Fate the Gates of Dawn

[russellnash]

I have finished Fate the Gates of Dawn after about 9 months of playing. What a super epic RPG it is, about three times longer than most. It is another good example of a little known game that rarely gets a mention. I used the version of the game I found on one of Peter Petari`s disk images, like most that I play. The original game is hard disk installable.
You play as Winwood, transported in 1991 into a parallel version of the earth. You wont get very far alone and it is essential to find companions to help you. To do so you have to speak to lots of people. A good place to do that is in the city, but you can speak to many of the less than friendly beings you meet travelling through the wilderness.

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This is a very important mechanic in the game and your progress depends on it. At the start anyone will do to help you fight and to heal you, later on you rely on exclusively Mage and Cleric types because the fighters are too weak later in the game.
You also need to ask people for information in order to progress, which involves asking lots of people. It is a good idea not to visit the main dungeon, for example, until someone has told you that there is a reason to do so. Without this information you cannot progress. Important objects, for example, will not spawn if nobody has told you of its existence beforehand.

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Of course this can be very irritating at times because it can be very hard to find the right person to tell you. However, once you have started on a certain topic you can normally quickly find one character after another that will take this line of information further.
You also have to eat in Taverns and sleep in Inns regularly in order to maintain the health of you and your party. Two of my party complained about how badly I had treated them and left me in the middle of the second dungeon. So, it is not only an RPG but also a Nancy boy simulator. I had to leave the dungeon because there were no recruitable characters in it, and go in the city and recruit some more.
It is possible and necessary at times to have more than one party. This allows you to explore different areas far away from each other and operate switches remotely, for example. An inactive party just stands around until activated again, they level up automatically with all other characters.
This game is very big, even in the restricted area that you are in at the beginning. It is in total a great game but maybe not for people who have other things to do in life.

Here are very useful resources for playing the game:

Large archive including maps and disk images

Fatemaster, useful program for MIcrosoft OS

[alexh]

I'll look into this. I love RPGs of this era. Amberstar was my favourite as a kid followed shortly behind by Dungeon Master. Ambermoon was better but that is Amiga / DOS PC / Modern Multi-platform remake only (no ST version)

[russellnash]

It certainly makes Amberstar look small.

[Darklord]

Love RPG's. I had downloaded this game from P.Pera's site but only gave it a
cursory look.

Thanks for the post about it. It certainly looks like something I'll want to
investigate further.

[nokturnal]

Is this a cracked version or have you used manual? I still got original version and from my experience no one has cracked it properly, because probably no one has played this game long enough to encounter protection screen. But you mentioned that you have finished this game somehow (protection is quite nasty). Amiga had two versions with censored/uncensored gfx. Someone was beating Guiness record playing it back in the day (managed to play this game for several days and looks like he has beaten the record).. I also think this game is hidden gem on ST. There was great website by Runetek dedicated to this game, but unfortunately it doesn't exist even in Wayback machine..

[nokturnal]

And Fate had unique mechanics, in installer authors brag that they have packed 4mib of data on two dd floppies, but you rpgs cannot be compared by size of their world only. Fate had very big dungeon levels and each level throwed at you more and more monsters (and increased lethality), which after a while started to be bit tedious. But other than that was pretty great with finding clues, multi party management, underground train in which you are severely punished by not buying tickets etc, no automap (,but there are jewels which help you a bit).. And finding clues triggered/unlocked way to progress story(which somewhat unfolds during a game), which was also very cool. And tons of choices, little overwhelming at first.

[russellnash]

There is no cracked version, you need the Manual and Appendix to answer questions and solve puzzles during the game. The game would have been impossible n 1992 for most people to complete, but today there is so much information available. The website I link to has everything you need. It being in the German language might be off putting to some people but translating is just a cut and paste away. Certainly when I lived in Germany it was getting hard to find someone who spoke the language anyway. CRPG addict is also useful.

[russellnash]

I would like to thank you for mentioning Wayback machine. I have been looking for something recently but the website doesnt exist anymore. I have never used Wayback machine before but I have just found what I was looking for on it. Normal search really isn't much good anymore.

[nokturnal]

Cracked version is in sort of progress (I've tested crack until the first check point of hd installed version(it's easier to patch, but didn't have time to progress up to the next one to see what happens). Checking whole game would be a major effort, because for each update you would have to make whole playtrough (imagine it with a whole game). So yes, manual is the only way right now, giving wrong answers breaks saves/game after a while. More over there are some useful maps/diagrams, which are in manual and game refers to them..

[russellnash]

Yes it would take you years of replaying and I cant imagine anyone having the motivation for it, it would drive you crazy. At least they didn't choose the really stupid method which is to stop you from installing it on the hard disk in the first place. Many games were spoiled by constant disk swaps. They call it copy protection, but what it actually means is producing a crippled product which is not in the interests of the customer, but the people who were never going to buy it aren't really affected.
Of course, since then control has spread, they can turn your car off, you can even buy an expensive power drill, for example, which the manufacturer cant turn off remotely. For me it means that you are paying for something but not buying it.