PC game with Code Wheel

March 3, 2005 1:27 PM

I was having a conversation with a couple of coworkers about old PC games and there was a game that we all remembered with a unique puzzle solving element, but none of us can remember the name.

In the packaging of the game there was a sort of Code Wheel, that wasn't used for Copy Protection, but rather was used to solve one of the later puzzles of the game, all of us remember either losing or damaging the code wheel and I thought that maybe some of you might have played the game as well.

posted by Restlessavenger to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

I remember some SSI Gold Box games having a code wheel. SSI were the company that had an agreement with TSR so they could make Advanced Dungeons & Dragons computer games. Some title that might right a bell: Curse of the Azure Bonds, Pools of Radiance, Dark Queen of Krynn, Heros of the Lance and so on.

In particular I remember using the code wheel to translate between elvish and dwarvish runes.
posted by mnology at 1:51 PM on March 3, 2005

An Infocom game maybe? A Mind Forever Voyaging or Sorceror?
posted by turbodog at 2:01 PM on March 3, 2005

Yeah, that sounds a lot like Pool of Radiance. I know P of R had a gold box and a code wheel, anyway. Also had an easy cheat where you hire a mercenary with kick-ass equipment, lure him into an alley, kill him, and suddenly you have kick-ass equipment.
posted by COBRA! at 2:02 PM on March 3, 2005

Here's the Curse of Azure Bonds code wheel.
posted by turbodog at 2:05 PM on March 3, 2005

Best answer: A quick search of Home of the Underdogs has a Zool 2 manual which mentions a code wheel. Neuromancer as well. And a few more.
posted by mnology at 2:18 PM on March 3, 2005

Does a New York City code wheel ring any bells? Perhaps Thomas M. Disch's Amnesia?
posted by AlexReynolds at 2:32 PM on March 3, 2005

I'm a nerd, I literally have the Mind Forever Voyaging security clearance wheel right here on my desk. It was necessary for entering different simulations of the future.
posted by inksyndicate at 2:33 PM on March 3, 2005

I played way, WAY too many computer games as a kid but "had a codewheel" just isn't specific enough. Is there anything at all you remember? Genre? Setting? Anything?
posted by Justinian at 2:43 PM on March 3, 2005

The fool's errand perhaps? Puzzly, unique etc.
posted by true at 2:48 PM on March 3, 2005

I thought "Fool's Errand" too, but I just dug up the wheel that came with it, and it looks like copy protection to me. (You line up three cards and little symbols appear in various windows on the wheel).
posted by Otis at 2:57 PM on March 3, 2005

Response by poster: Well, it turns out that we had a couple of right answers. None of us were aware that the codewheel was that prevalent in gaming back then. My coworkers were both referring to the old TSR games, and I was playing Rocket Ranger, which I found thanks to mnology's link. I didn't even know about this Underdogs site and Now I am going to be bookmarking it for these sorts of questions.
Thanks again Mefi Community.
posted by Restlessavenger at 3:18 PM on March 3, 2005