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Sir J.R.R. Tolkien will be remembered in history as a man who influenced the development of entire generations. Few are the books which echoed in time just as much as "Hobbit" or "The Lord of the Rings." Conceived as an exercise in creativity, a linguistic jest and a lullaby for his son, professor Toliken's works became a cult, a nexus for an entire subculture, and an eternal inspiration to musicians, theatre and movie producers and, of course, programmers. Tolkien's prime urge to create a new language resulted in his Elves, who nowadays have their own academy, newspapers, and a recognized language. In literature, fiction as a genre gained a strong new sub-genre - the epic fiction, which is also in close connection to the origins of Fantasy Role-Play (or indeed Role-Playing Games in general), a new world of social entertainment which developed into a strong urban-based subculture. This induced a need for fantasy which started looking into media other than books. Not so long ago we had a chance to see a somewhat bizarre semi-animated movie about the Middle Earth, and some older folks might even remember several low-budget amateur attempts to bring Tolkien's work to the little screen. The good old copyright laws have prevented many such attempts, but in stead we had a chance to see a large number of relatively good fantasy movies by other authors, all of which borrowed a hair or two from Gandalf's beard.
The computer game industry could not possibly let go of such a good material, and so we came to witness a large number of games based on Tolkien's mythology, some of which got a license to use his world, and others presented us with worlds simply inspired by Tolkien. Still, we have never faced the Tolkien-mania we are facing today, when the glamorous movie took us back to Halflings and goblins. It's not an easy task to achieve a commercial success with a product based on a masterpiece of such magnificent depth; you would have to develop a game which will cover all the aspects of the story to the extent that would satisfy even the hard-core fans of the book. The pathetic visual capabilities of early computers were far from what would be required to compete with the imaginary experience the books could provide, so that most early amateur attempts simply got forgotten. The fact that no games set in the Middle Earth appeared in the last five years might mean that someone will try to capture the spirit of Tolkien's work in a modern, high budget game in near future. In the meantime, let's see what Tolkien inspired games we did have a chance to see in the past…
One of the first ones we had a chance to play (if we disregard the less common platforms like TRS-80, VIC-20 and ZX 80), was "The Hobbit", a classical text adventure by Beam Software (published by Melbourne House). A pure traditional treat, what else could we say. Many would agree that this was the only Tolkien-based game that actually succeeded to bring good interactive entertainment to Middle Earth. If you get a Spectrum or C-64 emulator and play this "Hobbit", you might find the gameplay a bit stupid, and the graphics less than becoming, but bare in mind that this game had been developed in 1982 for 8-bit machines with barely 48K RAM, and if you let the game embrace you with this in mind, you're in for a magical experience. The game was a success and its triumph was followed by a number of other LotR inspired games. As most developers didn't have the copyright to use Tolkien's names, they made their own ridiculous versions; the best examples for this were Shadowfax and Moria, which appeared the same year as "The Hobbit". In Shadowfax, you are a wizard on a white horse (now, who could that be?) and you're running around slaughtering orcs and goblins. In spite of its focus on action, the game was quite interesting. Moria, on the other hand, was a Severn Software's text adventure dealing with Durin's ring.
This was followed by a number of Beam Software's attempts to revive and continue "The Hobbit"'s success, but alas, all their attempts were pathetic. The problem was that they tried to cover the inexhaustible War for the Ring in several text adventures with worse graphics and more confusing commands than the original "The Hobbit". The other games that came until early nineties were either commercial or mental failures. One of the worst and most depraved games that appeared in this period was Gandalf The Sorcerer, in which you were cast in the role of a wizard (with a familiar name) who runs and jumps on battlements, killing dinosaurs and vultures (!?!?!).
I have to mention that many successful fantasy parodies appeared during the eighties. Delta 4 developed the famous "Bored of the Rings", which is together with "The Boogit" one of the best Tolkien spoofs. The game was a text adventure with horrific graphics, entirely developed in The Quill, but it still had a lot of charm. Let me just explain this: The Quill was one of the editors used for developing home-made adventure games... a do-it-yourself kit in the gaming world… and games produced in it were… well, it would be as if somebody tried to sell you a game developed in QBasic today. Anyways, in "The Boogitu" and "Bored of the Rings", dwarves have been represented as grumpy and obsessed with money, Gandalf was a pimp, and Balrog wore a T-shirt saying "I love IBM", the ring was supposed to be destroyed in a microwave oven, etc. All in all, between 1984 and 1988, we had a chance to play about fifteen titles, either parodies or blatant copies of Tolkien's work. One of the best games that appeared in this period was Jewels of Darkness, a great text adventure game.
And then one day War in the Middle-Earth came! It was something inconceivable, both for its originality and consistency and design and concept. We were given a map of the entire Middle Earth, all heroes we knew so well, and numerous units in groups of 5-20 men, elves or dwarves. Being the general of the fellowship of the ring you had to complete two arduous tasks. The primary one was to destroy the ring, and the secondary to protect the territories of your allies. This game let us feel the whole war for the Ring as it covered sieges of Minas Tirith and Rohan as well as the battles for Iron hills, Dol Guldur and other countless battles which have been but mentioned in the book. Gameplay introduced an interesting new mixture of FRP and strategy gaming. The Ring had to change keepers because Frodo gets exhausted because of the evil spell's corruption. This feature induced a number of strategic and tactical problems, and at times even brought the Ring into Boromir's hands. The battles were a bit confusing and buggy, but the game is still worth playing even today. I would recommend the Amiga version of the game as it had the prettiest graphics. It was indeed one of the best Tolkien-based games ever. Nothing remotely similar appeared ever since, which is a real shame considering its very interesting gameplay.
After WIME, there came a short lull, lasting for about two years, followed by another wave of LotR inspired games and parodies (check out Retarded Creatures & Caves, AD&D parody).
And then, in 1990 Interplay enters the gaming market big time! The Lord of the Rings, vol I, was the last of the great games. It appeared in several versions. The CD version of the game even featured additional animations which were not included in the floppy version. It had been conceived as a typical bird's eye perspective FRP adventure. I have to admit that it did pretty well in depicting the landscapes of Middle Earth. The skill and spell systems could have been better, but the game was so hard even without that, that some later editions even shipped with a booklet that contained hints to solving in game problems. The colors and graphics quality were exceptional for that day and age, and I can remember enjoying them fully on my first SVGA card.
Two years later LOTR volume II appeared. It was based on the same engine as its predecessor, but turned out to be a complete flop. The Amiga rendition never appeared, and the developers decided to sell both sequels for the price of one. In the beginning of nineties we faced a huge and rapid advance in computer technology and publishing a sequel which had been done with the use of the same engine as the original was an inadmissible mistake. The game itself wasn't that bad, but it added a lot of additional events to Tolkien's original story.
Another game from this period that is worth mentioning would be the Riders of Rohan. The game, whose graphics were way inferior even to War of Middle Earth, dealt with the defense of Rohan. Apart from the rudimentary strategic part, it featured action sequences in which you had to shot at orcs and fight villains (something like The Lost Patrol).
That would pretty much be it. Until today, about thirty (mainly amateur) projects set in Middle Earth got published. Not one serious software publisher ever bought the license to make a video-game rendition of Tolkien's work. Many have announced such projects, but they were usually canceled. The great Mike Singleton (The Lords of Midnight) planned to develop a 3D version of Riders of Rohan, but this was, unfortunately also canceled.
We can only hope that the big-shots in video game industry decide to get their share from this Tolkien hype which was induced by the New Zeeland movie trilogy. In the meantime, we can keep our fingers crossed for the brave developers, and download all the good old freeware games based on this magical world. As someone once said: "It doesn't matter what it's like, as long as it stinks of orcs and goblins!"
The computer game industry could not possibly let go of such a good material, and so we came to witness a large number of games based on Tolkien's mythology, some of which got a license to use his world, and others presented us with worlds simply inspired by Tolkien. Still, we have never faced the Tolkien-mania we are facing today, when the glamorous movie took us back to Halflings and goblins. It's not an easy task to achieve a commercial success with a product based on a masterpiece of such magnificent depth; you would have to develop a game which will cover all the aspects of the story to the extent that would satisfy even the hard-core fans of the book. The pathetic visual capabilities of early computers were far from what would be required to compete with the imaginary experience the books could provide, so that most early amateur attempts simply got forgotten. The fact that no games set in the Middle Earth appeared in the last five years might mean that someone will try to capture the spirit of Tolkien's work in a modern, high budget game in near future. In the meantime, let's see what Tolkien inspired games we did have a chance to see in the past…
One of the first ones we had a chance to play (if we disregard the less common platforms like TRS-80, VIC-20 and ZX 80), was "The Hobbit", a classical text adventure by Beam Software (published by Melbourne House). A pure traditional treat, what else could we say. Many would agree that this was the only Tolkien-based game that actually succeeded to bring good interactive entertainment to Middle Earth. If you get a Spectrum or C-64 emulator and play this "Hobbit", you might find the gameplay a bit stupid, and the graphics less than becoming, but bare in mind that this game had been developed in 1982 for 8-bit machines with barely 48K RAM, and if you let the game embrace you with this in mind, you're in for a magical experience. The game was a success and its triumph was followed by a number of other LotR inspired games. As most developers didn't have the copyright to use Tolkien's names, they made their own ridiculous versions; the best examples for this were Shadowfax and Moria, which appeared the same year as "The Hobbit". In Shadowfax, you are a wizard on a white horse (now, who could that be?) and you're running around slaughtering orcs and goblins. In spite of its focus on action, the game was quite interesting. Moria, on the other hand, was a Severn Software's text adventure dealing with Durin's ring.
This was followed by a number of Beam Software's attempts to revive and continue "The Hobbit"'s success, but alas, all their attempts were pathetic. The problem was that they tried to cover the inexhaustible War for the Ring in several text adventures with worse graphics and more confusing commands than the original "The Hobbit". The other games that came until early nineties were either commercial or mental failures. One of the worst and most depraved games that appeared in this period was Gandalf The Sorcerer, in which you were cast in the role of a wizard (with a familiar name) who runs and jumps on battlements, killing dinosaurs and vultures (!?!?!).
I have to mention that many successful fantasy parodies appeared during the eighties. Delta 4 developed the famous "Bored of the Rings", which is together with "The Boogit" one of the best Tolkien spoofs. The game was a text adventure with horrific graphics, entirely developed in The Quill, but it still had a lot of charm. Let me just explain this: The Quill was one of the editors used for developing home-made adventure games... a do-it-yourself kit in the gaming world… and games produced in it were… well, it would be as if somebody tried to sell you a game developed in QBasic today. Anyways, in "The Boogitu" and "Bored of the Rings", dwarves have been represented as grumpy and obsessed with money, Gandalf was a pimp, and Balrog wore a T-shirt saying "I love IBM", the ring was supposed to be destroyed in a microwave oven, etc. All in all, between 1984 and 1988, we had a chance to play about fifteen titles, either parodies or blatant copies of Tolkien's work. One of the best games that appeared in this period was Jewels of Darkness, a great text adventure game.
And then one day War in the Middle-Earth came! It was something inconceivable, both for its originality and consistency and design and concept. We were given a map of the entire Middle Earth, all heroes we knew so well, and numerous units in groups of 5-20 men, elves or dwarves. Being the general of the fellowship of the ring you had to complete two arduous tasks. The primary one was to destroy the ring, and the secondary to protect the territories of your allies. This game let us feel the whole war for the Ring as it covered sieges of Minas Tirith and Rohan as well as the battles for Iron hills, Dol Guldur and other countless battles which have been but mentioned in the book. Gameplay introduced an interesting new mixture of FRP and strategy gaming. The Ring had to change keepers because Frodo gets exhausted because of the evil spell's corruption. This feature induced a number of strategic and tactical problems, and at times even brought the Ring into Boromir's hands. The battles were a bit confusing and buggy, but the game is still worth playing even today. I would recommend the Amiga version of the game as it had the prettiest graphics. It was indeed one of the best Tolkien-based games ever. Nothing remotely similar appeared ever since, which is a real shame considering its very interesting gameplay.
After WIME, there came a short lull, lasting for about two years, followed by another wave of LotR inspired games and parodies (check out Retarded Creatures & Caves, AD&D parody).
And then, in 1990 Interplay enters the gaming market big time! The Lord of the Rings, vol I, was the last of the great games. It appeared in several versions. The CD version of the game even featured additional animations which were not included in the floppy version. It had been conceived as a typical bird's eye perspective FRP adventure. I have to admit that it did pretty well in depicting the landscapes of Middle Earth. The skill and spell systems could have been better, but the game was so hard even without that, that some later editions even shipped with a booklet that contained hints to solving in game problems. The colors and graphics quality were exceptional for that day and age, and I can remember enjoying them fully on my first SVGA card.
Two years later LOTR volume II appeared. It was based on the same engine as its predecessor, but turned out to be a complete flop. The Amiga rendition never appeared, and the developers decided to sell both sequels for the price of one. In the beginning of nineties we faced a huge and rapid advance in computer technology and publishing a sequel which had been done with the use of the same engine as the original was an inadmissible mistake. The game itself wasn't that bad, but it added a lot of additional events to Tolkien's original story.
Another game from this period that is worth mentioning would be the Riders of Rohan. The game, whose graphics were way inferior even to War of Middle Earth, dealt with the defense of Rohan. Apart from the rudimentary strategic part, it featured action sequences in which you had to shot at orcs and fight villains (something like The Lost Patrol).
That would pretty much be it. Until today, about thirty (mainly amateur) projects set in Middle Earth got published. Not one serious software publisher ever bought the license to make a video-game rendition of Tolkien's work. Many have announced such projects, but they were usually canceled. The great Mike Singleton (The Lords of Midnight) planned to develop a 3D version of Riders of Rohan, but this was, unfortunately also canceled.
We can only hope that the big-shots in video game industry decide to get their share from this Tolkien hype which was induced by the New Zeeland movie trilogy. In the meantime, we can keep our fingers crossed for the brave developers, and download all the good old freeware games based on this magical world. As someone once said: "It doesn't matter what it's like, as long as it stinks of orcs and goblins!"
Sir J.R.R. Tolkien will be remembered in history as a man who influenced the development of entire generations. Few are the books which echoed in time just as much as "Hobbit" or "The Lord of the Rings." Conceived as an exercise in creativity, a linguistic jest and a lullaby for his son, professor Toliken's works became a cult, a nexus for an entire subculture, and an eternal inspiration to musicians, theatre and movie producers and, of course, programmers. Tolkien's prime urge to create a new language resulted in his Elves, who nowadays have their own academy, newspapers, and a recognized language. In literature, fiction as a genre gained a strong new sub-genre - the epic fiction, which is also in close connection to the origins of Fantasy Role-Play (or indeed Role-Playing Games in general), a new world of social entertainment which developed into a strong urban-based subculture. This induced a need for fantasy which started looking into media other than books. Not so long ago we had a chance to see a somewhat bizarre semi-animated movie about the Middle Earth, and some older folks might even remember several low-budget amateur attempts to bring Tolkien's work to the little screen. The good old copyright laws have prevented many such attempts, but in stead we had a chance to see a large number of relatively good fantasy movies by other authors, all of which borrowed a hair or two from Gandalf's beard.
The computer game industry could not possibly let go of such a good material, and so we came to witness a large number of games based on Tolkien's mythology, some of which got a license to use his world, and others presented us with worlds simply inspired by Tolkien. Still, we have never faced the Tolkien-mania we are facing today, when the glamorous movie took us back to Halflings and goblins. It's not an easy task to achieve a commercial success with a product based on a masterpiece of such magnificent depth; you would have to develop a game which will cover all the aspects of the story to the extent that would satisfy even the hard-core fans of the book. The pathetic visual capabilities of early computers were far from what would be required to compete with the imaginary experience the books could provide, so that most early amateur attempts simply got forgotten. The fact that no games set in the Middle Earth appeared in the last five years might mean that someone will try to capture the spirit of Tolkien's work in a modern, high budget game in near future. In the meantime, let's see what Tolkien inspired games we did have a chance to see in the past…
One of the first ones we had a chance to play (if we disregard the less common platforms like TRS-80, VIC-20 and ZX 80), was "The Hobbit", a classical text adventure by Beam Software (published by Melbourne House). A pure traditional treat, what else could we say. Many would agree that this was the only Tolkien-based game that actually succeeded to bring good interactive entertainment to Middle Earth. If you get a Spectrum or C-64 emulator and play this "Hobbit", you might find the gameplay a bit stupid, and the graphics less than becoming, but bare in mind that this game had been developed in 1982 for 8-bit machines with barely 48K RAM, and if you let the game embrace you with this in mind, you're in for a magical experience. The game was a success and its triumph was followed by a number of other LotR inspired games. As most developers didn't have the copyright to use Tolkien's names, they made their own ridiculous versions; the best examples for this were Shadowfax and Moria, which appeared the same year as "The Hobbit". In Shadowfax, you are a wizard on a white horse (now, who could that be?) and you're running around slaughtering orcs and goblins. In spite of its focus on action, the game was quite interesting. Moria, on the other hand, was a Severn Software's text adventure dealing with Durin's ring.
This was followed by a number of Beam Software's attempts to revive and continue "The Hobbit"'s success, but alas, all their attempts were pathetic. The problem was that they tried to cover the inexhaustible War for the Ring in several text adventures with worse graphics and more confusing commands than the original "The Hobbit". The other games that came until early nineties were either commercial or mental failures. One of the worst and most depraved games that appeared in this period was Gandalf The Sorcerer, in which you were cast in the role of a wizard (with a familiar name) who runs and jumps on battlements, killing dinosaurs and vultures (!?!?!).
I have to mention that many successful fantasy parodies appeared during the eighties. Delta 4 developed the famous "Bored of the Rings", which is together with "The Boogit" one of the best Tolkien spoofs. The game was a text adventure with horrific graphics, entirely developed in The Quill, but it still had a lot of charm. Let me just explain this: The Quill was one of the editors used for developing home-made adventure games... a do-it-yourself kit in the gaming world… and games produced in it were… well, it would be as if somebody tried to sell you a game developed in QBasic today. Anyways, in "The Boogitu" and "Bored of the Rings", dwarves have been represented as grumpy and obsessed with money, Gandalf was a pimp, and Balrog wore a T-shirt saying "I love IBM", the ring was supposed to be destroyed in a microwave oven, etc. All in all, between 1984 and 1988, we had a chance to play about fifteen titles, either parodies or blatant copies of Tolkien's work. One of the best games that appeared in this period was Jewels of Darkness, a great text adventure game.
And then one day War in the Middle-Earth came! It was something inconceivable, both for its originality and consistency and design and concept. We were given a map of the entire Middle Earth, all heroes we knew so well, and numerous units in groups of 5-20 men, elves or dwarves. Being the general of the fellowship of the ring you had to complete two arduous tasks. The primary one was to destroy the ring, and the secondary to protect the territories of your allies. This game let us feel the whole war for the Ring as it covered sieges of Minas Tirith and Rohan as well as the battles for Iron hills, Dol Guldur and other countless battles which have been but mentioned in the book. Gameplay introduced an interesting new mixture of FRP and strategy gaming. The Ring had to change keepers because Frodo gets exhausted because of the evil spell's corruption. This feature induced a number of strategic and tactical problems, and at times even brought the Ring into Boromir's hands. The battles were a bit confusing and buggy, but the game is still worth playing even today. I would recommend the Amiga version of the game as it had the prettiest graphics. It was indeed one of the best Tolkien-based games ever. Nothing remotely similar appeared ever since, which is a real shame considering its very interesting gameplay.
After WIME, there came a short lull, lasting for about two years, followed by another wave of LotR inspired games and parodies (check out Retarded Creatures & Caves, AD&D parody).
And then, in 1990 Interplay enters the gaming market big time! The Lord of the Rings, vol I, was the last of the great games. It appeared in several versions. The CD version of the game even featured additional animations which were not included in the floppy version. It had been conceived as a typical bird's eye perspective FRP adventure. I have to admit that it did pretty well in depicting the landscapes of Middle Earth. The skill and spell systems could have been better, but the game was so hard even without that, that some later editions even shipped with a booklet that contained hints to solving in game problems. The colors and graphics quality were exceptional for that day and age, and I can remember enjoying them fully on my first SVGA card.
Two years later LOTR volume II appeared. It was based on the same engine as its predecessor, but turned out to be a complete flop. The Amiga rendition never appeared, and the developers decided to sell both sequels for the price of one. In the beginning of nineties we faced a huge and rapid advance in computer technology and publishing a sequel which had been done with the use of the same engine as the original was an inadmissible mistake. The game itself wasn't that bad, but it added a lot of additional events to Tolkien's original story.
Another game from this period that is worth mentioning would be the Riders of Rohan. The game, whose graphics were way inferior even to War of Middle Earth, dealt with the defense of Rohan. Apart from the rudimentary strategic part, it featured action sequences in which you had to shot at orcs and fight villains (something like The Lost Patrol).
That would pretty much be it. Until today, about thirty (mainly amateur) projects set in Middle Earth got published. Not one serious software publisher ever bought the license to make a video-game rendition of Tolkien's work. Many have announced such projects, but they were usually canceled. The great Mike Singleton (The Lords of Midnight) planned to develop a 3D version of Riders of Rohan, but this was, unfortunately also canceled.
We can only hope that the big-shots in video game industry decide to get their share from this Tolkien hype which was induced by the New Zeeland movie trilogy. In the meantime, we can keep our fingers crossed for the brave developers, and download all the good old freeware games based on this magical world. As someone once said: "It doesn't matter what it's like, as long as it stinks of orcs and goblins!"
The computer game industry could not possibly let go of such a good material, and so we came to witness a large number of games based on Tolkien's mythology, some of which got a license to use his world, and others presented us with worlds simply inspired by Tolkien. Still, we have never faced the Tolkien-mania we are facing today, when the glamorous movie took us back to Halflings and goblins. It's not an easy task to achieve a commercial success with a product based on a masterpiece of such magnificent depth; you would have to develop a game which will cover all the aspects of the story to the extent that would satisfy even the hard-core fans of the book. The pathetic visual capabilities of early computers were far from what would be required to compete with the imaginary experience the books could provide, so that most early amateur attempts simply got forgotten. The fact that no games set in the Middle Earth appeared in the last five years might mean that someone will try to capture the spirit of Tolkien's work in a modern, high budget game in near future. In the meantime, let's see what Tolkien inspired games we did have a chance to see in the past…
One of the first ones we had a chance to play (if we disregard the less common platforms like TRS-80, VIC-20 and ZX 80), was "The Hobbit", a classical text adventure by Beam Software (published by Melbourne House). A pure traditional treat, what else could we say. Many would agree that this was the only Tolkien-based game that actually succeeded to bring good interactive entertainment to Middle Earth. If you get a Spectrum or C-64 emulator and play this "Hobbit", you might find the gameplay a bit stupid, and the graphics less than becoming, but bare in mind that this game had been developed in 1982 for 8-bit machines with barely 48K RAM, and if you let the game embrace you with this in mind, you're in for a magical experience. The game was a success and its triumph was followed by a number of other LotR inspired games. As most developers didn't have the copyright to use Tolkien's names, they made their own ridiculous versions; the best examples for this were Shadowfax and Moria, which appeared the same year as "The Hobbit". In Shadowfax, you are a wizard on a white horse (now, who could that be?) and you're running around slaughtering orcs and goblins. In spite of its focus on action, the game was quite interesting. Moria, on the other hand, was a Severn Software's text adventure dealing with Durin's ring.
This was followed by a number of Beam Software's attempts to revive and continue "The Hobbit"'s success, but alas, all their attempts were pathetic. The problem was that they tried to cover the inexhaustible War for the Ring in several text adventures with worse graphics and more confusing commands than the original "The Hobbit". The other games that came until early nineties were either commercial or mental failures. One of the worst and most depraved games that appeared in this period was Gandalf The Sorcerer, in which you were cast in the role of a wizard (with a familiar name) who runs and jumps on battlements, killing dinosaurs and vultures (!?!?!).
I have to mention that many successful fantasy parodies appeared during the eighties. Delta 4 developed the famous "Bored of the Rings", which is together with "The Boogit" one of the best Tolkien spoofs. The game was a text adventure with horrific graphics, entirely developed in The Quill, but it still had a lot of charm. Let me just explain this: The Quill was one of the editors used for developing home-made adventure games... a do-it-yourself kit in the gaming world… and games produced in it were… well, it would be as if somebody tried to sell you a game developed in QBasic today. Anyways, in "The Boogitu" and "Bored of the Rings", dwarves have been represented as grumpy and obsessed with money, Gandalf was a pimp, and Balrog wore a T-shirt saying "I love IBM", the ring was supposed to be destroyed in a microwave oven, etc. All in all, between 1984 and 1988, we had a chance to play about fifteen titles, either parodies or blatant copies of Tolkien's work. One of the best games that appeared in this period was Jewels of Darkness, a great text adventure game.
And then one day War in the Middle-Earth came! It was something inconceivable, both for its originality and consistency and design and concept. We were given a map of the entire Middle Earth, all heroes we knew so well, and numerous units in groups of 5-20 men, elves or dwarves. Being the general of the fellowship of the ring you had to complete two arduous tasks. The primary one was to destroy the ring, and the secondary to protect the territories of your allies. This game let us feel the whole war for the Ring as it covered sieges of Minas Tirith and Rohan as well as the battles for Iron hills, Dol Guldur and other countless battles which have been but mentioned in the book. Gameplay introduced an interesting new mixture of FRP and strategy gaming. The Ring had to change keepers because Frodo gets exhausted because of the evil spell's corruption. This feature induced a number of strategic and tactical problems, and at times even brought the Ring into Boromir's hands. The battles were a bit confusing and buggy, but the game is still worth playing even today. I would recommend the Amiga version of the game as it had the prettiest graphics. It was indeed one of the best Tolkien-based games ever. Nothing remotely similar appeared ever since, which is a real shame considering its very interesting gameplay.
After WIME, there came a short lull, lasting for about two years, followed by another wave of LotR inspired games and parodies (check out Retarded Creatures & Caves, AD&D parody).
And then, in 1990 Interplay enters the gaming market big time! The Lord of the Rings, vol I, was the last of the great games. It appeared in several versions. The CD version of the game even featured additional animations which were not included in the floppy version. It had been conceived as a typical bird's eye perspective FRP adventure. I have to admit that it did pretty well in depicting the landscapes of Middle Earth. The skill and spell systems could have been better, but the game was so hard even without that, that some later editions even shipped with a booklet that contained hints to solving in game problems. The colors and graphics quality were exceptional for that day and age, and I can remember enjoying them fully on my first SVGA card.
Two years later LOTR volume II appeared. It was based on the same engine as its predecessor, but turned out to be a complete flop. The Amiga rendition never appeared, and the developers decided to sell both sequels for the price of one. In the beginning of nineties we faced a huge and rapid advance in computer technology and publishing a sequel which had been done with the use of the same engine as the original was an inadmissible mistake. The game itself wasn't that bad, but it added a lot of additional events to Tolkien's original story.
Another game from this period that is worth mentioning would be the Riders of Rohan. The game, whose graphics were way inferior even to War of Middle Earth, dealt with the defense of Rohan. Apart from the rudimentary strategic part, it featured action sequences in which you had to shot at orcs and fight villains (something like The Lost Patrol).
That would pretty much be it. Until today, about thirty (mainly amateur) projects set in Middle Earth got published. Not one serious software publisher ever bought the license to make a video-game rendition of Tolkien's work. Many have announced such projects, but they were usually canceled. The great Mike Singleton (The Lords of Midnight) planned to develop a 3D version of Riders of Rohan, but this was, unfortunately also canceled.
We can only hope that the big-shots in video game industry decide to get their share from this Tolkien hype which was induced by the New Zeeland movie trilogy. In the meantime, we can keep our fingers crossed for the brave developers, and download all the good old freeware games based on this magical world. As someone once said: "It doesn't matter what it's like, as long as it stinks of orcs and goblins!"
I can't be bothered to read all that, but I'm guessing the gist of it.
All LOTR games for next gen consoles and the PC are crap, as I knew they would be.
All LOTR games for next gen consoles and the PC are crap, as I knew they would be.
What does FRP stand for?
Interesting post. Personally I think that a "Baldur's Gate style-LOTR game" would be huge. All the material is already there (the characters, plot, location) so they could/should spend time getting the game mechanics right.
Instead the games companies are pandering to the little kids (market forces dictate this-shame) and are wasting the licenses making poorly constucted, "console style" games.
Instead the games companies are pandering to the little kids (market forces dictate this-shame) and are wasting the licenses making poorly constucted, "console style" games.
The sagacious one wrote:
> Instead the games companies are pandering to the little kids (market
> forces dictate this-shame) and are wasting the licenses making poorly
> constucted, "console style" games.
I know! Why do they concentrate on what the younger gamers want? Advanced gamers end up not buying the games because they have no replay value and you can usually complete them in a night.
> Instead the games companies are pandering to the little kids (market
> forces dictate this-shame) and are wasting the licenses making poorly
> constucted, "console style" games.
I know! Why do they concentrate on what the younger gamers want? Advanced gamers end up not buying the games because they have no replay value and you can usually complete them in a night.
Multiformat is a word that makes me worry, especially when the format includes PC and PS2, xbox etc. You just know the game will be written for the console market and then poorly implemented on the PC.