The Maze of Galious patch for MSX 2

The game The Maze of Galious, also known as Knightmare II (魔城伝説II ガリウスの迷宮, Majō Densetsu Tsū: Gariusu no Meikyū, which translates to: “Demon Castle Legend II: The Maze of Galious“) is the sequel to famous and widely loved Knightmare: Majou Densetsu, by Konami. In the original game, players were brought to a series of levels based on vertical scrolling shooter. In The Maze of Galious, Konami the game is based on a side-view, flick-screen puzzle platform.

As in the original, the heroes are Popolon and Aphrodite. This time they enter the evil priest Galious’ castle to free their yet-to-be-born son Pampas from the priest’s evil clutches. This time, players will control both characters with the ability to switch between them to take advantage of each slightly different abilities. For instance, Popolon is strong enough to push stones and open heavy doors, while Aphrodite can survive longer under water and is able of shooting more projectiles. Should either character die, the other can visit a shrine and pay for resurrection. Unlike typical platform games, both characters can survive some damage as they have hit point bars.

Popolon

Popolon is a true warrior.
He saved Aphrodite in the previous game, Knightmare.

Popolon can destroy rocks a lot faster than Aphrodite can, but he’ll rapidly lose power in water. Popolon can pass through revolving doors, while Aphrodite can’t. And his jumping height depends on how long <UP> is pressed.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess of love.

She can swim, while Popolon can’t. She can make three shoots at a time while Popolon can only shoot two at a time. The same is true for mines; she can put three down. Also, the jumping height is constant with Aphrodite.

About the Game

The game is exciting and has several types of enemies, each with strengths and weaknesses. Some monsters are immune to frontal attacks, some are more vulnerable to fire and so on. Ten different bosses are to be fought too, following the original game style. Defeating a boss will give the player a key that is used to unlock doors to other boss areas. While in the original game players had the option to save the game by choosing “continue” after all lives are lost, The Maze of Galious make it harder by not offering such a feature (unless players cheat and enter the secret code Z–E–U–S on the first screen). Without cheating, if either Aphrodite or Popolon dies, the only way to revive them is to retrieve a pile of salt from the hellish bowels of the castle and bring it to Death’s Shrine. On the other hand, game progress can be saved by getting a password from Demeter’s Shrine.

What is new is a very hard “magic” way to heal a character, which is by entering one of three special rooms in the hub-world that feature rainbow-colored magic dust motes. If the player stands in exactly the right spot (which is not indicated in any way) for five seconds, the dust congeals into a life-restoring fairy. Good luck finding it.

Another difference while comparing The Maze of Galious with Knightmare is that now killing enemies adds to a character’s “experience” gauge. When the gauge is full, it refills that character’s health. Other than that, like in its predecessor, the heroes gain stamina by defeating bosses, raise strength by upgrading their sword and shield, and add new abilities by collecting an arsenal of special items and weapons.

In The Maze of Galious, when enemies are killed, some of them may drop money that can be spent in shops, or arrows that fuel all five of your projectile weapons. Keep an eye on eventual generic keys that open locked gates.

In terms of weapons, the game offers a few sub-weapons. In addition to the standard arrows, there are Ceramic Arrows which can penetrate several enemies in a row, the Crawling Fire which travels around the player’s current platform, the Other Fire which runs along the floors and drips down from ledges, and the powerful but self-destructive Mines. Each of these sub-weapons comes in handy for at least one Great Demon fight, and ammunition is plentiful enough to justify using them liberally.

There are 156 screens in the castle, and a total of 174 screens in the 10 worlds. You can also find a total of 20 Shrines (These are places where the Gods will advice you or sell items/weapons). On your quest, you’ll also find 47 different items. The opposition consists of 59 types of minor/middle demons and 10 great demons. There is a great set of information about the game in this Bifi’s Page.

The final level of the game is hard, very hard, because the Cross — necessary to defeat the final boss — is hidden behind an unmarked breakable wall, beyond an invisible pit, and above a pool of lava. The player must reach this item by jumping from the platform above it at exactly the right point, such that Popolon can reverse direction in mid-air and just barely make it onto the lower plane. Have fun!

About the Patch

As most Konami games, The Maze of Galiuous was capable of using the computer power to its extent, providing an exciting and beautiful game experience to players. However, Víctor Martínez, together with David Madurga and Toni Gálvez (among others) created a patch to upscale the game quality by tweaking the MSX 1 game to use the second-generation MSX power and advances.

The changes, however, are not limited to the graphics, but animations, BGM, and voices have also been added. The translation from the original Japanese texts was also revised bringing the story even closer to the original, and users now can chose between double PSG or SCC for the sounds, BGM, and voices.

The final result is nothing less than incredible! If the original was already good, this revision made it astonishingly better. Everything is more exciting and visual appealing.

Here some screenshots comparing original and patched versions:

Original Game
(MSX 1)

Patched Game
(MSX 2 and superior)

The Maze of Galious Enhanced Version 1.04 can be downloaded directly from Victor Martinez’s GitHub account. The patch is available free of charge. Please notice while the original game is for MSX 1, the patch will require a MSX 2 or superior machine (with 128 Kbytes of VRAM).

Credits:

• Programmed by Victor Martinez & David Madurga
• New graphics and colours by Toni Galvez
• SCC music by Jan van Valburg
• Original TURBO FIX Routine and Joymega routines by FRS
• Voice Set by WYZ/ARTRAG/TODOJINGLES
• Retranslation by 232 translations

Game Maps

There are many tutorials, full game-play experience videos, cheats and tricks in several places online about The Maze of Galious. The most complete map was created by Fabio Albergaria in 2005, covering the whole 156 screens of the castle and the 174 screens of the 10 worlds (you may have to right click and download this map):

Here a more detailed view of the 156 rooms of the castle:

GAME TIP: The Maze of Galious offers extra content if The Game Master, Knightmare or Q*bert cartridges are inserted in the second slot on most MSX machines.

A Delightful Wallpaper

If you are fan of the game, feel free to download this gorgeous wallpaper in homage to The Maze of Galious game featuring Aphrodite to use at your computer.