Spellcross is a fun but sadly-ignored turn-based fantasy/sci-fi strategy game that is well worth attention of both fans of Warhammer 40K: Final Liberation and Emperor of the Fading Suns.
In this unique strategy game, you are John Alexander, a post-apocalyptic commander who must - you've guessed it - save the world. From game description at the official site: "... [the] game is split into two levels - strategic and tactical. In the strategic part, you decide on the most suitable territory for attack, the division of financial resources, the composition and organization of the army, and the direction of research. In the tactical part the actual battle within each territory takes place. During the battle, you have to allocate a specific number of action points per unit, for moving, attacking or other special activities."
Games Domain says it all about this underrated gem that deserves their Silver Medal award: "Spellcross deserves credit for balancing play, and (possibly unknowingly) setting standards for other games of its type to follow. Like Final Liberation, as each new sector falls under your control, resources are gathered from that newly acquired sector. However, the resources can only be exploited for a limited period of time, forcing the player not to play a defensive game but to gather a mountain of resources to whomp the enemy AI with. This also forces the player to critically consider where to expend the resources gathered before they run out.
The research portion of Spellcross is another aspect of this game that really surprised me. Along the lines of XCOM, research will open new units and technologies to choose from. In addition, Spellcross tweaks this aspect by adding the ability to modify existing units and give them better weapons and armor (as well as the ability to upgrade them into entirely new units). This aspect allows you the option of customizing certain units, making them that much more personalized. My Commandos are decked out with the full selection of weapons and armor. I also enjoyed other small touches like the ability to destroy, and walls within combat.
[In] many ways, it's the best turn-based sci-fi strategy game of its type. It has more depth and complexity than Fallen Haven... It was also much more engaging than both Deadlock and the sequel (the AI is much more aggressive and intelligent, too). Spellcross is more challenging than Final Liberation, with a better balance of resource management, more options, and again a much better and more aggressive AI. In fact, I can't think of a better game of this scope (Master of Orion and its ilk are on a different scale and style).
Spellcross in many ways sets an example that other developers creating on this scale should look to... Despite the few bumps in design (such as movement and save game implementation) and being DOS based Spellcross is a game worth our shiniest silver medal. In fact, Spellcross is the title gamers should look to when games like Deadlock 2, Fallen Haven or Final Liberation failed to meet expectations. Truly a great injustice considering US gamers will never see the title on their store shelves, and likely have to resort to overseas shipping to see this gem." Two thumbs up, way up!
Review By HOTUD
English 
Czech 
Polish 
Comments and reviews
Hello! I somehow tried both EN and CZ version as well. The starting mission is pretty similar with few differences like fgdgsfg. In the CZ version you just need to move around the map with Alexander and find those units. In the EN you have the first two light infantry with you right away. Anyway the mission is not that hard once you know what to do and where to run which take some experimenting.
The more problematic thing is the version of CZ version which based on the installer is 1.07 though this patch was based on what I find out on the internet bad/bugged. Normally you should have 8 saves instead of 4 on hard difficulty and it seems that the devs somehow rush the 1.07 patch based on some base version of the game and it lacks the fixes/updates from the older patches. I suggest to everyone who going to play the CZ version from this website to download 1.06 patch and apply it. You just need to put the spelcros.exe from the patch into c and spelcros folder. After that the game have 8 saves on the hardest difficulty and the economy of the game should be fixed as well according to what I read on some forums.
I did not managed to run this on DosBox-X (version . Tried running spelcros.exe that failed. Then extracted patch and replaced spelcros.exe with patched version. That also did not help - still got error.
DOSBox-X ver.2024.03.01 (Linux SDL2 64-bit)
Error message:
DOS/4GW error (2002): transfer stack overflow on interrupt 08h at 18:00000FE9
TSF32: prev_tsf32 337C
...
Demo: https://archive.org/details/SPDEMO
I've got it to work via Dos Box x through Mike's helpful comment from 2023-10-21. However, it won't play any of the video cut scenes. I've seen playthrough videos on YouTube from 2019 and 2021 where the cut scenes play. Any one know how to get them to work? I happen to own the original CD but couldn't get it to install properly. Thanks.
Anyone considering playing the czech version beware. The games are different versions, The czech version offers 3 difficulty settings, the english one only 2. No matter what difficulty you choose in the czech version you only start with one unit whereas in the english version you have 3 units. I never played this game before but since I was getting killed with my one unit I thought I'm playing the game wrong so I looked up Let's Play videos on youtube and found out everybody actually starts with 3 units. Also the czech version entirely lacks Tutorial, which is present in the english version. Even if you never played this game before and speak the czech language, just get the english version instead. Not sure what the deal with the czech version is...
Download both, install dosbox-x, in the rip directory right click spelcros.exe run with dosbox-x, it'll tell you to insert cd, click the dosbox-x drive menu and choose a drive letter i don't think it matters i chose d then in the d menu choose mount a disk or image file navigate to iso folder select spcross.bin
Downloaded both, rip and iso version, but cant play anyone...cant install the game, clicked many times but nothing happens...
RIP version asks for CD, readme says type install at cd prompt but this doesn't work
This is one of best TBS games ever made, to this very day... yes its dated as hell but oh my god, this is for true hard core players not weak or stupid. Can be still played with proper fanmade patches via dosbox mod.
BTW english version of this game is sadly very butchered it is missing more than 50% of content of its original!!!!, in my opinion its the very reason this game never became hit on world market. Story and feeling doesnt make really sense without that half of content.
@KC: where you're trying to run that ISO? 98, XP, DOSBox?
I can not get the ISO version to work at all. The RIP version seems to work, but then it is asking me to insert a CD. There is no CD. Any suggestions?
I have recently started a Letsplay series of Spellcross. If you like the game, check it out. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-E8xYC7NQhDziAM8JP8G3A
a rip is the same as an iso, sans audio tracks, videos, intros and anything else which might be considered as unnecessary to complete the game.
could anybody tell what the difference is between rip and iso versions?
is rip version just the demo?
The best thing about this game was the setting/theme.
It's a hard game where you will lose the first few campaigns.
Good game.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.