The hourglass
| The hourglass | |
|---|---|
| Studio | World forge |
| Publisher | Software 2000 |
| Senior Developer | Harald Evers |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1990 |
| platform | Amiga , Atari ST , DOS |
| genre | Text adventure |
| Subject | Middle ages , fantasy |
| control | keyboard |
| medium | diskette |
| language | German |
| copy protection | Enclosure referencing |
The hourglass is an adventure game from Weltenschmiede . It was developed in 1990 in cooperation with Software 2000 and is one of the few commercially successful German-language text adventures .
action
In 2012 the earth was devastated as a result of climate change. In a small town, the player is ambushed by a gang of looters and escapes into an abandoned, small toy store, where he finds an old chest. After the player has opened the chest and stepped into it, he finds himself in another world. It is the Munterwassertal . He soon learns that both the hourglass and half of the residents have disappeared and that he must find twelve coins to get the hourglass back and bring back the missing residents. He receives the coins from the remaining residents, who, however, usually do not give them to him voluntarily, but want to have done a small or large favor in exchange. Another problem is the time, as you can stay in the Munterwassertal for a maximum of twelve days and each action takes time.
Gameplay
All instructions had to be entered in full sentences into some sort of console. Only a few synonyms were included, so everything had to be taken very carefully (for example there was an iron key , which had to be called an "iron key" and not a "key" ). The game has an internal day / night rhythm that manifests itself for the player in two ways: During the day the NPCs move through the Munterwassertal as part of their daily routine, and at night the software shows modified graphics for the same locations.
Development and production details
At the time of its creation, The Hourglass was a pure text adventure; the graphics were only inserted during the final production. The game graphics as well as the illustrations of the package inserts were created by Harald Evers (at that time still Harald Krüger) on an Atari ST. The game was originally delivered on three 5.25 "floppy disks as well as two 3.5" floppy disks. The box also contained a game description, a map of the game world, a code wheel and a 40-page short story that was referenced in the game.
reception
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The Amiga Joker described the hour glass as an "imaginative fantasy adventure" and praised the puzzles and the "intelligent" parser of the game as well as the "fairy-tale characters", but criticized the graphics as an "afterthought" and emphasized the lack of sound. The ASM praised the "beautiful in form told" story and well-developed communication with NPCs , but criticized the then high selling price not entirely error-free parser and graphics.
Web links
- The hourglass at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Review in ASM 11/1990. Retrieved January 22, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Review in the Amiga Joker. Retrieved January 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Power Play 12/90, p. 138: Hourglass . Retrieved April 1, 2017 .
