icing on the cake at this point, I'm keeping realistic expectations. Might even get bored by then, heh.

An interesting thing about the second part being passable, maybe some encouragement for me.

This thread has been really helpful for me regarding this game's convoluted history and development. I didn't even know there was part 2 and 3 and the problems the company had releasing them.

Then I shall resume my quest *rolls up sleeves*.

[MrFlibble]

I didn't even know there was part 2 and 3 and the problems the company had releasing them.

The second game is an official release, everything else are fan mods of it.