Vampyr: Talisman of Invocation

Created by two high-school students, Vampyr: Talisman of Invocation is a 1990 DOS freeware role-playing game heavily influenced by Ultima games. The hero must save the fantasy world of Quilinor from a grave danger. The player travels through Quilinor fighting goblins, giants, zombies, and other assorted monsters while emptying the pockets of innocent civilians, getting treasure from dungeons, and picking locks off castles doors.

Visually and in terms of basic gameplay, the game is very similar to Ultima V, though with much simpler gameplay mechanics and interaction possibilities. The hero travels over the top-down world map, enters towns marked as icons, and engages in free-movement tile-based combat that occurs on special screens, against enemies who are visible on the map before contact is initiated. Character creation, however, has little to do with Ultima: the player assigns the more traditional AD&D-like attributes to the protagonist, and also chooses skills, which range from combat proficiencies to lockpicking.