Shadowgate
| Shadowgate | |
|---|---|
| Studio | ICOM simulations |
| Publisher |
 Mindscape Kemco (NES version) |
| Senior Developer | Dave Marsh, Karl Roelofs |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1987 (Macintosh, Amiga and Atari) 1988 (DOS) 1989 (Apple IIgs and NES) 1993 (Windows) |
| platform | Amiga , Apple Macintosh , Apple IIgs , Atari ST , C64 , DOS , NES , Windows 3.x |
| Game engine | MacVenture |
| genre | Point-and-click adventure |
| Subject | Fantasy |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | Mouse & keyboard , gamepad |
| medium | 3.5 ″ diskette CD-ROM (Windows 3.x) NES cartridge |
| language | English |
| Shadowgate Classic or Shadowgate Returns (Japan) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Remake | |||
| Studio | Infinite Ventures | ||
| Publisher |
 Gameloft (Windows Mobile) Kemco (Game Boy Color) |
||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1999 (Game Boy Color) 2001 (Windows Mobile) 2004 (Palm) |
||
| platform | Windows Mobile , Game Boy Color , Palm OS | ||
| medium | Game Boy module CD-ROM |
||
| Age rating |
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Shadowgate is a computer game developed in 1987 for the Apple Macintosh by the US developer ICOM Simulations . It appeared as the third and most successful of four as macventure - Adventures titles designated. The action takes place in a fantasy world in a warlock's castle . The game is known for offering a wide variety of different ways to let the player character die.
In August 2014, the company Zojoi, a founding of the former Shadowgate developers, released an extended remake for Windows and Mac OS. Since January 2015, the original game has been offered again via the Steam platform , which has been made executable on modern hardware, but whose content and graphics were not changed when it was first published almost 30 years ago.
Shadowgate (original)
action
The fantasy planet Tyragon is populated by numerous mythical races and magical beings. On Gatekeeper Mountain, a mountain in the country of Kal Zathynn, there is Shadowgate Castle, where a group of powerful magicians, the "Circle of Twelve", once gathered. One of them, Talimar, turned to evil and was kicked out of the Circle of Twelve. Thereupon he proclaimed himself the "Warlock Lord", the ruler of all sorcerers, and plunged Tyragon into a chaos of wars between humans, elves, dwarves and other peoples. When these wars ended, he raised an army of trolls, orcs, goblins and other dark creatures against the kings of all lands. Only with a final intervention by the remaining wizards of the Circle of Twelve could he be stopped from his plans and locked in a cave below the castle. After that the circle dissolved and only the druid Lakmir remained as guardian of the magically sealed prison.
For the player character , the action begins on the edge of a forest in front of the castle. A text ad reports that the player can remember the last time he stood in front of Lakmir. He gesticulated a spell in ancient language. Prophecy predicted that the Warlock Lord would use his dark powers to summon Behemoth, the most powerful and deadly of the Titans. Only the “Seed of Prophecy”, the last of the line of kings, could prevent the world from falling into eternal darkness. To do this, however, he must bring Shadowgate and the "Staff of Ages" into his possession, a powerful artifact and the only weapon with which Behemoth can be defeated.
After years of searching for the Seed of Prophecy, Lakmir finally managed to find him, the player who now has to face the tasks that await him in Shadowgate.
In addition to solving puzzles and collecting and using various objects, the main task is to keep the character alive. Almost every action that does not correspond to the correct solution leads to immediate death, so that a previously saved game has to be used to try something different.
As with the other adventures of the MacVenture engine, there is a time limit. There is only a limited supply of torches available in Shadowgate, which will burn down during the course of the game. If the player manages to find the artifact within the given playing time, Behemoth can be fatally injured with the Staff of Ages. He returns to hell dying, taking the "Warlock Lord" with him. The victorious player receives the king's daughter as a betrothed and the title of "High Lord of the Westland".
Development history
The name "MacVenture" corresponds to the revolutionary MacVenture engine used for development, which for the first time enabled adventures with pure mouse control via a point-and-click interface. Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True , developed two years earlier, is therefore considered to be the first representative of a new computer game genre. The first two MacVenture adventures Déjà Vu and Uninvited were successful and generated positive reviews of the point-and-click technology, with which an adventure could be controlled with the mouse without any text input. In 1987 ICOM was developing numerous ports for other systems and the associated expansion through improved graphics and sound output for the games. Nevertheless, Shadowgate initially appeared again with black and white graphics and without sound on the Apple Macintosh . After not nearly as much time passed as the first two titles and ports with improved technology appeared in the same year, it can be assumed that Shadowgate was developed on several platforms in parallel. Shadowgate was ported to Amiga and Atari ST in the year of its release . In the following years it was released for other computer systems, as a console version for the NES and in 1999 as a remake for Windows Mobile and Game Boy Color .
At the time of publication for the NES, Nintendo of America had very strict content guidelines that were perceived by many developers as censorship. It's surprising that the game's extremely black humor survived the censorship largely unscathed. The success of the game on NES was the decisive factor that Kemco / Seika also had the other MacVenture titles ported to the console.
Production notes
Under the stage name FX Nine , Scholastic brought out a book called Before Shadowgate in 1991 as part of the Worlds of Power series , which tells the prehistory of the world of Shadowgate. The two developers Dave Marsh and Karl Roelofs had supported the author in advance with details and background information.
The NES version of Shadowgate is one of the few games for this console that has been translated into Swedish . However, the national version was primarily known for the error that had crept in when translating the selectable actions “Go” and “Hit”. These were incorrectly translated as “Gä” and “Slä” instead of “Gå” and “Slå”. The Swedish Nintendo distributor Bergsala therefore enclosed an apology letter with every game.
reception
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Computer Gaming World stated when it was first released that the game was again a clear step forward compared to the previous titles of the MacVenture engine, which had already been rated as good or very good. The higher level of difficulty was praised, but above all the greater flexibility in solving the puzzles, for which Shadowgate - in contrast to its predecessors - often offers several options.
The magazine Dragon (magazine) awarded 5 stars out of 5 and declared "Shadowgate is a great adventure game in that you must continually be aware of what's already been accomplished to complete subsequent puzzles."
From the player's point of view, the constant interruptions caused by the death of the game character and thus the necessary recourse to the last saved game status are on the one hand annoying. Especially since there are no hints or logical explanations for many puzzles and ultimately only trying out according to the trial-and-error method continues. On the other hand, this gives the game its own charm. The great variety of ideas in which way the player can die and the sarcastic or humorous texts used to describe it have contributed significantly to the success of the game.
Sequels
Successors to Shadowgate didn't appear until a few years later and on completely different platforms than the original.
Beyond Shadowgate was released in 1993 for TurboGrafx CD in the USA and thus also for the structurally identical PC engine . The player takes on the role of Prince Eric, a descendant of the hero from the first part, who was accused by royal advisor Belazar of the regicide of his own father and thrown into the dungeon. The execution is to follow at dawn. In addition to classic adventure puzzles and tasks, an action element has been added. Erik can now dodge or strike at the push of a button on the gamepad to expand the menu options and must defeat his opponents with skill in combat.
The game Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999 . Centuries after the events of the original game, the castle and kingdom are in disrepair and have become a refuge for thieves and crooks. The player takes on the role of Halfling Del Cottonwood , who traveled to the castle in a caravan that was just raided. His fellow travelers were killed and he himself locked in a dungeon on Shadowgate. In 3D view, as it was also used for first-person shooters from this period, the player explores the castle and above all the four towers, each of which has to solve a special task. Despite the similarity of the game view, it is not fights that determine what happens, but logical puzzles. However, options for action can no longer be selected via a menu, but are limited to two buttons on the gamepad. The first to generally trigger an action, the second to use game objects.
Another successor to the Nintendo 64 was already in development under the title Shadowgate Rising . However, the project was canceled when Nintendo announced that it would soon bring a successor console onto the market, which was later sold as the GameCube . However, only a few development screenshots and a comic remain of the preparatory work for the game.
Shadowgate (2014)
| Shadowgate (2014) | |
|---|---|
| Remake | |
| Studio | Zojoi |
| Publisher | Reverb Triple XP |
| Senior Developer | Dave Marsh, Karl Roelofs |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
August 21, 2014 (Win., Mac) March 25, 2015 (Linux) October 22, 2015 (iOS) December 16, 2015 (Android) |
| platform | Android , iOS , Linux , Windows , Mac OS |
| Game mode | Single player |
| control | Mouse , keyboard |
| medium | Download |
| language | German, English a. a. |
Dave Marsh and Karl Roelofs, two former ICOM simulation developers, founded Zojoi LLC in March 2012 with the aim of releasing classics they had developed at ICOM, including Shadowgate in particular. In addition to porting it to current systems, the game was to be expanded to include numerous puzzles and items that were already provided in previous versions, but were repeatedly deleted due to lack of space or budget, but also to include completely new puzzles and ideas. In the project video for the Kickstarter platform, the two already showed the first pictures and results from the preproduction that has already started.
Kickstarter campaign
To finance it, Zojoi started a crowdfunding campaign on kickstarter.com on October 26th . The goal of collecting 120,000 US dollars within one month was even slightly exceeded. The campaign ended up grossing $ 137,232. Compared to other revival game projects during this time, the result was still modest. On November 2, 2013, almost a year later, Zojoi launched a Greenlight vote to include the game in the catalog of the Steam distribution platform and on August 21, 2014 published the finished game for the Windows and Mac OS operating systems.
The Dread Pumpkin Quest Update
On the occasion of the Halloween sales on Steam in October 2014, Zojoi released a more extensive update that added an alternative command system and other new options to the controls. The game now allows the difficulty level to be set to Casual Game for inexperienced players or Ironman Mode for very experienced players. In addition, the game content will be expanded to include the Dread Pumpkin Quest .
reception
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Shadowgate received mixed reviews. The Metacritic review database aggregates 20 reviews to a mean of 68.
The gaming portal AdventureGamers praised the dark, tense atmosphere and the originality of the remake, but warned that numerous puzzles had been so artificially complicated that not everyone would want to deal with them anymore. "It offers a captivating journey into a fantasy dungeon, but it's inhabited by puzzles so artificially challenging that this quest is one not everyone will want to undertake". Gamespot admitted that Shadowgate is not ashamed of its roots and is therefore a somewhat unusual and rare experience. As an attempt to recreate a classic, the success clearly outweighs the weaknesses. "Shadowgate represents a different and currently rare kind of experience. It's unashamed of its roots, sometimes to a fault, but as an attempt to recreate a classic it succeeds far more than it falters ".
Trivia
- In Shadowgate, the player finds a flute that plays the beginning of the same melody with which the action controllable by the player begins in Déjà Vu: A Nightmare Comes True .
- In the NES version of Uninvited , the theme song from Shadowgate can be heard as soon as the player turns on the phonograph in the playroom of the haunted house.
Web links
- Shadowgate at MobyGames (English)
- Shadowgate Classic at MobyGames (English)
- Shadowgate (2014), at MobyGames (English)
- Shadowgate at GameFAQs (English)
- Video: Shadowgate - MacVenture Series Part 1 on YouTube via the FoxeoGames channel
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steven A. Schwartz and Janet Schwartz, The Parent's Guide to Video Games in Prima Lifestyles , 1994 (see Nintendo of America's Video Game Content Guidelines on filibustercartoons.com)
- ↑ Keith Campbell: Shadow Gate . In: Computer & Video Games . No. 81, July 1988, p. 95.
- ↑ Tracie Forman Hines: Shadowgate: Inside the Castle Shadowgate . in Computer Gaming World , November 1987, pp. 41, 57
- ↑ Patricia Hartley and Kirk Lesser: The Role of Computers in Dragon , No. 128, December 1987
- ↑ Shadowgate. by Zojoi (project page). In: kickstarter.com . November 26, 2012, accessed June 18, 2013 .
- ↑ a b Metacritic.com: Shadowgate. Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
- ^ A b Scott Bruner: Shadowgate (2014). In: Adventure Gamers. October 13, 2014, accessed March 22, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Britton Peele: Shadowgate Review. In: GameSpot . August 21, 2014, accessed March 22, 2018 .
