Simon the Sorcerer (Game Series)
| Simon the Sorcerer | |
|---|---|
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| Logo for part I and II, also slightly modified for Simon the Sorcerer 3D | |
| developer | Adventuresoft |
| Publisher | Adventure Soft Publishing , Activision , Atari SA , Bomico , epic interactive , Idigicon , Infogrames , RTL Enterprises , RuneSoft , Vivendi Universal Games |
| First title | Simon the Sorcerer (1993) |
| Last title | Simon the Sorcerer: Who wants contact? (2009) |
| Platform (s) | Amiga , Amiga CD³² / RTG, Android , Archimedes , iOS , Mac OS , DOS , Windows |
Simon the Sorcerer (English for "Simon the Magician") is the title of a series of seven computer games, including a five-part adventure series. The first part was developed in 1993 by the British studio Adventuresoft . A few months later, porting to other systems followed. Two years after the extraordinarily successful publication, which is regarded as a milestone in this game genre, a technically almost identical second part appeared in 1995.
The subsequent attempt to continue the series through games of other genres, could not build on the success of the first adventure games. The development of the third adventure was entrusted to HeadFirst Productions , another studio that has since been spun off from Adventure Soft Publishing . The change from the tried and tested 2D interface to a 3D control system that is rather unusual in adventure games, which critics also considered to be technically poorly successful, contributed significantly to the economic failure.
The series was not continued until 2007 and 2009 with two adventure games by the German developer Silver Style Entertainment . No further game has emerged from the announcement of a sixth adventure in the series by StoryBeasts from Dublin , which should be financed through a Kickstarter campaign.
Simon the Sorcerer
The first part was developed at Adventuresoft by a development team led by studio founder Mike Woodroffe and published in 1993 by Activision for MS-DOS . Shortly afterwards in 1994 the porting for Amiga and Acorn Archimedes followed , the publication of which was taken over by the parent company Adventure Soft Publishing, originally founded as a publisher .
The point-and-click adventure is about the adventures of the English teenager Simon, who at the start of the game finds a dog and a mysterious book, wrapped as a birthday present, on the doorstep of his parents' house. After Simon has opened the book in the attic and at the same time opened access to a parallel world , he follows the dog, who has since been baptized Chippy, through the portal. He finds himself in a magical environment full of references to European fairy tales and legends , which is threatened by the evil magician Sordid (in German: "Abscheulich"), with whom he reluctantly takes up the fight.
Due to its humorous plot, the game is similar to the Adventures by LucasArts and is reminiscent of the Discworld novels by the writer Terry Pratchett . With over 600,000 copies sold worldwide, it was one of the most successful games of its time and was adapted and republished several times for more current systems. Most recently in April 2018 as the "25th Anniversary Edition" for Windows.
Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard & the Closet
A direct successor with the original title "Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe", based on the bestseller The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , was published by the same developers in 1995. Opposite the first part changed little in the familiar design. The user interface has been tightened slightly (symbols instead of verbs) and some technical improvements have been added ( scrolling of the locations) and the difficulty level of the puzzles has increased a bit.
The game runs on many operating systems and hardware (including Windows, Linux, and PDAs) when started via ScummVM . The Tübingen company RuneSoft secured the rights to the Amiga version and released a box version in 2000. Simon the Sorcerer 2 has also been available for iPhone and iPad since May 2013 and for Android since June 2014 .
Plot and characters
The adventure begins with Sordid's efforts to rise from the dead. To do this, he brings Simon back to the fantasy world by means of a magical cabinet teleporter. On the way, however, the fuel called “BedFull” runs out and Simon ends up in the Calypso store, from where he moves out to get new fuel and to travel back home with it. He travels through the world, which has since been changed by currency reform , fast food chains and various modern equipment, but is still recognizable as a fantasy, which is divided into several large scenes - a city, a pirate island (alluding to the competition from Monkey Island ) and the Valley of Terror around Sordid's new death fortress.
- Simon is now a little older and is now a ponytailed teenager with lousy manners . He tends to insult everyone he meets - even if they are bigger, stronger, and more intelligent than him - and keep making stupid comments, which regularly gets him into awkward situations. He is now wearing a red instead of a purple wizard coat and hat.
- The old magician Calypso now appears actively and takes on a mentor role at the beginning of the game , but is ultimately useless for anything.
- Sordid tries, with the help of his assistant Runt, to get a new body and to achieve world domination.
- The boggler has now opened a fabulously poor fast food chain, but he needs Simon's help again.
- Calypso's granddaughter Alix is a preferred victim of Simon's personalities and ridicule . Later in the game he has to free her from Sordid's hands.
- Supporting characters: Some are old friends from the first part, like the woodworms and demons. In addition, an African dance teacher , an insane genetic engineer , a lazy lamp ghost or an indescribable wimp called "anorak type" make their first appearance.
reception
The second part was named "Adventure of the Year" by many magazines. The trade magazine Adventure Gamers ranked Simon the Sorcerer II at number 88 in 2011 in its list of Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games .
Simon the Sorcerer's Pinball
In 1998 Adventure Soft published a pinball machine simulation for Microsoft Windows, with a framework story about well-known game characters from the adventure game. After a series of kidnappings, the player as Simon has to earn the highest possible number of points at various pinball machines in order to free his friends and acquaintances again.
Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack
Also in 1998 a collection of three smaller puzzle or card games appeared: Swampy Adventures , NoPatience and Jumble . The collection also contained three Windows themes for Microsoft Plus! and an animation for the desktop called Demon in my Pocket .
Simon the Sorcerer 3D
The third adventure was a long time coming. Two years after Simon the Sorcerer II , Adventure Soft first published Floyd in 1997 : There are still heroes , which, despite very good reviews, turned out to be an economic failure. For a third Simon the Sorcerer , a publisher had to be found who could take over the pre-financing. The search was unsuccessful for the development project that began in 1998 with the familiar 2D render graphics and point-and-click control, which is why Mike and his son Simon Woofruffe decided to start over from scratch. After announcing that they would move the game to a 3D environment at their newly founded studio Headfirst Productions , Hasbro agreed to join the publisher with its daughter MicroProse . However, when it was delivered in 2000, Hasbro was completely unsatisfied with the quality and decided to sell its computer games division to Infogrames . The game was finally released in 2002 by Vivendi Universal .
Simon has to take on the evil wizard Sordid again, who wants to bring the whole universe under his rule with the help of the swamp. The plot follows on from the end of the second part of the series.
Although it was at least equal in terms of the puzzles and its humor and had voice output with professional speakers, the game was far less popular than its predecessors. The game magazine PC Games expressly praised the story and the punchy dialogues, but heavily criticized the graphics and controls. The people looked "like blocks from a Lego kit" and the operation was "unnecessarily complicated for an adventure". The version sold also contained numerous bugs , which were only fixed by patches that were subsequently submitted.
Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is half life
A fourth part was announced on November 24, 2005 by the German company Silver Style Entertainment . The game was developed in cooperation with Simon and Mike Woodroffe. The characters in the game are completely in 3D; the background imitates this, but is kept in 2D. Unlike its predecessor, it has point-and-click controls. The game was originally announced for the third quarter of 2006, but the release date was later moved to February 23, 2007.
The game will be distributed by RTL Enterprises under the final title “Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is half life” .
The game plot calls for the fairytale world to be saved again. In the process, Simon comes across a supposedly "bad" doppelganger. The game takes up many elements from popular and high culture and parodies them. As in the previous parts, the key points are role players as well as fairy tales and Greek mythology .
Simon the Sorcerer: Who wants contact?
In August 2008, the German publisher The Games Company , which was co-founded in May 2006 by Silver Style founder Carsten Strehse and which has meanwhile belonged to Silver Style, announced the development of Simon the Sorcerer 5 . In terms of content, science fiction elements were announced as an innovation. The point-and-click adventure appeared in March 2009 with the subtitle Who wants to contact? for Microsoft Windows.
Web links
- Simon the Sorcerer (game series) at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Adventure-Corner.de: Wochenecho Nr. 338, Simon the Sorcerer 6. Retrieved on November 3, 2019 .
- ↑ Simon The Sorcerer 2 ( Memento from April 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), on rune-soft.com (English)
- ↑ Simon the Sorcerer: German Edition iPhone / iPad app. In: Chip . Retrieved September 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Charlotte Noir: Simon The Sorcerer 2: Cult game available for Android. In: AndroitPIT . June 23, 2014, accessed September 1, 2019 .
- ↑ AdventureGamers.com: Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games. Retrieved January 9, 2016 .
- ↑ Thomas Weiß: Simon fails in the third dimension. Test. In: PC Games . June 28, 2002, accessed September 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Simon the Sorcerer 3D - Patch v2.0 for download. In: Gamestar . July 22, 2002, accessed September 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is half life: "Interview with the people behind it" ( Memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is half life: "Do it again Simon" (preview) ( Memento from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is half life: "The fourth part is in development" ( Memento from February 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Simon the Sorcerer: Chaos is half life: "Release date is shaking?" ( Memento from February 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Simon the Sorcerer - Chaos is half life: "Speed Metal and an overdose of culture" ( Memento from March 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ golem.de
- ↑ Adventure-Treff .de: Simon does magic for the fifth time. Retrieved March 30, 2016 .