Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain
| Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Advanced Dungeons & Dragons |
| Studio | APh Technological Consulting |
| Publisher | Mattel Electronics |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
 1982 1983 |
| platform | Intellivision |
| genre | Action adventure |
| Subject | Dungeons and Dragons |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | Game controller |
| medium | Cartridge |
| language | English |
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (original name and spelling: ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Cartridge ) is a computer game for the Intellivision game console and one of the first AD&D games with an official license from TSR, Inc. to derive the game from its successor Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin and other AD&D implementations , it was later led under the title Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain . Developer was the US company APh Technological Consulting , it was first published by Mattel Electronics in 1982 in the USA .
Game objective
The plot is rudimentary. The aim of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is to find the two fragments of an old royal crown, each guarded by a winged dragon. To do this, the player must pass dangerous and inaccessible terrain and collect the items necessary to clear the path blockages. During the game, the player explores randomly generated rooms and corridors and must defend himself against monsters.
Gameplay
The game begins on a strategic overview map, with a cabin in the middle of a wilderness landscape tree on the left and the destination, the eponymous cloudy Berg (ger .: Sunny Mountain ), on the right side of the screen. In the background you can hear the snoring noises of the sleeping dragons on the mountain. Between the hut and the mountain, various landscape features such as mountain ranges and rivers are indicated that have to be passed. With the help of a selection cursor, the player can choose between these areas the level that he would like to explore next. The cursor is made up of up to three white dots, which symbolically represent three adventurers and at the same time the number of lives still available until the game over . Brown mountain ranges are impassable, rivers, walls with gates and forests represent obstacles that can only be passed with special key objects (boat, key, ax). These can be found in levels that are hidden behind black mountain chain symbols. When selecting such an area, a color change (gray, blue, red, purple) indicates the level of difficulty of the level as well as the key objects and monsters in it, which allows the player to plan his course of action to a certain extent.
When choosing a mountain range level, the real part of the game begins. The player is symbolized by a black figure armed with a bow. The player has to guide them through a labyrinth of corridors that is initially still covered in black and is only gradually revealed through exploration. The idea of hidden play areas finds further application in subsequent computer role-playing games, including Dungeons & Dragons games. In the search for the key items he needs, the player encounters various enemy creatures that he can avoid or fight with the help of his bow.
The game character does not master close attacks, but the player has a total of three arrows at his disposal, which are released by pressing the number keys on the Intellivision controller. However, by collecting arrow quivers within the level, he can replenish this limited supply. If the character comes into contact with monsters, the character suffers damage, indicated by a color change. This changes from black to blue, then to red. A third injury is equivalent to the death of the character. There are different levels of difficulty that affect the number of arrows the player can find, as well as the number and speed of monsters. Simple opponents are put out of action with one hit, level bosses with two arrows. The two bosses each need three hits. There is also an inviolable type of opponent. Arrows can ricochet off the corridor walls and thus also hit the player's figure, which, like being touched by a monster, is considered an injury and can thus lead to the death of the game figure.
Sound is an integral part of the game. Although most of the map is initially shrouded in darkness, the approach of certain opponents can already be foreseen by sound effects, such as hissing snakes. Bats, on the other hand, can mask the sounds of other creatures by flapping their wings, which increases the risk of the player running into an opposing creature or being surprised. Another special opponent are the noiseless spiders, who do not injure the character but steal valuable arrows from it.
There is no map limit, instead the level structure repeats itself after a certain time, which creates the impression of a level design rotating in a circle. The exploration of the level is over when the player finds the exit or has lost all lives. An exception is the final level, which ends immediately after the second part of the crown has been found. If the exploration is successful, the program returns to the strategic overview map, where the player can overcome the corresponding obstacle with a key item that has been secured and / or enter the next cave level. If the player has also mastered the final level, killed the two dragons and collected the crown pieces, the game also returns to the overview map, on which the snoring noises of the dragons can no longer be heard.
The game is designed for one player, but can also be played in pairs, with one player directing the figure while the other fires the arrows.
Development history
Cloudy Mountain was the first Intellivision game to feature a cartridge with more than 4K ROM . In Germany, the game was launched on the market together with Treasure of Tarmin in 1983, the same period in which the pen & paper set of rules was first published in German.
reception
Helge Andersen from the German computer game magazine TeleMatch gave the game a grade of 1 in his test report from December 1983:
“At Advanced Dungeons & Dragons , everything is actually right. Certainly not everyone will be magically attracted to this type of video game. But if you are already fascinated by other - I repeat: weaker - so-called adventure games from other systems, you will almost find the 'non-plus-ultra' here. "
In a retrospective on classic Dungeons & Dragons computer games for the US online game magazine IGN , author Levi Buchanan wrote that Advanced Dungeons & Dragons is a very simple adventure game similar to Adventure . “[It] uses so little of the in-game license that you can almost see it as more of a brand use than anything else.” He summed up, “Although it has so little to do with the actual D&D universe, it is It's still a fun retro game and well worth a look. ”In 2011, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain was voted one of the 80 games the Smithsonian American Art Museum featured in its The Art of Video Games exhibition following a public vote . It is representative of the artistic design of early adventure games and games of the Intellivison console.
Web links
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain at MobyGames (English)
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain , entry on Intellivision Lives (English)
- Manual on Intellivision Lives <(English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of games: Action Adventure . allgame . Retrieved May 20, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d Levi Buchanan: Dungeons & Dragons Classic Videogame Retrospective . In: IGN . News Corp . March 6, 2008. Retrieved March 18, 2011.
- ↑ Michael J. Tresca: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games . McFarland, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2010, ISBN 978-0-7864-5895-0 , pp. 138 .
- ↑ a b Brett Weiss: Classic Home Video Games, 1972–1984: A Complete Reference Guide . McFarland, Jefferson (North Carolina) 2007, ISBN 978-0-7864-3226-4 , pp. 211 ( online view [accessed March 18, 2011]).
- ↑ a b Helge Andersen: Intellivision: Perfect game . (Article scan) In: TeleMatch . No. 7/83, December 1983, pp. 38-40. ISSN 0177-4336 .
- ↑ The Art of Video Games Voting Result ( English , pdf; 1.0 MB) Smithsonian Institution . May 5, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
- ↑ Kris Graft: Smithsonian Art Exhibit Recognizes Games From Pac-Man To Heavy Rain ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc. May 5, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2012.