The city of lions
| The city of lions | |
|---|---|
| Studio | PM Entertainment |
| Publisher | Software 2000 |
| Senior Developer | Chris Földing-Hornschuh |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1989 |
| platform | Commodore Amiga |
| genre | Adventure |
| medium | diskette |
| language | German |
| copy protection | Enclosure referencing |
The City of Lions is a computer game from 1989. The adventure was developed by the German development studio PM Entertainment for the home computer Commodore Amiga and distributed by the publisher Software 2000 .
action
A former Japanese general is found dead in London. The official cause of death is a heart attack, but the Japanese was dating a prostitute immediately before he died. The journalist Christine Monier senses a story and follows the trail of the prostitutes to Singapore. There Monier comes across the machinations of an internationally operating gang of gangsters during her investigation. Events come thick and fast: There are attacks and manipulations of the international financial markets, and the gangsters kidnap the wife and child of the Japanese defense minister.
The player takes on the role of a young Japanese named Taiko, who belongs to a secret society and has to pass an exam in order to climb up its hierarchy. The exam consists of helping Christine Monier with her investigation. It turns out that the secret society is deeply involved in the events in Singapore.
Game principle and technology
The game is described by texts in static screen windows and additional, also static graphics. In order to obtain further information, the player has access to corresponding clickable operating elements, the icons, on the right-hand edge of the screen in each game scene. The game itself runs like a playbook : At the end of a scene there is a "questioning" Taiko by a member of the secret society and the player has to answer questions about what happened in the scene that has just ended. Wrong answers can lead to an immediate end of the game. The ASM referred to the game as an "interactive novel". The “interviews” also change the player's “character values” in the manner of a role-playing game, which have a minor influence on the game.
The graphics in The City of Lions consist largely of digitized photos of real actors and locations.
Production notes
Author Chris Földing ‑ Hornschuh researched the script for The City of Lions for a year and a half . The length of the script is about 400 pages. In order to increase the immersion , a map of Singapore, a fictional travel brochure, a picture postcard and a set of chopsticks were enclosed in the game packaging. The inserts were referenced in the game and therefore served as copy protection . Author Földing ‑ Hornschuh said about The City of Lions that it had “more to do with a good book than with a game in the traditional sense”.
The City of Lions is one of eight games that publisher Software 2000 named "Artventure", which should indicate the high quality of the so-called adventure games. In 1990, an English-language version was published under the title The Final Singapore Sling (which acted as the subtitle of the German version), but received little media coverage. At the end of 1991 a version appeared for CDTV , which, in contrast to the original version, had a soundtrack. Author Chris Földing ‑ Hornschuh, who had previously developed the graphics for Holiday Maker and was also responsible for the graphics at Die Stadt der Löwen , appeared in 1993 with the adventure Jonathan , which also appeared in the Artventure series from Software 2000, and then left the industry. The City of Lions development team , PM Entertainment, renamed themselves “Phoenics” after the release.
reception
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The Amiga Joker positively emphasized the game's intuitive operating concept and the nested narrative structure. The game conveyed “an atmospheric density that has practically never been experienced before”. Reviewer Michael Labiner criticized the game's relatively short playing time and the high price. The ASM praised story and graphics of the game: The City of Lions would provide "literary sex and crime the highest order," the story was "logically at every point" and would read to "exciting and extremely entertaining." The "novel-like gameplay and the great atmosphere" would hide the fact that the game principle is not very demanding. ASM editor Michael Suck complained that the sales price of 120 DM was clearly too high in his view . The Power Play acknowledged the "lush package inserts (and) a lot about Singapore", but criticized the fact that behind "turgid mass (...) text" put little play.
Web links
- The City of Lions at MobyGames (English)
- The City of Lions in the Interactive Fiction Database (IFDB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Michael Suck: In the heat of the night . In: Current software market . December 1989.
- ↑ a b c Michael Labiner: City of Lions . In: Amiga Joker . December 1989, p. 42.
- ↑ one to one? Short test of CDTV conversions . In: Amiga Joker . November 1991.
- ↑ a b Anatol Locker: City of Lions . In: Power Play . January 1990.