Ishar
Ishar is a series of computer role-playing games developed by Silmarils . The first part, Ishar: Legend of the Fortress , appeared in 1992, and was published for the Amiga , Atari ST , MS-DOS and Apple Macintosh systems . A year later, Part 2, Ishar: Messengers of Doom , was released, and in 1994 the series concluded with Part 3, Ishar: The Seven Gates of Infinity .
Course of the game
The plot follows a common thread in every part, but is otherwise quite non-linear. At first you control a single hero, but you can later expand your group of adventurers to up to 5 companions. You playfully move through a world in pseudo-3D optics, which was updated step by step and consisted of pre-drawn tiles. The battles take place in real time and offer a quite extensive magic system.
What is particularly remarkable about this series are the impressively realistic drawn and varied graphics through which one moves, and which are still considered the benchmark for this type of game even today. Another striking feature is the integration of various smaller aspects that only became standard in other games much later. This makes it possible to tactically position your own group to protect magicians or archers in the back rows, while warriors fight on the front lines. There is interaction between the members of your own group who, depending on their attitude, get on more or less well with each other, which can lead to fights in the group. New admission and change of group members are quasi-democratic, the group votes on whether a new hero is admitted or not and whether someone is allowed to leave, a decision that you as a player cannot influence. There is a simple alchemy system that complements the quite extensive magic system. There is a day and night system in the outdoor environment and in the cities, which influences the environment. In addition, the group of the predecessor could be imported into each subsequent part.
predecessor
With Crystals of Arborea appeared in 1990 a quasi-predecessor of the Ishar series. The game concept used and the technology are largely recognizable as a model, but the game itself was kept much simpler and shorter. The group you are traveling with (7 characters) is given, you move around a lot in 2D maps, which you can also go through in pseudo-3D, the fights take place in a top view, which is shown in a checkerboard pattern.
MUD
Since 1994 there has also been a free multi-user dungeon game of the same name .
Republication
The Ishar Trilogy has been available as a commercial download from Good Old Games since July 2009 . The DOS emulator DOSBox was used to make the games in the new release run under Windows .