The Black Cauldron (computer game)

The Black Cauldron is an adventure game from the computer game manufacturer Sierra On-Line . The cartoon of the same name, which was published in Germany under the title Taran and the Magic Kettle , served as a template .

Plot and background

In 1984 Al Lowe was given the opportunity to create his first own computer game. He programmed the graphic adventure game "The Black Cauldron", which, like the Walt Disney Studios film of the same name, is based on the first two books of the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander . It came on the market in 1986 in simple EGA graphics and with a text parser for Amiga , Apple II and Atari ST .

The history

The main character in this story is Taran, a young "assistant pig-keeper" who works for the magician Dallben on the small farm of Caer Dalben. Taran's task is to protect the magical pig "Hen Wen", which has clairvoyant abilities, from the evil "Horned King". He seeks to steal the pig in order to use his abilities, because he wants to find the magical "Black Cauldron", which can bring the dead to life. The player's task is to lead Hen Wen to a safe place so that the Horned King does not get his hands on the pig or the cauldron. So it's up to Taran to save the mystical land of Prydain from ruin.

The template for this black cauldron is a magical cauldron from Celtic mythology . In this game the power of the cauldron can be broken by a living person jumping into it of their own free will. Deviating from the novel, however, it is not Prince Gwydion, because this character was not adopted, but Gurgi, Taran's little companion.

Graphics and sound

The Black Cauldron has a graphic of the Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI) developed by Sierra On-Line, which is typical for computer games of the time, and supports a resolution of 160 × 200 pixels × 16 colors. Despite these limits, which are obvious by today's standards, the game conveys the feeling of an animated film with its ghostly and sometimes very dark colors. One shortcoming of the interpreter, however, was the limited level of detail, the pixels were still clearly visible and the facial expressions of the people could not be displayed. The eyes, nose and mouth consisted of only a few pixels. Large parts of the environment are represented by simple shapes. The game is designed in the so-called third-person perspective. This means that the player sees his own character on the screen.

Noises are played directly through the PC speakers, there is no support for sound cards yet. Therefore, in contrast to contemporary games, music only plays a subordinate role here. Only monotonous or shrill squeaking noises could be reproduced.

Game development and control

According to the game designer Al Lowe, Disney commissioned Sierra On-Line to develop the game because Disney Studios did not have its own software manufacturer at the time. Nonetheless, the game was marketed under a Walt Disney Personal Computer Software label. During the development phase, Disney grants Al Lowe full access to the original hand-painted backgrounds and animations from the film.

The character is controlled either with the cursor keys, more comfortably with the numeric keypad or with a joystick . In addition, there is a menu for setting the speed or the various options for action such as “view something”, “do something”, save or load a game. There are usually at least two possible solutions to successfully end the game. A score can be used to read the progress or the efficiency of your actions.

Web links

The Black Cauldron. on adventureclassicgaming.com (game description)
The Black Cauldron at MobyGames (English)
The Black Cauldron on dosgamesarchive.com

Individual evidence

↑ The Black Cauldron at MobyGames (English)
↑ ^a ^b ^c Description of the game on adventureclassicgaming.com

[1] The Black Cauldron at MobyGames (English)

[ACG-2] Description of the game on adventureclassicgaming.com