Champions of Krynn
| Champions of Krynn | |
|---|---|
| Studio |
 SSI
|
| Publisher |
SSI
|
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1990 |
| platform | Amiga , Apple II , Commodore 64 , DOS , PC-98 |
| Game engine | GoldBox |
| genre | Computer role playing game |
| Subject | Dungeons and Dragons |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | Mouse & keyboard , joystick |
| medium | diskette |
| language | English |
Champions of Krynn is the first of three computer role-playing games in the Gold Box series , which is set in the fantasy world Drachenlanze of the role-playing game rules Advanced Dungeons & Dragons . The game was first released in 1990. It was released for the Amiga , Apple II , Commodore 64 , DOS , PC-98 platforms .
action
The setting is the Dragon Lance campaign world Krynn. After a prologue in the tavern “To the Last Stay” in Solace, the journey begins in an outpost near Throt, the capital of the Hobgoblin Empire. Soon after, the group meets a group of Baaz Draconians who ambushed some settlers. After the fight, a larger Aurak Draconian named Myrtani appears and steals an old book. Without paying any attention to the group, Myrtani teleports away. The group of heroes reports the events to Sir Karl, the outpost in command. Sir Karl realizes that the forces of evil are not nearly as weakened as thought, and sends the group to investigate the matter and destroy Myrtani and his forces.
Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, the player creates a group of six heroes, specifying gender, class and race. The import of an existing hero party as in the previous gold box games ( Pool of Radiance , Curse of the Azure Bonds etc.) is not possible due to the differences between the campaign worlds. In comparison to the games in the Forgotten Realms, Champions of Krynn contains different races and classes from which the player can choose for his troop of heroes. In addition to humans, the races Kender, Qualinesti and Silvanesti elves as well as mountain and hill dwarfs are available. The class of the paladin has been replaced by the Knight of Solamnia, who give away a sum of gold when entering a city due to an oath of poverty. Cleric characters can choose a patron deity that gives them different bonuses. As provided in the Dragon Lance setting, the skills of the magician are dependent on the moon phases.
The basic gameplay is identical to that of the earlier series offshoots: the exploration takes place from the first person perspective , for the turn-based battles the game switches to a separate battle mode from the gentleman's perspective . It is controlled using the keyboard and mouse or joystick. Compared to Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds , the selection menus can now also be operated with the arrow keys instead of exclusively with hotkeys. As a new option, the game has the ability to set a level of difficulty. Frequently occurring opponents are the so-called Draconians, who are divided into five sub-genera.
technology
Under MS-DOS, the program uses graphics in 16 colors and EGA quality. It is roughly on par with the Secret of the Silver Blades , which was published at the same time, and is therefore slightly better than the Curse of the Azure Bonds published a year earlier . The program also supported Adlib sound cards. There are two different DOS versions:
| OS | version | programming language |
|---|---|---|
| MS-DOS | V1.1 | Turbo Pascal 5.5 |
| MS-DOS | V1.2 | Turbo Pascal 6.0 (exepacked) |
reception
In the test of the D&D role- playing game magazine Dragon # 156, the game received a rating of 5 out of 5 stars by testers Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser. In the German-speaking area, the Amiga Joker awarded 63%, the ASM 10 out of 12 points for the C64 and DOS versions, and the Power Play 86% for the Amiga and DOS versions.
According to Allen Rausch in his retrospective for the online game magazine GameSpy, "There is little that could be found wrong in Champions of Krynn [...] the main criticism was that the game graphics were beginning to look hopelessly out of date".
The game was continued with the titles Death Knights of Krynn and The Dark Queen of Krynn , the group of heroes can be transferred for it.
Web links
- Champions of Krynn at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Matt Barton: Part 2: The Golden Age (1985-1993) . In: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games . Gamasutra . February 23, 2007. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
- ↑ a b Matt Barton: Dungeons and desktops: the history of computer role-playing games . AK Peters, Ltd, 2008, ISBN 1-56881-411-9 , pp. 153-155 .
- ↑ a b Chris Kohler: Retro gaming hacks . O'Reilly, 2005, ISBN 0-596-00917-8 , pp. 329-332 .
- ↑ Hartley, Patricia and Kirk Lesser: The Role of Computers . In: Dragon . No. 156, April 1990, pp. 89-95.
- ↑ http://www.kultboy.com/testbericht-uebersicht/954/
- ^ Allen Rausch: A History of D&D Video Games . In: GameSpy . August 15, 2004. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
