Cave world saga

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Cave world saga
developer World forge
Publisher Software 2000 , bhv software
Designer Harald Evers
First title The Cave World Saga - The Shining Crystal (1994)
Last title The Cave World Saga (2006)
Platform (s) MS-DOS , Windows
Genre (s) Adventure , trading card game

Höhlenweltsaga is the title of two computer games as well as a cycle of novels, all of which were written by Harald Evers .

The Cave World Saga - The Shining Crystal (1994)

The Höhlenwelt-Saga - The Shining Crystal is an adventure game from 1994, which was developed by Evers' company Weltenschmiede and distributed by the publisher Software 2000 .

action

The action takes place on a planet under whose rocky crust "a world of beauty and wonder" exists. This is where the people of the cave world live who have been oppressed by alien and aggressive lizards, the Drakken , for a thousand years .

The spaceman Eric "Speedy" MacDoughan happens to get into the cave world and quite unexpectedly slips into the key role of the fight against the oppressors. On the back of his best friend, a young dragon named Susi, Eric embarks on a perilous search for the Shining Crystal, a legendary key to the liberation of the cave world.

Game principle and technology

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Production notes

The point-and-click adventure appeared exclusively in German on CD-ROM for MS-DOS . The data carrier is a mixed-mode CD with background music as audio tracks. The intro is provided with speech output on CD, while the dialogues in the game are not spoken. In addition, the music can also be played back as MIDI via the sound card, with a correspondingly lower quality compared to CD audio. In addition to the manual, the game also came with The Book of Veldor , a sixty- page background text on the cave world and its inhabitants illustrated with drawings.

The full version of the game with manual and background book as PDF was included with the PC Power 8-9 / 96. It also appeared as a budget version in the bestseller Games Collection No. 20.

reception

reviews
publication Rating
ASM 11/12
PC joker 82%
Power play 69%
The following important information is missing from this article or section:
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Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

The novels

The Höhlenwelt saga is laid out in three cycles, each with four volumes, and can be assigned to the genre of fantasy . So far, the first and second cycles have appeared. Because of the unexpected death of Harald Evers, there will be two cycles, so the end of the story remains open.

Location

The multi-cycle action takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in which the people fought a gigantic war with mighty bombs, creating the "lake of fire" that ate about seven miles into the earth. When they were successfully extinguished, the lakes crystallized and became "windows" into a new world. Deep below the surface, in a gigantic cave system with huge rock pillars, humans and other beings have created a new existence for themselves.

By chance, the bright young magician Leandra is drawn into a conspiracy that threatens to shake the whole known world. A group of renegade battle mages, the "Brotherhood of Yoor" , long believed dead , wants to take advantage of the resulting chaos and confusion and realize an ancient plan to rapture their leader Sardin into immortality, but at the same time endanger the existence of the cave world. Leandra alone , as the bearer of a magical artifact of great power, can put a stop to dark activities.

Harald Evers succeeds in combining elements of fantasy with those of science fiction. The constant balancing act between magical beings, archaic way of life and the highest forms of technology enables numerous ideas and is the basis for surprising twists and turns that keep the novel going.

The Trivocum

The Trivocum is the borderline between the spheres of order and chaos. A system of perfect order or total chaos meant standstill. Life and movement arise solely through the resulting friction and partial mixing of the two. The trivocum is now this thin border where this friction arises. Normally this border is impermeable ("gray"), but in the cave world it is softened by the large volodite deposits . A trained observer (usually a magician ) with the so-called "inner eye" recognizes this by the reddish discoloration. There are also various shades of blue and red that can provide information on the condition of the respective object / living being (injury, illness or flourishing life). If the Trivocum takes on a purple or even black color, this indicates a massive concentration of Stygian energy ( demons ).

The "softening" of the Trivocum in the cave world allows the work of magic by setting openings (auricles) and using the energies flowing through them for physical phenomena, e.g. B. Forming a protective shield from compressed air, levitation or heating / cooling of objects (supply / withdrawal of heat). Phenomena commonly known as " sorcery " such as the transformation of body A into body B (e.g. snake into rabbit) is not possible as this cannot be done in a purely physical way.

The Cave World Saga (2006)

In April 2006, bhv Software again launched a PC game under the name Die Höhlenweltsaga . This is a magic card game based on the novels. As known from the common works of the genre ( Magic: The Gathering , Yu-Gi-Oh! ), You play 24 to 72 cards against the computer with the help of a deck of cards (depending on the game mode). You can choose from 236 different card motifs, most of which depict figures, locations and objects known from the novels. The cards are divided into three forms of magic: raw magic, Stygian magic and elemental magic, which is divided into earth, sky and water magic.

There are three game modes in the game with four different levels of difficulty:

The skirmish

In skirmish mode, players and computers each receive a randomly compiled deck of cards. At the beginning this can be configured within certain limits (deck size, type of magic, difficulty). In this mode all installed maps are available. This means that you may have a very rare card or a card from one of the adventures in your deck. However, it is not possible to save the respective decks. There is a ranking list that you can use to compare yourself with other players. The skirmish is suitable as a quick game in between, for example during the lunch break.

Adventure

The adventure mode will certainly appeal to fans of old text adventures. The aim is to successfully play through a prepared story. The included battles are fought with the magic cards, but this time with ready-made decks that the player can only minimally influence. As a reward, glory points and new cards await to improve the deck and defeat the strong bosses. Among other things, it will also be possible to re-enact the plot of the novels in completely new scenes. If the existing adventures are not enough for you, you can use the enclosed adventure editor and invent new stories. It is even possible to include your own cards and game backgrounds.

The duel

The duel mode is certainly the core of the game. By means of a "game figure" you move over the Akranias map, which is well known from the books. In many places, opponents are waiting to be challenged and defeated. As a reward for a victory there is gold, which can be invested in new cards in the local card shops in order to expand and strengthen the starting deck (48 cards). With increasing progress you have to compete against stronger opponents who have decks with 60 or even 72 cards and want to prevent you from progressing.

Tutorial and options

The game comes with an extensive and easy to understand tutorial. This explains the game mechanics in simple steps. You get to know the six types of cards, find out what spontaneous magic and actions are all about or how to correctly set and dissolve block protection. Due to the four levels of difficulty, it is quite easy to get into the matter, as the computer in the "Novice" level dispenses with almost all special actions. This allows you to concentrate well on the work of the magic. In the highest degree, "Magister", on the other hand, the computer fights with all its tricks, so that the game remains a challenge even for advanced and experienced players.

In the options menu, which can be reached from the start page as well as from the duel at any time (press the space bar), you can configure the game according to your wishes. For example, you can change the back of the card or the color of the dice, set the display duration of the message window (you can also click away with the right mouse button) or define your own folder for the background music in order to get an additional boost from your favorite band.

Text adventure

In the 1990s, Evers had been working on a text adventure that was supposed to take place in the cave world. The project did not get beyond the state of a demo .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vera Brinkmann: Speedy against the rest of the Drakken . In: Current software market . December 1994, p. 64.
  2. ↑ Steffen Schamberger: The cave world saga - the shining crystal . In: PC Joker Multimedia . December 1994, p. 8.
  3. ↑ Volker Weitz: Colorful in the underground: The cave world saga . In: Power Play . December 1994, p. 114.
  4. ↑ Caveworld.de: The Text Adventure. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .

Web links